I read Prince Harry’s Spare shortly after it came out. I wasn’t interested in his personal story nor in his person, but I valued the glimpse he offered into the habits of Europe’s top aristocrats:
Visit the outdoors as often as you can
Spend at least 1 hour a day sucking up fresh air in open nature
Visit forests as often as you can
Live as a nomad, travel a lot, live in different places
Take care of your physical and mental health, every day
Plan ahead and make sure you have enough reserves
Clean yourself with natural water filtered by the soil
Have different getaways to get a good multi-day rest when needed
Parents and children can travel separately; it’s OK to be more independent
Press and paparazzi are like hyenas, so be like a lion
Enjoy the countryside and its recreational opportunities
Know your classical literature and remind yourself of its wisdom
Articulate well and speak with the right accent
Hunt and kill prey
Undergo your initiation rites, don’t avoid them
Live a deeply religious life, find God in nature
Cull the herd
Love your people and fatherland
Journalists are no good, don’t trust a single one of them
Never complain, never explain
Don’t watch regular TV and don’t consume the ordinary news; read books instead
Learn horse-riding and get good at it
You don’t need to be original to be rich or powerful, but you need social adroitness
Feelings of shame fade away over time
Be as lions toward the media
Media are like an enemy in one’s own country
Accept hierarchy as a normal part of life
You can’t beat the media, but you can strategically exploit the media cycle
Forge alliances
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