The 50th Law by Robert Greene is a sequel to the bestseller 48 Laws of Power. The book talks about 50 Cent the rapper and the story of his life, as well as some other stories from history that illustrate the ideas in the book.
It also contains many important lessons on how to succeed in business, politics and society. This post will summarize what is most important from the book The 50th Law and review it briefly for those who are interested in reading it themselves.
50th law by Robert Greene Summary
Whether you read the Greene’s 48 Laws of Power or not, you will enjoy its sequel, The 50th Law . He tells the story of 50 Cents and some other stories from history that illustrate the main ideas of the book such as how to deal with opponents, understanding human nature and mastering decision-making.
The book has 10 chapters:
- Chapter 1: See Things for What They Are – Intense Realism
- Chapter 2: Make Everything Your Own – Self-Reliance
- Chapter 3: Turn Sh*t Into Sugar – Opportunism
- Chapter 4: Keep Moving – Calculated Momentum
- Chapter 5: Learn When to be Bad – Aggression
- Chapter 6: Lead from the Front – Authority
- Chapter 7: Know Your Environment From the Inside Out – Connection
- Chapter 8: Respect the Process – Mastery
- Chapter 9: Push Beyond Your Limits – Self-Belief
- Chapter 10: Confront Your Mortality – the Sublime
The most important idea from this book is the idea of how to actually learn and become good at anything. It says that you need self-awareness, a growth mindset, belief in yourself (self-belief), taking risks and tolerance for failure.
These are all things you should be doing if you want to master something on your own or if you want to learn anything in life.
Best ideas from 50th Law
You will also learn the following concept and ideas from The 50th Law:
- the difference between “power” and “status.”
- how to deal with opponents.
- divide and conquer.
- understanding human nature,
- mastering decision making
- create a sense of destiny.
The difference between “power” and “status.”
One of the best ideas you will learn from this book is the difference between “power” and “status.”
Power is about your ability to effect change. Status is all about perception. You could have power without status, but if you are really successful in one area of life, people will start to perceive you as having more status than others–even without it being a reality.
How to deal with opponents
There is also a chapter where Greene talks about the idea of “divide and conquer.”
This is the idea of defeating your opponents by dividing them. The way to do this is divide their support base, like allies or friends from enemies. This way the opponent will be weaker because they are divided in two different directions instead of being united as one strong force against you.
Understanding human nature
The third big idea from the book is that you have to understand human nature. Greene says that you can only get power if you understand human nature.
The first chapter is about the rapper 50 cents, and how he managed to achieve such a high level of success despite all odds being against him. Greene talks about his upbringing in poverty where there was no father figure or family support systems for motivation at home- but still this didn
Mastering decision making
A fourth idea that is really powerful in the book is that you have to master decision making. Greene talks about how important it is to be able to make decisions even if they are life-changing and have a massive impact on your future.
Greene also talks about the power of elimination, which basically means choosing what you want out of everything in order to identify what really matters most.
Create a sense of destiny
The last idea that we want to highlight is that you have to create a sense of destiny. Greene talks about how you need to use the power of story- telling and refining your own narrative in order to create a destiny that is possible for yourself.
Who should read the book 50th law?
Are you thinking about buying and reading the 50th law? If you want to learn the art of influencing people then this book is perfect for you. You’ll find out about how 50 cent, or Curtis Jackson as he’s known in real life, became one of the richest men alive and why he feels obligated to share his story with us.
When you should NOT read this book by Robert Greene?
If you’re looking for a magic bullet to success or if you are someone who doesn’t like criticism, stay away from this book.
The book is also not that actionable, so if you’re looking for something to change your life right now, you should probably look somewhere else.
50th law Review
All in all I really liked the 50th law by Robert Greene as a sequel to the 48 laws of power. It is a must read for anyone who has already read it’s predecessor or who is interested in not only understanding but also applying aspects of 50 cent’s life and his career as an artist, businessman and innovator.
If you buy this book, you will see that Greene’s writing style is very effective. He is able to make the reader think about what he or she has just read and be motivated to take actions in their own lives
The only negative thing I would say about this book is that it does not contain new ideas, but rather focuses on refining existing ones from his previous work.
Some reviewers who didn’t like the book said that it’s so vague and doesn’t have any content you can actually use to improve your skills or do something with for example, a list of 50 things you should be doing everyday.
Best quotes from 50th law
Here are some of our favourite quotes from the book:
- ”He swore to himself he’d never work for another person ever again. He would rather die.”
- “Strategy is the essence of human action—the bridge between an idea and its realization in the world.
- “His superiority, he realized, was that he knew that he knew nothing. This left his mind open to experiencing things as they are, the source of all knowledge.”
- ”Let others depend on their MBAs, their money, and their connections. He instead would rely upon that hustler’s eye that had brought him from the bottom of America to the top in just a few short years.”
- ’As a person who cannot be easily ruffled by events, you will attract attention and power.’’
- ‘’The real poetry and beauty in life comes from an intense relationship with reality in all its aspects. Realism is in fact the ideal we must aspire to, the highest point of human rationality.’’
Who is Robert Greene, the author of 50th law?
Robert Greene is an American author that has written a lot of books about power, success and self-improvement. He is the author of The 48 Laws Of Power which was a bestseller in 1999 and he has also written Mastery: The key to achieving success & fulfilling potential (2002), as well as 33 Strategies of War, an international bestseller published in 2007 that spent more than two years on Business Week’s list for strategy books.
Robert Greene believes that reality can teach us everything we need to know if you just immerse yourself into it with active curiosity . Reality contains all knowledge because it is what there really is around us – nothing more or less. It will be our ideal when we want to go beyond our limitations
