The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

Understand: This feeling of being lost and confused is not
anyone’s fault. It is a natural reaction to having been born into times of
great change and chaos. The old support systems of the past—religions,
universal causes to believe in, social cohesion—have mostly
disappeared, at least in the Western world. Disappearing also are the
elaborate conventions, rules, and taboos that once channeled behavior.
We are all cast adrift, and it is no wonder that so many people lose
themselves in addictions and depression.

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The problem here is simple: By our nature we humans crave a sense
of direction. Other living organisms rely upon elaborate instincts to
guide and determine their behavior. We have come to depend upon
our consciousness. But the human mind is a bottomless pit—it
provides us with endless mental spaces to explore. Our imagination
can take us anywhere and conjure up anything. At any moment, we
could choose to go in a hundred different directions. Without belief
systems or conventions in place, we seem to have no obvious compass
points to guide our behavior and decisions, and this can be maddening.
Fortunately there is one way out of this predicament, and it is by
nature available to each and every one of us. There is no need to look
for gurus or to grow nostalgic for the past and its certainties. A
compass and guidance system does exist. It comes from looking for
and discovering the individual purpose to our lives. It is the path taken
by the greatest achievers and contributors to the advancement of
human culture, and we only have to see the path to take it. Here’s how
it works.
Each human individual is radically unique. This uniqueness is
inscribed in us in three ways—the one-of-a-kind configuration of our
DNA, the particular way our brains are wired, and our experiences as
we go through life, experiences that are unlike any other’s. Consider
this uniqueness as a seed that is planted at birth, with potential
growth. And this uniqueness has a purpose.
In nature, in a thriving ecosystem we can observe a high level of
diversity among species. With these diverse species operating in a
balance, the system is rich and feeds off itself, creating newer species
and more interrelationships. Ecosystems with little diversity are rather
barren, and their health is much more tenuous. We humans operate in
our own cultural ecosystem. Throughout history we can see that the
healthiest and most celebrated cultures have been the ones that
encouraged and exploited the greatest internal diversity among
individuals—ancient Athens, the Chinese Sung Dynasty, the Italian
Renaissance, the 1920s in the Western world, to name a few. These
were periods of tremendous creativity, high points in history. We can
contrast this with the conformity and cultural sterility in dictatorships.
By bringing our uniqueness to flower in the course of our life,
through our particular skills and the specific nature of our work, we
contribute our share to this needed diversity. This uniqueness actually

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transcends our individual existence. It is stamped upon us by nature
itself. How can we explain why we are drawn to music, or to helping
other people, or to particular forms of knowledge? We have inherited
it, and it is there for a purpose.
Striving to connect to and cultivate this uniqueness provides us a
path to follow, an internal guidance system through life. But
connecting to this system does not come easily. Normally the signs of
our uniqueness are clearer to us in early childhood. We found
ourselves naturally drawn to particular subjects or activities, despite
the influence of our parents. We can call these primal inclinations.
They speak to us, like a voice. But as we get older, that voice becomes
drowned out by parents, peers, teachers, the culture at large. We are
told what to like, what is cool, what is not cool. We start to lose a sense
of who we are, what makes us different. We choose career paths
unsuited to our nature.
To tap into the guidance system, we must make the connection to
our uniqueness as strong as possible, and learn to trust that voice. (For
more on this, see “Discover your calling in life” in the next section.) To
the degree we manage to do so, we are richly rewarded. We have a
sense of direction, in the form of an overall career path that meshes
with our particular inclinations. We have a calling. We know which
skills we need and want to develop. We have goals and subgoals. When
we take detours from our path or become involved in entanglements
that distract us from our goals, we feel uncomfortable and quickly get
back on course. We may explore and have adventures, as is natural for
us when we are young, but there is a relative direction to our exploring
that frees us from continual doubts and distractions.
This path does not require that we follow one simple line, or that
our inclinations be narrowly focused. Perhaps we feel the pull of
several types of knowledge. Our path involves mastering a variety of
skills and combining them in highly inventive and creative ways. This
was the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, who combined his interests in
art, science, architecture, and engineering, having mastered each one
of them. This way of following the path goes well with our modern,
eclectic tastes and our love of wide exploration.
When we engage this internal guidance system, all of the negative
emotions that plague us in our aimlessness are neutralized and even
turned around into positive ones. For instance, we may feel boredom

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in the process of accumulating skills. Practice can be tedious. But we
can embrace the tedium, knowing of the tremendous benefits to come.
We are learning something that excites us. We do not crave constant
distractions. Our minds are pleasantly absorbed in the work. We
develop the ability to focus deeply, and with such focus comes
momentum. We retain what we absorb because we are engaged
emotionally in learning. We then learn at a faster rate, which leads to
creative energy. With a mind teeming with fresh information, ideas
begin to come to us out of nowhere. Reaching such creative levels is
intensely satisfying, and it becomes ever easier to add new skills to our
repertoire.
With a sense of purpose, we feel much less insecure. We have an
overall sense that we are advancing, realizing some or all of our
potential. We can begin to look back at various accomplishments,
small or large. We got things done. We may have moments of doubt,
but they are generally related more to the quality of our work than to
our self-worth—did we do our best job? Focusing more on the work
itself and its quality than on what people think of us, we can
distinguish between practical and malicious criticism. We have an
inner resiliency, which helps us bounce back from failures and learn
from them. We know who we are, and this self-awareness becomes our
anchor in life.
With this guidance system in place, we can turn anxiety and stress
into productive emotions. In trying to reach our goals—a book, a
business, winning a political campaign—we have to manage a great
deal of anxiety and uncertainty, making daily decisions on what to do.
In the process, we learn to control our levels of anxiety—if we think too
much about how far we have to go, we might feel overwhelmed.
Instead we learn to focus on smaller goals along the way, while also
retaining a degree of urgency. We develop the ability to regulate our
anxiety—enough to keep us going and keep improving the work, but
not so much as to paralyze us. This is an important life skill.
We develop a high tolerance for stress as well, and even feed off of
it. We humans are actually built to handle stress. Our restless and
energetic minds thrive best when we are mentally and physically
active, our adrenaline pumping. It is a known phenomenon that people
tend to age more quickly and deteriorate more rapidly right after they
retire. Their minds have nothing to feed on. Anxious thoughts return.

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They become less active. Maintaining some stress and tension, and
knowing how to handle it, can improve our health.
And finally, with a sense of purpose we are less prone to depression.
Yes, low moments are inevitable, even welcome. They make us
withdraw and reassess ourselves, as they did for King. But more often
we feel excited and lifted above the pettiness that so often marks daily
life in the modern world. We are on a mission. We are realizing our
life’s work. We are contributing to something much larger than
ourselves, and this ennobles us. We have moments of great fulfillment
that sustain us. Even death can lose its sting. What we have
accomplished will outlive us, and we do not have that debilitating
feeling of having wasted our potential.
Think of it this way: In military history, we can identify two types of
armies—those that fight for a cause or an idea, and those that fight
largely for money, as part of a job. Those that go to war for a cause,
such as the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte fighting to spread the
French Revolution, fight with greater intensity. They tie their
individual fate to that of the cause and the nation. They are more
willing to die in battle for the cause. Those in the army who are less
enthusiastic get swept up in the group spirit. The general can ask more
of his soldiers. The battalions are more unified, and the various
battalion leaders are more creative. Fighting for a cause is known as a