The 50th law
In The 50th Law, hip hop and pop culture icon 50 Cent (aka Curtis Jackson) joins forces with Robert Greene, bestselling author of The 48 Laws of Power, to write a "bible" for success in life and work based on a single principle: fear nothing. With intimate stories from 50 Cent's life on the streets and in the boardroom as he rose to fame after the release of his album Get Rich or Die Tryin', as well as examples of others who have overcome adversity through understanding and practicing the 50th Law, this deeply inspirational book is perfect for entrepreneurs as well as anyone interested in the extraordinary life of Curtis Jackson.
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3recommend
12mentions
11people
2009–2025years
33% recommend67% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Skimming over these comments, I didn't see any answer that seemed like it would be helpful.
As someone who dropped out of college (gave up a full-ride) to startup a business (without a plan, customers, or much code) and 4 months runway in my bank account this is what I did:
-anchor myself to something much more extreme than my daily fears. My daily fears were running out of money and building a product that everyone would laugh at. So I would write down in my journal each day something even more extreme: "I am willing to die broke, alone, and hated in pursuit of {{YOUR_GOAL}}".
-Reframe the concept of risk via death, via sort of nihilistic perspective (e.g. in the grand scheme of the universe what you are doing whether you succeed or fail really won't matter). I would tell myself "There is no risk. One day I'll be dead". I think about death a lot and every time I see someone famous in the news I write their name down in a list as a reminder that we are all ticking time bombs.
-anchor myself to fearless people and ideas. Books I read: 50th Law by Robert Green, Moral Courage by Rushworth Kidder. People I like thinking about: MLK JR, Ghandi
-Be skeptical of your skepticism. doubt is in proportion to # of and magnitude of questions you ask about something. Become brutally skeptical of the safe thing you know deep down you should avoid. Will doing X really make me happy? Is X really the right thing to do? Perhaps everyone doing X is crazy. Would {{INSERT ROLE MODEL}} do X? Why does everyone actually do X? For more on this see Awaken The Giant Within by Anthony Robbins
-Brainwash yourself via repetition. Cf. the familiarity bias. Your brain mistakes familiarity and ease of retrieval for truth. This is how cults make people feel that something is true by simply saying it 1000 times. Develop extreme faith and confidence in yourself by pure repetition. One tip is writing down a goal or affirmation 15 times a day. "I am a very attractive person" or "I am the most attractive person in my city. Everyone". Remember your brain perceives ease of retrieval as truth, and repetition improves ease of retrieval. Maybe combine this with some extreme-anchoring: "I could be the ugliest person in the world, and I could still win this opportunity through charm and persuasion". Or turn it into a positive: "This person WANTS to interact with me because they'll feel so attractive being around me".
- Anchor to other people who had the same issue that you think you do. Abe Lincoln considered himself to be ugly (and so did many other people in his time) (and he had a high pitched voice too) and he still went on to be president, and not only president, but one of the best presidents ever.
-Burn any bridges. When your back is against a corner, evolutionary instinct will kick in and give you a natural fire. For me this was dropping out of college.
-Ensure that the 5 people closest to you are risk takers and confident.
-Have a super intense goal that pretty much everyone in the world would think is impossible. "I will be the richest person in the world". "I will fix {{INDUSTRY_NAME}} by 2030". etc.
> "I feel people judge me more often than not"
IMO when you think about death alot and have a burning passion for your goal thoughts like these never even cross your mind.
For what it's worth I used to be very risk averse too. Would jump through any and all hoops society/school would set. Only invested in Total Market ETFs. Didn't want to start a company until I had 1.3m in the bank and was age 31 etc. Becoming courage was a very deliberate and continuous process I had to (and still) go through.
- Similarly, I'm reading 50th Law of Power (http://www.amazon.com/50th-Law-50-Cent/dp/006177460X) How to be fearless, drawing some parallels w/ 50 cent life. Excellent book!
- A lot of it has nothing to do with your practical ability to quit your job and start a company, or with the genuine risks involved (which often turn out to be very low... What's the worst that can happen? Your startup fails and you have to get a job?). A lot - perhaps most - of it has to do with your confidence in yourself. Or to put it another way your ability to push fear of failure (and ultimately fear of what others think) out of the way. To that end, I recommend immersing yourself in true stories of people who (a) have overcome fear, (b) have not let fear stand in their way or (c) don't seem to have fear. Two books that come to mind are The 50th Law (about hip hop artist 50 cent) by Robert Greene and How To Get Rich by Felix Dennis (don't worry it's NOT a self-help book but the autobiography of one of Britain's richest men).
- I highly, highly recommend it. The basic thesis is that fearlessness is, if not the key, then one of the keys to 50 cent's success. The reference to '50th law' is also a nod to Robert Greene's book, The 48 Laws of Power.
- Since 50 Cent worked with Robert Greene to co-author The 50th Law, maybe now he and Peter Thiel can co-author Zero to 109 Cents.
Or, you know, something about rap and the Antichrist.
- Here's the list
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
1984 by George Orwell
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fck by Mark Manson
The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
No More Mr Nice Guy by Robert A. Glover
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Dressing the Man by Alan Flusser
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
The Art Of War by Sun Tzu
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose
The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ DeMarco
Mastery by Robert Greene
Models by Mark Manson
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Tools of Titans by Timothy Ferriss
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Kingdom Man by Tony Evans
The 50th Law by Robert Greene
The Mask of Masculinity by Lewis Howes
100 Deadly Skills by Clint Emerson
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Quiet by Susan Cain
Mate by Tucker Max
Icons of Men's Style by Josh Sims
Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven
The Man in the Mirror by Patrick Morley
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
The Stranger by Albert Camus
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Wild at Heart Revised and Updated by John Eldredge
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Unfu
k Yourself by Gary John BishopThe Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Iron John by Robert Bly
The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
