James Patterson knows a thing or two about blowing things up. Before becoming one of the world's best-selling authors, selling more than 425 million books, he was CEO of J. Walter Thompson, one of Madison Avenue's largest advertising firms. While there, he did more than just run a campaign. He disrupted the advertising industry with blatant campaigns like the burger brawl between Burger King and McDonald's.
Then one day, at the height of his career, he was commuting into Manhattan and watching people go in the opposite direction. In his mind, he was going in the wrong direction. So he decided to drop everything and pursue what most people would ignore as a hobby: writing novels.
The gamble paid off. But Patterson didn't stop there. He went on to disrupt the publishing business itself through unprecedented collaborations with everyone from Bill Clinton to Dolly Parton to Michael Crichton, transforming the traditional solitary writing technique into something closer to a creative partnership model.
Now, Patterson has translated his hard-earned lessons about reinvention into a framework that others can follow. his new book, Destroy everything and win: Take control of your futureco-authored with Dr. Patrick Reddin, a leadership expert and former professor at Vanderbilt University, shows how disruption, reinvention, and clarity of purpose can shape not only the story but the future of a company. In a conversation at the CEO Group's annual Board of Directors Summit last fall, Patterson and Reddin offered a practical roadmap for anyone looking to get themselves or their organizations out of a rut.
Reddin and Patterson spent three years researching 350 people they considered “positive disruptors” (ranging from celebrities to unsung heroes) and surveying thousands more. One of the most practical contributions of this book is that it helps leaders identify which of five roles to play when disruption occurs: vanguard, firefighter, torchbearer, fire chief, and tinder collector. Understanding this is not about personality typing. It's about tactical decision making in the moment. As Reddin explains, before acting, positive disruptors stop and discern, asking themselves what role the situation calls for. This framework also includes something called a positive disruptor loop. This is a four-step iterative cycle: Identify (choose a role), Act (commit to a particular disruptor behavior), Accomplish (start with self-sabotage and expand outward), and Refine (review and recommit to results).
The comfort trap
This study revealed another important thing. That being said, the opposite of being a positive disruptor is not being a negative disruptor. It's a constant pursuit of comfort. As Patterson and Reddin discovered through 350 case studies, sitting still means missing out on opportunities. The key habits they identified include saying a “scary yes” to accept an intimidating challenge, saying a “brave no” to walk away from a misplaced opportunity, and accepting that the world will never go back to the way it was before.
“Team members at these organizations all deal with disruption every day,” says Reddin. “Everyone around the table is facing disruption, so we wanted to take a deep dive into how people approach disruption from a positive perspective, and look for opportunities within disruption to help us move towards better lives and better teams.”
7 tips for creating confusion
Cross off half of your to-do list in the first two minutes of each day. “Every day you go into the office, there are 20 things you need to do that day,” Patterson told the audience, referring to the advice he gave to a friend who was recently named CEO. “The first thing you should do is cross out 10 things in the first two minutes…because they're not important. Yesterday they seemed important, but they're not.”
Your time here is short. So what can be done most beautifully? This question has motivated Patterson for years and appears throughout the book as the north star of his decision-making. “What can I do most beautifully?” he asks. For individuals and businesses, success is not just about what you can do, but what you can do to the best of your ability. Step back and ask, “Where are my talents? Where are my skills? What can you do most beautifully? How can I fit in? How can I do better?”
Be discerning and avoid creating confusion for the sake of confusion. Redin researched the 85-year-old Dillard Department Store. The department store had 200 stores and was watching other businesses go online. They also went online, but chose to draw the line and not turn department stores into warehouses where people could just come, pick up things, and leave. As a result, “if you invested in Dillard's Department Stores from 2020 to 2024, the stock price rose 1,200 percent,” he said. The most effective teams “every time something might disrupt the team, instead of just reacting to it, they step back and think, 'What is the purpose of the team? What is the purpose of the organization?'”
Communication should be clear and motivating, not business jargon. When you are trying to inspire others and lead change, your ability to rally others depends on the clarity of your communication with them. Patterson, an author and former advertising executive, implores CEOs to ditch jargon, clichés and bromides and use clear, thoughtful language. “Many communications from companies are not clear, motivating, or persuasive,” he says.
Listen more than you talk, especially when collaborating or negotiating. Patterson credits a simple discipline for his success working with collaborators ranging from presidents to pop stars. “Listening is the most important thing,” he says. His negotiation philosophy follows the same principles. “These are the five things that are important to me. What are the five or six things that are important to you?”
Winners Win – Look for patterns of winning, not just credentials. When evaluating talent, Patterson puts a lot of emphasis on resumes. “Winners win,” he says. So instead of asking potential hires what they've done, ask them to specifically point out projects on their resumes in which they've done more than just help. “You've worked for a lot of good companies, etc. What's the point?”
Focus on problems you can actually solve right now. Similarly, Patterson said he learned that both he and former President Bill Clinton have a common discipline. Whether it's concerns about AI or industry upheaval, the question is always, “What can I control, what can't I control, and how can I focus accordingly?” “We try not to worry about things that are out of our control right now.”
