Emma-Jane Greig

In 2016, Pharrell Williams visited an N.Y.U. music production class to critique student songs. After he listened to a song called “Alaska” by a student named Maggie Rogers, Pharrell said, “Wow. I have zero, zero, zero notes for that.” “And I'll tell you why” he said. Because... “You're doing your own thing. It's singular. It's like when the Wu-Tang Clan came out—no one could really judge it. You either liked it or you didn't, but you couldn't compare it to anything else. And that is such a special quality, and all of us possess that ability.” Takeaway 1: The source of your power, Robert Greene says, is your uniqueness. We say of genius, as Pharrell said of Rogers' song: "They're 1 of a kind." "They're singular." So are you, Robert likes to point out: No one has ever had your DNA, your experiences, your perspective. Embrace your uniqueness. Express it in your work. Takeaway 2: The video with Pharrell went viral & Maggie Rogers, seemingly overnight, was a pop star. But… Rogers started playing music when she was 7. She started songwriting a few years later. In high school, she attended courses at the Berklee College of Music. During her senior year, she recorded her first album, which is what got her accepted to the N.Y.U. music school and the opportunity to play one of her songs in front of Pharrell. As Rogers later said of the viral video, “My many, many years of focus and hard work got kind of packaged into a Cinderella story.” Ryan Holiday's line is, "All success is a lagging indicator." All success is a function of the previous work put in. “When a day’s writing goes well,” Ryan writes, “it’s a lagging indicator of hours and hours spent researching and thinking…Hitting a personal record on the bench press is a lagging indicator of a lot of discipline and hard work. Receiving a promotion is a lagging indicator of a lot of quality work. Delivering a keynote with confidence is a lagging indicator of a lot of preparation.” Getting packaged as a Cinderalla story is a lagging indicator of many, many years of focus and hard work. - - - “It seems to me that each of us expressing our own originality is the essence of our art and professionalism.” — Jim Henson Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!