The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

Use resistance and negative spurs.
The key to success in any field is first
developing skills in various areas, which you can later combine in
unique and creative ways. But the process of doing so can be tedious
and painful, as you become aware of your limitations and relative lack
of skill. Most people, consciously or unconsciously, seek to avoid
tedium, pain, and any form of adversity. They try to put themselves in
places where they will face less criticism and minimize their chances of
failure. You must choose to move in the opposite direction. You want
to embrace negative experiences, limitations, and even pain as the
perfect means of building up your skill levels and sharpening your
sense of purpose.
When it comes to exercise, you understand the importance of
manageable levels of pain and discomfort, because they later yield
strength, stamina, and other positive sensations. The same will come
to you by actually embracing the tedium in your practice. Frustration is
a sign that you are making progress as your mind becomes aware of
higher levels of skill that you have yet to attain.
You want to use and embrace any kind of deadline. If you give
yourself a year to finish a project or start up a business, you will
generally take a year or more. If you give yourself three months, you
will finish it that much sooner, and the concentrated energy with which
you work will raise your skill level and make the end result that much
better. If necessary, manufacture reasonably tight deadlines to
intensify your sense of purpose.
Thomas Edison knew he could take far too long to realize his
inventions, and so he developed the habit of talking about their future
greatness to journalists, overselling his ideas. With publicity, he would
now be put in the position of having to make it happen, and relatively
soon, or be ridiculed. He would now have to rise to the occasion, and
he almost always did. The great eighteenth-century Zen master Hakuin
took this further. He became greatly frustrated by the particular koans
(paradoxical anecdotes designed to spark enlightenment) presented to
him by his master. His lack of progress made him feel desperate, so he
told himself, in all seriousness, “If I fail to master one of these koans in
seven days, I will kill myself.” This worked for him and kept on
working for him, until he attained total enlightenment.
As you progress on your path, you will be subject to more and more
of people’s criticisms. Some of them might be constructive and worth

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paying attention to, but many of them come from envy. You can
recognize the latter by the person’s emotional tone in expressing their
negative opinions. They go a little too far, speak with a bit too much
vehemence; they make it personal, instilling doubts about your overall
ability, emphasizing your personality more than the work; they lack
specific details about what and how to improve. Once recognized, the
trick is not to internalize these criticisms in any form. Becoming
defensive is a sign they have gotten to you. Instead, use their negative
opinions to motivate you and add to your sense of purpose.