TV, for me, isn’t something to unwind to, it’s not something I look forward to, but it is something that gives me ideas, something that I like to put on in the background as I write and work on the monotonous aspects of the business.

In that light, Nextflix is awesome.

I’ve been watching the Crown, in season two now. How they get these locations is beyond me. As with any good show – especially in season 1 from Winston Churchill’s character – there are lessons.

Season two has a few. One comes midway through the season when they cover Prince Charles’ education. Charles’ old man wanted to educate him at the same school he went to, a school that toughened him up, that put him through the ringer, tested him, and made him into a man.

Phillip, Charles’ dad, wanted his son to be tested, to be toughened and strengthened. There was only one problem, as the future king, everyone around him saves for the students and faculty at the school his father made him attend, coddled him. Everyone around Charles babied him, allowed him to be a pussy and to be soft and to develop soft virtues that a future king should simply not have.

Even after graduating from said school Charles still didn’t see the benefit of struggle, he still wasn’t illuminated by the necessity of a trial.

The lesson I took is that title is useless. King should be a powerful term. It was once won in battle when a man conquered land and claimed it for his own. Today, it’s obviously just a title, but we still praise title. We shouldn’t.

Thanks to capitalism we now look up to merit more than the title but some people still think that where you’re born matters. They think that success is predetermined. They think that being born rich is actually better than being born poor.

But what’s money? What’s wealth? What’s a handout and a hand up? It’s all useless. In terms of the things that actually matter in life, the virtues by which you live and conduct yourself, who you are as a man, the obstacles you overcome, poverty is a greater blessing than wealth.

There’s likely no chance anyone reading this will agree, but it’s the truth.

The things you have do not matter. The car you drive, the car your folks drive when you’re a kid, they do not matter. The man you are when you’re at your highs and when you’re at your lows, this is what matters. The leader you are for your family and tribe. The work you do. The discipline you have.

Title is useless.

The king is a pussy. It appears he’ll go through his life as a pussy. His title doesn’t make him a man and odds are you’re more of a king than the damn king.

Of course, it’s a show. Likely part fiction, part truth. Understand, nay, know that your virtues make you a king, not the womb you popped out of.

Get after it.