President Lyndon Johnson’s 10-Point Success Formula

February 03, 2023

President Lyndon Johnson wrote this list down long before he became President. It’s a hell of a set of principles. 

  1. Learn to remember names. Inefficiency at this point may indicate that your interest is not sufficiently outgoing. 

  2. Be a comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you. Be an old-shoe, old-hat kind of individual. 

  3. Acquire the quality of relaxed easy-going so that things do not ruffle you. 

  4. Don’t be egotistical. Guard against the impression that you know it all. 

  5. Cultivate the quality of being interesting so people will get something of value from their association with you. 

  6. Study to get the “scratchy” elements out of your personality, even those of which you may be unconscious. 

  7. Sincerely attempt to heal, on an honest Christian basis, every misunderstanding you have had or now have. Drain off your grievances. 

  8. Practice liking people until you learn to do so genuinely. 

  9. Never miss an opportunity to say a word of congratulation upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment. 

  10. Give spiritual strength to people, and they will give genuine affection to you. 

Here’s the inverted list, in case you need to also know what NOT to do:

  1. Why bother remembering names? They’re so labely. 

  2. Make others uncomfortable so you can have more quality alone time. Be a stinky shoe that people would rather leave outside. 

  3. Get FIRED UP at EVERYTHING. 

  4. You know it all. The rest of them are so. friggin. stupid. Gosh. 

  5. You know you’re interesting, so tell them exactly what’s on your mind (and don’t worry what’s on theirs, you’re more interesting)

  6. What doesn’t kill them makes them stronger, so if they can’t hang with you, they are WEAK. 

  7. Engrave your grievances in stone. Lug them around with you. Grudges are good. 

  8. You like them or you don’t, and if you don’t, it’s on them. 

  9. Say it when you want to so it. Whatever “it” may be.

  10. Derive your spiritual strength from the support or weakness of others equally. Be merciless in what you dole out on your own terms. 

Kind of messed up that I can think of people who live by each of these lists. 

Let’s go team LBJ.