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Rules for Renegades
How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career
and Revel in Your Individuality
by Christine Comaford-Lynch
Some folks know how to talk a good game. Other people, like fivetime CEO turned bestselling author Christine Comaford-Lynch, just
get things done.
For those who haven't heard of her, Christine's life story is nothing short of
amazing. On her way to amassing a personal fortune of over $10 million by her
mid-40s, Christine dropped-out of high school, moved to New York City (with only
the clothes on her back), dabbled in modeling, trained as a geisha, spent seven
years living as a Buddhist monk, became the first female contractor in Microsoft's
Operating Systems Division (helping to develop the now ubiquitous Windows
platform), briefly dated Bill Gates, created and sold four different companies (each
time for a profit), and consulted for dozens of Fortune 500 companies. In her
"spare time", she wrote Rules for Renegades: How to Make More Money, Rock
Your Career and Revel in Your Individuality, which quickly rose to become the #1
selling business book in America. Not bad for a teenage runaway with no fancy
Ivy League college degree!
Rules for Renegades is largely aimed at wannabe entrepreneurs. But it's also
loaded with advice for free-spirited "intrapreneurs" — renegade employees who
want to shake things up within their own company or organization. Even if you
simply want a meaningful life full of rich connections, Christine's book can help.
There's something for almost everyone, with perhaps one little exception: "Sadly,"
jokes Christine, "if you want perfectly toned abs, killer buns and thinner thighs in
just 30 days, sorry, this book can't help." Guess you can't win ‘em all...
Christine's book is organized around her ten outrageous life rules. Naturally, the
rules are distilled from the author's personal trials, tribulations and victories. They
come straight from the school of hard knocks.
Depending on where you're at right now in your career, some of the rules may be
more immediately applicable than others. Christine suggests you read them in the
order you want, so long as you read them all. It's true that certain rules may be
more helpful to you than others, but if you skip some, you'll miss a lot of great
stories!
Rule 1: Everything's an Illusion, So Pick One That's Empowering
Rule number one is about changing perceptions. It's about "dressing the part" in
order to create the right reality — both for yourself, and for your company.
According to Christine, reality is not a fixed state. She's a firm believer in the
power of illusions. "We create illusions every minute of every day," she writes.
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"Our illusions can be positive, negative or neutral. But only when we recognize our
propensity — and our power — to create illusions can we then begin to
consciously use them in order to get ahead in our careers." By way of example,
Christine tells her readers about how she once donned a fake wedding ring (she
wasn't even dating anyone at the time) before walking into an important sales call
so that she would look older and more surefooted to a prospective client.
Sometimes being a renegade means you have to look like an anti-renegade!
For Christine, the best part of picking an illusion (which could also be referred to
as "self-image") is that you can change it if it doesn't work. Some of Christine's
earliest illusions didn't empower her, so she simply dropped them and moved on.
To be clear, Christine isn't counseling her readers to deliberately mislead others
as to their professional qualifications. But in the workplace, there's a huge grey
area between competent and totally incompetent, and the reality is, most of us fall
somewhere in between. Until you've attained total competency in a particular field
or endeavor, you owe it to yourself to act the part. She says that even most CEOs
are making it up as they go along. "Act it until you ARE it," urges Christine.
Rule 2: Don't Get an MBA. Get a "GSD"
So you weren't born into a life of privilege? You didn't go to the right college?
"Don't sweat it," says Christine. "Being successful has nothing to do with
collecting the right pieces of paper from the right school. Of course there is some
benefit in a good education. A degree can open doors for you. But your GSD —
your ability to Get Stuff Done — is what counts in the real world." Getting results is
the surest way to climb the corporate ladder faster and with greater fulfillment.
Before rolling up your sleeves and getting to work, you need to have a clear vision
as to what it is you're trying to achieve, and what kind of results will be rewarded
in your organization. It's important to write your goals down, says Christine. You'll
also want to attach a timeline for when those goals ought to be achieved. For
example, she recommends negotiating a "promotion plan" with your boss at the
outset. The plan would specify that if you achieve X, Y and Z goals within a
certain period of time it would warrant a promotion and a raise. Then keep track of
how you're progressing by checking in with your boss from time-to-time. It'll work
wonders in focusing your efforts and keeping you on track.
Just as importantly, getting your GSD also involves maximizing your forward
motion while minimizing what Christine refers to as your "drag coefficient."
Specifically, this means "rocking responsibility" for your own career, and refusing
to complain or blame others when things don't go your way. It also means "tossing
toxicity" in your life by limiting your exposure to negative-minded friends and
family members who seem to want to hold you back or bring you down. If you
consistently feel exhausted, or mad, after spending time with a particular person,
then that's someone you've got to stay away from.
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Rule 3: Problems + Pain = Profit
"The world is an imperfect place," writes Christine. "And that's good news."
Every day new messes are created that require someone to come in and clean
them up. Opportunities are all around you. Learn to listen for signs of what
Christine calls "business pain." Then diagnose the problem and offer a solution.
"People will pay handsomely to remove painful problems."
So does this mean you need to have a fulsome, ironclad business plan ready to
go at a moment's notice? Not at all. According to Christine, business plans are
overrated. As her idol John Lennon once put it: "Life is what happens while we're
busy making other plans." Indeed, in the author's own career as a contractor,
entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Christine has been closely involved with
nearly 40 vastly different companies, and not a single one of those companies has
executed its original business plan. They simply smelled an opportunity and dove
in headfirst. Of course, the more established Fortune 500-type companies are
less likely to behave this way, and therein lies your greatest opportunities.
"Sometimes big businesses play it too safe, and they end up with business pain,"
she says. "Make sure you're standing by; ready to remove it."
Rule 4: Will You Date, Borrow, or Build Power?
"As you go through life, you'll forever be dealing with people who have power over
you." The author wants all of her readers to have great power too. So how do we
get it? By building it for ourselves. Christine shows us how.
She has learned some valuable lessons about power in the workplace by hanging
out with some very powerful people. "One thing that stuck with me from dating Bill
Gates was his supreme confidence," she confides. Gates has incredible "certainty
that he'll achieve what he sets out to do." She concluded that real power isn't
something that's bestowed on a person due to his or her wealth or position. It
comes instead from an unshakable inner confidence.
Too many people wrongly try to seek power from association, laments Christine.
They borrow power temporarily instead of building it for themselves. Sure, building
relationships with rich and powerful people can leave you with a fleeting "contact
high." But often, you're left powerless if the relationship goes south.
Christine asks: "Are you merely borrowing power, or are you building your own?"
Here's how to tell: if you feel challenged in your career, if you feel like you're
growing and learning and stretching all day, if you are acquiring new skills and
trying to be the best YOU possible, then you're building power. You can't succeed
in business, and in life, until you stop dating power and claim it for your very own.
Rule 5: Rock Rejection and Finesse Failure
"What holds us back from our dreams more than anything else?" asks the author
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rhetorically. "It's our fear of failure." Sooner or later, everyone fails. Don't let it get
you down, she says. Just remember: If you must fail, then fail forward.
Failing forward is about extracting the lessons from your so-called failure. Get
something out of it! To illustrate her point, Christine points to the 39 rejections she
received from potential publishers regarding Rules for Renegades before finding a
40th publisher who enthusiastically jumped onboard. Instead of taking it
personally and letting all those rejection letters get her down, she brought in a
"kick-ass editor" to help her re-work the book, based on the feedback she'd
received. The result was a much-improved book that's now a national bestseller.
If acting on your lessons learned doesn't help you to let go of your feelings of
failure and move forward, Christine recommends you change your mental channel
through something positive, like a fun new hobby. Or doing some volunteer work.
And if you're still obsessing over battles lost, she suggests you take a time-out
and make a list of your great qualities. Admittedly, it sounds goofy. But
understanding your strengths helps you identify what to do next.
Finally, throw a "rejection party" so you and your closest friends can all laugh out
loud together at your big screw-up. It's a great way to desensitize and move on.
Rule 6: Learn to Love Networking
Christine recommends you think of networking not in terms of getting what you
want, but rather finding out about other people, and seeing how you can help
them. The more you go out of your way to help other people get what they want,
she says, the more they'll help you down the road. It's a two-way street.
Christine calls this approach "palm up" networking, which is networking to give
and not to get. To this end, she warns us not to fall into the trap of stuffing our
rolodexes with contacts. "Contacts are just names and numbers," she says.
"Whereas connections are meaningful relationships that enhance your life." Yes,
connections take more work. But one real connection can pay off better than one
hundred random contacts. She offers this advice on creating connections:
1. Fall in love with people. "People are fascinating," writes Christine. "It can
be the mailman, the woman making me a cappuccino, anyone or anything.
The more we pay attention, the more we see how we're all students and
teachers of each other. This also boosts our interest in people, which
boosts our authenticity when networking."
2. Do the "drive-by schmooze." Christine recognizes we're all busy, and so
we really need to optimize our networking time. Accordingly, she
recommends scheduling a specific amount of networking time each week
— say 30 minutes — and forcing yourself to walk around the room for that
period of time. During a drive-by schmooze, she will simply "feel the room"
and let herself be drawn to people. Then she'll introduce herself and ask
what business the other person is in, how they got into it, and what their
ideal customer is. Her number one rule in these situations is never to talk
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about herself unless asked. If she knows people who might be potential
customers for them, or great possible connections, she mentions it. It's
about finding ways to help.
3. Tell someone you appreciate them daily. This can be done via e-mail, via
the phone, or in person. You're not doing this to get them to return the
gesture, says Christine. You're doing it to spread great energy, to have
fun, and to strengthen your connection with the human race.
Rule 7: Only You Can Lead Your Life
"Wherever you are in your organization," writes Christine, "think like a chief
executive officer. Because, let's face it: you are the leader of your life."
Above all, leading your own life means walking the talk. "Leaders say it, and then
they do it," she says. People may be willing to follow someone who lacks followthrough for a short period of time, particularly if that individual is charismatic or
exciting. But after awhile, people inevitably start to realize that the leader's socalled vision is not translating into reality. The charade is over.
At Christine's latest company, Mighty Ventures, she preaches the following four
core values to ensure that leadership ideas translate into follow-through actions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Take 100% responsibility for your work, and your life;
Provide five-star client service;
Take initiative to solve problems; and,
Make a difference at work, and in the world around you.
When everyone is accountable for his or her own actions, everyone is a leader.
Rule 8: Work Your Money MOJO
Cash is king, as they say. It's your company's lifeblood. Sure, it may be possible
to scrape along for a little while on a shoestring budget. But to achieve great
things, sooner or later, you'll probably have to attract partners, or financiers.
Whether you're an entrepreneur, or an intrapreneur lobbying for internal funding,
your challenge is the same — finding new cash, fast!
After years of maxing-out her credit cards and borrowing money from friends,
Christine finally stumbled upon the "three C's" as a superior way of raising cash:
1. Customers. One of the most traditional, but often neglected, ways to raise
cash is to invite your customers to help fund your growth. Try negotiating
with your customers to cost-share new product development. Christine has
seen this tactic work in many start-up companies, whereby the customer
receives exclusive access to the new product or service for a defined
period of time. Your customer wins by gaining a competitive head start
over his or her competitors.
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2. Consulting. If you're an entrepreneur and you're able to offer consulting
services "in your spare time" to help fund the cost of operations and
product development, then do it. Your knowledge can be a valuable
commodity. Many start-up companies need to raise revenue this way.
3. Cost control. Whenever you can cut costs without compromising your
ability to develop and promote products or services, Christine urges you to
do it. In addition to the money you'll save, your balance sheet will look
stronger to potential investors. Financiers will always want to know your
company's cash "burn rate," and if it's too high relative to other start-up
companies in your field, that'll move you down the list.
Rule 9: Resign as "General Manager of the Universe"
Have you ever felt totally burned-out? Well, Christine sure has.
"Burnout is insidious," she writes knowingly, "as it is usually born of success.
You're so good at something that you are offered repeat opportunities to
contribute more. And in the beginning, there's a cool adrenaline buzz about it. But
soon you start to get a crazed look in your eye..." And eventually, you crash.
One of Christine's tips for dealing with work overload before it leads to burnout is
outsourcing all non-essential tasks. "Whether you've discovered your gifts early or
late in life, you'll want to have someone else to do the stuff you're not good at,"
she writes. As a recovering control freak herself, the author acknowledges that
this can be tougher than it sounds when you're accustomed to being in charge, or
when you think your way is the best way. But it's the only real means to avoiding
burnout.
Tendering your resignation as "General Manager of the Universe" is really about
learning to let go, and give others around you a chance to rise up. The more you
trust and value your employees or partners, the greater the connection you'll
achieve with them. This will only increase their desire to come through for you.
Rule 10: Don't Just Do Something. Stand There.
"To persevere in the face of overwhelming odds, find the inner strength that
comes from knowing that no matter what happens, you'll still have YOU." This
final rule is about getting to know yourself, and finding spirituality.
Christine is a practicing Buddhist. She confesses that her own spiritual practice
has helped her to identify, and subsequently live, her core values — i.e. a
commitment to compassion and community as a fundamental part of any
business plan or effort. In order to avoid making knee-jerk decisions that may be
inconsistent with her core beliefs, she often finds it helpful and necessary to take
a mini-time out, and stand perfectly still in order to seek clarity.
Meditation may not work for everyone. But Christine reveals that the vast majority
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of her own business and technology innovations, new ideas, marketing plans, and
greatest life insights, have come out of the clarity of thought she achieves
following a short period of stillness when her mind is quiet.
Christine finds it funny that everyone spends so much time these days talking
about work-life balance, but so little time talking about the need for spiritual
practice. "In my experience, there's no better way to stay balanced," she says.
Conclusion
Christine Comaford-Lynch has lived a crazy, gutsy and wildly successful life, and
Rules for Renegades proves it. Christine's book, which reads a lot like an
autobiography at times, shows what can happen when someone truly believes in
themselves — no matter what others are telling them — and follows their instincts
in the face of extremely difficult odds. It's hard not to be inspired by her story.
Equally impressive, in the midst of achieving great career success, she has
actually pulled off something that most of us might have previously thought
impossible — making a lot of money in corporate America while still preserving
her individuality, and having fun! Through her ten outrageous life lessons and
amazing personal anecdotes, Christine shows how you can do the same.
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