The same cigarette as me
"He can’t be a man because he doesn’t smoke [syncopated pause] the same cigarette as me."
When your product becomes the badge for a tribe, you sell a lot of products. The Stones don’t mean "a man" in the sense of a homo sapien. They mean "a man" in sense of "someone worthy of my respect." Not in my tribe, not worth it…
Brooks Brothers was the badge for a generation of grey-suited men. Che t-shirts are the badge for a cadre of activists. The Allen & Co. retreat is the badge for a tiny cabal of media titans.
It’s not easy to become the badge, but it’s a worthy destination.
Key truth: you can’t be the badge for everyone. In order for the tribe to exist, it must have insiders. And you can’t have insiders without outsiders.