here’s where we challenge the Rules.
Turning Points is a developing network of executive study groups and discussions across the United States.
- there’s no cost
- no registration
- no membership
- no distractions
- there’s nothing for sale. just do the work.
what was the turning point in your organizaiton?
Start your own Turning Points Study Group.
Below are 100 meeting topics, based on the 100 Rules of business, each with enough discussion prompts to facilitate a 60-minute meeting of local, trusted executives. You don’t need to apply or even ask our permission. Just start.
Become a connector in your community.
Find a Group in your community.
As Turning Points Study Groups are formed across the U.S., we’ll keep an active directory at the bottom of this page. If you want to add a link or contact information for your local group, email kurt@theexecutivesinstitute.com.
Create big moments. Build something worth leading.
With a group, with your leadership team or on your own.
No matter how you choose to study the Rules, you’ll build trust, clarity and direction. We each have things to learn and contribute. Our goal with this project is to help each other become better leaders and build stronger companies.
Together, we keep America moving.
Here are 100 weeks of executive study topics.
Bring your group together, study the rule, discuss the book, add your insights to The Executives Institute’s national entreprenuerial archive.
Start wherever and whenever you want —we’re not monitoring anything. Study. Do the work. Let us know how we can help. kurt@theexecutivesinstitute.com
Whether you’re studying with a group or on your own, we invite you to check in with our nationwide LinkedIn discussion during. Each Rule will be posted Monday morning and the discussion around that Rule and book will continue each day with new questions, insights and challenges. Every week.
“We’re working on it. Each week will be ready for our rollout in January.” —Kurt
“We will keep this list in a safe place. If we have time, we’ll make a copy of the list, in case something happens to the first list.” —Arthur Grayson
| Meeting Topic, Subtitle + LinkedIn Discussion Date | Discuss the book behind the Rule | ||
|---|---|---|---|
 | WEEK 1: Solve a Real Problem —Where every enduring business begins week of January 4, 2027 | The Lean Startup by Eric Ries |  |
 | WEEK 2: Fall In Love With the Problem —How to stay customer-centered week of January 11, 2027 | The Mom Test by Rob Fitzgerald |  |
 | WEEK 3: Differentiate or Die —Because competition is expensive week of January 18, 2027 | Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne |  |
 | WEEK 4: Play the Long Game —Short-term thinking makes short-term companies week of January 25, 2027 | The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek |  |
 | WEEK 5: Make Fewer, Bolder Moves —The value of saying ‘No’ more often week of February 1, 2027 | Playing to Win by A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin |  |
 | WEEK 6: Your First Idea is Rarely Your Best —Ask “what else could we do” week of February 8, 2027 | Originals by Adam Grant |  |
 | WEEK 7: Momentum Beats Motivation —Don’t wait to ‘feel like it’ week of February 15, 2027 | The War of Art by Steven Pressfield |  |
 | WEEK 8: Don’t Mistake Movement for Progress —Improve your focus by eliminating and elevating week of February 22, 2027 | Essentialism by Greg McKeown |  |
 | WEEK 9: Focus Beat Multitasking —Addressing the most expensive myth in business. week of March 1, 2027 | The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papason |  |
 | WEEK 10: Never Stop Learning —Don’t confuse experience with expertise week of March 8, 2027 | Mindset by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 11 —Your brand is your promise. week of March 15, 2027 | Building Strong Brands by David A. Aaker |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 12 —Know your customer deeply. week of March 22, 2027 | Know Your Customer by Robert B. Woodruff and Sarah F. Gardial |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 13 —Know Your Numbers. week of March 29, 2027 | Financial Intelligence by Karen Berman and Joe Knight |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 14 —Know When To Let Go. week of April 5, 2027 | Necessary Endings by Dr. Henry Cloud |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 15 —Work on your business, not just in it. week of April 12, 2027 | The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 16 —Time Is Your Most Precious Asset. week of April 19, 2027 | The Time Trap by Alec Mackenzie |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 17 —Speed Matters. week of April 26, 2027 | Fail Fast, Fail Often by Ryan Babineaux, Ph.D. and John Krumboltz, Ph. D. |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 18 —Your calendar reflects your priorities. week of May 3, 2027 | The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 19 —Stop Doing What Doesn’t Work. week of May 10, 2027 | What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 20 —Cash Flow Is King. week of May 17, 2027 | Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits! by Greg Crabtree |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 21 —Clarity creates confidence. week of May 24, 2027 | Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 22 —Hire slow, fire fast. week of May 31, 2027 | Who, the A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 23 —Simplicity Scales. week of June 7, 2027 | Simple Rules by Donald Sull and Kathleen Eisenhardt |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 24 —Own your mistakes. week of June 14, 2027 | Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 25 —Ask Better Questions. week of June 21, 2027 | A More Beautiful Question by Warren Berger |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 26 —Define It. Measure It. Achieve It. week of June 28, 2027 | Measure What Matters by John Doerr |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 27 —Do The Hard Things First. week of July 5, 2027 | Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 28 —Learn By Doing. week of July 12, 2027 | The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 29 —Protect Your Downside. week of July 19, 2027 | Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing by Robert T. Kiyosaki |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 30 —Profit is Not a Dirty Word. week of July 26, 2027 | Profit First by Mike Michalowicz |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 31 —Delegate outcomes, not tasks. week of August 2, 2027 | Turn the Ship Around! by L. David Marquet |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 32 —Don’t Scale Chaos. week of August 9, 2027 | Scaling Up by Verne Harnish |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 33 —Processes Protect Your Time. week of August 16, 2027 | The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 34 —Great Businesses Outlive Great Products. week of August 23, 2027 | Built To Last by Jim Collins |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 35 —Raise the Bar, Then Raise It Again. week of August 30, 2027 | Good To Great by Jim Collins |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 36 —Build a Business That Runs Without You. week of September 6, 2027 | Built To Sell by John Warrillow |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 37 —Build Trust Before Selling. week of September 13, 2027 | The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 38 —Build Once, Sell Forever. week of September 20, 2027 | The Automatic Customer by John Warrillow |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 39 —Your Network Is Your Net Worth. week of September 27, 2027 | Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 40 —Sell the Vision, Not Just the Product. week of October 4, 2027 | Start With Why by Simon Sinek |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 41 —Reputation Compounds. week of October 11, 2027 | The Reputation Economy by Michael Fertik |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 42 —Feedback is a Gift. week of October 18, 2027 | Thanks For The Feedback by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 43 —Run Your Race. week of October 25, 2027 | Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 44 —Own Your Edge. week of November 1, 2027 | Purple Cow by Seth Godin |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 45 —Protect Your Mental Bandwidth. week of November 8, 2027 | Deep Work by Cal Newport |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 46 —Don’t Outgrow Your Values. week of November 15, 2027 | The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 47 —The Bottleneck Is at the Top. week of November 22, 2027 | The Five Dysfuntions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 48 —Give More Than You Take. week of November 29, 2027 | The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 49 —People Over Processes. week of December 6, 2027 | The Human Side of Enterprise by Douglas McGregor |  |
 | 📌 Rule No. 50 —If You’re Going To Eat Shit, Don’t Nibble. week of December 13, 2027 | The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz |  |
| the Rules matter. Rule No. 51 — 100 | Opening later this year. | ||
| 📌 Rule No. 51 —A title doesn’t make a leader. | The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell |  | |
| 📌 Rule No. 52 —Know what you’re after. | Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill |  | |
| 📌 Rule No. 53 —Do the work only you can do. | The Effective Executive by Peter F. Drucker |  | |
| 📌 Rule No. 54 —Win before you fight. | The Art of War by Sun Tzu |  | |
| 📌 Rule No. 55 —Turn mistakes into Rules. | Principles by Ray Dalio |  | |
 | 📌 Rule No. 100 —Make reality catch up. | The Book of Elon by Eric Jorgenson |  |
ACTIVE TALKING POINTS GROUPS
10.01.2026 Coming soon.
We’re building the directory one group at a time.
Sign our Guest Book, let America know you’re at The Institute.
the Rules Matter.
Bring the EXPERIENCE to the table.
The conversation doesn’t have to end when the meeting does. Anyone around your table can Add Your Insight to any Rule.
Share a lesson learned, a mistake made, or a significant turning point in your operation. We all have stories worth passing along.
The Institute might share those insights on our website or social media —with credit to the person and, when appropriate, their company.
Their experience becomes part of the national conversation and that’s a pretty good trade for simply sharing what you already know.
Help us CREATE the next 50 Rules.
We started with 50 Rules, sourced from 50 classic business books we’ve loved and been recommended for years.
Turning Points participants will have an opportunity to help build the next 50 (and be credited for it) by suggesting:
- A great business book
- The Rule it teaches
- A plainspoken description of the Rule
- The lessons they’ve seen in the real world
The best ideas come from the people who have spent years running the business. Don’t worry about making it perfect. Just make it real. We want to hear from you. Add Your Insights today.
We want to put REAL NAMES to the faces.
This entire project is about real business people. So we’d rather show real business people in every one of our graphics, than people we pulled from Canva’s image library.
Turning Points groups and participating companies have the opportunity to send us pics of their executive study groups. Your team around your conference table (with your logo or core values on the wall). An executive study group working through a Rule. Or, just a selfie from your own office.
Send us your pictures, along with names if permitted, and some of those images may become part of the Institute’s future Rule pages, publications and social media.
We’d rather see your people than another stock photo of someone pointing at a whiteboard. email kurt@theexecutivesinstitute.com
Tell us YOUR STORY.
You can also directly upload video from any of our Add Your Insight forms (look for 📷 capture with your camera). Read a principle. Tell us what a Rule means to you. Review one of the books behind the Rules. Give another entrepreneur a piece of advice you wish someone had given you 20 years ago.
Upload it. We’ll find ways to share the best of it with the Institute audience. As Turning Points grows, so does the audience for the people contributing to it.
Your name. Your experience.
Your company. Your story.
Not because you’re buying advertising. Because you contributed something worth sharing. Add Your Insights
GIVE FIRST. Build something worth being part of.
That’s the idea behind Turning Points. Bring good people together. Make the introductions. Share what you know. Help someone else avoid a mistake you’ve already made. And when you have something worth preserving, Add Your Insight.
We are on a mission to build America’s largest ongoing business leadership research project by preserving the collective wisdom of business owners and operators nationwide, from all industries. The Executives Institute is simply the container —you are the voice.
That’s how this thing grows.
One Rule. One table. One lesson at a time.
Join the Discussion
You don’t have to be part of a local Turning Points group to join the conversation. Each week, Kurt leads a discussion around that week’s Rule on his LinkedIn page, from his home in Tennessee. Individuals and groups are welcome to join.
Each week, we’ll post a Rule and share best practices around it. Bring your thoughts, questions, experiences and notes to the LinkedIn discussion. Our first official weekly discussion, starting with Rule No. 1, will begin Monday, January 4, 2027, 8:00amEST.