The Good Men Project

By DAVID ATCHISON 

In the 1982 film Conan the Barbarian, a Mongol general laments that his sons will never understand him. Being a great warrior, the general had conquered most of the surrounding territories and afforded his heirs an upbringing that he himself did not have. In one scene he asks his son, and then his slave Conan, one simple question: What’s best in life?

Mongol General: My fear is that my son will never understand me.
Mongol general: We won again! This is good, but what is best in life?
Mongol general’s son: The open steppe, fleet horse, falcons at your wrist, and the wind in your hair.
Mongol general: Wrong! Conan, what is best in life?
Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.
Mongol general: That is good! That is good.

Conan’s reply is gruesome, but it resonates beyond the actual words themselves. Examining the context of his answer can reveal a lot about success. The Mongol general fears that his son won’t understand what drives him to be a conqueror. His son’s answer disappoints because it reveals that his heir is inundated with the spoils of war, rather than the war itself.

Conan’s answer pleases the Mongol general because the young slave-warrior finds reward in the battle, the work of a conqueror. The Mongol general begins to see Conan as the “son he never had” because Conan understands the “craft” the Mongol general has used to obtain the spoils of war that his son has become so preoccupied with.

In our own endeavors we too must ask, “What is best in life?” Are we too preoccupied with the eventual spoils of the endeavors we undertake? Or are we like Conan, focused on the job at hand and finding reward in the task? Most of the things that people view as success are actually byproducts of success. Varying degrees of economic freedom, notoriety, job security, financial stability, etc. are all byproducts of a job well done.

Those rewards come when a person understands what’s best in his or her own life. Today, I ask you to unleash your inner conqueror. Examine the battlefield of your life. Find what’s best in life about your job, your relationships, your existence, and relish in those things. Go to war with those things, conquer those things, and reap the spoils of your own war.

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David Atchison is a writer, producer and journalist whose work has appeared in a variety of mediums. He co-created and writes the Occult Crimes Taskforce with actress Rosario Dawson and illustrator Tony Shasteen for 12 Gauge Comics. OCT was optioned by Dimension Films. Atchison also wrote the Method Man Graphic Novel with hip-hop mainstay Method Man for Grand Central Publishing as well as successfully pitching True Believer, an in-production back door pilot for NBC Universal’s SyFy.

Before entertainment writing, Atchison served as military journalist and photographer for the Air Force and Reserve. Trained at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade, Maryland, he has worked in support of operations in Kosovo, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq and Southeast Asia.