Power, Corruption, and the Reject Mediocrity Mindset
By Ellis Franks
Power Without Values
Creates Corrupt Character
Mindset to Reject Mediocrity Podcast — Ellis Franks
This isn’t a long message. I’m not here to perform outrage for clicks. I want to talk about what people are acting shocked about—“the files,” the scandals, the elite behavior—and why none of it should surprise you. Because if you understand values, you understand outcomes.
The Real Problem Isn’t the Headlines
People are on TV acting aghast like: “My God, can you believe what’s in there?” Politicians. Celebrities. Famous singers. The kings and queens and princesses of pop culture. But you can read the lyrics to the songs. You can watch the movies. You can see the values being produced—openly—every day. So don’t act surprised when power exposes what’s underneath. Power + no values = corrupt character. You can be a genius. You can have money so large it sounds like a math problem nobody could solve. And you’ll still have the same character problems—because intelligence doesn’t replace integrity.
We’re Living the Same Ancient Story
Throughout history, civilizations collapse when values collapse. When people lose a true north, the “unthinkable” becomes thinkable. And then it becomes normal. And then it becomes policy. And then it becomes culture. That’s why I’m saying this clearly: You don’t get deviance by accident. You build it through values.
The Confidence-First Triangle (Negative Pyramid)
This is what I teach as the Confidence-First Triangle—the “spinning triangle” that keeps people trapped:
Confidence first (usually fake confidence)
Money comes next
Money gets confused with competency
Then you commit more deviances to get more money
Cycle repeats
That is the operating system of modern leadership and modern culture. And it doesn’t stop with politicians. It’s everywhere.
Two Pyramids: Your Legacy Goes One Direction
There are two pyramids being built at all times:
The Positive Pyramid (Value-First)
Core values
Discipline
Competence
Legacy
The Negative Pyramid (Hedonism-First)
Ego
Money
Status
Appetite
Deviance
Collapse
Your legacy is going positive or negative. There is no neutral.
Hedonism is the Root
Hedonism is what happens when there is no moral compass. It’s the value system of “whatever feels good right now.” And when hedonism is the operating system, you get:
exploitation
cover-ups
social “plausible deniability”
leaders who behave like influencers, not adults
a society that worships power instead of character
Self-Control: The Core Value That Changes Everything
If there’s one word I want you to take from this:
Self-Control.
You’re not failing your goals because you’re unlucky. You’re failing because you don’t have self-control. Self-control is a higher-level core value, and it has two battlegrounds:
1) Appetites
Food. Sex. Pleasure. Status. Attention.
2) Anger
Impulse. Rage. Revenge. Destruction.
Self-control is what separates a disciplined life from a chaotic one. And the moment self-control collapses, everything collapses.
You value the shoes more than you value the human.
That’s not “poverty.” That’s values. That’s self-control. That’s identity.
Social Media is the Accelerator
Why is there no self-control now?
Because the algorithm rewards the opposite. Look at the hashtags:
#livemybestlifeever
#fakeituntilyoumakeit
Those are hedonistic values dressed up as motivation. And here’s the trick:
Money, power, and respect are intangible.
You can’t touch them. You can’t “finish” them.
So you chase them harder. You never reach “enough.” Because the system is designed that way.
Your Competency Is Not Likes
The algorithm isn’t “bad.” It’s doing exactly what it’s paid to do: maximize advertising dollars. So it feeds what performs:
outrage
lust
humiliation
violence
chaos
division
And if you consume it every day, you are being trained into its value system—slowly. That’s why I don’t live in feeds. It’s all engineered input.
The DD Formula: How to Avoid the “Deviance Track”
Two things keep you off the path of moral collapse:
1) Positive Actions
2) Positive Goals
That produces Positive Outcomes. This is the math:
Positive actions toward positive goals = positive outcomes.
If your goal is money, and your actions are money, and your outcome is money—
that’s not success. That’s a trap.
Money is a tool. It is not a value.
Stop Outsourcing Your Character
If you’re addicted to social media, you’re not “better than” the system. You’re inside it. You can act shocked, make funny faces, post outrage, and still be feeding the same value pipeline that creates the outcomes you claim to hate. If you want a different outcome, you need a different value set.
Credibility: Why I’m Skeptical of Narratives
I’m not saying everything you see and hear is truth. It isn’t. I was trained in information manipulation frameworks in the military environment—things like narrative shaping, misdirection, making assets “disappear” from visibility, and controlling what becomes “the story.” So I don’t blindly trust headlines. But here’s the bigger point:
Even if you ignore every headline, you can still read the culture’s values in plain sight.
The Point
Be careful what you wish for. When you live by hedonism, you get hedonism outcomes. When you build self-control, you build a life with standards, stability, and meaning. So if you want to reject mediocrity:
build core values
build self-control
make discipline decisions daily
consume content that matches your mission
stop worshiping status
stop chasing algorithms
Because power without values doesn’t create excellence.
It creates corruption.
— Ellis Franks