Every profession runs on two curricula. One gets written down, taught, and tested. The other doesn't, and it's the one that actually decides who gets the credit, the promotion, and the room where the real decision happens.
This book is the second curriculum. Twenty-five laws, written for people who do the work and watch someone else get read as the leader — quiet, competent, and usually the best informed person in a meeting where that is not what the room concludes.
Find the one you have already said
Each of these has a law behind it. If more than two look familiar, that is what the book is for.
- “I'm quiet in meetings and it gets read as not contributing.” Law 07
- “Someone repeated my point and it became theirs.” Law 11, Law 08
- “I did the work that mattered two years ago and nobody remembers.” Law 09
- “My proposal got shot down and I took it personally.” Law 05
- “I don't understand how decisions actually get made here.” Law 21, Law 18
- “I'm always the last to find out.” Law 25, Law 18
- “I said something in confidence and it travelled.” Law 20, Law 17
- “I keep winning the argument and losing ground.” Law 06
- “I'm judged by people who have never worked with me.” Law 24
Every law says where its evidence stops
Each one states what the research behind it does and does not show. Where the evidence is thin, the law says so. Where there is no study at all — and for a few of these there never will be one — it says that too, rather than borrowing authority from something adjacent that happens to have been measured.
That is close to unheard of in this genre, and it is the thing worth checking before you buy anything else in it.
The free one is Law 07
The one about the person who says least in the meeting and is often the best informed. Read it here — the whole law, not an extract, no email required — then decide about the other twenty four.
It's not a summary of Overlooked. It's a standalone read, for anyone who wants the patterns in one sitting rather than one conversation at a time.