Advice for young men who are in self-improvement in 2024.

IF YOU'RE ON A SELF-IMPROVEMENT JOURNEY, 

This article is a TREASURE FOR YOU. 

If you've found it, thank God—He really cares about you! 

Now, read this article very carefully; it has the power to change your life.

To be truly powerful,

You don't have to go out there and grab things. 

You don't have to go prove yourself; all of it will come to you. 

People will come to you, women will come to you, job offers will come to you, money will come to you if you have this kind of inner strength, inner power that I think is the ideal for young men today in the world.

Define an Iconic Masculine Ideal:

These are actually very confusing times before. I believe for young men, and the majority of my readers, to be honest with you, are young men, and I do a lot of consulting with them, so I understand the confusion that is going on because traditional values and traditional ideals of masculinity are evaporating, and it's very disconcerting. 

So to me, the most important thing here is to first of all define an icon of what I would consider a virtuous masculine ideal for all of us to realize and think about. 

Because without a nice sense of an ideal, then we're kind of lost at sea. 

We don't really know where we're heading, what we want to achieve, or what we want to aim for in life.

Gary Cooper as a Virtuous Masculine Ideal:

So when I think of masculinity, or I think it means to be a man, 

I think in terms of it's very weird, but I have an image in my mind of a particular Hollywood actor from the 30s and 40s. I know that sounds cliched, but let me explain it to you for a minute. 

His name was Gary Cooper, and he embodied this particular ideal. He was very soft-spoken; he didn't talk a lot. 

He wasn't aggressive or pushy, but he knew who he was, what he wanted, what was right, what was wrong, and he stood for it. 

He didn't assert himself and tell everyone they're wrong, etc. 

But when he was pushed, he was extremely strong inside; he knew who he was. 

He was very balanced.

True Inner Strength:

If you're ever going to watch a movie, and maybe you find old movies kind of stupid, but this is a great one that really illustrates it. 

It's called "High Noon," where he's the sheriff of this town and has to take on all of these evil bastards. 

Anyway, so to me, the idea is you have a sense of control of your nature, of who you are. 

You know that you're not just about being aggressive, not just about picking fights and going out in the world and hurting people or pushing them around. 

That's actually a sign of weakness.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words:

True inner strength is something that's quiet and calm. You don't feel the need to push people, to hurt people, to assert yourself, to show off. 

People who show off how wealthy they are, how many fancy cars they have are actually weak. 

They're insecure, incredibly immature. 

I talk about in the laws of human nature that when you look at somebody who has very extreme qualities like bravado, like brashness, like bragging about how great they are, bragging about how many women they've seduced, bragging about their fancy cars, they're actually really weak little tiny people inside. 

They're trying to cover up all their weaknesses, all their insecurities with bravado.

But you as a young man, you don't need any of that. When you see it, you're disgusted by it because it reveals weakness. 

Somebody who is truly strong inside doesn't have to show off, doesn't have to talk, doesn't have to say a lot. 

That was the whole thing about Gary Cooper; he never talked. 

In the "Laws of Power," I always say less than necessary; weak people have to talk, have to brag. 

If you're strong inside, you let your actions do the talking. 

You don't have to go on websites and show all the great things, your cars, your money, your house. 

It speaks through your work, through the things that you have achieved, through the businesses that you have started, through the books that you have read. 

You don't have to do any talking; your actions speak for themselves.

Standards of True Masculinity:

So let's have certain ideal, certain standards of what we consider masculinity or to be a strong man actually are and to use that sort of guide us through life. 

So one thing is if you're strong inside, you can take criticism. 

People who have this kind of fake masculinity, by the moment you try and challenge them or talk to them or say that their ideas are stupid or maybe that they don't know what they're talking about, they get so insecure and they lash out, they fight back, they yell. 

We see all these trolls on the internet doing that, right? But if you are truly strong, you can take criticism. 

You can take a mentor; you can take somebody coming into your life and say, 

"This is what you need to do. This is where you need to go. You're not doing it right. You need to follow this path instead of the one that you're on."

Deep Respect for Women:

The other thing is a true man, to me, true masculinity has deep respect for women. 

Doesn't feel the need to insult them, to push them around, to dominate them. He respects them truly, and he honors them, and he almost has a kind of chivalrous approach. 

I know all of this sounds very old-fashioned, but these were values that came up through culture over hundreds and hundreds of years, and they have deep meaning, and they have deep import. 

So having a chivalrous attitude towards women to me reveals inner strength and confidence, the kind of thing that I think women respond to.

I don't think women respond to men; they can smell that insecure man from a mile away, and it repulses them. 

They can also smell a man who has that kind of inner confidence, the kind of inner security, and it's deeply seductive and deeply attractive. 

So having a sense of an inner strength, of knowing who you are, of not feeling the need to brag, of knowing that these are the virtues that signify strength in our culture, they become sort of your daily guiding post. 

When you catch yourself becoming all emotional and all panicky and all yelling and raging and angry, you step back, and you go, 

"I'm being weak. I'm falling below this kind of ideal that I think I should follow in my life."

Long-Term Success vs. Showcasing Wealth:

When it comes to your career and navigating the very difficult environment that we're all dealing with, a lot of young men think that the sign of success or proving themselves is by making a lot of money early on and being able to show that. 

But to me, that isn't what the game is all about. 

The game is how to last. 

When I look at sports and I look at athletes that I really admire, and I think these are fantastic, 

I think of Michael Jordan, I think of Tom Brady, I think of LeBron James, I think of God bless his soul, Kobe Bryant. People who lasted, they lasted for many years. They weren't just one-hit wonders.

True Success Lasts:

So true success and true power in life can go on for 10, 20, 30 years. 

You have a plan; you have a long-term career that you're aiming for, and your goal is not to make a bunch of money and show off. 

It's to become a master in what you're doing, to understand your field, to be extremely creative and powerful in that, and then things will come to you. 

So to be truly.