Split From the Pack

High-value men do not run in packs. In a pack of wolves, there is one alpha who has access to all the females and calls all the shots. Only the alpha has the right to reproduce. The beta wolf is the second in command and takes the place of the alpha once he dies. Below the beta wolf are subordinates. These are the middle-class wolves who are one step above the lowest ranks. And lastly, there is the omega wolf, the lowest rank, often dominated by the others. This wolf tries to solve conflict through non-violent means. He can fight to gain rank but tends to stay in his position because all the other wolves bully him.

In a wolf pack, being the beta is not bad.

It means you are the second in command, soon to be the alpha. It does not carry the same connotation that the term “beta male” carries today. If groups of men were packs of wolves, most of them would fall into the subordinate class; the class that spends time fighting amongst itself to maintain or gain rank. They simply spend their lives bickering and warring with one another, trying to gain ranks. They do this even though they will likely never be the alpha wolf.

Human beings act the same way. They engage in social warfare and try to climb the status ladder. The problem is that they spend the majority of their time on petty matters instead of important matters.

I am encouraging you to split from the pack and work alone until you can find a pack with high aspirations. There is no point in limiting yourself to a weak group of men. If you cannot spend time around excellent men, do not spend time around any men.

Their lethargy and laziness will pull you down to their level.

Even if you were the alpha of the pack, what value would it be? What value is there to be the leader of low-value, low-performance men? Unless you can demonstrate that the pack is improving under your leadership, you are sacrificing your own potential in order to be one of the gang.

A pack of wolves can work together and take down an elk. But if most men today were wolves, they would not be able to take down a rabbit. If you sit down and think about it, is there any reason you want to spend time with these low-value men?

What tends to happen is that young men feel a strong need to fit in and to be part of a pack. This is natural and should be encouraged, but only if the pack is noble. Many young men will compromise their values or aspirations just to “be one of the gang”. This man will soon find himself behind the 8-ball of life just because he chose to associate with losers.

You become who you spend the most time with, so do not spend too much time with low-performance men if it can be helped.

The time you spend with others should lift you up and push you to be better. This is only possible if you are around men of high aspiration and work ethic.

You may ask yourself, “Why would a high-performance man take time with me? I am not high-performance currently; I am not successful or at the level I want to be at. Why would this man waste his valuable time with me”? I will tell you why. If you demonstrate work ethic and high aspiration, you set yourself apart from the rest of the men in this world. You split from the pack.

8 out of every 10 young men you hang out with in college will lack work ethic and goals for their future. Make goals, have high aspiration, and work ethic then demonstrate to a high-performance man that you have these traits, and he will take you under his wing.

He will be so encouraged that he is not the last of his breed that he will gladly spend time with you, though he will not tell you this directly. You can then take advantage of his influence and work ethic and excel in your field. You will experience exponential growth that places you so far above your peers that it will blow your mind.

I – Split from the Pack – Preparing to leave

If you have spent a lot of time in a pack, you have probably grown attached to them. You first need to mentally prepare to detach from them before you physically detach from them. Start by visualizing yourself leaving. Picture yourself being happy to leave and not bothered at all to be alone.

II – Splitting Off

Each time I split from the pack in my life, I did so silently. Call it what you will, but it is the method that works for me. I simply split rapidly without explanation or apology. There is no need to explain yourself, no need to apologize. I did not waste time preparing any explanation or apology for this, I simply split from them. One moment I was one of the gang, the next I stopped “hanging out” with them.

I did not feel the need to remain part of the pack, in fact, I felt liberated from their negative influence. If you have self-awareness and can see how being part of a low-performance group is affecting you, you will have a much easier time separating yourself from them. Why would you want to spend time around a group that brings you down and keeps you from reaching success? Is the urge to fit in that strong for you?

A masculine man has no need to fit in until he is around a group of high-performance, masculine men.

The only time you should feel pressured to be part of a group is if they are collectively better than you. Do not feel pressured to waste time with a pack of losers. There is no honor in this.

Many of you may feel bad after you split from a pack. You will feel regret because you may have hurt the feelings of others. Hurting feelings is a part of life. You cannot tailor your every action just to accommodate every low-performance male who wears his heart on his sleeve. If you do this, you will always limit your performance. All the energy you could be directing towards pursuing excellence is now directed into making sure no one has their precious little feelings hurt. You need to lose this mentality as fast as possible; it will keep you from success 9 times out of 10.

III – Handling the Protests

If the pack enjoyed having you as a part of it, they will likely be sad to see you go and try to persuade you to stay or come back. Especially if you gradually back out from the group. You will have to choose between giving them an excuse and giving them the truth. You could always tell them you are too busy; you have a lot going on at work or school and simply cannot take the time that you could in the past. That is not the noble path, but it is an option you have. The other is to simply explain what you are doing. You are removing yourself from the limiting influence of low-performance men to pursue excellence in your life.

Like crabs in a bucket, they will try to pull you back in, but you need to resist this. Get over the need to be a part of a group. Start viewing groups as supplemental to your life, not the main focus of it. You need to be able to be alone until you can find a suitable tribe to be a part of. One that prioritizes masculine virtue and seeks excellence in every pursuit. It could take years to find a pack like this, and you need to be content with that period of waiting.

I went without a pack for three years of college.

After I discovered during the first semester that no one wanted to work hard, discipline themselves or be more than their current self, I saw no reason to continue spending time with them. What purpose would there have been to that? Why sacrifice myself for men who accomplish nothing and then boasted about it?

The people I saw in college did very little beyond complain about professors, laugh about their 2.5 GPA as a psychology major and stay up all night playing intermural sports. Do they sound like good influences? Does it seem like they are the kind of people who would push each other to become their best selves and achieve in life? No. They boast about being low-performance men and then complain or gossip when high-performance men reach success.

When people protested or asked me to waste time with them, I simply had to refuse. I know that sounds conceited, arrogant, and a selfish way to spend time, but it was absolutely necessary. I am not encouraging you to be an arrogant man who turns his nose up at others below him. Rather, I am encouraging you to avoid spending time with people who are going to tear you down and be a negative influence on you.

IV – Enjoy the Winter

We will call the period of time between splitting from the old pack and finding a new one “The Winter”. Not because it is difficult, cold, and deadly, but because winter is a solitary season. Many animals are spending time alone hibernating. They are spending time with no other animals unless they are a herd animal. It is a season of calm and quiet, a good time for reflection. So this is how you spend your time.

Spend time alone training and improving yourself. Train your body and your mind. Learn everything you can from audiobooks or other online materials. If you spend time working on yourself and your weaknesses, you will qualify for higher-level packs.

Do not rush this period, it is critical for you to parse out who you are, what you want to become, and the type of men you want to spend time around. Write out the characteristics of the ideal man on paper and work every day to become that man. Then write out the characteristics of the pack you want to spend time with and identify what you would need to become to fit in with that pack.

V – Enter the New Pack or Start Your Own

You can either find an already existing pack or create your own. You may find it difficult to find these packs as they are rare, and even more so in the religious world. There are plenty of biker gangs, but very few religious packs.

Religion finds a way to demonize anything it does not like even if it cannot support that attitude through scripture. Be sure to bring up this fact if anyone should protest too much about your desire to create or join a pack. Ignore every person who cannot support their position with logic or scripture. If they cannot support their position, you have identified a person who will never be allowed to enter your pack until he cures his mental disease.

I would encourage you to start a new pack. It does not have to be formal, though it can help. Just look around for the manliest men you can find and invite them to do manly things. Shoot guns, throw axes, kill and eat animals, do martial arts, and discuss philosophy over the campfire. It is as simple as that. The difficult part is keeping the other, weaker men out.

Every group has entrance standards including the church.

Therefore, men should be able to understand that if they do not meet the masculinity requirements then they are not allowed to participate.

Though this is not meant to attack them personally, it is a statement that addresses their fundamental lack of character. There is nothing wrong with refusing to spend time with low-value men. If you spend time in a leper camp, you might contract leprosy; if you spend time with low-performance losers, you might contract their diseases of the mind.

By keeping low-value men out and keeping high-value men in, you create a circle of influence, unlike anything you have ever experienced. Instead of being pushed towards low-value actions, you are pushed towards being more of a man and exhibiting strength and power. This is only possible because you have multiple men pursuing the same goal of strength and masculinity. Positive influence can only work if you are surrounded by many men who are on the same path. It is your responsibility to find, recruit and learn from them. This is how you become a man.