Life hacking, time hacking, attention hacking, marketing hacking, and kitchen hacking. It seems we’re all hackers now.

But there’s not enough talk of Bureaucracy Hacking, which I’ll define here as “How to be successful in your job when your company puts up unnecessary barriers.”

In today’s piece, I tell stories from both Star Trek and my job with the Tide brand to make the point that some rules are made to be broken.

In the process of breaking them, you learn a lot about yourself, which ultimately helps you Live Long and Prosper.

You can have enormous success in life and still be unfulfilled.

You can build tremendous personal wealth and still be unfulfilled.

Successful, wealthy people can struggle—like the rest of us—when they fill up on just one thing: Their careers.

This is a lesson from Devin Martin, an executive coach who helps hard-charging business leaders discover lifestyle integrity. I recently found his work through the Talking Billions podcast.

Several of Devin’s clients are investors. Ironically, these investors know the importance of diversifying their financial portfolios—but often fail to understand the importance of diversifying their mental portfolios.

Whether you’re working toward a billion-dollar exit or working for the weekend, a balanced portfolio of mental engagement pays off in your career and life.

In my Substack post this week, I share two ways to get there…Emotional and Social Diversification

Great leaders are like artists.

They pay attention to details and aim to move people through inspiration.

While the artist must spend countless hours mastering a craft, you, dear leader, need only practice the Golden Rule.

Let’s talk about context.

I might seem to be making a big deal out of a little thing. But details are the tells of a leader’s true character. If we fail our people here, we are likely failing them—and our businesses—in much more significant ways.

Today, I share a story about getting a boss again (and again) who failed this fundamental lesson of leadership and life. It’s a lesson that could save your career.

Nearly four years ago, I resolved to share only “positive vibes” on social media. In this episode, I share how I’ve done.

Many of us are re-evaluating our relationship with social media, and the big platforms continue to change their models and algorithms.

Overall, social media is becoming, well, just media. I hope to bring this “positive vibe” mentality to all my real-life social interactions.

Friends, please keep me on track!

Last week, I wrote about time management and better managing one's mind. But I left out a whole bunch of stuff...including The SECOND Rule of Fight Club.

(this is one we can actually talk about)

Here in Part Two, I will share ways to improve your life by making better daily decisions about time, money, and freedom.

I start with the basic, tactical choices and ladder up to big-picture strategy with a personal story from my childhood that still drives me today…

If the “Time Management” meme were a stock, it would be neck and neck with Nvidia right now.

Ironically, we have more free time than ever in recorded history, but it sure doesn’t feel that way.

That’s because our minds still work with old programming that can’t compute the infinite options and infinitesimal threats.

So, we’ve got to use better mind management for better time management.

In this post, I share five ways I’ve reprogrammed myself to use time better and stress less.

CEO pay is in the news this week, and there's plenty of clickbait meant to shock you with the numbers.

But no one talks about what it's like being a CEO negotiating compensation, especially in the startup world.

So, I'm sharing my experience here.

If you're a Founder/CEO, I hope my story can arm you to negotiate.

And while you won't feel bad for public company CEOs pulling in millions, you might understand their perspective a bit more.

Despite all the posts and books on Leadership, many companies are led by people who don't get it.

Maybe we need to go back 2,000 years to the writings of Stoicm, Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism. Or we can study how the concepts of leaders and followers emerged as a key to our success as a species.

I believe we need to consider Leadership as something "Holy" and "Awesome" in both the amazing and frightening meanings of these words.

This week, I talk about the Call to Serve as a leader and suggest that those of us in positions of power over others must realize the impact we can have--and make the most of it.

The more I learn about myself and the world, the more I realize that most learning from repeatedly getting kicked in the a**.

Even when we are on the verge of success, an X-factor can keep us glued to the silver medal platform.

Today, I share a story of leading Business Development at a creative agency and learning that playing to our strengths was the biggest barrier to winning.

“What’s it going to take to win?” is a concept I’ve carried with me through multiple startups and countless client pitches since those agency days.

But it only works when we drop our ego and admit that others have the winning skills that we lack.

Let’s be honest. No one “loves” to give feedback…

However, the need for feedback is high in small, high-growth startups. Our roles constantly change, so traditional job descriptions and performance measures are mostly meaningless.

With more employees, forging relationships becomes harder. Remote work makes getting to know each other more challenging.

So, the question was posed to me: How can we maintain the culture of feedback that is a strength today? My answer: You’ve got to force it with functions and processes…

Today, I share 12 examples of “feedback forcing functions” that have been effective at my companies. Most are simple to implement and pay off greatly.

The biggest benefit comes from an overall culture of transparency and mutual support for improvement. You’re not just saying, “Feedback is important,” you’re doing it so much that it’s in your company's bloodstream.

We enjoy the business results we achieve together but mostly love improving ourselves and those around us. This is what a winning, High-Performance Organization feels like.