The 50th Law

by Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson

the greatest danger you face is your mind growing soft and your eye getting dull.

Now is the time to stop drifting and wake up—to assess yourself, the people around you, and the direction in which you are headed in as cold and brutal a light as possible. Without fear.

Think of reality in the following terms: the people around you are generally mysterious. You are never quite sure about their intentions. They present an appearance that is often deceptive

their manipulative actions don’t match their lofty words or promises. All of this can prove confusing. Seeing people as they are, instead of what you think they should be, wou...

Your line of work is another layer of reality.

realists are not afraid to look at the harsh circumstances of life.

Having clarity about where you are headed, what people are up to, and what is happening in the world around you will translate into confidence and power, a sensation of lightness.

Eventually your friend would not show up as promised or your mind would be too clouded by drugs to see someone’s treachery. The only way to survive was to admit you were on your own, learn to make your own decisions, and trust your judgment.

if you cannot avoid having partners, make sure that you are clear as to what function they serve for you and how you will free yourself of them at the right moment

You want to keep yourself free of as many of these obligations as possible, so get in the habit of taking what you need for yourself instead of expecting others to give it to you.

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.

Understand: it is not only what you do that must have flow, but also how you do things.

Strategy is the essence of human action—the bridge between an idea and its realization in the world.

Understand: momentum in life comes from increased fluidity, a willingness to try more, to move in a less constricted fashion. On many levels it remains something hard to put into words, but by understanding the process, becoming more conscious of the elements involved, you can place your mind in a readied position, better able to exploit any positive movement in your life.

Forgetting is a skill that you must develop in order to have emotional flow.

If you cannot help but feel anger or disgust in the moment, make it a point to not let it remain the following day.

When you are fearful, force yourself to act in a bolder fashion than usual.

When you feel inordinate hate, find some object of love or admiration that you can focus on with intensity.

This should be your model in any venture that involves groups of people. You provide the framework, based on your knowledge and expertise, but you allow room for this project to be shaped by those involved in it.

periodically reinvent yourself. You are not trying to mimic the latest trend—that will make you look equally ludicrous.

You are simply rediscovering that youthful attentiveness to what is happening around you and incorporating what you like into a newer spirit.

As Fifty had learned, talent and good intentions are never enough in this world; you need to be fearless and strategic.

When you face people’s indifference or outright hostility you have to get aggressive and push them out of your way by any means necessary,

THE WAY I LEARNED IT, THE KID IN THE SCHOOL YARD WHO DOESN’T WANT TO FIGHT ALWAYS LEAVES WITH A BLACK EYE. IF YOU INDICATE YOU’LL DO ANYTHING TO AVOID TROUBLE, THAT’S WHEN YOU GET TROUBLE. —50 Cent

On both levels, playing offense and defense, we have to manage people’s resistance and hostility.

The first step in overcoming this is to realize that the ability to deal with conflict is a function of inner strength versus fear, and that it has nothing to do with goodness or badness.

(So much of what passes for good and nice behavior is really a reflection of deep fears.)

What you want instead is to feel secure and strong from within. You are willing to occasionally displease people and you are comfortable in taking on those who stand against your interests.

in your daily life you must assert yourself more than usual—you take on an aggressor instead of avoiding him;

you strategize and push for something you want instead of waiting for someone to give it to you.

channeled in a smart manner and the willingness to displease a person or two who gets in our way.

we are waiting and settling for what we have, it is not because we are good and nice but because we are fearful.

when you submit in spirit to aggressors or to an unjust and impossible situation, you do not buy yourself any real peace.

You encourage people to go further, to take more from you, to use you for their own purposes.

If they sense that you are the type of person who accepts and submits, they will push and push until they have established an exploitative relationship with you.

You must demonstrate to them that there are lines that cannot be crossed; they will pay a price for trying to push you around.

By a paradoxical law of human nature, trying to please people less will make them more likely in the long run to respect and treat you better.

To get ahead in this world we must be willing to occasionally bend that moral code, to play with appearances, to hedge the truth and make ourselves look better, to manipulate a person or two to secure our position.

When the situation calls for it, he must be the lion—aggressive and direct in protecting his state, or grabbing something to secure its interests.

other times, he has to be the fox—getting his way through crafty maneuvers that disguise his aggression.

And often he must play the lamb—the meek, deferential, and good creatu...

He is bad in the right way, calibrated to the situation, and careful to make his actions look justified to the public, reserving his ...

Unless you happen to be an aggressive type, you are generally at a disadvantage against those who have simple ideas and fierce energy.

It is best to fight them in an indirect manner, concealing your intentions and doing what you can behind the scenes—hidden from the public—to create obstacles and sow confusion.

Instead of reacting, you must give aggressors some space to go further with their attacks, getting them to expose themselves in the process and pr...

you become too active and forceful in response, yo...

PASSIVE AGGRESSORS

If you try to call them on their behavior, they use this confusion to make you feel guilty, as if you were the one who was the source of the problem.

Once you are drawn into their dramas, with your emotions engaged, it can be very difficult to detach yourself. The key is recognizing them in time to take appropriate action.