Full transcript
0:00Knowledge and skills are like gold, a
0:02currency you will transform into
0:04something more valuable than you can
0:06imagine. It's similar to one of your
0:07tweets which is eventually the time that
0:09was not spent on learning skills will
0:11catch up to you and the fall will be
0:12painful. Well, um
0:17you know uh life can be kind of
0:19difficult,
0:21right? Um you don't really know
0:25sometimes where you're headed. Nobody
0:28kind of gives you any kind of guidance
0:30in this world, right? And they don't
0:32tell you when you graduate college, go
0:34ahead, go Robert, you go study this,
0:36this is what you know and you know this
0:38is what your brain is suited for, etc.,
0:40etc. You have to find your own path. And
0:43so for me personally,
0:46I spent years in the wilderness. Um, so
0:49I'm going I'm going to give this a
0:50personal spin because I think that helps
0:52a little bit because what I can answer
0:54it inside my own body here. So,
0:58I I know I want to be a writer, but I
1:01can't figure out what the hell I'm going
1:02to write. So, I leave college and I try
1:06journalism because I have to make a
1:08living. I have to support myself
1:11and I don't really like it. It doesn't
1:13suit me. He writes an article and then a
1:16week later it's forgotten. Nobody reads
1:18about it. And as somebody who studied
1:20ancient Greek and Latin in college, I
1:22think in terms of thousands of years and
1:25not in 3 days or a week, you know, I
1:27want something that I write to be read
1:29in 3020 for, you know, sorry. Um, so
1:35wasn't a good fit. So I quit. I wander
1:38around Europe trying to write a novel
1:41with my backpack. I live in London. I
1:44live in Paris. I lived in Ireland. I
1:47lived in Greece. you name it. I taught
1:49English in Spain trying to write a
1:51novel. I had no discipline. I couldn't
1:53do it. It didn't work. And I get started
1:54to get depressed. I had spent 18 years
1:58or so acquiring in high levels of skill
2:04in writing. Okay? I could I learned in
2:08journalism how to write under a
2:09deadline, under pressure, how to make it
2:12dramatic, how to make the opening
2:13sentence exciting enough to make you
2:15read on further. Trying to write novels
2:18taught me about creating stories, which
2:21is a huge part of my writing. Working in
2:23Hollywood, I learned how to research,
2:25which is a huge element. And then the
2:28theatrical element, making things
2:30dramatic, also story. Okay. All of that
2:33time, slowly by slowly, brick by brick,
2:37I had developed real level skill. So
2:40when it came time to write the 48 laws
2:42of power, I could do it. I had learned
2:45all this discipline. I had learned how
2:47to write under a deadline. I learned how
2:50to make things entertaining.
2:52The whole the whole bag. Okay. And so
2:55the world opened up for me. Prior to
2:58that time, I was miserable. Really
3:01really was. I mean, I had good moments,
3:02too. You're young. You're always happy
3:04when you're young. But a lot of times, I
3:06was miserable.
3:08And I didn't know why. But I was
3:10acquiring skills, not even aware of it.
3:13And so the reason I write that is when
3:17you develop that skill, when you're
3:19serious about it, because I was very
3:20serious about writing,
3:22you change your brain. You rewire your
3:26brain. It's like
3:28uh and this is an a remarkable power of
3:31the human brain that people don't
3:32realize. Something I'm also writing in
3:34my new book. Um this this one writer uh
3:38his name is Schwarz. I believe he's a
3:40UCLA neuroscientist.
3:43He wanted to help people who had OCD,
3:46right?
3:48Obsessive comp, you know, compulsive
3:51disorder. And usually it's drugs and
3:54it's talking therapy. He wanted to find
3:56out something more effective. And he
3:59found that through certain strategies
4:02that he developed
4:04um that they could use in their life
4:06that they would get over their disorder.
4:09And he the point isn't what the
4:11strategies were. point was he did brain
4:13scans and through the strategies that he
4:16gave them to do which I can't remember
4:18right now the brain scans show that they
4:20change the brain and his point was
4:24through thinking through developing
4:26skills you literally change matter you
4:29change your brain so something
4:32non-material like thoughts can literally
4:34change material things like the wiring
4:36of your brain you learn skills you're
4:38changing your brain you're changing the
4:40matter of your brain things are
4:42connecting that weren't connected
4:43before.
4:44And slowly, if you do it, if you're
4:47serious enough, a point will be reached
4:48like it was reached in my life, where
4:51either you will start a business or
4:53someone will ask you to do something
4:55like write a book or make a film. And
4:57the world will open up for you and
4:59you'll be able to do it because you have
5:01that you've laid the ground. You you've
5:03laid the soil. Everything is there. It's
5:05rich and now something great amazing
5:07will sprout up out of it. When you have
5:10no talents and you have no skill, life
5:12is a series of endless confusion. You
5:15you hit this road, you go here, then
5:17something else, you go here, then you go
5:18here, you end up in a circle, and you
5:20don't know where the fell you are. When
5:22you've got skills, zoom, you know where
5:24to go. It's not It's not zoom. It's more
5:26like, but your head somewhere. Yeah.
5:29It's not
5:30>> Yeah.
5:31>> I don't know if we're being filmed, but
5:34So, yeah. So, that's that's my answer to
5:37your question. If you believe as if you
5:40were confident, as if you are powerful,
5:43it will tend
5:45to be read that way, right? And so like
5:50he had the analogy, if you smile,
5:54even though you don't feel like smiling,
5:57you'll end up kind of maybe feeling kind
5:59of happy. So the physical action will
6:02create the psychological action was his
6:04belief because he was very much believer
6:06in the body things starting from the
6:07body. So if you believe physically and
6:10bodily embodied that you were great that
6:12you deserve this will kind of become
6:15part of your psychology and it will
6:16radiate outward.
6:17>> But for those that don't they just don't
6:20have that belief. Can you lie to
6:21yourself? Can you tell yourself I am
6:23strong and I am powerful?
6:25>> Well everybody has some good qualities
6:28right? Everybody, I think almost
6:30everybody has something that they can
6:32can go back to in the past and go, I was
6:35actually very good at that. That was
6:36actually a good moment. I actually was
6:39was, you know, scored in that particular
6:41moment. And you can think about that. I
6:44mean, actors do that all the time in
6:46movies. When they want to express an
6:49emotion, they go back into their past
6:52like they have to express sadness. They
6:54go back and they think about their
6:56father or mother who died and they call
6:58that emotion up. You can call that
7:00emotion up of when you did something
7:02actually really great. You might have
7:04only been in high school when you were
7:06on the sports team and you threw the
7:08touchdown or something. Okay, think
7:11about that and and it'll come back to
7:12you. Everybody has something that they
7:14can be confident about. I hope
7:16>> if there was one law that the powerless
7:19amongst us who who feel powerless or
7:22lost in the current world, one law or or
7:26one
7:28fact of human nature that people who are
7:31feeling lost and purposeless in a drift
7:34right now should be thinking the most
7:36about. Which one springs to mind?
7:41Well,
7:43there's there's no oneshop
7:46answer to this kind of thing, but one
7:48law that I would highlight
7:51is interaction with boldness. And what I
7:56mean by that is
7:59you if you feeling timid, if you're
8:02feeling that you're not confident in
8:04something, you will start a project and
8:06it will fail because you feel that way.
8:10because you don't enter into it with the
8:12right energy.
8:14So if you feel if you take something and
8:16you do something boldly, everybody loves
8:19the bold. Everybody admires it. Even if
8:21it's stupid, even if it fails, it will
8:24gain you that kind of attention. And so
8:27let's say you're thinking about starting
8:29a business. Well, just go ahead and do
8:32it and be bold about it and start it and
8:34be as dramatic as you can and be as
8:37confident as you can. And it creates a
8:40self-fulfilling dynamic. People admire
8:42it. They don't admire the timid and the
8:44insecure and the guy who spends two
8:46years talking about that podcast he's
8:48going to start. They admire it. That
8:50bloke who just decided, "All right, I'm
8:52going to start it. I don't care if
8:54nobody likes it. Fine." You know, uh I
8:57remember this guy who interviewed me
8:58once. He had a magazine called Bad
9:00Ideas, and it was a really successful
9:03magazine in like the early 2000s. And I
9:06said, "Where'd you get that idea?" and
9:07he said, "My mother told me that to
9:09start that magazine was a really bad
9:11idea, right? So, I thought I'd put the
9:14title there, you know, and that would be
9:16the title of it." And I just went ahead
9:18and started it. And it was very
9:19successful because it was a great like
9:21marketing gimmick and it also worked and
9:23it was auction full of bad ideas of the
9:26thing, but very in a very interesting
9:28way. Um, so being bold, being different.
9:32Everybody nowadays, I'm getting on my
9:35goddamn soap box again and I'm so I
9:37apologize to everyone about this, but
9:39everyone is so similar. Everybody is so
9:42afraid. Everyone's trying to be like
9:44everybody else. You go out there and you
9:46start something that's different, that's
9:48you, that's unique, that's loud, that
9:50proclaims I'm a different voice on it,
9:53you're going to get attention. So I want
9:55more bold people in this world. We got
9:57too much fear. You know, that's I'm not
10:00maybe a big admirer of in some ways of
10:03Elon Musk, but damn it, he's always bold
10:05and it always works for him. He doesn't
10:08start just a a minimal business about
10:10maybe sending rockets out there. He
10:12starts think it's going to take you to
10:14Mars. He's bold and people love it. One
10:17of the uh groups I suppose I think
10:19that's looking for a lot of advice at
10:20the moment is young men uh feeling a
10:22little lost like their place in the
10:24world is
10:27just uncertain. they don't they don't
10:28really know or have the direction. What
10:32advice would you have for young men that
10:34are feeling a little lost in the modern
10:37world?
10:38Well, you have to um you have to be
10:42comfortable
10:44with with who you are and with your
10:47masculinity.
10:49So the word masculine has now got like
10:51this negative connotation around it
10:54which is terrible because your young
10:57man, it's not every young man, some men
10:59don't feel this way, but a lot of young
11:01men, I remember myself, you got this
11:04testosterone that's roaring through you.
11:07You're competitive. You're ambitious.
11:10You have goals. You have this energy.
11:12You want to assert yourself, but it's
11:14bad. It's bad. It's bad. You're not
11:16supposed to be like that, you know. And
11:18so and the culture isn't about there's
11:21no virtue in masculinity. Okay, there is
11:24such a thing as toxic masculinity most
11:26definitely. But there are virtues in in
11:31being masculine and have to be redefined
11:33and we have to have icons and role
11:36models for that. And so when I was
11:39growing up, oh god, I sound like I hated
11:42that when people said that when I was a
11:43kid. So I know you're going to hate me,
11:45but I'll say that anyway. I can't help
11:48it cuz it's true. When I was growing up,
11:51you know, I watched like a lot of
11:53westerns,
11:54you know, it was the the the silent hero
11:58kind of thing, the Gary Cooper thing.
12:00But my idea of masculinity growing up
12:03was a man who was in control of himself,
12:06who wasn't mean, wasn't pushing people
12:09around, who was decent, who treated
12:12women well. So treating women well is a
12:16masculine virtue is a good thing. It
12:19comes from a position of strength.
12:20You're not insecure about your
12:21masculinity. You don't have to prove
12:23that you're a man by demeaning women, by
12:26pushing them around, by calling them
12:27and etc. You don't have
12:29to take the Andrew Ta tape path in life.
12:32You can respect women and respecting
12:34them is a sign of your strength, is a
12:36sign of being secure in your
12:38masculinity. You don't need to put other
12:40people down to make yourself feel
12:41better. Okay. So, we have to redefine
12:44these qualities, but there are no icons
12:46like out out there. You either have the
12:49Andrew Tates out there or you have these
12:51wimpy men who are just so afraid of
12:53being masculine. Okay?
12:58Your aggression, your assertiveness,
13:00your testosterone,
13:01it's a good thing. It's how things get
13:04done. It's what energizes you, what puts
13:05you in the world. It makes what makes
13:07you ambitious. What makes you assert
13:09yourself and and motivate yourself. It
13:12has to be channeled. It has to be
13:13disciplined.
13:15But you have to see,
13:18you know, we were talking about our
13:20people pleasing things and how you
13:22reframe it. You have to see who you are
13:27and see the virtue in it and see the
13:29power in that. And it it's a cultural
13:31problem because men are very confused. I
13:34didn't have that confusion when I was
13:37growing up.
13:38um you know so now it's very difficult
13:40because you're being told that all these
13:42things that you feel naturally are
13:45negative.
13:47They're only negative if you can't
13:48control them. So self-control
13:52is a very masculine quality. You're able
13:55to control yourself. You're able to
13:57control your passions. You're able to
13:59not talk too much if you don't need to
14:00talk too much. I'm not saying that women
14:04don't have that the opposite is wrong.
14:07These are things that men naturally have
14:09because of their biology. And I'm sorry.
14:11I do believe in these things. Um, but
14:14they're good. They're just how you use
14:16them that can be bad. And so I just wish
14:19there were more positive role models out
14:22there. I know
14:25I could be a real bastard. I could be a
14:27real I'm very competitive.
14:31When I play games, I like to win. And I
14:34can be a little bit mean about it. Okay?
14:36I mean, I'm a pleaser, but I like
14:38winning.
14:40I channeled it all of my aggression, all
14:43of that testosterone. I'm not saying I
14:45have more than anyone. I just have
14:47normal amounts. I poured into my books.
14:50I poured that edge, that aggression,
14:51that like, damn you, I don't really like
14:54you. I don't like the world. Into the 48
14:56laws of power into here's how these
14:58manipulative these how people
14:59manipulate. These are how people can be
15:01bad and cruel and damn it, I'm going to
15:04get out all my aggression by exposing it
15:06and showing it and being as real and
15:08direct. I channel it into something as
15:11opposed to hurting other people kind of
15:13thing. So finding ways to channel your
15:17aggressive tendencies is a positive way
15:20of being a man. You have to find
15:22whatever that is. Sports is a great
15:24example but there are other things as
15:26well.
15:27>> It feels a lot like alchemy in a way. Uh
15:31or actually it's even it's
15:34alchemy is taking something which is bad
15:37or useless and turning it into something
15:39which is valuable. This is taking uh
15:43something which is uncertain. It could
15:45go either way. you know, this desire for
15:47mastery, for conquer, for achievement.
15:50[Music]