End game

OK, no more Rules. This is your book. Keep it secret, keep it safe. If you don’t let anyone else look at it you’ll be one step ahead without having to do anything else.

I have enjoyed being a manager immensely, both in other people’s organizations and as an entrepreneur. It has brought me great satisfaction as well as considerable stress at times. But it has always been an adventure, always exciting.

Over the years I have discovered these fundamental Rules, which I don’t think you’ll ever get taught at a manager’s training weekend or course. These Rules have sustained and kept me through many years, from a humble junior manager right up to CEO of my own company. I hope they will serve you as well.

I don’t expect you to learn them all, do them all, agree with them all. But they serve as a useful stepping-off point for conscious decision making, conscious management. What they won’t do is turn you into a goody-goody.

When I was researching this book I talked to many other man-agers and entrepreneurs to see what secret Rules they lived by and was astounded to find a great many still lived by the ‘stitch ’em up, stab ’em in the back, claw your way to the top’ school of thought. Sad really. They were all skinny and looked stressed, haunted and unable to relax. The others, by contrast, who live by these Rules, seemed happier, more relaxed and much more at ease with themselves and with their staff – and their staff respected them and enjoyed working for them and with them. Much better.

Good luck with it all.