Law 41 - Avoid Stepping Into A Great Man's Shoes | Exploring The 48 Laws of Power - a podcast by Jon & Dre

You've got Daddy Issues. And you're going to have to deal with them if you want to find your way to Power.

Law 41 penetrates deeply into our psyches and draws back the veil on the automatic behaviours we go through life with – unconsciously playing out the patterns we inherited from our parents, whether by copying them or trying, naively, to reject them.

So how can we forge our own distinctive routes to Power? This week, we ask some crucial questions. What is real drive? Who has it; can it be learnt; and should you rely on your children to have it? Are rags to riches stories actually instructive, or do they simply warp and distort our sense of what's necessary to become the hero of your own movie?

We get psycho-philosophical and explain what it really means to kill the Buddha (and your parents) if you see them on your path; we explore the human inability to resist a pecking order; and we reveal what Bridezillas and Mothers-in-Law have to tell us about the Laws of Power.

Law 41 nuances many of the previous Laws, from what Law 1 (Never Outshine the Master) actually means in practice, to always remembering to Give Before You Take (the core lesson of Law 12). As well as drawing together more of the rich tapestry of the 48 Laws, we stop off to ponder some personal issues, too.

Jon reflects on his continuing life on the road and what the symbols of success really are for people in their 20s-30s these days; Dre describes how signal-to-noise ratios explain something absolutely fundamental about human nature... and what kind of lazy he really is.

And we reveal why Alexander the Great seriously needed to pull his fucking self together.

This episode includes:

• The only way to effectively overcome a powerful predecessor and forge your own legacy
• Does comfort erode ambition?
• How to avoid playing out the unlived lives of your parents
• Why rebellion so often turns out to be nothing new
• Learning the dominant paradigm and when to subvert it
• Do you lose your choices by following in someone's footsteps, or are you more prepared than your peers?
• How to reinvent yourself and why you have to do so

Mentioned in the episode:

• The HBO series on John Adams which Dre mentioned
• The infamous Indiana Jones sword vs. gun scene
• Our excellent interview with Robert Colvile on The Great Acceleration in our lives

Challenge: Write down a list of the qualities and achievements of both your father/mother and your idol... and then think of ways you could do the opposite. What does that reveal? What's the first thing you would change about your current lifestyle and trajectory?

Be silly. Be kind. Be weird.

Join us as we continue our 48 Laws of Power review, exploring Robert Greene’s provocative and compelling book, in which he lays bare the history, practice, psychology, and philosophies of power that ultimately shape all human relations. Often seen as a handbook for the ‘modern Machiavelli’, we take a closer look, beyond the hyperbole, and discuss how understanding and implementing these Laws can actually enrich your life personally, professionally and spiritually.

Jon and Dre aim to get to the heart of each of the Laws, grapple with their sometimes disturbingly amoral nature, and discuss what the Laws mean in everyday life (often revealing their own experiences – good and bad – when they’ve either observed or transgressed them).

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