“Universal law is for lackeys. Context… is for kings.”
— Star Trek: Discovery
There’s a moment in Star Trek: Discovery when Captain Gabriel Lorca tells Michael Burnham why he selected her: not for her compliance, but for her defiance. Not because she followed the rules, but because she was willing to break them for the right reasons.
That quote truly left a mark on me:
“Universal law is for lackeys. Context… is for kings.”
It’s a line that draws a sharp line between obedience and leadership. Between bureaucracy and breakthrough. Between playing it safe and playing to win.
And in today’s business environment, where economic uncertainty, AI disruption, and shifting customer expectations are the new constants, this distinction has never mattered more.
The Literal vs. the Lateral Thinker
“Universal law” here represents the manual, the policy, the checklist. It's what you do when you don't want to be wrong. It's what you cling to when you're afraid to think.
But context is the messy, fluid, often uncomfortable reality we live in. And navigating that context requires judgment. Courage. Discernment. Sometimes it even requires doing what’s technically wrong in order to do what’s strategically right.
In other words:
The lackey asks: What does the rulebook say?
The king asks: What does the moment truly require of me?
Why You Should Care
In corporate environments, compliance is often rewarded. Stay in your lane. Follow the process. Don’t color outside the lines. But here’s the paradox:
If you only ever do what’s sanctioned, you’ll never be the one who changes the game.
Let’s break this down into lessons that matter for professionals in today’s workplace.
⚡Lesson 1: Take Initiative, Even Without Permission
Contextual thinking empowers action. It means seeing what others don’t see and acting before you're asked. Great operators understand that if you're waiting to be told what to do, you're already too late.
📌 Example:
During the early days of Airbnb, co-founder Joe Gebbia realized that hosts in NYC were listing their places, but customers weren’t booking. Instead of waiting for product or marketing to intervene, he flew to New York with his camera, visited hosts, and helped them take better photos.
Result? Bookings skyrocketed, and so did retention.
No one told him to do that. But the context demanded it.
🔥 Lesson 2: Don’t Fear Breaking the Mold
Status quo thinking is riskier than intelligent risk-taking. Many professionals avoid challenging bad decisions or outdated assumptions because they fear pushback. But innovation dies in environments where "the way we've always done it" is treated as sacred.
📌 Example:
When Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft, the company was drowning in internal politics and stagnant innovation. He made radical cultural shifts, from embracing open source to prioritizing cloud over legacy products.
He broke the mold. And turned the ship around.
Context, not legacy, drove his decisions.
🛡️ Lesson 3: Accept the Cost of Being Right Early
Doing the right thing too early often looks like being wrong. Burnham’s decision in Discovery cost her everything, including her career, rank and credibility. But her logic proved sound.
“Sometimes the first one through the wall gets bloodied.”
📌 Example:
Think of the exec who pushed for remote work policies… pre-2020. They’d have often met with resistance, suspicion, even ridicule. Until COVID hit. Suddenly, they looked visionary.
Or the CSM who insists on value-based renewal conversations instead of reactive support, even when no one else sees the urgency. They’re the ones who prevent silent churn months before it becomes obvious in the data.
Timing matters. But courage matters more.
Greatness Lives Outside the Lines
This quote isn’t a license for chaos. It’s not saying rules don’t matter.
What it is saying is this:
If your ambition is to be great, you must develop the judgment to know when the rules no longer serve the mission.
Every field needs professionals who understand nuance. Who can read the room. Who know when to follow SOP and when to flip the script.
In Customer Success, it means not waiting for a risk score to dip before stepping in.
In Product, it means launching an MVP without every bell and whistle because time-to-market matters more.
In Leadership, it means backing your people when they do the right thing, even if it wasn’t the approved thing.
Reflection: Are You Thinking Like a King (or Queen)?
Here are a few reflection prompts to ask yourself this week:
Where in your role are you following the "universal law" without questioning whether it still fits?
What “rule” do you need to challenge in order to unlock a better outcome for your team or your customer?
What’s one context-driven decision you’ve been putting off because you're afraid of how it might look?
Write it down. Sit with it. Act on it.
Because in the end, greatness doesn’t come from obeying every rule. It comes from knowing which ones no longer apply.
Context is for kings.