The Devil's Advocate

100

Be lazy

‘Sonny-boy, the only place achievement comes before effort is in the dictionary.’ The grizzled veteran looked down at me with his hand on my shoulder.

It’s a fiercely competitive world out there, and if you want to make it big, you’ve got to work crazy hours. I’ve heard of city-boys in their twenties getting Botox injections so the evidence of their 20-hour work shifts can’t be seen in pitches.

That’s nothing compared to emerging economies. ‘Sister Dong’ is the legendary leader of Gree, a Chinese manufacturing giant. She’s reported not to have taken a single day off in 20 years. When she saw her young son after a ten-year hiatus, she reputedly made him catch the bus back to the airport at the end of the day.

But the world is ...