Many have heard the name Robert Greene or at least the names of his books — “The 48 Laws of Power,” “33 Strategies of War” and “The Art of Seduction,” amongst others.
Graduating from UW–Madison in the 1970s where he pursued ancient Greek and classics, Greene held over 65 jobs before he began writing “The 48 Laws of Power.”
He is now a New York Times best-selling author with millions of copies sold worldwide.
As he writes his new book, Greene offers advice to the student body and shares his college experiences with The Badger Herald. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What are the things you remember about Madison?
I remember Memorial Union by the lake, Bascom Hill and I remember my dormitory by the lake. I remember in the summer getting on my bicycle, going all over the place. It is so beautiful. People are very friendly and very warm there.
I also remember walking to school one day. It was filled with ice and I could not go — I was falling. How do you walk like that? And in the fall, there are beautiful fall colors. Enjoy it while you’re there.
If you had advice to give to young people, what would it be?
You can either go have a lot of fun, and don’t care about things and just party and drink and socialize day in and day out — or you can go into your studies … and get that lucrative job to do what your parents tell you to do.
I’m telling you, you can do both. You can play this game, where you’re serious about life … about having a career and figuring out what you want to do — at the same time, you can have an open spirit, wanting to have some adventures because you’re only young once. You are only young once. So, you’ve got to make the best of it … have a lot of fun. You have to have some adventures. Just don’t go round just to be so anxious to have one career as soon as you graduate. Go out and have some fun, travel a little bit … experience things, but in the back of your mind have a seriousness where you’re going to have a career where you take life seriously. That is the most powerful way you can spend your 20s.
Anything else?
Your particular DNA has never existed in any organism ever in the history of the universe and will never exist in the future. There is nothing else like you.
But as you get older teachers tell you, this is who you are. You have to be like this. Your parents tell you this is who you are. This is what you need to do. This is what is cool. This is what is not cool. You lose a sense of who you are. You lose a sense of your uniqueness. Become like other people and you lose your source of power.
All of the really successful people, people that we admire they are one of a kind. They’re unique. That is your source of power — finding that and going that direction. But what happens is a lot of young people in particular, are afraid of being different. They’re afraid of people saying you’re different.
If you become just like everybody else then you enter the workforce and you have no sense of what makes you different — you lost your source of power. If you are like everybody else, you are replaceable. If you are unique, you are irreplaceable.
