How To Work Like A Top 1% CEO

the greatest CEOs in the world, people like Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos, all of them were obsessed with biographies. And that's because when you read biographies, you get to see the patterns that truly make someone great. So, what I did was I read the biographies of all the top CEOs in the

biographies of all the top CEOs in the world. And what I found were 10 specific habits that show up in all of them. In this video, we are going over those habits, starting with the first one. I'm not going to start with any fluff. The first thing all the great CEOs have

is a superhuman work ethic. Obviously, that's true. It's not 12 hours a day or 16 hours a day even, but it's every single hour of every single day for weeks on end. Biography after biography shows this philosophy. When Elon Musk was starting Zip 2, he was

was starting Zip 2, he was living in his office. And one of his employees described him like this. Musk never seemed to leave the office. He slept, not unlike a dog, on a bean bag next to his desk. Almost every day I'd come in at 7:30 or 8:00 a.m. and he'd be asleep right there on that bag. Halman

asleep right there on that bag. Halman said maybe he showered on weekends. I don't know. Must asked those first employees of Zip 2 to give him a kick when they arrived and he'd wake up and get back to work. When you look at Bill Gates memoir, it's practically the exact same description when he was starting Microsoft. Life that fall was mostly a

Microsoft. Life that fall was mostly a whirl of writing code for days on end and sleeping only when I had to and often wherever I happened to be. I'd catnap at the terminal or just crawl into the floor next to it. Paul would finish his day at MITs, walk over to our part of the building, and put in a few hours on Microsoft, then go home to

hours on Microsoft, then go home to sleep for a bit before returning at 2:00 a.m. to find me still at the terminal. By that time, we had also set up a terminal in our living room that you could connect over the phone line to the school district computer. Most days, Rick rolled off the couch and planted himself at the terminal, hammering out

himself at the terminal, hammering out the 6800 basic code. They were working every hour that they were awake. So much so that they were practically living in the office. They were living their work. And the craziest thing is that when you take all the great CEOs and you read all their biographies, this

and you read all their biographies, this is not the exception. This is the rule. Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg all at some point were living in their office because they were working every single hour of the day. And even people like Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Steve Jobs, and Jensen Huang are

Page, Steve Jobs, and Jensen Huang are known to have spent weeks living at their office, even if they didn't live there full-time for a period. In this Facebook biography, it talks about how Zuckerberg would give his employees a bonus if they lived closer to the office. And it talks about how they treated the office like home. It's an insane description.

how they treated the office like home. It's an insane description. Just listen to this. Since the vast majority of the workforce consisted of people in their early 20s, including the boss, stepping into Facebook was like taking the SAT while playing a video game version of Beer Pong. Employees were encouraged to consider

were encouraged to consider the office their home. Zuckerberg even gave his workers a $600 a month bonus if they agreed to live within a mile of the office. It's the exact same philosophy at Nvidia. And Jensen Huang even takes it one step further, which I think is insane because his employees started

insane because his employees started complaining. In this book, it says, "Landre mentioned to Jensen that some employees were griping about the long work hours. His response was typically discreet. People who trained for the Olympics grumble about training early in the morning, too." Jensen was sending a

the morning, too." Jensen was sending a message. Long hours were a prerequisite for excellence. To this day, he has not deviated from that view or altered Nvidia's expectations that employees adopt extreme work habits. This is the first key lesson and I know it goes against a lot of business practice that

against a lot of business practice that you can work six hours or 12 hours or I don't know how many hours other people say you should work but when you look at the greatest of the greats the greatest CEOs they worked all of them every hour of their day especially in the beginning when it's a startup when you're fighting

when it's a startup when you're fighting against the giants you have to be working all the hours and the reason for this is really interesting and it's something that Elon Musk talks about in the book of Elon when the team is being asked to work super hard. I have to be right there with them and they have to see it. If I fall asleep in

they have to see it. If I fall asleep in the middle of the factory floor at 4 in the morning and wake up 4 hours later, they see that. They are like, "If the CEO is willing to take that level of pain, I can do it, too." It was a world of hurt. I would wake up smelling like oil and iron fillings. It was rough. But

oil and iron fillings. It was rough. But I was asking people to really go all out. I can't expect them to go all out if I'm not doing the same. This is a principle of war. No one wants to follow a leader that leads from the back, from somewhere that's safe. People follow leaders that are leading from the front

leaders that are leading from the front lines. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, they all led from the front lines, fighting alongside their men, and that's why their troops were willing to die for them. Elon Musk is applying the same principle in the workforce. When you work past that 12 hours, the 14 hour mark, there starts to be a pain in your

mark, there starts to be a pain in your head. You start to lose focus. You don't produce your best work. But in those moments when you push past that pain, it's not about the work that you produce, but it's about the inspiration that it gives the people around you. People are always inspired by someone who is willing to take on pain. So if

who is willing to take on pain. So if you want to be a great CEO, especially in the beginning, work all the hours. So I'm going to start this section with one of my favorite quotes ever from the book of Elon. The best offense and defense is speed. The SR71 Blackbird is

a military plane with almost no defense except acceleration. It was never shot down, not even once. Over 3,000 missiles were shot at the SR71 Blackbird and none hit. All it did was go faster. The power of speed is underappreciated as a

of speed is underappreciated as a competitive factor. Speed is the essence of war in business. I'm going to repeat that. Speed is the essence of war and business. Every founder knows this. It's really obvious, but very few founders apply it. And you can tell when

apply it. And you can tell when you look at a company and things aren't being broken. This is one of my favorite philosophies that Mark Zuckerberg talks about in Facebook where his motto is move fast and break things. That's how you can tell if you're moving fast enough, that you're breaking things. When Hannibal marched

breaking things. When Hannibal marched on Rome, he sacrificed everything for speed. By choosing to cross the Alps, he lost half of his entire army because the crossing was that difficult. But it allowed him to move fast and surprise the enemy. And it ended up still working out. Think about it. This guy lost half

out. Think about it. This guy lost half of his army. Half of all his troops died on that crossing and they lost almost all their elephants and he still was able to make up for it simply because of speed. The reason I'm talking about Hannibal is because Zuckerberg's takeover of the social media space is

takeover of the social media space is not all that different. While pushing out Facebook to different colleges, there was all sorts of problems coming up. Bugs in the app, privacy concerns, but it didn't matter because speed made up for all of it. And in this biography, it says, "Zuckerberg's takeover of the virtual Harvard compared favorably with

virtual Harvard compared favorably with the overwhelming use force exercised by his classical heroes like Augustus, Alexander the Great, or one of the online avatars he adopted in the world of civilization." Like those ambitious warriors, he was already looking at future conquest. Instead of refining the Facebook in the laboratory of Harvard

Facebook in the laboratory of Harvard and deliberately rolling it out to other campuses, Zuckerberg began plotting right away to colonize the nation's colleges with the Facebook. so easily. Zuckerberg could have absolutely perfected the Facebook at Harvard. He could have made it the best app in the world, but he chose speed because when

world, but he chose speed because when you choose speed, you get to iterate at other places. You get to fix the problems later. The point here is that whenever the greatest CEOs are faced with the option of perfecting a product with time or iterating on the go with speed, they always choose the latter. Speed makes up for so much, and I'm

Speed makes up for so much, and I'm going to say this again, speed is the essence of business and war. So, very simply, use it. And of course, you probably don't want to act with speed throughout your day on a terrible night's sleep. The greatest founders and CEOs in the world should get the best night's sleep. And that is exactly what

night's sleep. And that is exactly what the Somni Pods 3 are for. I personally love to listen to podcasts and audiobooks before I go to sleep, which is why normal headphones and AirPods don't work for me. As soon as you lay down, it's extremely uncomfortable. That is exactly why I recommend Fit Nex's new

Somnipods 3. These are tiny ear pods that slip right into your ear and sit low enough to where you don't have to readjust on the pillow. They block out all background noise so I can really pay attention to the podcast and I can listen to white noise as well while I sleep. And on top of that, since I usually fall asleep in them, the app

usually fall asleep in them, the app also shows me all these analytics for how well I slept in the morning. You can check out the Somnipods 3 using the link in my description. And if you use that link, you will get $10 off your purchase. Now, on to the next principle. I want to start this section off with a

I want to start this section off with a quote from this biography, Bill Gates Memoirs, and it is genuinely one of the best paragraphs I have ever read out of any biography I have ever read. It was clear to me by the end of 1976 that the ambition to be the first to get there, to be the fastest to build the best

to be the fastest to build the best bridge to the other side, was stronger in me than it was in him. Like one of those watertight hatches on a submarine, I could shut out the rest of the world. Driven by a sense of responsibility I felt for Microsoft, I had closed the hatch door and locked the wheel. No

hatch door and locked the wheel. No girlfriend, no hobbies. My social life centered around Apoll Rick and the people we worked with. It was the one way we knew how to stay ahead. And I expected similar dedication from the others. We had this huge opportunity in front of us. Why wouldn't you work 80

front of us. Why wouldn't you work 80 hours a week in pursuit of it? Yes, it was exhausting, but it was also exhilarating. This entire paragraph is absolutely brilliant. It blows my mind every single time. But the most important part is the first sentence. It was clear to me by the end of 1976 that

was clear to me by the end of 1976 that the ambition to be the first to get there, to be the fastest, to build the best bridge to the other side was stronger in me than it was in him. This is one of the main principles that separates the greats from the commoners. The great have a sense of urgency. When

The great have a sense of urgency. When you read all these biographies, there's one phrase that you see at all of these companies. Tesla, SpaceX, Nvidia, Facebook, they all have this phrase, speed of light. If you don't believe me, here's a couple examples from a couple different biographies from Nvidia.

different biographies from Nvidia. Jensen has insisted that all his employees work at the speed of light. He wants their work to be constrained only by the laws of physics. Each project must be broken down into its component tasks, and each task must have a time to completion that assumes no delays, cues,