When Machiavelli Met Shakespeare | #23

When Machiavelli Met Shakespeare

No. 23 — read time 4 minutes

Welcome to The Soloist, a weekly newsletter where I share timeless ideas and insights about business, life, and art.

Today’s Snapshot

• Lessons from Robert Greene and 50 Cent

• Interesting finds from around the web

In 2006, author Robert Greene (48 Laws of Power, 33 Strategies of War, The Art of Seduction) received a call from the unlikeliest person. Gangster hip-hop artist 50 Cent.

The rapper was a fan of Greene’s books and wanted to meet him. So Greene, a Jewish writer from Los Angeles, hops on a flight to New York City to meet with Fiddy (nickname for 50 Cent). The meeting place — the back of a dimly lit steakhouse in Union Square.

The two instantly hit it off despite coming from vastly different worlds.

Fiddy, a former drug dealer from Southside Queens, NY, was ill prepared for the manipulative ruthlessness of the music industry. Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power became his Bible.

3 years later after that fateful night in the back room of a steakhouse, the pair would write a book together called The 50th Law.

I’ve always enjoyed finding diverse sources of content much as I enjoy combining different flavors in cooking. Sweet and Spicy is unexpected and fun. And so, as I navigate the world of solopreneurship and writing online, I’m drawn to stories and lessons from different paths.

Here are some of the best lessons from the modern day Machiavelli and Shakespeare:

On Fear

“…your fears are a kind of prison that confines you within a limited range of action. The less you fear, the more power you will have and the more fully you will live.”

Takeaway:

Fear is this abstract idea. What we mostly mean by fear is Fear of Death. This fear is both all-consuming while being unrecognizable to most of us.

Death has been whitewashed and outsourced to hospitals and farm-factories that we don’t directly experience it anymore.

It's easy to say we don't fear death because we don't think about what a visceral feeling it is.

But just because we don’t think about it often doesn’t mean it’s not deep in the recesses of our brain. Fear of death appears as a "latent anxiety", as Greene calls it. A crippling fear and anxiety of small everyday things. Consider how scared people are to leave their jobs without another job immediately lined up, or how scared some people are to write anything online for fear of how a boss or colleague might interpret it.

Noticing this fear and coming to grips with it is the first step in accomplishing anything worthwhile.

On Self-Confidence

"Having supreme confidence makes you fearless and persistent... It makes others believe in you as well. And the most intense form of self-belief is to feel a sense of destiny impelling you forward."

Takeaway:

Greene often talks about the Pygmalion Effect, the idea that high expectations lead to higher performance results.

A sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

In the greek mythology, Pygmalion was a sculptor who sculpted a beautiful woman who he so wanted to be real, that with the help of Aphrodite it came true.

Humans share a common language — body language.

Whether we realize it or not, we share subtle hints and clues all the time about who we are that others perceive.

Positive affirmations might not be as woo-woo as we think.

On Storytelling

“Telling a story lowers people’s resistance. It makes the mind open up. When we were 2 or 3 years old playing peek-a-boo with our parents, not knowing what comes next became deeply ingrained in our psychology”

Takeaway:

Creating content should be about the reader. Otherwise it’s a personal diary.

Aristotle taught that a speaker’s ability to persuade came down to 3 pillars: Ethos (credibility), Logos (evidence), and Pathos (emotions).

Pathos is how you hook readers. Playing to human emotions through storytelling.

On Mastery

"Most people can’t handle boredom. That means they can’t stay on one thing until they get good at it. And they wonder why they’re unhappy"

Takeaway:

Becoming good at anything takes time, but most people search for easy and fast.

Greene says that "things that come easy and fast will leave you just as fast."

Malcom Gladwell introduced the 10,000 hour rule which came from a well-known study of people in chess and music.

Once you've mastered something you develop an "animal intelligence".

A form of instinct develops. You understand it from the inside out.

Find out what your thing is and dedicate the 10,000 hours to master it.

--

“People claim to want to do something that matters, yet they measure themselves against things that don’t, and track their progress not in years but in microseconds. They want to make something timeless, but they focus instead on immediate payoffs and instant gratification.” — Ryan Holiday

Have a wonderful holiday weekend,

-Tom

Interesting Finds

P.S. Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

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3. I’m putting together a course on how to build deep relationships online to help you in your creator journey. If you’re interested sign up here.

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