In Western society, middle managers are routined satired, looked down on, and made fodder for all sorts of jokes and bad feelings. They're almost never celebrated.

And perhaps rightfully so, in most companies. No-one aspires to be a middle manager, so if you're stuck there long-term in the average company, you probably ain't any good as an executive or senior manager.

But middle managers are better at one thing than the vast majority of us:

"Perfect or bust" is a terrible way the live. And often, you wind up going bust.

Two very important principles --

1. Trend upwards: Constantly be improving a little bit and moving in the right direction.

2. Be very, very realistic about where you're at: Seeing things exactly as they are lets you make rapid improvements.

The principle of using "Hard Rules" says that hard rules make life easier. Nailing down extremely precise, unambiguous guidelines on how you're going to do things is easier than having a loose wishful thinking in an area.

I'd like your feedback, especially if you don't usually comment. (Veteran commentors' opinions are obviously very important to me too! But I'd especially like to hear from a few of the thousand+ people who read here daily and don't comment, if you can spare me a couple minutes.)

Some rough questions (though reply however you like) --

Why do you read here?

What do you try to get out of the site?

What does it mean to you personally?

Well-structured events include a lot of activities and fill the schedule -- because most people enjoy that, and find it useful to have a set calendar.

But with just a little bit of pre-planning, you can almost always do better. Events get set with a calendar that's to appeal broadly to everyone. So if you're going on a tour or going to a conference, there's a good chance that at least 20% of the activities there are less useful or appealing to you.

What to do? Make your own calendar! Sometimes it's not possible, but you'd be surprised how often it is. When you skip out of an event that's not your forte to do your work, to lift weights, or even just to get a breather and recharge, you give yourself a better chance of continuing what you're working on AND enjoying the rest of things.

I just skipped a technical session at a conference I was at, and lifted weights in the gym. I'm sure it was fantastic, but I knew I wasn't interested and wasn't likely to implement anything from it in the next couple months (and past that, the memory retention wouldn't be good anyways).

I left my hotel keycard in the gym by accident, and while I was waiting in line to get a new one, I mentioned I'd left the card in the gym to a couple co-attendees. I was asked incredulously, "When did you find time to do that?"

If you want to level up your skills, change the world, and connect with amazing people at the same time, volunteer at GiveGetWin.

Hell, "volunteer" sounds all very old fashioned -- what you're going to be able to do is fast-paced, highly enjoyable, high impact, rapidly-skills-imparting stuff and be able to have as much personal responsibility, ability to experiment, and access to amazing people as you can handle.

Here's two roles we're explicitly looking for --

1. Recruiter

The heart of GiveGetWin is putting great people and companies together with those who are interested in what they’re doing. As a GGW Recruiter, you’ll use your social skills:

Hard rules make life easier.

"I don't drink soda."

"I don't go online until I write 1,000 words."

"I turn the computer off at 11PM."

"I don't watch television."

I was finishing up some sales email templates as part of a contract. I had something pretty good, but I figured there's always room for improvement, so I dug out eight to ten of my favorite books to see if there was any more juice I could squeeze out.

When I do work like this, I go to a number of different sources. So I opened up a few books centered around email templates, some books on marketing, some books on consulting, a book on networking, and two books on sales. These are some of my favorite books covering their respective topics.

What shocked me -- and I mean, shocked -- is that there was a piece of advice given in almost every single book that I'd never noticed before, despite having read these books many times.

Mars Dorian's motto in life is, "When you’re not trying to fit in, you’re free to stand out."

Mars is an illustrator, designer, blogger, and consultant focused on helping you and your business stand out. He's edgy and embraces authenticity even to the point where his work can be quite controversial -- but he's also got brilliant insights and excellent artisanship. 

To promote his recent GiveGetWin deal where you can get a copy of his illustrated guide to branding and standing out, Mars sat down with Sebastian Marshall and opened up about reaching the highest levels of creative potential, owning where you're at, and becoming truly exceptional at your craft. Enjoy --

"How To Break Through With Your Work" by Mars Dorian, as told to Sebastian Marshall

I start my day with 2-3 hours of learning. After breakfast and before I do any work, I start learning and dissecting something related to my craft.

I learned an interesting lesson about rules today.

I had an 8AM Tokyo-time Skype call back to the United States. Tokyo is notorious for its surprisingly poor WiFi, so I went to an internet cafe.

The internet cafes in Japan are interesting -- you get your own private cubicle that has a computer with a very large monitor and noise-canceling headphones, comfortable chairs, pillows, and sometimes blankets. In the rest of the cafe, there's also comic books, DVDs, and a selection of free teas, coffees, juices, and sodas. Sometimes they have other amenities for free or for sale -- often they'll sell dress shirts, do laundry, have showers, selling grooming kits, and sell other kinds of hot food and snacks.