How to Fight a Naked Man

We're gonna fight?

What are you doing?

I only fight naked.

You only fight...what?

The sound of a belt being undone. A zipper being pulled down. A shirt being pulled overhead. Underwear to the ankles.

It's not exactly the picture of someone you'd want to punch, right?

No. Nobody wants to fight a naked man. Once upon a time, a very smart person told me whenever someone wanted to tell them, "I only fight naked," and start stripping your clothes.

Just kidding: this person isn't that smart (you know who you are!).

All joking aside the intent of the exercise is true - when you strip down everything you have in front of the person you've offended there is nothing for them to punch. When there is nothing for the opposing party to punch, there is no reason to fight. In fact, there is (arguably) far more reason to be empathetic than fight.

The goal is these circumstances is not to make the other side feel weird about the situation, it's about providing perspective. Before you can fight me you're going to get a glimpse of the person you're actually about to punch.

This theme comes up in Gary V's content, if you're a follower. He often refers to the final battle scene in the movie, "Eight Mile," staring Eminem. If you haven't seen it, Eminem's character, Rabbit, is in a rap battle at the climax of the movie. Instead of tearing into his opponent, as is typical in rap battles, he instead tears into himself. The audience nods their heads along and laughs at the antics of Rabbit, meeting his final statement, to paraphrase, "Now tell these people something they don't know," with a huge round of applause. When it's time for his opponent's turn he has no ammunition left. He says nothing. And walks off the stage.

The morale of the story, as I take it, is to own your failures. When you own your failures and document your downfalls then there's nothing anyone can take away from you. More so, I would argue, people identify far more with vulnerability than with the "everything is awesome" mantra that makes the Lego Movie funny. If people didn't go around with that attitude all day every day, pretending their life is something it's not, then that movie wouldn't be nearly as funny.

So what do we do? Strip naked? Diss ourselves? Lay it all bare for the world to see? The answer is: all of the above. The people who are dedicated to you will be more dedicated. The rats will jump ship.

Note: there will be rats. You will doubt yourself as they run screaming and fleeing from the truth, trying to distance themselves from you. Do not focus on them, they were never truly on the ship to begin with, they were only there to feed on the scraps you left behind.

Instead: focus on those still by your side with buckets in hand, looking to your for the next move, giving words of advice when you don't have a next move, and holding you up when you can't bail the water out anymore.

In Sun Tzu's "Art of War" he writes, "When invading hostile territory, the general principle is, that penetrating deeply brings cohesion; penetrating but a short way means dispersion."

My interpretation of this passage: if you give too little information to the people you lead then they will run from you when the chips are down. If you drive deep into "hostile territory," giving them all the information, then you'll develop camaraderie. They'll have your back.

The hard times - it turns out - brings real people together.

The hard times - it turns out - sheds you of fake people.

It's up to you to be real and identify who is who.