Order of Man - Lions and Hyenas

00:00:00.000 Hyena would talk ill about you to your employer, would undermine you at every pass, would hit on

00:00:07.900 the woman that you love, would do whatever they could to get their own sense of validation and

00:00:13.460 to get theirs. And I could list off all sorts of hyenas that I've dealt with in my life. Some that

00:00:19.080 I'm currently dealing with. And so could you. Is that the kind of man you want to be? Or do you

00:00:23.820 want to be more like a lion? You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears

00:00:31.420 and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.

00:00:37.940 You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong. This is your life. This is

00:00:44.580 who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done,

00:00:49.880 you can call yourself a man.

00:00:53.820 Men, if you're anything like me, you operate very well under frameworks and systems and

00:01:00.120 procedures and processes. I think it's really crucial that we as men learn ways to adopt systems

00:01:07.400 that work for us, but also look for correlations between the way that nature and the wild and

00:01:17.360 other aspects of our lives operate so that they can teach us what we as men ought to learn

00:01:23.720 from those experiences. And I've got an analogy or a metaphor. I'm not quite sure the distinction

00:01:29.380 between the two. Maybe one of you guys can tell me that, but a metaphor for the way that

00:01:34.600 we approach our lives. And today I want to talk with you about the concept of lions versus

00:01:40.080 hyenas. I've been doing some research because I've been thinking about this concept for quite

00:01:44.380 some time. And of course, there's all sorts of ways that we can operate in the world as men.

00:01:49.140 And I found a really good, again, metaphor or analogy. I'm not sure which one between the way

00:01:57.700 that I believe as a man, we ought to show up. And that is many characteristics of what it means to be

00:02:03.680 a lion in the way that we ought to rebuke and avoid and shun. And that is the way of the hyena. So I came

00:02:12.880 up with some, some bullet points, some topics that I wanted to share with you on the primary

00:02:17.340 distinctions between the way that lions operate versus the way hyenas operate. And I think it's

00:02:22.040 a pretty good litmus test for the way that we as men operate. And I think as I go through these

00:02:27.820 topics with you, you'll see that not only do you want to be the lion versus the hyena, but I also

00:02:34.360 think you'll start identifying certain people in your lives and you'll begin to categorize them as

00:02:39.940 one or the other based on the five topics that I'm going to share with you today. So let's just jump

00:02:44.900 right into it. Number one, lions lead. Lions lead and hyenas follow. Lions typically represent

00:02:52.980 raw power and dominance. I think if we liken that to our motto and our way of life of protecting and

00:03:02.260 providing and presiding, we can see very clearly that lions are willing to do what it takes. They're

00:03:07.060 willing to do the necessary work and they're willing to step up in the face of sacrifice, not for

00:03:13.360 themselves, but for the greater good of their pride and of their group. Whereas hyenas are

00:03:21.560 basically, it's a numbers game. It's all about deception and numbers. We're going to get a bunch

00:03:28.040 of people together. We're going to yap at them. We're going to bark at them. We're going to scream

00:03:32.060 at them and we're going to annoy and be obnoxious. And over time, we're going to wear these people down

00:03:38.120 and we're going to deceive these individuals. We scavenge, right? Hyenas scavenge. They're not out

00:03:45.280 there getting their own fruits of their labor, but they're scavenging on the work of others. They're

00:03:50.740 leeching off others. They're avoiding responsibility and they're often very self-centered. It's not even

00:03:56.260 for the long-term. It's for the short-term. And so a hyena in life would be somebody that you might

00:04:01.520 work with on a daily basis, who isn't worried about helping the team, but only himself.

00:04:07.140 A hyena might be somebody who, instead of stepping up to serve and lead and help other people,

00:04:13.460 he's constantly undermining and eroding and gossiping and backstabbing and being a little

00:04:21.080 bitch, if I'm trying to be honest with you, about the way that he feels like he can get ahead.

00:04:26.760 And as I talk about this, every single one of us, we know lions and we know hyenas. We know who we

00:04:32.660 will follow and we know who we will not. And I think this is a great analogy for the way that we

00:04:37.740 approach our lives. Number two, lions earn where hyenas take. So if a lion has a desire to go chase

00:04:47.860 an animal, or in the case of us as men, to go chase some meaningful pursuit, we go chase it.

00:04:54.500 We learn new skills. We work with other people. We coordinate. We know what we want. We develop and

00:05:03.820 work on our skills. We train our posterity to develop the same skills that are required. And

00:05:09.260 we go out and we attack with as much force as is necessary to achieve our goals. Now we do it

00:05:17.400 virtuously, but we go out there with everything that we have and everything that we can do. And we

00:05:24.000 don't take, but we earn. A hyena, on the other hand, will sit back and they'll watch and they'll

00:05:34.280 study and they'll observe and they'll see what the lions are doing. And the lions will go out and

00:05:40.780 they'll bust their tails and they'll go work and they'll chase down a prey and they'll chase their

00:05:45.100 pursuits. And if we're talking about men, they'll work towards their ambitions. And then all of a sudden,

00:05:49.860 the hyena shows up and the hyena didn't do the work. The hyena didn't coordinate. The hyena

00:05:57.360 didn't work with other lions. The hyena just decides that that guy has what I want. So we're

00:06:03.160 going to steal. We're going to take, we're going to manipulate and deceive so that we can get what we

00:06:10.360 want individually. We're not worried about anything else. We're not worried about our pack. We're not

00:06:14.520 worried about how it might show up. Hyenas are simply after whatever they can get. Oftentimes,

00:06:22.300 hyenas are victims. They believe that everything in life happened to them instead of for them.

00:06:29.180 They believe that everybody in life is out to get them. Even their friends, even their pack and their

00:06:35.420 tribe are out to get them. And that they believe in a finite game that in order for me to get what I

00:06:41.800 want, I have to take from other people. A lion, on the other hand, understands the symbiotic

00:06:48.260 relationship between predator and prey and realizes that in order to win long-term, not only for himself,

00:06:54.580 but for other people, that he has to do this the right way. That he can go out and get his, but not at

00:07:01.100 the expense of other people getting theirs. And so he works in coordination with other lions in order to

00:07:07.360 achieve what he desires and, uh, obtain his objective. Uh, number three lions operate in a

00:07:14.880 brotherhood and hyenas operate in matriarchies. Now I didn't know this before I started to research

00:07:20.600 and study this, but we do know that lions operate in brotherhoods. Oftentimes we'll see male lions,

00:07:26.460 big, strong, alpha type male lions that are working together and coordinating in order to achieve the

00:07:33.740 objective. And in the case of a lion to bring down a prey and to feed the tribe. But I didn't know that

00:07:40.080 hyenas were matriarchal. And I did a little bit of research on this and I figured out that this is

00:07:45.520 indeed the case that hyenas are matriarchal. They're oftentimes led by women. They're oftentimes very

00:07:52.400 subservient and submissive to what the women say. And they're oftentimes very scattered and very chaotic

00:07:59.040 and very stressed out. And, uh, they don't coordinate well and they don't work well and they

00:08:04.240 don't understand the hierarchy of, of, of male hierarchies of male leadership. And it shows you

00:08:11.220 can see it in their behavior. You can, you can see it in the way they swarm. You can see it in the way

00:08:15.300 they deceive and manipulate and take advantage of, um, opportunities and exploit and play the victim

00:08:21.460 card. It's, it's very, very interesting to me that lions are coordinating because they are in a

00:08:29.040 patriarchal society versus hyenas that tend to be the males tend to be more submissive and subservient

00:08:35.380 to the females because that is their, their nature. That is the way that they do it. And the outcome is

00:08:41.400 clearly evident. All right. Number four, lions are fearless, whereas hyenas are deceptive. So a lion

00:08:48.680 will step up and face reality. A lion will attack whatever they have to deal with head on. If they

00:08:58.580 need to fight, they'll fight. They, they will stand their ground. They will face their enemy and they

00:09:06.460 will fight. And a man who is a lion tends to do the same thing. When he sees an issue, he's very assertive.

00:09:12.460 He's very bold. He's very brave. He sees an issue. He brings it up. He addresses it clearly. He addresses

00:09:19.440 it head on. And then he figures out what his course of action is. A hyena on the other hand will not

00:09:25.460 stand their ground. You've seen it. You've seen all the videos. Hyenas don't stand their ground.

00:09:30.180 They come and nip their little ankle biters. All right. So they come and nip and they take little

00:09:34.860 pokes and little jabs and they try to sneak up behind you and they try to deceive and manipulate. And

00:09:39.600 in the wild, I think, sure, there's some merit to it. But when we see this in men, we don't think

00:09:45.240 highly of those men. These are the guys who gossip. These are guys who backstab. They'll pretend on,

00:09:52.900 on their face level that they're there to serve you and help you and lead you and help you achieve

00:09:57.900 your, your goals and, and desires. And behind the scenes, they're working tirelessly against you.

00:10:03.580 They're talking ill to your boss or to the woman in your life. They're manipulating you.

00:10:11.620 They're, they're toying with you in order to achieve not what you're after, but to achieve

00:10:17.400 what they're after. And so they're deceptive. They're, they're, they're non-virtuous.

00:10:24.940 As a man, it's crucial that we step up and we address issues head on. And when we see the hyenas

00:10:30.640 that we address them head on and we call them out and we treat them as the parasites that they

00:10:36.240 actually are, because that's what they are. They're leeches. They're victims. They're constantly

00:10:42.280 looking for other people to do their work when it should be them that step up. I saw this all the

00:10:46.580 time. I see it every day. I see it all the time. When I was in the military, I saw it.

00:10:50.500 It's the handful of guys who pretend like they're working and play the backroom politics and finagle

00:10:59.600 and undermine and erode and backstab and spread rumors. These are not good men. They're hyenas.

00:11:09.800 And then we see the men who see problems. They address problems head on. They tackle what they

00:11:15.300 need to tackle and they do it in a respectful way. And then the last thing here is that line

00:11:20.320 lions protect and hyenas pray. And I would also liken this to a legacy. Our motto here with order

00:11:29.140 of man is to protect, provide and preside, which means that we are to serve other people. My job

00:11:36.120 as a man is to serve. And the context of the conversation I'm having you with you right now,

00:11:41.500 my job is to serve you, is to give you new ideas and insights and commentary and ways of looking at

00:11:48.960 things that maybe you haven't considered before or thought about or have thought about as in depth

00:11:53.420 as maybe you do after one of the podcasts that you listen to. And my only objective in doing that

00:11:59.080 is to serve you. I want you to win. I want you to step up as a father and a business owner and a

00:12:05.000 husband and a community leader and a coach and whatever capacity you're showing up as. I care about

00:12:10.680 you. And because I care about you and even outside of you, I care about my family. I care about my

00:12:17.120 friends. I care about a lot of things outside of even what is beyond my control because I care about

00:12:23.480 making sure that the people that are under my care have the opportunity to thrive and win. And that

00:12:28.840 requires sacrifice. I'm willing to sacrifice as I think many of you are. We're willing to lay down our

00:12:35.220 lives even if required for something greater than ourselves. But hyenas don't do that. They pray.

00:12:42.740 They exploit. They manipulate. They take advantage of. And it's not for some great legacy. It's for

00:12:49.620 themselves. It's selfishly driven. I don't care about you. If I can stomp on you to get what I want,

00:12:56.900 then a hyena will certainly do that. A hyena would talk ill about you to your employer, would undermine

00:13:08.100 you at every pass, would hit on the woman that you love, would do whatever they could to get their own

00:13:16.440 sense of validation and to get theirs. And I could list off all sorts of hyenas that I've dealt with in

00:13:23.100 my life. Some that I'm currently dealing with. And so could you. Is that the kind of man you want to

00:13:29.280 be? Or do you want to be more like a lion? A man who leads, a man who earns, a man who operates in a

00:13:38.120 brotherhood, a man who is fearless, a man who protects and provides and presides. Or alternatively,

00:13:45.220 would you rather be a, I shouldn't say man, but a male who follows everybody, who takes as often as

00:13:53.880 he possibly can, who operates in a matriarchy and hides and is subservient and submissive to what

00:14:00.960 other people are telling him to do, who are deceptive, who are preying upon the weak and the innocent.

00:14:06.820 That is not who we are. Those are not the virtues that men espouse. And I'm going to riff on this a

00:14:17.180 little bit more in the coming months, because I've been thinking about these analogies or these

00:14:21.320 metaphors. And I've been thinking about what lessons we can learn. And I operate really well with this

00:14:27.940 stuff. You know, and it's a, it's a good little reminder for me to consider that the way that I'm

00:14:36.000 showing up is either in the lion category or the hyena category. And which one am I acting like?

00:14:41.400 Which one am I being? Which one am I participating in? Am I serving other people? Am I sacrificing?

00:14:46.160 Am I leading? Am I working in a brotherhood? Or am I just manipulating, taking advantage of,

00:14:50.860 scavenging, and just being a scoundrel at every opportunity I can? Now look, the reality is that in

00:14:57.900 a lot of ways, the hyena is a necessary part of the ecosystem. It is.

00:15:06.000 We're always going to have the superheroes and we're always going to have the villains.

00:15:12.560 But I think you need to ask yourself, which one do you want to be? And what side of the aisle do you

00:15:17.500 want to stand on? I would suggest to you that maybe operating as a villain or a hyena might serve

00:15:25.560 you actually better in the short term. You might get more in the short term. That's not what I'm

00:15:30.920 interested in. And I don't think it's what you're interested in. I think you're interested in long-term

00:15:38.660 righteous and virtuous living. I think you're interested in leaving a legacy of meaning and

00:15:45.980 significance. I think you're interested in raising your kids in righteousness and leading your wife

00:15:53.720 and your loved ones in a way that lets them know that you care about them and want to serve

00:15:59.060 them. And ultimately, I think you'd be willing to sacrifice, including laying down your life

00:16:04.760 only because you care about other people more than you care about yourself. That is the distinction.

00:16:12.720 Are you a lion or are you a hyena? And what, if you're a hyena, can you do to ensure that you

00:16:20.420 start moving towards being a lion? And how do we advocate for lions? And how do we

00:16:25.520 edify them and uplift them and become more of them in our own lives? Something to consider,

00:16:33.260 something to chew on. I know the analogy probably has some flaws, probably has some holes that you

00:16:38.660 can poke at, which I'm happy to discuss. If you want to discuss what those are, I'm happy to do that.

00:16:43.780 No analogy or metaphor is perfect, but I think this is a pretty good one. And I'm going to talk more

00:16:49.180 about this. And in my book, you fall on one of two sides, two varying degrees. You're either a lion

00:16:55.680 or you're a hyena. And I don't know that there's much of a difference between the two or, excuse me,

00:17:00.860 much of a line. I should say it this way. There is a line between the two. There's a clear distinction.

00:17:10.080 Not there's not much of a distinction. There's a clear distinction between the two. And I know which

00:17:14.820 side of the aisle you sit on by the way that you show up. And I hope you know that about me and the

00:17:19.320 other people that you deal with. All right, guys, if you have any thoughts or questions, please let

00:17:23.440 me know. Insights, please let me know. Also, if you want to become more of a lion, you want to work on

00:17:28.460 being this righteous, virtuous, living ideal of what it means to be a man, we just opened up the Iron

00:17:34.100 Council today. So if you're interested in that, go to orderofman.com slash Iron Council, and you can learn

00:17:41.460 more about what we do inside of there. And also, if you want to join me on a preview call to figure

00:17:47.700 out what it is we're doing inside of the Iron Council, then I would suggest to you to go to

00:17:52.220 theironcouncil.com slash preview on Monday night. So that is the 17th, I believe.

00:18:00.940 I want to look here and make sure I get that right. But I believe it's Monday night, the 17th,

00:18:07.360 that's correct. At 8pm Eastern, we're doing a preview call. If you go to theironcouncil.com

00:18:13.800 slash preview, you can learn more. All right, guys, that's my message for you today. Are you a

00:18:18.520 lion? Or are you a hyena? Think about it and become more of that lion. All right, we'll be back next

00:18:25.200 week. Until then, go out there, take action and become the man you are meant to be.

00:18:29.260 Thank you for listening to the Order of Man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life

00:18:38.420 and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at orderofman.com.

Order of Man - March 14, 2025

Lions and Hyenas ｜ FRIDAY FIELD NOTES

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