"Push institutional limits when results make you indispensable Malcolm X repeatedly defied Elijah Muhammad's explicit instructions — debating white people at Oxford and Harvard, speaking to white reporters, founding the newspaper Muhammad Speaks — all things Muhammad said he did not want. But because Malcolm kept producing extraordinary results, including growing Nation of Islam membership from 400 to 75,000, 'Elijah Muhammad would just kind of be like I don't want you doing that, but then when Malcolm went ahead and did it, there wouldn't be any real consequences for it.' The pattern is clear: when you consistently deliver outsized results, you earn tacit permission to exceed your formal mandate — but you must be producing results that your institution cannot afford to lose. Source: Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, Stuff You Missed in History Class, Malcolm X"