The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

particular attention to the effect they may have had on the pattern of
socialization that will characterize your generation. If the event was a
major crisis of some sort, that will tend to make those of your
generation band together for comfort and security, valuing the team
and feelings of love, and allergic to confrontation. A period of stability
and nonevents will make you gravitate toward others for adventure, for
group experimentation, sometimes bordering on the reckless. In
general, you will tend to notice a socializing style of your peers, most
evident in your twenties. Search for the roots of this.
These larger events will have an effect on how you view success and
money and whether you value status and wealth or less material values
such as creativity and personal expression. How those of your
generation view failure in a venture or career will be quite telling—is it
a badge of shame or considered part of the entrepreneurial process,
even a positive experience? You can gauge this as well by those years
when you entered the work world—did you feel the pressure to start
making money right away, or was it a time to explore the world and
have adventures, then settle on something in your thirties?
In filling out this profile, look at the parenting styles of those who
raised you—permissive, overcontrolling, neglectful, or empathetic. The
famously permissive style of those who raised children in the 1890s
helped create the wild, carefree attitude of the lost generation of the
1920s. Those parents who were deeply affected by the 1960s often
ended up being quite self-absorbed and somewhat neglectful toward
their children, who could not help but feel a bit alienated and even
angry because of this. Parents who are overprotective will shape a
generation that fears going outside its comfort zones. These parenting
styles come in waves. The children who were overprotected do not
generally become helicopter parents. Your own parents might have
been an exception to the prevailing style, but you will notice a
personality stamp on your peers that will become very evident in the
teen years and early twenties.
Pay close attention to the heroes and icons of a generation, those
who act out the qualities that others secretly wish they had as well.
They are often the types who gain celebrity in youth culture—the

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rebels, the successful entrepreneurs, the gurus, the activists. These
indicate emerging new values. Similarly, look at the trends and fads
that suddenly sweep through your generation, for instance the sudden
popularity of digital currencies. Do not take these trends at face value,
but look for the underlying spirit, the unconscious attraction toward
certain values or ideals that they reveal. Nothing is too trivial for this
analysis.
Like an individual, any generation will tend to have an unconscious,
shadow side to its personality. A good sign of this can be found in the