No power ---> Lots of power. How?

My name is Daniel Kemp. I want to know how to go from having no power to having lots of power.

I tried asking older guys if they wanted to be my mentor, but they told me that they didn’t want to be my mentor (some were nice about it). So, I watched movies for some help. I watched a movie called The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s a movie from 2002, but it takes place in the 1800s.

Edmond Dantes is the main character in The Count of Monte Cristo. He is a guy who goes from having no power to having lots of power. He gets a lot of help from an older guy named Abbé Faria.





I am posting this because I would like people on the Internet to be like Abbé Faria for me. The movie gives examples of what Abbé Faria teaches Edmond Dantes, but the movie takes place in the 1800s. I would like help with modernizing what Edmond Dantes learned in the 1800s, so similar things can be done in the 2000s in order to get lots of power.

Here are some things that Abbé Faria teaches Edmond Dantes:

• How to use the sword really well.
• How to defend against an attacker.
• How to read and write.
• Economics, mathematics, philosophy, science, and physics.
  • The movie shows close-ups of the books The Prince and Wealth of Nations.
• Languages
  • Edmond Dantes speaks Italian in the movie.
• How to analyze situations (i.e. Figuring out why he, Edmond, was sent to prison.).

Some other things in the movie that I saw, but don’t know if Abbé Faria taught Edmond Dantes these things:

• Learning about people.
  • Jacopo: We kill these people, then we spend the treasure.
    Edmond Dantes: No, we will study them, learn their weaknesses.
• How to dance the waltz.
  • Edmond Dantes: May I steal your wife?
    Fernand Mondego: I'm sorry?
    Edmond Dantes: For the waltz.
• How to give really good speeches.
  • Edmond Dantes: Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man... is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout, as you did in Rome, ``Do your worst... for I will do mine." Then the fates will know you as we know you, as Albert Mondego, the man.

If you can give modern advice, then that would be awesome.



Examples:





Thank you,

Daniel Kemp


Edmond Dantes: We are kings or pawns, a man once said.
Luigi Vampa: Who told you this?
Edmond Dantes: Napolean Bonaparte.



The Count of Monte Cristo. Dir. Kevin Reynolds. Perf. James Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris. Touchstone Pictures, 2002.

I... I really liked the book... The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

Hi?

perhaps Dr Evil should be your mentor. Mwahahahahahahaha. Mwahahahahahahahaha. Mwahahahahahaha

This is perhaps the most interesting post I have read here in a good while.

Will give it some thought and post up a comment or two in a bit.

Stubblefield said:

This is perhaps the most interesting post I have read here in a good while.

Will give it some thought and post up a comment or two in a bit.

Click to expand...

Yep. I'm particularly fond of it, because I just finished The Count of Monte Cristo about a month ago and then watched the movie.

I think it's important to mention that Dantes' power is largely derived from his accumulation of wealth, which is just a happenstance. A stroke of good luck.

You can read some influential, important books, but they're not going to give you power. They may give you knowledge to help you acquire that power. Or they may just make you a better read person. You can't really lose by reading the classics. I'm pretty sure taking fencing is not going to do anything. Although, I think it would be hilarious if you challenged someone to a duel and you broke out your swords on 7th Ave. I'm not sure what the law is about carrying a sword. If it's sheathed, is that a concealed weapon? It's probably a good way to keep in shape. So there's that.

My advice would be to go to college and get a degree is business or finance. Most of the powerful people in the Western world are business executives.

You and THIS GUY http://ysn.com/get-mentored-by-mark-victor-hansen/
look like you are made for each other.

I was a member and for one year captain of the men's saber varsity sports team during my undergraduate. Fencing is a sport. It has no practical value in the modern world beyond a form of exercise and an area in which to develop discipline towards a craft/skill. You can substitute any sport in its place. You may focus on fencing due to an aesthetic appeal or association with a time period you idealize, but from the stand point of a sport it was always the people interested in fantasy/role-playing/acting aspects that dropped out because it's not an easy sport and there are rules that they don't like to follow because they aren't "realistic." "realistic" seemed to indicate Hollywood duels.

Another note is that the equipment is very expensive and so are club dues, if the university didn't have equipment for students I would have never been able to afford it.

As SalvadorMontenegro indicated, Dantes' power stems from money. So go and find yourself an old person to leave you lots of cash or get into finance, as that's were you are more likely to accumulate wealth and therefore power.

I suggest reading the unabridged version of the Count of Monte Cristo. I really enjoyed the movie but there are lots of differences from the book, which I enjoyed more.

My last thought is to think about why you want "power." Dantes only needed "power" to seek revenge against those who wronged him. I'd much rather have Dantes' life at the beginning of the movie than be what he becomes with his wealth.

The best of advice from Abbe Faria was to gain knowledge, because it cannot be taken away.

Why exactly do you want to achieve power? Do you have a complex similar to the Brain on "Pinky & the Brain"? Maybe we should watch this guy, fellas. He may be plotting to take over the world. Should we really help him in his quest?!

Stubblefield said:

This is perhaps the most interesting post I have read here in a good while.

Will give it some thought and post up a comment or two in a bit.

Click to expand...

OK cool. Thank you Stubblefield for giving it some thought.

SalvadorMontenegro said:

Yep. I'm particularly fond of it, because I just finished The Count of Monte Cristo about a month ago and then watched the movie.

I think it's important to mention that Dantes' power is largely derived from his accumulation of wealth, which is just a happenstance. A stroke of good luck.

You can read some influential, important books, but they're not going to give you power. They may give you knowledge to help you acquire that power. Or they may just make you a better read person. You can't really lose by reading the classics. I'm pretty sure taking fencing is not going to do anything. Although, I think it would be hilarious if you challenged someone to a duel and you broke out your swords on 7th Ave. I'm not sure what the law is about carrying a sword. If it's sheathed, is that a concealed weapon? It's probably a good way to keep in shape. So there's that.

My advice would be to go to college and get a degree is business or finance. Most of the powerful people in the Western world are business executives.

Click to expand...

Any specific books that you recommend reading?

ImaRobot said:

I was a member and for one year captain of the men's saber varsity sports team during my undergraduate. Fencing is a sport. It has no practical value in the modern world beyond a form of exercise and an area in which to develop discipline towards a craft/skill. You can substitute any sport in its place. You may focus on fencing due to an aesthetic appeal or association with a time period you idealize, but from the stand point of a sport it was always the people interested in fantasy/role-playing/acting aspects that dropped out because it's not an easy sport and there are rules that they don't like to follow because they aren't "realistic." "realistic" seemed to indicate Hollywood duels.

Another note is that the equipment is very expensive and so are club dues, if the university didn't have equipment for students I would have never been able to afford it.

As SalvadorMontenegro indicated, Dantes' power stems from money. So go and find yourself an old person to leave you lots of cash or get into finance, as that's were you are more likely to accumulate wealth and therefore power.

I suggest reading the unabridged version of the Count of Monte Cristo. I really enjoyed the movie but there are lots of differences from the book, which I enjoyed more.

My last thought is to think about why you want "power." Dantes only needed "power" to seek revenge against those who wronged him. I'd much rather have Dantes' life at the beginning of the movie than be what he becomes with his wealth.

The best of advice from Abbe Faria was to gain knowledge, because it cannot be taken away.

Click to expand...

Thank you for talking about your fencing experiences.

I'm thinking about reading The Count of Monte Cristo book. It's just really long.

Any specific suggestions on where to look for knowledge?

Daniel_Kemp said:

Any specific books that you recommend reading?


I'm thinking about reading The Count of Monte Cristo book. It's just really long.

Click to expand...

Well, here's a good place to start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_Most_Influential_Books_Ever_Written_%28book)

I don't think anyone can argue with the list. The order could be debated, but they're all important works.

I guess if I could choose one to start with, I'd say Plato's Republic as it is really the first major, essential work of Western philosophy. Many, many other works reference it, directly or indirectly. Or the Bible, which, whether you believe in it or not, continues to influence people all over the world. It's an important work no matter how you interpret it.

When I was younger, I rushed through a lot of these sorts of books just so I could say I read them. That's not the way to go about it. Read them slowly and carefully. You want to understand them, not just get through them. Don't forget that Dantes had like 13 years!

Lastly, The Count of Monte Cristo is LONG, but it's not difficult. It slows down some in the middle when the Count enters society life in Paris, but the beginning and end are filled with action. It took me about two months to read it, but only because I was reading a number of other things at the same time. The sentence structure is pretty basic and Dumas doesn't use a lot of "big" words. It was written for the general public. Published originally, I believe, as a series in a French newspaper/magazine/something or other.

SalvadorMontenegro said:

Well, here's a good place to start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_100_Most_Influential_Books_Ever_Written_(book)

I don't think anyone can argue with the list. The order could be debated, but they're all important works.

I guess if I could choose one to start with, I'd say Plato's Republic as it is really the first major, essential work of Western philosophy. Many, many other works reference it, directly or indirectly. Or the Bible, which, whether you believe in it or not, continues to influence people all over the world. It's an important work no matter how you interpret it.

When I was younger, I rushed through a lot of these sorts of books just so I could say I read them. That's not the way to go about it. Read them slowly and carefully. You want to understand them, not just get through them. Don't forget that Dantes had like 13 years!

Lastly, The Count of Monte Cristo is LONG, but it's not difficult. It slows down some in the middle when the Count enters society life in Paris, but the beginning and end are filled with action. It took me about two months to read it, but only because I was reading a number of other things at the same time. The sentence structure is pretty basic and Dumas doesn't use a lot of "big" words. It was written for the general public. Published originally, I believe, as a series in a French newspaper/magazine/something or other.

Click to expand...

I think patience is important for this kind of thing.

Thank you for the link SalvadorMontenegro.

It all depends on your definition of power. Power over one's self may be where you should start -- see Meditations of Marcus Aurelius (available free online) as mentioned in the Wiki list above.

Well I do not know about mentoring but you have stirred my interest in the blade. I highly recommend watching the documentary "Reclaiming the Blade". I believe this was aired on History Channel. Anyway, it put the lie to the miscreant notion that western martial arts were somehow inferior to those of the far east.

I have always wondered how the notion was conceived that European sword fighting was this plodding, lazy, unskilled way of war. The gentlemen who are recreating this accurate way of fighting with the blade are ANYTHING but over matched by someone with a Katana. I am not picking sides on this. I am not skilled in either style. I am just standing up for a side that has been maligned in cinema art.

On a personal note I would love to learn real swordplay. Fencing is a grand sport and no mistake. Watch videos of it. See if your eye can keep up with the tip of the epee or foil. Then watch the men in the video I mention with their rapiers and sabres. Whew. FAST, FAST, FAST. I have a hunch there were no ten minute sword battles on the battlefield. I suspect most duels were over pretty quickly too. I would wager "to the first cut" was taken quite seriously. Just thinking of cuts I have received from kitchen knives I cannot imagine a serious slash on your hands, arms, or torso. Let alone a puncture wound. I also understand that there is much more to fencing than "learning it". Like any martial art it is going to take a LOT of dedication, study, and practise.

Now as for it having no real social purpose I may have to argue. It would be cool to be the arse kicking swordsman if calamity such as zombie outbreak occurred or we are on the brink of being over run by infidel hordes. I think the learned discipline of the art would be a good thing for keeping your head straight in any emergency.

Regards, Todd

I liked your post...it's clever and creative. Two things that can take you places.

Some things that were appropriate two hundred years ago are still just as appropriate. The Prince, for example, is full of good stuff for you. I don't know a thing about 50-Cent, but for now I'm going to guess he's no Machiavelli.

Here's some things that can never do you harm.

Think
Listen
Read
Be Positive and Be Curious

And the old adage about there being no substitute for hard work is true.

Also, you could watch Scarface.
"In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then, when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women."


Or, if you prefer, Homer Simpson:
"In America, first you get the sugar. Then you get the power. Then you get the women."

step 1: learn to wetshave
step 2: gather minions
step 3: ???
step 4: profit POWER!!!

Phog Allen said:

I have always wondered how the notion was conceived that European sword fighting was this plodding, lazy, unskilled way of war. The gentlemen who are recreating this accurate way of fighting with the blade are ANYTHING but over matched by someone with a Katana. I am not picking sides on this. I am not skilled in either style. I am just standing up for a side that has been maligned in cinema art.

Click to expand...

Todd,

If you like Western martial arts, you might also find Filipino martial arts interesting. While the Philippines are obviously in Asia, hundreds of years of Spanish colonial rule had a tremendous influence on things. Among the various Filipino martial arts, there are forms that rely heavily on Spanish modes of fencing with sword and dagger; on the other hand, there are also influences from deep local traditions as well as from elsewhere in SE Asia and China. Very beautiful to watch and brutally effective to boot.

I can also enthusiastically recommend Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel, "The Fencing Master" to anyone who has an interest in such things. His series of novels about the Spanish soldier of fortune Diego Alatriste are also excellent.

To the OP,

Sadly I don't have much to offer in terms of gaining and wielding power. I think that the best way to become powerful is still to be born to it. The next is probably to marry into it. After that? I guess you just have to be lucky. If Dumas hadn't written the discovery of great treasure into Dantes' story, things would have been very different. I don't think he would have gone very far with his elaborate plots for revenge if he was the Handyman of Monte Cristo.

Lemme paraphrase Scarface:

First we get the money, then we get the power, then we get the women.

Money = power, and there is no one way to get the money.

commanderkeen said:

Lemme paraphrase Scarface:

First we get the money, then we get the power, then we get the women.

Money = power, and there is no one way to get the money.

Click to expand...

Respect can also make you powerful, but it is every bit as hard to earn as money is.

diverdoug said:

Respect can also make you powerful, but it is every bit as hard to earn as money is.

Click to expand...

If not harder.

Daniel_Kemp said:

Napoleon Bonaparte: Kings and pawns, Marchand. Emperors...and fools. (The Count of Monte Cristo)​

My name is Daniel Kemp. I want to know how to go from having no power to having lots of power.

I tried asking older guys if they wanted to be my mentor, but they told me that they didn’t want to be my mentor (some were nice about it). So, I watched movies for some help. I watched a movie called The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s a movie from 2002, but it takes place in the 1800s.

Edmond Dantes is the main character in The Count of Monte Cristo. He is a guy who goes from having no power to having lots of power. He gets a lot of help from an older guy named Abbé Faria.

I am posting this because I would like people on the Internet to be like Abbé Faria for me. The movie gives examples of what Abbé Faria teaches Edmond Dantes, but the movie takes place in the 1800s. I would like help with modernizing what Edmond Dantes learned in the 1800s, so similar things can be done in the 2000s in order to get lots of power.

Here are some things that Abbé Faria teaches Edmond Dantes:

• How to use the sword really well.
• How to defend against an attacker.
• How to read and write.
• Economics, mathematics, philosophy, science, and physics.
  • The movie shows close-ups of the books The Prince and Wealth of Nations.
• Languages
  • Edmond Dantes speaks Italian in the movie.
• How to analyze situations (i.e. Figuring out why he, Edmond, was sent to prison.).

Some other things in the movie that I saw, but don’t know if Abbé Faria taught Edmond Dantes these things:

• Learning about people.
  • Jacopo: We kill these people, then we spend the treasure.
    Edmond Dantes: No, we will study them, learn their weaknesses.
• How to dance the waltz.
  • Edmond Dantes: May I steal your wife?
    Fernand Mondego: I'm sorry?
    Edmond Dantes: For the waltz.
• How to give really good speeches.
  • Edmond Dantes: Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man... is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout, as you did in Rome, ``Do your worst... for I will do mine." Then the fates will know you as we know you, as Albert Mondego, the man.

If you can give modern advice, then that would be awesome.



Examples:

Thank you,

Daniel Kemp


Edmond Dantes: We are kings or pawns, a man once said.
Luigi Vampa: Who told you this?
Edmond Dantes: Napolean Bonaparte.

Works Cited​

The Count of Monte Cristo. Dir. Kevin Reynolds. Perf. James Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Richard Harris. Touchstone Pictures, 2002.

Click to expand...

Daniel:
It's such a shame that no one in your organization is willing to be your mentor and take you under his/her wing (some people are professionally insecure, and/or afraid,of change and the future).

Having said that, and have read (though long), the book and really liked it, I would like to add for reading "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli, published in 1532 (his 140 something page book is a 'classic' political and leadership [required reading - I hold a BA in Leadership and Organizational Management], treatise who just happened to be a Italian diplomat, historian and political theorist).

Be that as it may, some of the descriptions within "The Prince" have a theme of accepting that princes (and by intellectual extension and comparison...mankind/people alike), obtaining such things as glory, (power, money, influenec, ect...), and utmost the need for survival, can justify the use of immoral means (like the revenge theme in "Monte Cristo"), to achieve those ends.

Along those same lines, another required interesting read in leadership and power was Robert Penn Warren's "All The King's Men" (the life of populist Southerner Willie Stark, a political creature loosely based on Governor Huey Long of Louisiana [1928-1932]... and a good 2006 DVD starring Sean Penn, Jud Law, Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet).

As you will note, my avatar is a caricature of Edmond Dantes in Dumas's book as he uses a straight razor (“Merkur of course. Gillette…I'll have my revenge yet”), to shave off his beard.

Moreover, besides liking Dantes and the above books, my avatar and humorous shaving related Username, I can sympathize with him in that he was a good man, yet unsuspecting, magnanimous and just a little naive in nature that only needed inner strength. Almost all through my life, I have known that to live in this world of human affairs, one should be worldly-wise.

"He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation". Niccolo Machiavelli

Christopher