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sneakygriff 's review for:
The 50th Law
by 50 Cent, Robert Greene
I just finished listening to the book on Audible. An unexpected gem of stoic literature which I thoroughly enjoyed. I was already familiar with Robert Greene's works, and many of them touch upon stoic principles at times but this one really felt like it was centered around it. Also, I now have a newfound respect for 50 Cent.
As an entrepreneur especially but also on a personal level, I find that stoic principles & behaviors are what keep me sane and moving forward against all odds as well as being able to deal with failure in a constructive way. The 50th Law resonated strongly with me.
Some of the quotes that I really liked:
"To free yourself from fear you must work backward, you start with the thought of your mortality, you accept and embrace this reality. You think ahead to the inevitable moment of your death and determine to face it as bravely as possible, the more you contemplate your mortality the less you fear it. It becomes a fact you no longer have to repress. By following this path you know how to die well and so you can now begin to teach yourself to live well. You will not cling to things unnecessarily, you will be strong and self-reliant, unafraid to be alone, you will have a certain lightness that comes with knowing what matters, you can laugh at what others take so seriously. The pleasures of the moment are heightened because you know their impermanence and make the most of them. And when the time to die comes as it will someday, you will not cringe and cry for more time because you have lived well and have no regrets."
"True ownership can come only from within. It comes from a disdain for anything or anybody that impinges upon your mobility, from a confidence in your own decisions, and from the use of your time in constant pursuit of education and improvement. "
“Reality has its own power—you can turn your back on it, but it will find you in the end, and your inability to cope with it will be your ruin.”
“Every negative is a positive. The bad things that happen to me, I somehow make them good.
That means you can’t do anything to hurt me.”
“Most people wait too long to go into action, generally out of fear. They want more money or better circumstances. You must go the opposite direction and move before you think you are ready. It is as if you are making it a little more difficult for yourself, deliberately creating obstacles in your path. But it is a law of power that your energy will always rise to the appropriate level. When you feel you must work harder to get to your goal because you are not quite prepared, you are more alert and inventive. This venture has to succeed so it will.”
"Most of us are like Selkirk when he first found himself stranded - we look at our material resources and wish we had more. But a different possibly exists for us as well - the realization that more resources are not necessarily coming from the outside and that we must use what we already have to better effect. What we have in hand could be research material for a particular book, or people who work within our organization. If we look for more - information, outside people to help us - it won't necessarily lead to anything better; in fact, the waiting and the depended makes us less creative. When we go to work with what is there, we find new ways to employ this material. We solve problems, develop skills we can use again and again, and build up our confidence."
"Never be a minion, always be an owner. Time is the critical factor in our lives, our most precious resource. The problem when we work for others is that so much of this becomes dead time that we want to pass as quickly as possible, time that is not our own. Almost all of us must begin our careers working for others, but it is always within our power to transform this time from something dead to something alive. If we make the same determination as Vanderbilt, to be an owner and not a minion then that time is used to learn as much as we can about what is going on around us, the political gains, the nuts and bolts of this venture, the larger gain going on in the business world, how we can do things better. We have to pay attention and absorb as much info as possible, this helps us endure work that does not seem so rewarding. In this way we own our time and our idea before owning a business, remember, your bosses prefer to keep you independent positions, it is in their interest that you do not become self-reliant. You must secretly work against this and seize this information for yourself."
As an entrepreneur especially but also on a personal level, I find that stoic principles & behaviors are what keep me sane and moving forward against all odds as well as being able to deal with failure in a constructive way. The 50th Law resonated strongly with me.
Some of the quotes that I really liked:
"To free yourself from fear you must work backward, you start with the thought of your mortality, you accept and embrace this reality. You think ahead to the inevitable moment of your death and determine to face it as bravely as possible, the more you contemplate your mortality the less you fear it. It becomes a fact you no longer have to repress. By following this path you know how to die well and so you can now begin to teach yourself to live well. You will not cling to things unnecessarily, you will be strong and self-reliant, unafraid to be alone, you will have a certain lightness that comes with knowing what matters, you can laugh at what others take so seriously. The pleasures of the moment are heightened because you know their impermanence and make the most of them. And when the time to die comes as it will someday, you will not cringe and cry for more time because you have lived well and have no regrets."
"True ownership can come only from within. It comes from a disdain for anything or anybody that impinges upon your mobility, from a confidence in your own decisions, and from the use of your time in constant pursuit of education and improvement. "
“Reality has its own power—you can turn your back on it, but it will find you in the end, and your inability to cope with it will be your ruin.”
“Every negative is a positive. The bad things that happen to me, I somehow make them good.
That means you can’t do anything to hurt me.”
“Most people wait too long to go into action, generally out of fear. They want more money or better circumstances. You must go the opposite direction and move before you think you are ready. It is as if you are making it a little more difficult for yourself, deliberately creating obstacles in your path. But it is a law of power that your energy will always rise to the appropriate level. When you feel you must work harder to get to your goal because you are not quite prepared, you are more alert and inventive. This venture has to succeed so it will.”
"Most of us are like Selkirk when he first found himself stranded - we look at our material resources and wish we had more. But a different possibly exists for us as well - the realization that more resources are not necessarily coming from the outside and that we must use what we already have to better effect. What we have in hand could be research material for a particular book, or people who work within our organization. If we look for more - information, outside people to help us - it won't necessarily lead to anything better; in fact, the waiting and the depended makes us less creative. When we go to work with what is there, we find new ways to employ this material. We solve problems, develop skills we can use again and again, and build up our confidence."
"Never be a minion, always be an owner. Time is the critical factor in our lives, our most precious resource. The problem when we work for others is that so much of this becomes dead time that we want to pass as quickly as possible, time that is not our own. Almost all of us must begin our careers working for others, but it is always within our power to transform this time from something dead to something alive. If we make the same determination as Vanderbilt, to be an owner and not a minion then that time is used to learn as much as we can about what is going on around us, the political gains, the nuts and bolts of this venture, the larger gain going on in the business world, how we can do things better. We have to pay attention and absorb as much info as possible, this helps us endure work that does not seem so rewarding. In this way we own our time and our idea before owning a business, remember, your bosses prefer to keep you independent positions, it is in their interest that you do not become self-reliant. You must secretly work against this and seize this information for yourself."