The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

Know how and when to withdraw.
This is the essence of the art. You
have a presence that people see and interpret. If you are too obvious
with this, if people can read you too easily and figure you out, if you
show your needs too visibly, then they will unconsciously begin to have
a degree of disrespect; over time they will lose interest. Your presence
must have a touch of coldness to it, as if you feel like you could do
without others. This signals to people that you consider yourself
worthy of respect, which unconsciously heightens your value in their
eyes. It makes people want to chase after you. This touch of coldness is
the first form of withdrawal that you must practice. Add to this a bit of
blankness and ambiguity as to who you are. Your opinions, values, and
tastes are never too obvious to people. This gives them room to read
into you what they want. Movie stars are masters of this. They turn
their faces and their presence into screens upon which people can
project their own fantasies. What you want in general is to create an air
of mystery and to attract interpretations.
Once you sense that you have engaged people’s imagination, that
you have your hooks in them, then you must use physical absence and
withdrawal. You are not so available. A day or week can go by without
your presence. You create a feeling of emptiness inside them, a touch
of pain. You occupy increasing amounts of their mental space in these
absences. They come to want more of you, not less.
The musician Michael Jackson played this game to perfection on
the social level. He was deeply aware of the dangers of saturating the
market with his music and public appearances. He spread out the
releases of his albums, making the public hungry for more. He
carefully managed the frequency of his interviews and performances
and never talked about the meaning of his lyrics or propagated any
overt message. He occasionally had his publicists leak to the press

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some new story surrounding him, such as his use of hyperbaric
chambers as a way to maintain eternal youthfulness. He would neither
confirm nor deny these stories and the press would run wild. He was
someone who sparked stories and rumors, but nothing concrete.
Through this strategic elusiveness he made himself an object of
continual desire—both to know him better and to possess his music.
With the work you produce you can create similar covetous effects.
Always leave the presentation and the message relatively open-ended.
People can read into your work several interpretations. Never define
exactly how they should take or use it. This is why the work of great
dramatists such as Shakespeare and Chekhov has lasted for so many
centuries and always seem so fresh and exciting; each generation can
read into their plays what they want to. These writers described
timeless elements of human nature, but without judging or directing
the audience to what they should feel or think. Take that as the model
for whatever you produce.
Keep in mind the following: the more active our imagination
becomes, the greater the pleasure we derive from it. When we were
children, if we were given a game with explicit instructions and rules,
we quickly lost interest. But if the game was something we invented or
was loosely structured, allowing us to inject our own ideas and
fantasies, we could sustain our interest for much longer. When we view
an abstract painting that evokes dreams or fantasies, or see a film that
is not easily interpreted, or hear a joke or advertisement that is
ambiguous, we are the ones who do the interpreting, and we find it
exciting to be able to exercise our imagination in this way. Through
your work you want to stimulate this pleasure for people to the
maximum degree.