Northern has written about this before.
I’ve sort-of written about this before.
But the picture above sums up the strategic evil genius of the average moggy like never before.
Seriously, Bond movies shouldn’t feature an evil villain stroking his cat because the cat IS the evil villain.
That said, there’s something to be said for holding back on what you give to others.
I’m not talking about in your personal life.
That is the one place where being open, expressive and willing can give you amazing results.
I’m talking about at work.
Where giving things away too easily, too quickly, too keenly can end up robbing you of opportunity.
Where people don’t see your true value because you’ve not demonstrated why it is valuable.
Sometimes, holding back will force others to stop and give you the time of day because you have intrigued them rather than just satisfied them.
You have to be careful with it … you can’t use it all the time … and you have to ensure you give just enough to make the people who matter, want more … but many of the people I have seen get to the top – or earn the highest salaries – have got there because they were smart enough to work out how to manage their own value rather than simply offer value to the company they worked for.
Someone didn’t invent the phrase ‘treat them mean to keep them keen’ by accident.
[Though maybe they meant ‘mean’ to be more about being miserly than having an attitude]
So forget business books that talk about what you can learn from the Mafia or Jesus … the real skills would be found in a book that teaches you what you can learn from a cat.