Note: This post contains spoilers for the first season (season 4 just started). The video segments are also is less safe for work due to language.
For those who haven’t watched Breaking Bad, there are two key characters you should know about. The first is Walt.
Walt is a middle aged beaten down beta high school Chemistry teacher. He also happens to be a Nobel Laureate. Everyone walks all over Walt, from his wife to his boss at his part time job at the car wash.
The second is Heisenberg. He is harder to describe. He isn’t an alpha in the Roissy sense, but he is in the more traditional meaning of the term. Heisenberg is a bad ass meth manufacturer who looks after his own and won’t tolerate any threats to his business:
Actually, they are both the same guy. Walt’s late life transformation from broken down beta to bad-ass Heisenberg is prompted by his terminal cancer. His cancer creates a need for money for medical treatment and to provide for his family after he is gone. He is forced to become the leader he has always shirked being. His transformation starts off small; this clip shows him standing up to his wife for what is likely the first time in their marriage:
Further on in his transformation Walt talks about overcoming fear with his DEA agent brother in law:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAZZF8pIg24
Here he is confronting a potential competitor:
Here he is taking care of business with a distributor who beat up his partner and stole his product (skip to 4:15 for the scene. The exchange at 1:34 is also good.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4e9tda2nCc
Obviously this is just TV, and I wouldn’t advise manufacturing drugs or killing people. But within reason there is something we can all learn from Walt and his transformation.
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