Yeah, you read that right. What the entirety of the male self improvement section of the internet promises you—virility, the ability to be strong and masculine—and I’m telling you that it won’t make you happy.

No, this isn’t me going blue pill on you. I’m not at all saying that you should forsake reaching for masculinity or virility whenever possible—it has undoubtedly made my life better. All I am saying is that while those two things are very big facets of masculinity, they are not the be all and end all. So what is? The old reliable “Tactical Virtues” of the way of men—those will give you a complete masculinity, and achieving those are, as far as I can tell, the only way that a self-respecting masculine man can be truly happy and successful.

What do I mean by this? As I have said many times on my website, I have known both sides of the “red pill”—I have been both a sexual dynamo and physical titan, and a hunched over, scrawny incel, looking at the sexual cornucopia but never being allowed to take from it.

Let us go back to those days of loneliness and rage—a time when I was indeed anything but masculine.  I reasoned, through the red haze of hatred of self-loathing that I existed in pretty much 24/7 until I was 20 or so, that if I was in good physical shape, and I was having sex on a regular basis, then that would be it. My life would basically be perfect from then on, because who ever heard of a good looking sexually successful guy not being happy? It all basically falls into place once you achieve that stuff, right?

That’s what I thought. Over the next few years, I worked out fanatically and honed my sexual craft, and that took me to the point you see today: 9.1% bodyfat, more than 50 sexual partners in my life, etc.

(If you’re not impressed by 50, let me remind you that the average American man has about 6 sexual partners in his life)

And yes, I will be honest, that stuff did make me happier than I was—which is to say I now had the ability to look at myself in the mirror without feeling ashamed of myself. But sadly, my life of unabated pleasure and victory was not quite to be.

While I had solved those two big, glaring problems, I still had other things to deal with in my life—when I had gotten into shape and had sex on a regular basis, I was still an unemployed college student who was living with parents that resented me for living with them. And needless to say, I wasn’t very happy.

So here you had me achieving things that were ostensibly masculine: physical fitness and sexual conquest. And yet, I was still unhappy because I was not truly achieving masculinity—I had strength, and arguably courage (at the very least I had overcome my fear of the opposite sex),  and yet I had failed to achieve mastery or honor.

So I moved out—and here, my collective happiness level bumped up another stock. Now I didn’t have to tiptoe around my parents or do things at their behest—now I could double my video production, bang whatever girls I wanted, practice music whenever I wanted, and do whatever I pleased! Now I had a little bit of honor in my life, and mastery in some respects.

But was eternal happiness in my grasp? No, of course not! I’m always trying to improve myself a little bit more each day, and while that probably leads to my somewhat dour personality day to day, it has its benefits. Namely, if I had ever stopped to be content with what I was doing, I’d probably still be living with my parents and I’d probably be a fatty, and never would have even heard of the concept of the tactical virtues in the first place.

I am still far from my ultimate goals, but I don’t mean to dissuade you from just making yourself sexually viable. If nothing else, it is the first step in truly becoming a successful and masculine man. For the two are forever intertwined.