Earlier this year Mark Zuckerberg released a photo on Facebook of his wardrobe and it
shocked quite a few people.
They looked at it and they saw all these gray shirts all these hoodies that looked exactly
the same and they said, is this guys a genius or a psychopath?
Now, guys, I'm not going to talk about that, but what I am going to cover is the strange
style habits of successful people.
Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Albert Einstein, Christopher Nolan, the commandant
of the United States Marine Corps, what do all these guys have in common?
They all wear a uniform.
Now, in today's video, guys, I'm going to talk about the power of a uniform and really
it comes down to three things.
It comes down to simplicity, it comes down to control, it comes down to consistency.
And let me explain each of those points.
Point number one.
Simplicity.
So, have you ever had one of those mornings you wake up late and you go and you realized
that half your clothes are dirty, the half of clothes that are not you've never you haven't
put them together for awhile.
So, you can't find that matching pair of shoes, you've only got one sock.
All of a sudden you're looking at your trousers, do they match your shirt?
Are you going to wear a tie?
You've got to wear a jacket, you've got a presentation.
Oh, my gosh, I am late.
And, so far your day has not started off well, you are frustrated you can't even make a decision
and, by the time you get to work you have wasted time you have wasted energy.
And smart successful people realized that they have a limited amount of willpower.
They only have so much energy that they can devote to work in a day.
And if they're spending already some of that energy or a lot of that energy at the beginning
of the day, simply trying to make put together an outfit, aren't they really wasting it?
And that's the key with simplicity is you want to make it so that things are simple
that they are interchangeable.
I talk about the power of the interchangeable wardrobe, but a lot of these people have taken
it even to an extreme, hence the all gray wardrobe.
Really what kind of decision does Mark have to make in the morning when he's looking to
go to Facebook?
He knows that he's just got wear the gray, there is no color in this he can easily match
it.
No decision has to be made.
When I was in the Marine Corps, it was actually pretty darn simple.
All of my boots were black.
And by the way, I got out in 2003, so we still had the black boots.
We had the cammies and they pretty much match.
If I didn't have one pair of they were dirty the trousers I can match them with another
top.
It was all interchangeable.
All my socks were black.
The point is we kept it simple.
Uniforms do that for a person.
Point number two.
Control.
So, it's about controlling the message and knowing the message you want to send.
As a marine, I knew that my uniform send a particular message.
But, let's look at Steve Jobs.
When you think of Steve Jobs, what do you think of?
The turtleneck, the jeans, the running shoes.
He wanted to send that message that he was a normal everyday guy that was relatable.
Many other people though they have a different type of brand.
Carl Lagerfeld, every time we see this guy, he's got the glasses, he's got his hair the
way it is, he's got that high collar that is his brand.
It's unmistakable.
When you see that gentleman, if you don't even know who he is, he immediately stands
out.
In a crowded field of fashion forward people, he has created a brand and he's able to stand
out.
And that's what it's about, gentlemen, it's about controlling the image sending the message
you want to send.
Point number three.
Consistency.
Guys, consistency, very important.
If you want to get something big done, you need to stay focus and you need to do it day
in and day out.
The power of having a uniform is that you're consistently sending the same message again
and again.
It doesn't matter when you're photographed.
When Mark Zucekerberg is photographed he's pretty much wearing that gray shirt all the
time.
Now, think about if he changed it up.
Maybe one month he said, you know, this is breast cancer awareness month, I'm going to
wear pink, I'm going to show support.
Well, that's good and that's great, but he is going to all of a sudden all these other
people that have other causes are going to start to petition, hey, you did it for them,
why don't you do it for us.
And then, he's going to have to of course there's only three hundred and sixty five
days a year, he's going to have to leave some people out.
Think about Google, they've got that Doodle on their homepage and that's really cool.
But, one of the things that isn't talked about is they don't recognize every single holiday
every single person that was born on that day and it ends up offending some people who
are like, hey, look at these liberals over here what they're talking about.
The point is when you're consistent you can get you can push your way through that you
can focus in on your message and you can get a lot accomplished by staying that focused.
All right, gents, now, it's your turn.
I want to hear from you down in the comments.
Maybe you've got something to add, maybe I missed something, maybe there you feel is
a point I should have covered.
I love learning from you, guys, so if you know of any strange style habits of celebrities
or successful people or smart people, write them down below.
I would definitely go check them out.
You guys know I love going down there and checking out what you guys write and learning
from you guys, engaging with you.
And, that's it, guys.
I'll see you in the next video.