Judging from Ice Cube's reaction when he's called a ''mogul,'' you'd think the word had four letters instead of five. '''Mogul' just sounds too corporate to me,'' says the 33-year-old gangsta rapper-turned-actor, turned producer. ''It sounds like I should be on Wall Street selling funny money. Those titles don't do anything for me.''

Maybe his refusal to be labeled a mogul is a brilliant, counterintuitive strategy; in effect, it makes him seem like even more of a mogul. Because if you skim any of those Sun Tzu-inspired power manuals that are so popular in Hollywood's corner offices, you'll see that deflecting praise is actually a fairly clever ploy. In fact, in Robert Greene's 1998 master-of-the-universe guide, ''The 48 Laws of Power,'' it's Law No. 30: Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless. Cube says he hasn't relied on this particular book to chart his career. But as you'll see, it's a manual that he could easily have written.

Ice Cube's Career Guide...

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