DOKKODO: 21 Rules of the Ronin (All Aspiring Entrepreneurs Need to Know)
A long time ago there was a great samurai who was cast out, doomed to wander the earth in search of the truth.
This man was a ronin, a former slave without a master.
In his travels he built a reputation as the greatest swordsman of the time.
Great swordsmen tend to also be great wordsmen. This swordsman was no exception.
His name was Musashi and he wrote the Book of Five Rings, which we still study to this day.
His masterpiece, however, was a list of 21 rules he wrote on a scroll before he died in the mountains.
He called this last work Dokkodo. It means … The Way of Walking Alone.
The Dokkodo is Musashi’s 21 rules of life. He wrote these rules for his greatest student.
Victor Pride, a great student of the game, took these rules to heart. Musashi’s 21 rules formed the basis of New World Ronin, whose inside title is … The Way of Working Alone.
In Musashi’s time, a ronin was cursed to wander the earth without purpose.
Today, a ronin is blessed to wander the earth in search of truth, justice and getting paid. He can walk his own path and work his own way and make it pay.
Thanks to the magic of the internet, you can do anything you want today. Anyone can not only make good money today, anyone can make a million dollars seemingly out of nowhere.
You can commit corporate seppuku, create your own business and live your own reality. To do it, all you need is your code, your way, your core values, your rules.
These are them…
21 RULES OF THE RONIN
These rules are for the greatest students of Victor Pride’s New World Ronin.
(Musashi’s Dokkodo in bold, Pride in standard text.)
1. Accept everything just the way it is.
The world is as it is, not as we wish it to be.
Understand the world works in this way, not in the way it should, but in the way it is actually.
You must work in this paradigm or you will find nothing but disappointment.
2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.
Gluttony is gross. Keep your body and mind sharp.
Too much pleasure dulls the senses.
Your senses must be sharp because you have only yourself to rely on.
Drill sergeant and soldier all in one.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.
Unsure actions produce unsure results.
Always be sure of victory in your mind before you set to achieve it in reality.
4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
You cannot fool people today. The world is too smart thanks to the Internet.
Never try to be too clever for your audience, instead, be genuine.
Genuine men and women develop true followings, in-genuine men and women develop followings based only on favors.
Make them feel good, they’re yours. Do them a phony favor, they’ll forget as soon as the next snake offers new phony favors.
5. Be detached from desire your whole life long.
The journey is the reward. Being too attached to desire is a mental prison.
Detachment from desire keeps you calm, cool and collected.
6. Do not regret what you have done.
What’s done is done. Regret is a wasted emotion. The past cannot be undone.
The only thing you can get from lamenting the past is self-doubt.
It is outlawed for New World Ronin to reflect and ponder.
7. Never be jealous.
Jealousy clouds the brain and stops you from learning.
You could only be jealous for one reason: you want whatever it is you’re jealous of.
Jealousy is anger and anger turns off the part of the brain that thinks.
Don’t be jealous, be curious.
Curiosity will make you reverse engineer whatever it is you want and then you will understand how to accomplish it.
But only if you let go of the choice of Jealousy and adopt curiosity.
8. Never have a mind of adherence and attachment to all things
Like Victor Pride once said, “stuff doesn’t matter.”
9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself or others.
Complaints and resentment are nothing but negative energy.
Negative energy is worse than useless, it is harmful for you.
Negative energy produces the fight or flight response which is responsible for stress.
Living well is hard enough before you make it more complicated with complaints.
Save yourself some hassle and never complain.
Remember rule #1? Accept everything just the way it is.
Accept the things you cannot change,
Change the things you cannot accept.” –New World Ronin
10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
“A good girlfriend is a good little soldier.” -New World Ronin
11. In all things have no preferences.
It is what it is. Work with what you’ve got.
If you’ve got nothing, work with your brain.
The mind is where choices and preferences are made.
The choice to have no preference is exactly that – a choice.
“Be like water.” -Bruce Lee
12. Be indifferent to where you live.
Too much preference in where you live is limiting.
When it comes time to die and you’re allowed to reflect, you will find that the worst accommodations you had were the best accommodations you ever had.
That’s where you felt the fire and the drive to do great work.
13. Do not pursue the taste of good food.
Over-eating is bad for the brain. You need your brain to work.
Do not slow the brain down with grease, extra fat, sugar and too many calories.
Eat enough to live with energy. Do not eat so much that it robs your energy.
Food is energy, if it doesn’t energize you, you ate too much or too little. Eat just enough.
14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
Live like a Spartan. Possessions hold you back.
You may want to travel the world but if you have too much stuff, you never will.
I routinely get rid of all of my stuff and it is always a cathartic process.
In fact, B&D; started when I got rid of everything that didn’t fit into a suitcase.
15. Do not act following customary beliefs.
Everything they do is wrong and everything they tell you to do is wrong.
Do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. If they’re jealous, never be jealous.
16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
Too much stuff is like too much food, it bogs down the mind. It’s a burden on your back.
When you follow the way of the Ronin, you need not extra weapons.
Frankly you can run your entire business from a smartphone.
Have what you need for business and do not worry about more.
Too many options = no options chosen.
When you have only a few options you must get creative.
In fact, creativity only exists in constraints.
When you have no constraints, you have no limits. Great in theory, but in reality when you have no limits you never make any choices.
Analysis paralysis, dirty kitchen etc. Keep your arsenal simple.
17. Do not fear death.
The biggest fear people have is dying, which is silly.
Everyone on earth will experience death. It is not a smart use of time worrying about the inevitable.
“The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.” -The Buddha
18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.
You cannot take it with you when you die. Greed in old age is pointless.
The last rule of the New World Ronin is “give back to the gods.” This is the time you use your accumulated wealth for good.
19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.
Like the Buddha said, what you think you become.
The gods will not give it to you, they will simply make it possible for you.
Respect that, but follow your own path and rely on the most high – yourself.
20. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honor.
Your body will die, your legacy has the ability to live forever.
A dishonorable life precludes a lasting legacy.
This is the information age, nothing can be hidden anymore.
Thankfully our weapons are words and not swords, and words are slightly less likely to get you killed.
21. Never stray from the Way.
All falls apart when you stray from the way.
Stay centered, stay focused, stay ronin.
This is the way of working alone, do not ever stray from it.
Until next time.
Your man,