Marriage tends to be a four letter word around here. But marriage does have utility for a man in the business world. Most men over 35 are married. Having a charming woman by your side gains you access to other high powdered married men (and if you are the guy bringing a different plate to every dinner, the older wives will launch subliminal attacks to prevent their husbands from getting any ideas). Additionally, if you seek to climb high, redirecting the feminine powder toward your own objectives gives you the utility of the innate Machiavellian qualities we so often seek to disrupt.

I can't think of a single business hero of mine that wasn't married. I've met many high value, and unknowingly red pill men, who are married and use that marriage to their advantage. Of course for every one of them, there are 100 bp dead bead men. For this conversation let's ignore the bottom 99%. We dissect them in this sub frequently and if you haven't learned lessons from their failures yet then return to the starting line.

Creating a deliberate life is vital. I am doing that now as I advance through my career and toward my ultimate objectives.

I've setup my relationship in a classic captain / first mate dynamic. My girlfriend is on board with this but has been propagandized enough that her hamster will meltdown once a month, thinking she wants what everyone else has. I just hold frame and a few hours later she admits she was wrong and apologizes. This usually happens when she asks me to do her a 'favor' like unload the laundry because she is busy. That's her job, she needs to do it.

Beyond these minor outbursts, she's very on board with my rules of relationships.

This is all a long preamble to discuss marriage. The rite of passage is important to her. I was impressed with her that she was able to peel back the societal layers of a wedding and get to that point. The changing of her last name. The giving away by her dad. Etc. Understanding how humans work, I get why that could be important to someone. It doesn't do much for me, but I can't discount its importance. To me, buying my first $5+ million home will be a huge rite of passage. While defined as a personal goal, it's also wrapped up in lots of societal conditioning. Many things we want have been programmed in. Big houses and marriages included. Who I am to judge?

I was never one to spin lots of plates. My time is better spent pursuing my goals. So having one woman who helps me achieve those goals is higher value than banging randoms. And I've put in a clause to allow for swinging if required.

I've told my girlfriend that we are going to create our own rules of marriage. The conditions of marriage are trite and not followed. If we create them ourselves they will have meaning. And it's a good opportunity for me to put down on paper more defined rules of the road. I remember reading here how the Muslim tradition includes writing out rules (what was that called?) and I want to do something similar here in a nonsecular way.

So, what would you include in these 'rules'? I'll obviously wrap it in a better word than rules so it feels special, right now I'm just trying to get the facts down and figured you guys would have great insights. Or if you want to talk about the utility of marriage that would be fun too.

tldr: If you could recreate what a marriage is, what would it look like?