Comfort With Being the Villain
The internal battle
“You have to break the rules if you want to get anywhere”.
You hear this advice all the time to the point where it’s bordering on cliche.
And like all cliches and near-cliches, there’s an element of truth to it.
A lot of times the written and unwritten rules were created by dominant players who want to preserve their place at the top of the hierarchy. From the POV of an up-and-comer who’s trying to break in, these rules are invisible roadblocks standing in your way.
You have to disregard them if you want to get to where you want to be in life.
What no one tells you though is that breaking all these rules doesn’t feel good.
Why everyone follows the rules
There’s almost a moral code surrounding The Rules.
Only Bad People break The Rules. Good People are the ones who follow The Rules and find a way to succeed within the constraints everyone else operates under.
That’s what everyone thinks. Your mom thinks it. Your girlfriend thinks it. Your friends and acquaintances think it. Everyone you’ve ever met and ever will meet believes this to the core of their being.
So when you break the rules you’re going to get a lot of hate.
That’s why the words ‘scumbag’ and ‘marketer’ seem almost magnetically fused together. Any time someone says the word ‘marketer’ out loud you can almost hear the unspoken ‘scumbag’ at the front of it.
Most people have disdain for marketers, and that disdain turns into full-on contempt for the ones who openly break The Rules.
They will call you a spammer and a scammer (even though you aren’t scamming anyone, ‘scammer’ is just a catch-all for “someone I don’t like who did something I don’t like on the interwebs”). They will blame you for ruining the internet. They will accuse you of taking advantage of people. They will accuse you of being responsible for everything wrong with society.
Maybe there’s an element of truth to some of it. But any tidbits of truth that apply to a young or not-so-young internet marketer on the up-and-up also apply to the titans of commerce with their armies of lawyers and bureaucrats who follow The Rules to a T.
What benefit does a Coca-Cola commercial have on society? It annoys people, it disrupts people’s routines, it hijacks people’s attention.
But because buying advertising time is considered following The Rules it’s somehow ok.
Coca-Cola doesn’t get even 0.000001% of the hate that WiFi Money bros get.
Even though no one ever wants to see a Coca-Cola ad at any time other than the Super Bowl.
But they follow The Rules so they get a pass.
Of course, CC didn’t follow The Rules in the early days. They literally sold a product that contained cocaine as an ingredient.
And John Pemberton (founder of Coca Cola) claimed that this narcotic-infused drink would cure headaches, impotence, and morphine addiction.
This respected multinational corporation with the cute Santa and polar bear ads started out as literal drug dealers who claimed that the narcotics they sold were actually miracle cures for medical conditions.
That’s a line even I wouldn’t cross.
But now it’s all good.
Coca-Cola broke rules to get to where they are now. What makes you think that you won’t have to do the same?
And it’s not just them. You can find “scammy” origins behind almost any major company if you look hard enough.
So you know you have to do it. And you know you’re going to get a lot of hate for doing it.
What no one tells you about breaking the rules
What no one tells you is that you’re going to have to battle your own demons as well.
The whole following The Rules = being a good person mentality exists within you.
You weren’t raised by wolves. You’re a part of society and you’ve internalized society’s ideas.
So when you’re on the cusp of breaking a Rule, there will be a loud voice inside of you saying “don’t do this bro it’s wrong bro be a good person bro you don’t want to be like that bro there has to be another way bro”.
Most people hear that voice and obey it.
Only The Few can hear that voice, simply notice that it exists, and then disregard it.
If you can develop this ability the world is yours.