While you could elect to undertake an epic journey around the world, experiencing different cultures and places, a much easier way to achieve this is to read—broadly and deeply.

When you are conversant with philosophy, history, economics, the hard sciences, the arts, and fiction, too, you see the world differently. You’ll also come to recognize other Alpha Males, such as Marcus Aurelius or Sun Tzu.

The main reason an Alpha cannot simply be defined by physique is that there are countless true Alpha Males throughout history who have not been possessed of the will or skill needed to fight. True superiority must be defined as a quality not arising from the body, but from the personality, the mind, or the spirit. Individuals such as Mohandas Gandhi or Lao Tzu were Alpha Males, but they were not given to violent aggression or martial pursuits, whether or not they were capable of them.

5. Courage and Action

Courage is another quality generally associated with the Alpha Male. However, this is far from synonymous with fearlessness or a lack of understanding of consequences that follow your actions. Thucydides, a Greek historian who lived in the fifth century B.C., wrote, “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.”

What that means for our purposes is that Alpha Males accept the challenges that life sends them. They seize opportunities and do not allow the voices of fear of failure or a sense of inadequacy to argue them out of action. These men are active, even if they reach out to take hold of an opportunity leads them to fall down, they get back up and continue to move forward.

What many modern men lack when it comes to this is the ability to take justifiable risks. There is no sense in exploring the distinction between Alpha and Beta Males because it is a false one.