THINKDROP 21: Being more Freddie than Bruno.
- Pierre Stanghellini
- Oct 19
- 4 min read
on business, creation, and the courage to be unrepeatable!
🎤 From Me to You
Freddie didn’t scale. He exploded.
Bruno optimized. Freddie electrified.
Business culture worships the Brunos — precise, consistent, bankable. The high-performers. The personal brands. The masters of their craft.
We’re told that’s the model: Polish your message, refine your process, automate your growth.Turn your art into a funnel.Your truth into content.Your difference into strategy.
But here’s the secret: Every time you over-polish,You sand off the soul.
Freddie never cared about consistency. He cared about impact.He could miss the note and still make the stadium tremble. That’s the kind of energy that changes culture — not the one that checks boxes.
I have nothing against Bruno Mars. He’s a phenomenon — a craftsman of sound and success. He turned raw talent into a machine of hits, An anonymous young Filipino dreamer into a global icon. No doubt about it — he’s mastered the game.
But if I had to choose —I’d rather keep one trembling note from Freddie Mercury In my tomb, than the entire Top 10 of Bruno.
Because perfection fades.
But truth — even cracked, even loud —Echoes forever.
And that’s what this is really about.
How we build.
How we create.
How we show up in a world obsessed with control.
Every entrepreneur faces that same tension: Be perfect. Or be alive.
Pierre Stanghellini -
HARi.wtf founder
1. FREDDIE BUILDS MOVEMENTS, NOT MARKETS
Bruno sells to fans. Freddie creates believers.
Entrepreneurs often aim to serve a market.
But the most magnetic founders build worlds — new belief systems people want to join.
You can’t A/B test that. You feel your way into it. That’s not branding — that’s mythmaking.
TRY THIS:
Stop writing a pitch deck. Write a manifesto.
Describe not what your business sells — but what it believes.
If your product disappeared tomorrow, what truth would still remain?
2. FREDDIE IS WILD; BRUNO IS WELL-OPTIMIZED
Bruno is a machine of mastery. Freddie is a thunderstorm.
Business schools will tell you to polish, optimize, systematize.
But no system ever started a revolution. Chaos is uncomfortable — but it’s where originality lives
You don’t disrupt by fitting in.
You disrupt by freaking people out — just enough to wake them up.
TRY THIS:
Do one thing this week that breaks your own playbook.Publish before it’s ready. Pitch before it’s perfect.Let your audience see the seams — they’ll trust you more.
3. FREDDIE WRITES FROM PULSE; BRUNO WRITES FROM PATTERN
Bruno studies trends. Freddie listens to ghosts.
When you’re building a business, do you move from data or from desire?
Metrics are memory. They tell you what has worked.
But innovation is prophecy — it requires a little madness, a lot of nerve, and a blind leap into something that doesn’t yet make sense.
TRY THIS:
Next time you make a decision, ignore the data for 24 hours.
Instead, ask: What does my gut already know?
Then compare the answers. You’ll see how often instinct outruns insight.
4. FREDDIE LEADS WITH EMOTION; BRUNO LEADS WITH EXECUTION
Execution scales. Emotion spreads.
Freddie’s power wasn’t efficiency — it was affect. He made people feel part of something enormous.
That’s what real brand leadership is.Not selling a product — transmitting an emotion that can’t be ignored.
TRY THIS:
Replace your next sales pitch with a story. One that makes people feel before they think.
If it moves them, it will move your business.
5. FREDDIE CHANGES THE WORLD; BRUNO PERFECTS THE PERFORMANCE
Bruno plays to win the charts. Freddie plays to change the weather.
And that’s the real difference between success and significance.
Perfection is profitable.
But only courage is contagious.
TRY THIS:
Ask your team one question:If our business disappeared tomorrow, what would the world lose?
If the answer is “a product,” you’re still Bruno.
If the answer is “a feeling,” you’re becoming Freddie.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT — THE FREDDIE FRAMEWORK
BUILD MOVEMENTS, NOT MARKETS. Don’t sell to people — build belief.
STAY WILD, NOT POLISHED. Systems don’t start revolutions — sparks do.
FOLLOW PULSE, NOT PATTERN. Data repeats; instinct reveals.
LEAD WITH EMOTION, NOT EXECUTION. What people feel outlasts what they buy.
CHANGE THE WEATHER, NOT THE CHARTS. Success fades; significance ripples.
🔥 FINAL DROP — STOP POLISHING. START BURNING.
So when you build, write, pitch, or launch.
Don’t chase polish, chase presence.
Don’t just look for market share. Look for soul share.
Be less rehearsed. More raw!
Because here’s the truth I can’t unsee: There will only ever be one Freddie Mercury.
But there will always be another Bruno Mars. Another artist who will master the formula,
Who will hit every note, Who will perfect every move.
And that’s the danger of perfection —It makes you replaceable.
I don’t mean to celebrate chaos, ego, or excess.
I’m not talking about being unmanageable, careless, or detached.
I’m talking about being truly remarkable —Where truly is not an adjective,But a commitment.
Giving yourself 200%.
Putting your whole being into the work.
Accepting the risk of being misunderstood by the majority,Because truth is never for everyone.
Freddie wasn’t perfect.He was impossible.
Be that.
Be more Freddie Mercury than Bruno Mars.
Pierre Stanghellini
→ Let’s connect, drop me a line directly at pierre@hari.wtf .
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About the Creator
Pierre Stanghellini is a creative strategist, systems thinker, and curator of mental rabbit holes. He created Thinkdrop Weekly to feed the brains that don’t want the same old Business advice. If you’re building something bold, beautiful, or strange—this is your corner of the internet.
About HARi.wtf
HARi.wtf is a creative strategy studio for businesses that hate business-as-usual.
Born in Hong Kong, in 2017, we work with restless founders, operators, and teams who’d rather break things thoughtfully than grow them blandly. We don’t do generic decks or bloated strategies—we build clarity, guts, and traction.
From street-level restaurants to global brands, from Asia to Europe, we help shape ideas that move fast when it matters, and slow when it counts.
→ Explore more at hari.wtf
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