Stefan Aarnio - Hard Times Create Strong Men

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What does it mean to be a man in the modern world? This book is the Man Bible on money, sex, religion, and politics: what has worked in the past and what didnt work based on proven history and resultsnot on feelings.

Hard Times Create Strong Men

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Published by Clovercroft Publishing, Franklin, Tennessee Edited by Tammy Kling, Tiarra Tompkins, and Beth Brown Cover Design by Marla Beth Thompson Illustrations and Interior Design by Adept Content Solutions Printed in Canada

ISBN: 978-1-949572-05-6

Bloody are the pages of history.

The path to paradise begins in hell.

D ANTE

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

A YN R AND

I write this book without ego.

Its not about me; it was never about me.

What does it mean to be a man? Possibly one of the most important questions a man can ask, but it is one of the least answered. I asked myself this very question at several key junctures in my life, and, as most men do, I struggled to find the answer. This book cross-examines that vital question and sets forth my answers to that and other hard questions and brutal realities that men need to ask themselves to survive and be men.

I, like every man, have had problems in my life. I have solved some of these problems, but I still grapple with others. It is through the struggle to find solutions that I am able to examine myself and my life and finally answer the question, what does it mean to be a man?

This book started as a blog entitled Weak Men Create Hard Times, Hard Times Create Strong Men . It was a big hit as far as my blogs go, and it got people talking. Nearly one year later, in a moment of frustration while trying to deal with a group of young men who were acting like boys, I sat down to write out my thoughts on being a man. My goal was to teach those young men and to show them how to succeed in life. The problems these young men struggle with today are the same ones I faced when I was a very young man.

As I discovered, there is no instruction manual or bible on how to be a man, and there are a million ideas on what it takes to be a man. In his book The Way of Men , Jack Donovan offers one perspective on becoming a man:

For decades, people have been talking about a crisis of masculinity. Our leaders have created a world in spite of men, a world that refuses to accept who men are and doesnt care what they want. Our world asks men to change for the better, but offers men less of value to them than their fathers and grandfathers had. The voices who speak for the future say that men must abandon their old way and find a new way. But what is that way and where does it lead?

I write this book out of brotherly love for the young men out there who struggle because their fathers werent willing, able, or present to help them answer the question, what does it mean to be a man?

Let this book serve as a guidepost and a sort of man bible or father in a box that will deliver a series of lessons that have helped me become a stronger man as I grew up and entered the cruel realities of the world of men. The lessons in this book cover four categories: money, sex, religion, and politics. These are the big four offensive topics that you arent supposed to talk about at the dinner table. We will also weave in conversations about the zeitgeist of the present time and how modern attitudes and trends shape and mold the idea of what it means to be a man in todays world.

I write this book as it were a brutally honest conversation that a father would have with his son, away from the women and away from people who force political correctness for power and control.

This book is raw, real, and offensive, and it should threaten and challenge you. After all, being a man and facing the frontiers of survivalboth literally and figurativelyis threatening. If something in this book threatens you, then work through my argument rationally. I have done my best to back up my arguments with examples from history that have worked, and I contrasted them with examples from history that have not worked.

At the end of the day, being a man is a functional task: things either work or they dont. Everything I give you in this book works in a practical sense, and I back it up with working examples from history. I offer only results hereno feelingsso buckle up and please dont cry if I hurt your feelings.

I dedicate this book to Tyler, Andrew, and my father D. Aarle Aarnio. May you find your path to becoming the strong men that the world needs. My heart is heavy with emotion to give you this manual on how to be a man. Unfortunately, the delivery systems of this information have been systematically destroyed over the years by cultural shifts, men of power, political correctness, women, and feminism. May this book serve as the father you never had to guide you to becoming a Strong Man.

I also dedicate this book to young males everywhereboys, men, strong men, weak menmales of all types who wonder what a man is and who challenge modern ideas that purport to answer that question. This is an increasingly difficult question to answer in the modern world. Today, people can effectively switch genders in the morning by changing clothes, hair, and makeup or can even choose a different gender before kindergarten. This is confusing, and I feel your frustration and confusion. If you have a penis and testicles, you are probably a man or are at least a male; you are explicitly not a woman. As Chuck Palahniuk said in Fight Club , Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken!

Why are we confused as men? Shouldnt being a man be simple and fundamental?

If how to be a man seems confusing, it is because there are many groups with a vested interest in what it means to be a man. Men of wealth and power have always wanted men to believe that being a man was about obedience and duty or that manhood can be attained by wealth and power through established channels. Religious men have always wanted to make manhood about spiritual or moral righteousness and that becoming a man could be achieved through mastery of the self, self-denial, self-sacrifice or evangelism. Merchants, and men with something to sell, have always wanted men to believe that masculinity could be bought or improved by buying what they have to sell.