10 Commandments of Successful Men

If we’re being honest, there are no real “rules” for life. You can live however you want.

But some universal principles make life smoother, more focused, and more rewarding as a man.

Ignore these and things tend to get harder than they need to be. Follow these and you give yourself an edge.

Here are 10 that matter.

This is available as a podcast:

10 Commandments of Success for Men

1. Thou shalt live a self-development lifestyle

A self-development lifestyle is a lifestyle where you are dedicated to becoming a renewed and greater version of yourself and one where you build a strong foundation on which to capitalize on any future success.

You look for weaknesses, not to turn them into strengths, but to remove them as limitations.

You challenge yourself. You improve daily. You stay uncomfortable enough to grow.

The average Joe doesn’t live like this. Look around and you’ll see it.

Why can I so boldly make that assertion?

Look around and you’ll see it.

If you live in America, the profile of the average American isn’t one worth aspiring to.

Now my question to you after reading some of these is – do you want to be an average American/person?

• Average is broke.
• Average is wasting time.
• Average is in terrible health.
• Average is addicted to technology.
• Average is compensating for a lack of self-management by bitching on the Internet.

You don’t need to be elite at everything. But you do need to be above average at the things that matter.

2. Thou shalt accept people as they are

You can influence people, but you can’t control them. That includes friends, family, partners, and most certainly strangers.

People change only when they’re ready. Not when you want them to.

So stop trying to “fix” people or drag them into growth. Focus on your own path. Let others choose theirs.

3. Thou shalt not make women the center of thy life

A lot of men build their lives around women. That’s a mistake.

It’s a mistake because when you chase validation, you lose leverage. When you build yourself, you gain it.

Besides, women are more attracted to the internal qualities of a man. Such as:

• Confidence
• Direction
• Self-respect
• Internal Standards

These matter more than surface-level tactics.

If you become a solid man internally, everything else becomes easier, including dating.

4. Thou shalt manage thy time with discernment and consideration

Time is the essence of life.

You can always make more money but you cannot make more time.

And it’s funny – people value money more than time. People cringe at wasting $100 or $1,000, but have no problem wasting a minute here, an hour there, a day elsewhere.

And the other funny thing? Time is what you use to make money. For most people, you go to work and make money, either hourly or salary.

The smart ones take that money and invest it somewhere so that it can make more money for them.

So in essence, if someone is worth $40/hr or $100/hr, if they invest right, they could end up increasing how much money they are getting per hour, per unit of time.

Every hour you spend is shaping your life. You’re always building something, whether you realize it or not.

So ask yourself: what are you building?

Make sure your daily actions align with the life you actually want.

5. Thou shalt guard thy financial treasures from loss

I got this commandment from two sources: a book called The Richest Man In Babylon and the Oracle of Omaha himself, Warren Buffett.

The commandment: don’t lose money.

If you simply followed this rule and instead redirected that money towards an investment or your savings, you would probably be much more financially well off than you are now.

In fact, do this thought exercise: think about how much money has flowed through your hands since you started working since the age of 18.

If you really want to take this further, your entire life:

• allowances
• summer jobs
• money people gifted you for your birthday, holidays,
• etc.

And if you’re my age – looking back, that’s a LOT of money.

My question is: what do you have to show for it?

And this is not an accusatory question – it’s simply an inquiry.

What happened to the money?

Yes, some people saved some here and there…but going back to the average American – as of 2025 of this year, the average American only saves 4.9% of their income, which is down from 5.3% a decade ago.

And yes, before you say it: inflation has affected things for sure, especially with stagnant wages in a lot of areas – but we are also surrounded by a lot more shiny objects than we were a decade ago.

So many more ways to waste money in 2024 than there were in 2014.

In the end, money and capital preservation is less about knowledge and more about discipline.

6. Thou shalt be assertive

Assertiveness isn’t aggression. It’s clarity.

You say yes when you mean yes. You say no when you mean no.

I believe that most people want to do good and they don’t want to harm others.

But some people were raised by their parents to be manipulative or predatory. Some people even had to learn these things to survive in a dysfunctional family if they wanted to get their needs met.

Or even worse, they may have mental health issues which makes acting in this manner a “default setting” for them.

Assertiveness prevents people like this from taking advantage of you.

You set boundaries. You don’t tolerate disrespect. You don’t bend just to keep people comfortable.

Some people won’t like it. That’s fine.

Respect often follows those who are willing to stand firm.

This is a hallmark of masculine energy.

7. Thou shalt invest in thy health

Going back to the so-called average American…the average American is simply not healthy.

• The average American is vastly overweight or obese
• The leading cause of death in America is heart disease
• America spends the most money on healthcare in any country in the world

But most people neglect the basics. That’s why most people struggle.

Focus on three things:

• Diet
• Exercise
• Sleep

And here’s some aspects that can help with that:

• Read your labels – you’d be surprised what you’re putting into your body.
• Eat less sodium – the American Heart Association recommends a ceiling of 2300 mg/day, with an ideal of 1500 mg/day if you have high blood pressure or a familial history of being salt-sensitive.
• Move your body – do strength training, stretching, and cardio.
• Get your annual checkup – Get a good doctor and see them on an annual basis.
• Drink less caffeine – caffeine is a stimulant and will decrease the quality of deep REM sleep you get.

You don’t need extremes. You need consistency.

Your health is the foundation for everything else.

8. Thou shalt develop thy social and emotional intelligence

One of my friends had an interesting observation.

Many, especially many younger people coming up – do not have good social skills.

Either they had social skills and they ended up deteriorating because they didn’t practice them (it is a SKILL after all) or they never really developed them in the first place because of various reasons.

And Gen Z and such, have a reputation for being “socially awkward” mainly because they’ve spent a lot of formative years behind a screen in front of some kind of technology.

Your ability to work with people matters more than you think.

Social skills are built, not given. And they decay if you don’t use them.

Get out of your comfort zone. Talk to people. Build relationships. Learn to read situations.

The higher you go in life, the more this matters.

9. Thou shalt simplify thy life

When I started my self-development journey in 2011, I did a lot of things.

Read a lot books, went to a lot of places, met a lot of people, entertained a lot of different paths I could go down career and lifestyle-wise.

I’m thankful for that period of experimentation. I’m glad I was exposed to many perspectives and many different practices.

As I got older, I realized the need to concentrate and focus on a single line of thought, a single line of action and follow it to its end.

In fact, I sort of wish I started this process earlier because I most likely would have been further down my path than I am now.

Regardless, this is something that life will call us to do at some level.

Whether you answer that call in time is up to you, but life will continue to call in subtle and obvious ways to do so until you answer it.

Make your life streamlined. Focus on a few fundamentals. What are those for you?

Connecting with friends? Exercising? Meditating? Journaling? Learning about a particular skill?

Get clear on your fundamentals so you can get clear on your life and sweep most other things away.

10. Thou shalt be still

Most people are not good at being alone and even more are not good at being alone with their own thoughts.

But that’s where the beauty of life is. That’s where you find yourself, really. In isolation. In separation. In stillness.

That’s where your inner voice speaks to you.

In isolation, your focus sharpens and life becomes more crisp. This is exactly like Henry David Thoreau went to go live in a cabin in Massachusetts for 2 years.

He said he didn’t do it to retreat into isolation, but to get closer to the intangible spiritual dimensions of life.

Stillness is where clarity comes from. It’s where you figure out what actually matters to you.

Without it, you’re just reacting to the world.

BONUS: Thou shalt be unapologetic and/or uncompromising in your beliefs

Your life is your life.

Not your parents’. Not your friends’. Not society’s.

You are the one who has to live it. No one else can. You must accept all of the benefits and the burdens that come with your life circumstances whether they were given to you at birth or you picked them up somewhere along your journey.

We live in a world and a society where people encourage you to listen to what everyone else says and take their advice as gospel.

But – if you practice the last commandment, stillness, you might come to realize…that most of what a lot of people are telling you may not even be relevant to your situation.

Because if you’re driven by what others think and say about you, you will NEVER be free.

You will always be dictated by the whims and thoughts and opinions of other people and never by your own inner voice.

You’ll have to make decisions that others won’t understand. You may disappoint people.

But part of being a man is living how you want to live and accepting the consequences and responsibilities as a result.

And this is tough – especially if you’re young. Some people will try and exert social pressure on you to get you to conform to a certain standard of living.

And it just requires saying – no. I’m not doing that. Or yes, I am doing that and you can’t stop me (you don’t have to say it like that……but that’s what it implies).

Conclusion + Final Word

These aren’t rules, they’re principles.

If you follow them, you’ll find your life tends to move in a better direction.

Ignore them and you’ll likely feel stuck, distracted, or off track.

Either way, the choice is, and always has been—yours.