Exerpt from the 50th Law I

Some people Have asked me what the book is about exactly?or if they need to read one of greenes previous works to follow this one.No previous reading is required and below i have attached a exerpt i found so you get a feel for the book before buying.

The 50th Law
Chapter 1
By Robert Greene and 50 Cent
Excerpted from The 50th Law
By Robert Greene and 50 Cent
ISBN 13: 9780061774607
ISBN 13 NR: 9780061791215
Summer 2009
HarperStudio
1
Chapter One: See things for what they are—Intense Realism
Reality can be rather harsh. Your days are numbered. It takes constant effort to carve a
place for yourself in this ruthlessly competitive world and hold on to it. People can be
treacherous. They bring endless battles into your life. Your task is to resist the temptation
to wish it were all different; instead, you must fearlessly accept these circumstances, even
embrace them. By focusing your attention on what is going on around you, you will gain a
sharp appreciation for what makes some people advance and others fall behind. By seeing
through people’s manipulations, you can turn them around. The firmer your grasp on
reality, the more power you will have to alter it for your purposes.
The Hustler’s Eye
This is life, new and strange; strange, because we fear it; new, because we have kept our eyes
turned from it… Men are men and life is life, and we must deal with them as they are; and if
we want to change them, we must deal with them in the form in which they exist. —Richard
Wright
As a boy, Curtis Jackson (a.k.a. Fifty Cent) had one dominant emotion—ambition. He wanted
more than anything the very things that it seemed he could never have—money, freedom,
power.
Looking out on the streets of southside Queens, where he grew up, he saw a grim, depressing
reality staring him in the face. He could go to school and take it seriously, but the kids who did
Excerpted from The 50th Law
By Robert Greene and 50 Cent
ISBN 13: 9780061774607
ISBN 13 NR: 9780061791215
Summer 2009
HarperStudio
2
that didn’t seem to get very far—a life of low–paying jobs. He could turn to crime and make his
money fast, but the ones who went for that either died young or spent much of their youth in
prison. He could escape it all by taking drugs—once you start down that path there is no turning
back. The only people he could see who lead the life that he dreamed of were the hustlers, the
drug dealers. They had the cars, the clothes, the lifestyle, the degree of power that matched his
ambitions. And so by the age of eleven he had made the choice to follow that path and become
the greatest hustler of them all.
The further he got into it, however, the more he realized that the reality was much grimier and
harsher than he had imagined. The drug fiends, the customers, were erratic and hard to figure
out. The fellow hustlers were all fighting over the same limited number of corners and they’d
stab you in the back in an instant. The big–time dealers who ran the neighborhood could be
violent and heavy–handed. If you did too well, someone would try to take what you had. The
police were everywhere. One wrong move could land you in prison. How could he possibly
succeed amid this chaos and avoid all of the inevitable dangers? It seemed impossible.
One day, he was discussing the troublesome aspects of the game with an older hustler named
Truth, who then told him something he would never forget. Don’t complain about the difficult
circumstances, he said. In fact, the hard life of these streets is a blessing if you know what
you’re doing. Because it is such a dangerous world, a hustler has to focus intensely on what’s
going on around him. He has to get a feel for the streets—who’s trouble, where there might be
some new opportunity. He has to see through all the bullshit people throw at him—their games,
their lousy ideas. He has to look at himself, see his own limitations and stupidity. All of this
sharpens the eye to a razor’s edge, making him a keen observer of everything. That’s his power.
Excerpted from The 50th Law
By Robert Greene and 50 Cent
ISBN 13: 9780061774607
ISBN 13 NR: 9780061791215
Summer 2009
HarperStudio
3
The greatest danger we face, he told Curtis, is not the police or some nasty rival. It’s the mind
going soft. I’ve seen it happen to many a hustler, he said. If things go well, he starts thinking it
will go on forever and he takes his eyes off the streets. If things go bad, he starts wishing it were
all different, and he comes up with some fool scheme to get quick, easy money. Either way, he
falls fast. Lose your grip on reality on these streets and you might as well kill yourself.
In the months to come, Curtis thought more and more about what Truth had told him and it
began to sink in. He decided to transform the hustler’s words into a kind of code of behavior that
he would live by: he would trust no one; he would conceal his intentions, even from friends and
partners; and no matter how high or low life brought him, he would remain the supreme realist,
keeping his hustler’s eye sharp and focused.
Over the next few years, he became one of the savviest hustlers in his neighborhood, operating a
small crew that brought him good money. The future looked promising, but a moment’s
inattention got him trapped in a police sting and at the age of sixteen he was sentenced to nine
months in a Shock Rehabilitation Center in upstate New York. In this unfamiliar space and with
time to reflect, suddenly the words of Truth came back to him. This was not the time to get
depressed or dream, but to fix that hustler’s eye on himself and the world he lived in. See it is as
it is, no matter how ugly.
He had unabridled ambition; he wanted real power, something he could build on. But no street
hustler lasts that long. It’s a young man’s game. By the time hustlers get in their twenties, they
slow down and something bad happens or they go scurrying into a low–paying job. And what
blinds them to this reality is the money and lifestyle in the moment; they think it will go on
forever. They’re too afraid to try something else. It doesn’t matter how clever you are—there’s a
ceiling to how high you can rise.
Excerpted from The 50th Law
By Robert Greene and 50 Cent
ISBN 13: 9780061774607
ISBN 13 NR: 9780061791215
Summer 2009
HarperStudio
4
He had to wake up and get out, while he was still young and his ambitions could be realized. He
would not be afraid. And so based on these reflections, he decided he would make a break into
music. He would find a mentor, someone who could teach him the ropes. He would learn
everything he could about music and the business. He would have no Plan B—it was either
make it there or die.
Operating with a kind of desperate energy, he made the transition into music, carving a place for
himself by creating a sound that was hard–driving and reflected the realities of the streets. After
a relentless mixtape campaign in New York, he got the attention of Eminem and a record deal
ensued. Now, he seemed to have realized his childhood ambitions. He had money and power.
People were nice to him. Everywhere he went they flattered him, wanting to be a part of his
success. He could feel it happening—the good press, the sycophantic followers, it was all
starting to go to his head and dull his vision. On the surface everything looked great, but what
was the reality here? Now more than ever he needed that clear, penetrating eye to see past all the
hype and glamour.
The more he looked at it, the more he realized that the reality of the music business was as harsh
as the streets. The executives who ran the labels were ruthless. They distracted you with their
charming words, but in fact they could care less about your future as an artist; they wanted to
suck you dry of every dollar they could get out of you. Once you were no longer so hot, you
would find yourself slowly pushed to the side; your decline would be all the more painful for
having once tasted success. In truth, you were a pawn in their game. A corner hustler had more
power and control over his future than a rapper.
Excerpted from The 50th Law
By Robert Greene and 50 Cent
ISBN 13: 9780061774607
ISBN 13 NR: 9780061791215
Summer 2009
HarperStudio
5
And what about the business itself? Record sales were falling because people were pirating
music or buying it in different forms. Anyone with two eyes could see that. The old business
model had to go. But these very same executives who seemed so sharp were afraid to confront
this reality. They held on tightly to the past and would bring everyone down with them.
Not Fifty. He would avoid this fate by moving in a different direction. He would forge a
diversified business empire, music merely being a tool to get there. His decisions would be
based on his intense reading of the changing environment that he had detected in music but was
infecting all levels of businesses. Let others depend on their MBAs, their money and
connections. He instead would rely upon that hustler’s eye that had brought him from the
bottom of America to the top in a few short years.
The Fearless Approach
Reality is my drug. The more I have of it, the more power I get and the higher I feel. —Fifty
Cent
You might imagine that the streets that molded Fifty and the code he created for himself have
little to do with your circumstances, but that is merely a symptom of your dreaming, of how
deeply you are infected with fantasies and how afraid you are to face reality. The world has
become as grimy and dangerous as the streets of southside Queens—a global, competitive
environment in which everyone is a ruthless hustler, out for him– or herself.
Truth’s words apply to you as much as to Fifty: the greatest danger you face is your mind
growing soft and your eye getting dull. When things get tough and you grow tired of the grind,
Excerpted from The 50th Law
By Robert Greene and 50 Cent
ISBN 13: 9780061774607
ISBN 13 NR: 9780061791215
Summer 2009
HarperStudio
6
your mind tends to drift into fantasies; you wish things were a certain way and slowly, subtly,
you turn inward, to your thoughts and desires. If things are going well, you become complacent,
imagining that what you have now will continue forever. You stop paying attention. Before you
know it, you end up overwhelmed by the changes going on and the younger people rising up
around you, challenging your position.
Understand: you need this code even more than Fifty. His world was so harsh and dangerous it
forced him to open his eyes to reality and never lose that connection. Your world seems cozier
and less violent, less immediately dangerous. It makes you wander and your eyes mist over with
dreams. The competitive dynamic (the streets, the business world) is in fact the same, but your
apparently comfortable environment makes it harder for you to see it. 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. Now is the time to stop drifting and wake up—to assess yourself, the
people around you and the direction 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 not matching their lofty words or promises. All of this can prove
confusing. Seeing people as they are, instead of what you think they should be, would mean
having a greater sense of their motives. It would mean being able to pierce the appearances they
present to the world and see their true character. Your actions in life would be so much more
effective with this knowledge.
Your line of work is another layer of reality. Right now, things might seem calm on the surface,
but there are changes rippling through that world; dangers are looming on the horizon. Soon
Excerpted from The 50th Law
By Robert Greene and 50 Cent
ISBN 13: 9780061774607
ISBN 13 NR: 9780061791215
Summer 2009
HarperStudio
7
your assumptions about how things are done will be outdated. These changes and problems are
not immediately apparent to the eye. Being able to see through to them before they become too
large would bring you great power.
The capacity to see the reality behind the appearance is not a function of education or
cleverness. People can be full of book knowledge and crammed with information but have no
real sense of what’s going on around them. It is in fact a function of character and fearlessness.
Simply put, realists are not afraid to look at the harsh circumstances of life. They sharpen their
eye by paying keen attention to details, to people’s intentions, to the dark realities hiding behind
any glamorous surface. Like any muscle that is trained, they develop the capacity to see with
more intensity.
It is simply a choice you have to make. At any moment in life you can convert to realism, which
is not a belief system at all, but a way of looking at the world. It means every circumstance,
every individual is different and your task is to measure that difference, then take appropriate
action. Your eyes are fixed on the world, not on yourself or your ego. What you see determines
what you think and how you act. The moment you believe in some cherished idea that you will
hold on to no matter what your eyes and ears reveal to you, you are no longer a realist.
Too see this power in action look at a man like Abraham Lincoln, perhaps our greatest president.
He had little formal education, grew up in a harsh, frontier environment. As a young man, he
liked to take apart machines and put them back together. He was practical to the core. As
president, he found himself having to confront the gravest crisis in our history. He was
surrounded by cabinet members and advisers who were out to promote themselves or some rigid
ideology they believed in. They were emotional and heated; they saw Lincoln as weak. He
seemed to take a long time to make a decision, and it would often be the opposite of what they
Excerpted from The 50th Law
By Robert Greene and 50 Cent
ISBN 13: 9780061774607
ISBN 13 NR: 9780061791215
Summer 2009
HarperStudio
8
had counseled. He trusted generals like Grant who was an alcoholic and social misfit. He
worked with those whom they considered political enemies, on the other side of the aisle.
What they didn’t realize at the time was that Lincoln came to each circumstance without
preconceptions. He was determined to measure everything exactly as it was. His choices were
made out of pure pragmatism. He was a keen observer of human nature and stuck with Grant
because he saw him as the only general capable of effective action. He judged people by results,
not friendliness or political values. His careful weighing of people and events was not a
weakness but the height of strength, a fearless quality. And working this way, he carefully
guided the country past countless dangers. It is not a history we are accustomed to read about,
since we prefer to be swept up in great ideas and dramatic gestures. But the genius of Lincoln
was his ability to focus intensely on reality and see things for what they were. He is living
testament to the power of realism.
It might seem that seeing so much of reality could make one depressed, but the opposite is the
case. Having clarity about where you are headed, what people are up to, what is happening in
the world around you will translate into confidence and power, a sensation of lightness. You will
feel more connected to your environment, like a spider on its web. Whenever things go wrong in
life you will be able to right yourself faster than others, because you will quickly see what is
really going on and how you can exploit even the worst moment. And once you taste this power,
you will find more satisfaction from an intense absorption in reality than indulging in any kind
of fantasy.