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Read “The Game” by Neil Strauss. He has quickly become one of my favorite authors.
The Game is about Strauss’s experiences with the “pickup community”. He joined as an absolute beginner with no social skills, hoping to learn how to be more successful with women. And in two years, he became one of the greatest and most successful “pickup artists” who could get almost any woman you could imagine.
And he used his newfound social skills to find more success in his career as a journalist too.
It’s a great read. Fascinating, actually. I don’t want to spoil too much of it for you.
One of the main characters of The Game is a guy named “Mystery”. He is Neil’s main mentor and gives him the name, “Style”.
Mystery taught men that they should be dressing in flashy and flamboyant ways like a peacock to attract their desired females. We are not necessarily going to that extreme. But that is the idea. Stand out. In your own way.
Have your own signature look so that anyone can spot you from a mile away on Business Bay at 8 in the morning. Or at Times Square. Do you stand out from the crowd or blend in? Visually. Stand out more than you blend in.
It’s a mix of what you have and what you want. In teh beginning, if you don’t like what you have, then it will be the bits you like about what you have, build up on them, and a lot of what you want. And start working on getting what you want. And eventually, as soon as possible, you want to get to a place where you like much more of what you have than you don’t like.
My signature look involves my physique. I’d like to bulk up a bit, but still keep this signature frame of lean and tall. This is my shape.
I once had long hair. Almost shoulder length. That was a part of my signature look back then. But then I decided I’d like to go for a crew cut kind of thing. But I was too skinny. So i set a goal to bulk up enough to sport a crew cut look. I didn’t bulk up a lot, but at one point, I lost patience and got a crew cut anyway. And it slowly evolved into the Caesar-ish style I currently have.
Along with the beard that has evolved into my beloved Van Dyke.
You want to always be studying style and grooming and searching for your signature look and ways to improve it.
And of course, Mystery had also developed this idea based on what he saw other people doing in various fields. There’s nothing new under the sun. So stop beating yourself up trying to be original all the time. Everyone is always developing on what has been done before. That’s how genius works. Pattern recognition. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Decades before Mystery, David Ogilvy was showing up for business meetings wearing a cape. Centuries before that, kings were dressing up in ways far flashier than our modern supermodels.
It’s only a recent development that leaders of the world have started dressing down and being conservative. And yet, Trump is Trump. That guy as an absolute master of standing out and being a brand you can’t ignore.
Study Donald Trump as much as you can, whether you love him or hate him. You’ve got to acquire knowledge and wisdom wherever you can get it.
And study me, of course. But in reasonable boundaries, please!
Till next time,
Shakaib Feroz
P.S. This is the last few days of the Dastaan World Magazine bundle. After this, it’s gone. Pulled off the market, locked in the vault, or priced like a Rolex.
If you want the whole collection while it’s still here, this is your moment: https://dastaanworld.gumroad.com/l/ErywZ
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