The 50th Law is a surprisingly good read, and contains a wealth of information for lawyers, especially those just embarking on their career in the law.
What is the 50th Law?
For those of you who don’t know, the 50th Law was co-authored by 50 Cent and Robert Greene. The book uses brief episodes from 50’s life as a street hustler, thug, and best-selling hip-hop artist to illustrate lessons in how to achieve and use power.
Some might view the book as a modern-day version of Machiavelli’s, The Prince, and while there are some undeniable resemblances between the two books, the 50th Law is much more rich and valuable.
The essential thesis of the 50th Law is that in order to be powerful and successful, you must be utterly fearless. The book then proceeds to instruct the reader on how to achieve this state of fearlessness.
This book is an amazing read.
We learn bits and pieces of 50’s life growing up in Southside Queens. How he became a drug dealer at age eleven, how he spent time in jail as a teenager, how he was targeted for death and responded by slicing the face of his would-be attacker with a razor blade, how he was shot nine times and nearly died shortly before his first album was to be released and finally how he used his skills learned in the jungles of the “hood” to conquer his rivals and the music world.
Using these startling episodes as a launching point, Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power, shows the reader how these experiences and 50’s responses to them increased his level of fearlessness and power.
Let’s be clear, the book is not a deification of 50 Cent.
Instead, Greene discusses historical figures as diverse as Mao, Eleanor Roosevelt, Isaac Newton, Miles Davis, Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Catherine the Great and Malcolm X to explain how they faced analogous situations in their lives and responded in a way that made them fearless, powerful and successful.
Why should lawyers read this book?
Lawyers should read this book for two main reasons:
- To understand techniques of manipulation; and
- To understand that learning true fearlessness and power takes time.
Manipulation
Let’s be honest here, most of a lawyer’s job is to manipulate people.
We seek to manipulate the courts, manipulate the opposing attorneys and parties, and even to manipulate our co-workers and bosses (if we have them).
The 50th Law spends several chapters explaining how true masters of power are able to manipulate others and to avoid being manipulated.
Greene and 50 Cent provide numerous contemporary and historical examples of this, and explain how to deal with the aggressive and the passive aggressive, as well as unjust, static, and intolerable situations and people.
The book will give both beginning and experienced lawyers a set of tools to use to evaluate their relationships with others and to manipulate these situations as necessary for the best personal and professional benefit.
Some will call this ruthless.
The 50th Law views it as a pragmatic response to the human condition and to scarcity of resources.
Mastery
But, do not think this book is a collection of cheap dirty tricks you can play on people.
The 50th Law makes it clear that to become truly fearless, and thus, truly powerful, you must go through a long, rigorous and boring apprenticeship that might take years.
Greene makes the point that someone like 50, growing up in the ghetto with violence around every corner, had no choice but to learn these lessons quickly. Failure to learn them very likely would have resulted in his death at a young age.
Fortunately, there are less life-threatening ways to learn and practice these same lessons to fearlessness and power. It will not be easy, but if you take this book to heart, you just might get there.
Our society increasingly favors the easy path. When things get difficult or boring, we look for a distraction. But, those who exhibit greatness are not distracted. If they become distracted, their greatness flees from them.
If you want to be a great lawyer, keep this in mind. And, when you read the 50th Law, pay attention to the discussion of Thurgood Marshall’s life in chapter 8.
Final words
The 50th Law is not your typical self-help book, but it is a book everyone, not just lawyers, should read.
Even if you disagree with the book completely and think that cooperation and love, rather than manipulation and power, are the way to success, you should read this book to see what other people are thinking.
A lawyer cannot afford to be naive about the motives of others.
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