Success Quote by Thomas J. Leonard

"Don't be drab" is corporate minimalism with a pulse: three words that treat blandness not as a style choice, but as a professional liability. Coming from Thomas J. Leonard, the businessman often credited with helping popularize modern coaching, the line reads less like aesthetic advice and more like an operating principle. Drabness here is the default setting of risk-averse workplaces: safe emails, safe meetings, safe ambitions, safe personalities. Leonard’s jab is that safety quietly taxes everything - attention, momentum, trust.

The brilliance is the vagueness. "Drab" is not a KPI, which forces the listener to self-diagnose. Are you drab in your wardrobe, your pitch, your leadership, your life? That ambiguity makes the command portable. It can apply to a founder stuck in beige branding, a manager who communicates in mushy euphemisms, or an employee who’s learned that being forgettable feels like job security.

There’s subtextual generosity, too: permission. In many professional cultures, standing out is punished unless it produces immediate results. Leonard flips the burden. He implies that charisma, clarity, and edge are part of the job, not extracurricular flair. "Don't be drab" argues for a kind of cultivated vividness - not performative loudness, but distinctiveness: having a point of view, taking up space, making choices that look like someone is steering. In a world that rewards the memorable, drab is the one trait you can’t expense away.