Originally published on Goodreads

The 50th Law

The 50th Law by Robert Greene and 50 Cent is a book detailing the individual factor that made 50 Cent’s success possible. It is structured a bit like Robert Greene’s other books and has significant overlap with 48 Laws of Power.

The book’s overarching theme (apart from 50 Cent) is fear. Greene details how fear makes us timid and closes off opportunities for us. The concept of fear is referenced throughout the book to the character traits that Greene and 50 Cent are attributing to 50 Cent’s success. For each chapter, each character trait, there’s a story from 50 Cent’s life, one or two historical examples and finishing off with a vague explanation on how to apply.

I didn’t find this book to be engaging like Greene’s other books. The narrow focus on 50 Cent’s life which simply is not enough to carry this book. Admittedly he has been through a lot, it just doesn’t illustrate the character traits in the book well. The most telling sign for this is the reuse of the same few examples, how he was shot at and dropped by his record label and then created a mixtape campaign. Hustling on the streets before and after he went to jail. These examples are used for the majority of the chapters. Unlike The 48 Laws of Power which has an abundance of historical example for each law, this book usually contains one or two historical examples.

To be honest, this book feels like a rushed and forced book. I would not recommend this, pick up The 48 Laws of Power and The 33 Strategies of War instead.

1 out of 5 stars.