Typ­i­cal scene: An eager busi­ness con­sul­tant has finally decided to make the com­mit­ment and write their busi­ness book. They hope the book will be rep­re­sented by a top agent, sold to a major pub­lisher, and will make them wildly famous and successful.

The con­sul­tant leans closer to me to tell me a lit­tle secret. “I already know what I want my book to be like. I want to write like this.” They reach into their brief­case or port­fo­lio and start to pull out a book. I already know what’s com­ing. It’s going to be a book by Jef­frey Fox.

Because it seems every­body wants to write like Jef­frey Fox.

The prob­lem is, as I often explain to a prospec­tive author, only Jef­frey Fox can write like Jef­frey Fox. It’s not a gim­mick, or a style you can pick up, or a secret that once I tell you how it’s done, you can do it, too.

The real secret about Jef­frey Fox is that no one thinks like Jef­frey Fox.

I know this because I worked with him on his first book, How to Become CEO that was a best­seller for Hype­r­ion. When Jeff sent me the com­plete man­u­script it is was way less than a hun­dred pages. CEO was made up of short pieces, all right to the point about what it takes to suc­ceed in business.

I could have told him we needed to flesh it out, or tell more sto­ries. Maybe he should prove why every­thing he said was really so. But I refrained. I told him my gut was we should leave it alone — it would either be a huge best­seller or not get pub­lished at all. In my pro­posal I framed Jeff as the new Machi­avelli, explain­ing to the princes of the 21st cen­tury how the busi­ness world really worked.

Jef­frey Fox’s twelfth book comes out this week — How To Be A Fierce Com­peti­tor, What Win­ning Com­pa­nies and Great Man­agers Do In Tough Times. The title is kind of funny, since for Fox, we’re always in tough times. You can never let up, never sit back on your haunches, never get com­fort­able with suc­cess. A smarter, bet­ter more aggres­sive com­peti­tor always lurks around the cor­ner. It was true in How to Become CEO, true in How To Become a Rain­maker, and true in these Tough Times.

The new book is com­prised of 60 Chap­ters. You could read it in a sit­ting, or more likely, a flight from New York to Chicago. And as with every Jeff Fox book and every Jeff Fox page, you might wish it was printed on only one side of each page, so you could take the entire book apart and paste the pages all over your office and even your bath­room. This is stuff you want to remem­ber and use and share with your col­leagues every day, because there is no way you can fol­low Fox’s advice and not suc­ceed in busi­ness and in life.

Now for those who aspire to write like Jef­frey Fox, I lied about there are no secrets. In fact, I’m going to share a few Jef­frey Fox How To Write secrets direct from the horse’s mouth: Keep it sim­ple. If you can find an extra word, kill it. Tell the truth. If you don’t know what the truth is, don’t write. Accept noth­ing from com­mon wis­dom with­out giv­ing it the piñata test. Repeat 60 times. Publish.