The Diary of a CEO — Steven Bartlett

Summary in 15 minutes. For Bartlett, everything starts inside you: what you know, how you learn and how well you keep the promises you make to yourself. However good the product, people remember stories and feelings. This part covers the laws of grabbing attention and winning hearts. The quality of your work is set by small details, your attitude to failure and how you behave under pressure. You can’t build anything big alone. This part covers the laws of culture, hiring and leadership. You’ve finished reading. Now comes the bucket audit, a promise to yourself and one task you’ve been avoiding. The rest is daily practice.

Key ideas of "The Diary of a CEO: The 33 Laws of Business and Life"

Pillar One: The Self

For Bartlett, everything starts inside you: what you know, how you learn and how well you keep the promises you make to yourself.

1. 33 Laws from a Podcast: From a man who has listened to hundreds of high achievers
2. The Five Buckets: There’s a right order for filling them
3. Understand, Don’t Argue: Beliefs, questions and strange behaviour
4. Promises to Yourself: Self-story, habits and the first foundation

Pillar Two: The Story

However good the product, people remember stories and feelings. This part covers the laws of grabbing attention and winning hearts.

1. Don’t Be Wallpaper: We stop seeing what’s familiar
2. You Can’t Please Everyone: Build for the people who’ll love it
3. The Psychological Moonshot First: Feelings beat logic

Pillar Three: The Philosophy

The quality of your work is set by small details, your attitude to failure and how you behave under pressure.

1. The Small Stuff Is the Big Game: Today’s small mistake is tomorrow’s big one
2. Out-Fail the Competition: Experiments, Plan A and full commitment
3. Pressure Is a Privilege: Don’t be an ostrich
4. Who, Not How: The value of context, finding the right people

Pillar Four: The Team

You can’t build anything big alone. This part covers the laws of culture, hiring and leadership.

1. A Cult-Like Culture: People want to be part of something bigger
2. Hiring and Progress: People who raise the team’s average
3. Inconsistent Leader, Endless Learner: One set of principles, behaviour fitted to the person

Take Action

You’ve finished reading. Now comes the bucket audit, a promise to yourself and one task you’ve been avoiding. The rest is daily practice.

1. 7-Day Action Plan: One task a day. Tick it off when you’re done.
2. One-Page Cheat Sheet: The whole book at a glance. Save it.
3. Final Word: The Diary Is Yours Now: From the self to the team

From the free first chapter

Steven Bartlett was born in Botswana in 1992 and grew up in Plymouth, England. He went to university but dropped out almost immediately. In 2014, aged just 21, he co-founded the social media marketing company Social Chain with Dominic McGregor; it later listed on the stock market. In 2017 he launched the podcast The Diary of a CEO, and in 2022 he joined the British TV show Dragons’ Den as its youngest-ever investor.

On the podcast he has spent hours talking with entrepreneurs, athletes, scientists, doctors and psychologists. In this 2023 book he distils those conversations, plus his own wins and failures, into 33 laws. They’re grouped into four pillars: The Self, The Story, The Philosophy and The Team.

Read the first chapter free · Price: ৳250 · or every book with a membership