What it means to be Ruthless

Michael Manicotti

If you want to be successful, you're going to have to develop some traits that are not going to be looked on positively by the established order. In other words, you're going to have to be Ruthless. That being said, here are some things that explain what it means to be Ruthless.

You put yourself first so that you can provide for others second - People who you deny attention or power to want to brand you as selfish because you are wise enough to put your oxygen mask on first before theirs. Women have called me selfish many times because this is how I live my life. But that doesn't stop them from throwing darts at me telling me that all I do is focus on myself, etc. On the flipside, I have been involved with equally as many people both business and relationship wise that totally understand this philosophy, adopt it in their own lives and that is why they are successful. A failure is someone who is putting others before themselves. Why the fuck would you do that? I'm not going to sacrifice myself to the lions, especially if some fat motherfucker with no economic value has more meat on his bones than me.

You don't let others manipulate you or tug on your heart strings to get what they want - I don't give a fuck how many auto immune diseases you have or how many prescription drugs you have to take in order to keep your self inflicted and totally avoidable diseases at bay. Or if your friend or family member is dying and you need my help to save them but you won't pick up the phone and try to call around looking for whatever antidote it is that they need. As far as I'm concerned they can die on the operating table, because it would be cheaper for humanity for that to happen anyways. There are too many people with real problems for you to be grandstanding and parading around saying woe is me and a ruthless motherfucker like me recognizes that. I'm not going to give money to homeless people in America when I see people from poorer countries in squalor conditions trying to sell me something because they don't believe in handouts. Sorry.

You will put a motherfucker in his place for stepping out of line - I pick and chose my battles, but I am not afraid in the slightest bit to check a motherfucker if I feel inclined to do so. This could be the motherfucker complaining about the Burrito restaurant temporarily being out of brown rice or the tatted up motherfucker at the Home Improvement Store talking out of tern because he somehow believes I won't hit him with the slapjack and end that debate quick. Whatever the case I am not afraid to do it while on the same token understanding where in the social strata these individuals actually sit. If they're a small mother fucker like the guy at the Home Improvement store than I might leave it alone because I'm not going to get an assault charge and put my future in jeopardy over someone so small. But it could also be someone who is in a position of power, with flawed logic like some CEOS and business people I have worked with that were abused as children or have some sort of evil trait they have carried into their adult lives.

Obliterating an enemy - If I give someone an opportunity to comply and do the right thing and they choose not to for whatever reason, I crush them. There are endless stories on this. Shitty tenants, shitty contractors, shitty people, whoever they are. Some people just can't be rehabilitated and therefore they have to be taken out of their misery so they don't inflict harm on others. I'll just leave it at that before I get upset. Making hard decisions to produce the right outcome - I've had to make a lot of hard decisions like cutting lines of business that I liked or choosing not to participate in events that were no longer beneficial, or even putting brands to death that have outlived their usefulness. Making the hard decisions frees up mind space to make the right ones and to develop new opportunities. I wouldn't exactly call this a hard decision, but I sold the camper I intended to bring back from Mexico because I felt it was more of a danger to bring it back than keep it there. The crazy thing is that I didn't even consider it a loss. Emotionally, I wanted to bring it back but financially it was the right decision to leave it there and that right decision produced the right outcome.

Putting on displays of power to warn the others not to fuck with you - I've done lots of crazy shit to warn people just how ruthless I can actually be and it works. For the sake of indemnity, let's give an example as it relates to the stage and how it translates in performance. If you really focus on your craft over celebrity, rewrite those versus and get to the bottom of the barrel and get incredibly intimate with the message you are trying to portray, it can be scary and ruthless. Then if you go perform that shit it reverberates and sends a message to the others that it's not okay to trespass against you. That shit works.

Defend yourself by any means necessary - In general I keep to myself, but if I sense some sort of injustice about to be committed against me or someone who doesn't deserve it, all bets are off. You can go ahead and expect that from me. I don't care about the laws, red tape or social constructs that are going to try and scare me into not taking action. This doesn't even necessary have to mean defending yourself from a violent attack. It could be defending your own reputation against someone who is trying to view you in an inaccurate light. Notice how I didn't say negative light. I don't care how I'm viewed quiet frankly. I only care if what that person is saying is true. Many people will construct false narratives to try to position you in a way that they see fit because they know your armor is too strong, your brand is too strong and your stamina is too strong to do anything other than that. That is their tactic and you have to defend it by any means necessary.

You focus on the truth first and being liked second - If you do the first thing, you're going to be liked. People have a fundamental human need to have their questions answered and for people to be honest with them no matter how much it hurts. This is why so many people have been both magnetized and outraged by our current president. He speaks the truth, his truth and he doesn't care if you like it or not. If more people did this, we might actually get something done. Too much ass kissing makes for a soft bum. For example, we have this politician running that his Mexican and has a cool brandable name and because of that and the current circumstances with illegal immigration people think this baby faced motherfucker is the solution because he is likeable. If he were an inanimate object such as a sport scar and I was running a business, no matter how much I drove that thing around town having people look at me, back at the factory it wouldn't make widgets fly off the assembly line. It sounds complicated, but it's not. Just because something looks good does not mean it's producing results. That's what I'm saying. The truth is that motherfucker is of Mexican heritage and people like him but he has no fucking clue what he is talking about because he is not informed or aware of the truth. If he was met with a ruthless motherfucker like me he wouldn't survive. That being said, focus on the truth first.

You recognize that business is business and that the only thing that matters is the NUMBERS - This ties into the above listed points. At the end of the day, you recognize that people can say and do whatever they want but the only thing that matters at the end of the day when running a BUSINESS is the NUMBERS. Sorry. You can say whatever kind of fanatical or opinionated thing you want about someone's approach or what they are doing wrong, but if the numbers speak to the results, then nothing else matters. Emotions, opinions, all that other shit is all bullshit. Business is business, plain and simple. You're not going to let your wife, girlfriend, mother in law or anyone else influence your decisions or inject emotion into an inanimate object or system unless it is going to positively impact the numbers. Additional points I would like to add, you are decisive, you constantly assess plans, sometimes the best action is no action.