LXXXX. While You Play Small, Lesser Men Are Winning
Be sublime in your deeds, lofty in your thoughts; and in all your doings show that you deserve to be a king.
“Everyone should be royal after his own fashion. Let all your actions, even though they are not those of a king, be, in their own sphere, worthy of one. Be sublime in your deeds, lofty in your thoughts; and in all your doings show that you deserve to be a king even though you are not one in reality.” — Baltasar Gracián, 1601–1658
“It is within your power to set your own price. How you carry yourself reflects what you think of yourself. If you ask for little, shuffle your feet and lower your head, people will assume this reflects your character. But this behavior is not you—it is only how you have chosen to present yourself to other people. You can just as easily present…buoyancy, confidence, and the feeling that you were born to wear a crown.” — Robert Greene
The following is a story of The Boy and The Nettle from Aesop’s Fables,
A boy playing in the fields got stung by a nettle. He ran home to his mother, telling her that he had but touched that nasty weed, and it had stung him. “It was just your touching it, my boy,” said the mother, “that caused it to sting you; the next time you meddle with a nettle, grasp it tightly, and it will do you no hurt.” Do boldly what you do at all.
There are times you lower your voice in meetings. Times you give long explanations for simple choices just to avoid seeming arrogant. You second-guess your instincts, wait for someone to tell you you're ready, wait for someone to tell you what to do and how to live. You look around before speaking, overthink your tone, and water yourself down so no one feels threatened. You try to blend in—try so hard to be liked that you make yourself small. You downplay your wins and, at your most repulsive, wish for your failure just so others around you can feel more comfortable. And even then, you're still overlooked. Still dismissed. Still disrespected.
Now imagine the opposite.
When you stand tall. Move with purpose. Speak like the world is already yours. In your presence, the air becomes thicker. People become more aware of their breathing. They may not know why, but they listen. They lean in. They remember you. Why? Because you carry something rare: conviction in yourself. A knowing. A pungent aura. A force of will so strong, it bends the rails of reality to meet it.
That’s the posture Baltasar Gracian was alluding to — to live like the chosen one.
“Be resolute. Faulty execution does less harm than a lack of resolution…there are people who can’t make up their minds and need a push from others…Other people are bogged down by nothing and have great powers of judgment and resolution. They were born for lofty pursuits and their clear understanding lets them succeed with ease…Sure of their luck, they venture forth with even greater confidence.”
In your work, in your words, in the way you walk into a room. Let every movement, every breath, every glance be a declaration: I am inevitable. Look people in the eye like the game has already ended in your favor. Carry yourself as if your dreams have already unfolded, as if the only thing that’s left is the universe to catch up to the edicts of your will. Because it will. That’s what makes you different. You’re not guessing or hoping anymore. You’re simply creating, building, working for it’s own sake, living out the destiny you’ve chosen. You understand what Gracian wrote of the Art of Success,
“Good fortune has its rules, and to the wise not everything depends upon chance. Fortune is helped along by effort. Some people confidently approach the door of Fortune, and wait for her to go to work. Others are more sensible: they stride through that door with a prudent sort of boldness. On the wings of their courage and virtue, audacity spies luck and flatters it into effectiveness. But the real philosopher has only one plan of action: virtue and prudence; for the only good and bad fortune lie in prudence or rashness.”
Desperation is beneath you. Cutting corners? An insult to the force you’ve become. You don’t lunge for success—you build for it, brick by brick, day by day. That patience is far from passive. It’s worth a commander’s salt. It’s woven in the way you hold yourself in high esteem, the way you stay still and welcome chaos when others fidget, the way you work without fanfare because you’ve outgrown the need to be approved of, the way, as Gracian wrote, you, “Undertake the easy as though it were difficult, and the difficult as though it were easy, so as not to grow overconfident or discouraged.” You trust the process because the outcome is inevitable. Nothing within your power is out of reach.
This is how power flows to you—because, like a woman, it tends to collect around people who don’t need it.
“Learn to use scorn. One way to get things is to scorn them. When you look for them, they aren’t there, and later, without your trying, they come running. Earthly things are the shadows of heavenly ones, and they behave like shadows; they flee when you pursue them and chase you when you flee them” — Baltasar Gracian
This is how people hang on your words without you trying, how they laugh in your company without cramming lame jokes, how women throw themselves at you without a word spoken. How you enjoy a body so agile, so strong, sculpted like a renaissance holy temple.
And when the trials come? When the world throws its worst against you? Good. None of this surprises you. You flirt with danger. You court the struggle. Resistance is fuel. You meet it like an old rival, one you’ve fought before and know how to beat. You know—this is nothing to you. This is light work. You were built exactly for this. For setbacks. For poise. For war.
“In moments of great danger, don’t even think, simply act. Don’t dwell on the difficulties.” — Baltasar Gracian
In action is when your wiring reveals itself. You don’t fold. You don’t fragment. You get meticulous, steadier, deliberate in a way that unnerves people. You take the pain, the fear, the fatigue—and you metabolize it. You turn it into something useful. While others pray for the storm to end, you endure what’s required of you for as long as it’s needed. They’ll look for comfort. You’ll reach for the challenge. They’ll break formation. You’ll dig deeper. They’ll lose time wondering what to do next. You’ll already be moving. You don’t operate from panic. You operate from principle. That’s what separates you. Not because you need to win. But because walking away never even crossed your mind. It’s as Marcus wrote,
“You say — ‘It’s unfortunate that this has happened to me.’ No. It’s fortunate that this has happened and I’ve remained unharmed by it — not shattered by the present or frightened of the future. It could have happened to anyone. But not everyone could have remained unharmed by it.”
You’re not just built to exist and survive—you’re built for so much more. You don’t avoid the heat that comes with this lifestyle. You study its shape, learn its rhythm, then walk into it like it’s an autoclave. Because you are the divine instrument it was meant to purify. The “blazing fire,” Marcus Aurelius talked about, that “makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it.”
So, dear reader, today I want you to,
“Act boldly but prudently. Even hares tweak the beard of a dead lion. Like love, courage is no joking matter. If it yields once, it will have to yield again, and again. The same difficulty will have to be conquered later on, and it would have been better to get it over with. The mind is bolder than the body. So with the sword: let it be sheathed in prudence, ready for the occasion. It is your defense. A weak spirit does more harm than a weak body. Many people with eminent qualities lacked this brio, appeared to be dead, and were buried in their lassitude. Provident nature resourcefully joined the sweetness of honey with the sting of the bee. You have both nerves and bones in your body: don’t let your spirit be all softness.” — Baltasar Gracián
Maxims on Boldness & Nobility
“Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.” — Baltasar Gracián
“Display your gifts; show them off. There is a time for each one. Take advantage; no one can triumph every day. There are gallant people in whom what is little truly shines, and what is much shines bright enough to astonish. When you have both talent and a talent for displaying your gifts, the result is something prodigious…The heavens, which bestow perfection, encourage us to display our gifts.” — Baltasar Gracián
“Ease and grace (charisma or ineffable charm) in everything. It gives life to talent, breath to speech, soul to deeds, and it sets off the highest gifts…It increases self-confidence and heaps up perfection. Without it, all beauty is dead, all grace is disgrace. It transcends merit, discretion, prudence, and majesty itself. It is a seemly shortcut to getting things done, and a refined way to escape from any difficulty.” — Baltasar Gracian
“Mastery in words and deeds. It makes way everywhere, and quickly wins respect. It influences everything: conversation, making a speech, and even walking and looking and wanting. It is a great victory to seize the hearts of others. This sort of authority doesn’t originate in foolish audacity or irritating slow-moving gravity; it is born from a superior character abetted by merit.” — Baltasar Gracián
“Show everyone a bit of daring: an important sort of prudence. Change your view of others: don’t think so highly of them that you fear them…if self-confidence helps the foolish and simple, how much more will it help the wise and courageous!” — Baltasar Gracián
“Let your character be superior to the requirements of the job, not vice versa. No matter how great the post, you must show you are greater.” — Baltasar Gracian
“I certainly think that it is better to be impetuous than cautious, for fortune is a woman, and it is necessary, if you wish to master her, to conquer her by force; and it can be seen that she lets herself be overcome by the bold rather than by those who proceed coldly. And therefore, like a woman, she is always a friend to the young, because they are less cautious, fiercer, and master her with greater audacity.” — Niccolò Machiavelli, 1469–1527
“Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone. Let your integrity itself be your own standard of rectitude, and be more indebted to the severity of your own judgment of yourself than to all external precepts. Desist from unseemly conduct, rather out of respect for your own virtue than for the strictures of external authority. Come to hold yourself in awe, and you will have no need of Seneca’s imaginary tutor.” — Baltasar Gracián
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Previously,
Yield to principle, not to pressure
I love this and am benefitting from it. I could do, however, without the talk about dominating women and such. The words geared specifically towards men are alienating to me, a woman. So tired of that in this world. Stop forgetting we are in the audience. Consider us. Other than that, I really enjoy your content and thank you. 🙏