12 Raw Truths About Gaining Power & Respect

Skills Are Currency

Knowledge and skills are like gold, a currency you will transform into something more valuable than you can imagine. Eventually, the time that was not spent on learning skills will catch up to you and the fall would be painful.

When learning skills, you're changing the matter of your brain — things are connecting that weren't connecting before. If you do it and are serious enough, you'll reach a point where either you will start a business or someone will ask you to write a book or make a film, and the world will open up to you.

The difference with and without skills:

• No skills → endless confusion.
• With skills → you know where to go.

Having a sense that you want to be something creates a framework in your brain that changes how you make decisions, mostly unconsciously. There's something in you that guides you towards certain things.

Stupid People Are More Dangerous Than Evil People

The stupidest people are always the ones who think they have the right answer. What makes people stupid is their certainty that they have all the answers. People who are certain of things are very stupid, and when they have power they're very, very dangerous.

The Power of Reputation

Power is pure psychology. People rise to positions of power because they know how to play the game — how to play the optics, how to appear, how to intimidate, and how to say less than necessary.

Credibility is the one thing you should never sell, because you cannot buy it back — there's no return policy on your credibility. Reputation and credibility have to be consistent.

People judge on appearance, not on the reality of who you are. They judge on what they see, so they want some consistency they can grab onto. Poke holes in your enemy's reputation and you will destroy them — bring up things that are inconsistent with their reputation and you would ruin it easily.

Your Weirdness Is Your Strength

If you're replaceable, then you WILL be replaced. You have that potential — it's just that you're not putting the effort in. You were lazy, you wanted to fit into the group, you wanted to conform because it is easy.

Sometimes you need a bit of courage to stand up and say: I'm okay being different.

How to Stop Wasting Your Time

You're your own worst enemy. You waste precious time dreaming of the future instead of engaging in the present, because nothing seems urgent to you. You're only half involved in what you do.

Why You Should Relish Being Attacked

Being attacked is a sign that you're important enough to be a target; you should relish the attention and the chance to prove yourself. Without the joker, what's Batman?

Use Absence to Increase Respect

You're able to disappear for a while and you make people wonder about you. Aloofness is alluring — be good and be gone.

Advice for Young Men Who Feel Lost

You have to be comfortable with who you are and with your masculinity. You have to see who you are, and see the virtue and the power in that.