The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

Keys to Human Nature
For thousands of years, we humans believed in fate: some kind of force
—spirits, gods, or God—compelled us to act in a certain way. At birth
our entire lives were laid out in advance; we were fated to succeed or
fail. We see the world much differently now. We believe that we are
largely in control of what happens to us, that we create our own
destiny. Upon occasion, however, we might have a fleeting sensation
that approximates what our ancestors must have felt. Perhaps a
personal relationship goes bad or our career path hits a snag, and these
difficulties are uncannily similar to something that happened to us in
the past. Or we realize that our way of working on a project needs some
improvement; we could do things better. We try to alter our methods,
only to find ourselves doing things in exactly the same way, with nearly
the same results. We might feel for a moment that some kind of
malignant force in the world, some curse, compels us to relive the
same situations.
We can often notice this phenomenon more clearly in the actions of
others, particularly those closest to us. For instance, we see friends

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continually fall for exactly the wrong person or unconsciously push
away the right person. We cringe at some foolish behavior of theirs,
such as an ill-considered investment or career choice, only to see them
repeat the foolishness a few years later, once they have forgotten the
lesson. Or we know someone who always manages to offend the wrong
person at the wrong time, creating hostility wherever he or she goes.
Or they crumble under pressure, always in the same way, but blaming
others or bad luck for what happens. And of course we know the
addicts who get out of their addiction, only to fall back in or find some
other form of addiction. We see these patterns and they don’t, because
nobody likes to believe that they are operating under some kind of
compulsion beyond their control. It is too disturbing a thought.
If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit there is some truth
to the concept of fate. We are prone to repeat the same decisions and
methods of dealing with problems. There is a pattern to our life,