the secret to being a superstar

"Managers like to hire people who have two traits.
They’re smart, and they get things done.”

For how a German military Strategist, Erwin Rommel deployed his troops...

For Rommel, the deployment of the dumb and the lazy was easy to figure out: They’re the infantry; they take spears well.

The smart and energetic are designated as infiltrators. They are the spies who get behind the enemy lines and make sure supplies reach them there. They push the envelope and bring you to the point where you can win the battle, but they don’t put victory over the top.

The two most critical groups, Rommel believed, were the lazy and the smart, and the dumb and energetic. The dumb and energetic are the most dangerous of all groups, because they look a great deal like the smart and energetic, but if you trust yourself to them – if you trust them to infiltrate and destroy from the rear – you are doomed.

The smart and lazy win battles and wars because, in their aversion to doing rote work for rote works sake, they are constantly trying to figure out a better way. They are the creators, warfare’s equivalent of the digerati.