Coco Chanel's 1947 Masterstroke

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Coco Chanel's 1947 Masterstroke

Coco Chanel owned only 10 percent of her perfume empire's profits.

The Wertheimers controlled 70 percent.

By any measure, she'd been outmaneuvered in her original 1924 deal.

Then came 1947.

Chanel filed suit to reclaim her brand. While lawyers prepared briefs, she launched a rival perfume line from Switzerland. Two fronts, maximum pressure.

Pierre Wertheimer faced a nightmare scenario. A public trial would drag wartime controversies into headlines.

Both sides had secrets worth protecting. Bad press could destroy the perfume's aspirational image faster than any competitor.

Meanwhile, Chanel held the one card nobody could replicate…

Her name sold every bottle. Remove "Chanel" from the label and No. 5 becomes expensive chemistry. The Wertheimers needed her endorsement to keep the brand alive.

The settlement rewrote everything.

Instead of 10 percent of profits, Chanel secured 2 percent of gross global sales. Every bottle sold anywhere in the world triggered a royalty payment. The Wertheimers also agreed to cover all her living expenses for life. Every bill, large or small.

Within years, those royalty checks hit $25 million annually in 1950s dollars—equivalent to $300 million today.

Modern founders often fixate on equity percentages. Chanel shows another path. She traded operational control for a perpetual slice of revenue.

When you own something irreplaceable, you can demand terms that seem impossible.

Chanel's name was the entire brand story. That single asset let her flip a lopsided deal into a lifetime money machine.

Friday 5 Delegation System

Delegation often breaks down because we're terrible mind readers.

Your assistant makes 50 micro-decisions daily, but only hears feedback when something goes catastrophically wrong.

Here's a simple system to flip that:

Each Friday, your assistant sends back a list of the 5 tasks they handled that week.

You rate each one:

• Great, do more like this

• Needs guidance

• Didn't work

That's it. But this 20-second weekly ritual accomplishes 3 powerful things:

1. You're training intuition, not rules

When your assistant sees "Great" next to "Rescheduled the vendor meeting without asking," they're not just learning about meetings.

They're absorbing your risk tolerance, your relationship priorities, your hidden decision trees. Over time, this teaches them how you think—building better judgment with each Friday review.

2. The constraint creates clarity

Limiting to 5 tasks forces your assistant to surface meaningful decisions instead of routine noise. It's the difference between "I sent 47 emails" and "I saved you from that unnecessary board prep call."

3. It compounds silently

Week 1: They learn your preferences.

Week 4: They anticipate your needs.

Week 12: They're making decisions you didn't know needed making.

The 20 seconds you invest each Friday is building a second brain that thinks like you, without the endless "quick sync" meetings that drain both of you.

After 90 days, you'll notice certain tasks always get “great”.

That's your signal: stop delegating these weekly. Make them permanent territory.