This was not the time to get depressed or to dream, but to fix that hustler’s eye on himself and the world he lived in. In this unfamiliar space and with time to reflect, suddenly the words of Truth came back to him. The future looked promising, but a moment’s inattention got him trapped in a police sting, and at the age of sixteen he was sentenced to nine months in a shock rehabilitation center in upstate New York. Over the next few years he became one of the savviest hustlers in his neighborhood, operating a small crew that brought him good money.
#48 laws of power 50 cent code#
He decided to transform the hustler’s words into a kind of code that he would live by: he would trust no one he would conceal his intentions, even from friends and partners and no matter how high or low life brought him, he would remain the supreme realist, keeping his hustler’s eye sharp and focused. In the months to come, Curtis thought more and more about what Truth had told him, and it began to sink in. Lose your grip on reality on these streets and you might as well kill yourself. If things go bad, he starts wishing it were all different and he comes up with some foolish scheme to get quick, easy money. If things go well, he starts thinking it will go on forever and he takes his eyes off the streets. I’ve seen it happen to many a hustler, he said. The greatest danger we face, he told Curtis, is not the police or some nasty rival. All of this sharpens the eye to a razor’s edge, making him a keen observer of everything. He has to look at himself, see his own limitations and stupidity. He has to see through all the bull-t people throw at him - their games, their lousy ideas. He has to get a feel for the streets - who’s trouble, where there might be some new opportunity. Because it is such a dangerous world, a hustler has to focus intensely on what’s going on around him. In fact, the hard life of these streets is a blessing if you know what you’re doing. Don’t complain about the difficult circumstances, he said.
One day he was discussing the troublesome aspects of the game with an older hustler named Truth, who told him something he would never forget. How could he possibly succeed amid this chaos and avoid all of the inevitable dangers? It seemed impossible. If you did too well, someone would try to take what you had. The big-time dealers who ran the neighborhood could be violent and heavy-handed. The fellow hustlers were all fighting over the same limited number of corners and they’d stab you in the back in an instant. The drug fiends, the customers, were erratic and hard to figure out. The further he got into it, however, the more he realized that the reality was much grimier and harsher than he had imagined. And so by the age of eleven he had made the choice to follow that path and become the greatest hustler of them all. They had the cars, the clothes, the lifestyle, the degree of power that matched his ambitions. The only people he could see who led the life that he dreamed of were the hustlers, the drug dealers. He could escape it all by taking drugs - once you start down that path there is no turning back. He could turn to crime and make his money fast, but the ones who went for that either died young or spent much of their youth in prison. He could go to school and take it seriously, but the kids who did that didn’t seem to get very far - a life of low-paying jobs. Looking out on the streets of Southside Queens where he grew up, Curtis saw a grim, depressing reality staring him in the face. He wanted more than anything the very things that it seemed he could never have - money, freedom, and power. The firmer your grasp on reality, the more power you will have to alter it for your purposes.Īs a boy, Curtis Jackson (aka 50 Cent) had one dominant drive - ambition. By seeing through people’s manipulations, you can turn them around. By focusing your attention on what is going on around you, you will gain a sharp appreciation for what makes some people advance and others fall behind. Your task is to resist the temptation to wish it were all different instead you must fearlessly accept these circumstances, even embrace them. They bring endless battles into your life. It takes constant effort to carve a place for yourself in this ruthlessly competitive world and hold on to it.
An excerpt.Ĭhapter one: See things for what they are - intense realism Robert Greene, author of “The 48 Laws of Power,” and rapper Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson have collaborated to write “The 50th Law.” The book shares lessons from 50 Cent's life, particularly the value of what the authors call “intense realism” - seeing things for what they are, self-reliance, opportunism, authority, knowing when to be “bad” and confronting your own mortality.
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