feels a lot like 48 laws of power, but sort of different. probably the same. maybe worse because these are mine and i can't blame robert greene when they don't work.
everyone is playing, whether they like it or not.
maybe there are rules, maybe there aren't. i've been collecting these for a while — not from books, not from podcasts, just from watching. paying attention to what actually happens vs. what people say happens.
some of these i'm sure about. some i'm still testing. a couple i might be wrong about entirely.
here's what i've noticed, in no particular order:
🎯 The Ones That Keep Coming Back
these are the ones i don't question anymore. they've held up too many times.
think big, become big.
sounds like a poster in a gym lobby. but i've watched it work in reverse too many times — people who think small and then wonder why everything stays small. your ceiling is a belief system. i really think that's true. i watched a friend turn down a pitch because he thought it was "too ambitious for someone like us." the pitch would've landed. i know because someone else made it six months later.
know what matters. focus only on that.
everything else is noise. and the noise is loud. the noise has its own instagram account and a newsletter and a discord server. focus is not a productivity hack — it's a survival skill.
make one thing good first, then replicate.
i learned this the hard way. built like four things at once in 2023 and none of them were good. not bad. just.. not good. the difference between "not bad" and "good" is the difference between being forgotten and being remembered.
waste no time.
not in the hustle-culture, sleep-when-you're-dead way. more like — know what your time is worth and stop giving it away for free. every yes to something pointless is a no to something that matters.
🧠 The Strategy Ones
these feel more like game theory than life advice. and i'm okay with that.
be useful, not easily available.
scarcity isn't a trick. it's just math. the thing that's always there stops being valued. not because it's less good — because that's how people work.
make them curious, not comfortable.
comfort is forgettable. curiosity is a door that stays open.
understand the board. especially the pieces pointed at you.
i don't mean this in a paranoid way. mostly. just — know what you're walking into. know who benefits from you not knowing.
go direct. half-measures cost twice as much.
this one took me years. i used to soften everything — the ask, the pitch, the feedback. turns out people respect direct more than they respect comfortable. the indirect route feels safer but it's actually more expensive.
the person who cares least has more control.
i'm not sure this one's always true. or maybe i just don't want it to be true. because i care about almost everything too much and that's probably a problem. but in negotiations? in business dynamics? yeah. the person who can walk away usually wins. that doesn't mean you shouldn't care. it means you should be able to walk away from things that don't serve you. there's a difference. i think.
👁️ The Awareness Ones
less about doing. more about seeing.
watch those who've won, and those who've lost.
the wins teach you what's possible. the losses teach you what's real. i pay more attention to the losses honestly. people don't fake those.
notice what they protect.
this one is so reliable it's almost scary. you can learn more about a person from what they guard than from what they show you. what someone hides tells you what they value. what they defend tells you what they fear.
if you aren't invited, don't ask to go.
this sounds harsh and maybe it is. but i've been on both sides of this — being the person who wasn't invited and being the person who watched someone ask. neither feels good. there's a version of this that's about self-respect more than strategy. know where you're wanted. go there.
silence can say more than explanation.
still learning this one. my instinct is to explain, justify, add context. but the people who are really good at this — at holding space without filling it — they move different. there's a power in not needing to be understood in real time.
🃏 The Wild Cards
these are the weird ones. the ones that don't fit neatly into "business strategy" but keep proving themselves anyway.
never make the first offer in a negotiation.
classic. probably in every business book ever. but it works. let them anchor and then adjust.
dress well.
not "wear expensive things." just — look like you thought about it for more than zero seconds. people decide what you're worth before you open your mouth. that's not cynical, it's just observation.
carry cash.
i don't even fully know why this one stuck with me. something about being ready. about not being dependent on systems working. maybe it's just superstition at this point. but i keep doing it.
if you drink, don't blame the alcohol.
you said it. you did it. the drink didn't make you a different person — it made you a louder version of who you already were. own it.
show restraint when expressing anger.
the moment you lose control, you've given someone else the power. anger is information. use it like information — not like a weapon you grabbed without thinking.
when you shoot, aim for the head.
not literally obviously. but — if you're going to commit to something, commit all the way. the half-attempt is worse than not trying. at least "i didn't try" is honest. "i kind of tried" is just.. sad.
🎲 The Long Game
build a team. lone wolves die hungry.
i resisted this one for a long time. thought i could do it all myself. was wrong. the ceiling of solo is real and it's lower than you think. the people who scale aren't smarter — they just stopped trying to be everything.
multiply resources.
not hoard. multiply. make the thing work harder than you do. build the system, not the task. i keep coming back to this. every time i catch myself doing manual work that could be automated, i hear this one in the back of my head.
play the long game. everyone else is sprinting.
and they're tired. and they'll burn out. and they'll pivot. and they'll quit. the person still standing in three years wins by default. not by being better — by being there.
make your exit before the ending.
leave when it's good. not when it's falling apart. this applies to parties, jobs, partnerships, conversations. the exit is part of the performance. most people don't think about it until they're already on the way down.
might add more. might edit. might delete half of these in six months when i realize i was wrong about them.
that's kind of the point though. these aren't commandments. they're just patterns i keep noticing. and the ones that stick around long enough.. maybe those are the real ones.
or maybe i'm just pattern-matching noise into meaning because that's what humans do.
idk.
the game doesn't end. you just get better at seeing it.
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