Recently I've been re-reading an old classic called "The 48 Laws of Power" by Robert Greene.
It's a timeless novel that uses hundreds of historical examples to showcase the 48 Laws of Power that Greene believes are universal throughout human history.
By learning about these laws, understanding them, applying them, and being wary of them being played upon you---you will dramatically change the course of your life.
To put it bluntly, everyone who wishes to live a happy, successful, and prosperous life, should read this book.
While I do recommend reading the entire book, if you were only going to read 1 chapter of this massive tomb then I would highly recommend that you check out law #25 which is...
Power Law #25: RE-CREATE YOURSELF
"Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions---your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life."
-- Robert Greene "The 48 Laws of Power"
Here's a quick breakdown:
1. Re-Create Yourself.
2. Do NOT accept the roles that society places upon you.
3. Create a new identity---one that is entirely YOURS---that commands attention, respect, power, and that never bores your audience.
4. Be the MASTER of your own image.
5. Great people are INTERESTING and captivate others by seeming larger than life.
Need I say more?
Greene goes on to give explicit examples of people in history who have brilliantly executed this law such as Julius Caesar and Aurore Dupin Dudevant.
Caesar would put on grand spectacles in Rome and at war, always appearing larger than life in front of his citizens and his soldiers, which made them both love him & fear him.
Dudevant, a woman trying to make it as a writer in Paris in the 1800's, created an alter-ego "George Sand", going so far as to dressing like a man, acting like a man, and talking like a man---so that her works would be published and taken seriously.
(Women as writers wasn't really a thing back then.)
Greene goes on to list numerous examples of what they did to follow this law, but it's in his interpretation & keys to power section where this chapter really shines.
"Understand this: The world wants to assign you a role in life. And once you accept that role you are DOOMED...at least forge a new identity, one of your own making, one that has had no boundaries assigned to it by an envious and resentful world." - Robert Greene
If you want to live a successful and prosperous life---then you need to do it on YOUR OWN TERMS.
Nobody is going to come around the corner and give you an amazing life on a silver platter.
There's no magic genies here either.
It's. All. On. You.
And the sooner that you accept what other people or what society says is right for you---the faster you will fall into the abyss of mediocrity and hopelessness.
You simply CANNOT let other people decide who you are going to be in life.
That is something you must do for yourself.
You must forge your own identity through living life and the experiences that you have out in the world.
Green goes on to say:
"The character you seem to have been born with is not necessarily who you are...the promethean task of the powerful is to take control of the process, to stop allowing others that ability to limit and mold them. Remake yourself into a character of power. Working on yourself like clay should be one of your greatest and most pleasurable life tasks. It makes you in essence an artist---an artist creating yourself." - RG
Be an artist creating yourself.
You can be whomever you want to be in life.
The only limits are the limits that you place upon yourself.
Donald Trump
Kanye West
Elon Musk
Justin Bieber
You think these great people are great because people told them who they should be or what they should do?
Hell no.
Great people are great because they CHOOSE to be GREAT.
Because they CREATED their OWN greatness.
And then they shared it with the world.
Friend, you can be as great as a tidal wave or as weak as a rain drop.
At the end of the day it all comes down to what you believe about yourself and who you've decided to be.
Will you let society and other people conform you into a nothing?
Or will you grab the reigns of destiny and forge your own identity of greatness?
You tell me.
- BowTiedGolem
Nice writeup brother. Timeless book with so many takeaways. Off the top of my head, my favorite laws are "Create compelling spectacles," "Act like a king to become one," and "Assume formlessness" (to me this ties in nicely with being duplicitous. IM (IllimitableMan) speaks often on duplicity and how to use it effectively