We Are Making Dangerous, Lonely & Broken Men! - Manipulation Expert, Robert Greene! 48 Laws Of Power

Everybody has narcissistic tendencies, and we're all self-absorbed, but nobody wants to admit it. It's always somebody else. It's always Donald Trump. It's always Elon Musk. But everyone has a manipulative side. There are no saints in this world.

But can you use it productively?

Yes, most definitely. There's deep narcissists who are very problematic, and there's healthy narcissists. And knowing the distinction between the two will help save you years of misery.

What if I'm dealing with a narcissist?

I want you to do the following. I want you to-

Robert Greene is one of the most influential writers in history- Unraveling the secrets of power, strategy, and human psychology-

That are essential for purpose, resilience, and success.

What is it about human nature that we just don't want to admit?

One is that envy is deeply ingrained in all of us. In fact, always wanting to be better and superior to others is the most motivating factor of 90% of human behavior. But if you don't admit it to yourself, that ugly emotion is like a nuclear bomb to all aspects of life. It will seize you by the throat and make you miserable. But there's also understanding things like, we all judge on appearances, that everyone has a dark side, and that we are all actors. And I will get into the nitty-gritty of all of them, because it's really about how powerful people use those traits for their success.

People are lonelier than ever, and when you look at the impact that's having, it's equal to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. What is the antidote for this?

I empathize with it very much so, because when I was younger, I was losing in the game of life. I was very depressed and even suicidal. But what lifted me out was...

This has always blown my mind a little bit. 53% of you that listen to this show regularly haven't yet subscribed to the show. So could I ask you for a favor before we start? If you like the show, and you like what we do here, and you wanna support us, the free simple way that you can do just that is by hitting the subscribe button. And my commitment to you is, if you do that, then I'll do everything in my power, me and my team, to make sure that this show is better for you every single week. We'll listen to your feedback. We'll find the guests that you want me to speak to, and we'll continue to do what we do. Thank you so much. Robert, at this moment in time, what do you believe your followers, your fans, the people that love your books, what do you believe that they're struggling with the most? And I'm asking this question because I imagine you get thousands of DMs and messages from these people. What are the common themes?

Well, the, the most common question I get, particularly from people in their 20s, is they don't really know, uh, where they're headed. They don't know what their career is, what I call in Mastery, their life's task. And I talk a lot about it in interviews and in my fr- in the book Mastery, and I make it, the point that it is the most important decision in your life, figuring out what you were destined for, why you were born, wha- what you were created for, what makes you unique. And I say that everything from that realization, from that understanding, kind of stems from that. Your sense of fulfillment, your happiness, everything will come from that one realization. And a lot of young people are very confused right now, and I don't blame them. These are very, very confusing times that they're going through. Much more confusing than anything I had to deal with, particularly, I think the influence of technology and social media. And what I mean by that is, to know who you are, to know what you were meant to do in life, what, what, why you were born, what makes you unique, requires a lot of reflection on yourself, self-awareness, self-knowledge. You have to go inward. And when your attention is always focused so much on what other people are doing, what other people are saying, you know, the, what they think is hot, what they think is cool, you become kind of a stranger to yourself, right? So when I talk about that concept to them, it's like, "That sounds interesting, Robert, but I have no idea what that is. I don't know what my, my life's task is." Now, that's maybe 30 or 40% of the emails that I get. It's quite high, but it's not all of them. But it is a trend I've noticed with young people who are going through, I think, very, very confusing times. And, uh, I'm very empathetic to it because I was actually someone who was quite lost in my 20s, and I know the pain that that can cause. Not feeling like your life has any meaning, you know, I think that's something that really is, is, um, tormenting a lot of young people. What does life mean? What will give me a sense of meaning, right? To what I'm doing, to where I'm headed, to my daily experiences. And not having that is deeply disturbing, and I've been through that myself. I think I'm getting a lot of that kind of feedback in a lot of those emails among others.