“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win”  

"The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” 

“The wise warrior avoids the battle.”  ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Control the source of your validation.

When you're paid at work- you're validated.

When you get a blow job from a girl, you're validated.

When behaviors, good or bad, lead to desirable outcomes, you're validated in some way.

Men create value, and when that value is exchanged for resources, your value is validated.

You become a slave to that validation drip.

As men climb the ladder of success, they'll receive positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.

Our sense of self importance is the source of everything good in us. It's why we work. It's why we lift. It's why we struggle to achieve. It's why we sleep with women. Progress.

Our self importance is also the source of everything rotten within us. It's why we suffer. It's why we slack. It's why we sabotage our own success. It's why we destroy ourselves.

To be a free man, you must remove the bad whilst keeping the good intact.

You must disengage yourself from the game, establish yourself correctly, then reenter as a new player- at a moment's notice if necessary.

You cannot allow yourself to be caught up in the intoxicating effects of success, because the crash will always be close behind- waiting for you to slip up.

A man needs to be able to rebuild himself from the ground up to be truly strong. He must be able to orient himself on the proper path with minimal validation. If you become complacent and derelict in your duty to succeed, you'll find yourself one false step away from failure.

Freedom requires vigilance. Be vigilant. Do not prop up your success using the standards other people have set for you- because if for any reason their validation becomes absent, you'll find yourself lost.

Close that hole. Shore up that weakness. Prune your tree of the dead branches. Be lean. Be efficient. Be self contained. Too many men focus on the effects of negative reinforcement, whilst paying no heed to the dangers of positive reinforcement.

When you're still close to the bottom, a fall isn't much. What difference does it make if you've become less of a man when you're already not much to begin with?

However, the fall can be lethal once you've climbed high enough and you don't watch your step.

Do not become a slave to validation- especially if the validation is positive.

Be above that, watch your step along your path and remember where you came from.

The power you hold over yourself isn't bestowed upon you- it's inherent and requires cultivation. Don't let other people distract you from your purpose.

You don't need to climb another man's Mountain to be successful. Find your own mountain to climb, define your own perception of success.

Do not attempt to "become" successful.

Become the definition of success.

If-

BY RUDYARD KIPLING

If you can keep your head when all about you   

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;   

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;   

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!