Law 7 — Get Others to Do the Work for You, But Always Take the Credit

Concept · refreshed Search related

Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you.

Naval's leverage-types lists labor as the least effective lever ("oldest, smallest leverage, most fought-over"). Greene's L7 says labor leverage is the first lever to reach for, with the principal's credit at the center. The disagreement is real: Naval treats labor as a substitute for the operator's specific knowledge; Greene treats labor as the operator's amplification vehicle. The operator picks: use labor to amplify your own specific-knowledge contribution, never as a substitute for it. The "always take the credit" clause is corrosive and should be quietly discarded — modern operators who try it once lose all subsequent collaborators.

Capital + labor leverage in concentrated form. The risk: this is the mercenary pattern reversed — you're the principal, your team is the contractor. See concept/avoid-mercenaries for why this is sometimes necessary and sometimes corrosive.

How it's structured

  1. Body (verbatim) Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and e…
  2. Doctrine paraphrased Capital + labor leverage in concentrated form. The risk: this is the mercenary pattern reversed — you're the principal, your team is the c…
  3. Where this sits in the operator's spine Naval's leverage-types lists labor as the least effective lever ("oldest, smallest leverage, most fought-over"). Greene's L7 says labor…

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