Mind
Rise Through Strength
Aug
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Doomfist’s entire personal philosophy revolves around strength; strength of body, strength of mind, and strength of the organizations he runs. Through strength he rises, and only through strength is he willing to succeed. This draws upon a larger philosophy of evolution through conflict, what he seems to espouse as the main motivation behind the Talon organization. He doesn’t start wars and armed conflicts for monetary reward, he does it to, from his perspective, force humanity to evolve beyond its current position. Let’s take a look at both the benefits and drawbacks of this worldview.
The Pursuit of Power
Doomfist’s desire for strength above all else has lead him to develop an impressive physique, multiple international organizations, and a personal network that includes the most dangerous assassins, mercenaries, and hackers on the planet. We’ve talked before about how the unrelenting pursuit of a singular goal can yield some impressive results, and Akande’s results are certainly impressive.
Often in life, we find our attention split between different goals, objectives, and plans. This is a pretty normal part of everyday life, and one can’t be faulted for it. However, allowing your attention to become too divided can severely limit your progress in some or all of the things that are demanding your attention. Trimming down your interests and activities can lead to much greater results in the pursuits that remain.
You need to be willing to pay the cost, however. Spend less time socializing to pursue your career, and you will find your social circle shrinking. Devote more time to your family, but do so realizing your career will probably progress a bit slower. It’s all about a balance. Yes, Doomfist is incredibly powerful, but do you think he has anyone in his life that he truly trusts?
Strength Through Defeat
There is, of course, a flaw in Doomfist’s philosophy, or at least a gap in his armor: He’s not the strongest. His defeat at the hands of Winston made that clear. Not only did he lose to him, but he lost in one-on-one close combat, his area of greatest proficiency. Akande’s own philosophy was turned against him in that moment, and he had to decide how to react. Of course, knowing how his life had already gone before this moment, we can’t be surprised at the outcome: he rose above.
Not content to rest on his laurels, Akande continued to train in prison, becoming stronger in body and mind. When the members of Talon arrived to break him out, he had already punched his way out of his own prison cell. That’s about the most badass way to be found by your teammates, to be sure.
“Hey boss, we’re here to break you…um…nevermind…”
Persistence under duress is an admirable quality to be sure. Just because you’ve found yourself in an unpleasant situation doesn’t mean you have to give up! Strength comes in many forms, and the strength to adapt under adversity is definitely one of them. In fact, Doomfist might argue the ability to improve yourself in response to negative situations is actually the core of his philosophical beliefs.
A Powerful Network
So, faced with a foe that has finally bested him, does Doomfist throw in the towel? Of course not. Now that he’s back on the outside, he’s seized control of his criminal empire, and gone about acquiring new and more powerful allies. Winston has reactivated Overwatch, so Akande must adapt to meet this force. Being a one man army is badass, of course, but being a one man army leading an army of equally capable individuals? That’s another level of badass entirely.
In life, we can be strong alone, for sure. But true strength comes when we combine our power with the abilities and skills of others. Building a network of allies, friends, and supporters with skills that compliment your own is an essential step towards global domination (or just getting together a cool group of people to accomplish things with.) Shameless shout-out here, but we have such a group over on RPG FitGroup, you should definitely join us if you haven’t already!
At any rate, if we’re looking to emulate Doomfist’s philosophy of rising through strength, we need to devote ourselves to developing all areas of strength: Mental, physical, and emotional. Mental and physicaly you can often do on your own, but emotional health absolutely requires other people. Reaching out to others with shared interests, goals, and desires is one of the best ways to accomplish your goals in life, and remain healthy while you’re at it!
That’s it for our time with Doomfist. Sorry for the break in there, on the subject of personal networks, one of my best friends got married this past weekend so I was kind of involved. =) I’ll see you again tomorrow with a new character! Until then, as always, remember to live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome!
