Power-Ascension Bible Volume 1

POWER ASCENSION
BIBLE
LEARN INFLUENCE SKILLS IN THE
CORPORATE WORLD, AND 10X YOUR
CASHFLOW
UNMODERN MEN VOLUME 1
WRITTEN BY UNMODERN MEN,

AUTHOR OF @UNMODERNM
PUBLISHED BY CORY SMITH, AUTHOR OF

@PUA_DATING_TIPS - WITH FUNDING PROVIDED BY
@CRYPTOVINCE369. FEBRUARY 2023 EDITION.
Special thanks to @CryptoVince369 for helping make this title possible! Long
live Hex!!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
UM’s online presence began on twitter, where he started posting

content with regards to leadership and character, combined with
philosophy and psychoanalytic theory. He started writing threads that
had a strong impact on his followers with many requesting him to start
a blog.
UM is a Pharmacist who has worked over a decade in community
and corporate management. His knowledge in emotions & human
behavior stem from dealing with methadone clients recovering from
addictions.
UM’s MBA & work experience in corporate management &
management consultancy enables him to provide knowledge with
regards to leadership, competence & career ascension. He has also
extracted much of his father’s experience from similar background, and
combined them to holistically deliver it on this site.
UM’S PHILOSOPHY
A lot of UM’s critical thinking is heavily influenced by Nitzschean
philosophy & Freudian psychoanalytic theory. He strongly believes
individuals to possess several multiple personalities, each with their
own purpose & desires, and those who transcend in life have the
capacity to integrate these personalities while pursuing their apex
value.
He believes what truly determines success in life is an individual’s
ability to tame their multiple personalities by integrating their shadow.
VOLUME 1
LEADERSHIP &
ASCENSION
You can get half your work done before arriving at a scene if you have a solid
reputation.
CHAPTER 1
PERSONAL POWER
A CORPORATE PERSPECTIVE ON HOW TO ATTAIN

INDIVIDUAL POWER
POWER.
I T CORRUPTS THE BEST AND ATTRACTS THE WORST . I TS ALLURE IS LOVED AND
despised. It brings more pain and less happiness. And yet, men chase it
like wild animals.
We cannot help ourselves. But not only can we not help ourselves,
but we are also nothing without it. Welcome to earth, where women
are born with value and men are born without it. Us men need to find
our value.
Women must preserve their deteriorating value, and men must
accumulate it. We find it by earning, then providing. Our output is
what defines us. And our level of output originates from the personal
power we hold.
From all the literature I have come across on power, I find Robert
Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power to be the most effective and useful. This
article will seek to deliver a different angle on power. It will focus on
the accumulation of power through five facets relevant to any organiza-
tional hierarchy.
Here’s a web definition of Power:
the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular

way.
the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of
others or the course of events.
4 WRITTEN BY UNMODERN MEN, AUTHOR OF @UNM…
The power in this context fits the second definition, where an indi-
vidual has the capacity to influence others to gain an objective. But
power is much more than just that. There’s a pattern across history on
how individuals have wielded power. It goes along the lines of power
is taken with brute force through a set of cunning, conniving tactical
steps. It is then guarded, and only accessible to the bearer who uses it
either for the prosperity of a nation or himself.
But this is changing rapidly. Power now is like an open-source
where everyone can participate. One meme that goes viral can direct a
whole audience towards a new way of thinking. It no longer acts like a
currency that needs to be hoarded in order to be utilized. Just google
“How Social Media Toppled an Egyptian Dictator” and you will see
what I mean.
This change will continue to happen as more people adopt the
internet in their lives. But the essence of where influence originates
from does not change. Influence will still need to be backed by credi-
bility if it is to yield any substantiating impact.
What Does This Mean to You?
For starters, the dynamic shift with regards to power makes it easier
for people like you to obtain it. Your capacity to influence others has
increased and will continue to increase. No longer will you need to
cultivate a sphere of people around you to influence. Social media and
technology have sorted this step out for you. If you wanted to, you
could influence thousands in a matter of weeks. What you need to
work on is your credibility. I firmly believe those who are the most
(positively) influential online, have great influence offline. Those
who thrive online, have their life sorted and thrive offline.
I am going to deliver on how to increase your personal power
offline through five facets. Also, a key theme in this chapter will be
leverage. Leverage is what dictates the underlying forces of power. It is
the element that will be used consistently throughout the five facets. It
is important to understand that the facets I will describe are largely
useless to your own personal power unless you exert leverage on
each one.
THE 5 FACETS OF PERSONAL POWER
1. Reputation
2. Competence
3. Resources
4. Legitimacy
5. Relational
LEADERSHIP & ASCENSION 5
1. Reputation
Previously labeled as ‘Character’, reputation is one of the facets found

in the 48 Laws of Power. It is the vehicle that delivers your credibility
before your arrival. You can get half your work done before arriving
at a scene if you have a solid reputation.
So first and foremost, your focus should be on developing a reputa-
tion. It will take time and you will need to work on it every day. But it
is well worth it as it sets the foundation for all the other facets of
personal power.
Integrity
Integrity measures what you do when no one is watching. Reputa-

tion is what you’re known for as a result of everyone watching. The
best men hide their shadows from the spotlight. The more your actions
remain unchanged irrespective of an audience, the less you have to
guard your reputation. This means you need to assess who you are in
private as opposed to who you are in public. Too much variance puts
you at the risk of ‘slip-ups’, where your private nature involuntarily
reveals itself out in the open tarnishing the reputation you’ve built.
This is why shadow integration is so crucial. Systematically elimi-
nating your regretful actions one by one integrates you with your
shadow so you become whole. You’re a member of the lobby room if
you’re reading this. You should be disclosing the shadows you find
most challenging where we can collectively discuss it and integrate
them.
Detachment
Your ability to not get upset and resentfully lash out against opposi-
tion is probably the most useful trait you can learn in this day and age.
But as politics, belief systems, and ideologies become more polarised,
the baseline neuroticism of the population will rise. Consequently, more
people will become insecure, feel unsafe and protect their delicate
sensitivities lashing out of hate and resentment.
Something I learned in corporate management is to treat people I
like and dislike, the same. It was probably the most useful habit I have
ever developed in my life as a result of working with high-end
managers and executives.
The ability to stay calm and composed in the face of someone
trying to undermine you gives your reputation a powerful aura.
Those observing will remember you as someone who does not get
fazed. They instantly begin to conjecture what it takes to throw you off,
which only adds more weight to your character.
Tolerance to Conflict
Your tolerance to conflict largely paints the picture of what kind of

leader you are. The ability to confront and seek the truth is a very rare
trait to come by and the demand for it continues to increase. People
need leaders who are able to confront conflict. The reputation that you
will radiate as a result is someone who can push through adversity and
difficult conditions. Naturally, people are drawn to this quality.
You cannot afford to break down in front of those you lead. The
whole point of creating a reputation is to emanate superiority.
Because without it, people will not want to be led. This means your
tolerance to a conflict should be well above average. The prospect of
confronting it should excite you.
It’s also worth knowing that your tolerance to conflict is dispropor-
tional to your level of neuroticism. The lower your negative emotions,
the higher your tolerance to stress. You should be using the shadow
integration method on which negative emotions manifest when
encountered by conflict.
Leadership
I have written an unorthodox piece on becoming an effective leader.

It takes a different approach by utilizing human emotion through influ-
ence and compulsion. Read the chapter of this book titled “How To Be
An Effective Leader”. The piece elaborately explains the use of influ-
ence and compulsion under different conditions and personality types.
In relation to power and leadership, the simultaneous use of both
methods extracts the most amount of utility when leading others. The
crux of the chapter sums up in one sentence; explicitly details the
benefits of complying, while implicitly stating the consequences of
defying.
Leverage
I remember quitting my job as a pharmacist manager years ago

when an owner of another pharmacy called me two days after my
resignation.
“Are you on the market?!” he asked me.

I told him “Hi Bob, look, I’m really not looking for any work, I want to
spend-”
“I got the perfect position for you, just name your price!” he interrupted me.
My efficiency and effectiveness in managing patient outflow was

already recognised in the industry I worked in. I was surprised that my
reputation preceded me in a way that tilted the negotiations in my
favour before I even showed any interest. What was more astounding,
was how Bob’s staff immediately sharpened themselves up upon
hearing that I had accepted the offer. If you can build a formidable
reputation, it will do half the work before your arrival. Don’t under-
estimate this leverage.
2. Competence
If you have been following me on Twitter for a while, you by now

know my obsession with competence. It is the only facet that’s irre-
placeable, giving you infinite leverage capacity. And what I mean by
that is; your specific knowledge within a domain cannot be repli-
cated. This gives you the exclusive right to apply leverage on
anything and anyone that relies on the value produced by your
skillset.
Pick Your Domain
We are past the tribal era where the large muscular guy imposes
his will by force in an act of power. In this modern-day, men have
multiple domains to master and become dominant in to attain power.
But the vast options have also made it infinitely more difficult for men
to apply conviction and self-determination. I’ve stressed this before, I’ll
stress it again, personality is everything.
You need to spend time studying your personality. I would spend
about $100 on several personality tests to really get a good grasp of
which traits stand out that define you. Do different tests and cross refer-
ence each. I am not going to go into details on the traits but here is a list
of them:
Introvert
Extrovert
Agreeableness
Disagreeableness
Conscientiousness
Openness/Creativity
Excellence is found in exploiting your traits. Once you have recog-

nised and acknowledged what personality type you are, find work or
become productive in domains where you can manifest your traits.
Then practice till you become perfect. Then practice more to apply effi-
ciency. The aim is to provide value largely built by the strength of your
traits. Your value then, becomes your signature. It makes you a “part
of” the value itself, an indispensable portion of it.
Follow the 4 stages of learning:

Unconscious Incompetence
Conscious Incompetence
Conscious Competence
Unconscious Competence
Stage five is speed. Efficiency is what makes you stand out from the
competent. When you reach stage five, it’s an indication that you have
become the best at what you do.
Speed separates you from others as the winner. Why? Because it
means you can provide the most amount of productivity of labour, in
the shortest period of time. And if you can deliver it flawlessly, then
you become an absolute force to contend with.
Never let your specific knowledge self-automate. And never teach
others 100% of what you know. It’s crucial to understand that the value
you provide from your competence does not self-automate. You need to
be a part of it. You need to ingrain yourself into the system that gener-
ates the value.
Leverage
The more society values your competence, the more you can
leverage it. But it is infinitely better to occupy a sublime position within
a moderately valued domain, over a semi-competent position within a
highly valued domain.
Competence is leveraged when you provide value that you
happen to generate with ease in exchange for value you do not gener-
ate. The value in pursuit could be monetary, positional, tactical, politi-
cal, or anything of subjective value to you. The first step is to observe
and study what relies on your competence within your sphere of influ-
ence. Is it a person? Is it a system? A department? Anything you find
that relies on your competence is subject to unfair advantage and
manipulation. Also note that the scalability of your competence will
magnify your leverage capacity.
Using specific knowledge to impose authority through leverage is a
game played at the highest level of organisations. Businesses and polit-
ical figures leverage their value for positional advantage and power all
the time. Leveraging competence is a mandatory element that ascends
you on the socio-economic hierarchy.
3. Resources
There’s a saying written by George Orwell; he who controls the flow

of information controls the world. The same principle can be extended
towards the control of resources within organisations. Resources are the
lifeline of any organisational hierarchy, and it usually comes in two
forms; tangible and intangible resources.
Intangible
When I say intangible resources I don’t mean intangible assets,

although there may be an overlap between the two. An example of an
intangible resource would be; 10% of the repeat clients within a busi-
ness only demand to do business with you. This gives you ‘resources’
in the form of profit that would otherwise not be there for an organisa-
tion. The fact that certain clients only conduct business with you indi-
cates loyalty to a “personal brand”, which is considered an intangible
asset in business. A significant portion of your personal brand relies on
your reputation. But the resources are in effect, your clients.
Another form of intangible resource is your ability to influence
people in a way (see How To Be An Effective Leader) that makes them
defiant to everyone else, so only you can manoeuvre them. Your ability
to effortlessly make people comply turns them into a resource that can
be utilised by you and only you. I’ve used this several times at work to
get rid of incompetent managers. I lobby the staff to support me and
comply to my commands (and only mine), rendering other managers
“ineffective” in their job.
Tangible
Tangible resources are resources that you have access to at a rela-

tively low cost compared to others. The comparative advantage gives
you the ability to utilize it with leverage within an organisation.
Tangible resources could come in any form and it largely depends on
the organisation. For instance, when I used to work in community
pharmacy I shared the responsibility of stock ordering. At the time,
Viagra happened to just come off patent and generic companies were
popping up everywhere with deals. I found a supplier who I made a
exclusive side deal with, something nobody does in community phar-
macy. I created a contract that I would would exclusively order lines
from this supplier in the event of stock shortages from any other
supplier.
In exchange, I would get to purchase generic Viagra for 98 cents per
box for 12 months as opposed to $4.90. The sales guy checked with his
manager, and the deal was set. I leveraged this as a resource and it
became well known that; if you wanted cheap generic Viagra, go
see UM.
To get a comparative advantage on resources will largely depend on
the goods and services the organisation provides. Therefore, ideally
you should make a list of all the resources your work needs to provide
as service. Then see whether you can improve a particular resource
availability through your position, connections and perhaps your own
personal assets.
Your ability to control resources within an organization is
10 WRITTEN BY UNMODERN MEN, AUTHOR OF @UN…
extremely powerful because you directly impact the economics of a

business.
The mere knowledge of being known for supplying resources at low
cost gives you a tremendous reputation as an individual who priori-
tizes the viability of a business. There is no downside to this. You will at
least become reputable as a resourceful person. And at most, you can
leverage it in exchange for any other value within the organization.
4. Legitimacy
Legitimacy refers to having the license ‘to do’. It derives its power
from a license provided by a governing body or an academic institu-
tion. In relation to personal power, legitimacy is the most difficult facet
to attain. My audience reading this either already have it or lost the
time opportunity to acquire it. It is an element of power that is taxing
on your time and takes many years to yield any substantiating impact.
However, the good news is that with the technology of this day and age
and the egalitarian nature of schools, the attainment of legitimacy has
diversified across several domains. For instance, aside from a
governing body or a schooling institution, it is now possible to create
legitimacy overtime in one of these domains:
Reputable social media presence

Entrepreneurship in a start-up
The small business that provides a service
I hold a pharmacist license and an MBA degree which I am

currently doing an extension on. By far the most valuable decision I
made was to study for my MBA. Not just because of the content I
learned. But the credential is highly valued in the business world. If
you are a manager with a decent job, I strongly recommend you look
into doing an MBA. In any case, your path towards your purpose
should ideally acquire you a form of legitimacy.
Promotion Favours Legitimacy
In organizational hierarchies, the possibility of facing high competition

with regard to promotion is common. Whether you disapprove of the
schooling system or not, credentials separate you from the pack. It
gives you an unfair advantage during promotions and management
selection. I was faced with competition many times in my career where
my credentials ended up giving me an edge. If you’re ambitious with
an aim to get promoted or reach a higher salary package, an MBA or a
credential relevant to the organisation can help you achieve both. If you
and your colleague are working in the same department, and you have
done an MBA while your colleague has not, it goes without saying that
you will be the first choice for promotion.
Legitimacy Insulates You
When COVID lock down happened, demand for health professionals,

web developers, software engineers and information technology all
went up. At the time I was temporarily working at a pharmacy which
was the only business that was open in the area, with the other being a
medical centre. Obviously my degree just so happened to be useful in a
unpredictable pandemic, but don’t discount the fact that a credential
can force society to rely on your labour.
5. Relational
Before I explore this facet, it is important to know that there is

tremendous overlap with each of these facets discussed above. And
each one will play a substantial role with regards to your relations with
others. The essence of who we are and what determines our importance
will never change across time. If you want network and connect with
others, you must bring something to the table. The four facets discussed
above aims to achieve that in the most pragmatic way possible.
To understand the relational aspect of individual power, you need
to first make sense of some definitions:
Ties – The people you know. Some call this your contact list.
It is a list of everyone you have access to, whether you see
everyday or email, or call.
Coalitions – A group of people that work in a coordinated
manner to exert force and influence.
Density – Measures the strength of your ties and your
coalition. Having a contact list is one thing, but being able to
leverage them for effectiveness is another.
Centrality – Determines how close you are to people of
influence within coalitions.
A Typical Hierarchy
Let’s explore the image above for a moment.

What I am going to discuss refers to a reasonably well-managed
company that seeks to promote competence and ideas. We have an
organizational hierarchy with a division that contains people within a
coalition, and people outside it. This image is a snapshot of one oper-
ating group, but depending on the size of the company, there could be
several coalitions that form within departments. Inside the coalition,
you have a group of people whose colors represent a field of expertise.
This means people do not make it into a coalition at random. They
must bring something to the table.
The arrows inside the coalition represent the density between the
individuals. The number of arrows pointing at you determines the
extensiveness of your ties. The arrow between you and the influencer is
the formation of centrality. The image depicts you as an outsider, where
centrality is crucial if you want to have any credibility within the coali-
tion. But to form your own relational power, you take a different
approach. Here’s a guide;
Relational Laws
Grow your ties to as many people as possible. Don’t worry about

the quality of the people you are connecting to. Aim to grow your
contact list as much as you can.
Apply density to those in your contact list that prove valuable and
have something to offer. Density will strengthen your ties with certain
people. This is achieved by creating a bond and covenant of trust
through;
increasing interactive exposure with someone

increase frequency of interaction & dialogue
value exchange
vulnerability exchange
Form your coalition. You need clear objectives and purpose for your
reasons of forming a coalition. Then you need to invite those that
appeal to such purpose and can provide value to help you attain it. I
formed my own coalition several times throughout my career;
To motivate staff to improve themselves, and be invited into the
coalition
Co-ordinate task completions in my absence

To collectively achieve a target for business growth
To collude and fabricate pretext to fire toxic employees
Coalition is an absolute necessity if you want to possess influence

that extends beyond your sphere of influence. As a leader, how you
create your coalition and the atmosphere you establish will speak
volumes. Invite only on the basis of competence. Not friendship. The
coalition you form of your own design, will end up reflecting and
representing you.
CHAPTER 2
MAKING MONEY ONLINE AS
A CONSULTANT
W HAT I S A C ONSULTANT ?
There is a large number of people who fit under the consultant title.

They simply prefer other labels, such as operations manager or a
strategic advisor. They charge fees that vary in rate and frequency,
while advising on matters that can take hours to years. The name “con-
sultant” gets a bad rap in society. Poster child businesses such as
Mckinsey & Boston Consulting Group have a notorious reputation for
their involvement in almost every existing industry and their knack for
expediency. I strongly suggest you read The Firm by Duff McDonald ,
an excellent book that delves into the world of Mckinsey Consulting.
To call yourself a consultant, you must do the following things:
Provide Advice & Recommendation
Consultants are sought out for something they specialize in, in

which their specialty will be utilized to solve a client problem in
exchange for a fee. Consultants can simply provide advice, or recom-
mend a strategy, or even actively implement the strategy themselves.
One of the pharmacy chains I worked for many years ago were
going through major restructuring. They consulted a lawyer who
specialized in the pharmaceutical industry. I remember sitting at the
table with one of the executives negotiating with the lawyer. At the end
of the meeting, the executive was given a single piece of paper. On that
paper, there were certain guidelines which allowed a pharmacy to
remote dispense; ability to set up multiple pharmacies across multiple

locations by only using one licence. The lawyer charged $45,000 for that
piece of paper. That day, he was not a lawyer. He was a consultant.
Advise Comes From Specific Knowledge
The advice provided by a consultant derives from their specific

knowledge, accumulated through years of education, training and
application. The advice is difficult to replicate, and when implemented,
it provides a positive change to the client.
Advice Is Implemented & Delivered
The key job of a consultant is to be able to communicate the advice

through to the client. This sounds obvious, but most consultants do not
pay attention to this point. Reading advice or a recommendation is one
thing. Being able to implement it, is entirely another. Implementation
usually requires the consultant to get his hands dirty in some form or
another. The conventional way of doing this, is for the consultant is to
visit the business, connect with key people that will extract the consul-
tant’s advice, and implement it under their guidance. Times have
changed. Now consultants can engage in zoom calls to deliver their
advice. Being physically present is no longer a prerequisite.
The Relationship With Clients Are Temporary
Consultants work with clients on temporary basis. The length of the

consultation ranges from hours to months. It’s uncommon for consul-
tants to work with clients indefinitely. The title “consultant” is distinc-
tive from other titles such as advisors and managers because the name
represents outside counsel; a representative that has no association with
company it consults with. They are engaged to solve a specific problem,
then add the client to their network, and be on their way.
Value Is Added Through Positive Change
Value comes in variety of forms. For a consultant, it could mean

better management practices, setting up systems for efficiency, reducing
variable/fixed expenses of a business, organisational adjustments,
marketing and product differentiation. The value will derive from the
consultants specific skill set.
TO SUMMARIZE
A consultant is a specialized independent advisor who adds value by
helping clients solve complex problems within their field of expertise.
What do I do?
I’m a management consultant who works in the health industry. I

specialize in improving cash flow via revenue and costs, product differ-
entiation, vertical integrations, staff restructuring and implementing
efficiency systems. I also provide more unconventional value such as
hiring/firing staff, career strategies, conflict resolution and improving
employee performance. So my consulting is not strictly limited to
management, as I find myself doing the opposite half the time; un-
managing to increase creativity for the growth of the business.
About 15 clients online, sought me out for a consultation from their
own accord (without me needing to advertise) since I have established
my UM brand. I advised them on career strategy, office politics, getting
a promotion, and on how to manage people. I have had one client who
I successfully consulted with over a zoom call, in developing a business
strategy to improve revenue.
The reason why I accepted these clients was not because of the
money. Most were not charged. I did it to observe whether my area of
consulting is scalable online without losing the results it normally
delivers offline. I simply have no time to pursue this avenue even
though it presented itself to me merely as a result of me writing and
building the UM brand. Currently I am consulting a large business and
to compensate for the demand for my consultations from my followers,
I set up the lobby on my telegram channel where I can consult with
members in an efficient and affordable way.
Is online consulting possible? It definitely is. So from here on wards,
I am going to show you step-by-step how to successfully consult online
to make money. What you are about to read is not a get rich quick
scheme. This requires preparation and hard work.
1. You Will Need Specific Knowledge
Specialize
This step cannot be skipped. If you want to become a professional

consultant you will HAVE to specialize. Many people in this day and
age resent education and the schooling system, and for good reason.
The content taught are becoming fast outdated, the education is
becoming egalitarian, and students are being charged ridiculous fees.
But all of that suffers in comparison to that piece of paper you attain
that they call a degree. Truth is, credentials from education STILL
matter. People regard it as evidence that you know what you’re doing,
which is absolutely NOT the case. But that’s how things are.
Find a way to specialize within a field. Look at options online where
you can apply for several courses that provide a credible degree. I
understand not many countries provide fee-help with regards to

colleges and therefore looking at online options such as Coursera can
be an affordable way to obtain a certificate.
Once you do all the theory, you need to then apply it. Connect
offline with people who you could offer your services to. Do it for free
and request a letter of recommendation in exchange. Testimonials along
with your credentials will go a long way in establishing your presence
online as a consultant. Do not assume your credentials will win you
clients. Clients are mostly interested in your track record. A portfolio of
testimonials will get you more clients than a qualification will. But the
combination will make you stand out and kill competitors. I have an
MBA from an institute that is regarded as the “Harvard University” of
the country I live in, and ranked 8th in the world. My barrier to entry
into any business is very low on the competitive landscape.
What Field Should You Pick?
This really comes down to passion. If you are really passionate over
a topic, it will become specific knowledge. Having said that, I know
plenty of individuals who have no passion in what they do but excel in
it. I really believe it is a combination of temperament, emotional detach-
ment, and self-discipline that allows a person to excel at what they do
without loving it.
For arguments sake, I will in general, advise this; pick a field that is
relatively easy to be able to provide specific knowledge online. Here’s a
list from easiest to hardest:
IT & Tech Support

Web development
Marketing & Social Media Management
Personal Finance Management
Career Strategist
Options & Derivatives Stock trading
Tax & Accounting Advisory
Management Of People & Organisations
Strategic Management of Businesses
There’s a stark difference between managing people & organisa-

tions, compared to managing a business. It is much easier to provide
consultancy with regards to employees and HR. To be able to affect the
bottom line of a business, I believe physical presence to be crucial,
which is why I have listed it at the bottom. But technology is changing
fast, and with the available tools, the ability to manage businesses
remotely is changing positively. You also have to consider the rules,
jurisdictions and policies of different countries if you pick a topic such
as Tax & Accounting.
There’s a whole lot I have also intentionally left out. For example, a
successful consulting business can be built around providing relation-
ship advice or how to score on your next date. But I do not believe
these avenues to provide value for clients despite the available market
that can be capitalized on. The list I have provided is what I believe
provides maximum amount of value with respect to the current and
future conditions. If you see a market that I have not listed, comment
underneath & I will approve.
I have also left out topics that can be easily be obtained online.
For example I have had requests to consult with regards to leader-

ship and improving character. I’ve simply referred them to books and
literature. Remember we are not conning people here. Consulting is not
about accumulating what is already available on the internet, just to
repackage and sell. It is about providing specific knowledge that is
difficult to find without having to spend ample amount of time and
research. Ultimately, you need to pick a domain where you will end up
having a comparative advantage over others, enough to convert that
advantage to a service in exchange for money.
Also consider what you currently do as your line of work. Can it be
offered online? Is it possible to study a course for it and add some cred-
ibility to it? You can always discuss this matter in the lobby and get
some pointers. It may be unnecessary to deviate from a field entirely if
you can strategize on how you can take your existing expertise online.
Competition determines market
Also make a note that before deciding what you pursue, competi-
tive domains will mean less clients for you. And conversely, domains
that have less competition will provide you with more clients. This
usually means specializing more and more in what you do.
2. Set up Your Presence Online
I am not going to spend too much time discussing this point. Mostly
because I am no expert in establishing a presence online. I built the UM
brand with a lot of help and advice from my web developer (who is a
young twenty-something year old living somewhere across the globe).
And I was fortunate enough for my content to gain the likes of large
influencers who helped my exposure. Nevertheless, here are the funda-
mentals:
Have a social media account to gain followers.

Connect with influencers & provide value.
Have a website to set up your offering.
Be able to provide specific, experiential content.

Funnel followers to view your website.
Content is literally king. Your writing will draw random people and
increase your exposure. Stay away from platitudes. Influencers who
post platitudes have no specific knowledge. You are trying to establish
yourself as a consultant. You have to provide dense content.
There’s two parts to writing content
When you write content, it should derive from your experience and
domain of expertise. The type of content written will either be generic
or specialized. But it is never platitudinous. When I tweet, I often do it
from a generic, experiential perspective. My generic tweets often appeal
to a good amount of followers who can relate. In the lobby, I often write
specialized content for the members. This is because they ask me ques-
tions and the dialogue develops in complexity, demanding me to artic-
ulate my experience and specific knowledge in a manner that extends
outside simple generic advice. This article you are reading is special-
ized advice. It contains my career experience intertwined with strate-
gies that can integrate itself on the internet to increase client exposure.
Be Careful of Your Reputation
If my intention with UM was to make a living through online

income, I would not tweet the way I do. I would not purge by dissing
religion or go off on a karen-tangent over masks, conservatives and
God. I would be agreeable and try to gain most amount of popularity
and exposure as possible. But that’s not why I created UM. I created
UM to help people think for themselves & navigate through life. If you
want to become an online consultant to generate online income, you
will have a reputation to maintain.
It is also worth noting that it is better to not have an anonymous
presence online. The idea behind this is that when you are offering a
genuine service, you need to show prospective clients your identity;
who you are and what you do. You also want to be able integrate your
online presence with your real life; providing people your business
card who can then go on your twitter and follow you.
Being anonymous will hinder your growth as a consultant doing
remote work online. When I started off as UM on twitter I had no inten-
tion of developing a site, writing content and creating the lobby for
mentoring. But my content attracted followers who demanded that I
explore this avenue. If I was doing this to build an online income to live
off by, I would not be anonymous.
3. Be a Online Consultant
Now the fun begins. How do you actually become a good consultant?
Here’s the blueprint.
Remember this:
As an online consultant, your job is to work remotely, from home or
your office and recommend strategies for your client’s problem.
Depending whether your client is an individual or a business, you will
have to use tools to coordinate with employees, help evaluate the busi-
ness performance, look for ways to improve the bottom line, or serve as
a consultant on any topic within your expertise which they need help
with.
The Basics
You don’t have customers. You have clients. When someone

requests your service, they become your client. If you decide to accept
the request, you are obligated to engage with your client. The engage-
ment typically is a phase where you do a S.W.O.T analysis on your
clients specific problem (not the client themselves!). You make an
assessment on your clients strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats. You then write up a proposal that aims to address the W.O.T.
All this is done without charging the client. If the client is satisfied with
the proposal; and they are confident that you will improve their W.O.T,
you will then discuss the fees in exchange for your service.
Remember that you are not a leader, mentor or a coach; unless you
specifically provide such services as a consultant. You’re a problem
solver. You have no interest in their personal lives, or the internal poli-
tics of a business. You are hired for a specific reason and your entire
focus should be to deliver on that reason. The game is summarized as;
propose, deliver and close.
Fees
Charging your clients depends your field of expertise, the

bargaining power of buyers in the market and how often you have to
consult them. If the bargaining power of buyers are high, that means
you probably provide service within a market that is saturated and the
prices will be competitive. If you have specialized in a niche, you will
likely get away with charging higher prices. Consulting your client for
couple of hours, five days a week will equate to $1,200 a week if you
charge $120 an hour. I personally would charge (as I have done offline)
a set price for a project. I would do a S.W.O.T on their request, develop
a proposal and charge a set fee with 60-75% upfront and the rest upon
completion.
Remember to research your market. The market sets the price, not
you. Your ability to charge more than the market rests upon your credi-
bility and reputation of being the best. Testimonials and word of mouth
is key to leveraging higher prices. The fee you charge almost entirely
depends whether you are equipped with highly specialized, or generic
knowledge.
Understand What You Are Getting Into
The best way to approach the avenue of becoming an online consul-

tant is to treat it like a start-up and build it slowly while you maintain
your other job. You need to understand that this is a self-employed
business and that your ability to make money will depend on time allo-
cation on your end. I highly suggest you maintain your other job while
you build your consultancy online. Cash flow is something important
to consider here. Consultants often get paid a lump sum and use that
money to tie themselves over.
If your 9-5 generates $800 a week, don’t disturb this routine. Work
on your consulting when you come home. Try to make $200-$400 here
and there with clients while maintaining your weekly income. Do not
disrupt your 9-5 until what you make in consulting out pays your
weekly income. This will take time. This is what I did offline, when I
was working as a manager, I also consulted independently to other
businesses. I enjoyed doing both.
You will not be able to consult unless
You establish a client

The client has a problem within your field of expertise
You can identify the solution to the problem of your client
The client knows about you & perceives you are capable
The client has set aside an amount to spend on you
Your Job is to Make your Clients Life Easier
As a consultant, you deliver change. That change derives from your

S.W.O.T analysis. Your analysis is effectively a strategy that will help
determine what you need to achieve for the client. Once determined,
you implement the strategy through an action plan. Once successfully
delivered, you engage in operational consultancy to ensure the new
implementation is performing as expected. Your job as a consultant is
complete when your service has achieved the standard your client
expects.
Maximize On Your Service By Extending Scope
Your consultation should be aiming to deliver on a narrow area of

your clients business. This could mean that there are other departments
within your clients business that may need attention, given that the
scope of work remains within your expertise. This is one of the simplest
ways to maximize the delivery of your service, by providing a holistic
solution to the several problems your client has. It is very important to
utilize your connections here as part of your scope of practice. If you’re
applying efficiency ratios for your clients inventory, offer that you have
a great web designer who can increase the foot traffic to their site and
improve inventory cash flow. Tell them that you would do it for a
discount as part of the ongoing service you are providing.
Often in consulting, when you are trying to fix one problem, you
will find that there is a web of other problems that it relates to. As long
as these inter-related problems remain within your domain of expertise,
you should be capitalizing on them.
4. Finding Clients
Remember this; A client must need help from a consultant to fix a

problem. And a consultant must provide solutions for a clients prob-
lem. When the solution aligns with the problem, there is an opportunity
to sell. The challenge is finding people with problems that are suited to
your problem-solving skills.
Consulting Is Networking
Consulting is a networking business. The more you connect with

others, the more you play infinite games and build lasting relation-
ships, the more likely their word of mouth will bring you business.
Your network becomes your sales leads. Wherever you choose to build
your social media presence, it will be the playground for your network-
ing. “Cold Calls” in online consulting is the equivalent of dropping a
message on business sites to provide a short intro on what you do; “Hi
my name is UM, and I am consultant with 8 years experience in managing
operations in X businesses. If you need someone to review your cash flow state-
ment and see where you can improve, lets do a zoom call. View my work here”.
I’m not a fan of cold calls and sales. I seek power in negotiations
when I want to do work for a client. Obviously your need for money
will determine your bargaining power. I don’t usually see clients
outside my current line of work unless the money is overly attractive.
But despite your need for money, remember that it is always better for
potential clients to hear about you from others, than you actively
seeking them out.
Every post and tweet you put out there, is a vehicle that delivers a
mini marketing campaign to people with needs. It is how you inform
people of your capabilities. Your blog or website is you writing testimo-
nials about yourself. Everyone in your network must be informed and

aware of the services you provide.
Your Network Extends Your Scope
This was briefly touched on above but worth mentioning again.

Having a list of diverse experts as contacts will always allow you to
extend your offering to your clients. You will transition from a consul-
tant in one area, into a consultant on everything.
Initial Proposal Offering (IPO)
This method is time consuming but quiet effective when done right.
Basically you message a potential client to provide you a problem that
needs solving. And in exchange you send them a free IPO. Time
consumption on this is high. You have to sit down and strategize on
how you will solve the problem, find a solution and develop a proposal
for it. I have done this successfully before. I developed my own
template that helps me narrow down on problems swiftly in order to
develop a free proposal. But there is no guarantee you will win them as
a client with this method. Which usually doesn’t pose as a problem as
consulting is a numbers game. But the investment on this method is
high.
By far the most effective method to getting clients in real life and
online, is marketing.
Learn to market like a consultant. Not like a salesman. This means

your marketing should be effortless. You’re not marketing for people,
you are marketing for yourself. You write and tweet because you want
your value to radiate out of you. If it captures people’s attention and
turns them into clients, then that is a great side effect. If not, you do not
care because you are simply building an extension of you online.
The Cost Of Opportunity
Lets pretend you found a potential client who contacted you

inquiring about your services. You need to be swift on laying out what
you offer and then deciding how far you will go to win this client. You
have to consider the direct and indirect costs of chasing a client. The
direct cost is your time & resources used to win the client. The indirect
cost is the opportunity lost in chasing other potential clients. The fastest
way to win a client is to evoke emotions in them. And I don’t mean this
in a con-artist sense.
What you want to do is narrow down on your clients problem and
develop an argument on how their problem is creating all these other
adverse effects in their business or their life. What you’re doing here is
creating some clarity around the problem which will inevitably
enhance your clients negative emotions. Then you can offer what you
can do to solve it, which would evoke positive emotions. This is a
psychological persuasion tactic that brings two forces together; running
away from something they don’t like (their problem), towards some-
thing they do like (your solution).
The key to really landing a client is to research and understand your

client’s problem.
This is something most consultant fail in. Because it is the most diffi-
cult and time consuming phase that you can not charge for. But it is
mandatory if you want to build your clientele. I strongly suggest that
you develop templates and models tailored to your expertise which
will help you deconstruct problems and accelerate the this phase by
preparing a solution. Clients never hire a consultant for generic, gener-
alized problem. It will always be specific and relatively difficult. This
gives you no choice, but to invest hours into first understanding the
problem.
As soon as you find a client, here are the steps you must follow:
Have an in depth understanding of your client’s problem

Find a solution to the problem and develop a proposition
Deliver a compelling argument on why the proposal should
be accepted
Upon acceptance, is when you get to work and start making
money
Don’t Fall for the Employee Role Just to Win a Client
When you are having early talks with a potential client, you might
disagree with some of their points made with regards to their problem.
Some clients speak as though you are their employee; “here is my prob-
lem, I want this and that done”. Remember that you are not an
employee. You have been engaged to advise and consult. It’s important
you maintain this frame. It is very easy to be exploited when you inad-
vertently accept the employee role. I have seen clients tell the consul-
tant on what to do (and how to do it), then create a dispute that they
didn’t solve their problems adequately. So it is important that you
subtly correct your client in this case; that you have your own assess-
ment and analytical tools that will help you develop your own set of
strategies in solving your clients problem.
Once You Hook a Client, Proposal is Everything

If a client provides you with an opportunity to present a solution,

you will need to provide an immaculate proposal; concise, beautiful,
clear, and succinctly addressing the problem. This is called framing to
win the client. Your proposal is not just a preliminary report on your
service. It should be a piece that also markets you to your client. It can
be text based or a presentation, but either way, it must address clients
needs in a realistic way. The proposals I have done are usually 4 to 5
pages.
One proposal I developed was 12 pages long. It was a business plan
that laid out strategies for a manager to execute in order to grow a
medical clinic in a location that contained 8 other medical clinics within
an 5 mile radius. I call it a proposal because I never did any work for
the clinic, but I still got paid $750 for 2.5 hours of work writing the busi-
ness plan. It ended up being successfully utilized by the clinic manager
which she ended up improving patient volume by 15%.
How did I write 12 pages in two and half hours? I had internal
systems, models and procedures in place that helped me fast track my
solution to the problem. Because I’ve managed health practices before
and I have extensive experience in growing such businesses. This is
extremely important to understand. Your specific knowledge,
combined with your experience will help you develop personal models
and systems that will accelerate your problem solving skills. You will
drastically increase your return on time.
5. Commencement
When a client accepts your proposal, you as a consultant begin

commencement. Your commencement follows with a engagement plan,
or a project purpose, which is a document that outlines exactly what
you’re going to do. Typically this document will be shared with your
client, or a representative of your client. Consulting online often
requires an employee of a company to remotely engage with you and
execute your desired actions. I generally use two excel documents for
this.
The project template is a sheet that lets you write down all your
objectives and the associated costs, attached to a nice quarterly calendar
that keeps track of objective progress. The project monitoring spread-
sheet is something I have developed to make communication between
me and my client more efficient. You may need to message me in the
lobby on these sheets (especially the project monitoring) on how to best
utilize them.
The nature and length of your consulting will depend on the

complexity of your clients problem.
Usually you will consult from anywhere between one week to one
year. Remember that your engagement plan will have to remain
comprehensive but also very flexible. This is why I use these spread-
sheets as the objectives are easy to adjust. Always have the end in
mind. You have to envision what you want the end result to look like.
The engagement plan is simply the road between you and the end
result you are trying to achieve. Examples of end results:
10% in user/customer volume

5% reduction in fixed expenses
12% increase in sales
20% increase in cash flow
Simply marketing to increase customers is not enough. You need to

measure whether your strategy worked effectively by narrowing down
on the percentage. Cutting costs is not enough. Evaluate the difference
in cash flow before the end of every month and record the percentage.
Do not be a lazy consultant
It is very easy to talk about organizational change and cultural

adjustment of a workplace. Fastest way to identify a problem is to
blame it on the current roster and its culture. Don’t do this. This type of
consulting is a low-resolution, surface approach that will make you
look bad. Problems are often deeper than just incompetent employees
and poor culture. There’s is usually logistics to it that requires manage-
ment to rectify it. Dig deep and explore the root of the problem.
Assess Whether the Problem is a “What” or a “How”
This is a method I use all the time in my consulting. If the problem I

have analyzed appears to be a process issue, then it is a “what” prob-
lem. That means I switch gears and become a advisor to guide the client
towards fixing their own problem. If the problem is structural, then I
need to get my hands dirty and use my expertise to find a solution. A
“what” problem is a matter of delegation with guidance. A “why”
problem is a matter of expertise. If your clients website is not respond-
ing, that is a “why” problem. If it lacks foot traffic, that is more of a
“what” problem that can be fixed with a few tips and tricks. When
doing online consulting, you will find that being a process consultant
over a expert consultant much easier.
Being a process consultant will usually require one on one

with a client and helping them with strategies to solve their
problems. A career strategist is another example.
Being a expert consultant will require someone (whether it’s

your client or a representative) to relay back and forth with
you until you reach desired results.
• • •
6. Do not restrict yourself
To finish up, the most important behavior to maintain while you

establish yourself as a consultant, is to not limit yourself to being
nothing but a consultant. You will never know where opportunities
could strike. You might end up meeting a self-employed business
owner online as result of a contact in your network who experienced
your sublime service. A start-up genius might request you to work with
him in exchange for some private placement of shares. Understand that
establishing yourself as an online consultant with a carefully built,
reputable brand, is not limited to just making an online income. It
opens a portal of infinite potential connections.
CHAPTER 3
HOW TO LEVERAGE
RESPONSIBILITY
I WROTE A THREAD ON T WITTER WITH REGARDS TO HOW MEN NEED TO KNOW

when to take responsibility and when to refuse it. In a world where
people are looking for more rights while forgoing responsibilities, it is
very easy to get lost in your self-improvement journey by committing
yourself to all kinds of duties in an attempt to demonstrate yourself as
a transformed man who can provide value to society. But it is not that
simple. There are several factors surrounding responsibility that all
need to be broken down and analyzed before someone should uphold
its duty.
Responsibility comes with Incentive or Authority
Delegating responsibility is exploitation if it’s not accommodated

with an incentive or authority. ESPECIALLY when it falls outside your
job description. This happens all the time in the workplace with little to
no observation. Responsibility in hindsight should be identified as a
trap unless the upside is clearly revealed from the beginning. An incen-
tive is a clear exchange in value: you do something that you are
accountable for and get rewarded for your effort. This is the most ideal
(uncommon), stress-free scenario. There will always be a push-pull
effect, where you will want a generous compensation that will
outweigh the effort, while the delegator will seek to outsource
maximum responsibility that would justify handing the compensation.
But this is normal.
Authority
A more common situation is when authority is given in exchange

for delegation of responsibility. Your newfound duty will enable you to

exert control & make decisions within its domain. This seems like a fair
value exchange, but not necessarily. Because if you cant leverage this
authority, then whatever you are responsible for, is worthless. There’s a
difference between John who has been given the responsibility (and
authority) to sort out the mailing room, and Sam, who’s been given the
responsibility (and authority) to prioritize meetings to arrange high
profile clients to be met first.
John cannot leverage his authority of the mailing room for posi-
tional ascendancy. Nor can he use it as armament for when things go
sour. His value is as good as what the mailing room offers – mail. Sam
on the other hand can directly affect the bottom line of a business. He
can choose to perfect his craft and create a systematic model that opti-
mally streamlines high-profile clients to bring in revenue. Then
leverage this feat for positional ascendancy, or insulate himself during
layoffs. Or both. So the distinction between Sam and John raises
questions.
What are you being responsible for?
What responsibility is you being delegated? You need to be able to

quantify what this responsibility yields when its duties are fulfilled. Is
it something of value? Apply context to the situation:
If you’re in a workplace, does this responsibility affect the

bottom line of the business? Or is it a mere simple, repetitive
job that any junior with baseline intellect can accomplish?
If your responsibility is to provide as a family man, are you
given the respect and authority to take command of your
family in a direction you deem rightful?
You must question the value that’s being exchanged for the respon-
sibility given. We can create a little model here that can clarify the
concepts discussed and develop a metric for it to be used as a guide. We
know responsibility must be exchanged for either incentive or author-
ity. The third parameter is value; which will determine the weight of
the responsibility and subsequently, the ability to leverage authority.
For simplicity, we can assume revenue (money) to represent value. The
higher the impact the responsibility has on revenue, the stronger the
capacity for leverage when you exercise authority. This means, from a
positional ascension point of view; that you should only accept the
responsibility that has an underlying value, which can then be
leveraged.
Valueless Responsibility
You should refuse all kinds of responsibility that represents no

value. If you can’t because your subordinate position disallows you to,
then make a note of it. If you see no value in your newfound responsi-
bility, then understand that without an incentive, no amount of
authority will make a valueless responsibility worthwhile. Do not
assume that you can apply this model in every context. For example,
there are many responsibilities a family man must uphold despite its
duties having no apparent value. There’s certain sacrifices a family man
should be willing to make to maintain the integrity of his family. And
that might mean to uphold responsibilities that doesn’t necessarily
provide him value, but provides for the benefit of the family as a whole.
Responsibility without incentive or authority?
I mentioned in the thread that there is only one condition that

would merit upholding responsibility despite the absence of incentives
or authority; If the responsibility given, is very valuable in of itself, &
can be leveraged against the person giving it. This is the cunning
method that forces a return in value, and difficult to implement.
Because without authority, there’s not much you can do to effectively
maneuver leverage. The best way to explain it is through my experi-
ence. Refer to the thread HERE.
I was being exploited when I first worked in a community phar-
macy, with all the responsibilities dumped on me without any incentive
or authority.
Every month, I was being delegated a new responsibility because no
one else would do it. But with every new responsibility, I became more
and more inseparable from the operations of the business. This is a key
ingredient here; becoming INSEPARABLE from the operations of the
business.
Going all in
This means understanding the system, the revenue generating

services, high paying customers (and networking with them). And
breaking rules in order to do favors for them who later become
indebted to you. When you’re given a position to do everything, there
are methods you can exercise that go unsupervised.
It’s the tactic you are forced to take when you are taken advantage
of. I immersed myself into the operations of the business. And I
decided to act at a time they needed me to be accountable the most. The
damage was clear. They either prepare for damage control, or give me
what I want; positional ascendancy.
I discourage using this method unless you are being taken advan-
tage of. Abdication of responsibility engrossed within the operations of
a business, is a powerful leverage. It can shift anything in your favor
when the trigger is pulled at the right time; i.e at a time when condi-
tions necessitate accountability. Diligent use of this method is crucial as
it can backfire when not executed at the right time and right place.
Observe the situation and context carefully, and don’t be deluded into
thinking that you are indispensable. And finally, this method requires
patience and concealment from letting others know. You have to lead
them to think you are entirely oblivious to what they are doing.
The dark side of responsibility
If you are not careful, all that responsibility can turn into exploita-
tion very quickly. Especially in the absence of any incentive or author-
ity. And that exploitation, once realized can give rise to dark emotions
like hate and resentment that will lead you to make rash decisions. I
always encourage clients to negotiate their responsibility upfront and
explicitly recognize the incentive for their extra duties. There are certain
points you need to understand regarding this ‘leveraging of responsi-
bility’, particularly in the absence of any kind of reward.
You must explicitly understand that obtaining valuable responsi-
bility in exchange for nothing OUTSIDE your job description is a risk
you are running. Because the leverage could fail. And if it does, its
possible that it could backfire and you could lose your job. The risk you
will always run with this method is that the boss can absorb the cost
and still get rid of you. Some bosses have large enough egos that cloud
their judgement entirely. Instead of providing you with a generous
well-deserved reward, they rather out-muscle you by simply taking
you out.
But its also worth noting that you never want to work for someone
who doesn’t reward your value in the first place. There’s a implicit
universal law that if you provide more than you should, you ought to
get something for it in return. Otherwise the desire to strive to become
better will come to a halt. And you should not want to work in a place
that does not reward over-achievers, unless you have something going
on the side and you are using your 9-5 as a temporary financial aid.
Who you are
It is also worth mentioning that you should really try to understand

who you are. You have to get to know yourself very well. You need to
know whether you are taking responsibility tactfully for leverage, or
whether you are too agreeable and nice. Because if its the latter, then it
is more likely that you will lash out of resentment than apply strategic
deployment of leverage in order to ascend within the workplace. I have
fallen for this trap before in the past.
Not so much that I was agreeable. But my level of industriousness
motivated me to take on all the responsibilities of the workplace
without accounting for which responsibility had the most impact on

revenue.
And so I thought I had leverage, and when I threatened to leave, the
owner said “leave”. I experienced this in my junior position which
taught me lessons and enabled me to execute it strategically the next
time around.
To hedge against this trap, make it a rule that you should never pull the
leverage trigger unless you have something set up on the side. You
have to consider the worst case scenario: your boss getting rid of you.
Which means you need adequate planning for such scenario. You
should make this a rule in your life; never make rash decisions on the
future of your current job unless you can find something equal or
better. Join THE LOBBY where I discuss all these concepts with
members and their line of work.
SHADOW INTEGRATION
Manipulation is everywhere. It is embedded within our lives and constantly

plays on our emotions.
CHAPTER 1
HOW PEOPLE MANIPULATE
YOU
YOUR EMOTIONS DETERMINE YOUR EXPOSURE TO

MANIPULATION. CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS,
CONTROL MANIPULATORS.
M ANIPULATION IS EVERYWHERE . I T IS EMBEDDED WITHIN OUR LIVES AND
constantly plays on our emotions. If you look up manipulation on the
web, there are now multiple categories ranging from psychological
manipulation to data, media, internet, marketing and so on. This article
will focus on how someone seeks to manipulate you and how you can
detect it to employ their own tactics. Here is some short content you
should familiarize yourself with before going further:
INFLUENCE & COMPULSION ARTICLE: PSYCHOPATHIC

TRAITS
Manipulation is not evil.

Here is the definition of manipulation:
The action of manipulating something in a skillful manner

The action of manipulating someone in a clever or
unscrupulous way
(unscrupulous meaning; having or showing no moral principles, not

honest or fair)
It’s not as bad as it sounds. Perhaps the second definition lacks

integrity, but its moral significance will depend on the outcome. For
example, you who are reading this, are manipulative. If you’re not, you
probably will be at one point in time in your life.
You will manipulate your child to not eat that cookie for the benefit
of his health. You will bribe him to sleep at bedtime for his own benefit.
If you are an effective leader with integrity, you probably use manipu-
lative methods all the time to get others to do things for their own bene-
fit. Remember that most people don’t know what is good for them.
They largely make choices that are responsible for their own misery. A
mandatory part of being a leader is to be able to manipulate your
followers to do something for their own benefit.
Separate it from Morality
So this means manipulation is not an immoral concept. Its moral

significance depends on its utility and outcome. Your first step is to
recognize and dissociate manipulation from morality. It is a tool used
that is indifferent to good & evil, and only seeks to serve an outcome.
What the outcome substantiates to, will depend on the person utilizing
it. Your parents used to manipulate you by doing you favors as a
reward for good behavior for your own benefit. A sociopath could
manipulate you by doing you favors to hold something over you for his
own benefit.
Same method. Different outcomes.
Rationality Is The Enemy Of Manipulation
Your parents promised you a bar of chocolate in the morning if you

went to sleep during bedtime. Obviously, there’s zero rationality here.
There’s no associated benefit that results from giving chocolate to
someone in exchange for them to go to bed at an allocated time.
But there’s plenty of evidence that suggests children love chocolate
and it makes them happy. Your parents promised you ‘happy time’ if
you did as you were told. The currency exchanged was emotions. Not
rationality.
A rational argument would be for you to go to bed at your allocated
time, because your body needs routine and the right amount of sleep
allows the body to function optimally.
No one cares.
Especially not children.
If you applied this simple example as a concept to everything, you
will quickly see that we are far more motivated by emotions than we
are by rationality. And if you’re familiar with my shadow work then
you would quickly know that this makes sense from a psychoanalytic
perspective. We are not alone. We possess sub-personalities each with
their own desires that manifest emotions according to what they want.
This is not a bad thing. After all, its emotions that gives us the drive
SHADOW INTEGRATION 37
to aim towards values and attain them. But it does expose us to manip-
ulation. Because we are more likely to do something, when the transac-
tion involves emotions than logic. And again, this makes perfect sense.
Truth is nature. It’s harsh, unfair and brutal. Rarely do people prefer to
transact under these conditions.
Ok.
So now you know for manipulation to take place, it needs to play
into your emotions; your wants, your needs, your urges, your tendency
to act when sad… and your tendency to act when happy.
The more you express emotions, the easier it is to manipulate you.
This also means that the person seeking to manipulate you will
suppress all rational arguments in order to attain their particular
outcome.
So a typical conversation with a manipulator will involve the
following ingredients:
Something that promises a ‘happy state’ or implicitly threatens a
‘sad state’. The essence of that something that is being expressed lacks
factual elements and is difficult to quantify. Identifying the obscurity of
truth is not easy. It requires critical thinking, low neuroticism and
patience. But it is much easier to identify emotions and when you’re
being sold a ‘happy state’ or a ‘sad state’.
Understand that a manipulator uses emotions to achieve a partic-
ular outcome. They convolute the truth, evoke feelings and desires to
align means to achieve their ends. A rationalist is the polar opposite.
They apply critical thinking to rationally analyze the truth to attain
(more so discover) an outcome. Keep in mind that neither are neces-
sarily evil, they simply utilize separate tools to attain results. There can
be rationalists that execute evil acts and manipulators that deliver
benevolent outcomes. The reason why manipulators get a undesirable
name is because it is easier to commit evil acts through emotions than it
is through logic.
It just so happens that the world around us is governed by a cosmic
force teaching us through trial & error, that striving for the truth
delivers life-furthering outcomes as opposed to obscuring it. But we
never learn. And we continue to obscure the truth assuming it will
deliver a better future.
Truth can be life-negating
What I just said is not entirely true though. There is a counter argu-
ment that there are times where the truth is in fact life-negating. Here’s
an example. I have a staff of twenty that I have managed for years. I’ve
familiarized myself with them individually to understand their
strengths and weaknesses. I can confidently say that eight of them are
very industrious and competent problem solvers. They are also ambi-
tious and always explore ways to ascend.
The rest differ in their personality, but it is very clear which of them
work to just get by. If I, as their leader revealed how their temperament
and nature lets them down in their work and that there’s nothing they
can do about their genetic shortcomings, they will quickly lose faith,
hope and confidence in themselves. Instead, I empower them. I tell
them that everyone can be industrious and creative, and that they
should strive to improve everyday. ‘Happy state’ sold.
But for the greater good of their own benefit.
I have also spoken to them individually, and given them truthful

feedback on their strengths. And how they should align it with a future
that could lead to achieving a better state of conditions. Even if that
means leaving their job to find something more suitable.
So an effective leader also tries to align people’s strength with their

future. Just because you sold an egalitarian happy outcome does not
mean that you should lead them to an imaginary island. Fake empow-
erment is better than a miserable state of self-contempt. But it’s also a
leader’s responsibility to channel this empowerment in a truthful
manner by guiding them to something they could in fact achieve. An
effective leader plays into people’s positive and negative emotions, to
manipulate them for their own benefit while guiding them on a path of
truth towards achievement.
Negative & Positive Emotions
Emotions can be classified into two categories; positive and negative. I

have provided a small list here for you to get an idea of how the two
states differ. You don’t need to memorize every emotion that falls under
the categories, but you do need to recognize whether you experience a
negative or a positive emotional state. It is also useful to understand
your personality; extroverted people have by default, a high baseline of
positive emotions, which means they appeal towards feeling positive
all the time. People that score high on neuroticism, have higher nega-
tive emotions, which means they are sensitive to feeling negative.
In General:
Extroverted people are easier to manipulate with positive

emotions.
Neurotic people are easier to manipulate with negative
emotions.
Extroverted people respond better to influence.

Neurotic people respond better to compulsion.
Extroverted people will be inclined to engage in matters that would

evoke their positive emotions. Getting them to do something in
exchange for something thrilling is likely to get an ideal response out of
them. An effective manipulator would promise something in exchange
that would instill the prospect of ‘happiness’.
Neurotic people would be inclined to NOT engage in matters that
are sensitive to negative emotions. Instigating fear is an effective way to
manipulate them into doing something. An effective manipulator
would promise security and comfort in exchange for getting them to do
what he wants them to.
Agreeableness
It is also worth noting that the more agreeable someone is, the more
likely they are to be manipulated. Agreeable people are more empa-
thetic than disagreeable people, which poses as a weakness for a
manipulator to exploit. The emotions that revolve around empathy
(resentment, sadness, sympathy) are the weakest link that a manipu-
lator can use to compel someone to do something. Also note the associ-
ation of empathy with negative emotions. You can draw loose
conclusion here that agreeableness is likely to be more neurotic than
disagreeableness due to their propensity towards feeling empathetic
and sentimental.
Perfect Archetype
This leads us to develop the perfect archetype for a manipulator to

exercise his manipulations on; An agreeable person that is high on the
spectrum of neuroticism. This now explains why it is easier for women
to be manipulated than men. Women are higher on baseline negative
emotions and are on average more agreeable and empathetic than men.
With this information, we can develop certain traits to improve our
defenses against manipulators before we identify the tactics they use to
manipulate us.
Defensive Trait Against Manipulators
Extroversion
If you are naturally an extroverted person, it will be easier to

manipulate you by promising positive emotions. This means a clever
manipulator would approach you using a proposition that gives them
the outcome they desire in exchange for giving you a ‘happy state’. I’ve
seen this many times at work. For extroverted employees, giving them
more work in exchange for them to have the weekend off is enough for
them to agree, as they fantasize about having weekends off to go
pursue whatever evokes their happiness. Whereas to an introverted
masochist, it would pass off as a dismal exchange.
These are extreme cases on opposite ends, but everyone falls on this
spectrum in varying degrees. So if you appeal to positive emotions,
master manipulators will try and sell you a ‘happy state’. Your will
power in resisting the desire to experience this happy state will deter-
mine whether you will critically explore the truth of what the manipu-
lator is trying to do.
Neuroticism
A quick way to find out about your level of neuroticism is to deter-

mine your stress tolerance. Fast paced, high pressure jobs can help you
assess your tolerance and how well you can handle pressure in compar-
ison to others. If you don’t work in such environments, then do several
personality tests only and answer them truthfully.
The higher your neuroticism, the more sensitive you are to negative
emotions. The more sensitive you are to negative emotions, the easier
for a manipulator to manipulate you. If someone seeks to manipulate
you, they will do so by evoking anxiety and fear. Leaders use this in the
form of compulsion; ‘if you don’t do X, then the consequences will be
Y’. Mainstream news make tremendous amount of revenue out of
neurotic people. This is why bad news is highly engaging, because
most people have high enough neuroticism for it to sell. Also take note
that negative emotions are far more powerful than positive emotions.
They are subject to our primal survival instincts. People don’t neces-
sarily want to thrive. They just want to survive.
If you are an individual with high neuroticism, you need to inte-
grate your shadow. Look out for “Neuroticism & Self: A Shadow Inte-
gration Article” which will be published for subscribed members only
in the coming months.
Agreeableness
If you are a man reading this, you shouldn’t be agreeable in the first
place. This trait should be exclusive for women. However, for the sake
of argument, lets assume you are agreeable. Understand that your fear
of confronting conflict by default makes you an ideal candidate for
manipulation. Your inability to say ‘no’ will instantly make you a target
and objectives will be utilized through you. This means you need to
learn to say ‘no’. And this requires you to confront conflict, which in
turn requires you to be tolerant to negative emotions. Holistic change is
required for someone who is agreeable to become disagreeable. They

need to learn to develop competitive behavior and become more selfish
with their time. Pushing yourself to move up the organizational hier-
archy will forcefully transform you into becoming more disagreeable.
Empathy Triad
The empathy triad was defined by Daniel Goleman who is a

psychologist that lectures professionals and business students. I
extracted his development of this concept and utilized it in my
psychopathy research to develop models which help people build
defenses.
Cognitive Empathy
Cognitive empathy is used when a manipulator pays attention to

your emotions, understanding how you feel to adjust their persuasion
accordingly. They assess your current state; whether you are happy or
sad and will try to mirror it. Some will read into your personality and
make an accurate assessment. For example, if they figure out that you
are an extroverted person, they will more likely get you to do tasks that
pertain risk. Because humans often take risks when their positive
emotions are on overdrive.
Emotional Empathy
Emotional empathy is used when manipulators try to bond with

others over sensitive or vulnerable matters for the purpose of revealing
weaknesses. These weaknesses are then leveraged. Often they will
share fake vulnerabilities to get you to disclose your own sensitivities.
Later, you will find that they manipulate your weaknesses through the
compulsion of ‘sad state’, i.e. “do this or else”. Also take note that it is
more likely for neurotic people to share secrets and vulnerabilities as
sharing it brings on sympathy which comforts them.
Compassionate Empathy
Compassionate empathy is often used by manipulators via synthe-

sizing a problem, sympathizing with reaction, & then offering an ideal
solution that aims to achieve their objective. This is a classic Hegelian
Dialectic method that gets used by the very top of organizational hier-
archies and politicians.
Observe those who are easily irritated, agreeable and emotional. They
are the easiest to apply the empathy triad on and manipulate. Remain
objective, calm and goal-orientated. If you expose your emotions, you

are subject to manipulation.
The Perfect Archetype Against Manipulators
Profiling people into their personalities and separating emotions has

enabled us to understand which angles manipulators use to exploit us.
It has also helped us look inward and understand the defenses we need
to work on. Combining what we have learned here, we can conclude
that the personality archetype which best repels manipulators are;
introverted, disagreeable people with low neuroticism. These types
have no appeal for positive emotions, nor are they afraid to experience
negative emotions. Their appeal and sensitivity to positive and nega-
tive emotions respectively are both low on the spectrum. This is the
archetype we should strive to embody. This article will be the consulta-
tion topic of the month in The Lobby Room where we explore ways to
accomplish this.
CHAPTER 2
DEVELOP USEFUL
PSYCHOPATHIC TRAITS
T HERE ’ S A LOT OF INTEREST AND POSITIVE CONNOTATIONS AROUND THE

word “psychopath”. People seem to think it’s a mandatory ‘trait’ in
order to be successful, or that having no emotion and remorse is the
only way to get ahead in life.
Truth is, psychopathy is not a trait, it’s a hereditary condition. And
you should all be grateful that you don’t suffer from it. You can’t
‘become’ a psychopath. If you’re really inclined, the closest you can get
to becoming a psychopath is to turn into a sociopath, and they’re not
the same. Before exploring psychopathic traits, here’s a contrast of
psychopathy and sociopathy.
Brief difference between the two
Psychopaths have structural underdeveloped components in the parts

of the brain responsible for emotions, impulses and feelings. They have
the ability to feel zero guilt. Being steady and keeping composure, they
have the ability completely dissociate feelings from actions.
Psychopaths can function ordinarily; they can work a decent job, run a
family and socialize effortlessly. Psychopaths exhibit deviant social
behavior.
Sociopaths are a result of environmental problems, such as traumatic

childhood, abusive parents or bad neighborhoods. They are impulsive
and behave erratically. They can become angry and upset very easily,
act out in association with feelings to the extent that it disallows them
from maintaining a stable life, job & family. Sociopaths exhibit anti-
social behavior.
If Psychopaths can dissociate themselves from feelings, then what

drives their actions?
It depends on intelligence. High cognitive functioning psychopaths

learn from their mistakes. They foresee the negative consequences to
their actions and realize they are unable to function the ‘way they are’
and so their drive and motivation becomes adapting to society. Their
discontinuation of immoral behavior is predicated on their innate
human desire to survive, but also their intellectual capacity to realize
that their survival will be short-lived if they do not keep their psycho-
pathic condition under control and make adjustments on their
behavior.
Furthermore, several studies show that psychopaths have higher
levels of dopamine with increased activity in the reward system than
ordinary people. This means just like an addict, their orientation in life
is to attain goals in any form, that would stimulate this cognitive
reward system. The lower the IQ/fluid intelligence, the more likely a
psychopath would employ any means to achieve a reward, with no
regard or critical thought to the consequences.
Good & Bad
So the key difference between a ‘good’ psychopath and a ‘bad’

psychopath, (i.e; non-criminal vs criminal) is impulse control. Now also
keep in mind that psychopaths are very rare, making up 0.75%-1% of
the population. And that high IQ individuals (130+) make up 2.2% of
the population. Assuming you live in a place with an IQ population of
ordinary distribution, then your chances of meeting a high IQ clini-
cally-diagnosed psychopath is 0.02%.
The point here is, what you know about psychopaths is probably
inaccurate as you have probably never encountered one in your life.
That CEO is not a psychopath. The ruthless leader of a nation is not a
psychopath. These people are simply in a position that demands them
to make difficult choices, with all options accommodated by certain
costs and damages. Their ability to make a choice despite the cost, is
when people perceive them to be psychopathic, which is entirely
inaccurate.
You are not a psychopath.
If you’re here to improve yourself, be taken seriously and become a

better man of value, then you are not a psychopath. But the good news
is, the components of what makes up a psychopath can be adopted.

Psychopathic traits are on a spectrum. This means that some of us are
less emotional, less compassionate and more callous. Depending on
temperament, certain psychopathic traits can be voluntarily developed
to improve or ‘refine’ emotions and feelings associated with actions.
Why develop psychopathic traits?
If ascension in life is embedded in your apex value, which it should

be, then developing psychopathic traits can significantly increase your
chances in attaining that aim. Because if your intention is to get ahead
in life & rise above others in your line of work, you will be forced to
work in a competitive field, not a cooperative one. Contest requires
callous, deviant & cunning attributes to what the average person
possesses. Not to necessarily win unfairly, but to protect yourself justly.
It’s a fairy tale to say that if you work hard, you will get to where
you want to be. Competence sometimes is not enough in a competitive
field. You need to equip yourself with a character that could do what-
ever it takes to accomplish an objective. Not necessarily should.
It is part of nature that there will be resentful, envious people
waiting for the right moment to use dirty tactics to tear you down. The
only way to deal with them is to employ their own methods to inflict
the same amount of damage. Using psychopathic traits to get ahead
comes at the cost of your integrity. But there’s not much incentive in
upholding integrity with those who don’t have any. So this article is a
disclaimer that the purpose of developing these traits is to employ it
only on those willing to use them against you.
How do you develop psychopathic traits?
If I had to explain how an ordinary person could utilize psychopathy in

one sentence, it would be something like:
The ability to keep your composure and charm an adversary, without

exhibiting a reaction, for the purpose of cunningly manipulating them for
your own benefit, without them realizing it until it is too late.
There are several key concepts in this sentence:
Keeping composure & charm despite confronting an

adversary
Showing no reactions despite the desire to do so
Employing manipulation
Stealth execution
There’s familiarity in this process that comes to mind; Shadow inte-

gration. A thorough understanding of your multiple personalities is
necessary here. People who make you feel and manifest hate, resent-
ment, envy and anger are all cases where you need to study those feel-
ings and when they get triggered. The employment of psychopathic
traits is LARGELY based on suppressing your emotions, while simulta-
neously manipulating and exploiting the emotions of others.
The Process
People think psychopaths have no association with empathy. This is

not true. To put it simply, psychopaths lack empathy, but can effectively
manipulate other people’s emotions. The lack of empathy does not
prevent them from exploiting other people’s emotions as their portal to
which they ‘conquer’ their victims. They manifest it themselves
anytime at will, for objective selfish purposes.
An ordinary person can not lack empathy. But they can certainly
stop exhibiting it. Its in fact ideal for men not to exhibit empathy and
act compassionately; take action to alleviate someone’s suffering.
Having empathy can turn you into a tool for others. Once you feel sorry
for someone, its very easy to do their bidding.
You have to remember that the competitive field provides value on
the basis of competence, not empathy. Empathetic people fail to make
harsh decisions in the best interest of the business, because of the rami-
fications it has on ‘nice people’. You need to control your desire in
having to care for others. You’re not in such position until you care for
yourself first. Then you can extend that privilege to those who deserve
it & lead them. Empathy is the enemy of contest, which is a precursor
to success.
Its okay to feel empathy, its not okay to show it.
Manipulation
Manipulation is one of the main psychopathic traits to learn. You are

being manipulated when a request makes little sense and is accommo-
dated with emotions. Psychopaths seek to manipulate you by evoking
sympathy and play victim if you refuse. They would also rejoice if you
ask for a favor, only to leverage it against you after. Psychopaths avoid
to rationalize because it exposes their manipulations. There will be very
little objectivity in their argument of request.
Manipulation works best on emotional people. You have to under-
stand emotions if you want to manipulate. Look at the emotional state
of people, whether they’re in a happy or a sad state. Each mood has its
own advantages. If you can’t manipulate other people, you’re a victim
of anyone who can. Learn the empathy triad and exercise it at will to
maneuver & influence others. And identify when it’s being used
against you:
Empathy Triad
Cognitive – To get people to do tasks you want to do that pertain

risk. – Most ideal for happy state.
Emotional – To bond with others to reveal weaknesses in order to
leverage. – Most ideal for sad state.
Compassionate – Best used by instigating a problem, sympathizing
with reaction, & then offering an ideal solution. – Best used if you want
to have leverage on someone or make someone owe you one.
Observe those who are easily irritated and emotional. They are the
easiest to apply the empathy triad on & manipulate. Never get irritated
yourself. Remain objective, calm and goal-orientated. If you expose
your emotions, you are subject to manipulation.
Detached
You can never offend a psychopath or get under his skin. He will
never take anything personally and remain focused on his objective.
Treat compliments & insults the same. The former is to make you
complacent. The latter is to throw you off. No one should know what
bothers you and what doesn’t.
If they do, that means you are indicating interest; that you prefer
something over something else. This could expose you to those who
have control of what you’re interested in, making you pay a high price
before giving it.
Psychopaths never reveal their interest. They in fact display behav-
iors that goes against their interest just to mislead others. This is para-
mount to negotiation & getting what you want. Act as if you’re
outcome independent. When you show interest, you are taking a posi-
tion. When you show conviction to a position, you become entrapped.
The more conviction, the more entrapped you are, the more your posi-
tion can be leveraged against you. Hide your true interests when nego-
tiating.
It’s an art to exhibit a behavior that goes against want you’re truly
interested in, yet stealthily get closer to your true objective. Every nego-
tiation, every action you make should yield maximum self-interest. But
nobody needs to know. Your positional ascendancy will almost always
come at the cost of someone else’s.
Don’t think they wouldn’t throw you under if they get the chance
themselves.
Leverage
Use leverage to weaken people’s position if they are willing to do

the same to you. Your competence is your strength that can leverage
them to a choke hold. Their weaknesses are opportunities to exploit &
leverage to your means. If you know they act in bad faith, don’t
confront them. Be patient & befriend them. Share false vulnerabilities to
create a covenant of trust & loyalty, then leverage their own vulnera-
bility to force them into subordination.
Leverage works best if you have something over someone. If you
don’t, you can use the compassionate empathy triad to create the model
of problem, reaction, solution. I have effectively used this model many
times with rich arrogant customers. It’s not difficult to artificially create
a problem within your domain, observe a clients reaction, which
exposes their interest, then offering a solution that makes them owe
you one. This model is called Hegelian dialectic, and it is being used at
the very top end of organisational hierarchies.
Being Charming
Charm is probably one of the most important psychopathic traits to

develop, because appearance and how you carry yourself is highly
looked upon in society. Charm is the vehicle used to deliver all the
methods of manipulations and leverage. It disarms your victims while
at the same time exposing their weaknesses.
Give compliments when they least expect it

Tell them what they want to hear
Fake a vulnerability to bond
Seek consensus over truth
Don’t get offended, ever
Pretend to care & listen
Memorize names
Remember that those who ascend in competitive fields, concern

themselves with human capital, value exchange & leverage. They lack
emotions, & yet have the ability to use them to counter-manipulate
others to their end. If you can’t do this, you’re a victim of anyone who
can. No exceptions. Have a read of this Twitter THREAD I posted a
while back with regards to this topic.
UM’s Model:
1. Suppress your emotions and expose other people’s emotions

2. Suppress empathy, show no remorse and be compassionate
to those who genuinely need it
3. Apply the Empathy Triad to manipulate those against you, to

do tasks, expose weaknesses & leverage
4. Find a way to stealthily work towards your interest, yet
publicly exhibit an opposing interest
5. Learn to be charming
GENDER DYNAMICS
Status is not important False. People fall for status more than they fall for
competence.
CHAPTER 1
HOW TO QUALIFY A
WOMAN
I WROTE A THREAD BACK IN A UGUST ON ‘H OW TO RAISE A DAUGHTER TO

become a high value woman’ which was a title requested by my
followers despite my unfamiliarity with the topic. When it comes to
becoming a valuable individual, men need to operate on a straight path
to attain the title, whereas women are required to navigate a more
complex journey. I will use this thread as the premise to explain how to
vet a woman.
There is two components with regards to vetting a woman. One of
them is the macro; the deep values that make up a belief system in
which she’s been influenced or raised under, guiding her long term
choices as to who she wants to become. And the other is the micro; her
short-term choices that demonstrates her attractiveness; how she carries
herself, speaks, her behavior and how she deals with adversity.
My thread briefly explained the macro, a belief system established
under the patriarch, which a woman should follow. This article will
seek to analyze and identify whether a woman’s macro has been estab-
lished and guided properly, then continue to address the micro to
complete the vetting process. It’s extremely difficult to quantify a
metric on whether a woman qualifies or not. There are contexts and
circumstances that must be taken into consideration.
To understand the vetting process, you need to take an objective
position, a neutral stance, a viewpoint that accommodates a partners
lens but also a fathers outlook. What a partner wants to see in a woman
will be opposite to what a father wants to see in his daughter. Conces-
sions have to be made on both sides.
Macro Traits
Macro: Why independence & femininity are both necessary for a

woman?
A woman faces two values in life that are in direct conflict of each
other:
Developing her femininity (what a partner wants to see)

Pursuing independence (what a father wants to see)
The more she pursues independence, the more it will come at the
cost of her femininity. The lower her femininity, the less she qualifies as
a high value woman. But the less she pursues independence to develop
her femininity, the more she puts herself in jeopardy and at the mercy
of misery. To address this paradoxical dilemma, you must look at the
chronological order of effect.
If a woman is not feminine, she is not the right type for you. This
goes without saying. But applying context to that sentence can change
the substance entirely. Picture a family where a father is disabled to a
wheelchair, his wife unable to do anything but look after him and
suddenly its on their 20 year old daughter to make ends meet. She
begins to work at a young age, develops capacity for aggression,
becomes disagreeable, eroding her feminine nature just to protect her
family. This is an extreme case (not really, depends where you live), but
the essence here is that this type of girl far outweighs a feminine one in
terms of value, because family is everything to her and one day when
she becomes yours, she will do everything for you.
Nuance
So its easy to say “only date feminine women!” – but this is a low IQ
approach that takes no context into consideration. However, this
doesn’t mean for you to ruin your own future by settling for woman
without a drop of femininity because she spent her whole life being the
provider.
You have to make concessions depending on the context of a
woman’s situation. A woman has to make sacrifices if she wants to be
selected by a high value man.
There’s a lot of red pilled men out there that say ‘there’s no need for
her to seek independence, she should aim for interdependence with her
family’. This is an ideal scenario. We don’t live in an ideal world and
fathers should prepare for the worst; their daughters not being able to
stand on their own feet. It is poor planning on a father’s behalf to not
teach a daughter to strive for independence. Therefore, YOU (as a
potential future father) need to respect that upbringing.
The Balance
GENDER DYNAMICS 55
So a high value woman will understand that choosing to entirely

pursue independence would destroy her happiness and damage future
relationships. But she also knows not pursuing it will make her vulner-
able to potential abuse for not have the resources to stand on her own
feet.
A high value woman will develop masculine traits as early as
possible to strive for her independence, but then deviate off this
pathway once she has the capacity to fend off misery. She will then seek
to regain and develop her feminine nature and attain motherly happi-
ness with a husband.
Whether this belief system of ‘independence first, then femininity’
exists in a woman can be investigated very easily. Its components have
in fact infiltrated political groups in the name of left wing, right wing
radicals. If you speak to a girl on college campus, you should be able to
quickly identify which way she leans, how far she intends to pursue
her career, her feminism views and how family orientated she is. The
women who qualify as high value are focused individuals striving to
finish their studies and NOT pursue career ascension in their lives.
They rather seek to settle on what their degree offers them as an occu-
pation and pursue meaningful relationship instead.
So timing matters. What has a woman done between the ages of 18-
24 in her life? If she hasn’t accomplished a feat that helps her stand on
her own feet, then the only excuse should be that her family was well
off to provide for her. But even so, you still want to know how she
spent those years of her life. If she lacked a belief system, and aimlessly
went out with friends, shopped and traveled, then she is not the one for
you. If she has developed several hobbies she takes seriously while
being catered for under a rich household, when she otherwise had
ample opportunities to go out and party, then she could qualify as high
value.
Macro: Disagreeableness vs Agreeableness
A woman’s agreeableness depends on which path she spent more

time on in her life, pursuing independence or a feminine role. This faces
the same dilemma as discussed above; a partner like you would prefer
her to be agreeable while her father would prefer her to lean towards
disagreeableness. This is a good vetting tool to discover where her
values lie. If she happens to be less agreeable than the average woman,
then her values will unlikely align with yours and she’ll favor indepen-
dence over femininity. But again, you must take circumstances into
consideration. I have a girlfriend who happens to be more disagreeable
than agreeable, yet maintains her femininity and yet still wants to
continue to study through to her masters. She was brought up to look
after her younger sisters, while studying and providing domestic care
around the house.
Macro: Devotion to Family & Religion
A woman’s commitment and devotion to her family is directly

proportional to how committed and devoted she will be to you. It’s
surprising that not many men assess this metric. The less dysfunctional
her family, the more likely she is high value. Her relationship with her
father and brother is a testament to how her relationship with you will
unfold. Her respect and the need for guidance should always be main-
tained with the male family members.
If you’ve followed me long enough on twitter, you would know that
I am not a fan of any kind of religion. Because I think it severely
obscures the moral significance of people’s character. Despite this, I do
think women obedient to religion outweigh their opposing counter-
parts in terms of value. However, I strongly believe that religiously
obedient women act morally to appease their faith and religion instead
of doing it out of integrity.
I certainly see this as a red flag, as I prefer her choices to derive from
her own accord instead, in order to reveal the moral significance of her
character. Personally, I would give more credit and trust to a nonreli-
gious woman who is quick to right her wrongs humbly and seek a
moral path over a religiously obedient woman who never does any
wrong. Nevertheless, in this day and age, that kind of woman is rare.
Micro Traits
That sums up the macro belief system of a woman; her balance

between independence and femininity, agreeableness and her commit-
ment and devotion to family, to a lesser extent religion. The micro
components of a woman should align with her belief system. For exam-
ple, if she is devoted to her family, then she will less likely engage in
degenerate behavior. Here is what to look out for.
Profanity, Drinks & Smokes
If a woman swears, it’s a red flag. There is no reason for her to use
profanity under any conditions. If you have found a woman who quali-
fies with her values but uses profanity, tell her to immediately stop and
begin to assess whether she will continue to swear or not. Continuation
would suggest she is either disagreeable, or faking her values to fit
yours.
If a woman smokes, pass on her. If she used to smoke, context
matters. For how long and why? If a woman gets drunk, pass on her. A
woman should not like alcohol. Occasional wine at an event or family
gathering is all that should give her any desire to drink.
Fuels the Fire

GENDER DYNAMICS 57
If a woman is incapable of calming your anger, exhaustion or stress,

it’s a red flag. She will be the type to aggravate your stress further then
blame you for your mood. This kind of behavior speaks volumes of her
values and belief system. It indicates she may not be the feminine
motherly woman she is pretending to be. I discourage this tactic, but
sometimes it is very useful for a man to instigate a fight just to see how
she responds to adversity. Those who qualify soothe and diffuse the
situation.
Has too many friends and/or social media following
If a woman has too many friends, especially groups of friends ‘that

stick together’, it’s a red flag. If you have a fight, instead of seeking
conflict resolution, she will seek counsel with the group of friends who
will act as a coalition and make choices on her behalf against you. They
will rationalize the validity of her choices because groups are ‘never
wrong’. Find a woman with a handful of friends who she occasionally
sees because she prioritizes family time over them.
Leverages her beauty
If a woman knows she’s beautiful and leverage her beauty, this is a

incurable red flag. The attention she gets for her beauty has caused irre-
versible damage to her ego and she will never settle for a relationship
without keeping her options open. Watch what she wears in make up
and clothing and how her eyes behave in public. Provocative clothing
(short shorts/skirts, cleavage tank tops) are red flags. If her demeanor
changes in the presence of other guys, red flag. This should go without
saying; if she does modelling of any kind, pass.
Arrogance
A woman should not have a shred of arrogance in her. It is indica-

tive of feminist behavior and goes against all your values. Now there
are some exceptions where certain feminine women put on arrogance
as a self-defense mechanism. But your interest and approach towards
her should quickly eradicate this. If it doesn’t, then she’s not employing
it for self-defense purposes and its more likely that she is faking her
values.
Body Count
This is a subjective matter that every man will have a different inter-
pretation of what a small number is in terms of body count. There are
sites for men that often say ‘stop asking your girl for her body count, it
does not matter’. This is a lie. It absolutely matters. It is the most effec-
tive indicator for displaying degenerate behavior, self-worth and

impulse control. Personally, I think a girl at the age of 27 should not
have more than a body count of 3. This would mean that she would of
had 3 year relationships (or more) with 3 partners (or less) since the age
of 18. Any more partners and it would suggest a possible red flag
to me.
Can today’s women really pass this vetting process?
Probably not. But lets not pretend that us men are the perfect. Us
flawless kings have work to do ourselves while we wait for the right
type of woman to turn up. The point of the vetting process is that it
should act as a guide, and to apply it realistically in today’s world,
some of the rules may need bending.
Furthermore, there’s a lot that a man can do to force attraction in
woman which can turn into obsession, giving her the desire to align
herself to succeed in the vetting process. If you really are a man of
value and a provider, there are women out there that would do
anything for you purely out of obsession. What’s important is that you
understand the belief system and values of a woman.
The macro assessment saves you time to qualify the wrong types of
women. And also remember that if they don’t qualify for the vetting
process, its who you are that will determine whether a woman WANTS
to qualify and pass your vetting process. Obsession is everything. It is
also worth noting, that you RARELY come across high value women in
clubs and bars. I don’t have a proposition on where to find such girls. I
am a firm believer of pursuing my apex value without deviating to look
for a girl. Finding someone that would organically cross my path to my
purpose is how I believe men should seek women.
UM’S MODEL
1. A woman should seek independence in her ages between 18-

24. Just enough to help her stand on her own feet, then
deviate off this path and seek a feminine motherly role.
2. A woman should be more agreeable and submissive towards
you than disagreeable. Women by default are more agreeable.
Therefore in general, a woman must go out of her way to
become disagreeable. The reasons for this should be clearly
identified. If there are no clear reasons, she’s not the one.
3. The stronger her commitment and devotion to family, the
more likely she is of higher value. Assess her relationship
with her father and brother. Her relationship condition with
them will reflect her relationship with you. Her obedience to
GENDER DYNAMICS 59
religion would have likely insulated her from degeneracy but

conceal the moral significance of her character.
4. Check the micro behaviors. Most are adjustable, depending
on her obsession to you. But do not discount their weight.
Micro behaviors often reveal whether she is faking her macro
values or not.
5. If a woman’s macro belief system is aligned with your
vetting process, her micro traits are adjustable if you can
make her obsessed with you.
ON BUSINESS &
ASCENSION
Only power reveals moral intentions. All moral acts in the absence of power, are
to be considered as incentivized choices.
CHAPTER 1
HOW HILTON SURVIVED
THE GFC
R IGHT UP UNTIL 2007, H ILTON WAS POSTING REMARKABLE BACK TO BACK

profits within the hotel industry, with strong expansion and high
returns for shareholders. But then followed a series of poor board deci-
sions, global market downturn and an alarming economic housing
bubble, set to decimate the hospitality industry for years to come. But a
swift leveraged acquisition led to a change of events.
Enter The Blackstone Group – A private equity firm with $550
billion total assets under management who specialize in equity, hedge
funds & credit investments.
The Buy-Out
Blackstone bought Hilton Hotel for $26 billion in a 80%-leveraged

buyout in 2007, just before the financial crisis was looming. Immedi-
ately following the purchase, Blackstone lost substantial amount of
money as luxury hotels in the hospitality industry flopped as the crisis
began to emerge.
Financial analysts and critics labelled it as one of the worst lever-
aged buy outs for a private equity firm to ever make.
But Blackstone was playing the long-term game. They believed the
global luxury brand to be a great global business with high potential to
become a leading performer in the industry.
The Plan
Blackstone’s plan was straightforward.
Decide how to purchase Hilton

Instate a new CEO for restructuring

Payoff debt and make the company public
The LBO (leveraged buy-out) was the purchase strategy of Black-

stone to acquire Hilton. This meant that borrowing money to acquire
Hilton was a cheaper option than using equity. With the interest rates
falling, it meant that the use of leveraged debt would bring a higher
return on equity.
Then followed a new instated CEO and a complete restructuring of
the company. It led to effectively managing the crisis, and paying off its
debts in 2010.
Instrumental in Hilton’s revival, Blackstone’s acquisition led to
acquiring 2,000 hotels, having initially announcing them as write-
downs by about 70% due to the crisis. However the restructuring of its
operations and expansion soon after, led to the hotel company to pay
off their debt.
In 2013 Blackstone took Hilton public with a market evaluation of
over $12 billion.
The Outcome
Blackstone divested entirely from Hilton in 2018. They sold their

stake with an accumulated profit of $14 billion since their acquisition in
2007. They tripled their initial investment with the buyout becoming
known as the most profitable in history.
The Blackstone CEO then said that the acquisition of Hilton lived up
to Blackstone’s motto in investing in real estate: Buy it, Fix it, Sell it.
Bad deals are notoriously common in mergers & acquisitions. Very
rarely do you see companies merge with another to realize synergistic
growth. Often we hear of costly acquisitions made for the sole purpose
of eradicating competitors.
I thought this was one of the best stories with regards to private
equity buyouts; especially with regards to the timing of the acquisition,
the benefits for both parties involved, and Blackstone’s eventual exit.
CHAPTER 2
BLACKROCK OWNS THE
WORLD
L AURENCE WAS 23 YEARS OF AGE WHEN HE FIRST STARTED IN INVESTMENT

banking. Born in 1952, Larry’s mother was a English teacher while his
father owned a shoe store. Holding a bachelors degree in political
science and an MBA from UCLA, Larry got his first break at a firm
called First Boston, where he was put in charge of the bond
department.
His passion for real estate led him towards pioneering the mort-
gage-backed securities market in the USA. He worked up the corporate
ladder, making the investment firm $1 billion in his tenure, and
becoming the youngest managing director of First Boston.
But all of that came crashing down within days. The year before
1987 Black Monday, in the second quarter of 1986, Larry took a bet with
the interest rates. He thought that with the booming property and
cheap loanable funds, that interest rates would go up.
Instead, interest rates dropped further. Losses on his trade were
compounding. Within a day, Larry lost $100 million. This all happened
at a time when people were speculating that Larry, only in his mid 30’s,
was going to become the CEO of First Boston.
And just like that, the hate begins.
Forget about the billion dollars the kid generated for the firm. That’s
all in the past. What matters is the present! That is as loyal as Wall
Street gets.
Larry promised to learn from his mistakes and to never make risky
trades again. But the bosses didn’t care. Colleagues ridiculed him.
People insulted him. As soon as the losses took record for the quarterly
earnings, the resentment was widespread in the company and outside

it. The executives acted as though he didn’t exist.
“You are only as good as your last trade” – Wall St
Larry Fink worked for First Boston for a whole decade, until he was
“let go” in 1988. After he was done, First Boston publicly declared that
he was fired.
Confidence crashed. Dignity trashed. Self-esteem rock bottom. And
reputation worth less than the ground he walked on. Larry was reeling.
Shocked at how Wall Street treated its own people, Larry vowed to
never put himself in such position again. He sought out to rectify what
brought him to his knees; his poor understanding of risk management.
When he started to research his mistakes, he found out how little he
and Wall Street in general, understood about risk, and that the basis of
what what makes up the system;- governments, pension funds, corpo-
ration – all relied on Wall Street to hedge their risk.
In the same year of getting fired, Larry started his own company,
with a special department that offered risk management.
Larry borrowed $5 million from Blackstone founders to set up his
own group. By 1993, in just five years, Larry grew his assets under
management to $20 billion. And after a disagreement with Blackstone
founders, he split to form what is officially become independently
known as BlackRock.
The very mistake that ousted him from the company he started
with, set the foundations of BlackRock’s success. The company
possesses a risk management power house that runs thousands of
computers, running sophisticated software that hypothesizes and
generates simulated scenarios in financial positions as prophylactic
responses to the slightest change within the economy.
Its risk management is so ahead of its time, that the company was
the last man standing during the financial crisis of 2008, unmatched for
its shrewd capacity to identify risk. When the crisis hit, BlackRock went
shopping, buying up assets from Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac. BlackRock was the leading bailout for Wall Street. And it
did all this silently. Check out BlackRocks stock performance here
$BLK – MSN.
By 2016, the assets under BlackRock were greater than the GDP of
any nation across the globe less China, US and the EU, managing $5
trillion.
Now, in the COVID pandemic, BlackRock made a deal with the
Federal Reserve to run a bond purchasing scheme in a bid to help re-
stabilize the economy. This is just a fancy way of saying more bailouts
are on the way. At the time of writing this, BlackRock is buying up
hundreds of billions of dollars of debt from large companies that have
ON BUSINESS & ASCENSION 67
been shook by the pandemic. As of now, BlackRock is managing 9 tril-

lion dollars of assets.
What does BlackRock do now?
Everything. From bonds, stocks, real estate, to advising central

banks, financial ministries, running pension funds, insurance compa-
nies and having large equity in almost every US big tech corporations,
US banks, oil and gas conglomerates, including defense contractors.
And bailouts.
BlackRock is now too big to fail, and concerns of conflict of interest
are being raised, with the company having influence capacity in almost
every business it has a stake in. Companies that issue bonds to raise
capital, find BlackRock as their buyer who already are a significant
shareholder of the company selling the bonds. They are so big and
entrenched within the financial system, it has generated its own
complexity to the extent that its operations don’t make much sense
anymore.
Larry is now one of the most powerful men on the planet.
CHAPTER 3
ENRON - A WALL ST.
DARLING
GREED: WHEN YOU EXCHANGE INTEGRITY FOR

MONEY
What happens when money becomes your god at the highest

corporate level of America? Enron happens.
What started off as a ordinary gas pipeline service company, ended up

becoming America’s 7th largest public corporation. Then, in December
2001, Enron files for bankruptcy as one of America’s greatest public
company collapses to ground zero.
The collapse ended with the imprisonment of 16 executives, thou-
sands of unemployment and billions in shareholder losses. Enron’s
stock price was $90.75 at its peak, and just 26 cents before declaring
bankruptcy.
What Happened?
Enron was formed in 1985 after a merger between two companies.

The beginning was difficult. The industry that entailed natural gas and
gas pipelines just became deregulated; meaning whichever company
had exclusive rights to sell gas, no longer kept this advantage.
Competition emerged, profits fell and debt increased.
In order to survive, the CEO, Kenneth Lay decided to hire a
management consulting company to come up with new strategies to
generate revenue.
Enter Mckinsey;
The Management Consultant Company that serves 90 of the world’s
100 largest corporations. These guys don’t produce goods and services.
They plan, strategize, coordinate and implement which goods and

services companies should provide. They’ve been hired several times
by the white house from multiple presidential administrations. They
have had a hand in immigration deportation, military tension with
china, and 2008 financial crisis. They are often touted as ‘the firm that
makes its own rules’.
Long story short, Kenneth hires Mckinsey consultant Jeffrey Skilling
who specialized in asset & liability management. Skilling’s first strategy
was the proposition of Enron buying gas from a set of suppliers (not
just one) and creating a buffer of ‘gas bank’, then selling it to a network
of consumers. The prices paid to buy gas from suppliers were competi-
tively contracted, while the prices charged to consumers were afloat,
and Enron then charged a transaction fee on top. Skilling injected ‘how
modern futures contract worked’ into Enron’s business model, and it
was brilliant. Revenue & profits grew.
Impressed with Skilling’s innovative strategy, the CEO created a
new division of the company in 1990, to put Skilling at the head of it.
Enron Finance Corp begins to outperform its competitors and dominate
the market for natural gas contracts.
Everything legal so far.
Skilling begun running Enron like a trading business. He hired top
MBA students from prestigious investment banks and aimed to imple-
ment trading floors within the company. One of the recruits who came
on board was named Andrew Fastow, who specialized in leveraged
buyouts, derivatives in markets, and his knowledge in finance and
accounting was sublime. He moved up the ranks swiftly to become
CFO in 1998.
And here is what Fastow did under the full approval of Skilling and
the CEO, Kenneth Lay:
Created a complex model of financial practice with gas

suppliers, that increased the profits of Enron while
simultaneously hiding losses in their quarterly balance
sheets.
Fastow cooked up Enron’s balance sheet to reflect a debt free
financial position when in reality, its increasing debt reached
$30 billion.
Fastow pressured, threatened and bribed investment banks
such as Merril Lynch and Citibank to invest in Enron or face
discontinuation of all Enron’s businesses including its
suppliers.
He forced credit rating agencies to give Enron top rating as a
public company.
Teamwork
While Fastow took ‘care’ of the finances, Skilling and Lay travelled
across states to implement their gas business model and apply the same
concept to electricity. Enron became so powerful that they had the
capacity to lobby deregulation within the electricity sector and towards
the end of 1999, Enron built an electronic commodity trading site called
Enron Online, that opened up futures contract on coal, paper, steel,
water and weather. They then took it a step further in 2000, announcing
their development of high-speed broadband that would allow rapid
volatility trading.
Back home, Skilling implemented a new system for the employees
called the performance review committee which measured employee
RICE – respect, integrity, communication and excellence.
No.
It simply measured one performance measure; who could make the
most amount of profit in whatever they did. And naturally, in order to
get the rewards, everyone in the company did whatever it took to make
deals and post earnings.
MARKET-TO-MARKET ACCOUNTING
Enron was a public company. It required to disclose their financial

performance in the form of reports throughout the year.
The company under Skilling, started using market-to-market
accounting, a not-so-complex model that can be illegitimately used to
inflate profits.
Here’s how it works:
If I have an outstanding contract due on a particular financial

product, whether its an asset or liability, I have to book the
realized gain or loss from that contract and put it on my
balance sheet at the end of the quarter. Eg. If I make a deal
with an energy company that will make me Y amount of
dollars, I will need to report the realized dollar value at the
end of the quarter.
This is simple until you mix it with futures contracts (buying
assets at fixed price but delivered and paid for later).
Companies who operate with such instruments are given
permission to use their own discretionary valuation models
when using market-to-market accounting.
The Process
Enron, under this accounting principle, wrote down the potential

revenue on their contracts on the day. Meaning;
If contract will generate X amount of dollars in revenue by next
year, Enron would record the revenue TODAY as a realized profit.
When in reality, no revenue has been yet generated, and when next
year came around, the revenue that was estimated did not occur.
It was reported that Enron were posting $50 million dollar contracts
as realized revenue on the agreement day, when not a single cent was
generated.
One of Enron’s biggest deals came in 1992, when they supplied an
energy company with gas for 20 years. The value of the contract was
approximately $4 billion. Enron recorded its profits before the gas plant
began even operating. Before gas was delivered. Before they got paid.
For Enron, a deal meant ‘record its future revenue now as realized
profit’. This had tremendous impact on their financial statements and
balance sheet. Revenue and profits were astronomically inflated,
skyrocketing Enron’s stock price, when in reality no money was coming
through the door.
Enter Capitalism
Enron did one thing right; coming up with a strategy that would
allow them to buy commodities at fixed prices and selling them on the
market afloat. But this lucrative model caught on to other energy and
gas companies. By 1995, four competitors emerged, replicating Enron’s
model (without the fraudulent activity) and eventually taking a chunk
of Enron’s few legal revenue streams they had.
Then followed recession from the dot-com bubble, which
suppressed the volatility of the markets, & reduced all prices. This elim-
inated another one of Enron’s revenue stream that they spent millions
creating; high speed, rapid volatility trading.
The fall
What follows next is a serious of events that rapidly unfolds and

pulls Enron apart. Cracks begin to show within the company, and
external auditors begin to ask questions. Skilling prevents all
employees from selling their shares, while Kenneth encourages thou-
sands of them to buy more with ‘prices sitting at a bargain’. His words.
Enron’s own auditing company, one of America’s big 5, Arthur
Andersen LLP (who also got wiped out from the scandal), organizes a
two week document destruction in an attempt to clear Enron’s records.
The SEC starts investigating transactions between Enron and
Andrew Fastow, while Enron’s auditing company begins to accelerate
document shredding.
In November 2001, Enron admits overstating pure profits dating
back to 1997, amounting to approximately $600 million. 20 days later,
Enron’s credit rating downgraded to junk status. And 4 days after that,
the company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The Justice Department gets involved, investigating every docu-
ment they can lay their hands on. Enron fires and blames their own
auditing firm (Andersen) for destroying Enron’s documents when the
DOJ came knocking.
Result?
Shareholders lose $74 billion in four years. $2 billion lost in pension

funds. Thousands of jobs lost.
Kenneth Lay – Died before getting his sentencing.
Jeffrey Skilling – Sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Andrew Fastow – Sentenced to 6 years in prison.
13 other executives were sentenced.
One of the few executives instrumental in the scandal, who didn’t
get any form of punishment was some mystery Asian man named Lou
Lung Pai who cashed in $270 million of stock, left the company before
it collapsed, divorced his wife, married an exotic stripper, and fell off
the grid.
I thought that was hilarious.
High IQ psychopath in my opinion.
Integrity plays a role everywhere. Had Skilling replicated his futures-

concept business model in other avenues and not let the greed get to his
head, the story could of ended differently. But it’s not often that you get
three top-of-the-hierarchy people who are all arrogant, greedy and
engage in immoral practices. The signs were there from the beginning.
Kenneth Lay showed clear signs that he was expediently profit driven.
It’s not difficult for a leader to silence the majority when things go
according to plan. But all it takes is one whistleblower to bring the
entire fraudulent operation to a halt.
CHAPTER 4
HOW GAME THEORY
APPLIES IN BUSINESS
WHEN SELF-DESTRUCTIVE INCENTIVES ENDS UP

SERVING SOCIETY
G AME THEORY IS THE STRATEGIC ANALYSIS OF COMPETITIVE SCENARIOS
where decisions made will be dependent on other participants’ choices.
Here’s a story:
Paul and James are two criminals that just robbed a casino. They
were successful in their heist and got away. There’s some speculation
that links the robbery to their identity, but there’s no solid evidence that
suggests it. The federal police launches an investigation regardless,
because fortunately they have leverage; a tab of Paul & James’ criminal
history of unrelated criminal activities that they can do time for.
Prisoners Dilemma
The only way for the police to successfully convict the two criminals
for the robbery is to get one to turn on the other in exchange for no
punishment. So the cops will be using threats, blackmail & anything
else they can, so one of them cracks under pressure and snitches on the
other. The two criminals are good friends and have promised to never
snitch on each other no matter what happens. And the cops are about
to test the credibility of that promise.
Standard procedures take place; the police question both criminals
separately cutting all communications between them.
Probability or Strategy?
Here is how game theory suggests the scenario plays out:
There’s 4 possibilities that will yield different results. In the first case,
neither men talk and both get one year in prison.
2nd case: If either men snitch on one while the other remains silent;
one man goes free while the other is sentenced to 8 years.
If both men snitch on each other, both get 4 years. The duration
would be less so it can incentivize confession. Because they have both
confessed rather than remain silent, they get a shorter sentencing.
No matter how you look at the scenario, its in both men’s best
interest to snitch on their partner. Because the prospect of doing no time
is far too tempting to not consider snitching. And who is to say James
wont snitch on Paul anyway? Or is Paul trustworthy enough as a friend
to choose to do one year and not spill?
The correct choice is to snitch. Staying silent is the wrong move.
Confessing will either free you from sentencing or AT LEAST reduce
your sentencing down to 4 years. Game theory suggests that cheating is
the logical self-preserving choice.
Obviously the best case scenario for both men is to remain silent, so
they both get one year each. But the logic of the most dominant strategy
is so compelling, that confession becomes the choice to make.
How does this relate to business?

Imagine you’re in a sector that provides goods and services with

several other competitors doing the same. Take OPEC for example.
OPEC is a organisation that includes several countries that are key oil-
exporting nations. All the nations in OPEC practically control the
worlds oil reserves. The way the organization works is simple; they
product oil, sell it to oil companies (like ExxonMobil, Shell, BP) who in
turn sell it to consumers.
These handful of countries have the opportunity to collude so they
can create a monopoly and profit massively. Because they essentially
have no competitors.
But here’s the problem:
If OPEC collectively decide to produce 30 million barrels a day at a

agreed rate of $80 per barrel, then monopoly would work. Each country
will produce accordingly to make up the quota and profit accordingly
at the agreed price. If Country A sticks to the quota agreement, it
assumes the other countries would also uphold it. Cheating silently by
overproducing several million barrels, would have Country A profit
tremendously at the fixed price of $80 per barrel. And if Country B
decides to cheat by overproducing, then this is just another incentive
for Country A to cheat and cash in on the extra barrels.
So what happens?
Every OPEC country starts overproducing, increasing the supply

and driving down the prices. They fail to act in a monopoly because its
in every country’s best interest to overproduce and make more money,
until the supply reaches such abundance that the price drops consider-
ably. The only country that could still make money under dirt cheap
prices is the country who can produce oil the most cost-efficient way.
Saudi Arabia has so much oil reserves (and can produce oil consid-
erably cheaper than any other country) that it simply threatens the
cheating-nations by dumping its reserves on to the market, driving
down the price of oil so low that it forces every OPEC nation to renego-
tiate the agreement and stick to the quota. But this remains to be inef-
fective, because Saudi Arabia’s capacity to saturate the market with oil
doesn’t affect the price low enough to pressure other nations to behave.
And so we are left with OPEC never operating properly.
It was Adam Smith who put it forward that “The invisible hand
describes the unintended social benefits of an individual’s self-inter-
ested actions”. Despite cartels and oligopolies having the advantage to
jack up the prices as if they have a monopoly, conditions lead for
companies to act on their own accord to maximize their own profits but
inadvertently lead to societal benefits. Every time an OPEC nation
decides to cheat by overproducing, it creates a domino effect where all
the other members follow suit until oil prices drop, in which society
subsequently benefits.
CHAPTER 5
AOL & TIME WARNER
A CATASTROPHIC MERGER
AOL
An American web service provider who back in the day, was the
leading technological company in dial-up, pioneering the internet and
providing email, instant messaging, web search and everything else we
take for granted today on the web.
Time Warner
Now known as WarnerMedia, a multinational mass media and
entertainment conglomerate who provides services ranging from televi-
sion, cable TV, news, sports and a range of studios that make box office
films we all grew up with.
One company provides the internet bandwidth. The other delivers
the entertainment.
The ultimate synergy.
A perfect merger.
The two were valued at $350 billion, the biggest deal recorded in
American history at the time. Analysts at the time believed it to be one
of the best merger that would change the way mainstream media deliv-
ers. Before the merger, AOL was the dominant player in the boom of
the dot com era circa 1999. While the company led in web delivery
services, Time Warner failed to establish an online presence.
Everything pointed towards the two companies merging.
The strategy was clear and simple; Time Warner will get access to
millions of new subscribers through AOL, transforming the way they
deliver entertainment. AOL in turn would get substantial benefit exclu-
sively providing web services to Time Warner’s network cable. The

unity would enable utilizing each other’s comparative advantages
within their industry and become potent competition killers.
The merger would see the name change to AOL Time Warner; A
digital media giant delivering news and entertainment on a internet
platform that was being rapidly adopted.
What went wrong?
A clash in culture
The team behind AOL were aggressive innovators, free thinking

creators and arrogant in their inventions. The Time Warner crew where
less adventurous, more industrious with a corporate attitude. The clash
was significant, with no management in position to run the due dili-
gence and implement effective integration of two cultures.
Time & time again, the most successful companies are proven to be
run by inventive ideas (openness) while effectively managed by the
conscientious. The two groups are necessary for companies to thrive in.
It was a matter of integrating them effectively and reducing friction and
liberating one another to deliver on their strengths. What was
happening at AOL Time Warner instead was different. One group
played defensive and refrained from going digital, while the other had
no respect for management and direction.
Dot-com bubble burst
Every company with a ‘dot com’ at the end of their name took a
massive financial dive in the year 2000. Two years later, AOL amounted
losses up to almost $100 billion. At the time, AOL’s majority of revenue
came from advertisements. A segment heavily impacted as the bubble
was bursting and tech stocks were falling. The board took extreme
measures to curb the losses, illegally ‘cooking their books’ to falsify
revenue. Their dominance in dial-up subscriptions and advertisements
were under assault from the tech-led recession. But their lack of fore-
sight and vision (perhaps too much arrogance?) is what led to the emer-
gence of a deadly opponent – The cable broadband.
Lack of Vision
It’s not common for creative, innovative people to lack vision. It

didn’t make sense for a dominant force (by a large margin) in the
internet space to be innovatively outpaced by competitors with better,
faster, & stronger internet capabilities. When you have a product
service that is already bringing millions in revenue per year, it’s a chal-
lenge to embark on innovation. AOL became their own worst enemies

when they opted to refine (a managerial job) their existing products &
services (a strategy they laughed at, when Time Warner’s culture were
practicing it), rather than venture out to seek a better yet-to-be-proven
technology.
Fixing what is not broken
Why make any changes if what you’re doing works? And the
answer is you shouldn’t. It’s a managers job to maintain efficiency &
operation of ‘what already works’. As a innovative creator, your job is
to seek abstract ideas that are novel yet useful. This is precisely why
companies fail. The team loses track of who they are and begin to
operate in a manner that is not in line with their strengths. Managers
manage. Creators create.
I am not saying that the magnitude of the dot-com bubble bursting is

irrelevant. It had unprecedented effect on many companies and ended
up eliminating nine of them that were booming before the burst. But
the point made is that AOL had a chance despite the impact of the
recession. They had revenue, a solid product offering, and a reputable
established brand. What they culturally rejected, is effectively what
destroyed their future.
CHAPTER 6
NETFLIX VS BLOCKBUSTER
A CASE OF MANAGERS VS ENTREPRENEURS
Technology can almost disrupt anything. Here’s how Netflix

disrupted everything.
Very few people think that the little routines and rituals they have in
their lives and their business will be impacted. Very few believe that
change is inevitable despite the world constantly changing. Those who
resist this change falter. Those who don’t capitalize will get obliterated
by competition. The rate at which technology moves is only further
accelerated by the internet. A company like Netflix capitalized. Others
didn’t.
One of my favorite stories that taught me great lessons was Netflix
vs Blockbuster.
Go back to 1994. Blockbuster. A video rental giant worth $8.4 billion

with 2,800 shops located worldwide.
Year 2000. Netflix. A DVD – postal service company valued at $50
million, posting losses that year at $53 million on their 2 year start-up.
10 years later; Blockbuster files for bankruptcy. Netflix valued at
$9.2 billion.
A perfect example of 2 opposite forces colliding; an efficient but
tightly managed empire encounters a creative, ‘the only rule is that
there are no rules’ contender. It was the same year of 2010 when the
founders of Netflix proposed a pitch to Blockbuster to have Netflix
bought at $50 million. Only to get laughed out of the office.
It made sense to me why Blockbuster rejected Netflix’s offer. A rela-
tively miniature company with a not-so-novel pitch of ‘Netflix team

running the online segment of Blockbuster’. But what didn’t make
sense, was why Blockbuster didn’t actually pursue their online
segment.
Risk of Management
When you look at their organizational culture and management

operations, it raises questions whether there was any room for creative
innovation. Blockbuster was exceptional and very efficient in delivering
entertainment to people. But they were also efficient in punishing them
for late returns. The late fees were a lucrative business model so prof-
itable that it made Blockbuster revisit the strategy after abandoning it
for 3 years. It was a disastrous attempt to recapture lost profits. All the
while when Netflix was signing deals with companies that streamed
Blockbuster movies.
Blockbuster was more comfortable to return to old methods that
generated profits over finding new innovative ways to adapt to the
future. At a micro-individual level, this is what happens when you
have a conscientious person that is high on both facets of industrious-
ness and orderliness, while lacking creativity and openness.
It also indicates why companies need to hire both managerial &
entrepreneurial individuals. In terms of organizational cultures, a good
balance of orderliness and chaos, and one side acting as a devils advo-
cate against the other, is the most effective way to secure the longevity
of a business.
Lesson
Amongst many lessons on the Netflix vs Blockbuster case, the one

highlighted here is to break out of your bubble. If you’re in a position
(or will be) of running a business, start with understanding who you
are and which way your temperament leans. As the managerial type,
you should hire entrepreneurs within the domain of your business. If
you’re the entrepreneurial one (which you most likely are if you started
your own business), then focus on hiring managers.
CHAPTER 7
SPIDER-MAN OR A MULTI-
BILLION DOLLAR ASSET?
I T WAS AN ORDINARY NIGHT IN THE OFFICE BACK IN 1962 WHEN S TAN L EE

saw a fly on the wall. Thinking to himself ‘…if I can get a superhero to
stick to walls & make it a teenager with personal problems, that would
be cool…’ he gets an idea; Spider-Man. He visits the publishers office
only to have his idea dismissed as one of the worst he’s come up with.
Coming to terms with this, Stan nevertheless publishes it on the last
issue of a magazine (a segment that gets no attention). He writes it off
and decides to come up with new ideas. A month later, the idea of
Spider-Man comes knocking on the door. The strong sales indicated a
massive surge in interest of the cartoon character. A closer look showed
that interestingly, teenagers genuinely resonated with teenage-cartoon
characters with superpowers and personal problems.
The Spider-Man films alone have grossed over $6 billion at the
global box office. Marvel Studios who owned the character, was
licensing its ownership exclusively to Sony for two decades when it
filed for bankruptcy in 1996. Sony went on to profit strongly from their
first few production of the Spider-Man movies under this agreement.
But in 2009, Disney purchased Marvel for $4 billion and fast forward to
2019 with the Homecoming movie grossing $1.1 billion, Disney wanted
a bigger piece of the pie. And rightly so.
Outdated Deal
The licensing agreement between Sony and Marvel was that Sony
gets to exclusively use the character. And Disney would get a 5% cut.
But this was a 20 year old deal that no longer held value for Disney to
be part of. Especially when the producer of the franchise was from
Disney’s Marvel division. Effectively, Disney was paying a hefty price
for Marvel’s 1996 agreement, loaning out their own Marvel producer,
and Spider-Man character, to Sony just to get 5% of the gross revenue.
So when negotiations went sour, Sony kept sole ownership of
Spider-Man (under the agreement). Disney withdrew access to their
producer, whose ingenuity was arguably the sole reason for the success
and revival of Sony’s Spider-Man movies.
New Deal
But the lucrative profit and hardcore fans surrounding Spider-Man,

proved too much for both companies to abandon an agreement. In late
September 2019, the two companies reached a deal where;
Disney will provide 25% of the next Spider-Man film’s

financing, but also take 25% of the gross revenue.
Sony will get to hire Marvel’s producer to continue
producing their upcoming films.
Disney will also be able to get its Spider-Man character back
to make the next Marvel Cinematic Universe film.
What was left as a trash idea on the back of a last issue magazine
back in 1962, turned out to be a $6 billion dollar asset in 2019. An asset
that ran circles around two giant conglomerates at war with each other
over its revenue-generating capacity. I thought this was a great story on
how a man can sit in his office one night to come up with an idea by
looking at a fly on the wall. Only to make giant ripples across genera-
tions and deliver a cartoon character as a household name.
CHAPTER 8
SYNTHETIC BONDS
T HIS ARTICLE IS RATHER COMPLEX IF YOU DON ’ T HAVE A BACKGROUND IN

finance. It will discuss bonds and financial instruments and how retail
investors like you, end up buying these products. I will aim to simplify
it as much as I can as I believe everyone should have a basic under-
standing of these synthetic bonds.
Let’s begin with understanding what a bond is. A bond is a financial
instrument that provides fixed income. I create a bond, sell it to you for
$5000 for a period of five years. That makes you the debt holder. Within
that five years, you get a regular income in the form of interest for
lending out your money. And by the end of the five years, you get your
$5000 back. Simple enough.
There are many types of bonds. Companies often sell bonds to
generate cash if they find the cost to be cheaper than borrowing
through conventional means. But what I am going to discuss is
synthetic bonds, a type of bond that guarantees a risk-free return.
A Synthetic Bond
A synthetic bond is not just a loan with interest payments. It can be

made up sophisticated instruments that contain puts, calls and futures
contracts. Sometimes treasuries, money market securities and credit
default swaps. To keep things simple, I’m going to use the minimum
required “ingredients” to demonstrate how you can create a synthetic
bond. What you need:
Buy a stock of a company

Buy a put option
Sell a call option
1. Buy a Company Stock
The first step is to go on a stock exchange platform to buy a stock of

a company. Ideally, you want the stock of a relatively stable company
that has a resilient business model with a fairly robust future outlook.
This stock will then be subject to a set of contracts. Contract that can be
purchased to guarantee a future payoff regardless which direction the
stock moves.
2. Buy a Put Option
Buying a put option effectively means buying a contract that gives

you the right to sell the shares you bought at a specified price at a speci-
fied time. To put it simply, this contract gives you the option to sell
your shares at a higher agreed price in an event of a market downturn.
For example, if I owned airline shares pre-covid and anticipated a
pandemic, I could just buy a put option contract. The contract would
give me the option to sell my shares at better rates than the market
post-covid.
So this contract has one objective; to restrict your loss if the market
goes downhill. So now we have our stock which we are hoping for it to
go up, but we are also not so fazed about it going down. We have taken
measures through put options.
3. Sell a Call Option
Selling a call option means you are giving a buyer the right to
purchase your shares at a specified price and time in exchange for an
upfront fee. This means, regardless how the market moves, if the buyer
decides to exercise the option, you will sell your shares to them at the
agreed price. When would the buyer act? If the shares of a particular
company go up too high. Then it would make sense to exercise the
contract and buy it from you, who has agreed to sell it at a lower price.
The buyer can exercise their contract, buy the shares from you at a
bargain and immediately sell it on a stock exchange at market value.
Now we have what makes up synthetic bonds.
If the price of the stock moves up, you get a return.

In the event of a price drop, you get return on your put
option.
If a buyer exercises his call option contract, the fee paid
offsets your loss of selling your shares below market price.
Combine All Three, And you Get a Risk-Free Synthetic Bond
If you combine all three instruments, package it into a financial

product, you would be able to sell it as a synthetic bond for a guarantee

of fixed returns. Doesn’t matter how the market moves, the instruments
tied to the underlying value of the asset will offset the losses. This is
called a put-call parity, where if you apply put and call options to a
stock, you can offset adverse market movements and deliver a risk-free
fixed return. These financial instruments are complex, rare to execute in
liquid markets but are commonly practiced among hedge funds and
investment bankers.
Synthetic bonds are designed to mimic corporate bonds. When a
company sells bonds, they guarantee interest payments originating
from their cash flow. When a investment company sells a synthetic
bond, they are guaranteeing returns derived from the contracts tied to
the underlying asset. These complex instruments played a significant
role in the financial crisis of 2008. It began with mortgage-backed secu-
rities (MBS), where institutions would sell an MBS and guarantee
investor return through the loans made by home owners. Then it went
to collateral-debt obligations (CDO), where instead of just mortagages,
these CDO securities contained other loans such as credit cards, car
loans and bonds. Then it went to synthetic CDO’s. These securities did
not derive their underlying value through loan repayments. They
derived their value from premiums paid by the small number of
investors who were shorting the housing market.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
A group of investors foresaw the financial crisis and decided to short

the housing market by buying credit default swaps. They were then
forced to pay premiums on their position if they wanted guarantee of a
payoff. Wall street didn’t see this as a warning. Not only was the
premiums not enough for them, but they instead created synthetic
CDO’s that derived its value from these premiums and sold them to
retail investors. Premiums that were being paid for a contract, in an
event of a default of another contract, guaranteed by another contract.
Wall street does not know where to draw the line. They call that finan-
cial innovation.
CHAPTER 9
THE 3 TYPES OF SILENT
ENEMIES
I F YOU DECIDE TO MOVE UP A HIERARCHY IN ANY SOCIAL OR

organizational business setting, you will face people who will present
as obstacles. You will encounter them as ordinary people when in real-
ity, they are nothing but enemies waiting to witness your demise. I
have termed them as silent because they never usually declare them-
selves as your enemies. On the surface, your interaction with them is no
different to those of your friends and colleagues. But beneath the
formality, there’s palpable vibes that radiates one message; I want to
see you fail. Out of the three, only one has the ability to have a hand in
your downfall and capitalize on it. Anyone who decides to move up the
socio-economic hierarchy in any point in their lives, will encounter
these three silent enemies.
Your Position In the Hierarchy
Before exploring the title of this post, understand that your position
in the hierarchy matters. In general, the higher you move up the hierar-
chy, the more competitive the landscape becomes. The more competi-
tive the landscape, the more predatory the players are. The opposite
happens to be also true. Cooperative environments are more likely to
be at the bottom of the hierarchy and be occupied by individuals char-
acteristic of the emotional and the miserable. So where you’re posi-
tioned will determine your exposure to the types of silent enemies you
will encounter.
And you can apply this general rule in any work setting, from retail
shops to corporate. Take note that bottom line employees lean towards
cooperative environments. Managers and executives lean towards
competitive environments. Depending whether you’re in a competitive
or a cooperative field, you will need to adjust your behavior accord-

ingly. Because all three archetypes will require a different approach to
successfully keep them at bay. Lets take a look at the three.
The Miserable
The miserable archetype are your typical ungrateful, depressive

complainers. They are incompetent, they hate their jobs and complain
over anything. Lacking all kinds of ambition, these types are the bottom
of the barrel within any organizational hierarchy. Consequently, to fill
the void of contempt, they get excitement out of drama. They are excep-
tional gossipers, which you can use to your advantage if you wanted to
spread rumors. They are also very effective at finding other miserable
individuals and combine forces in their quest for drama. The miserable
are completely harmless but will stop at nothing to take your time and
attention, effectively slowing you down. Interacting with them will
bring no value and can drastically damage your reputation when being
seen communicating with them. Simply absorb their attempt to speak
to you with silence and indicate that you are not available.
Your only interaction with them should be if you wanted to spread
rumors for a particular reason. You can have full confidence that they
would spread it for you. For instance, if my staff for any reason became
complacent (which they often do), a simple rumor suggesting that ‘this
financial quarters takings appear bleak’ will have the miserable on
steroids. They will no doubt add pounds of fabricated false information
to bring about a healthy dose of drama just enough for people to not
take them seriously, yet also feel uneasy at the prospect of a bad
quarter.
The Emotional
There’s an overlap between the emotional and the miserable. They

both bear resentment, share the proclivity to complain, and want others
to not succeed. The difference is that the emotional can act out and
harm you while the miserable continues to go in circles. Your approach
with the emotional must therefore be different. The emotional may also
have goals and ambitions they want to achieve. They can be hard
working and smart, but often fall short of moving up the hierarchy due
to their emotions. In particularly, their negative emotions. Occasionally
will you encounter them in competitive environments.
The emotional will want what you have but fail to get it, and so they
become resentful and use underhanded means to adversely compro-
mise you. Their inability to get what you have could be for several
reasons; they lack the credentials or competence, they simply cant work
as hard as you or their emotions get in the way. Entirely driven by envy
and resentment, the emotional will compensate for what they lack by
sabotaging what you have either through character assassination or

exploiting your weaknesses. This archetype are very prone to becoming
a pawn for predators.
Think back to every time you had a co-worker who simply envied
you. Every interaction resorted to friction to the extent that you would
go out of your way to avoid them. Now you may have never experi-
enced this, but imagine this envious person joining forces with
someone (predator) in a position of enough power to really cause you
trouble. They will work in tandem to undermine everything you do.
This is in fact one of the key reasons why you cannot ignore the
emotional archetype.
So what do you do?
If you want to maintain peace with The Emotional, you have to treat
them like children. And I don’t mean this in a condescending way. The
idea is to mirror their emotions as if you would to a child. Mirroring is
how you transfer your energy to someone else, and an emotional
person always seeks comfort and sympathy. They despise callousness
and narcissism.
Cater to their emotions

Share fake vulnerabilities
Establish trust
Ignoring them is misinterpreted as callousness to them. But it’s not

in your best interest to ignore them. Emotional people can often be like
wild dogs, where they lash out uncontrollably when they don’t get they
want. It is far better to have a wild dog on your side than against you.
A few emotional exchanges will have you contain them and lash
outward. And this will work in your favor for when their behavior gets
reprimanded by others, and consequently, they will look to you for
guidance.
My experience
I had a manager I worked with for years. He was an emotional wild

dog. But he was also very smart and cunning (rare combo), and his
emotions constantly worked against him. He was older and was very
resentful of me. I knew from the get go that this was not a person I
want to be enemies with. He was the type of person to find an error,
then orchestrate it to be significantly worse and reveal it to everyone in
the form of a rumor, formal and written complaint. So I went out of my
way to bond with him. We would go to a bar after work, talk about a
range of topics. By the end, we were a force that worked in tandem. A
few vulnerabilities shared, led to a small coalition that got things done.
And even still, there always was that envy beneath the surface. But it
was contained.
The Predator
Predatory enemies are your typical low neuroticism, disagreeable,

cunning tacticians. They overlap with the emotional in the sense that
they want what you have. But the difference is, they can get it. And
they will strategize quietly and more often than not, you won’t see
them coming. They can effectively deter attention to what they do and
falsify where their interests lie to avoid competition. You will encounter
this archetype in competitive fields higher on the hierarchy. They often
don’t play fair and will use any means to achieve what they want.
Dealing with the predator is a lot like playing chess. There’s no set
strategy, and plans change regularly. Your moves depend on their
moves. The player who dominates the center will generally win the
game. The center here is a metaphor for individual power which I
define by the six components:
1. Character
2. Competence
3. Resources
4. Legitimacy
5. Leverage
6. Relational
ON HIGH VALUE HABITS
Peace is luxury. Peace is NOT the default.

CHAPTER 1
CAN PEOPLE CHANGE?
PEOPLE DON'T CHANGE. THEY RE-CHANNEL THEIR

SHADOW.
T HIS TOPIC WAS REQUESTED BY ONE OF MY FOLLOWERS WHO MESSAGED ME
directly on twitter. He asked me whether change is really possible as he
believed it to be a futile attempt to spend time and effort trying trans-
form oneself. His observation largely proved that people don’t change.
He’s not wrong. Change does not come easy.
You are the product of a two hundred thousand year old race.
You’re the manifestation of all your dead ancestors in a single living
organism. You involuntarily follow century old customs that you have
grown to believe as socially acceptable. There are parts to you that act
out regretfully when things don’t go your way, and all you manage to
say is “I don’t know what came over me”. You barely understand the
inner workings of yourself and your brain. But there you are, looking at
yourself in the mirror, reflecting on the parts of you that you despise
and ask the question; can I change?
What you’re up against
It is often the case that the very thing we want to change about
ourselves seems to be the most difficult. A poor habit almost always
finds itself embedded deep in our reward system where it entangles
itself with things that bring us immediate comfort and gratification. To
make matters worse, we often immediately regret the action after
executing it. Our desire to gratify ourselves with no impulse control
measures the weakness of our core self. And the frequency of our regret
measures how integrated we are as an individual. If you take these two
elements into account, you can loosely conclude that everything you
don’t like about yourself, is not you. It has it’s own thoughts and feel-
ings. And it happens to act on its own accord. To change a part of you
means to battle someone else inside of your own being.
The parts you don’t like about yourself are products of evolutionary
manifestations. Those emotions you have no control over, used to be a
communication tool before language was invented. We relied on
communication through emotions and other behavioral actions just to
meet the demands of our survival. And now, its these same emotions
and habits we are trying change about ourselves.
Change is Possible. But Extremely Rare
Jungian psychoanalytic theory suggests the parts of yourself you

declare non-existent will come back with a vengeance. This by defini-
tion means you cannot change yourself. When we see someone trans-
form themselves into a better person, what we are witnessing is not
change, but rather channeling. They somehow have managed to look at
themselves and find a way to re-channel their poor behavior and find
an acceptable outlet for it.
People only change when they encounter a traumatic event. A naive
person for instance, either transforms to become a predator, or a prey
after encountering hell. The transformation is largely involuntarily. It
happens as an element of chance, when life decides to bring hell upon
them.
Involuntary change happens regularly in the presence of

catastrophic events.
Voluntary change rarely happens.
Voluntary change is merely Shadow Integration
The decision to change usually originates from a set of inner and

outer observations. You look at your action and its consequences. Then,
you take note of where the result of your action puts you within what is
acceptable in society. Ultimately you find that your action has had an
adverse impact on your surrounding, and if you wish yourself a better
future from there on wards, you begin to make an agreement with
yourself to change. This lengthy process of acknowledgement is not
very sophisticated. And the difficulty doesn’t lie in identifying your
poor habits, as society will always find a way to reveal it for you.
The difficulty lies in confronting the parts of yourself and inte-
grating it with who you are, to tame its manifestation to become more
refined, and its existence more acceptable.
Envy can help you ascend in life, if you stopped lashing out in a
resentful, destructive manner, but rather honed in your contempt and
fueled it with desire to achieve more. This ‘change’ takes time. It’s a
ON HIGH VALUE HABITS 95
battle between a socially refined you, against a primal ancient version

of you. It requires voluntary exposure through triggers and active
suppression and impulse control. Then it requires you to re-channel the
dark energy towards constructive values instead of destructive ones.
What It Takes
If you really want to change, you need to isolate all the parts of
yourself you despise. Personalizing them vividly helps identify what
exactly you are trying to change. The aim is to record its trigger points
and its behavioral manifestation. Once you have quantified all these
parameters, the aim is to voluntarily expose yourself to your sub-
personality and discipline it on how it acts out. Re-channeling is only
possible when you’ve learned to control the behavioral output of your
sub-personality.
CHAPTER 2
CHARACTER OF A MAN IS
TESTED BY A WOMAN
INTEGRITY IS PLACED UNDER PRESSURE WHEN

LUST EMERGES FROM THE SURFACE
S ITUATIONS REVEAL CHARACTER .
You are out one night with friends for dinner.
You all know each other, everyone is getting along over the dinner
table, there’s productive social dialogue with memorable humor being
exchanged and you are all comfortably present.
Few more friends show up by coincidence, accommodated by
certain others, some happen to be women.
And suddenly the atmosphere swiftly changes.
You notice some of your friends no longer act & behave how they
used to a moment ago. They suddenly have become more aloof & arro-
gant and make jokes at the expense of each other.
What started off as a decent night out, turned into a alpha social
ladder climbing contest.
Why?
Because most men lack character around women. Because most men
rather throw you under, just to impress a woman with their alpha
status. Losing sight of their apex value upon encounter something that
they have no impulse control over, is an indication that they lack char-
acter and can not lead nor be put in a position of power.
Least Integrated Shadow
Lust is a powerful urge that few men have control over. Men of
substance have the capacity to control their urge around women. A
while back I tweeted; “A man’s self-control is best measured in the
presence of a beautiful woman. Watch his eyes, his words, his change in
behavior. If he has no self-control, he has no integrity. No integrity, no
character.”
This is a vetting process of a man. Men of integrity make no sacri-
fices in the presence of women. They certainly don’t put other men
down to impress them. And a woman of quality should see men who
put other men down socially, as a red flag. The top of dominance hier-
archies are not achieved through social ladder climbing. They are
attained by becoming exceptionally competent. Men that occupy the
top half of the dominance hierarchies do not adjust their behavior to
seek validation from women.
Reveal of Character
Money & women are very strong pointers that determine a man’s
character by exposing his ability to control his impulses. If you want to
know what a man is made up of, look at his response towards a money-
making opportunity and when he encounters a woman. Failure to
control himself in either department suggests that he doesn’t respect
himself and therefore is unlikely to respect you in your future transac-
tions with him.
You want to be able to associate yourself with men that can provide
value. This is the basis of creating a web of network for leverage
purposes. You can’t rely on men who are social ladder climbers in the
presence of women because leaders do not engage in such behavior.
They protect and maintain their character and integrity. Relationships
developed on the basis of value exchange is of high importance to
them, and they are not willing to sabotage their relationship with you
for a woman.
Shadow integration is essential if you are one of these men. You need to
exercise control in the presence of women to maintain your natural
behavior and attitude. It is a long process that involves *voluntary
confrontation & suppression*, a method employed in the shadow inte-
gration process that seeks to allow the emergence of your shadow in
order to confront and voluntarily control it.
CHAPTER 3
SAY WHAT YOU ACT OUT
THE IMPORTANCE OF ALIGNMENT
What you act out is who you are. What you say, is a promissory note
until you deliver. Alignment is Credibility
Why is it that what you act out is who you truly are? Because when you
act, you manifest instant preference on a single choice, displaying your
commitment by sacrificing infinite alternatives for your chosen deci-
sion. Purely out of self-interest, this can’t be faked. But when you say
something, you’ve made no commitment on a decision aside from spec-
ulation. When you deliver on what you say, you begin to develop cred-
ibility.
Misalignment
If you say something and act out opposing to what you say without
conscious control, it means you are not aligned. You have not come into
terms with who you really are. I say conscious control because there is a
component to this subject that will be explored & explained on the
monthly articles discussing why it is necessary to ‘align your thoughts
with the truth, but act out like the masses’. But this short essay will
explain the opposite; the importance of aligning the two together.
If you want to be a man of value, you need to be able to become a
leader within your sphere of influence. This means becoming account-
able, relied upon and be able to do what you say. Misalignment of your
words and actions will disqualify you from leadership and cut you
short from all the qualities you need to become one.
Ease of Words
The reason why a lot of people say what they don’t do (without
conscious control) is because saying is impulsive, easy and inconse-
quential. They don’t think before they speak. So when it comes to
doing, they suddenly have to exert effort, calculate and assess the
activity involved. There are also those that seek the wrong kind of vali-
dation (yes there is a right kind). They seek to fit in groups of people to
be liked and admired. They say things to appear cool and inflate their
social status when their actions would never follow through with what
they say. This is in fact how people begin to suffer from depression and
anxiety; when the separation of their words and actions develop them
into someone they’re not. There’s a strong sense of fulfillment in
meaning & congruence when an individual can integrate themselves by
their words and actions.
Credibility of Alignment
Dialing down what you have to say is a mandatory trait if you want
to become a leader. Your announcements and declarations should be
thought out carefully. They need to align themselves with your actions
should you need to act on them. This alignment helps you develop
credibility and reliability, the two qualities that will help shape your
reputation as a leader. Your words will be powerful and carry weight.
People will respect you and listen attentively to what you have to say.
You will live up to the motto “A man of his word”.
There is a dark side to this subject matter that explores the necessity
why you shouldn’t say what you act out. This is a method that is
employed under conscious control for a clear strategic objective. It’s
purpose is to throw people off, manipulate them, while protecting
yourself to achieve a certain goal. So its application of use is for those
on a competitive path of ascension. It will entail political strategies and
the importance of diplomacy. The topic will be analyzed at length &
published as one of my monthly articles, viewable by subscribers only.
CHAPTER 4
HOW NEUROTICISM
AFFECT YOU
N EUROTICISM IS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL TERM GIVEN TO ONE OF THE BIG FIVE

personality traits. It encompasses all the negative emotions of a human
being. A person sensitive to negative emotions is considered to have
high neuroticism. This subject is surprisingly uncommon and not well
understood. I am not a psychologist. But I have studied human
emotions to an extensive degree while spending years counselling and
observing methadone patients before moving on to management. Here
is what you should know.
I’m going to steer away from all the general information you can
look up elsewhere with regards to the health concerns of neuroticism.
My aim in this short post is to deliver this topic from a psychoanalytic
perspective and demonstrate how it affects your life.
Your Neuroticism Is Not You
If we take a step back and use the concept of psychoanalytic theory,

we can label all our emotions as our ‘other selves’. The reason why I do
this is because it separates the way we behave when we are in charac-
ter, as oppose to when we regret a certain action. And I think the best
way to approach your neuroticism is to understand its degree of impact
through the frequency of your regrets.
Regret occurs more often when our actions are accommodated with
emotions. And you can loosely interpret this as; if a regrettable action is
accommodated by an emotion, that means the emotion must stem from
a desire that conflicts with my own desire. Otherwise I would not
regret it. Isolating your emotions as separate personalities also makes it
easier to practice shadow integration, as it identifies actions executed
by your regrettable, ‘other’ personalities in which you are not respon-

sible for. It goes without saying that every individual must obviously
be held accountable for their actions. But in a psychoanalytic sense, the
assumption is ‘the actions you regret are not you’. So who are they? In
simple terms; they are your sub-personalities each with their own
emotions and desires different to yours.
Negative Emotions Makes You Regret Your Choices
If you are prone to neuroticism, you will find that most of your
choices are made emotionally. You experience frequent intense reac-
tions every time things don’t go your way. Your reaction to setbacks
will predominantly be emotional, leading to consequences and regrets.
But it’s not just negative emotions. People who scale high on positive
emotions (extroverts) are also prone to regrets. The fundamental differ-
ence between the two is; regret experienced through positive emotions
is generally a consequence of doing something stupid or risky. Whereas
regret experienced through negative emotions stems from lashing out
of anxiety, resentment and fear.
Empirical observation indicates that those with large variances in
their emotions are more prone to regrets and poor decision making. So
from a personality perspective; disagreeable introverts with low
neuroticism seem to be the most ideal and stable archetypes.
Negative Emotions Lowers Stress Tolerance
One of the weakest points of high neuroticism is the ability to

tolerate stress. Your stress tolerance will spill on to every part of your
life, whether its your lifestyle, career, and family relations. It does not
discriminate and will adversely affect every domain of your life. Your
failure to tolerate stress halves your effectiveness against the challenges
you want to accomplish. You will opt to request more time and
approach tasks incrementally within the sphere of your comfort zone.
Rather than aim for maximum efficiency despite the overwhelming
pressure & discomfort, you will find sanctuary in slow, comfortable
conditions. This behavior also motivates you to work in cooperative
business environments over competitive fields, which largely deter-
mines whether you can ascend the dominance hierarchy or not. Read
this POST that explains what personalities best suit career pathways.
Negative Emotions Damage Your Decision Making
Truth and reality often go hand in hand. And they are both harsh,
intolerant and unfair; everything that worsens negative emotions under
neuroticism. Consequently, people with high neuroticism tend to avoid
the demands of reality. They prefer to imagine alternative favorable

scenarios and mental role-plays that simply lack any realistic utility.
And they also pay a high price for circumventing reality during disrup-
tive changes (eg 2008 Global Financial Crisis, COVID-19).
Negative Emotions Prevents You From Taking Risks
I can argue that it’s probably a good thing to be able to detect

danger and potential harm by being risk averse. But high neuroticism
flat lines you from taking any risk at all. And without risk, there is no
reward. This particular setback also contributes largely in your preven-
tion of climbing up the dominance hierarchy. Capitalizing on any
opportunity constitutes large exposure to risk. And those who can
effectively seize opportunities will comfortably take risks.
Negative Emotions Can Make You More Agreeable
Your sensitivity to negative emotions will steer you away from

confrontation. It will compel you to opt for dishonest harmony over
challenging uncomfortable truths. On a long enough time frame, I
believe this weakness to be the most catastrophic to your character. The
more you agree out of necessity to preserve your comfort, the less you
become who you are. The separation of who you are, and what you’ve
become as a consequence of succumbing to societal conditioning, is
equivalent to death in my opinion.
Is It Possible To Lower Neuroticism?
If you score 100% on neuroticism, will it be possible to bring it down

to 50%? The answer is no. Genetics plays a large role with who you are
within the domain of the five personalities. You cannot desensitize
yourself to your negative emotions on a macro scale that makes up
your neuroticism. But you don’t need to. What you should do is break
up your neuroticism into micro sub-personalities, isolate, divide and
conquer. If anger overshadows your neuroticism, then it is absolutely
possible to low your anger through shadow integration. Using this
procedure will enable you to eliminate the ugliest, most damaging
parts of your neuroticism.
Controlling Your Neuroticism through Shadow Integration Method
If you want to lower parts of your neuroticism that has the biggest
adverse effect on your life, you will need to apply psychoanalytic sepa-
ration of emotions and shadow integration. The process is long and
tiring, but it is the most effectiveness method in lowering negative
emotions. Think of the process like doing yoga but in a interactive

manner where you voluntarily stimulate a negative emotion through a
trigger (usually discomfort) with the purpose of suppressing it.
Through systemic desensitization you will allow yourself to eventually
integrate your negative emotion and re-channel it.
CHAPTER 5
HOW TO BE AN EFFECTIVE
LEADER
BEST LEADERS USE BOTH SIDES OF THE COIN

I F YOU LOOK UP THE WORD LEADERSHIP ONLINE TODAY , YOU WILL FIND THAT
there are Six Styles that can be learned and adopted. The experts in the
field state that an effective leader must be able to utilize all six styles.
And they should use it depending on how conditions play out. Now
because each type has its own pros and cons, the idea is to be able to
use a style that best fits a specific scenario. Aligning a leadership style
to a certain scenario thereby maximizes the positives while reducing
the negatives associated with each style. I strongly advocate for this
approach if someone wants to become an effective leader. However, to
undertake this at full capacity will take years of practice. It will require
you to work in a setting, exposing you to many scenarios that would
demand the types of leaderships styles.
I’ll demonstrate an easier way to become an effective leader. It will
narrow down all six styles down to two elements: influence and
compulsion. You also will not need to expose yourself to countless
scenarios in order to practice these elements. All you need to under-
stand is emotions, and that people possess both positive and negative
components. Before reading further, take a look at my THREAD that
introduces what I am about deliver at length.
Brief Introduction on Emotions
Emotions can be categorized into positive and negative compo-

nents. Your sensitivity to each component originates from your person-
ality and temperament. As a leader, it is your job to assess the
personality of the people around you to effectively lead them. This
means you need to spend some time profiling them into their person-
ality types.
Negative Emotions
People sensitive to negative emotions are often high on neuroticism

and agreeableness. They may or may not be extroverted. They are often
easy targets for manipulators as their orientation in life is to largely
avoid conditions that stimulate negative emotions.
Positive Emotions
People who appeal to positive emotions are your extroverted types.

They may or may not have high neuroticism. In other words; an indi-
vidual can both be sensitive to negative emotions while appealing to
positive emotions. But the two are mutually exclusive of each other.
People who appeal to positive emotions have lower levels of risk
assessment and enjoy thrill seeking activities.
The High Neuroticism Extroverts
The media has proven to be the most powerful force that affects
mankind. It predominantly accomplishes two things: it distracts by
stimulating positive emotions through entertainment. And it controls
by stimulating negative emotions through news narratives. This means
that we are already at a disadvantage when it comes to controlling our
emotional impulses. There’s nothing on the media for instance, that
suggests we should not seek indulgences. You can see the effects of this
being played out in the young generation. The ‘good vibes only!’ types
are becoming increasingly more common everyday. If there is a person-
ality profile you should avoid, it’s the high neurotic extroverts.
I am not saying that these personality types are bad. All personality
types have their strengths and weaknesses. For instance, extroverts
tend to be exceptional in sales and entrepreneurship, and those with
high negative emotions tend to be great risk assessors. But within the
context of emotions, these personality types happen to be most disad-
vantaged.
How all this affects your Leadership
The six styles of leadership teaches you to apply different styles

according to different circumstances. For instance, a coercive style of
leadership is used under fast paced, stressful conditions where the
margin of error is high and costly. Whereas a democratic style of leader-
ship is used when a leader seeks to gather ideas for creation and inno-
vation. So different approaches are used in different contexts. The same
principle can be applied to leadership through emotions. Compulsion
is implicitly used on those who are sensitive to negative emotions, and
influence is explicitly used on those who appeal to positive emotions.
Compulsion And Influence Are Not the Same
To influence someone means to encourage them to do what you

suggest. You explain to them why something should be done along
with the benefits of them doing it. The benefits should then outweigh
the reasons of not doing it. If it does, you have met their asking price
and they will follow through with it. If not, you’ll need to offer more.
Compulsion is the dark brother of influence. To compel someone
interprets to “do this or else”. It is often the case that you need some
form of leverage to effectively compel someone to do something for
you. Whereas with influence, the need for leverage is not necessary, as
those who believe in your leadership will act on their own accord if
they see the benefit. You can argue that the benefit they see is an incen-
tive and therefore a form of leverage. But this isn’t the case since they
can walk away from it anytime.
So an effective leader uses the two in tandem on the people he
leads:
He explicitly influences by laying out the benefits for them if they did
as they’re told. He also implicitly compels them by laying out the
consequences of them not doing as their told. The combination plays
right into the primal behavior of humans; evoking the prospect of a
“happy state” while mildly aggravating their survival instincts.
The key point here is that you have framed your proposal in a way
that the person can satiate both feelings simply by doing as their told.
They get to attain a happy state while also keeping misery at bay
simply by following your lead. Never use one method without the
other. When commanding others, get into the habit of explaining the
benefits of them complying, and (implicitly) the consequences that they
will have to face if they choose to not comply. Resistance towards your
order will drop, which will only magnify your reputation with power.
Here are few facts to consider on compulsion and influence with

regards to leadership:
The more influence you use the more it improves your

character and the more you will become popular and
admired.
The more compulsion you use, the more you will be resented
and seen as a tyrant.
If you have a well known track record of success, you wont
need to influence or compel. People will just follow.
The less successful you are as a leader, the more benefits you
need to provide when you try to influence.
The more leverage you have, which you can use to compel,
the less benefits you need to provide when you influence
The more leverage you have, the more people will fear you.
Compulsion is used at the highest organizational hierarchies.
They leverage money, connections, assets, lawsuits & contracts, to

deliver desired objectives. It doesn’t require competence, character or
honor. But it doesn’t necessarily mean its evil. It is entirely possible to
be good & corrupt at the same time. Because you will find that in order
to survive in any competitive field, you will have to engage in expe-
dient means for the protection of your own interests. Every business
does. If you’re familiar with what went down with the GME stock,
Robinhood ceased trades on GME not because it was in their best
interest to do so. They were compelled by the numerous hedge funds
who had strong vested interest in shorting the stock. Read Hedge
Funds Vs Reddit if you’re interested in the story. This is one of the most
recent examples where the use of compulsion can be applied to.
I strongly discourage the use of explicit compulsion on its own. It
should be implicit and always delivered with constructive, positive
influence. I also disagree with people who say compulsion is not neces-
sary when you’re an effective leader. Although the statement stands to
be true, because the more reputation you accumulate as an effective
leader, the less compulsion you need to use. But this does not mean the
use of compulsion should be disregarded entirely. The combined use of
compulsion and influence sets the best leaders apart.
CHAPTER 6
THE DARK SIDE OF
HELPING SOMEONE
EMPATHY DESTROYS MORE THAN IT CREATES

E VERY CHOICE MADE , WILL COME AT A COST . T HIS IS WHAT HUMANS ARE
cursed with. You don’t get to not pay a price. A common idea I see
everywhere is that helping people and exercising kindness makes the
world a better place.
The problem with Kindness
The problem with this kind of ideology is that people do acts of

kindness due to empathy. They don’t stand to reason why they felt this
empathy come on. What initiated it?
There is a strong probability, that your act of kindness which was
brought on by empathy, was aroused by someone seeking to serve
themselves. And so your good deed will result in multiple unintended
consequences:
Ingratitude
Envy
Exploitation
Manipulation
Resentment
All acts of kindness, has the potential to generate these dark parts of
human nature. The most important question to ask is:
what set of behaviors did you observe that led to the arousal of your
empathy?
An Observation
I have worked in multiple hierarchical organizations where I have

witnessed how human nature plays out. Here is what I have learned:
Competent people hate asking for help. When they ask for
help, they promise an exchange in value from the beginning
and deliver on their word.
Those who ask for help for nothing in return are
masquerading their entitlement and egotistic behavior. Any
act of kindness will serve to increase the severity of their
entitlement.
Helping someone will often derail them in the long-run than
improve their lives.
Those with inherent sense of entitlement are also the same
ones who line up for freebies.
Competent people see freebies as negative progression.
Entitled people see freebies as positive progression.
In general, competent people exhibit courage,
competitiveness and desire to learn & improve.
In general, entitled people exhibit resentment, jealousy,
gossip and hate.
Entitled people in a higher socioeconomic hierarchy will still
arouse more empathy in someone, than a competent person
occupying the lower socioeconomic hierarchy.
The young rich guy driving an AMG, whose inherited his
wealth, is more likely to capitalize on an opportunity by
arousing empathy than a competent Iraqi/Syrian kid shining
shoes on the streets of a war torn country.
Being kind to a competent person is a return on investment.
They will not forget your kindness and will deliver back to
you 10 fold.
The Dark Side of Kindness
Being unkind has the potential to damage someone, but ALSO has
the capacity to transform them, forcefully waking them out of their
naivety so they can stand their ground and not get taken advantage of.
But being kind to someone almost ALWAYS does damage with no
benefits in the long-run.
This is because there are more entitled lazy people in the world
than there are competent, industrious people. This is partly
because of the times we are living in (increased quality of life,
technological advancements etc). It is no surprise that prosperous
times give rise to a generation of complacent, entitled adults. And
the opposite is also true; harsh times give rise to more industrious,
hard working people. Kindness should follow this logarithmic scale

accordingly.
I’ve experienced this personally at a individual level. Doing an act
of kindness in the western country I live in, almost always turns to
regret. Doing an act of kindness in the middle east when I travel is an
unforgettable experience. This is not to say that if you’re not kind to
someone you should be unkind. This is wrong. You can still be cour-
teous & respectful without acting kindly.
Perspective
I remember when I traveled to Iraq back in 2009 and came across a

kid who was selling plants. This 9 year old would walk up the moun-
tain, pick these unique looking plants up from their roots with his own
hands, then come back down to sell them on the streets. I gave him a
$100 US note, asked for nothing in return and told him to sell the plants
to someone else.
I consider this act of kindness to be one of the biggest mistakes in
my life.
The kid looked at me with disgrace and told me to keep my money
if I wasn’t going to buy any plants from him. I was ashamed, quickly
buying everything he had. This 9 year old kid had more integrity than I
did. I thought I was doing a good deed when the consequence of my
kindness literally suggested to the kid ‘here some money so you don’t
have to work, just wait around and beg for money instead’.
Lesson learned.
Kindness is not what it seems. There’s a lot of dark traits it gives rise
to because of who we are. We are cursed with a dark side that seeks to
continually exploit. I analyze empathy, empathy triad and human
manipulation at length on my next issue of my monthly articles and
discuss it comprehensively in The Lobby. Become a member to get
access.
Remember that kindness emerges through empathy. Empathy is
aroused by someone appearing helpless, and anyone who seeks to
arouse empathy through helplessness is entitled, resentful, jealous and
is seeking to serve themselves. A competent person will refuse help
without an exchange, just like that 9 year old boss who told me off.
Do not forget this.
CHAPTER 7
LEADERS CAN NEVER
BE FREE
I CAME ACROSS A TWITTER ACCOUNT THAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION WITH

regards to the content it was releasing. To put it briefly, it was saying
how ‘A man should be free. He should be able to do what he wants, go
wherever he wants and not have to answer to anyone‘. If we look at
this from a masculine perspective, these claims are all true. But, a more
nuanced analysis indicates that this sort of mindset directly interferes
with leadership qualities. Because leadership comes at the cost of
freedom.
Leaders can never be free
In its purest definition, leadership means ‘the action of leading a

group of people or an organization’. This is not the same as managing
or commanding a group of people. Leadership is about you pushing
forward and constantly looking behind to make sure everyone is
following your lead. Without your lead, everyone goes their own way.
If you have obligations as a leader, then your presence is mandatory
and ‘doing whatever you want to do’ is no longer an option. Your pres-
ence becomes the backbone of your people, whether its your family or
employees.
Leadership is Not Exclusive to Business
Someone replied to one of my tweets with: “If you’re a man who

cannot do whatever he wants, without any concerns, and answer to
nobody, you’re probably sedulous but dumb. Having responsibilities
does not make you a slave… things should run smoothly in my
absence”. The person who wrote this had a point. Responsibilities

should not turn a man into a slave. But this is not the same as leader-
ship. And responsibility is only slavery without authority or an incen-
tive. You have to explicitly understand what leadership is. An effective
leader’s absence is felt immediately, and longing for his return becomes
a burning desire. Managers & business owners do not possess this
quality.
Trying to apply the principles of how to run a business to the role of
leadership, dilutes the significance of what leadership stands for.
Having things run smoothly is the role of a manager, and a business
owner. A leader’s objective is not to make sure everything runs
smoothly. Instead, his objective is to progress the people who follow
him, forward. And this means that he will be reliant upon, and that
people will look up to him for direction. He becomes a provider that
ends up giving structure and order within his sphere of influence. His
presence brings comfort and his leadership is deemed effective when
his group of people become misguided upon his absence.
You Are Not Free
Your decision to become a leader comes at the cost of your freedom. It

is an act of commitment that you must find worthwhile as a cost to
forgo the freedom you have. If every man reading this aims to have a
family one day, and be successful in leading one, then you all need to
understand that leadership requires sacrifice. It is my honest opinion
that I believe men who are free to do whatever they want are simply
grown children. They have yet to become competent, provide value
and create reliance for the people around him. A man who does not
provide should spark instant suspicion. And this holds true in my
experience. Free men never truly grow up and they retain their ‘care-
less, responsibility-free’ attitude well into their adult years. I blame
childhood parenting and inheritance for this new wave of male behav-
ior. Leadership and commitment should cement itself in your character.
You Need To Decide
You have a choice to make. Either become a leader or remain a

child. If you want freedom, then you are opting to become an old child.
The cost of freedom is extremely high and it will rob you from all the
qualities that makes you high value. If you want to become a leader,
then understand that freedom is a delusion. And your aim in life is to
provide and lead the people around you towards ascension. That is
what men do. They sacrifice and lead. When you truly begin to under-
stand the impact of your leadership on others, you will ironically feel
liberated. And I believe it this to be one hundred percent true. Those

who earn their freedom, owe it to their self-imposed slavery. Become a
leader. Not a child.
CHAPTER 8
LOVE ERODES A MAN’S
CHARACTER
PURSUING THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE WILL COME AT

THE EXPENSE OF ATTAINING YOUR PURPOSE
I HAD A FRIEND BACK IN COLLEGE WHO I WAS REALLY CLOSE WITH . W E HAD
strong trust between us but were also opponents of one another,
constantly pushing ourselves to do better. If I had to pick a friend to
trust and contest with, it would be him. Two years after our graduation,
we caught up for a drink. I told him how I managed to land a high end
management position while studying my MBA and working on a start
up. And he was telling me how he found the woman of his dreams and
fell in love. I was really happy for him. I presumed the love of his life
will propel him to achieve what he wants. He was very competitive
and conscientious person who was studying law at the time.
Fast forward two years, I was wrong. He didn’t finish his degree, he
spent everyday with his girlfriend who he ended up marrying,
watching TV series, going out and travelling. Take one.
Take Two
Every time I travelled overseas, I would meet up with my cousin.

He was around my age, very bright who studied engineering while
running a profitable online business. Long story short, after meeting his
love, he ended up flopping his online business and barely scraping
through his degree. All because he gave away the majority of his time
& attention to this girl he loved. And he enjoyed doing it. It was almost
as if he was blind to the fact of how complacent he was becoming.
Love Makes You Stupid

I mean this literally. Love overwhelms you with positive AND nega-
tive emotions. You will feel motivated to do things with no risk assess-
ment, operating high on the “happy state”. Needless to say, your
uncharacteristic behavior expressed at the fear (negative emotions) of
losing her shatters your attraction, entirely losing the substance of what
made her fall in love with you in the first place. Heightened positive
and negative emotions directly disrupt critical thinking. It entirely
distorts rationality and your choices will be accommodated by urges
driven by the love you have for a woman. Choices made through
emotional urges lead to regret at best, and catastrophes at worst.
In my observation, the most lethal blow that love brings on to men,
is that they are unaware of their irrationality. They are completely blind
to the poor choices they are making and will justify anything to a fault.
Trying to talk sense into them is like disciplining a 8 year old insubordi-
nate child who doesn’t speak your language. Only once it’s too late,
they wake up from their enchanted slumber to realize the decades they
have wasted through all the choices they made in the name of love. Not
the least of which, the resentment that brews underneath, when the
‘love’ in all probable cases, ends.
Love Makes You Inefficient
Nothing destroys your effectiveness as a man, more than the love of

a woman. You are encountering a creature of beauty that ignites your
lust, followed by rounds of positive and negative emotions hellbent on
clouding your judgement and derailing your capacity to operate at
maximum efficiency. From an apex value perspective, the need for love
is nothing short of suicide. Read my article: High Value: The Philos-
ophy of Becoming High Value – Unmodern Men if you haven’t already.
Men should operate in a hierarchical manner. That means they should
have an aim they want to attain at the cost of anything else. This consti-
tutes setting themselves up on a path of least resistance to attain such
aim. Falling in love doesn’t just apply resistance to this pathway. It
completely reroutes you towards a quality-eroding, self-destructive
one.
Your Love Ruins Your Attraction
This is something most men don’t understand, but your lack of

ability to feel ‘love’ is what maintains her attraction & obsession over
you. And she will never admit this. Because it doesn’t make any sense.
But women don’t make any sense either – and two negatives here do
make a positive. Women will be drawn to you as long as you can
arouse mixed emotions in them. Do this on a long enough timeframe,
they will become obsessed with you.
Expressing your love does nothing but release a full blast of positive
emotions. It’s exactly what turns women off. This is why in a primal
biological sense, they love bad boys. No matter how you do the math,
behaving when you’re in love will always evoke positive emotions.
-The anxiety you get at the prospect of losing her (negative
emotions), will make you do things that will seek her validation – i.e.
positive emotions.
-The thrill you feel when you’re with her, will make you behave in
ways that will suffocate her – i.e. positive emotions.
Few men understand the importance of mixed (positive and negative)

emotions and how love distorts their behaviour from effectively
arousing them simultaneously. In the long run, it does nothing but
erode men’s character.
Lack of Love Does Not Equal Lack of Commitment
My critique of love stems from the fact that it makes men inefficient
by deviating them from attaining their apex value and turning them
rationally blind. It is not an excuse to liberate them to embrace a harem
or engage in multiple relationships that put ‘women on rotation’. If a
man cannot commit, then he is no man. Because commitment means to
sacrifice, and if you cannot sacrifice, then that means you want every-
thing at the behest of your urges. Love does not equal commitment.
You can still commit without needing to feel love.
My Take
This viewpoint is probably extreme to some of my readers. But I

have yet to observe the benefits love has with regards to a man trying
to attain his purpose. Time and time again it proves otherwise. And it’s
certainly the case that determined men who are single are exceptionally
competent at what they do, easing their way into dominance hierar-
chies. Which a probable conclusion would suggest that having a
partner is nothing but a burden, but a burden worth bearing none-
theless
I do believe a man remains to be incomplete without a partner, and
a family. But I also believe trying to seek a partner emotionally through
love in the name of meaning is detrimental for men. Some things suffice
it to say, are not made us. If the cost of achieving my purpose is to forgo
finding meaning through love, then that is a cost I am willing to pay.
And it’s a cost my partner is expected to understand.
A disclaimer here that I have a girlfriend who I admire and who I am

strongly devoted to.
CHAPTER 9
OUTCOME INDEPENDENCE
PROBABLY NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT SHOULD MEAN

Y OU HAVE PROBABLY HEARD OF “H AVE AN OUTCOME INDEPENDENT
mindset”. The message it portrays is, ‘be indifferent to the results
handed to you’. This is a bad message for men. There’s only 3 scenarios
where outcome independence becomes ideal.
Negotiations
Gambling
Pursuing Women
In all other cases, you should be outcome orientated, fixed on the

results you are trying to achieve.
Negotiations
In negotiations, the purpose obviously is to maximize the result of

an agreement in your favor. But you want to approach the table
prepared to an extent that if your request for option A is rejected, you
can threaten with option B and not lose out. If you find yourself in the
boss’ office asking for a raise, you should have another job lined up in
case the answer is ‘no’. This is an example of an ‘outcome independent
mindset’.
You can only negotiate if you set yourself up with ideal alternatives.
In other words, remain outcome independent. When you’re not in such
position to negotiate, then postpone your request. If you are forced to
negotiate without being prepared with alternatives, be more disagree-
able than agreeable.
The fact is that ‘outcome independence’ destroys the emotions of

fear & hope; two powerful motivators that help you seek desirable
outcomes. For example, if we lacked fear, it would mean we would be
comfortable in contempt. We wouldn’t be afraid of not maintaining our
finances or basic needs of living. And the lack of motivation to keep
misery away would cease to exist. So fear keeps us aligned towards
what we should be running away from. And hope gives us reason to
move forward; what you’re trying to achieve might in fact be a
possibility.
If you apply outcome independence to everything, you will lose
your orientation in life and results will cease to matter.
Gambling
A case in gambling. People should not gamble. I discourage it

entirely. A night out with your friends playing poker is an exception.
But going to the casino is a different ball game. Those who are allowed
to gamble are those who are outcome independent. They shouldn’t fear
losing their money, nor hope to win big. Because if they fear losing the
money, that means they are in a poor financial condition to be
gambling. And if they hope to win big, that means they are either
unfulfilled financially, and therefore shouldn’t be gambling, or they are
relying on lottery to achieve an end.
Women
Outcome independence is very useful with women. You shouldn’t

fear the result with a woman, nor should you hope for a result with
them. Women unconsciously detect how needy a man is by concluding
the intentions behind their behavior and actions. So men in turn,
should behave & act in a way that manifests their intentions to be
outcome independent. They should not care whether they will end up
with a particular woman or not. And it is precisely this attitude that
makes women want to be with them. Every time you decide to want to
be with a woman, you will be emotionally invested with the fear of not
losing her and the hope of making her yours. Both emotions will
express themselves on the surface, and women will detect it and be
repulsed by it.
Ultimately, the person least affected by emotions, is a person who is
the most outcome independent. Not always a good thing. But impor-
tant to understand.
Outcome independence is done right, when you pursue what you
want, but at the same time not need it. You don’t let the fact of not
needing it, make you complacent in pursuing it. But you also don’t
allow the pursuit of what you want, extend itself to a desire of
needing it.
CHAPTER 10
WORST QUALITIES IN A
LEADER
LEARNING FROM THE BEST & THE WORST

A SIDE FROM MY DAD , I WAS NEVER FORTUNATE IN MY LINE OF WORK TO
look up to someone as mentor and learn their qualities, not until years
later when I looked for one to help with my startup. In community
pharmacy, you didn’t really need a mentor. You just dispense medica-
tions like a robot and counsel patients when necessary.
But when I made my move to corporate management, it was then
that I hoped to come across a mentor worth following. But I didn’t. I
had to work my way up through trial and error. What I did take a note
of though, was how to not be like others. When you observe someone,
you have two choices in terms the qualities you extract out of them;
you either learn something useful, or you learn something that is
detrimental.
What most people do is seek out to learn from those that are useful.
What they don’t realize is that they can learn from the worst just as
much, if not more.
Here is what I’ve learned from the worst:
Covering up Errors only makes things worse
If you make a mistake, disclose it. Too many arrogant leaders

assume that they can conceal their poor choices. They think that
because they are in a position of authority, they are allowed to make
mistakes without consequences, and that revealing their errors would
rob them of their superiority. This is wrong and costly. The best leaders
possess the quality of disclosing and rectifying their errors immedi-

ately, without allowing it to extend itself to a damaging chain of events.
The more someone appears perfect on the outside, the more they are
likely to be concealing their imperfections on the inside.
If you can conceal a mistake by rectifying it in silence, then that is
exactly what you should do. I am not saying that you should announce
each and one of your errors out in the public. It won’t be long before
someone leverages one of your mistakes against you to have you
removed. But errors that substantiate into damaging consequences
when concealed, is a mistake. And will come back to you. Leaders must
have qualities that demonstrate boldness and owning up.
Discouraging Ideas
One of the worst qualities of a leader is to discourage ideas of

others. Especially good ideas that have the potential to bring about
innovation, efficiency and improvement. It is surprising how many
leaders are insecure when they are challenged with good ideas. Leader-
ship is NOT about having the best ideas. It is about congregating a
following or a group of people to promote their ideas and bring about a
change. Your job as a leader is to put the smartest and the most creative
people in a room and make sure that they can all work together coher-
ently. To be insecure about someone’s good idea is to put yourself
down to their level and declaring yourself unfit as a leader.
You need understand the roles you want to partake in. A leader is
not a creator. He is not at the forefront of innovation. He cultivates the
atmosphere that allows innovation to flourish. A manager is not an
entrepreneur. He shouldn’t discourage entrepreneurial ideas for the
sake of looking more superior himself. Managers set the operations and
systems that help bring ideas to life.
Expects to get without giving
The worst leaders are selfish in nature. They look at their position as
entitlement. They think their superior position as a leader, gives them
the privilege of expecting others to do right by them, while not neces-
sarily needing to return the favor. This is wrong. Management comes
with entitlements. Successful entrepreneurs come with entitlements.
But leaders do not. If you want to become a leader, you come last. You
have to feed every member of the group before you feed yourself. Don’t
expect others to do right by you first. You must give them reason as to
why they should. You must demonstrate quality traits that show trust
and credibility, so others could become loyal to you. Your only entitle-
ment as a leader is when your group finds out that they can’t survive
without you as their leader.
Then its your job to not let this get to your head while you continue
to deliver for them. I wrote a Twitter thread on leadership COMPUL-

SION & INFLUENCE relevant to the point I am making here.
Pay attention to everyone. You can learn qualities from the best, but
you can often formulate your own qualities by learning from the worst.
If you link their poor choices to the consequences that unfold, you will
instantly see what the right choice should have been. Learn to be objec-
tive. Because if you are an arrogant person, rarely will you learn from
the best, but never will you learn from the worst. You cut your market
of gaining knowledge by half simply because you think you are above
everyone else. My dad once told me “if you really pay attention, you
can learn things from a 5 year old”.
CHAPTER 11
YOUR ABSENCE CAN BE A
LESSON
HOW YOUR ABSENCE CAN PUNISH THE

DISRESPECTFUL
A WHILE BACK I TWEETED ‘ MEN DON ’ T COMPROMISE BOUNDARIES TO
accommodate people’s disrespect. They give them their absence instead. Your
absence teaches those who are worthy of a second chance, to develop a degree of
respect, before approaching you again.‘
I think the use of silence & absence is underutilized with regards to

dealing with disrespectful people. It’s often your instinctual first
response to counter someone’s rudeness or disrespect. But this is a very
weak approach that lowers your value down to their level. It’s certainly
not a trait of a leader to deal with others in a way that reflects their
cheap behavior. But maintaining your regular demeanor is not a solu-
tion because they will see that you don’t value yourself and they’d be
inclined to take it further.
So what do you do?
Actions speak louder than words, and therefore bear a heavier

weight than verbal rhetoric. If someone disrespects you, the most effec-
tive way to teach them a lesson is to starve them from your attention.
This means your eyes, your verbal communication and your presence
around them should be restricted. This response is a message that
conveys they are not important, because their unacceptable behavior
has deemed it so.
It’s human nature to want attention. This is why the method of
silence and absence works best, because it directly starves what

humans desire most. At a subconscious level, they will instantly seek to
curb their behavior (whether they are aware of it or not) just to regain
the attention they once received from you. I have noticed this even
from the most arrogant men. Simply allocating your attention away
from them will involuntarily adjust their behavior to re-attain your
attention and respect you.
Words Reduce Your Value
Using this method preserves your verbal communication, which is a

very important point. It is very easy to reduce your value with words,
especially when you’re about to engage in dialogue with someone rude
or disrespectful. The emotions buzzing on the surface lead you to
justify in your head why you’re allowed to reciprocate their poor
behavior. And that means you’re not far from doing something regret-
table. This is especially costly within the workplace or a social setting
surrounded by people who are listening in. Once you say something
rude, you cannot take it back. And people will remember it.
If someone engages with you disrespectfully, simply tell them “that
was not necessary”. Then cut it short and revoke your attention
entirely. Do not engage with them, and act as though they don’t exist.
Do not feed them your attention until they show signs that suggest they
have adjusted their behavior. Then you can micro-feed them your atten-
tion again so they have a clear understanding of your intolerance to
poor behavior and the respect they need to express.
Learn to use silence & absence as a method to teach rude people a
lesson.
CHAPTER 12
SUBORDINATES SHOULD
BE TREATED AS EQUALS
TREATING YOUR SUBORDINATES AS EQUALS JUST

GIVES YOU MORE POWER
O NE OF THE WORST QUALITIES IN A LEADER IS THEIR TENDENCY TO TREAT
subordinates inferior to themselves. They flex their title in a narcissistic
demeanor just to exhibit dominance while neglecting the significant
damage it does to their reputation, connections and support. In my
management career, I have probably come across one manager who
treated his subordinates as equals. The rest fail to resist the temptation
of dominating others when their position allows them to. I am going to
point out several main reasons why you should treat everyone who is
inferior to you, as an equal.
Resentment
More people are prone to resentment when they compare them-

selves from a inferior position, as opposed to an equal or a superior
position. It doesn’t matter whether you are given the entitlement to
manage and command others. Earning your position of power in a
company, business or any kind of social environment does not insulate
you from resentment. It can exist as soon as there’s a comparison of
inferiority between two people. The details of who earned what does
not change feelings.
There are two types of leaders; those who declare themselves as the
boss, and those who silently lead through action. The former will
always accumulate a group of resentful followers that will seek to
undermine him in conniving ways. The declaration of your power
demonstrated through your degrading commandment of others will
put a countdown on your head. A countdown to be removed as a

leader. It is worth mentioning that there is a cost when treating your
inferiors equally. It gives rise to the prideful arrogant that mistake your
respect as weakness. But discovering narcissists out in the open far
outweighs resentment you breed in silence. Because with the former,
you can act to eliminate. But with the latter, you won’t see them
coming.
Leadership
“But treating others equally defeats the purpose of managers and

hierarchies”. No. Not being able to manage and lead people effectively
defeats the purpose of hierarchies. Your verbal rhetoric and treatment
of others is no reflection of your capacity to lead effectively. In fact, it
does more damage to your leadership. Saying what you act out or
otherwise remaining silent is the most important trait a leader can
learn. Read this ARTICLE for a full understanding of this quality.
You shouldn’t be afraid of downgrading your own position as a
consequence of treating inferiors equally. Leadership cannot be trans-
ferred. If you are an effective leader, people will always look to your
guidance and direction no matter how equally you treat them. Men
who demonstrate their leadership through rhetorical depreciation of
their inferiors reveal their insecurity that deep down, they are not good
at leading. And consequently, they find themselves compensating by
reminding subordinates that they are inferior to him.
Coalition
This is a topic that most leaders neglect entirely. If you want to lead
for a long period of time, you will need to create an inner circle outside
those who follow you. This inner circle is made up of your most trusted
and loyal followers. These kind of people are very difficult to find, and
your character and how you treat others will play a significant role in
its inception. Treat others equally, and you will be rewarded with
loyalty. Treat them as subordinates, and you will become a target. The
formation of your coalition is what preserves the longevity of your
position in power. The quality of your coalition is determined on how
you treat others.
Respected, feared & admired?
Having people fear and respect you is great for you as a leader, but
having them admire you is what really makes them stay. Respect is
earned through your credibility; taking decisive action that leads to
success. It’s where you provide value for nothing in return. Fear occurs
when you command others effectively to do as you say or face conse-
quences for letting everyone down. It’s your intolerance to compla-

cency. Admiration will be determined on how you treat your
subordinates while simultaneously aiming to generate respect and fear.
Paradox
Any position of power comes with the right to exercise methods

that others cannot. These methods range from decisions that can benefit
others, or choices that can harm them. They can come in the form of
action or dialogue. The best leaders are paradoxical. They are given the
capacity to depreciate others as a show of dominance and force, but
choose not to. They are given the right to declare themselves as supe-
rior, but refrain from doing so. The best leaders occupy the paradox.
CHAPTER 13
YOU ARE ONLY ADMIRED IF
YOU ARE SUCCESSFUL
THE COST OF BEING A MAN

I S IT MORE DIFFICULT TO BE A MAN OR A WOMAN ? S OME SAY MEN , SOME SAY
women. The small physical size and child bearing responsibilities of
women makes me inclined to say that they received the short straw on
the difficulties in life. But when you compare what they have to do in
life relative to men, it tilts the scales in favor of women. The funda-
mental difference between men and women is that men have to prove
their worth. Whereas women don’t. As a man, your success literally
defines you. If you don’t at least attempt to reach the top half of the
dominance hierarchy, the world becomes your enemy. Society will
deem you irrelevant. Women will be repulsed by you. You’ll enter a
stage of self-contempt until your existence becomes unbearable.
The game of success is mandatory for every man and it begins when
they reach adulthood. Corporate Machiavelli wrote a short, harsh piece
in relation to this topic. Read it here; Life as a Man.
What Does this Mean For You?
Several things. Mandatory participation in the game of success

means there’s no room for happiness and enjoyment. You will have to
start proving yourself as soon as you reach ages 15-18. In some coun-
tries ‘men’ have to prove themselves as young as 5. Being a provider is
not the same as being successful. Plenty of men provide. But only some
are successful. Not only must you be a provider, but you have to
outperform your production to your consumption ratio by a significant
margin to attain success. And this begs the question, how do you define
success?
Success in general, is wealth, which the world defines as money,

power and status. I do think value should be the fourth element under
wealth. Because those at the top have a responsibility to aid in societal
progression. Not to mention it is infinitely easier to become successful
through criminal, expedient means. Value in a sense, keeps success
honest. It differentiates between your 20 year old genius tech
entrepreneur and your typical rich kid who inherited his wealth.
Value, money, power and status are the elements that collectively
make up the word success. To put it in a applicable sentence:
a man must become exceptionally competent within a domain to provide

value, get rewarded with money, then use that money to buy power and
status.
You have No Time
Contrary to what most people say, you have no time. The success
game is a highly competitive field. The Pareto Principle already
suggests that the odds are stacked against you; that the majority of men
will occupy the bottom half of the dominance hierarchy in their lives.
IQ distribution also indicates that in all likelihood you don’t intellectu-
ally have what it takes. The only element you possess that could try to
mildly offset the overwhelming odds of your success, is time.
Orient Yourself
Given that you have decided to take a shot at the success game, and
considering all this information above, how would you orient yourself
on a path of least resistance to attain success?
Study yourself, your temperament and your personality

Identify your strengths and weakness
Determine an apex value of abundance
Verify that your strengths align with your apex value
Sacrifice all other values in exchange for the apex
Your apex value has to in one way or another, provide a form of

abundance upon attaining it. This means, if you have chosen to attain
your apex value through college, you have to aim higher than your
typical 4-6 year degree. If you have chosen to attain it outside of formal
education, then your startup has to provide substantial value for it to
adopt large amount of users that would result in success.
You basically only have these two options. And your personality
will be a strong determinant of which path you should take. Read my
article on Your Apex Value is Your Passion to get a better grasp of
which path to take. If you’re a member, don’t forget to read The Philos-
ophy of Becoming High Value, which explains the root of what it
means to become successful.
Offset the Odds
Everything you do or don’t do has a cost. Money is not the only

currency we exchange values with. There are values we constantly
exchange as currencies to obtain other values. For instance, our future
success is predicated on paying the price to forgo indulgences in the
present. The cost of success is to suffer in self-imposed slavery. We have
the opportunity to fight for wealth and power on a platform that
doesn’t ignite wars and kill people. That platform is called capitalism,
where most of us are given the opportunity to excel towards success.
Allocating the majority of your time in one domain, will make you
excel within that domain. By far, this strategy gives you the highest
probability of attaining success. You can either give 200% effort on one
value while sacrificing everything else for it. Or give 50% effort on four
values equally and forgo the attainment of high level success.
You are Doomed Regardless
If you refuse to play the success game, you will be looked down
upon and be labelled as a failure. If you play the success game and win,
you will spend the rest of your life protecting what you’ve built. Either
way, your existence will not escape suffering. The only way to be
content with this fate of yours, is to find meaning. And the only way to
find meaning, is to strive to become a successful man. Because that’s
what the world demands from men.
CHAPTER 14
THE ART OF CONFLICT
RESOLUTION
A NATURAL TRAIT OF EVERY LEADER

O NE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT QUALITIES I LEARNED DURING MY
management years, is conflict resolution. It is a mandatory trait for a
leader to be able to remain calm and objectively identify the interests in
all parties, and propose a method that delivers satisfaction to all
involved. Having the ability to resolve conflicts gives you a reputation
that makes people long for your presence. It will also dramatically
increase your networking capacity with friends and enemies of friends.
Consequently, you become the person that maintains peace between
everyone, who all end up heavily relying on you during disagreements.
All these points converge into one element that will serve you substan-
tially in the future; power.
Eliminate Your Neuroticism
Before you walk into a conflict, know that negative emotions will
make everything infinitely worse. So an assessment of yourself is
crucial before you can learn to resolve conflicts. If you are high on the
spectrum of neuroticism, then you are sensitive to negative emotions.
And so subsequently, your ability to calm a situation will be impaired.
Those who are low on neuroticism and are extroverted are better suited
for the quality of conflict resolution. A situation that entails conflict
requires intervention through neutral/positive emotions and objectiv-
ity. This doesn’t mean that not everyone can learn conflict resolution.
But those prone to negative emotions will need to exercise their degree
of sensitivity. This is best achieved through the psychoanalytic separa-
tion of emotions and applying shadow integration.
Set The Rules
It is crucial for you to set the rules of what you tolerate as acceptable
behavior from the beginning. Especially if you are prone to negative
emotions. The ‘negotiation’ rules you set will force everyone involved
to behave. And this will insulate you from having to raise your own
temper or express discomfort if the rules were otherwise absent and the
parties would misbehave. Rule setting also forces those at conflict to
respect each other by abiding by the negotiation rules. So make it clear
that there is to be no:
profanity
raising voices
hurling insults
The aim is to create an atmosphere where intentions and interest can

be expressed clearly. Then to come up with a strategy that aims to
deliver what the parties want upon making concessions, without
unnecessary disruptions and aggravations. These rules and boundaries
will reflect the substance of your character, of who you are and that you
mean business. Your degree of enforcement of the rules is directly
proportional to their improvement in behavior. Provided that you
maintain a neutral alliance with everyone involved. The the more they
adhere to the rules, the higher the probability in which consensus, and
therefore, conflict resolution can be reached.
Remain Objective
If you decide to become a conflict resolver, your job will be to solve

a problem between two or more parties. Your position will occupy a
neutral stance with your interest solely aligned with resolving the
conflict. Favoring a side over another will disqualify you from medi-
ating conflict resolution and consequently identify you as an instru-
ment to someone’s interest. So you have to remain set on the objective
of reaching consensus. The challenge here is assessing what constitutes
fair value exchange in which both parties could settle for. Ideally, you
want the parties to walk away with 50/50 weight in what they received
and what they had to compensate for.
This post is a comprehensive measure that applies to moderate to
high level conflicts in business meetings, and it’s improbable that you
will need to reach such analysis to deliver settlements. Nevertheless,
it’s important to keep in mind that your responsibility as a conflict
resolver is to reach a consensus that would yield fair value to all
parties. Therefore, to a degree, it will require you to apply some mathe-
matical thinking to conclude what constitutes fairness.
Emotions
So your job is to weigh up what the parties need and whether there
is a possibility of an exchange that could lead to a consensus. Usually,
this entails sacrifices on both sides. This is where you will get the most
amount of backlash where neither party wants to make any concessions
on their end. What you’re witnessing here is the raw, primal human
behavior; a desire to get what they want and give nothing in return.
If you want to compel someone to give up something, it helps to
understand their temperament. Highly neurotic people are sensitive to
negative emotions. The best method with these types is to layout the
consequences of what would happen if they don’t compensate. The
prospect of ‘consequences’ would compel them to make adjustments.
Extroverted people appeal to positive emotions, which means they are
likely to compensate if you promise them something that triggers a
‘happy state’. Remember that you occupy a neutral stance. Play this to
your advantage by expressing that you have no vested interest in
anyone. Your objective outlook will radiate towards those involved to
further influence them to reach an agreement.
Control
With this kind of knowledge, it becomes easier to guide those who

are in conflict by using options that appeals to them and consequently
motivate them to make concessions. I have used this often at work,
where I have switched weekend jobs to introverted people who prefer
the extra dollars, and given extroverted people time off (needless to say,
who end up partying). What people are afraid of and appeal to, and
their sensitivity to both, is crucial information in conflict resolution and
negotiations.
CHAPTER 15
YOUR APEX VALUE IS YOUR
PASSION
A SWOT ANALYSIS ON FINDING YOUR PASSION

H OW DO YOU PICK YOUR APEX VALUE ? I F YOU ’ VE BEEN FOLLOWING ME LONG
enough, then you know it should in some way, come in the form of abundance.
Lets narrow it down.
This article assumes you are of slightly above avg IQ (110-115). I like to
say that everyone can achieve abundance, but this is simply not true.
And seeing as IQ is entirely within the genetics department, there’s not
much preparation one can do with regards to it. SWOT stands for
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is a model we are
going to apply to personality types and see what you’re good at, and
what you should pursue accordingly. The intention is to narrow down
on your apex value; the most important value that you will seek to
attain as your purpose and passion. Also, I strongly consider for you to
do several tests on your personality to really have a good under-
standing of yourself.
Conscientiousness
Apart from IQ, your level of conscientiousness is the best determi-

nant of success. There are 6 parts to it;
1. Orderliness
2. Achievement Striving,
3. Industriousness,
4. Dutifulness,
5. Self-discipline
6. Deliberation.
If you’re high on conscientiousness then you will;
likely to be the happiest when productive

make deliberate, well thought out moves
keep your room tidy
not leave tasks incomplete
find it easy forgoing desires & delaying gratification
If you’re high on conscientiousness, then it is likely that you are low

on openness & creativity. They are roughly on a spectrum opposite to
each other. It is very rare for a conscientious person to be also high on
openness. If someone is conscientious AND creative, they will gener-
ally lack two to three out of the six facets of conscientiousness (such as
orderliness & dutifulness).
Jobs that suit this temperament,
Doctors, Lawyers, Pharmacists, Engineers

Consultants, General Managers, Executives (depending on
neuroticism)
Business Owners (depending on creativity for innovation)
Some other factors that help you pinpoint your passion;
If you are low on neuroticism, you can take on high stress load, and
therefore occupy high stress positions that other people can’t (and get
paid well for it).
Being high on extroversion, means that you will probably excel with
people and your path should consist of executive roles in sales and
marketing. If you lean towards introversion, you should seek executive
roles in operations, and management.
Be able to apply the SWOT analysis to identify the path you should
seek. For example, if your strength is high efficiency & dutifulness, then
your opportunity would be to occupy a position of high responsibility
(eg executive role). It’s also worth noting your weakness (not being as
creative) so you can actively prepare for threats. For example, lawyers
and financial advisors are largely under threat from AI, smart contracts
and robo-advisors. A typical response to such threat would be to diver-
sify your well earned funds into investment properties, assets, etc.
Openness & Creativity

If you’re high on creativity, then you should pursue entrepreneur-

ship. Try and be realistic with yourself. Not everyone is creative (a
small percentage of the population is). And if your not the type to enjoy
finding abstract novel ideas and be able to implement it in a way that
solves a complex problem, then you’re not creative.
Also, remember to find a stable job (a relatively easy, stress-free 9 to
5) to provide yourself a steady source of income. Only THEN create
your idea on the side. Being a real entrepreneur is a brutal path to take
and you will need to provide yourself with enough financial aid to
carry yourself forward. You will also need to find mentors that have a
reputable position in the entrepreneurial world. It may also mean that
you may need to give some equity upfront, to incentivize your mentor
to help you with connections and funding.
You need to structure your life very carefully as an entrepreneur.
Especially because order and structure happens to be your inherent
weaknesses.
A Typical Structure
1. Develop an idea that is novel, implementable and solves a

complex problem
2. Design a prototype (funded with your 9-5)
3. Develop a concept of proof (funded with your 9-5)
4. Try to get some test results with your idea (have people use it
& love it)
5. Seek mentors to help you find funding from investors
Many entrepreneurs jump straight from point one to finding an

investor. This is a mistake. Investors will want to see you put your own
money in developing your idea at least to certain degree. Why should
they fund you if you can’t trust your idea enough to fund it yourself?
When you seek funding, you need to have a plan as to why you need
the money. “I want to develop it” is not enough. You need to have a
clear strategy of what you will do post-development. That means have
a clear plan of your marketing strategy, distribution channels and finan-
cial goals. I advise you to find yourself a mentor first; a well-established
entrepreneur who will back your idea and provide his resources to you
while helping you connect with investors. Mentors make your life
infinitely easier. You may have to give some equity for no funding. But
their resources and connections are well worth it.
SWOT
Remember your strength is your ability to solve complex problems

by finding innovative ideas. So opportunities for these types of individ-
uals are in abundance, as problems can be found everywhere. Your
weakness is not being able to excel in your line of work, and that would
make you more prone to the threat of redundancy. You will also have
weaknesses in structuring your life, your sleep habits, and irregularity
in your income as result of funding your idea. If you live at home with
parents, you will strongly be immune to most of these problems and
have a head start. Make it count.
I want to make a note here; if you choose to be an entrepreneur, DO
NOT become one of those new age influencers who will do anything
for clout, regardless who it harms. I strongly suggest you read this
ARTICLE and take this seriously. Provide value for society that will
benefit them in the long run.
A note on Neuroticism
Neuroticism measures negative emotions. It determines your level

of stress tolerance. People high on neuroticism cannot occupy stressful
positions. Alternatively, those with low neuroticism can occupy fast
paced, stressful positions. If you are conscientious with low neuroti-
cism, consider executive roles, investment banking, surgeon or barris-
ter. If you are creative with low neuroticism, then consider working
more hours while developing your idea, to capitalize on being able to
fund a good portion of your development yourself. Regardless what
your exposure to neuroticism is, you should aim to lower it as much as
you can. It improves your character as a man. I employ shadow inte-
gration methods in The Lobby Room to improve people’s neuroticism.
A Note on Low IQ
If you are honest enough with yourself that you are short of average
IQ, then in my opinion, I would try and join the military, or construc-
tion work that pays well during odd-shifts. Military will be a priceless
endeavor, transforming you in many areas and consequently, your life.
Night-shift construction work can help you make a lot of money and
you should make it your aim to save as much as you can.
ON WORLD EVENTS
People do not change.They simply re-evaluate available incentives,then begin to

act and behave accordingly.
CHAPTER 1
CLOUT HAS DETHRONED
COMPETENCE
THE COST OF DOING WHATEVER IT TAKES TO MAKE

MONEY
C LOUT HAS DETHRONED COMPETENCE . T ECHNOLOGY HAS ENABLED US TO
scale our competence to millions. But it has also allowed us to capitalize
on society’s engagement for clout, forgoing any talent or skill required.
I work in a tourist area where millions of people visit each year. Or
at least this used to be the case pre-covid. One of the perks of working
in one place for a long time is that you get to know the owners of prac-
tically every surrounding businesses. You begin to connect with the
owners of medical centers, bankers, cafeterias, bars and restaurants.
Over the years, you gradually understand how they built their busi-
nesses and their fortunes dating to this day. And one pattern that
consistently emerges across all these owners, is relentless hard work.
Doing 100 hours a week was standard for them.
New Age
Several months ago I was told by one of the restaurant owners that
a new bar was moving on the corner. This corner location has failed at
least six times despite the area being one of the busiest in the city. I
think the placement on the corner led a blind spot to the visitors as they
walked past directly to the hot spot. Nevertheless, after a few months of
operation, it ended up being the busiest bar on the strip.
One night I was training at the gym with one of the owners who
told me about this new guy that owned the new corner bar. He told me
that this new owner was a young guy who was massive on Instagram
with over one million followers. He is a influencer that does pranks,
throws parties and runs a exclusive club memberships. When I briefly

went on his Instagram, it was obvious that anything outrageous,
extreme or sexual was permissible. All just to get clout.
A Comparison
I don’t really care what people do. But I do like to observe compar-
isons. On one hand, you have a handful of ‘back in the day’ business
owners who provided value for years on end before leveraging their
competence to reap the reward today. And on the other, you have your
young Instagram influencer who has ‘provided value’ to millions,
before leveraging the clout to reap the rewards for himself.
Has Value been Provided?
It’s a necessary question to ask whether you have really provided

value to society. But more importantly, can you answer the question
honestly? Are you providing value when you sexualize women and
throw yacht parties? Are you providing value when you engage in
extreme activities associated with harm, indirectly influencing thou-
sands of young men to do the same? Put it this way, if you had the
option to give your son a mentor, would you pick this influencer? Or
would you select a business owner with a wealth of knowledge?
Not Everyone Can Think For Themselves
Most people act and behave in ways that suggests they don’t know
what is good themselves. They are unsure on what choices to make and
constantly need guidance. People are terrified to think for themselves.
It’s partly why they cling on to religious beliefs. And if you tried
removing this religious belief, it would quickly get replaced by another
belief system likely to be infinitely worse. If you are a person who has
the capacity to provide for society, you have a choice to make: you will
either provide value on the basis that it benefits society, or be detri-
mental to it. And an excuse like “people are responsible for them-
selves!” is not going to cut it. Because you’re responsible for what you
provide. It’s not up to the people to know that the water you are sell-
ing, is in fact poisonous.
Utilitarianism
I tweeted not long ago that ‘You have a choice; you either pay the
price with blood and sweat to provide for society, and reap the rewards
thereafter. Or you make society pay the price for you while you reap all
the benefits’. I have increasingly observed this to be the case with social
media. Go back a few decades – if you wanted to buy your financial
ON WORLD EVENTS 141
freedom, you had to provide value to society that could benefit from.
Today, that is no longer the case.
Today you can open an Instagram account, then go stand on top of
Burj Khalifa in an attempt to gain viral fame while encouraging dare-
devil behavior to millions of misguided young men. You can sexualize
women, put them on boats and build the engagement needed to
generate the revenue. We have reached a stage that describes a different
model of utilitarianism; a very dark variation. What used to be ‘making
difficult collateral choices to benefit the majority’, has now transformed
to ‘benefiting yourself at the detrimental cost to society’. And it seems
that this new model is being adopted at a rapid pace. Because it’s easy
and it requires no talent. It requires no upfront cost of effort and skill.
It’s all paid for by the masses.
You Need To Decide
If you have the capacity that allows you to attain a position of lead-
ership or influence, you have a choice to make. You can either become
competent, maintain your character and provide your skill to the
benefit of society. Or you can forgo all of it and leverage society’s
engagement for clout, regardless of the harm it does to the people influ-
enced by you. Technology has opened two doors; it has enabled men
who are competent to scale the benefits they provide to society. And it
has also provided the option for men to require no skill or talent, and
simply make money at the cost of society’s misguided need for engage-
ment. The former are high-value men. The latter are not.
Choose wisely.
CHAPTER 2
WHAT I LEARNED FROM
THE SHORT SQUEEZE
DAMNED IF YOU DO. DAMNED IF YOU DON'T

T ODAY MY TWITTER TIMELINE WAS FILLED WITH TWEETS ON HEDGE FUNDS ,
Reddit, GameStop and Robinhood. I’ll briefly explain what all this is
about before expressing my opinion on what went down.
A hedge fund is basically an investment company where investors
come together to pool their funds and invest it into all sorts of financial
products. More often than not, they employ high risk strategies (such as
leverage) to increase returns on their investment. Melvin Capital is a
hedge fund who has provided great historical returns through shorting
stocks. Shorting a stock simply means you buy a stock with the antici-
pation that it will decline. If it does, you make a profit.
GameStop is a dying merchandise retailer for consumer electronics
and video games who are listed as a public company. And Robinhood
is a financial service company with a platform where people can buy
and sell stocks, ETF’s and cryptocurrencies.
What happened?
Melvin Capital decided to exercise put options and take a short

position on GameSpot. The users of a subreddit called r/wallstreetbets
heard what they were doing, and decided to buy the stock to drive up
the price. Long story short, I don’t know the full details, but that
doesn’t really matter.
Now depending on your exposure, holding a short position can
wipe out your entire investment if the corresponding stock moves
upwards. Enter Robinhood, who decides to restrict users from trading
the stock in a bid to protect hedge funds.
ON WORLD EVENTS 143
Result?
Wallstreetbets manages to push GameStop stock by over

1000% within two weeks.
Melvin Capital closes its position with billions of dollars lost
(unspecified).
Robinhood faces class-action lawsuit.
I didn’t research the specifics. It may matter, it may not. But what
mattered to me is how people responded to the event.
Reaction
Although I am satisfied with my followers as the majority voted

correctly on POLL , overall I found people’s reaction to this event quite
funny. Those who preach capitalism suddenly became socialists
overnight. There were outcries over how Robinhood blocked investors
from buying GameStop stock and how the evil hedge funds deserved
to become insolvent. Reports made way on how these companies were
manipulating the market for self gain (shock). And wishful thinkers
expressed how “the masses are waking up to the broken system” while
the self righteous people seized the divine opportunity to announce
how ‘it was time for a new holy war to bring evil down‘.
Okay.
This is just another example that demonstrates how neurotic people
respond when events like this go down. Some become overly hopeful
that “good is overcoming evil” while others tear up over the unfairness
and injustices of Wall St.
HERE IS WHAT I THINK.
Mistake #1
As a hedge fun, putting 70% of your fund into one investment is a very
stupid idea. I get the rationale. With COVID accelerating digitization,
the disappearance of brick-and-mortar businesses are inevitable. From
a business investment point of view, it was sound investment strategy.
It makes complete sense to exercise put options and take up a short
position on a business with a bleak future to extract the most amount of
value before it ceases to exist. But how it was executed was utterly
incompetent and stupid.
Mistake #2
If you’re going to make a risky investment of such magnitude, shut

up about it. I still don’t think we entirely understand what the Internet
is capable of. Bragging your bets is simply asking for trouble. This was
very short sighted from the hedge fund. Melvin Capital left footprints
and a track record of what they were shorting in the marketplace. Users
of r/wallstreetbets identified what Melvin were shorting and began
purchasing the stock at mass scale.
Damned If I do, Damned If I don’t
Here are some not so easy questions to ask if I am the one running a
hedge fund (stupid enough to put myself in this position);
Could r/wallstreetbets have sent out a liberating message in

a more pragmatic manner? Why inflate the stock of a poorly
performing company that will have no beneficial impact
aside from a pump and dump scheme? Why not instead
topple down banks engaged in fraudulent activities? There’s
no shortage of them.
If r/wallstreetbets are taking extreme measures to
deliberately manipulate the market in order to bring upon
my demise, will I have to take extreme measures to protect
myself?
Therefore, should I coerce trading platforms into blocking a
trade to protect my short position from a deliberate attack?
Why should I stop there? Why not coerce social media
platforms to censor anyone promoting the stock?
I really like what r/wallstreetbets did. They sent out a message that
declared the possibility of taking control from Wall St to Main St. But
the stock they went after was pointless. The message would have had a
much more powerful impact if it toppled down a company engaged in
fraudulent activity. As for Melvin, if I was in their position, I would of
stopped as many financial platforms from trading that stock and
censored everything around it.
Why?
Because r/wallstreetbets were not buying that stock in good faith.

They were deliberately pumping a stock that was worth nothing.
GameStop company is poorly performing regardless. They declared
war on my hedge fund and therefore anything is permissible. If
coercing platforms to halt trading would lead to class action lawsuits,
then that’s a cost I am willing to pay to survive. Especially when I have
done nothing that suggests fraudulent activity and have made a prof-
itable investment choice that will benefit my clients.
Am I going to harm people that are involved with the trade? Yes.
But everyone is playing predatory here. It’s a zero sum game. I win I
ON WORLD EVENTS 145
profit. I lose, I close doors. Everyone is manipulating and everything is

rigged. No one that has touched that stock is innocent. Perhaps your
average Joe who is a die hard fan for EB games will take a decent hit.
But that’s collateral damage at a small scale on inexperienced people
who should not be investing.
Hedge funds are not evil. There is corrupt people in every industry.
Not many of my readers will agree with me here, but I think Robin-
hood blocking the trades on the stock was the right move. And given
the chance and capacity, I would of have used all my resources to stop
people from purchasing that stock. The price of this decision will be
significant. But again, its a necessary price that needs to be paid to
prevent insolvency of my hedge fund. It’s simply war.
Emotions Change You
You can’t be capitalism on your way up and preach socialism on

your way down. You need to learn to be consistent with your character.
This is just another case of 2008 financial crises. Only at a much smaller
scale with the positions reversed. The 2008 crisis went down with
greedy bankers playing stupid with mortgage backed securities while
geniuses were shorting it through credit default swaps. Both sides
accelerated the chaos. With this short squeeze, hedge funds were
shorting a dying company while geniuses identified their position and
decided to pump it. Both sides accelerated the chaos.
You disqualify from preaching your moral values when you decide
to play the game.
The virtuous people who are outraged by the restriction placed on
the stock are the same people engaging in the rigged market manipula-
tion for their own interest. The only difference is, they are pumping a
stock that is in fact worth nothing, which will attract more inexperi-
enced investors who will end up collateral in the game. Don’t be so
quick to point the finger at hedge funds using underhanded methods to
try and protect their position on an investment decision which I think
was absolutely valid.
CHAPTER 3
MAIN STREET VS WALL
STREET
LEVELLING THE PLAYING FIELD

I WROTE AN ARTICLE EARLIER THIS WEEK CALLED H EDGE F UNDS V S R EDDIT
where I mostly talked about my observation to how people reacted to
the chaos. I read a few news reports today on how the users of the
subreddit group r/wallstreetbets were gearing up for another attack. So
it seems that this ongoing predatory attack against lucrative invest-
ments is a reality Wall Street has to live with now. And I think it’s bril-
liant. But it might come with a cost.
Sending a Message
Looking at what went down with GameSpot indicates these retail

investors who are targeting hedge fund short positions are not doing it
for the money. Driving up the stock price of a company that does not
reflect its financial performance does not benefit anyone. But it can be a
potent strategy if you want to destroy someone holding a leveraged
position. Why would anyone want to destroy someone at random with
no pretext or justification? Because it wasn’t random. And there is
plenty of pretext and justification:
2008 Financial Crisis

Tax Payer bailouts
Emerging inequality
This is Main Street vs Wall Street, where there is enough pretext to

go around for everyone.
ON WORLD EVENTS 147
Pro Wall St or Main St?
If you have followed me for a while, you probably can speculate my

viewpoint on these events to be different from others. Aside from the
bailout, I don’t hold the elites on Wall Street exclusively responsible for
the 2008 financial crisis. I think those on Main Street equally lost their
composure to greed and money. The crisis was one of the best events
that happened to me and many others I know.
I purchased a home just after 2008. Before then, I saw what was
happening with the predatory loaning and refused to play the game. It
felt like I was missing out, until I didn’t. Fact is, people want what the
bankers have to give them without having to think. People hate to
think. But as things go sour, they also play innocent and pretend to be
the victims of corporate greed. So my position between Main Street vs
Wall Street is somewhere roughly in the middle. Financial or political, I
enjoy playing both sides of the game, unless instincts prompt me to sit
at the sidelines. Nevertheless, I am excited for what is about to go
down.
Main Street Takes The Initiative
Retail investors from r/wallstreetbets sent a shockwave into the

financial system with a simple message; You can’t do whatever you
want. A message well received. Banks, hedge funds and investment
firms are revaluating their future investment strategies. They can no
longer publicly announce the details or strategies that their company
partakes in, for the fear of being targeted. Some are requesting
anonymity moving forward. The profitable short-selling strategy is
infinitely riskier now with investors needing to consider potential rise
in a stock price that doesn’t need to reflect its financial performance. All
it takes now is a group of people around the world to coordinate them-
selves in a mass purchase of stock to wreak havoc on any company
holding a short position. But that’s not all.
The Message is the Beginning
I think company media announcements and details in their annual,

half yearly and quarterly reports will all have to be reviewed. Hedge
funds with short positions are not the only ones under threat. The
consequence will extend to any public business with the potential to
impact executive salaries, bonuses, prospective mergers and acquisi-
tions, divestments and initial public offerings. And this list is not
exhaustive. These are just a few on top of my head. Imagine if a
company announcement spills on to the media that one of its execu-
tives will be getting $X millions at the end of the financial year. Or that
a CEO’s net worth will rocket to $Y billions if the company’s stock price
reaches X amount.
It won’t be long before a new group called justiceforinequality turns
up with the sole purpose of targeting CEO’s and other executives pay
packages. I don’t think we have exhaustively acknowledged what other
doors this GameSpot event can open. But I don’t think it will benefit
Main Street. I think this is a temporary shift in power. And when Wall
Street responds, it will take away more power Main Street had in the
first place. I hope I am wrong.
In The Name Of Client Protection
I think what r/wallstreetbets did will be used as a pretext to bring

reforms and new policies with regards to how public companies will
disclose and report company details. They will justify robbing the
public of key company details disclosed in reports by advocating
protection against predatory retail investors who seek to damage
investor returns. Which is why as I mentioned in Hedge Funds Vs
Reddit, that r/wallstreetbets would have sent a far more powerful
message if they had targeted a company engaging in fraudulent activ-
ity. They would of maintained their character and insulated themselves
from being casted out as ‘market manipulators’, ‘pump and dump
schemers’ and ‘predatory investors’.
If what I am saying substantiates, then these new policies can bring
on the end of transparency for Wall Street, something they would
welcome with open arms. This change will further separate the rich
and poor. The people of Main Street will be expected to simply trust the
experts of Wall Street with their money without any disclosure. This is
entirely my speculation which I hope to be proven wrong.
CHAPTER 4
STIMULUS CHECKS IN A
PANDEMIC
A FAILED ATTEMPT AT STIMULATING THE ECONOMY

W ANT TO SECURE A RE - ELECTION ? S TIMULATE THE ECONOMY . W HAT ’ S THE
quickest way to stimulate the economy? Increase the GDP. And what’s
the quickest way to increase the GDP? Accelerate consumption. There
is your answer on why the current political class is hellbent on rolling
out stimulus checks. The thing with stimulus checks is that they work
well in theory. In a recession, these checks can encourage people to
invest or spend in consumer goods. This in turn increases the revenue
of companies which improve conditions for more employment. The
demand for more employment increases the wage which then cycles
through to increasing disposable income for more spending.
First problem
Anticipating a Stimulus defeats the purpose of Stimulating the Economy.
The ultimate point of stimulus checks is to improve employment

(increase spending > improve revenue > hire more employees). But the
policy only works if people don’t anticipate it. Under normal circum-
stances, an increase in employment happens when high demand of
consumer spending encourages companies to hire and expand on their
goods and services output. But when a stimulus check is announced by
the government, companies instantly raise the prices on their good and
services. They also raise the wages accordingly. They do this because
they know the stimulus checks alleviate short term conditions only and
that disposable income will reduce back to normal. So they capitalize
on the stimulus checks by raising the prices on their goods and services
and offset it with a wage increase, with hiring remaining unchanged.

Once the stimulus round fades, all we are left with is inflation.
So stimulus checks only work when unannounced; i.e. when
everyone is busy getting paid for contributing to an organic economic
growth, where the rationale behind hiring employees is justified by a
long-term, gradual demand for goods and services. And all this is
assuming that companies can actually hire given the COVID pandemic
we are in.
Second Problem
Stimulus that fails to increase employment output leads to inflation.
What happens when you have too many apples? The value of
apples drop. What happens when you have too much printed money?
The value of printed money drops. Inflation is an inevitable conse-
quence of most stimulus packages that derive from fiscal policies.
Sometimes this consequence is worth the price. For example there are
certain company bailouts that are absolutely necessary for the economy
to continue functioning. And the cost of inflation is insignificant rela-
tive to the cost of not bailing out companies entrenched in the economy.
But fueling inflation for the purpose of artificially stimulating employ-
ment through stimulus checks that inevitably fail because the initiative
has been announced and everyone expects it (see first problem) is
nothing but detrimental to the economy.
Third Problem
Stimulus checks won’t reopen locked down businesses
Obviously this COVID-19 recession is not exactly like other reces-

sions. There are businesses in lockdown everywhere. It makes sense to
roll out stimulus checks (at least for politicians) in a economic recession
with no restrictions imposed by a health crisis hanging over its head.
But this recession caused by the pandemic is a different game that
needs to be played with different rules. Stimulus checks do nothing to
address the core problem of this recession; alleviating businesses
suffering from the pandemic. Relief is achieved when steps are taken
towards business restrictions. How they go about it while maintaining
safety measures against COVID is a different topic altogether. But stim-
ulus checks are not the answer.
Keep in mind that stimulus checks derive from policies that
inevitably increases the national debt. Debt that will have to be paid by
taxpayers. Taking measures that increases the national debt should lead
to higher standards of living. That’s a scenario most would be willing
to live with; contributing to the nation in the form of tax, in exchange
ON WORLD EVENTS 151
for the nation to raise standard of living. That is not what is happening
here. Also keep in mind who inflation benefits. Inflation improves the
financial position of equity owners and rich people. Because the rich
and business owners largely hold non-cash assets. Inflation primarily
hurts people who are in debt and those who earn a wage and save cash.
Transparency
I read a tweet from Corporate Machiavelli which I found to be very

important. It went along the lines of something like this:
Everyone needs to know:
How much tax revenue the US government gets each year

How much spending the US government does each year
What the deficit the US government has in each year
How much the US government borrows each year
How much the US government prints each year
This level of transparency will never substantiate. But the signifi-

cance of needing to know this information should raise questions
whether governments are acting correctly in trying to stimulate the
economy through stimulus checks. The modern era of economic
stability depends on two policies; monetary and fiscal. Monetary policy
focuses on increasing and decreasing money supply in order to affect
interest rates for the purpose of stimulating the economy. Fiscal policy
focuses on government spending and the tax code to stimulate the
economy. Stimulus checks derive from taxpayer money. And in a
pandemic, it’s simply scooping up a bucket of a water from one end of
a leaking pool, and pouring it at the other end.
CHAPTER 5
THE UNITED STATES OF
QUANTITATIVE EASING
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ECONOMIC

GROWTH, QUANTITATIVE EASING & STAGFLATION
T HERE ARE HEADLINES MAKING THE NEWS ABOUT THE INFLATION THAT ’ S
coming to the US. And that monetary/fiscal policies are out of control
and that quantitative easing will deliver a repeat of 2008 financial crisis.
I’m going to aim to simplify all these terms in this article and make you
understand the reasons behind these actions, their intended purpose
and what the future is looking like.
Aggregate Supply | Aggregate Demand
Before we go any further, there’s some economic principles you

must understand.
1. Aggregate Demand
Aggregate means several elements. When we talk about aggregate

demand, we are talking about “several elements within the economy
that affects expenditure”. These expenditures can come from consumer
spending, investments, government spending and net exports.
The following will increase aggregate demand (AD):
Increase in Consumer & Business confidence

An increase in House prices & Asset prices
Government Expenditure
Foreign money coming in
Lowering Interest Rates
ON WORLD EVENTS 153
Reducing Taxes
All these make sense. Anything that raises the prospect of more
money in your pocket will increase AD. But what happens when AD
increases suddenly and unexpectedly?
A sudden increase in AD:
Will increase inflation

Increase GDP & Employment
This makes sense. Sudden influx of money increases demand for

production. But eventually the inflation means too much money
chasing too little goods. This increases the price of the same goods you
could of bought for less. The increase in inflation:
Will make people feel poorer which reduces consumption

Increases interest rates, slowing down investments
Increase the domestic currency exchange rate relative to other
currencies.
All which reduce a nation’s GDP back to where it was. This is the
normal cycle of the economy. But it will require government interven-
tion to prevent inflation from continually rising.
GDP is how nations measure their economic output and thus, the
size of their economy. In general, the more it grows, the better. There’s
exceptions to that. Anyway.
So now you know. If there’s a sudden increase in aggregate
demand, it will increase inflation, along with the GDP and employment
into a unsustainable boom. Then it corrects itself due to the inflationary
pressures with a little help from the government. Any sudden increase
in consumption (C), investments (I) or government (G) expenditure,
will increase aggregate demand and thus increase inflation. The oppo-
site is also true. Any sudden decrease in C, I or G, will reduce inflation.
Also remember:
Inflation is good when the economic expands along with it.
2. Aggregate Supply
Aggregate supply in basic terms means “the elements that make up

all the production”.
What affects the aggregate supply curve?
People’s expectation of future inflation. That’s it.
To give an example. If labor unions expect inflation to rise in the
near future, they will make arrangements for employees to ask for
higher wages. The increase in wages will reduce employer profit
margin and so companies raise prices & production. This also increases
inflation and it also increases GDP along with it.
So,
any sudden expectation of future inflation, will increase production as a

response, which will increase inflation and GDP.
Combined, the aggregate demand and the aggregate supply are

responsible for the conditions you feel at home that relate to inflation,
unemployment, wage adjustments, tax increases and interest rate hikes.
And all this goes up and down all the time. And the governments job is
to reduce the variance between the “up and down”, so the people at
home don’t feel the severity of the shocks.
But what actually GROWS the economy?
LRAS is what grows the economy. It stands for long-run aggregate

supply. The name is not important unless you’re an economist. Just
remember LRAS and it will do.
LRAS is increased by four elements:
1. Land
2. Labor
3. Capital
4. Technology
Here’s how each of these cause an economic uptrend over the

long run:
Land
An increase in quantity of land will increase a nation’s ability to

produce goods and services and move LRAS to the right on the GDP
scale. Throughout modern history, invading other countries to take
land has become vastly unpopular. So this is no longer an option.
QUALITY of land however is still possible. Increasing quality of land
basically means extracting all the useful resources out of the ground;
minerals and oil deposits.
Labor
An increase in quantity of the labor force or an increase in the

quality of it (high productivity), will increase a nation’s ability to
produce goods and services. Size can be increased with birth rate and
ON WORLD EVENTS 155
allowing skilled workers to migrate into the country. The quality of

labor highly rests upon personality differences and cultural attitudes
towards work, industriousness, education and technology.
Capital
Physical capital refers to properties (including commercial), facto-

ries, facilities, mines, equipment, computer and software. If physical
capital is increased in quantity and quality, each member of the work-
force will achieve work faster in a given time frame.
Technology
The term technology in economics means being able to augment

what we discover and apply it to efficiently produce products and
services. Discovering resources, systems in labor, and physical capital
will help produce things we have not discovered yet.
These four elements are the ONLY elements that propel a nation’s
economy forward in the long run. There’s nothing else to it. The four
determine the movement of LRAS on the GDP scale. An increase in any
of these elements results in an increase in LRAS which will increase
GDP – increasing living standards and quality of life.
But increasing GDP does not always increase living standards. For
example, if automation and AI replace humans in the labor force, it will
increase productivity output but also increase the unemployment rate.
And so, the prosperity of a nation will seem ideal from the surface
while internal instability of the working class will rise. This will require
a structural shift in employment to bring back ordinary levels of unem-
ployment, which basically means up-skilling and educating people on
new jobs. But that will be contingent upon people’s ability to learn jobs
of higher complexity.
This issue may be addressed by government policies and higher
spending in education. But that still assumes that people have the
cognitive ability to take in advanced levels of education. And seeing as
the best predictors of long term success is IQ and industriousness, the
future appears bleak with regards to automation in my opinion.
Anyway back to the topic.
Enter COVID
What happens in a Negative Economic Shock?
When there’s a recession (a period of temporary economic decline)

that results from a negative shock, for example, a pandemic.
Here’s what happens:
Business & Consumer confidence drops. The pandemic

further (artificially) facilitated this drop with temporary
consumer lock downs and business shut downs. Note that
this will also reduce aggregate production which would
increase prices of goods and thus inflation.
The drop in confidence directly reduces the aggregate
demand. Makes sense; no more spending, no more demand.
GDP drops by 10% (more or less) and unemployment
increases.
The drop in AD (we now know) will also cause a drop in
inflation.
Other matters that happen in the background; employees and

unions forget wage increases and focus on retaining their jobs.
Employers seek bank overdrafts and other forms of credit to tie them-
selves over with cash flow. They avoid raising prices to continue stimu-
lating their business operations.
Two things can happen now:
The government can choose to not act. Aka, a no policy

response.
The government can choose to stimulate the economy.
If the government does nothing, here’s what happens:
1. Employers continue to cut wages and employees.

2. Employees living standards will dramatically decrease
3. Unions will go on a strike along with the unemployed
4. The government will probably lose in the next election
This is what President Hoover did in the Great Depression of 1930’s.

With good intentions, he wanted the economy to ‘correct itself’ without
any intervention. It turned out that not acting made the economy far
worse than it needed to be.
Why?
For starters, inflation does not drop unless monetary policy in
some form or another intervenes. But also because humans are not
efficient economic machines. We don’t rapidly adjust our lives to
accommodate the difficult conditions set forth by economic down-
turns. We don’t like downgrading our homes, relocating from family
and friends, changing jobs on demand, or up-skilling when forced to
do so.
Hoover went down as the worst president of United States because
of his ‘no policy’ response to the depression.
The second option is for the government to stimulate economic
ON WORLD EVENTS 157
activity. This is done through fiscal and monetary policy; a fancy way of
saying –
Increase government spending

Reduce taxes
Reduce interest rates
What happens when these policies fail?
Quantitative Easing Happens
Quantitative easing happens when the Fed or a Central bank

decides to purchase government bonds and securities, which are assets
on paper that hold some sort of monetary value and generate interest
as debt owed. The government in turn receives newly printed cash to
stimulate the economy with, while accumulating debt it needs to pay
back to the Fed.
The purpose of the new cash is meant to increase money supply and
encourage lending. Which in theory, should increase the aggregate
demand back to its original position, restore consumer confidence,
correct inflation and improve the GDP.
This policy has actually worked effectively in the past. But it seems
as though consumer confidence is slow to catch on during a pandemic.
The problem with this is that inflation will increase without the
economic growth. Quantitative easing is effectively a gamble in a
pandemic.
Remember this:
If Quantitative Easing fails, inflation will increase without the
economic growth. This is called stagflation. There is speculation that
the US might be facing stagflation now.
The challenge to solve stagflation is difficult. Because high inflation
is not meant to occur when the economy is weak. We just went through
this; a sudden negative shock = a drop in confidence = drop in AD =
drop in inflation.
Here is what follows stagflation:
Higher unemployment
Potential hyperinflation
Severe disruption to consumer affordability
What cures stagflation?
Productivity. How do you increase productivity when there’s

nothing to be productive for? Two ways:
Infrastructure development
Military warfare.
The problem with developing infrastructure is that it affects the

LRAS. Meaning that it will take a long time before the economy
responds to the productivity that results from building new
infrastructure.
The fastest way to get out of stagflation, and this is something
education will not teach you, is to go to war with another country.
When AD has dropped compared to prospective supply, military
spending will increase capital, labor and immediate effectual use of
resources.
It will also open thousands of new businesses across the country;
businesses that will seek to provide needs for military personnel,
ranging from military equipment, health services, hospitality and the
list goes on.
Military victory will also lead to capturing new land through
QUALITY; effectively stealing another country’s resources. Read up on
US intervention in Iraq 2003, Libya in 2008, and ISIS in 2014. One
word; Oil.
When you hear about quantitative easing from now, take a look at
inflation relative to economic activity. If the two are not moving in
tandem, stagflation is a risk. If stagflation cannot be cured with mone-
tary and fiscal policies, a pretext usually develops to justify war.
CHAPTER 6
THE ‘WHATEVER IT TAKES’
ATTITUDE
WHEN OVERWHELMING RESISTANCE CALLS FOR

CUNNING MEASURES.
I T ’ S NOT OFTEN WE SEE AN UPROAR OF PROTESTS , REVIEWS OF REGULATORY
policies and political reforms against a technological company. But this
is no ordinary company. It’s a company disrupting conventional trans-
port on a unprecedented scale, completely transforming the way
people move from A to B. This is Uber, the company that is yet to post a
profit. And here is how it’s playing the game, clean and dirty. Whatever
it takes.
Uber Didn’t Knock on the Door
Almost every company goes into a long procedure of due-diligence

on whether they meet the regulatory requirements within their indus-
try. Uber on the other hand, sought out no permission and immediately
entered the market with no regard to any regulatory backlash. Their
argument was a simple one when interrogated by authorities; your
rules don’t apply to our business model. They went further, criticizing
the regulators up-to-date creativity, that they failed to account for
Uber’s ride sharing technology.
But You Need a Taxi Medallion
Not if we just:
Accumulate cars by slapping our brand name on it.

Declare our drivers as independent contractors instead of

employees.
Provide a GPS software to arrange pick-ups and drop-offs.
Uber’s entire business structure circumvents the taxi industry,

thereby requiring no medallions. And as a result, we get an upheaval of
protests from taxi drivers to ban the Uber business model. As of 2020,
there are seven countries that maintain complete ban on ride sharing
companies predominately for unfair competition.
Extreme Measures
When Uber entered the market, it offered new drivers $1000 to sign
up as an Uber driver and referral bonuses for any subsequent drivers.
Under these incentives, mass adoption followed. Then they went
further and created their own version of subprime mortgage lending
(but on cars) by allowing those with low credit scores to get deals on
vehicles. In 2013, in an attempt to recruit more vehicles and passengers,
Uber employees fabricated poor service for rivals by scheduling and
cancelling lift requests. Whatever it takes. Then they engaged in covert
tactics against law enforcement using a tool called “Greyball” that
enabled Uber to operate in banned cities by circumventing authorities.
Just Buy Politicians
Uber’s lobbying efforts far exceeded any other company when it

came to gaining power through political influence. They have spent
millions in an effort to ‘bend’ the existing laws around transportation,
taxi industry, ride-share insurance and human resources. A bold act
from the CEO gained him a position on Trump’s economic advisory
board (which backfired aggressively) in an attempt to discuss the exec-
utive orders with regards to immigration and its impact on Uber’s
workforce.
Protests were Just a Marketing Opportunity
“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that
it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” – A
quote by the politician Rahm Emanuel. In 2014, a taxi protest in London
broke out which congested the entire city. It wasn’t entirely peaceful,
with some Uber drivers becoming victims of cab driver attacks. There
were roadblocks and demonstrations all over the city. What did Uber
do? Seize the opportunity to market it.
“Uber. The car service that keeps London moving”. Result? 800%
surge in sign ups.
ON WORLD EVENTS 161
The Company that Plays it Dirty
In my MBA, we have studied a lot of companies; their operations,

marketing, business model and services. Very rarely do we come across
a company like Uber, who are changing the landscape of an entire
transportation industry through their technology, amassing infinite
amount of regulatory scrutiny while standing tall against it. They are
not the most admirable company that stand out for character, having
cultivated a toxic company culture over its early years. But their covert
tactical implementations and their resilience to stay in the game is
sublime. I never endorse the use of cunning methods when providing a
service, as I believe those choices to have costly implications. But
perhaps in Uber’s case, the cost of surviving was in fact, to use extreme
cunning measures. To do whatever it takes. Against overwhelming
odds and with all things considered, it has worked well thus far.
CHAPTER 7
WHAT TO DO IN
UNCERTAIN TIMES
ADAPTATIONAL RESPONSE TO UNPREDICTABLE

CHANGE
M ANY OF MY FOLLOWERS ON T WITTER ASK FOR MY OPINION ABOUT THE
current world issues we are facing. From COVID & the pandemic to the
political polarization of what started off as acceptable viewpoints led to
becoming ideological extremes. All these issues converge into one
familiar aspect of life that time and time again repeats itself; uncer-
tainty. But this uncertainty we are facing is accommodated with change.
An unprecedented change that makes the uncertainty all the more terri-
fying. This post is intended to lay out a guide on how one should act
during unpredictable changes in uncertain times. It also assumes that
you have no responsibility to anyone outside yourself and that there
are no obligations you have to meet. Those who are in a position of
being responsible for others may also benefit from this post but will
find themselves compromising accordingly.
It is the nature of life to go through good and hard times. We each
have belief systems and ideologies that guide and have an impact on
transitioning the two phases and as a result, create a society that reflects
two phases accordingly.
The two belief systems are necessary. It creates a push pull effect
that maintains a dialectic harmony, motivating society to progress. It is
an absolute necessity to have thoughts and belief systems challenged,
for it allows dialogue to seek truth, and truth is what brings about
progress.
Where things go wrong is when people employ political polariza-
tion that transforms ordinary, useful viewpoints into ideological
ON WORLD EVENTS 163
extremes. When two opposing forces equip themselves with ideological

extremes, truth is no longer relevant and a war for domination begins.
And this is what we are currently facing.

We are in left bottom quarter and about to enter hard times.
A Steady Stream Of Income
If you were made redundant or lost your job due to the COVID lock
downs, then the first thing you should focus on is finding a steady
stream of income. Because income provides routine and insulates you
from being at the mercy of misery during uncertainty. Doesn’t matter
how you interpret the current world events, no job means no income.
Finding a job does not mean you should ‘finally pursue that
entrepreneurial dream’ or that ‘billion dollar idea’ you’ve left on the
shelf for years. It means finding a job with the objective of providing
yourself a steady income.
This sounds simple, but many people are scattered all over the place
during times of uncertainty and try to pursue several things all at once.
If you want to be effective, you need to address your worry of financial
insecurity. You don’t have to love the job. This is a temporary objective
to address a short term concern. Your effectiveness of sorting yourself
out and structuring your life according to uncertain change is depen-
dent on a steady stream of income. It is one routine you must automate
and keep in check.
Sort your finances
Create a column and label it as “Wants”. Then create another and

label it as “Needs”. Go through your bank statement and allocate all
your transactions on paper according to what fits under those labels.
Anything that reflects a ‘Want’ (shopping, subscriptions, take-outs etc)
will fall under this column. I consider a gym membership and a phone
plan along with bills, mortgage and rent to fall under the ‘Need’
column.
Now calculate what each column amounts to.

The percentage of your income allocated to “Needs” should not
exceed 50%.
The percentage of your income allocated to “Wants” should be
below 15%.
That means you should be striving to save 35% of your income
every week/fortnight/month.
The picture is your ‘above average’ person in terms of frugality with
their money.
Before COVID, my savings/wants/needs respectively were 15% |
24% | 61%.
During COVID, I managed to re-organize it to 29% | 13% | 58%.
‘Hard times create strong men’. This is your opportunity to
strengthen yourself by living below your means, being frugal and
resourceful, while cutting out everything that does not contribute to
your survival.
Adapt
Change is inevitable. Chaos and uncertainty accelerates it. Order

and structure decelerates it. Just because ‘changes’ are being politicized,
doesn’t mean you should resist and stay the way you are. This doesn’t
mean for you to be a sheep and do exactly as you’re told. There’s a
difference between adapting and following orders blindly. For example,
there is literally zero downsides to wearing a mask. Wear it. “Masks rob
you from your individualism!” is the stupidest thing I’ve heard. Stop
adopting other people’s thinking. If they politicize a health matter, then
try to think objectively so you can reach your own unbiased conclusion;
There’s a virus going around. Wearing a mask has the ability to
prevent transmission more than not wearing a mask. So wear it.
“Please stay home during lock down and enjoy your time indoors.
Watch Netflix and get UberEats”. I literally heard a health official say
this on the news channel. This is an example of following orders like a
ON WORLD EVENTS 165
sheep. What you should do instead, is cancel subscriptions that don’t

help you progress and cook your own meals. Time’s of uncertainty is
when you should live well below your means and and cut out every-
thing unnecessary from your life.
Your Political Opinion
Don’t express it. They really want to know? Show a centrist point of
view. Support the right, support the left. Show an understanding that
both viewpoints need to co-exist for progress and that both have pros
and cons. Pick your side privately, and work in silent.
Network
After you have structured your life (cut out all the unnecessary
‘wants’ and have set up a steady stream of income), you need to then
allocate your time to what matters most. There’s three things I value
most that I would spend my spare time on:
Positional ascension in my line of work

Begin a startup
Network with like minded people
My choice for picking to Network is based on several assumptions.

You should Network if:
You’re in a job that has no opportunity for ascension.

You have no startup ideas that you’re already invested in.
You are living in uncertain times.
I think building a network is a priority during uncertain times.

Because during uncertainty, people show their true colors. Their
neuroticism kicks in and they begin to behave irrationally. Those who
remain rational and calm are the rare few who begin to stand out.
Create an online presence with a brand that aligns with your value
offering. Provide value so you can develop credibility. Meeting like-
minded people and forming a friendship on the basis of value-
exchange is priceless, not to mention the doors it opens up for your
future startup ideas.
If you do have a job with opportunities to move up, then you
should solely focus on that while building connections with the rele-
vant people in your field. If you are already invested in a startup, then
you should continue building it as long as it doesn’t affect your
finances to the extent that it puts you in hardship. Also keep in mind
during uncertain times, credit lending is restricted as the economy
slows down while investors seek to place their money in safe haven
assets. Your chances of getting funding for your extremely risky startup
is very low. In saying that, the best time for startups to launch is at the
end of recessions. So an ideal scenario would be for you to develop
your startup in the least expensive possible way while building connec-
tions and situating yourself for a possible launch post-recession.
What to Invest in
With all the money you are saving now (since you don’t watch
Netflix or get take-outs with UberEats anymore), the question is; what
should you invest it in? I am not a financial planner, nor an advisor to
tell you how you should invest your money. Property is what I invest
in. I understand buying your own property is out of the question for
most people, but I would work to save a deposit and make that my
aim. Financial instruments such as REITS is another great way to get
exposure to property assets.
I don’t invest in the stock market, mostly because I like owning
tangible assets, and mildly because I think the stock market is currently
inflated. But I’m not an analyst and I could be wrong. If you’re a long
term holder, the S&P500 has practically been going up since forever. So
do your own research before deciding. Don’t be so eager to invest when
you don’t know what to invest in. It’s true that ‘you should buy when
there’s blood on the streets’ but this paraphrased statement from
Rothchild is predicated on the fact that you have considerable knowl-
edge and experience in what asset you’re about to buy.
Also, you shouldn’t think about investing unless you have saved at
least 6 months worth of emergency fund. That means if your monthly
‘Needs’ expenses amount to $2,000, then you should have $12,000 in
cash sitting as emergency or invested in very-low risk financial prod-
ucts that you’re able to liquidate over 1-3 days. Anything else you make
as surplus to your emergency fund, can then be subject to investing.
Invest in yourself
Times of uncertainty brings out your negative emotions. It is a good

time to understand yourself, the choices you make and the emotions
you feel. Those who come out on top are calm and do not make choices
under the influence of negative emotions. Understanding your level of
neuroticism can provide priceless knowledge on how to adapt in times
of uncertainties. The method I developed involving shadow integration
is key to getting your negative emotions under control.
CHAPTER 8
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T
EXPRESS ANY POLITICAL
VIEWS
BECOME A CENTRIST
W E LIVE IN EXTREME TIMES . P OLARIZATION OF POLITICAL VIEWS & EXTREME
ideologies have taken over our belief systems. Today on twitter I found
out that Trump got permanently suspended.
My timeline was filled with irrational comments, lash outs, fear and
resentment against the suspension. My followers on Twitter I suspect
are more conservative/right leaning in their political views, despite my
content to be mainly centrist viewpoints. Some of my followers also
happen to be left leaning and yet cite me as one of their favorite
accounts.
Whatever your political views may be, I am here to tell you not to
express it. That doesn’t mean for you to turn a blind eye to politics and
remain ignorant. There is a difference between not having any view-
points and not expressing it. This is one of those moments where you
“Don’t Always Express what you Believe In”, a title of an article that
will be soon published for subscribed members only.
Expressing your political views commits you to a side. It doesn’t
matter how mildly or aggressively you express it. What matters is that
you have chosen a side.
A side you probably don’t even understand. I tweeted earlier today
that:
Nothing is what it seems. Do not assume that Right-wing Capitalists are the
savior of this world. Do not assume that they preach free market capitalism. They
don’t.
Most billionaires are capitalists on their way up and become social-

ists as they reach the top. The right-wing capitalists you supposedly
support despise free-market capitalism, an economic policy that would
threaten their capitalist empire. The only way to preserve their interest
is to remove free-market capitalism and promote socialism and left-
leaning ideologies. What you think of the left is probably not true. The
left is not run by the left. Their inherent ideology of social equality and
egalitarianism is so dysfunctional and weak, that it would not allow
them to become such a force of nature and take over the media with the
ability to wreak havoc over a nation through protests & riots.
Whether my observations are right or wrong, everything that is
happening suggests that one thing is absolutely clear:
The destruction of the middle class.
Today’s Neo-Marxist socialists do not care about the poor. They just
hate the rich. and consequently push for egalitarianism. And the capi-
talist billionaires that once believed in free-market capitalism declare it
as their #1 public enemy by endorsing leftist ideologies to eradicate the
middle class who generated their fortune in the first place.
It is no coincidence that Silicon Valley’s political views are left lean-
ing. The big tech giants who reach billions of people on their social
media platforms have taken a stronghold to promote their leftist-
ideologies and effectively destroy the middle class through equality.
My view is that the majority of the left-wing activists and the minority
of the right-wing corporate capitalists are closely working together to
bring about the eradication of the middle class.
So what do you do?
Nothing is what it seems on the spotlight. So there is not much you

can do. Furthermore, if you choose a side, then you are more likely to
generate enemies for yourself than make an impact on your chosen
cause. So keep your political views to yourself and support both sides.
Rather than latch on to some cause none of us even understand at a
molecular level, improve your own life.
Focus on becoming financially independent
Publicly maintain a centrist viewpoint
Network and provide value
Build trusted connections
Then if you want to help a cause that you believe in, you will do it
with force. And you will be able to fund, lobby and covertly associate
yourself however you choose to. Learn to play BOTH SIDES of the
game. The world is a stage of transactions. Senators and judges are
bought as means to achieve particular ends. Whatever you see on the
spotlight, is not what it seems.
CHARACTER AND
INTEGRITY
People uphold integrity, to maintain their status & reputation. Not to fulfil a
moral obligation. Look at the world with this lens in mind.
CHAPTER 1
THE PHILOSOPHY OF
BECOMING HIGH VALUE
FROM THE THREAD 'HOW TO RAISE A SON TO

BECOME A HIGH VALUE MAN
I TERMED THIS THREAD ON T WITTER “H OW TO RAISE A SON TO BECOME A
high-value man” although much of what it describes is meant for the
reader. The reason for the title was that the process of becoming high
value is a journey. A chronological journey that encompasses several
conjoining aspects that all make up the term “high value”. These
aspects stem from deep philosophical values that evoke transforma-
tional change when applied. And so, a son depicts an ideal symbolic
representation of a being, going through this change to become high
value. This article explains the roots required to develop into a man of
high value. It goes beyond the superficial habits & traits (which will be
covered in another article).
‘I would teach him the fundamentals of hierarchical values.’
Hierarchical values are a Nietzschean idea that’s not well under-

stood. When someone possesses hierarchical values, they orient them-
selves in a very particular way in terms of how they should act. They
know that their time, attention & resources need to be prioritized. They
also understand that ‘knowing priorities’ is not enough, and that steps
must be actively taken to favor certain values over others. The rationale
behind orientating yourself in a way that adheres to hierarchical values
is that it puts you on a path of least resistance to attain what you sought
out to be the apex value. High-value men are orientated in life.
They have an internal compass that tells them the path they must
take & the sacrifices they must make. The more you prioritize the
pursuit of your apex value, the more time & attention is drawn to it, the
more sacrifices you forgo as a cost to attain this value. What’s essential
here is what your apex value entails to be. What could be worth pursu-
ing, that it motivates you enough to sacrifice everything else in order to
attain it?
‘I would get him to aim for an apex value that’s life furthering;
Abundance.’
For a man, every value discovered on this earth suffers in compar-

ison to abundance. This is because a man provides. That’s just what he
does. You need to set aside the tragic stories you hear of men providing
and getting nothing in return other than alimony against their name.
WHO they provide for is a separate discussion altogether.
But WHAT they should do, at a deep philosophical level, is find
what it means to become a man. And this is found in their capacity to
provide. It’s a little-known fact that the obstacles faced in life in the
pursuit of abundance, forces men to develop qualities to overcome
them. It’s also these qualities that make men become high value.
Abundance should be your apex value, and your orientation in life
should be based on the strengths of your traits that will eventually
expose pathways for you to attain this apex value. This also means you
need to prepare yourself to sacrifice other values that may come in
various forms of temptation, fun, and enjoyment. At times it would
mean saying no to yourself, and other times it would mean saying no to
others.
‘I would teach him to become disagreeable, so he doesn’t become a

victim of oppression.’
If you’re a man that knows his apex value, and is self-determined

enough to achieve it, saying ‘no’ is no longer an act of refusal. Its
preservation of your energy to allocate it towards what you value most,
your apex value. There’s no use in becoming disagreeable, if you don’t
know why you’re disagreeing. And if you don’t know why you’re
disagreeing, that means you have nothing to stand up for. And if you
aimlessly don’t know what you want out of life to stand up for it, then
someone will exploit you as a resource to get what they want out of
theirs. That is oppression. Fact is, if you look around you, a lot of
people lack an apex value.
Or at least, they take no steps to attain it. They are a slave to oppres-
sion, they go where the wind takes them, incapable of saying no, inca-
pable of standing up for something. Unless you know what you want,
you are better off making someone else’s dream come true. Disagree-
ableness is reserved for men who know what they want, and they are
prepared to protect it by refusing to become oppressed or exploited.
CHARACTER AND INTEGRITY 173
Those who know what they want, become disagreeable, and that makes
them work for what they want.
‘I would make him competent and would tell him to work for every-
thing he wants. Steering him clear of any inheritance & force him to
uptake responsibility.’
It’s very common to see men now employ every tactic to get what
they want, ASIDE from actually working for it. This is the new age. The
media have us believe that success can really come overnight and that
‘entrepreneurs’ can become millionaires without ever working. We love
the success and the glimmer. But hate the work and suffering. And so, a
side effect of this, is that most of us want to ‘get there’ sooner, and that
means taking any avail able shortcut. EVERY TIME you get something
without working for it, it feeds the personality inside you that enjoys
complacency, expediency, and resentment.
Being rewarded for no work is the fastest way to erode every
quality a man possesses. And when the rewards stop, you will be left
with envy, hate, and resentment over why you are no longer deserving.
But truth is, you never were deserving. You allowed your consumption
to outpace your production, because the temptation of getting rewards
for no work indulged you, and disrupted your perception of earning
what you want to be no longer desirable.Never accept anything for
free. It erodes the quality that makes you high value. It takes away your
capacity to provide by making you seek rewards for no exchange in
value.
‘I would teach him to pursue women on the basis of his second apex
value: Establishing a family, rather than pursuing them to fulfill his
lustful desires.’
There are several parts to this statement. First, it is obvious that

without an apex value, it’s very easy for a man to allow his multiple
personalities to take a stronghold and seek their own desires. In the
absence of an apex value, a man will seek several values that emerge as
a consequence of his urges (driven by those personalities). One of the
strongest urges for men is lust. Their ability to suppress it is determined
whether its pursuit would directly conflict with their apex value or not.
It seems evident to me that if a man does truly seek an apex value of
abundance, women are nothing but a distraction to him. This brings us
to the other part of this statement; ‘basis of his SECOND apex value’. If
women are a distraction to a man who seeks abundance, then it would
make sense for the man to suppress his lust for women as a sacrifice to
attain his apex value. But what if not all women were a distraction?
What if some women could help you propel further towards
abundance?
These questions raise another; If these kinds of women exist, how

would they manifest themselves? What values would they uphold?
These questions help discover one thing; how a man should develop
sexual experience, without such experience conflicting directly with his
apex value. This would mean that his experience should be a by-
product of strictly pursuing women with the potential to become life
partners. This path prevents him from sacrificing his own values for
lust. It is this quality that sets him apart in becoming high value; his
ability to do, but choosing not to for the sake of upholding his values.
‘Id teach him that the best men occupy the paradox.’
You may be familiar with the paradox term I often tweet about. It’s
a phenomenon that explains a certain being, characterized by having
the unrestricted ability to commit any action, good or bad, at full capac-
ity, yet choosing to do good instead. “Good and bad” are fairly subjec-
tive, but the essence of the paradox remains. And this phenomenon can
be narrowed down to a trait itself, for one to be able to exercise and
attain. The term “Occupy the paradox”, literally means (but is not
limited to); become a man who has the capacity to become ruthless, yet
gentle, predatory, but protective.
It is also these paradoxical men that end up being the saviors of
society, who can face and confront evil and deliver good. Occupying
the paradox is a test of a man’s integrity when he finally attains his
apex value of abundance. It’s a test of his ability in not needing to
necessarily act when he has the option to do so. It’s a test of his char-
acter to not fade away in the presence of all the riches provided by the
attainment of his apex value. He inherently knows; Men provide. And
if that means to sacrifice himself just to see those he loves flourish, then
that is what he will do.
UM’S MODEL:
Find your apex value; A value that should come in the form
of abundance. Do this by understanding your temperament
and your personality. Find your strengths and weaknesses,
then capitalize on productive work that fits your strengths.
This will expose the pathway that you should be on to seek
abundance.
If you find the path that aligns with your strength and
temperament, and one which that can lead you to
abundance, you will have found what you are passionate
about. This passion will manifest as a desire to seek out your
apex value, in which you will sacrifice other forms of
pursuits in order to attain it. If you don’t pay the price to
CHARACTER AND INTEGRITY 175
sacrifice other values that take up your time and effort, then
you are not passionate about your apex value.
Disagreeableness is a side effect of deeply wanting to attain
your apex value. You are more likely to become oppressed
and get taken advantage of when you don’t know what you
want. So point 3 ties heavily to points 1 and 2. No point in
becoming disagreeable, unless you know what you want,
and become disagreeable as an act to protect it.
Seeking out women according to life-furthering values is too
complex to fit a model, and will require an article on its own.
But you should get in the habit of observing women’s
qualities before being with them, and become more intolerant
& select based on values that reflect yours; establish a family
& help you propel towards your apex value that will allow
your family to flourish.
Last point; never accept anything that is given for free. Ever.

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POWER ASCENSION

UNMODERN MEN VOLUME 1

WRITTEN BY UNMODERN MEN,

PUBLISHED BY CORY SMITH, AUTHOR OF

Corporate Machiavelli Telegram Resource Group

Unmodern Men Telegram Resource Group

Cory Smith, The Daily Wingman Telegram Resource Group

UM’s online presence began on twitter, where he started posting

A CORPORATE PERSPECTIVE ON HOW TO ATTAIN

Here’s a web deﬁnition of Power:

the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular

What Does This Mean to You?

THE 5 FACETS OF PERSONAL POWER

Previously labeled as ‘Character’, reputation is one of the facets found

Integrity measures what you do when no one is watching. Reputa-

Your tolerance to conﬂict largely paints the picture of what kind of

I have written an unorthodox piece on becoming an effective leader.

I remember quitting my job as a pharmacist manager years ago

“Are you on the market?!” he asked me.

My efﬁciency and effectiveness in managing patient outﬂow was

If you have been following me on Twitter for a while, you by now

Pick Your Domain

Excellence is found in exploiting your traits. Once you have recog-

Follow the 4 stages of learning:

There’s a saying written by George Orwell; he who controls the ﬂow

When I say intangible resources I don’t mean intangible assets,

Tangible resources are resources that you have access to at a rela-

extremely powerful because you directly impact the economics of a

Reputable social media presence

I hold a pharmacist license and an MBA degree which I am

Promotion Favours Legitimacy

In organizational hierarchies, the possibility of facing high competition

Legitimacy Insulates You

When COVID lock down happened, demand for health professionals,

Before I explore this facet, it is important to know that there is

Let’s explore the image above for a moment.

Grow your ties to as many people as possible. Don’t worry about

increasing interactive exposure with someone

Co-ordinate task completions in my absence

Coalition is an absolute necessity if you want to possess inﬂuence

There is a large number of people who ﬁt under the consultant title.

To call yourself a consultant, you must do the following things:

Provide Advice & Recommendation

Consultants are sought out for something they specialize in, in

remote dispense; ability to set up multiple pharmacies across multiple

Advise Comes From Speciﬁc Knowledge

The advice provided by a consultant derives from their speciﬁc

Advice Is Implemented & Delivered

The key job of a consultant is to be able to communicate the advice

The Relationship With Clients Are Temporary

Consultants work with clients on temporary basis. The length of the

Value Is Added Through Positive Change

Value comes in variety of forms. For a consultant, it could mean

I’m a management consultant who works in the health industry. I

1. You Will Need Speciﬁc Knowledge

This step cannot be skipped. If you want to become a professional

understand not many countries provide fee-help with regards to

What Field Should You Pick?

IT & Tech Support

There’s a stark difference between managing people & organisa-

For example I have had requests to consult with regards to leader-

Competition determines market

2. Set up Your Presence Online

Have a social media account to gain followers.