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This immoral, devious, ruthless, subjugating and penetrating book distills three thousand years of the history of power into 48 brutal and very clearly explained laws. Here you will find all those people who throughout history have touched on the topic of power in their thoughts.
Some laws teach us about modesty, some about secrecy, while some point us to uncompromising opportunism, but regardless of our moral objections that we hope you will form by watching, these laws are completely real and observable in our everyday life.
The goal of publishing this work is not to show the way of gaining power, but rather the opposite, to recognize other people’s attempts to control our everyday life.
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The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. Original animation by illacertus, now remastered for your viewing pleasure. Law Number 1: Never Outshine the Master. The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. Law Number 1: Never Outshine The Master. Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress
Them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you’ll attain the heights of power. We can clearly see this law in the story of
King Louis the Fourteenth and his finance minister, Nicholas Fouquet. Who was ‘Louis the Fourteenth’? He reigned as the absolute monarch of France from 1643 to 1715. His infamous quotes ‘L’état, c’est moi!’ … literally ‘I am the state’ and ‘Après moi, le déluge.’
‘After me, the flood.’ provide us with a brief but revealing glimpse into his inner world. He portrayed himself as the Sun King and had such might and power among his lands, that he could make any decision he wanted without discussion. He would ask for a pen and the
Whole room would be fighting each other for the chance to give him theirs, as to get in his good graces or be able to say they’ve done the Great King a favor. His need to be the center of attention, always, would prove to be the downfall of Nicholas
Fouquet. In seventeenth-century France, Nicholas Fouquet had spent enormous sums in building a magnificent chateau on his estate of Vaux-le-Vicomte. When the Prime Minister died, the position was abolished instead of replaced with Fouquet, the kings smart finance minister. In order
To not lose the king’s trust and regain his attention, he then planned the most spectacular party France had ever seen to show off its connections, cultivated manner and charm. It was a great tribute to the guest of honor, the king himself. Thinking this move would
Make him an indispensable asset Fouquet had actually offended his master, who was outraged by the fact people were more charmed by his finance minister than by himself. Fouquet unintentionally outshone his master, making the King feel insecure. He was arrested the
Next day and spent the last twenty years of his life in solitary confinement high in the Pyrenees mountains for having stolen enormous amounts from the country’s treasury. The accusations were false, but such was the price of his actions, best intentions aside.
A second example would be Galileo Galilei: one of the greatest minds of the 16th century who used this law in his favor. Galileo was clever in observing this law by giving glory to his patrons. In order to solve his perennial problem of funding, he dedicated his discovery
Of the moons of Jupiter to the Medici. Since the Royal symbol of the Medici family was the planet Jupiter. He then commissioned an emblem for them with each moon representing one of the sons who revolved around the patriarch. The Medici family became his major patron,
Appointing him their official court mathematician and philosopher, thereby giving him a more comfortable life and a steady salary. The End. Watch the concise 30 minute Version here while I remaster all of the animations that this channel was built upon, listen to
The new audiobooks on the source material of the 48 Laws of Power and join the illacertus library on Gumroad for more exclusive content. Law Number 2: Never Put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn How to Use Enemies. The problem about working with friends is
That it confuses the boundaries and distances that working requires. If both partners in the arrangement understand the dangers involved, a friend often can be employed to great effect. You must never let your guard down in such a venture, however; always be on the lookout
For any signs of emotional disturbance such as envy and ingratitude. Nothing is stable in the realm of power, and even the closest of friends can be transformed into the worst of enemies. To gain a comprehensive understanding, let
Us delve into history and learn from the mistakes made by those who came before us. A prime example for this law was the relationship between Michael the Third of the Byzantine Empire and his friend, Basilius. In the mid-ninth century A.D. Michael placed too much trust
In his friend. They had met a few years before when Michael had been visiting the stables. His strength and courage had impressed Michael, who immediately raised Basilius from the obscurity of being a horse trainer to the position of head of stables. He loaded his friend with
Gifts and favors until they became inseparable. Michael turned the peasant Basilius into a sophisticated and educated courtier who later on became greedy for more wealth and power and had his former benefactor and best friend Michael murdered. Michael the Third staked
His future on the sense of gratitude he thought Basilius must feel for him. He had created a monster. He had allowed a man to see power up close, a man who then wanted more, who asked for anything and got it, who felt encumbered by the charity he had received and simply
Did what many people do in such a situation: They forget the favors they have received and imagine they have earned their success by their own merits. Another brilliant example is the Song Dynasty who ruled China for 300 years. As Abraham Lincoln said “I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends”.
For several centuries after the fall of the Han Dynasty A.D. 222, Chinese history followed the same pattern of violent and bloody coups, one after the other. Army men would plot to kill a weak emperor, then would replace him on the Dragon Throne with a strong general.
The general would start a new dynasty and crown himself emperor; to ensure his own survival he would kill off his fellow generals. A few years later, however, the pattern would resume: New generals would rise up and assassinate him or his sons in their turn. To be emperor
Of China was to be alone, surrounded by a pack of enemies—it was the least powerful, least secure position in the realm. In A.D. 959, General Zhao Kuangyin became Emperor Song. Emperor Song knew that his “friends” in the army would chew him up like meat, and
If he somehow survived, his “friends” in the government would have him for supper. Emperor Song persuaded his generals to retire to a life of nobility and give up their dreams of grabbing his throne one day. He spared those who conspired against him, and was able
To win over enemies with his generosity. Song was finally able to break the pattern of coups, violence, and civil war. Lessons for Working With Friends and Enemies. Friends will not openly disagree with you in order to avoid arguments. Enemies expect
Nothing so they will be surprised when you are generous. An enemy spared the guillotine will be more grateful to you than a friend. When you decide to hire a friend you will discover qualities they have kept hidden, be on the lookout for any signs of emotional
Disturbance such as envy and ingratitude. Skill and competence are more important than friendly feelings. Hiring friends will limit your power. All working situations require a kind of distance between people. You destroy an enemy when you make a friend of him. An enemy at your heels keeps you sharp, alert, and focused.
Law Number 3: Conceal Your Intentions. Law Number 3: Conceal Your Intentions. Have you ever heard of a skillful general, who intends to surprise a citadel, announcing his plan to his enemy? Conceal your purpose and hide your progress; do not disclose the
Extent of your designs until they cannot be opposed, until the combat is over. Win the victory before you declare the war. In a word, imitate those warlike people whose designs are not known except by the ravaged country through which they have passed.
It takes effort to control your tongue and monitor what you reveal. It is much more prudent to tailor your words, telling people what they want to hear rather than the coarse and ugly truth of what you feel or think. More important, by being unabashedly open, you
Make yourself so predictable and familiar that it is almost impossible to respect or fear you, and power will not accrue to a person who cannot inspire such emotions. Train yourself in the art of concealing your intentions. Master the art, and you will always have the
Upper hand. Our first instinct is to always trust appearances. This fact makes it relatively easy to conceal one’s intentions. Let’s talk about how people conceal intentions and fool you. Use decoyed objects of desire to throw people off. Support an idea or cause that
Is actually contrary to your own sentiments but will help you achieve your goal. Use this tactic in the following manner: Hide your intentions not by closing up (with the risk of appearing secretive and making people suspicious) but by talking endlessly about your desires
And goals!—just not your real ones. You will kill three birds with one stone: You appear friendly, open, and trusting; you conceal your intentions; and you send your rivals on time-consuming wild-goose chases. False sincerity: People easily mistake sincerity for honesty. Remember—their first instinct is to trust appearances, and since they value
Honesty and want to believe in the honesty of those around them, they will rarely doubt you or see through your act. Seeming to believe what you say gives your words great weight. Remember: The best deceivers do everything they can to cloak their roguish qualities.
They cultivate an air of honesty in one area to disguise their dishonesty in others. Honesty is merely another decoy in their arsenal of weapons. Bland facial expression: Behind a bland, unreadable exterior, all sorts of mayhem can be planned, without detection. This is
A weapon that the most powerful men in history have learned to perfect. Noble gesture: People want to believe apparently noble gestures are genuine, for the belief is pleasant. They rarely notice how deceptive these gestures can be. Appearing to belong to a group: The tendency to mistake appearances for reality—the feeling that if someone
Seems to belong to your group, their belonging must be real. This habit makes the seamless blend a very effective front. The trick is simple: You simply blend in with those around you. The better you blend, the less suspicious you become.
Remember: It takes patience and humility to dull your brilliant colors, to put on the mask of the inconspicuous. Do not despair at having to wear such a bland mask—it is often your unreadability that draws people to you and makes you appear a person of power.
But how do people apply these ways to fool you? Simply dangle an object you seem to desire, a goal you seem to aim for, in front of people’s eyes, and they will take the appearance for reality. Once their eyes focus on the decoy, they will fail to notice what you are really
Up to. Politicians use this all the time. Our first historical example would be decoyed objects of desire and making a woman fall in love. The Marquis de Sevigne was inexperienced in the art of love. He confided in the infamous courtesan of seventeenth-century France, Ninon
De Lenclos, to instruct him on how to seduce a difficult young countess. She made him follow a plan over a number of weeks, where the Marquis would be appearing in public always surrounded by beautiful women, in the very places the countess would be expected to see him.
He was supposed to assume an air of nonchalance. This increased the jealousy of the young countess, who was not sure of his interest in her. One day the Marquis, unable to control his passion, broke from Ninon’s plan, and blurted out to the countess that he loved her. After this
Admission, the countess no longer found him interesting and avoided him. The whole premise of dating is based on games, wild moves and being unpredictable. If you display your feelings too soon it becomes an artless show of passion. A door closed that would never open again.
In seduction, set up conflicting signals, such as desire and indifference, and you not only throw them off the scent, you inflame their desire to possess you. Another example: Otto von Bismarck became prime minister of Prussia. Otto von Bismarck was a deputy the Prussian parliament at a time when many fellow deputies thought it
Was possible to go to war against Austria and defeat it. Bismarck wanted to go to war but he knew that the King was not in favour of it. He also knew the Prussian army was not prepared, so he devised a clever way. He publicly stated his praises for the Austrians
And talked about the madness of war. Many deputies changed their votes. Had Bismarck announced his real intentions, arguing it was better to wait now and fight later, he would not have won. Most Prussians wanted to go to war at that moment and mistakenly
Believed their army to be superior to the Austrians. Had he gone to the king his sincerity would have been doubted. By giving misleading statements about wanting peace and concealing his true purpose, Bismarck’s speech catapulted him to the position of prime minister. He
Later led the country to war against the Austrians at the right time, when he felt the Prussian army was more capable and united with Germany. Yet another example: the Duke of Marlborough use this in the Spanish Succession. During the War of the Spanish Succession in 1711
The Duke of Marlborough, head of the English army, wanted to destroy a key French fort, because it protected a vital thoroughfare into France. Yet he knew that if he destroyed it, the French would realize what he wanted—to advance down that road. Instead, then, he
Merely captured the fort, and garrisoned it with some of his troops, making it appear as if he wanted it for some purpose of his own. The French attacked the fort and the duke let them recapture it. Once they had it back,
Though, they destroyed it, figuring that the duke had wanted it for some important reason. Now that the fort was gone, the road was unprotected, and Marlborough could easily march into France. Henry Kissinger used Bland Face to win opponents: Henry Kissinger would bore his opponents around
The negotiating table to tears with his monotonous voice, his blank look, his endless recitations of details; then, as their eyes glazed over, he would suddenly hit them with a list of bold terms. Caught off-guard, they would be easily intimidated.
As one poker manual explains it, “While playing his hand, the good player is seldom an actor. Instead he practices a bland behavior that minimizes readable patterns, frustrates and confuses opponents, permits greater concentration.” Law Number 4: Always Say Less than Necessary.
Law Number 4: Always Say Less than Necessary. There are times when it is unwise to be silent. Silence can arouse suspicion and even insecurity, especially in your superiors; a vague or ambiguous comment can open you up to interpretations you had not bargained for. Silence and saying
Less than necessary must be practiced with caution, then, and in the right situations. Let us take a look at 6 ways to exert more power by practicing listening. Make People Reveal More About Themselves. Speaking less will make people reveal more about themselves.
This is information you may be able to use against them later on. Your short answers and silences will put them on the defensive, and they will jump in, nervously filling the silence with all kinds of comments that will review valuable information about them and
Their weaknesses. The longer you listen, the more others move their lips and teeth. As they move their lips and teeth, you can thereby understand their real intentions. Number 2 … People Listen and Interpret Your Every Word Carefully. Speaking less will force
People to listen and interpret your every word carefully. Your silence will make other people uncomfortable. Humans are machines of interpretation and explanation; they have to know what you are thinking. When you carefully control what you reveal, they cannot pierce
Your intentions or your meaning. They will leave a meeting with and they will go home and ponder your every word. This extra attention to your brief comments will only add to your power. Masters of enigma Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp knew the power of saying less and
Keeping people guessing. The less Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp talked about his work, the more it was talked about in the art circles. Andy Warhol recognized it was hard to talk people into doing what you wanted, so when interviewed, he would give vague and ambiguous answers and let the interviewer find his own interpretation. number
Three … Once The Words Are Out, You Cannot Take Them Back. Keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm: The momentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be outweighed by the price you pay. Number 4 … The More You Say, The More Common
You Appear. When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinx-like.
Number 5… Saying Less Will Keep You From Saying Something Foolish or Even Dangerous. Around 454 B.C, Coriolanus was a great military hero of ancient Rome. People held him in awe. He decided to run for senate and he spoke his mind, hardly able to control his arrogance
And boastfulness. He slandered and insulted people. The more speeches he made, the less people respected him. He suffered the people’s wrath and was eventually banished from the city. Number 6 … People Will Not Deceive You As They Will Never Know Your Position. Louis the Fourteenth was a man of very few words.
His infamous “I shall see” was one of several extremely short phrases that he would apply to all manner of requests. Louis was not always this way; as a young man he was known for talking at length, delighting in his own eloquence. His later taciturnity was self-imposed, an
Act, a mask he used to keep everybody below him off-balance. No one knew exactly where he stood, or could predict his reactions. No one could try to deceive him by saying what they thought he wanted to hear, because no one knew what he
Wanted to hear. As they talked on and on to the silent Louis, they revealed more and more about themselves, information he would later use against them to great effect. In the end, Louis’s silence kept those around him terrified and under his thumb. It was one of the foundations
Of his power. As Saint-Simon wrote, “No one knew as well as he how to sell his words, his smile, even his glances. Everything in him was valuable because he created differences, and his majesty was enhanced by the sparseness of his words.”
Saying less than necessary is not for kings and statesmen only. In most areas of life, the less you say, the more profound and mysterious you appear. Law Number 5: So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard It With Your Life. Law Number 5: So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard It With Your Life.
Reputation is the cornerstone of power. In the social realm, appearances are the barometer of almost all our judgments. Your reputation will protect you in the dangerous game of appearances, distracting the probing eyes of others from knowing what you’re really
Like, and giving you a degree of control over how the world judges you a powerful position to be in. Why is Reputation Important? A strong reputation increases your presence and exaggerates your strengths without you having to spend much energy.
It can also create an aura around you that will instill respect, even fear. In the fighting in the North African desert during World War 2, the German general Erwin Rommel had a reputation for cunning and deceptive maneuvering that struck terror into everyone who faced him.
Even when his forces were depleted and the British tanks outnumbered his by five to one, entire cities would be evacuated at the news of his approach. As they say, your reputation inevitably precedes you, and if it inspires respect, a lot of
Your work is done for you before you arrive on the scene, or utter a single word. During China’s War of the Three Kingdoms A.D. 207-265, General Liang was able to fool his rival Sima Yi simply by letting his track record for being an undefeated leader in battle do the
Work for him. Liang’s troops were far outnumbered by Sima Yi’s, yet he devised a clever last resort plan. Liang donned a Taoist robe and played the lute upon the wall of the city he was defending. His soldiers opened the gates and
Hid. When Sima Yi’s troops advanced upon the unguarded city, Yi recognized his opponent sitting alone upon the wall. Fearing a trap, Sima Yi called his soldiers to retreat. How To Build A Reputation? In the beginning, you must work to establish a reputation for
One outstanding quality, whether generosity or honesty or cunning. This quality sets you apart and gets other people to talk about you. You then make your reputation known to as many people as possible, and watch as it spreads like wildfire. Do this subtly, though;
Take care to build slowly, and with a firm foundation. Reputation is a treasure to be carefully collected and hoarded. Especially when you are first establishing it, you must protect it strictly, anticipating all attacks on it. Make your reputation simple and base it on one sterling quality. This single quality—efficiency, say, or seductiveness
Becomes a kind of calling card that announces your presence and places others under a spell. A reputation for honesty will allow you to practice all manner of deception. Casanova used his reputation as a great seducer to pave the way for his future conquests; women
Who had heard of his powers became immensely curious, and wanted to discover for themselves what had made him so romantically successful. We’ll cover 4 Ways to Safe-Guard And Grow Your Reputation. Never appear desperate in your self-defense against the slander of others
Do not let yourself get angry or defensive at the slanderous comments of your enemies, it reveals insecurity, not confidence in your reputation. Take the high road instead, and never appear desperate in your self-defense. Number two … Sow doubt and spread rumors
About your rival. An attack on another man’s reputation is a potent weapon, particularly when you have less power than he does. He has much more to lose in such a battle, and your own thus-far-small reputation gives him a small target when he tries to return
Your fire. P.T. Barnum used such campaigns to great effect in his early career. But this tactic must be practiced with skill; you must not seem to engage in petty vengeance. If you do not break your enemy’s reputation cleverly, you will inadvertently ruin your own. Even
If they deny it, people will still be wondering why they are so defensive. Barnum used this tactics to ruin his competition’s Peale’s reputation by sowing doubts about Peale’s museum stability and solvency. Doubt is a powerful weapon: Once you let it
Out of the bag with insidious rumors, your opponents are in a horrible dilemma. On the one hand they can deny the rumors, even prove that you have slandered them. But a layer of suspicion will remain: Why are they defending themselves so desperately? Maybe the rumor
Has some truth to it? If, on the other hand, they take the high road and ignore you, the doubts, unrequited, will be even stronger. If done correctly, the sowing of rumors can so infuriate and unsettle your rivals that in defending themselves they will make numerous
Mistakes. This is the perfect weapon for those who have no reputation of their own to work from. Number 3 … If you go too far in attacking another’s reputation, it draws more attention to your wrongfulness than to the person you are slandering. Thomas Edison, considered the inventor who harnessed electricity, believed
That a workable system would have to be based on direct current. When the Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla appeared to have succeeded in creating a system based on alternating current, Edison was furious. He determined to ruin Tesla’s reputation, by making the public believe
That the AC system was inherently unsafe, and Tesla irresponsible in promoting it. To this end he captured all kinds of household pets and electrocuted them to death with an AC current. When this wasn’t enough, in 1890 he got New York State prison authorities to
Organize the world’s first execution by electrocution, using an AC current. But Edison’s electrocution experiments had all been with small creatures; the charge was too weak, and the man was only half killed. In perhaps the country’s crudest state-authorized execution, the procedure had to be repeated. It was an awful spectacle. Although, in the
Long run, it is Edison’s name that has survived, at the time his campaign damaged his own reputation more than Tesla’s. He backed off. The lesson is simple—never go too far in attacks like these, for that will draw more attention to your own wrongfulness than to the person you’re
Slandering. Law Number 6: Court Attention at all Cost. Law Number 6: Court Attention at all Cost. Be ostentatious and be seen. What is not seen is as though it did not exist. It was light that first caused all creation to shine forth.
Display fills up many blanks, covers up deficiencies, and gives everything a second life, especially when it is backed by genuine merit. Baltasar Gracian. Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried
In oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious, than the bland and timid masses. Why Fame Is Important In Every Field Of Work Burning more brightly than those around you
Is a skill that no one is born with. You have to learn to attract attention. At the start of your career, you must attach your name and reputation to a quality, an image, that sets you apart from other people. This image can be something like a characteristic style
Of dress, or a personality quirk that amuses people and gets talked about. Once the image is established, you have an appearance, a place in the sky for your star. Our first historical example: The court of Louis the Fifteenth contained many talented
Writers, artists, great beauties, and men and women of impeccable virtue, but no one was more talked about than the singular Duc de Lauzun. The duke was short, almost dwarfish, and he was prone to the most insolent kinds of behavior —he slept with the king’s mistress,
And openly insulted not only other courtiers but the king himself. Louis, however, was so beguiled by the duke’s eccentricities that he could not bear his absences from the court. It was simple: The strangeness of the duke’s character attracted attention. Once people were enthralled by him, they wanted him around all the time.
The great scientist Thomas Edison knew that to raise money he had to remain in the public eye at any cost. Almost as important as the inventions themselves was how he presented them to the public and courted attention. Edison would design visually dazzling experiments
To display his discoveries with electricity. He would talk of future inventions that seemed fantastic at the time, robots, and machines that could photograph thought, and that he had no intention of wasting his energy on, but that made the public talk about him. He
Did everything he could to make sure that he received more attention than his great rival Nikola Tesla, who may actually have been more brilliant than he was but whose name was far less known. In 1915, it was rumored that Edison and Tesla
Would be joint recipients of that year’s Nobel Prize in physics. The prize was eventually given to a pair of English physicists; only later was it discovered that the prize committee had actually approached Edison, but he had turned them down, refusing to share the prize
With Tesla. By that time his fame was more secure than Tesla’s, and he thought it better to refuse the honor than to allow his rival the attention that would have come even from sharing the prize. Let’s look at 6 Ways You Can Become famous
And make your ideas more popular than the competition’s. Number one, Attack the Sensational / Scandalous. If you find yourself in a lowly position that offers little opportunity for you to draw attention, an effective trick is to attack the most visible, most famous,
Most powerful person you can find. Example of Pietro Aretino: When Aretino, a a young Roman servant boy of the early sixteenth century, wanted to get attention as a writer of verses, he decided to publish a series of satirical poems ridiculing the pope and his affection
For a pet elephant. The attack put Aretino in the public eye immediately. A slanderous attack on a person in a position of power would have a similar effect. Remember, however, to use such tactics sparingly after you have the public’s attention, then the
Act can wear thin. Number two … Keep Reinventing Yourself Once in the limelight you must constantly renew it by adapting and varying your method of courting attention. If you don’t, the public will grow tired, will take you for granted, and will move on to a newer star. The game
Requires constant vigilance and creativity. Number 3, Be Unpredictable. People feel superior to the person whose actions they can predict. If you show them who is in control by playing against their expectations, you will gain their respect and tighten your hold on their
Fleeting attention. Pablo Picasso – The Greatest Painter In The World. Picasso never allowed himself to fade into the background; if his name became too attached to a particular style, he would deliberately upset the public with a new series of paintings that went against
All expectations. Better to create something ugly and disturbing, he believed, than to let viewers grow too familiar with his work. Number 4, Create an Air of Mystery. In a world growing increasingly banal and familiar, what seems enigthatic instantly draws attention.
Never make it too clear what you are doing or about to do. Do not show all your cards An air of mystery heightens your presence; it also creates anticipation —everyone will be watching you to see what happens next. Use mystery to beguile, seduce, even frighten.
If you do not declare yourself immediately, you arouse expectation. … Mix a little mystery with everything, and the very mystery stirs up veneration. And when you explain, be not too explicit. … In this manner you imitate the Divine way when you cause men to wonder
And watch. Baltasar Gracian. Number 5, Better to be Attacked Slandered Than Ignored. It is a common mistake to imagine that this peculiar appearance of yours should not be controversial, that to be attacked is somehow bad. Nothing could be further from
The truth. To avoid being a flash in the pan, and having your notoriety eclipsed by another, you must not discriminate between different types of attention; in the end, every kind will work in your favor. Welcome personal attacks and feel no need to defend yourself.
P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Entertainer in the World. Barnum learned about courting attention to his favor. Any form of publicity would benefit his entertainment business, no matter if it were bad publicity. He promoted his shows of curiosities to authences with all
Kinds of gimmicks. He would offer Free Music for Millions, but hire bad musicians, so the crowd would end up buying tickets to the show so they could avoid the bands. He planted articles in newspapers and even sent anonymous letters to keep his name in the limelight.
Number six. Make Yourself Appear Larger Than Life. Society craves larger-than-life figures, people who stand above the general mediocrity. Never be afraid, then, of the qualities that set you apart and draw attention to you. Court controversy, even scandal. It is better to
Be attacked, even slandered, than ignored. All professions are ruled by this law, and all professionals must have a bit of the showman about them! … Thank you for watching. Check out the full 30 minute version by clicking right here.
Dive into the enriching expanse of the illustrious illacertus Video Library boasting over 8 years of meticulously curated, ad-free content encompassing captivating animated videos and insightful readings on self-improvement books. Untethered from the constraints of censorship and demonetization, this repository stands as a beacon of independence, safeguarding every invaluable piece of its
Diverse collection. Immerse yourself in a vast array of audiobooks spanning philosophy, history, and personal development. Plus, seize the opportunity to enjoy an exclusive 30% discount for a full year, ensuring uninterrupted access to all updates and illuminating discoveries. Begin your exploration today! Law Number 7: Get Others to Do the Work for
You. Law Number 7: Get Others to Do the Work for You. Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you an aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers
Will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you. Thomas Edison was the consummate genius of other people’s efforts. After hiring a Serbian scientist and inventor by the name of Nikola Tesla who toiled day
And night to improve Edison’s antiquated invention, dynamos, or as we know them today generators. Tesla was told by Edison that he would receive $50,000 for redesigning this system of electrical current. Within a year Tesla created an improved version of the dynamo
And instead of receiving $50,000, he was given a raise by Edison who knew that his company would get credit for the work that was done by Tesla. Nikola Tesla is a prime example of what not to do. He was never credited for any of his
Work. He was the inventor of the alternate current system which is synonymous with Westinghouse. Financiers divested Tesla from the credit, patents and riches that he would have received which approximates at 12 million dollars instead of the $216,000 that he accepted as payment.
He was not even acknowledged for his patent filed in 1897 when another man, Marconi took credit for inventing the radio. Tesla is the true father of the radio. This is a sad yet true story about a man who was obsessed with his work, yet really never got
The accolades, or the money, nor the respect that he deserved. Edison on the other hand saw the requisite to hire the best in the field to do work that he himself would take credit for. This does not beg the question, who would you rather be? But it is a cautionary
Lesson. 4 Reasons Why You Should Utilize Others. Nobody likes a run-down, burned-out hero If you insist on doing all the work yourself then you will never get very far. Hiring someone or others to do the work for you will give you a godlike
Quality that others will admire. Take artist Peter Paul Rubens for example, he assembled a vast array of outstanding artists to paint canvases so that when a client would visit Rubens’s studio it appeared to the client that Rubens was working arduously on his painting when in essence the painting was already nearly finished.
Number 2 … There are some skills that you do not possess Hiring people who possess skills that you yourself lack is probably one of the wisest decisions you can make. Like in the case of artist Rubens, he hired different types of artists. One artist specialized in
Robes; another specialized in backgrounds and so on. This is what enabled him to appear to be working diligently on his paintings. Although he had procured others to do these paintings, he was able to put his name on the work, thus being the genius who got the
Credit and the money. Number 3 … Standing on the shoulders of giants can be brilliantly manipulated. Isaac Newton, a genius in his own right made his discoveries built on the achievement of others. Shakespeare borrowed plots and other works
From several writers and we can only guess how many people plagiarized the works of Shakespeare himself. Using the knowledge of the past just makes you a clever borrower and this in of itself is genius. Number 4 … Sharing the credit with others
There is absolutely nothing wrong with sharing the credit with someone especially when that someone is your superior. Take Henry Kissinger, the secretary of state under Richard Nixon. If it had not been for Kissinger’s diplomacy Nixon’s historic visit to the People’s
Republic of China would not have been as successful as it was. Knowing when to hold back by not hogging the spotlight is also a talent that will be beneficial in the long term. Be wise in your decision. Make sure that your position is unshakable or you will be accused
Of pushing people out of the limelight and deception is not a word that you want associated with you. Picture the vulture, he has it the easiest. The hard work of others becomes his work due to their failure to survive and they become his nourishment. While you are working
Hard, he is hovering. Do not fight him, join him. He is vigilant, ruthless and quiet. Three qualities that you must acquire to secure credit for an invention or creation until you can make it your own. The credit for an invention is as important, if not more important
Than the invention itself. Bismarck once said, “Fools say that they learn from experience, I prefer to profit by others experience.” Law Number 8: Make Other People Come To You – Use Bait if Necessary. When you force the other person to act, you
Are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with fabulous gains —then attack. You hold the cards. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, the foreign minister to Napoleon can attest to
This caveat. Talleyrand was a mastermind manipulator who was behind the dramatic escape of Napoleon after his exile to the island of Elba. Talleyrand knew that Napoleon’s arrogance was his weakness and he played to that weakness like a strategic poker player. Not showing his true feelings
Toward the emperor, Talleyrand bided his time, made the right connections, which helped create the most elaborate scheme to dethrone one of the world’s most infamous people, Napolean Bonaparte. These are some strategies to keep in mind during war times. Reacting rather
Than directing. Keep others reacting to your moves, keep them on the defensive. Play to their ineffectiveness to stay calm. Aggression versus effective action. Don’t waste a lot of energy trying to make your point, bide your time like Talleyrand. Make the other
Person come to you, set the bait. Control the situation. Know your opponents weakness. He who has control has the power. Master your emotions. Never be influenced through your anger. Aggressive people are never in control. Case and point: During the Russo-Japanese
War of 1904-1905, Japan was able to plant false information that made the Russian fleet go 6,000 miles out of the way and forced the Russians into hostile territory. The Russian seamen were weak and exhausted by the journey and although Japan had the weaker naval militia,
They planted the bait which gave them the upper-hand on the Russians and needless to say the Japanese crushed the Russians because of their reaction to the rumor. Now, 5 Benefits to making your opponents come to you It is a wise thing to lure your opponent
On hostile ground; it is a subtle way to put him on the defensive. Your opponent will be nervous which will cause him to rush his actions and make mistakes. You want to create the illusion that your opponent is in control of the situation. Oftentimes, your opponent’s
Greed, desires and emotions will be their great motivator which means that they can be easily led around and/or defeated. Getting people to dig their own graves forces their hand and makes you appear powerful and demand respect. Now, is there ever a good time to
Go to your opponent, you ask? Yes, of course there is an exception to the rule when you should go to your opponent. Depending on the situation, bait and wait is a wise choice but taking the lead to attack your opponent can be advantageous as well. The element of
Surprise does not give the opponent time to think of a counter attack. They are left at your mercy and must respond to your terms. Your biggest issue is to know what tactic to use and the right time to use it To bait and wait or to strike with force, that is
The dilemma. You can be like the bear hunter who lays the honey bait trap. He doesn’t exhaust himself and risk his life to find the bear he lays a trap and waits patiently for the bear to come to him. Or if time is not on your side, strike quickly to intimidate
And control. Choose your approach wisely. Law Number 9: Win Through Your Actions – Not Through Argument. Law number nine … Win Through Your Actions – Never Through Argument Any momentary triumph you think you have gained through argument
Is really a Pyrrhic victory: The resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.
Take the example of the engineer in Athens receiving orders from his commander Mucianus to send the largest ship’s mast to be used to help in the siege of the town of Pergumus. The engineer argued that what the commander needed was not the larger mast, but the smaller
Which would be better suited for the task. Mucianus was infuriated and sent for the engineer who continued to try to explain his reasoning for sending the smaller mast. For his disobedience, he was flogged and scourged with rods until he died. The engineer’s argument went on
Deaf ears. Nobody cared whether or not it was more prudent to use the smaller mast. The fact of the matter was that a superior gave a command and he decided that by insulting the intelligence of his master by arguing was more important.
Unlike Michelangelo, the engineer did not exercise the correctness of his ideas indirectly. When Florence’s mayor, Piero Sorderini told Michelangelo that the nose on his sculpture that he had been commissioned to do of a young David with sling in hand was too big, e did
Not argue that the nose was just right, Michelangelo merely took the mayor onto the scaffolding and gave the appearance of changing the nose. Sorderini was pleased and no one was offended. You’ve definitely heard the old adage, “Actions speak louder than words.” Actions and demonstrations
Are much more powerful than any rhetoric that one can spew out his mouth. There are no offensive words, no possibility of misinterpretation. No one can argue with demonstrated proof. As Baltasar Gracian remarks, “The truth is generally seen, rarely heard.” Yet beyond
Actions, the most powerful persuasion is symbolic. Symbols like a flag or mythic story or monument is something we all understand without the exchanging of one word. Henry Kissinger, who in 1979 suddenly broke off an intense meeting with the Israelis over
The return of the Sinai desert to go sight-seeing to an ancient place and Masada, Masada is where seven thousand Jewish warriors were said to commit mass suicide in A.D. 73 rather than give in to the Roman troops. The Israelis knew that Kissinger’s message was much more
Than just a warning; it was a significant emotional symbol that made them think far more seriously than any oratorical rhetoric he could have placated. Choose Your Battles Wisely Sometimes it is best to conserve your energy and walk away. Then there are other
Times when the heat of an argument will be beneficial to you. On the opposite end of the spectrum it is advantageous to argue with all the convictions you can muster. The more emotional, the better, especially when caught in a web of deception, you need to draw the
Other person into the argument so as to distract and confuse. Phases of a Convincing Deceptive Argument 1. Feign ignorance: Like the con artist, Victor Lustig who sold boxes for $10,000 and claimed that the boxes could make money. When confronted
By Sheriff Richards of Remsen County, Oklahoma that the box did not work, he acted as if he could not believe it. He went as far as to ask the sheriff if he had operated it properly. This is the way to place doubt in the mind of the offended party. I mean, that’s hilarious
– a box that can make money. Two Put a technical spin or rhetoric on the deception: In the case of Lustig, he was masterful in his wording about the box. This was nothing more than a bunch of technical jobber jabber that further confused the sheriff, who then let his guard
Down because of his own insecurity about the function of the box. 3. Offer something for nothing: Lustig offered to give the sheriff his money back and to come back to the town to fix the box although he knew that the box would never work and the money was not real.
He diffused a situation that could have been deadly for him. He had won the argument and was able to get the sheriff jailed for passing counterfeit bills in the process. Law Number 10: Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky. Law Number 10: Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky.
You can die from someone else’s misery—emotional states are as infectious as diseases. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you.
Associate with the happy and fortunate instead. The infector possesses an inward instability that radiates outward drawing disaster to all that they touch. Marie Gilbert also known as Lola Montez of Ireland was one such person. Lola found herself in the role of a courtesan (prostitute of the royal court). In today’s society Lola
Would be considered a gold-digger. She only sought out men with high social standing in the community that she could use for her own gain. Once she would have her hooks in these men, their slow demise began. One of her victims was king Ludwig of Bavaria,
Who felt compelled to help Lola yet once he was warned of the dangers of his affair with her, he could not seem to resist Lola’s aura and almost found his once peaceful country in a state of civil war. It was not until then that the king finally ordered Lola to
Leave but a month after she left King Ludwig was forced to relinquish his throne. There are many men who suffered because of their association with Lola Montez. King Ludwig said that he was “bewitched” by Lola. Lola was an unstable, incurable and infectious
Character type. This is not to say that these characteristics are only restricted to women, this is to say that there are some people whose emotions are so powerful that they infect the very soul of the people that they touch. How to Recognize an Infector. 1. They draw
Misfortune upon themselves. 2. They have a turbulent past. 3. They have a long line of broken relationships. 4. They have an unstable career. 5. They have a forceful character that sweeps you up and makes you lose reason. 6. They have a desire to destroy and unsettle
And is chronically dissatisfied. 7. Look at the effect that they have on the world around them. What to Do When You Meet an Infector. 1. Don’t argue with them, this is part of how they trap you. 2. Don’t try to help them no matter
What they say. 3. Don’t pass the person onto your friends or you will become enmeshed. 4. Flee the infector’s presence or suffer the consequences. Learn To Fear the Power of Infection. The risk of associating with infectors is that
You will waste valuable time and energy trying to free yourself. Through a kind of guilt by association, you will also suffer in the eyes of others. On the other side of the spectrum of infectors are those people who attract happiness through their good cheer, natural
Buoyancy, and intelligence. They are a source of pleasure, and you must associate with them to share in the prosperity they draw upon themselves. All positive qualities can infect us, but taking advantage of the emotional side of this osmosis may be difficult.
5 Ways to Affect Positive Change through Your Associations. 1. If you are miserly by nature, associate with the generous and they will infect you, opening up everything that is tight and restricted in you. Only generous souls attain greatness. 2. If you are gloomy,
Gravitate to the cheerful. 3. If you are prone to isolation, force yourself to befriend the gregarious. Recognize the fortunate so that you may choose their company and the unfortunate so that you may avoid them. Misfortune is usually
The crime of folly, and among those who suffer from it there is no malady more contagious: Never open your door to the least of misfortunes, for, if you do, many others will follow in its train… Do not die of another’s misery. Baltasar Gracian. Law Number 11: Learn To Keep People Dependent on You.
To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.
Necessity rules the world. People rarely act unless compelled to. If you create no need for yourself, then you will be done away with at first opportunity. If, on the other hand, you understand the Laws of Power and make others depend on you for their welfare, if
You can counteract their weakness with your own “iron and blood,” as Bismarck said. Then you will survive your masters just as he did. You will have all the benefits of power without the thorns that come from being a master. Bismarck understood the importance of keeping
People dependent. He sought out a weak ruler, Frederick William IV, king of Prussia and created a relationship of dependency. He was a key player in restoring the king’s power so much so that when the king died, his brother who preceded him depended on Bismarck as well.
Bismarck became their strength, their intelligence and their spine and in the process, he became a powerful force to reckon with, he was the man behind the throne, calling the shots. 10 Ways to Manipulate Power. 1. Do seek out weak people in power. Seeking out those already
In power is foolish. They will swallow you up and spit you out. They do not need anything from you 2. Get people to do as you wish without force or hurt. If you have to bully someone into doing what you want, that is not power. The key is making the person believe that
Your services are needed and without you they will be completely lost. 3. Enmesh yourself in the work of your superior By doing this your superior knows that to get rid of you is futile. They can not afford to train another without losing time and a lot of money. 4.
Possess a talent and creative skill that simply cannot be replaced. People will think twice before getting rid of you because to get rid of you may spell disaster or even death. 5. Create a situation in which you can always latch on to another patron This just simply
Means you have other places that will welcome your skills and talents in your sights. Your employer knows that they cannot easily find another worker with your particular talent so they will jump hoops to keep you in their employ. 6. Have the appearance of specialized
Knowledge and skill This gives you leeway in your ability to deceive those above you into thinking they cannot do without you. It is always in your power to make your skills indispensible. 7. Wrap yourself around the source of power You have placed yourself in
A position that to cut you away would cause great trauma. You do not necessarily have to entwine yourself around the superior; another person will do, as long as he or she too is indispensable in the chain. 8. Use the secret intelligence tactic By knowing people’s
Secrets, you seal your position with them. The downside to this is that the paranoia and insecurity that the power that it provides cancels itself out. What good is power without peace? 9. Do not imagine your superior’s dependence on you will make them love you
It is more than likely that they resent and fear you, which is better that they fear the consequences of losing you rather than out of love for your company. 10. Better to place yourself in a position of mutual dependence The weakness of making others depend on you
Is that you are in some measure dependent on them. Although this is true, you will not have the unbearable pressure of being on top, and your superior will in essence be your slave, for he will depend on you. Louis XI (1423-1483) the great Spider King of France
Once asked his astrologer to tell of his own fate and how long he had to live. The astrologer replied, “I shall die just three days before Your Majesty.” The king was vexed because he had planned to kill the astrologer that day fearing the astrologer had killed people
To prove his forcasting or that his might in astrology was real and therefore dangerous in of itself. The king spared his life, looked after him, gave him gifts and even had several doctors check his health to ensure he would live as long as possible. The astrologer actually
Survived the king by several years, proving his mastery of power. Law Number 12: Use Selective Honesty to Disarm Your Victim. One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your
Selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift—a Trojan horse—will serve the same purpose. 7 Ways You Can Disarm Anyone. 1. Through an act of apparent sincerity and honesty. This
Is called selective honesty. Who will distrust a person literally caught in the act of being honest? This is an unexpected, well-timed gesture that conflicts the emotions and distracts the one being disarmed and have the most brutal and cynical beast in the kingdom eating out
Of your hand. In ancient China this was called the “giving before the take.” The giving makes it hard for the other person to see the taking. Count Victor Lustig is one of the best examples of this law at work. Lustig was a con man of great distinction, refinement
And culture, and his knowledge of human psychology was his most important characteristic. He was so confident in himself that he was able to con Al Capone, the most feared gangster of his time, out of $5,000. Capone never knew what happened because Lustig disarmed him
Through selective honesty. Lustig returned $50,000 to Capone for allowing him to take the money in order to double it in sixty-days. Lustig took the money and left it in a safety deposit box until the sixty-days were up. He went back to Capone, apologized profusely
About the deal falling through and returned the original $50,000. Capone had already pegged Lustig as a con artist, but when Lustig returned the money, it confused Capone and he dropped his guard and gave Lustig $5,000 just for “being honest.”
2. Learn to give before you take. It softens the ground, takes the bite out of a future request, or simply creates a distraction. And the giving can take many forms: an actual gift, a generous act, a kind favor, an “honest” admission—whatever it takes. 3. Use selective
Honesty on your first encounter with someone. First impressions last a long time. If someone believes you are honest at the start of your relationship it takes a lot to convince them otherwise. A con man by the name of Lord John Gordon-Gordon proved to Jay Gould, another
Con man, that phony Erie railroad stocks that Gould had invested in was the work of top executives at railroad. Gould was so grateful to Gordon-Gordon that they became friends buying the controlling interest of the railroad. Soon Gordon-Gordon betrayed Gould and disappeared.
Gordon-Gordon was a con man, but his initial act of honesty and support had so blinded Gould that it took the loss of millions for him to see through the scheme 4. You must build a reputation for honesty based on a series of acts. Duke Wu of Cheng married off
His daughter and killed one of his ministers in order to take over the powerful kingdom of Hu. The ruler of Hu heard that the minister was executed for telling Cheng to conquer the kingdom of Hu. Hu’s ruler also considered the marriage of Cheng’s daughter and other
Acts of kindness from Cheng and let down his guard. A few weeks later Cheng forces swept through Hu and took the country, never to relinquish it. 5. Give a gift. Few people can resist a gift, even from the most hardened enemy, which is why it is often the perfect
Way to disarm people. A gift brings out the child in us, instantly lowering our defenses. Although we often view other people’s actions in the most cynical light, we rarely see the Machiavellian element of a gift, which quite often hides ulterior motives. A gift is the
Perfect object in which to hide a deceptive move. 6. Practice the tactic with caution. Unless you can make the gesture seem sincere and heartfelt, DO NOT PLAY WITH FIRE. If people see through it, their disappointed feelings of gratitude and warmth will become the most
Violent hatred and distrust. 7. It is better to play the rogue When you have a history of deceit behind you, no amount of honesty, generosity, or kindness will fool people. In fact it will only call attention to itself. Once people have come to see you as deceitful,
To act honest all of a sudden is simply suspicious. Overt deceptiveness will sometimes cover your tracks, even making you admired for the honesty of your dishonesty. if you’re known for lying, don’t lie about not lying. “Step into the annals of the illacertus Video
Library—a digital archive rich with 8 years of ad-free content. Delve into the depths of audiobooks, animations, and more, spanning philosophy, history and personal development. Secure a timeless 30% off for a year. Begin your expedition today!” Law Number 13: Asking for Help Appeal to People’s Self Interest.
If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of
All proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself. Self-Interest Is the Lever that Moves People The art of asking people for help depends on your ability to understand the person you are dealing with, and to not confuse your
Needs with theirs. Know that even the most powerful person is locked inside needs of his own, and that if you make no appeal to his self-interest, he merely sees you as desperate or, at best, a waste of time. What Not To Do When Making Your Appeal 1. Don’t bring
Up the past Bringing up the past, rather good or bad, will not help you in your cause. The justice and nobility of your cause will not prevail. Not only is a man not obliged to be grateful, gratitude is often a terrible burden that he gladly discards. It is best
To speak pragmatically to pragmatic people. People rarely act against their own interests. As in the case of the Corcyrans and the Corinthians who were at the brink of war with one another. They both wanted to win over the Athenians as an ally because to do so, would surely
Win the war. Both sides were to send representatives to plead their case to the Athenians. The Corcyra representative could only offer one thing and that was an alliance of mutual interests to create a formidable force that could intimidate the rival state of Sparta. The representative
From Corinth only talked about their past relationship with Athens and went on to list the many services Corinth had performed for Athens, and the importance of showing gratitude to one’s friends. Needless to say, The Athenians were offended by the Corinthian ambassador
By his subtle way of asking them to feel guilty about past generosities. The Athenians could have cared less and allied with the Corcyrans. 2. Don’t Be Trapped In Your Own Wants and Desires Do not start from the assumption that the people you are appealing to have a selfless
Interest in helping you. Don’t talk as if your needs matter to people—they probably could care less, especially referring to larger issues: a great cause, or grand emotions such as love and gratitude when simple, everyday realities would have much more appeal. When
The Dutch began to arrive in Japan in great numbers, Ieyasu, the Japanese emperor, was much relieved. He needed Europeans for their know-how in guns and navigation, and here at last were Europeans who cared nothing for spreading religion—the Dutch wanted only
To trade. Ieyasu swiftly moved to evict the Portuguese who were desperately trying to convert the Japanese people to Catholicism. From then on, he would only deal with the practical-minded Dutch. Japan and Holland were vastly different cultures, but each shared a timeless and universal concern: self-interest. 3. Don’t confuse your needs with others
Once you make people see how you can in some way meet their needs or advance their cause, their resistance to your requests for help will magically fall away. At each step on the way to acquiring power, you must train yourself to think your way inside the other
Person’s mind, to see their needs and interests, to get rid of the screen of your own feelings that obscure the truth. Master this art and there will be no limits to what you can accomplish. The Motivation is Superiority Believe it, or not, there are people who are not motivated
Through cynical self-interests. These are people who thrive on opportunities to display their good heart. They prefer to be able to exercise charity, mercy, and justice, which are their ways of feeling superior to you: Because of their superior position, if you
Ask this person for help, you emphasize their power and position. The only requirement from you is that all of this is done in public, the more public, the better. It is truly their pleasure to give and to be seen giving. They are dying to fund your project, to introduce
You to powerful people—this is the wine that intoxicates them. You must have the wisdom to distinguish the differences among powerful people and figure out what makes them tick. When they ooze greed, do not appeal to their charity. When they want to look charitable
And noble, do not appeal to their greed. Law Number 14: Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy. Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself. In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to
Get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying. 5 Reasons to Secretly Put the Clients’ Staff on Your Payroll 1. You will gain some valuable information. 2. You will know their comings and goings,
Changes in taste, and other such tidbits of information that will be priceless. 3. You will appear to be all knowing because you will be one step ahead of your competition. 4. Your knowledge of your mark can also make you seem charming, so well can you anticipate
His desires. 5. No one sees the source of your power, and what they cannot see they cannot fight. The Risks of Hiring Spies · You have little control over the people who are doing the work. · Perhaps they will ineptly expose your spying. · They may secretly turn
Against you. 6 Tips on the Art of SPYING. 1. Pose as a friend while secretly gathering information. People will think that you genuinely like them and mistake your interest as friendship. 2. Learn to possess the ability to suppress your thoughts in the conversation, speak when only necessary. 3. Learn to make others talk
Endlessly about themselves. They will inadvertently reveal their intentions and plans. 4. Organize social gathering with people whom you are interested in knowing. This is when most people’s guards are down. 5. Stir up people’s emotions by contradicting them. In their emotional
State they will reveal all kinds of truths about themselves, truths you can later use against them. 6. Give them a false confession. By pretending to bare your heart to another person, you make them more likely to reveal their own secrets. This can also be a test
To see if you can trust the person with your secret and reveal their true character, loyalty and honesty. This kind of knowledge is often the most valuable to predict future actions. The Risks of Spying Directly. People may begin to suspect you are worming secrets out of
Them under the guise of conversation. · Your search for gems of information cannot be too obvious. Your probing questions will reveal more about yourself and your intentions than about the information you hope to find about them. Information is critical to power, but
Just as you spy on other people, you must be prepared for them to spy on you. One of the most potent weapons in the battle for information, then, is giving out false information. By feeding people wrong information, then, you gain a potent advantage. While spying
Gives you a third eye, disinformation puts out one of your enemy’s eyes. A Cyclops, he always misses his target. Law Number 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally. All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely.
(Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush
Him, not only in body but in spirit. 4 Ways to Kill or be Killed 1. Do not sympathize with your enemies. Your enemy will bide his time and strike back when you least expect. 2. When you pity or hope for reconciliation, it will make you hesitate. They may act friendly
For the time being, but they will eventually destroy you 3. An enemy that is left around is like a half-dead viper that you nurse back to health. You only strengthen their fear and hatred of you. 4. Give your enemies nothing to negotiate, no hope, no room to maneuver.
Do not humiliate, yet nurture these resentful vipers who will one day kill you. This is all the truer with a former friend who has become an enemy. The law governing fatal antagonisms reads: Reconciliation is out of the question. You must exterminate, crush, and deny them
The chance to return to haunt you. Such is the case of Hsiang Yu and his enemy Liu Pang. Hsiang had proven his ruthlessness on many an occasion, but with Liu Pang he acted differently. Every time he had his rival in his hands, something made him hesitate. A fatal sympathy
Or respect for the man who had once been a friend and comrade in arms. But the moment Hsiang made it clear that he intended to do away with Liu, yet failed to accomplish it, he sealed his own doom. Liu would not suffer the same hesitation once the tables were turned.
Now Hsiang Yu was on the run from Liu and when he came upon a small group of his own retreating soldiers, he cried out, “I hear Liu Pang has offered one thousand pieces of gold and a fief of ten thousand families for his head. Let me do you a favor.” He then
Slits his own throat and dies. It is not, of course, a question of murder, it is a question of banishment. Sufficiently weakened and then exiled from your world, your enemies are rendered harmless. They have no hope of recovering, insinuating themselves
And hurting you. And if they cannot be banished, at least understand that they are plotting against you, and pay no heed to whatever friendliness they feign. Sometimes It Is Better To Let Your Enemies Destroy Themselves Leave your enemy an escape route. A retreat is the ultimate
Demoralizing defeat. Let them be the agents of their own destruction. The result will be the same. The risk of crushing an enemy is you embitter them so much so that they spend years and years plotting revenge. Do not let your guard down, but simply crush
Them again. Law Number 16: Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor. Too much circulation makes the price go down: the more you’re seen and heard from, the more common you appear. If you’re already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked-about, even more admired.
You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity. At the start of an affair, you need to heighten your presence in the eyes of the other. If you absent yourself too early, you may be forgotten. But once your lover’s emotions are engaged, and the
Feeling of love has crystallized, absence inflames and excites. Giving no reason for your absence excites even more: The other person assumes he or she is at fault. While you are away, the lover’s imagination takes flight, and a stimulated imagination cannot
Help but make love grow stronger. Conversely, when you become too present, too accessible, leaving no room for the imagination, the more you pursue, the less they love you. … What withdraws, what becomes scarce, suddenly seems to deserve our respect and honor. What stays
Too long, inundating us with its presence, makes us disdain it. Take the romance of Sir Guillaume de Balaun and Madame Guillelma de Javiac. (…) I’m just going to call her GELMA Guillelma de Javiac. Guillaume was the perfect knight,
Who wrote poetry and songs to Madame Guillelma. She fell deeply in love with him, but because he wanted to feel the ultimate bliss that comes with reconciliation after a quarrel, he feigned great anger with her and left. In order for his plan to work, she would have
To be upset with him, but his leaving only made her long for him more, so his plan, in essence, had backfired. When he saw her again, he drove her away with harsh words and threatening gestures that she vowed never to see him again. He regretted what he had done so he rode to
Javiac, but the lady would not receive him, and ordered her servants to chase him away. Over the next year, Sir Guillaume wrote many letters and poems to her and was miserable without her. She finally forgave him and this is when he finally experienced the joy that
Comes with reconciliation after a quarrel. Absence diminishes minor passions and inflames great ones, as the wind douses a candle and fans a fire. La Rochefoucauld. Here are The 10 Games of Hide-and-Seek. A strong presence will draw power and attention to you. Shine
More brightly than those around you. Too much presence creates the opposite effect: The more you are seen and heard from, the more your value degrades. You must learn to withdraw yourself before you are unconsciously pushed away. Starve the other person of your presence.
Force their respect by threatening the possibility that they will lose you for good. By completely withdrawing for a while, you create a kind of death before death. When you come back, it will be as if you had come back from the dead. And lastly an air of resurrection will
Cling to you, and people will be relieved at your return. The Other Side of the Coin. This law only applies once a certain level of power has been attained. The need to withdraw only comes after you have established your
Presence; leave too early and you do not increase your respect, you are simply forgotten. When you are first entering onto the world’s stage, create an image that is recognizable, reproducible, and is seen everywhere. Until that status Until that status is attained, absence is dangerous. Instead of fanning the flames, it will extinguish them.
Law Number 17: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability. Law Number 17: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability. Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people’s actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately
Unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off- balance and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves. Taken to an extreme, this strategy can intimidate and terrorize. 5 Ways to Keep Your Opponent Off-Balance. 1. Appear to have no clear strategy. 2. Scramble
Old patterns. 3. Alter your behavior, to improvise and overcome the weight of routine and habit 4. Unsettle those around you to keep the initiative on their side 5. Strike without warning, to make others tremble when they least expect it. To illustrate this law we will use the
Game of chess. Chess, contains the concentrated essence of life: First, because to win you have to be supremely patient and farseeing; and second, because the game is built on patterns, whole sequences of moves that have been played before and will be played again, with slight
Alterations, in any one match. Your opponent analyzes the patterns you are playing and uses them to try to foresee your moves. Allowing him nothing predictable to base his strategy on gives you a big advantage. In chess as in life, when people cannot figure out what
You are doing, they are kept in a state of terror—waiting, uncertain, confused. It is a device that the powerful have used for centuries Scrambling your patterns on a day-to-day basis will cause a stir around you and stimulate interest. People will talk about you, ascribe
Motives and explanations that have nothing to do with the truth, but that keep you constantly in their minds. In the end, the more capricious you appear, the more respect you will garner. Only the terminally subordinate act in a predictable manner! 2 Reasons that ‘Predictability’ Will Work In Your Favor.
1. It sets up a smoke screen, a comfortable front behind which you can carry on deceptive actions. 2. It allows you on rare occasions to do something completely against the pattern, unsettling your opponent so deeply he will fall to the ground without being pushed. In
1974 Muhammad Ali and George Foreman were scheduled to fight for the world heavyweight boxing championship. In a press conference before the big fight, he said he was going to change his style and punch it out with Foreman. No one, least of all Foreman, believed
This for a second. To everyone’s amazement, Ali did exactly what he had said he would do. As Foreman waited for him to dance around, Ali went right up to him and slugged it out. He completely upset his opponent’s strategy. At a loss, Foreman ended up wearing himself
Out, not by chasing Ali but by throwing punches wildly, and taking more and more counterpunches. Finally, Ali landed a dramatic right cross that knocked out Foreman. The habit of assuming that a person’s behavior will fit its previous patterns is so strong that not even Ali’s
Announcement of a strategy change was enough to upset it. Foreman walked into a trap—the trap he had been told to expect. Law Number 18: Isolation is Dangerous. The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere. everyone has to protect themselves. a fortress
Seems the safest but isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from. it cuts you off from valuable information. it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. better to circulate among people, find allies and mingle. you are shielded from your enemies by the crowd. Here’s five dangers that isolation brings.
You lose contact with the sources of your power. you lose your ear for what is happening around you. you lose your sense of proportion. you cut yourself off from the kind of knowledge on which your life depends. you cannot hear what is happening around you including the
Plots against you. it becomes harder to break out of your isolation when you choose to. it sinks you deep into it’s quicksand without your noticing. compare and contrast the lives of Ch’in Shih Huang Ti the first emperor of China and Louis the 14th after outlawing the
Writings and teachings of the great philosopher Confucius. Anyone who quoted Confucius was to be beheaded. This made many enemies for the emperor, and he grew constantiy afraid, even paranoid. The executions mounted. A contemporary, the writer Han-fei-tzu, noted “Ch’in has been victorious for four generations, yet has lived in constant terror and apprehension
Of destruction.” He grew constantly afraid and even paranoid. louis xiv on the other hand very early grasped the truth that for a king to isolate himself is gravely dangerous putting himself on the center stage, always. the emperor on the other
Hand withdrew deeper and deeper into his palace to protect themselves and he slowly lost control of the realm. he slept in a different room every night and anyone who inadvertently laid eyes on him was instantly beheaded. Due to his absence his ministers enacted political
Policies without his approval or even his knowledge and also plotted against him. louis xiv knew that if he was absent conspiracies would spring up like mushrooms after rain. animosities will crystallize into factions and rebellion will break out before he has the time to react. Ch’in Shih Huang Ti travelled incognito disguising
Himself carefully. on one such trip through the provinces he suddenly died. he died alone far from his wife, his family, his friends and his courtiers accompanied only by a minister and a handful of eunuchs. Some speculate he was poisoned by the same scheming ministers who encouraged his isolation.
Louis the Fourteenth on the other hand built the palace of versailles where he took center stage. Some fifty years of relative peace and tranquility followed. Through it all not a pin dropped without Louis the Fourteenth hearing it. Place yourself at the center of activity. Do not feel threatened. Do not retreat and
Close ranks. To find security in a kind of fortress fight the desire to turn inward. Do not merely rely on information from a small circle. Do not lose maneuverability and become an easy target. As in warfare and most games of strategy isolation often precedes defeat
And death. Make yourself more accessible. Seek out old allies and make new ones. Force yourself into more and more different circles. If you need time to think, then choose isolation only as the last resort. Keep your way back into society open. Mingling with the crowd
That kind of mobility and social contact will protect you from plotters who will be unable to keep secrets from you, never sitting or settling in one place. No hunter can fix his aim on such a swift moving creature. Law Number 19: Do Not Offend the Wrong Person.
There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing.
Choose your victims and opponents carefully. Never offend or deceive the wrong person! Here are the 5 Most Dangerous and Difficult Typs of People, that you will definately stumble upon at some point in your life. 1. The Arrogant and Proud Man Although he
May initially disguise it, this man’s touchy pride makes him very dangerous. Any perceived slight will lead to a vengeance of overwhelming violence. You may say to yourself, “But I only said such-and-such at a party, where everyone was drunk. …” It does not matter.
There is no sanity behind his overreaction, so do not waste time trying to figure him out. If at any point in your dealings with a person you sense as oversensitive with overactive pride, flee, run away! Whatever you are hoping for from this person, isn’t worth it.
2. The Hopelessly Insecure Man This man is related to the proud and arrogant type, but is less violent and harder to spot. His ego is fragile, his sense of self insecure, and if he feels himself deceived or attacked, the hurt will simmer. He will attack you in
Bites that will take forever to get big enough for you to notice. If you find you have deceived or harmed such a man, disappear for a long time. Do not stay around him or he will nibble you to death. 3. Mr. Suspicion He sees what he wants to
See—usually the worst—in other people, and imagines that everyone is after him. Mr. Suspicion is in fact the least dangerous of the three: Genuinely unbalanced, he is easy to deceive, just as Stalin himself was constantly deceived. Play on his suspicious nature to
Get him to turn against other people. But if you do become the target of his suspicions, watch out. 4. The Serpent with a Long Memory If hurt or deceived, this man will show no anger on the surface; he will calculate and wait. Then,
When he is in a position to turn the tables, he will exact a revenge marked by a cold-blooded shrewdness. Recognize this man by his calculation and cunning in the different areas of his life. He is usually cold and unaffectionate. Be doubly careful of this snake, and if you
Have somehow injured him, either crush him completely or get him out of your sight. 5. The Plain, Unassuming, and Often Unintelligent Man The danger with this man is not that he will harm you or seek revenge, but merely that he will waste your time, energy, resources,
And even your sanity in trying to deceive him. Have a test ready for him—a joke or a story. If his reaction is utterly literal, this is the type you are dealing with. Continue at your own risk. 5 Final Words of Caution. 1. In judging and
Measuring your opponent, never rely on your instincts. You will make the greatest mistakes of all if you rely on such inexact indicators. Nothing can substitute for gathering concrete knowledge. Study and spy on your opponent for however long it takes; this will pay off
In the long run. 2. Never trust appearances. Anyone with a serpent’s heart can use a show of kindness to cloak it; a person who is blustery on the outside is often really a coward. Learn to see through appearances and their contradictions. Never trust the version that people give of themselves—it is utterly unreliable.
3. If you want to turn people down, it is best to do so politely and respectfully, even if you feel their request is impudent or their offer ridiculous. Never reject them with an insult until you know them better; you may be dealing with a Genghis Khan.
4. Some people’s insecurity and ego fragility cannot tolerate the slightest offense. To see if you are dealing with such a type, test them first—make, say, a mild joke at their expense. A confident person will laugh; an overly insecure one will react as if personally
Insulted. If you suspect you are dealing with this type, find another victim. 5. Swallow the impulse to offend, even if the other person seems weak. The satisfaction is meager compared to the danger that someday he or she will be in a position to hurt you.
Law Number 20: Do Not Commit to Anyone. It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others— playing people against one another, making them pursue you. Do Not
Commit To Anyone but Be Courted By All If you allow people to feel they possess you to any degree, you lose all power over them. By not committing your affections, they will only try harder to win you over. Stay aloof and you gain the power that comes from their
Attention and frustrated desire. Play the Virgin Queen: Give them hope but never satisfaction. The Aura of Power Grows With Time. You must learn the tricks that will enhance your image. Emanate mystery and desirability, never discouraging anyone’s hopes but never
Yielding. When you hold yourself back, you incur not anger but a kind of respect. You instantly seem powerful because you make yourself un-graspable, rather than succumbing to the group, or to the relationship, as most people do. As your reputation for independence grows,
More and more people will come to desire you, wanting to be the one who gets you to commit. The moment you commit, the magic is gone. You become like everyone else. People will try all kinds of underhanded methods to get you to commit. They will give you gifts; shower
You with favors, all to put you under obligation. Accept the gifts and favors if you so desire, but be careful to maintain your inner aloofness. You cannot inadvertently allow yourself to feel obligated to anyone. Encourage the attention, stimulate their interest, but do not commit
At any cost. The goal is not to put people off, or to make it seem that you are incapable of commitment. You have to bend to their attention occasionally, then—but never too far. Desire is like a virus: If we see that someone is desired by other people, we tend to find this
Person desirable as well. Like the Virgin Queen, you need to stir the pot, excite interest, and lure people with the possibility of having you. Do Not Commit To Anyone – Stay Above the Fray. Do not let people drag you into their petty
Fights and squabbles. Seem interested and supportive, but find a way to remain neutral; let others do the fighting while you stand back, watch and wait. When the fighting parties are good and tired they will be ripe for the picking. You can make it a practice, in fact,
To stir up quarrels between other people, and then offer to mediate, gaining power as the go-between. Master Your Emotions Do not allow whatever compassion and pity you possess to suck you in. You must seem interested in other people’s problems; even sometimes appear
To take their side. You must maintain your inner energy and sanity by keeping your emotions disengaged. Never let your interest in their affairs and petty squabbles go beyond the surface. Give them gifts, listen with a sympathetic look, even occasionally play the charmer—but
Inwardly keep them all at arm’s length. By refusing to commit and thus maintaining your autonomy you retain the initiative. Your moves stay a matter of your own choosing, not defensive reactions to the push-and-pull of those around you. Attention Both parts
Of this law will turn against you if you take it too far. The game proposed here is delicate and difficult. If you play too many parties against one another, they will see through the maneuver and will gang up on you. If you keep your growing number of suitors waiting
Too long, you will inspire not desire but distrust. People will start to lose interest. Eventually you may find it worthwhile to commit to one side—if only for appearances’ sake, to prove you are capable of attachment. Even then, however, the key will be to maintain
Your inner independence—to keep yourself from getting emotionally involved. Preserve the unspoken option of being able to leave at any moment and reclaim your freedom if the side you are allied with starts to collapse. The friends you made while you were being
Courted will give you plenty of places to go once you jump ship. Did you know that Robert Greene drew a lot of inspiration from various historical classics from history? Like Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Machiavelli’s The Prince and many, many more.
What if I told you that I have gone out of my way to create up to 60 audiobooks on the source material of the 48 Laws of Power at your fingertips on Gumroad 30% off with all illacertus-made content on top. Delve into it now!
Law Number 21: Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker. No one likes feeling stupider than the next person. The trick, then, is to make your victims feel smart—and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior
Motives. 6 Ways to Appear More Stupid Than the Mark 1. Never inadvertently insult or impugn a person’s brain power. 2. Subliminally reassure people that they are more intelligent than you are. 3. Convince them that you are a bit of a moron, and you can run rings around
Them. 4. The feeling of intellectual superiority you give them will disarm their suspicion-muscles. 5. Given how important the idea of intelligence is to most people’s vanity 6. Make people feel they are more sophisticated than you are and their guard will come down. The Swine
And the Tiger The Chinese have a phrase, “Masquerading as a swine to kill the tiger.” This refers to an ancient hunting technique in which the hunter clothes himself in the hide and snout of a pig, and mimics its grunting. Masquerading as a swine works wonders on those who, like
Tigers, are arrogant and overconfident: The easier they think it is to prey on you, the more easily you can turn the tables. This trick is also useful if you are ambitious yet find yourself low in the hierarchy: Appearing less intelligent than you are, even a bit
Of a fool, is the perfect disguise. Look like a harmless pig and no one will believe you harbor dangerous ambitions. They may even promote you since you seem so likable, and subservient. In general, men, always make people believe they are smarter and more sophisticated
Than you are. They will keep you around because you make them feel better about themselves, and the longer you are around, the more opportunities you will have to deceive them. The mighty tiger thinks a pig is coming his way, and lets it get close, savoring the prospect of
An easy meal. But it is the hunter who has the last laugh. Intelligence Can Pay-off To reveal the true nature of your intelligence rarely pays; you should get in the habit of downplaying it at all times. If people inadvertently learn the truth—that you are actually much
Smarter than you look—they will admire you more for being discreet than for making your brilliance show. At the start of your climb to the top, of course, you cannot play too stupid: You may want to let your bosses know, in a subtle way, that you are smarter than
The competition around you. As you climb the ladder, however, you should to some degree try to dampen your brilliance. There is, however, one situation where it pays to do the opposite— when you can cover up a deception with a show of intelligence. In matters of smarts as in
Most things, appearances are what count. If you seem to have authority and knowledge, people will believe what you say. This can be very useful in getting you out of a scrape. Law Number 22: Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into Power. When you are weak, never fight for honor’s sake; choose surrender instead. Surrender
Gives you time to recover, time to wait for his power to wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you- surrender first. By turning the other cheek, you infuriate and unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power.
8 Reasons to Surrender. 1. When you are weak, there is nothing to gain by fighting a useless fight. 2. No one comes to help a weaker adversary; they will not put themselves in danger. 3. You are alone and must submit. 4. Fighting gives you nothing but martyrdom. 5. People
Who do not believe in your cause also die. 6. Never sacrifice time for recovering in exchange for honor in a battle that you cannot win. 7. Surrender conceals great power. 8. Lulling your enemy into complacency gives you time to recoup, undermine and revenge.
In 473 B.C., in ancient China, King Goujian of Yue suffered a horrible defeat from the ruler of Wu in the battle of Fujiao. Goujian wanted to flee, but he had an adviser who told him to surrender and to place himself in the service of the ruler of Wu, from which
Position he could study the man and plot his revenge. Deciding to follow this advice, Goujian gave the ruler all of his riches, and went to work in his conqueror’s stables as the lowest servant. For three years he humbled himself before the ruler, who then, finally
Satisfied of his loyalty, allowed him to return home. Inwardly, however, Goujian had spent those three years gathering information and plotting revenge. When a terrible drought struck Wu, and the kingdom was weakened by inner turmoil, he raised an army, invaded,
And won with ease. That is the power behind surrender: It gives you the time and the flexibility to plot a devastating counter-blow. Had Goujian run away, he would have lost this chance. What is the Point of Surrendering? You use surrender to gain access to your enemy.
You learn his ways, insinuate yourself with him slowly, outwardly conform to his customs, but inwardly maintain your own culture. You will emerge victorious, for while he considers you weak and inferior, and takes no precautions against you, you are using the time to catch
Up and surpass him. This soft, permeable form of invasion is often the best, for the enemy has nothing to react against, prepare for, or resist The point of surrendering is to save your hide for a later date when you can reassert yourself. It is precisely to avoid
Martyrdom that one surrenders, but there are times when the enemy will not relent, and martyrdom seems the only way out. Furthermore, if you are willing to the surrender tactic, others may gain power and inspiration from your example. If you find yourself temporarily
Weakened, the surrender tactic is perfect for raising yourself up again—it disguises your ambition; it teaches you patience and self-control, key skills in the game; and it puts you in the best possible position for taking advantage of your oppressor’s
Sudden slide. If you run away or fight back, in the long run you cannot win. If you surrender, you will almost always emerge victorious. Law Number 23: Concentrate Your Forces. Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point.
You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another-intensity defeats extensity every time. When looking for sources of power to elevate you, find the one key patron, the fat cow who will give you milk for a long
Time to come Maybe you can relate to the following? Are you in a state of total distraction and diffusion, hardly able to keep your mind in one direction before you are pulled in a thousand others? The modern world’s level of conflict is higher than ever and you internalize it
In your life. The solution is a form of retreat inside yourself to the past, to more concentrated forms of thought and action. Single-mindedness of purpose. Total concentration on the goal. Then use these qualities against people less focused. Such an arrow will find its mark
Every time and overwhelm the enemy. This is what happened to ancient Athens, which lusted for the faraway island of Sicily and ended up losing its empire. The Romans stretched the boundaries of their empire to encompass vast territories; in doing so they increased their vulnerability, and the chances of invasion from yet another barbarian
Tribe. Their useless expansion led their empire into oblivion. Concentrate on a single goal, a single task, and beat it into submission. You will need help from other people, usually those who are more powerful than you. More energy is saved and more power attained when
You affix yourself to a single, appropriate source of power. Find out who controls the operation. Find out the real director behind the scenes. Power itself always exists in concentrated forms. In any organization it is inevitable for a small group to hold the
Strings. And often it is not those with the titles. In the game of power, only the fool flails about without fixing his target. You cannot hit two targets with one arrow. If your thoughts stray, you miss your enemies’ heart. Mind and arrow must become one.
Two Dangers in Concentration. When fighting a stronger army, concentrating your forces only makes you an easier target—better to dissolve into the scenery and frustrate your enemy with the elusiveness of your presence. Tying yourself to a single source of power
Has one preeminent danger: If that person dies, leaves, or falls from grace, you suffer. In cases when you may need protection, then, it is often wise to entwine yourself around several sources of power. Such a move would be especially prudent in periods of great
Tumult and violent change, or when your enemies are numerous. The more patrons and masters you serve the less risk you run if one of them falls from power. Such dispersion will even allow you to play one off against the other. Even if you concentrate on the single
Source of power, you still must practice caution, and prepare for the day when your master or patron is no longer there to help you. Finally, being too single-minded in purpose can make you an intolerable bore, especially in the arts.
Law Number 24: Play the Perfect Courtier. The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity. He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the most oblique and
Graceful manner. Learn and apply the laws of courtier-ship and there will be no limit to how far you can rise in the court. In the past the court garnered around the ruler, and had many functions: Besides keeping the ruler amused, it was a way to solidify the
Hierarchy of royalty, nobility, and the upper classes, and to keep the nobility both subordinate and close to the ruler, so that he could keep an eye on them. The court serves power in many ways, but most of all it glorifies the ruler, providing him with a microcosmic world
That must struggle to please him. Alexander the Great, conqueror of the Mediterranean basin and the Middle East through to India was mentored & tutored by the great Aristotle. He complained that on his long campaigns he could not discuss philosophical matters with anyone worthy of such a conversation. Aristotle suggested Alexander best take Callisthenes,
A former pupil of Aristotle and a promising philosopher with him on his journeys. But Callisthenes believed in pure philosophy, free from censorship – he would speak his mind instead of tailoring his words carefully as Aristotle had taught him. One day Callisthenes
Dared offend Alexander one too many times and was put to death. Being honest all the time will make more enemies than you can count. Criticism is to be given with extreme caution, best avoided or given indirectly as in the next example.
During the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago Chinese scholars compiled a series of writings called the 21 Histories, an official biography of each dynasty. In each history the scholars would write down “Unusual Events” such as earthquakes and floods, that could be historically verified, but among the listings one would find bizarre manifestations of two-headed
Sheep, geese flying backward, stars suddenly appearing in different parts of the sky. The emperor that the world revolved around was not easy to council. Many servants would find themselves fall out of favor, lose their positions and lives. When you criticize someone of great
Power, in his anger he sees the one criticizing, not the criticism itself. For that matter, the Chinese scholars came up with a way to hide themselves of the emperor’s eyes and advice him safely. Inserting sightings of strange phenomena into the court chronicles
Was the only way to warn him. The emperor would read of moons out of orbit and realize he was being cautioned. He was unbalancing the universe. Jean-Baptiste Isabey had become the unofficial painter of the Napoleonic court. He was to capture the historic events taking
Place after Napoleons defeat and imprisonment in an epic painting. Talleyrand, main negotiator of the French and the Duke of Wellington, the main negotiator of the English both approached him with the same request; to be the center of attention and to be in the very center
Of the painting. He created a painting that honored and satisfied both sides. On one side the Duke enters the room and all eyes are turned toward him, making him the center of attention. In the very center of the painting, meanwhile, sits Talleyrand.
You will stumble upon difficult situations where it will seem you can only satisfy one of your authorities. You gain favorability from one and disdain from the other. Like Jean-Baptiste be on the lookout for a win-win-win solution. One afternoon in ancient China,
Chao ruler of Han got so drunk, that he fell asleep in the garden. The crownkeeper whose sole task was to look after the rulers crown as his name suggests, saw the ruler lay on the ground and put his own coat over him as it was getting cold. When he awoke, the coatkeeper
Was punished for neglecting his duties and the crownkeeper was beheaded for overstepping his boundaries. Go the extra-mile, overdeliver, but never do too much. Save your energy for time outside the court. Fra Filippo Lippi, the Italian Renaissance painter, sailing for
Amusement in a small boat, was captured by pirates who sold him and his friends into slavery. Finding himself in a cell with a white wall and access to charcoal, still in chains, he drew a great portrait of his owner who soon heard of this and free’d Filippo
Upon discovering his talent, that seemed like a miracle, a gift from god. Use your skills and talents to be discovered and get out of imprisonment and slavery. There’s most likely something you can do greater than others, use it to flatter your masters and
Buy their mercy and support. Alfonso I of Aragon once had a servant who told him about a dream he supposedly had. In the dream the king had gifted him weapons, horses and clothes. Alfonso found it humorous to make the dream a reality, claiming a godlike power for himself.
When the same servant approached him again, having yet another dream of this kind, the king was insulted. He smiled and said “don’t believe in dreams from now on; they lie.” Never ask for too much and know when to stop, also never underestimate the intelligence
Of your masters. I’m honestly surprised this story didn’t end with the servant being sentenced to death, as it was so often the case in history. If you think you aren’t getting enough; join the queue with the other millions of people and instead of complaining,
Start using your free time to build your own source of income, but how the things are running now; you won’t get much for free in the traditional way of employment, it’s already hard to get what you should be getting. So again, asking for favors from your boss, don’t
Go too far. Here’s 16 Successful Courtier Plays. 1. They please but are not pleasing too much. 2. Obeying but somehow distinguishing himself from the other courtiers. 3. Never distinguishing himself so far as to make the ruler insecure. 4. Have
Mastered the science of manipulating people. 5. They make the king feel more kingly; 6. They make every-one else fear their power. 7. They are magicians of appearance, knowing that most things at court are judged by how they seem. 8. They are gracious and polite.
9. Their aggression is veiled and indirect. 10. Masters of the word, they never say more than necessary. 11. They get the most out of a compliment or hidden insult. 12. They are magnets of pleasure— People want to be around them because they know how to please.
13. They neither fawn nor humiliate themselves. 14. They are wizards in the accumulation of influence 15. They become the king’s favorites, enjoying the benefits of that position. 16. They often end up more powerful than the ruler. The royal court may have more or less disappeared,
Or at least lost its power, but courts and courtiers still exist because power still exists. The laws that govern court politics are as timeless as the laws of power. There is much to be learned, then, from great courtiers past and present.
Law Number 25: Recreate Yourself. Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Recreate yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions—your
Power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life. 3 Ways to Be The Consummate Chameleon. 1. You must learn to enlarge your actions through dramatic techniques such as surprise, suspense, the creation of sympathy, and symbolic identification.
2. You must be constantly aware of your audience – of what will please them and what will bore them. 3. You must arrange to place yourself at the center, to command attention, and never to be upstaged at any cost. Because of his own obsessive interest in drama,
Julius Caesar was perhaps the first public figure to understand the vital link between power and theater. He sublimated this interest by making himself an actor and director of the world stage. Even while dying, he kept his sense of drama. Drawing the top of his
Gown over his face, he let go of the clothes lower part so that it draped his legs, allowing him to the covered and decent. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, his final words to his old friend Brutus, who was about to deliver a second blow, were in Greek, and
As if rehearsed for the end of a play: “You too, my child?” Understand the following: The world wants to assign you a role in life. And once you accept that role you are doomed. Your power is limited to the tiny amount allotted to
The role you have selected or have been forced to assume. An actor, on the other hand, plays many roles. Enjoy that protean power, and if it is beyond you, at least forge a new identity, one of your own making, one that has had no boundaries assigned to it by an
Envious and resentful world. This act of defiance is Promethean: It makes you responsible for your own creation. Your new identity will protect you from the world precisely because it is not “you”; it is a costume you put on and take off. You need not take it personally.
And your new identity sets you apart, gives you theatrical presence. Those in the back rows can see you and hear you. Those in the front rows marvel at your audacity. The Promethean task of the powerful is to take control of the process, to stop allowing others that
Ability to limit and mold them. Remake yourself into a character of power. Working on your-self like clay should be one of your greatest and most pleasurable life tasks. It makes you in essence an artist— an artist creating yourself. In fact, the idea of self-creation
Comes from the world of art. Steps in the process of self-creation is 1. You must be Self-Conscious Being aware of yourself as an actor and taking control of your appearance and emotions. 2. You must learn Self-Control. Adopt the plasticity of
The actor, who can mold his or her face to the emotion required. 3. Creation of a memorable character A character that compels attention, that stands out above the other players on the stage. Good drama, however, needs more than an interesting appearance, or a single
Stand-out moment. Drama takes place over time—it is an unfolding event. Rhythm and timing are critical. One of the most important elements in the rhythm of drama is suspense. The key to keeping the audience on the edge of their seats is letting events unfold slowly then
Speeding them up at the right moment, according to a pattern and tempo that you control. Besides covering a multitude of sins, good drama can also confuse and deceive your enemy. Other dramatic effects for your repertoire include the Beau Geste, an action at a climactic
Moment that symbolizes your triumph or your boldness. You must also appreciate the importance of stage entrances and exits. Remember that overacting can be counterproductive—it is another way of spending too much effort trying to attract attention. It is less what you do that matters, clearly, than how you do it—your gracefulness and imposing stillness
On the social stage count for more than overdoing your part and moving around too much. Finally: Learn to play many roles, to be whatever the moment requires. Adapt your mask to the situation—be protean in the faces you wear. Law Number 26: Keep Your Hands Clean.
You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: Your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds. Maintain such a spotless appearance by using others as scapegoats and cat’s-paws to disguise your involvement. Conceal Your Mistakes – Have a Scapegoat Around To Take
The Blame Our good name and reputation depend more on what we conceal than on what we reveal. Everyone makes mistakes, but those who are truly clever manage to hide them, and to make sure someone else is blamed. A convenient scapegoat should always be kept around for
Such moments. Understanding the workings of power and the importance of appearances shop around for the most convenient head and have it served up immediately. Occasional mistakes are inevitable – Handle Them People of power are undone not by the mistakes they make,
But by the way they deal with them. The mistake does not vanish with an apology; it deepens and festers. Better to cut it off instantly, distract attention from yourself, and focus attention on a convenient scapegoat. Do not give people time to ponder your responsibility
Or your possible incompetence. The bloody sacrifice of the scapegoat seems a barbaric relic of the past, but the practice lives on to this day, if indirectly and symbolically; since power depends on appearances, and those in power must seem never to make mistakes,
The use of scapegoats is as popular as ever. Besides conveniently shifting blame, a scapegoat can serve as a warning to others. Example of Cesare Borgia: Robert Greene took the following right out of Niccolo Machiavelli’s “The Prince”. Cesare Borgia used a scapegoat
To gain control of large parts of Italy. He gave Remirro de Orco, a cruel and vigorous man, absolute powers. With extreme violence he would enforce Cesare’s rule with brutal justice and grow hated by the local population. To guard his own reputation, to avoid being
Associated with Orco’s gruesome actions, to calm the people’s scream for revenge he publicly stated that he had in no way ordered Orco to do what he did and imprisoned, beheaded and blamed him. Cesare had painted a pleasing picture for the public, who not only wished
Orco’s death, but that his cruelty be repaid. Next to his headless body, Orco’s head was spiked up on a pike. Cesare built a spectacle for everyone to see. Not only can you use other as scapegoats, but you can make them your cat’s-paw. In the fable, the Monkey
Grabs the paw of his friend, the cat, and uses his paw to get it to fish chestnuts out of the fire, so as to get the nuts without hurting himself. If there is something unpleasant or unpopular that needs to be done, it is far too risky for you to do the work yourself.
You need a cat’s-paw – someone who does the dirty work for you. The cat’s-paw grabs what you need, hurts whom you need hurt, and keeps people from noticing that you are the one responsible. Let someone else be the executioner, or the bearer of bad news, while you bring
Only joy and glad tidings. Cleopatra was more than only a woman, she was a queen, an empress, a goddess. Her appearance would never be the same, only ever wearing the nicest robes and accessories, probably one of the most dangerous seductresses in history; like many women still
Today, she used her feminine qualities to get men to do as she desired. At the age of 10 she witnessed her father Ptolemy XII get overthrown and banished by her elder sisters. Berenice emerged as the leader of the rebellion, had her other sisters imprisoned and her own
Husband murdered to secure her own rule. This extreme violence on one of her own made the public resent her and 4 years later Ptolemy could return, beheading the elder sisters. In 51. BC. Ptolemy died and left 4 remaining children as heirs. The eldest son, the 11
Years old Ptolemy XIII married the elder sister Cleopatra. Incest was common in order to keep royal positions and thus power in the family. In a fight for power, Cleopatra was exiled. None dared to make the same mistake as Berenice by killing one of their own. It would inevitably
Shed a dark light on the murderer. Therefore Cleopatra bided her time and schemed. When she heard of Julius Caesar’s plan to make Egypt a Roman colony, she arranged to see him, seducing and thereafter using him as a tool to destroy her siblings and other enemies
To get the throne for herself. In 41. BC she would use the same tactics on Marc Antony. She was able to reduce both of these very powerful and dangerous men to her cat’s-paws, doing exactly as she pleased. The illacertus Video Library offers over 8
Years of original content encompassing animated videos and readings focused on self-improvement literature, providing ad-free access to content of uncompromised quality. This library acts as a safeguard against corporate restrictions, ensuring continuous access to a plethora of materials without fear of censorship or limitations covering a diverse array of topics sourced
From various self-improvement books, from classics like “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu and “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius to lesser-known works such as “The Tragedies of the Medici” by Edgcumbe Staley and “The Science of Being Well” by W. D. Wattles, providing you with a comprehensive resource for personal growth and enrichment. Subscribe.
Law Number 27: Play on People’s Need to Believe. People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your
New disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power. The gimmicks of the charlatans may seem quaint today, but there are thousands
Of charlatans among us still, using the same tried-and-true methods their predecessors refined centuries ago, only changing the names of their elixirs and modernizing the look of their cults. We find these latter-day charlatans in all arenas of life—business, fashion, politics, art. Many of them, perhaps, are following in the charlatan tradition without
Having any knowledge of its history, but you can be more systematic and deliberate. Simply follow the five steps of cult-making that our charlatan ancestors perfected over the years. 5 Ways to Create a Cult 1. Keep It Vague; Keep It Simple First attract attention. This you should do not through actions, which are
Too clear and readable, but through words, which are hazy and deceptive. Your initial speeches, conversations, and interviews must include: The promise of something great and transformative. The other a total vagueness. 2. Emphasize the Visual and the Sensual over the Intellectual. Once people have begun to gather around you, two dangers will present
Themselves: a. Boredom – will make people go elsewhere. b. Skepticism – will allow them the distance to think rationally about whatever it is you are offering.· Blowing away the mist you have artfully created and revealing your ideas
For what they are. You need to amuse the bored, then, and ward off the cynics. Use theater, or other devices of its kind. Surround yourself with luxury, dazzle your followers with visual splendor, and fill their eyes with spectacle. Not only will this keep them from seeing the
Ridiculousness of your ideas, the holes in your belief system, it will also attract more attention, more followers. 3. Borrow the Forms of Organized Religion to Structure the Group. 5 Ways to Organize Your Cult-Like Following. Find a way both elevating and comforting. Create rituals for your followers. Organize
Them into a hierarchy, ranking them in grades of sanctity, and giving them names and titles that resound with religious overtones Ask them for sacrifices that will fill your coffers and increase your power. To emphasize your gathering’s quasi-religious nature, talk and
Act like a prophet: You are a priest, a guru, a sage, a shaman, or any other word that hides your real power in the mist of religion. 4. Disguise Your Source of Income. Your group has grown, and you have structured it in a churchlike form. Your coffers are beginning
To fill with your followers’ money. Yet you must never be seen as hungry for money and the power it brings. It is at this moment that you must disguise the source of your income. Never reveal that your wealth actually comes from your followers’ pockets; instead,
Make it seem to come from the truth of your methods. Followers will copy your each and every move in the belief that it will bring them the same results, and their imitative enthusiasm will blind them to the charlatan nature of your wealth.
5. Set Up an Us-Versus-Them Dynamic. The group is now large and thriving, a magnet attracting more and more particles. To keep your followers united, you must now do what all religions and belief systems have done: Create an us-versus-them dynamic. Make sure your followers believe
They are part of an exclusive club, unified by a bond of common goals.· Manufacture the notion of a devious enemy out to ruin you. There is a force of nonbelievers that will do anything to stop you.· If you have no enemies, invent one. Given a straw man to
React against, your followers will tighten and cohere. But be warned If at any moment the group sees through you, you will find yourself facing not one deceived soul but an angry crowd that will tear you to pieces as avidly as it once followed you. For this
Reason, use spies, be on top of everything, and keep your bags packed. Law Number 28: Enter Action with Boldness. If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes
You commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid. In May of 1925, five of the most successful dealers in the French scrapmetal business found themselves invited to an ‘official’, but ‘highly confidental’
Meeting in the most luxurious hotel in Paris. Bursting with curiosity the men met the host, general director Monsieur Lustig. He explained that the government had planned to destroy the Eiffeltower and the metal would be sold to the highest bidder. Lustig gave them all
The possible information they needed, not leaving out one tiny detail. As to why, he explained the Eiffeltower needed many repairs, as was recently in the newspapers, the maintenance costs had grown and in times of the crisis they faced, many Parisians would be delighted
To see it go, Lustig provided them with sheets of government stationery filled with figures, such as the tonnage of the tower’s metal. As they calculated possible profits they could make from selling the metal, they grew increasingly euphoric. The businessmen were then driven
To the Eiffeltower in a limo, where Lustig would continue his speech. It all seemed so real. Too big of a target, too extraordinary to not be real, way too bold. Several days after the offers were submitted, one of the five, a Monsier P., received notice that his
Bid was the winner and that to secure the sale he should come to the suite at the hotel within two days, bearing a certified check for more than 250,000 francs, the equivalent of 1 million dollars today. However Monsier P. started having doubts,
The whole thing seemed a bit odd, suspicious to say the least. Why for example did they meet in a hotel and not in an official government building? Why hadn’t he heard of the officials? Upon arrival Monsieur Lustig, a master con-artist robbed Monsier P. not only from his hesitations,
But from all the money he had bid on the Eiffeltower. When Monsier P. realized he was scammed, it was no option for him to go to the police. His reputation would have been destroyed, causing business suicide. Everyone would laugh at him, pointing to the man who thought he
Was in all seriousness buying the Eiffeltower. Amazingly, the story does not end here. Monsier Lustig returned to Paris six months later and sold the Eiffeltower once more for a sum in francs equivalent today to over one-and-a-half million dollars. Boldness in the truest of
Its forms. Largeness of scale deceives the human eye. It distracts and awes us, and is so self-evident that we cannot imagine there is any illusion or deception afoot. Asking for more puts the other person on the devensive, cuts out the nibbling effect of compromise
And doubt, and overwhelms with its boldness. This is the story of Ivan the Terrible. In 1533, Vasily, the Grand Duke of Moscow and ruler of a semi-united Russia, proclaimed his three-year-old son, Ivan IV, as his successor. Until Ivan reached his majority, however,
His mother Helena would have the ruling hand. She sought out help from her trusted friend Prince Ivan Obolensky to help her. The boyar clan, the opposite party, poisened Helena and had Obolensky starve to death in prison. At the age of 8, Ivan was now a despised orphan.
The boyars would treat him roughly, dress him up in robes with a ceptar, mocking him, beating and banishing his only friend. He’d roam the palace, ill-cloathed, hungry and hiding from the boyars. He remained strictly silent throughout all of this. They thought
Their plan had worked, they had crushed the little man, Ivan was no longer a threat. They could ignore him. December 29th, 1543 Ivan turned 13 and asked Prince Andrei Shuisky, the head of the boyars, to come to his room. When the Prince arrived, the room was filled
With palace guards. Ivan pointed with his finger, ordering Andrei’s arrest, death and that his body be thrown to the bloodhounds in the royal kennel. Over the next few days Ivan had all of Andrei’s close associates arrested and banished, the boyars now stood
In mortal terror of the young future Ivan the Terrible, who had planned and waited for five years to take revenge with this one swift and bold act that would secure his power for decades to come. Law Number 29: Plan all the Way to the End.
The ending is everything. Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others. By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances
And you will know when to stop. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead. Most men are ruled by the heart, not the head. Their plans are vague, and when they meet obstacles they improvise. But improvisation will only bring you as far as the next crisis,
And is never a substitute for thinking several steps ahead and planning to the end. In 1863 the Prussian premier Otto von Bismarck surveyed the chessboard of European power as it then stood. The main players were England, France, and Austria. Prussia itself was one of several
States in the loosely allied German Federation. Austria, dominant member of the Federation, made sure that the other German states remained weak, divided and submissive. Bismarck believed that Prussia was destined for something far greater than being a servant
Body to Austria. This is how Bismarck played the game. His first move was to start a war with lowly Denmark, in order to recover the former Prussian lands of Schleswig-Holstein. He knew that these rumblings of Prussian independence might worry France and England, so he enlisted
Austria in the war, claiming that he was recovering Schleswig-Holstein for their benefit. In a few months, after the war was decoded. Bismarck demanded that the newly conquered lands be made part of Prussia. The Austrians of course outraged, compromised. A year later they also
Agreed in selling Holstein. Bismarck’s next move was his boldest: In 1866 he convinced King William of Prussia to withdraw from the German Federation, and in doing so to go to war with Austria itself. Altough everyone opposed such a war, Bismarck succeeded in
Forcing the conflict and Prussia’s superior army defeated the Austrians in the brutally short Seven Weeks War. Bismarck kept going, acquiring more lands for Prussia, even provoking a war with France. The cycle would go on, until almost mysteriously
He stopped. The other parties would wait in fear for his next bold move, but there was no more. Bismarck had planned his campaign all along, instead of expanding further, he would now, as the Prince of a greater Prussia, focus on securing the newly acquired lands.
What good is it to have the greatest dream in the world if others reap the benefits and the glory? Never lose your head over a vague, open-ended dream—plan to the end. The only solution is to plan for the long run. Foresee the future with as much clarity as the gods
On Mount Olympus, who look through the clouds and see the ends of all things. According to the cosmology of the ancient Greeks, the gods were thought to have complete vision into the future. They saw everything to come, right down to the intricate details. Men,
On the other hand, were seen as victims of fate, trapped in the moment and their emotions, unable to see beyond immediate dangers. Heroes, such as Odysseus, who were able to look beyond the present and plan several steps ahead, seemed to defy fate, to approximate the gods
In their ability to determine the future. This comparison is still valid—those among us who think further ahead and patiently bring their plans to fruition seem to have a godlike power. Law Number 30: Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless. Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease. All the toil and practice that
Go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed. When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more. Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work—it only raises questions. Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you. You will often have
To use tricks and ingenuity to create your effects, but your audience must never suspect the work or the thinking that has gone into them. Nature does not reveal its tricks, and what imitates nature by appearing effortless approximates nature’s power. In 16th century
Japan, Sen no Rikyu was the preferred tea master. All though not from a noble family, Emperor Hideyoshi found him to be an important adviser on aesthetic and even political matters. Rikyu’s secret was to appear natural, concealing the effort behind his work. One evening, while
Having tea at a friend’s house, Rikyu saw his host go outside, hold up a lantern in the darkness, cut a lemon off a tree and bring it. This charmed Rikyu- the host needed a relish for the dish he was serving, and had spontaneously gone outside to get one. But
When the man offered the lemon with some Osaka rice cake, Rikyu realized that he had planned creating this effect of beauty Rikyu found so desirable. The gesture no longer seemed spontaneous – it was a way for the host to prove his cleverness, but he had accidently
Revealed how hard he was trying. Rikyu politely declined the cake, excused himself and left. To Sen no Rikyu the sudden appeareance of something naturally, almost accidently graceful was the height of beauty. This beauty came without warning and seemed effortless. Nature
Created such things by its own laws and processes, but men had to create their effects through labor and contrivance. And when they showed the effort of producing the effect, the effect was spoiled. Secret Practices Makes Perfect. 1. You must research and practice endlessly before appearing in public, onstage or anywhere else. 2. Never
Expose the sweat and labor behind your poise. Some think such exposure will demonstrate their diligence and honesty, but it actually just makes them look weaker as if they weren’t really up to the job. 3. Keep your effort and your tricks to yourself and you seem to
Have the grace and ease of a god. … The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione speaks of Sprezzatura, the capacity to make the difficult seem easy. 4. It is relevant to all forms of power, for power depends vitally on appearances and the illusions you create.
5. Your public actions are like artworks: They must have visual appeal, create anticipation, and even entertain. 6. When you reveal the inner workings of your creation, you become just one more mortal among others. 7. What is understandable is not awe-inspiring — we
Tell ourselves we could do as well if we had the money and time. 8. Avoid the temptation of showing how clever you are — instead conceal the mechanisms of your cleverness. 9. Do not give people ideas they can use against you because can’t see the advantages of
Keeping silent. 10. Resist the temptation to want your vanity gratified by having your hard work and cleverness applauded. 11. Do not vie for sympathy for the hours it has taken to reach your point of artistry. 12. Learn to control this propensity to blab,
For its effect is often the opposite of what you expected. Two Reminders 1. The more mystery surrounds your actions, the more awesome your power seems. You appear to be the only one who can do what you do—and the appearance of having
An exclusive gift is immensely powerful. 2. Finally, because you achieve your accomplishments with grace and ease, people believe that you could always do more if you tried harder. This elicits not only admiration but a touch of fear. Your powers are untapped — no one
Can fathom their limits. Word to the Wise – There are also times when revealing the inner workings of your projects can prove worthwhile. It all depends on your audience’s taste, and on the times in which you operate. As long as the partial disclosure of tricks
And techniques is carefully planned, rather than the result of an uncontrollable need to blab, it is the ultimate in cleverness. It gives the audience the illusion of being superior and involved, even while much of what you do remains concealed from them. Law Number 31: Get others to Play with the Cards you Deal.
The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice: Your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose. Force them to make choices between the lesser
Of two evils, both of which serve your purpose. Put them on the horns of a dilemma: They are gored wherever they turn. Ivan the Terrible had to confront an unpleasant reality: The country desperately needed reform, but he lacked the power to push it through.
The greatest limit to his authority came from the boyars, the Russian princely class that dominated the country and terrorized the peasantry. In 1553, at the age of 23, Ivan fell ill. Lying in bed and nearing his death, he asked the boyars to swear alleigiance to his son
At the new czar. Some hesitated, some refused and Ivan saw that the boyars could not be reasoned with. When he recovered, he did not forget that valuable lesson. The boyars defected to Poland and Lithuana, the latter by one of Ivan’s closest friends, Andrey Kurbski,
Who became Ivan’s greatest enemy. Not only the boyars caused him grief. Russia’s vast size made it a nightmare to defend. Whatever direction Ivan would have turned to, he’d leave his back wide open for a stab. December 3rd, 1564 Ivan had left the capitol to a nearby
Village, leaving the czar’s treasures and provisions behind without any explanation. Moscows population feared that Ivan had let them behind to be slaughtered by the boyars. As a result they begged the czar to come back, blaming the boyars for their betrayal. Ivan
Listened, but would not change his mind. A few days later the begging had not stopped and he gave them a choice, which was not truly a choice of options. They would either take Ivan back and follow him with absolute obedience, no longer questioning his order and his methods
Or be left to fend for themselves and suffer the ruthless attacks of the Boyars with none to protect them. Law Number 32: Play to People’s Fantasies. The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant. Never appeal to truth and
Reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes from disenchantment. Life is so harsh and distressing that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in the desert: Everyone flocks to them. There is great power in tapping into
The fantasies of the masses. Such is the power of the fantasies that take root in us, especially in times of scarcity and decline. People rarely believe that their problems arise from their own misdeeds and stupidity. Someone or something out there is to blame—the other, the world,
The gods—and so salvation comes from the outside as well. To gain power, you must be a source of pleasure for those around you—and pleasure comes from playing to people’s fantasies. Never promise a gradual improvement through hard work; rather, promise the moon, the great and sudden transformation. 1570 Venice lost the valuable island Cyprus
To the Turks. Once one of the wealthiest of places, Venice found itself in poverty. Thinking of ways to turn the economy around Venice got notice of a man called ‘Il Brigadino’, an alchemyst who could turn worthless objects into gold with a secret substance. This man
Would be the solution, he was invited to reside in Venice at the expense of the states treasures. Il Brigadino would have gold coins clinking in his hands, accompanied by two dogs at all times. His palace, the state provided, would have golden plates, golden watches, buttons
And what not. Everyone was pleased to see this magical man in their neighborhood. They would buy coal, and books on Alchemy, learning how to do it themselves. Would not be concerned about the practice, Il Brigadino himself. The state became impatient, some advicing
Not to push him over the edge. So, Il Brigadino gave a demonstration, creating gold dust out of a mineral in his hands for everyone to see. After a while, the doubts grew and Il Brigadino explained he could double all the gold right away, but if they waited for 7
Years the gold would multiply many times more. A part of the city formed an angry mob, choosing not to believe this sorcery anymore, Il Brigadino stated that they had betrayed him and left Venice, continuing his deception in different areas living like a noble prince. What the
People had not noticed, of course, was the little tube of glass he had hidden in his sleeve, that poured the gold dust. His image, his actions, his bold appearance, the fact that he was wanted by other states had set Il Brigadinos reputation as a true Alchemyst
In stone. People wanted to believe, so badly, they threw away all rational thoughts and like little children believing in the tooth-fairy preferred not to see the truth behind this Charlatan-like figure. Law Number 33: Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew. Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That weakness is usually insecurity,
An uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure. Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage. One of the most important things to realize about people is that they all have a weakness, some part of their psychological
Armor that will not resist, that will bend to your will if you find it and push on it. Some people wear their weaknesses openly, others disguise them. Those who disguise them are often the ones most effectively undone through that one chink in their armor. In
1615 the 30 year old bishop of Lucon, later known as Richelieu, turned to the throne of 15 year old King Louis XIII, and to the Queen Mother Marie de’ Medicis, who sat beside Louis, as the regent ruling France until her son reached his majority. Everyone expected Richelieue
To flatter the King, but instead he gave words of admiration to the Queen, who loved to get attention from men. Her lover Concino Concini, an Italian courtier was her favorite. Therefore Richelieu treated him as if he were the King himself. However Louis XIII was underestimated,
In one blow he killed off his mothers lover, Concini and imprisoned his associates. Richelieu questioned his strategy, had he done the right thing? He chose to stand beside the Queen, who was now a virtual prisoner, shut up in the Louvre.
He served as a liason between the Queen and the King. For his loyalty the Queen made him Cardinal and plead to her son not to get rid off Richelieu whom he despised. Later on the King would take Richelieu’s advice to the point of depending on him, just as the Queen
Was depending on him. He stopped serving the Queen and focused on his new authority of power. The king had none other to trust and affairs of state came hard to him. And so for the next 18 years, Richelieu, exploiting the king’s weaknesses, governed and molded
France according to his own vision, unifying the country and making it a strong European power for centuries to come. Richelieu studied the persons who had the real power, found their biggest flaw, weakness in their character and played on it wonderfully to make them
Depend on him. Once the power had gone to another he would adapt his strategies accordingly. Law Number 34: Be Royal in Your Own Fashion – Act Like a King. The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated: In the long run, appearing
Vulgar or common will make people disrespect you. For a king respects himself and inspires the same sentiment in others. By acting regally and confident of your powers, you make yourself seem destined to wear a crown. Powerful people may be tempted to affect a common-man aura,
Trying to create the illusion that they and their subjects or underlings are basically the same. But the people whom this false gesture is intended to impress will quickly see through it. They understand that they are not being given more power that it only appears as if
They shared in the powerful person’s fate. Leaders who try to dissolve that distance through a false chumminess gradually lose their ability to inspire loyalty, fear, or love. Instead they elicit contempt, they are too uninspiring even to be worth the guillotine
The best they can do is simply vanish in the night, as if they were never there. When Christopher Columbus was trying to find funding for his legendary voyages, many around him believed he came from the Italian aristocracy, a descendant from the legendary Roman general Colonius.
An illustrious background indeed. But it was nothing more than illustrious fantasy, for Columbus was actually the son of Domenico Colombo, a weaver, who held a wine shop and had made a living selling cheese. Columbus himself had created the myth of his noble
Background, for he felt that he had a kind of royalty in his blood, destined for greatness. Using the fabricated story of his noble background, he married into an established Lisbon family that had excellent connections with Portguguese royalty. Using his in-laws he managed to have
A meeting with the King of Portugal, whom he petitioned to finance a westward voyage aimed at discovering a shorter route to Asia, which he would do in the King’s name, demanding incredibly bold hereditary rights for himself. He shall be titled the Grand Admiral of the
Oceanic Sea, the office of viceroy over any lands he found and 10 percent of the future commerce with such lands. Columbus made these demands even though he had previously been a mere merchant, he knew almost nothing about navigation, he could not work a quadrant and
He had never led a group of men. Altough the king refused with a smile, he treated his demands as legitimate, leaving the door open for the future. By asking for the moon, he had instantly raised his own status, for the king assumed that unless a man who set such
A high price on himself were mad, which Columbus did not appear to be, he must somehow be worth it. Unlike Columbus, here’s what WE generally tend to do… 1. We set up boundaries that only get firmer with time. 2. We come to expect less from the world. 3. We accept limitations that are
Really self-imposed. 4. We bow and scrape and apologize for even the simplest of requests. The Solution for these are; 1. We have to deliberately force ourselves in the opposite direction. 2. Downplay the failures and ignore the limitations. 3. Make ourselves demand
And expect as much as a child. This Strategy of the Crown is 1. Based on a simple chain of cause and effect. 2. If we believe we are destined for great things, our belief will radiate outward. 3. This outward radiance will infect the people around you. 4. Your
Limits and boundaries disappear. 5. You will be surprised how often it bears fruit. 6. Be overcome by your self-belief. Even while you know you are practicing a kind of deception on yourself. Act like a king or queen and you are likely to be treated as one. The Difference
Of this strategy is that; 1. The crown may separate you from other people. 2. It is up to you to make that separation real. 3. You have to act differently, demonstrating your distance from those around you. One way to emphasize your difference is to always act
With dignity, no matter the circumstance. 5. Do not confuse regal bearing with arrogance, it betrays insecurity. Greene mentions 3 Strategies to Reinforce a Royal Demeanor. The first would be A. The Columbus Strategy: 1. Always make a bold demand.
2. Set your price high. 3. Do not waver. B. The David and Goliath Strategy: 1. In a dignified way, go after the highest person in the building. 2. By choosing a great opponent, you create the appearance of greatness. 3. This puts you on the same plane as the chief executive
You are attacking. And lastly C. The Gift Strategy: 1. Give a gift of some sort to those above you. 2. By giving your patron a gift, you are saying that the two of you are equal.
3. It is the old con game of giving so that you can take. The gift strategy is subtle and brilliant because you do not beg: You ask for help in a dignified way that implies equality between two people, one of whom just happens to have more money.
Remember: It is up to you to set your own price. Ask for less and that is just what you will get. Ask for more, however, and you send a signal that you are worth a king’s ransom. Even those who turn you down respect you for your confidence, and that respect
Will eventually pay off in ways you cannot imagine. But obviously there’s a risk of reversal to this, so be warned… The idea behind the assumption of regal confidence is to set yourself apart from other people, but if you take this too far it will be your undoing. Never make
The mistake of thinking that you elevate yourself by humiliating people. Also, it is never a good idea to loom too high above the crowd – you make an easy target. And there are times when an aristocratic pose is eminently dangerous. Finally, it is true that you can sometimes
Find some power through affecting a kind of earthy vulgarity, which will prove amusing by its extremeness. Separating yourself from other people by appearing even more vulgar than they are, this game is dangerous: There will always be people more vulgar than you,
And you will easily be replaced the following season by someone younger and worse. Broaden Your Horizons: Explore the profound teachings of legendary philosophers such as Sun Tzu, Marcus Aurelius, and Plato. Delve into the strategies of great military minds
Like Hannibal and Alexander the Great. Unlock the Secrets of Success: Learn the art of money-making from P.T. Barnum, discover the principles of prosperity with W. D. Wattles, and unravel the mysteries of human nature with Descartes. Embrace Stoicism: Master the art of living
With grace and resilience through the timeless wisdom of Stoic philosophers like Seneca, Epictetus, and Aurelius. Journey Through History: Experience the rise and fall of empires, from the Spartans to the Romans, the Vikings to the Byzantines. Explore the adventures of historical figures like Cesare Borgia and Confucius. Expand Your Mind: Immerse yourself
In the revolutionary ideas of Nietzsche, the dystopian world of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” and the entrepreneurial insights of Ralph Waldo Emerson. By investing in the Illacertus Library, you’re not just buying audiobooks; you’re investing in your intellectual growth, personal development, and a richer understanding of the world. Don’t miss this opportunity
To access these timeless classics, all in one place, at an unbelievably affordable price. Claim Your Access Now. Law Number 35: Master the Art of Timing. Never seem to be in a hurry—hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over
Time. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually. Become a detective of the right moment; sniff out the spirit of the times, the trends that will carry you to power. Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and to strike
Fiercely when it has reached fruition. Time is an artificial concept that we ourselves have created to make the limitlessness of eternity and the universe more bearable, more human. Since we have constructed the concept of time, we are also able to mold it to some
Degree, to play tricks with it. The time of a child is long and slow, with vast expanses; the time of an adult whizzes by frighteningly fast. Joseph Fouché, initially a mathematics teaching priest, never took his vows. He had waited for his chance to follow bigger dreams
And when 1789 the French Revolution broke out, he became a revolutionary. To miss the boat at this critical moment could have spelt disaster. Fouché merely adapted to the spirit of the times. Befriending the revolutionary Robespierre, he quickly rose in the rebel ranks and was elected as the representative of Nantes to
The National Convention created that year to frame a new constitution for a French republic. When Fouché arrived in Paris to take his seat at the convention, a violent rift had broken out between the moderates and the radical Jacobins. Fouché sensed that in the long
Run neither side would emerge victorious. Power rarely ends up in the hands of those who start a revolution, or even of those who further it; power sticks to those who bring it to a conclusion. That was the side Fouché wanted to be on. Until his death he would
Change sides several more times, supporting the execution of Louis XVI, turning against his former friend Robespierre, then supporting a young Napoleon, only to be conspiring against him alongside Talleyrand later on. Fouché had remarkable patience. Without patience as your sword and shield, your timing will fail and you will inevitably find yourself
A loser. When the times were against Fouché, he did not struggle, get emotional or strike out rashly. He kept his cool and remained a low profile, patiently building support among the citizenry, the bulwark in his next rise to power. Observing this law closely;
Here are the 10 Key Lessons in the Art of Timing. 1. It is critical to recognize the spirit of the times. 2. You must always work with the times, anticipate twists and turns, and never miss the boat. 3. Recognize time not
By what is loudest and most obvious in it but by what lies hidden and dormant. 4. Recognizing the prevailing winds does not necessarily mean running with them. 5. Any potent social movement creates a powerful reaction, and it is wise to anticipate what that reaction
Will be, 6. Rather than ride the cresting wave of the moment, wait for the tide’s ebb to carry you back to power. 7. Upon occasion bet on the reaction that is brewing, and place yourself in the vanguard of it. 8. Without patience as your sword and shield, your timing
Will fail and you will inevitably find yourself a loser. 9. Do not struggle, get emotional, or .. 10. Keep your cool and maintain a low profile, patiently building support to your rise to power. (Christopher Columbus) “Recognize the moment, then, to hide in the grass or
Slither under a rock, as well as the moment to bare your fangs and attack. Space we can recover, time never.” Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821 Time depends on perception, which can be willfully altered. This is vital in mastering the art of timing. If the inner
Turmoil caused by our emotions tends to make time move faster, it follows that once we control our emotional responses to events, time will move much more slowly. This altered way of dealing with things tends to lengthen our perception of future time, opens up possibilities
And allows us the patience that is the principal requirement in the art of timing. Law Number 36: Disdain Things You Cannot Have. By acknowledging a petty problem you give it existence and credibility. The more attention you pay an enemy, the stronger you make him; and a small mistake is often made worse and
More visible when you try to fix it. It is sometimes best to leave things alone. If there is something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem. In the year 1527, King Henry VIII of England decided he had
To find a way to get rid of his wife, Catherine of Aragon. Catherine had failed to produce a son, a male heir who would ensure the continuance of his dynasty, and Henry thought he knew why: He had read in the Bible the passage, “And if a aman shall take his brother’s wife,
It is an unclean thing: he hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be childless.” Before marrying Henry, Catherine had married his older brother Arthur, but Arthur had died five months later. Henry had waited an appropriate time, then had married his brother’s widow.
Catherine was the daugher of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, and by marrying her Henry had kept alive a valuable alliance. Now, however, Catherine had to assure him that her brief marriage with Arthur had never been consummated. Otherwise Henry would see
Their marriage as null and void. Catherine insisted that she had remained a virgin through her marriage to Arthur, and Pope Clement VII supported her by giving his blessing to the union, which he could not have done had he considered it incestuous.
The King, convinced that she was lying and god punished them for their forbidden relationship, Henry applied to the Vatican, but Pope Clement would never annul the marriage. And so, Henry simply started his own church, putting himself at the top and annulling his marriage that
Way. The Pope was furious and kept threatening the King with excommunication from the Catholic church, but King Henry simply ignored him and his now banished-from-the-court ex-wife completely. When you pay attention to a person, the two of you become partners of sorts, each
Moving in step to the actions and reactions of the other. In the process you lose your initiative. It is a dynamic of all interactions: By acknowledging other people, even if only to fight with them, you open yourself to their influence. Had Henry locked horns with Catherine,
He would have found himself mired in endless arguments that would have weakened his resolve and eventually worn him down. Henry would have none of this. He played a devastating power game – total disdain. By ignoring people you cancel them out. This unsettles and infuriates
Them – but since they have no dealings with you there’s nothing they can do. “MAN: Kick him – he’ll forgive you. Flatter him – he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he’ll hate you.” There’s essentially Two Strategies to Execute
The Sour-Grapes Approach: If there is something you want but that you realize you cannot have it, the worst thing you can do is draw attention to your disappointment by complaining about it. An infinitely more powerful tactic is to act as if it never really interested you
In the first place. And The Treating it Lightly Approach: When you are attacked by an inferior, deflect people’s attention by making it clear that the attack has not even registered. Look away, or answer sweetly, showing how little the attack concerns you. Similarly, when you
Yourself have committed a blunder, the best response is often to make less of your mistake by treating it lightly. But as always be warned… Develop the skill of sensing problems when they are still small and taking care of them before they become intractable. Learn to distinguish
Between the potentially disastrous and the mildly irritating, the nuisance that will quietly go away on its own. In either case never completely take your eye off it. As long as it is alive it can smolder and spark into life. Law Number 37: Create Compelling Spectacles.
Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of power. Everyone responds to them. Stage the spectacles for those around you, full of arresting visuals and radiant symbols that heighten your presence. Dazzled by appearances, no one will notice what you
Are really doing. People do not always want words, or rational explanations, or demonstrations of the powers of science; they want an immediate appeal to their emotions. Give them that and they will do the rest such as imagine they can be healed by the light reflected from
A rock a quarter million miles away. In the early 1780s, word spread through Berlin of the strange and spectacular medical practice of a Dr. Weisleder. He performed his miracles in an enourmous conerted beer hall, outside which Berliners began to notice ever longer
Lines of people – the blind, the lame, anyone with an illness incurable by normal medicine. When it leaked out that the doctor worked by exposing the patient to the rays of the moon, he soon became dubbed The Moon Doctor of Berlin. Sometime in 1783 it was reported
That Dr. Weisleder had cured a well-to-do woman of a terrible ailment. He suddenly became a celebrity. Previously only the poorest of Berliners had been seen waiting outside the beer hall in their rags; now magnificient carriages were parked outside, and gentlemen
In frock coats, and ladies with enormous coiffures, lined the street as sunset drew near. As they waited to get in, the poorer clients would explain to the upper class people that the doctor only practiced when the moon was in its increscent phase. Many would add that
They themselves had already been exposed to the healing powers he called forth from the rays of the moon. Even those who felt cured kept coming back, drawn by this powerful experience. Once the people reached the doctor or his wife on the
2nd floor, having passed the spectacular first floor, he would take the patient, uncover the afflicted body part, and lift the boy up to the window which faced the light of the moon. He would rub the site of the injury or illness, mumble something unintelligible,
Look knowingly at the moon, and then after collecting his fee, send the patient on their way. Dr. Weisleder may have known nothing about medicine, but he understood human nature. He recognized that people that do not always want words, or rational explanations, or demonstrations
Of the powers of science; they want an immediate appeal to their emotions. Give them that and they will do the rest – such as imagine they can be healed by the light reflected from a rock a quarter million miles away. The spectacle was simple and it needed to be; the Dr. would
Not explain why his technique worked, he let his patients fill in the blanks with their placebo effects, their need to be heard and so on. Here are the 4 essential steps Dr. Weisleder used to Seem Larger Than Life 1. Play with images, weaving visual clues into
An encompassing gestalt. 2. Establish a trademark to set yourself apart. 3. Find an image or symbol from the past that will neatly fit your situation. 4. Put it on your shoulders like a cape. Law Number 38: Think As You Like, But Behave Like Others.
If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down upon them. They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend
In and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness. People who flaunt their infatuation with a different culture are expressing a disdain and contempt for their own. They are using
The outward appearance of the exotic to separate themselves from the common folk who unquestioningly follow the local customs and laws, and to express their sense of superiority. Otherwise they would act with more dignity, showing respect for those who do not share their desires.
Indeed their need to show their difference so dramatically often makes them disliked by the people whose beliefs they challenge, indirectly and subtly, perhaps, but offensively nonetheless. Around the year 478 B.C., the city of Sparta sent an expedition to Persia led by the young Spartan nobleman Pausanias. The city-states
Of Greece had recently fought off a mighty invasion from Persia, and now Pausanias, along with allied ships from Athens, had orders to punish the invaders and win back the islands and coastal towns that the Persians had occupied. Both the Athenians the Spartans had great
Respect for Pausanias – he had proven himself as a fearless warrior, with a flair for the dramatic. With amazing speed, Pausanias and his troops took Cyprus, then captured Byzantium. Now master of part of the Persian empire, Pausanias began to show signs of behaviour
That went beyond his normal flamboyance. He appeared in public wearing pomades in his hair and flowing Persian robes, and accompanied by a bodyguard of Egyptians. He held lavish banquets in which he sat in the Persian manner and demanded to be entertained. He stopped
Seeing his old friends, entered into communication with the Persian King Xerxes, and all in all affected the style and manner of a Persian dictator. Clearly power and success had gone to Pausania’s head. He then went ahead and flaunted his disdain for the Greeks’ simple
Way of life, insulted the common Greek soldier and even showed evidence that he had dreams of becoming a kind of Greek Xerxes. The spartans relieved Pausanias of his command and called him home sparing him. When they learnt from his intentions to attack Greece alongside
The Persians, thinking he was invincible, the Spartans made arrangements for his arrest. Pausanias however trapped in the sacred temple refused to surrender and eventually died of starvation. The Trick to your Uniqueness 1. You pretend to disagree with dangerous ideas, but in the course of your disagreement you give those ideas expression and exposure.
2. You seem to conform to the prevailing orthodoxy, but those who know will understand the irony involved. You are protected. 3. There is no point in making a display of your dangerous ideas if they only bring you suffering and persecution. 4. Martyrdom serves no purpose
Better to live on in an oppressive world, even to thrive in it. 5. Find a way to express your ideas subtly for those who understand you. 6. Lying your pearls before swine will only bring you trouble. The Truth 1. We all tell lies and hide our true feelings, for
Complete free expression is a social impossibility. 2. From an early age we learn to conceal our thoughts, telling the prickly and insecure what we know they want to hear, watching carefully lest we offend them. 3. There are ideas and values that most people accept, and it is
Pointless to argue. 4. We believe what we want to, but on the outside we wear a mask. 5. There are people, however, who see such restraints as an intolerable infringement on their freedom. 6. They have a need to prove the superiority of their values and beliefs.
7. In the end, their arguments convince only a few and offend a great deal more. 8. The reason arguments do not work is that most people hold their ideas and values without thinking about them. 9. There is a strong emotional content in their beliefs: 10. They
Really do not want to have to rework their habits of thinking, and when you challenge them, whether directly through your arguments or indirectly through your behavior, they are hostile. Law Number 39: Stir Up Waters to Catch Fish. Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive. You must always stay calm and objective. But
If you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself you gain a decided advantage. Put your enemies off-balance: Find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings. By the late 1920s, Hailie Selassie had nearly achieved
His goal of assuming total control over Ethiopia, a country he felt needed strong and unified leadership. As regent to the empress Zauditu and heir to the throne, Selassie had spent several years weakening the power of Ethiopia’s various warlords. Now only one real obstacle
Stood in his way: the empress and her husband Ras Gugsa. Selassie knew the royal couple hated him and wanted to get rid of him, so to cut short their plotting he made Gugsa the governor of the northern province of Begemeder, forcing him to leave the capital, where the
Empress lived. For several years Gugsa played the loyal administrator. But Selassie did not trust him: He knew that Gugsa and the empress were plotting revenge. As time passed and Gugsa made no move, the chances of a plot only increased. Selassie
Drew Gugsa out, got under his skin and pushed him into action before he was ready. Gugsa fell for the trap that had been laid for him. Before Selassie had ordered Gugsa to fight the Azebu Gallas, he had secured the support of the Ethiopian church. And before the revolt
Got underway, he had bribed several of Gugsa’s key allies not to show up for battle. As the rebel army marched south, airplaned flew overhead dropping leaflets announcing that the highest church officials had recognized Selassie as the true Christian leader of Ethiopia, and
That they had been excommunicated Gugsa for fomenting a civil war. And as battle loomed and the support that Gugsa’s allies had promised him failed to show up, soldiers began to flee or defect. When the battle came, the rebel army quickly collapsed. Refusing to surrender,
Ras Gugsa was killed in the fighting. On April 30, Selassie issued a formal proclamation announcing his new title: Emperor of Ethiopia. “A sovereign should never launch an army out of anger, a leader should never start a war out of wrath.” – Sun Tzu, fourth century B.C.
Seven problems with the Angry Response. 1. At first it may strike fear and terror, but only in some, and as the days pass and the storm clears, other responses emerge. 2. Embarrassment and uneasiness about the shouter’s capacity for going out of control. 3. Resentment festers
Of what has been said. 4. You always make unfair and exaggerated accusations. 5. A few such tirades and people are counting the days until you are gone. 6. To show your frustration is to show that you have lost your power to shape events. 7. It is the helpless action
Of the child who re-sorts to a hysterical fit to get his way. Never Let them See You Sweat. Tantrums neither intimidate nor inspire loyalty. They only create doubts and uneasiness about your power. Exposing your weakness, these stormy eruptions often herald a fall.
The essence of the Law: When the waters are still, your opponents have the time and space to plot actions that they will initiate and control. So stir the waters, force the fish to the surface, get them to act before they are ready and steal the initiative. The best
Way to do this is to play on uncontrollable emotions pride, vanity, love, hate. Once the water is stirred up, the little fish cannot help but rise to the bait. The angrier they become, the less control they have, and finally they are caught in the whirlpool you have
Made, and they drown. Law Number 40: Despise the Free Lunch. What is offered for free is dangerous—it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. What has worth is worth paying for. By paying your own way you stay clear
Of gratitude, guilt, and deceit. It is also often wise to pay the full price—there are no cutting corners with excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power. Being open and flexible with money also teaches
The value of strategic generosity, a variation on the old trick of “giving when you are about to take.” By giving the appropriate gift, you put the recipient under obligation. Generosity softens people up—to be deceived. By gaining a reputation for liberality, you win people’s
Admiration while distracting them from your power plays. By strategically spreading your wealth, you charm the others, creating pleasure and making valuable allies. Louis XIV had an eagle eye for the strategic power of money. When he came to the throne, the powerful nobility had recently proven a thorn in the monarchy’s side, and seethed
With rebelliousness. So he impoverished these aristocrats by making them spend enormous sums on maintaining their positions in the court. Making them dependent on royal largesse for their livelihood, he had them in his claws. Next Louis brought the nobles to their knees
With strategic genorosity. Whenever he noticed a stubborn courtier whose influence he needed to gain, or whose troublemaking he needed to squelch, he would use his vast wealth to soften the soil. First he would ignore his victim, making the man anxious. Then the man
Would suddenly find that his son had been given a well-paid post, or that funds had been spent liberally in his home region, or that he had been given a painting he had long coveted. Presents would flow from Louis’s hands. Finally, weeks or months later, Louis
Would ask for the favor he had needed all along. A man who had once vowed to do anything to stop the king would have made him rebellious; this was far more insidious. Facing hardened earth in which nothing could take root, Louis loosened the soil before he planted his seeds.
Louis understood that there is a deep-rooted emotional element in our attitude on money, an element going back to childhood. When we are children, all kinds of complicated feelings about our parents center around gifts; we see the giving of a gift as a sign of love
And approval. And that emotional element never goes away. The recipients of gifts, financial or otherwise, are suddenly as vulnerable as children, especially if the gift comes from someone in authority. 5 Simple Lessons 1. Friends who offer favors without asking for
Payment will later want something far dearer than the money you would have paid them. · The bargain has hidden problems, both material and psychological. Learn to pay and to pay well. 2. Bait your deceptions with the possibility of easy money. · People are essentially lazy,
And want wealth to fall in their lap rather than to work for it. 3. For a small sum, sell them advice on how to make millions · That small sum will become a fortune when multiplied by thousands of suckers. 4. Lure people in with the prospect of easy money and you have
The room to work still more deceptions on them. · Greed is powerful enough to blind your victims to anything. And lastly, 5. Greed does not pay. Law Number 41: Avoid Stepping into a Great Man’s Shoes. What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. If you
Succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making: Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father,
Disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in your own way. Power depends on appearing larger than other people, and when you are lost in the shadow of the father, the king, the great predecessor, you cannot possibly project such a presence. But how does the
Son Step Out of the Father’s Shadow? For one he could adopt the ruthless strategy of Alexander the Great: disparage the past, create your own kingdom and put the father in the shadows instead of letting him do the same to you. Parmenion: I pray to Apollo you soon realize
How far you’ve turned from your father’s path. Alexander: Damn you Parmenion, by the gods and your Apollo! War was in my father’s guts! It wasn’t over ripe and reason like yours. Parmenion: He never lusted for war, Alexander, or enjoyed it so. He consulted his peers in
Council, among equals! The Macedonian way. He didn’t make decisions based on his personal desires. Alexander: I’ve taken us further than my father ever dreamed! Old man, we’re in a new world. 1. If you cannot materially start from ground zero—it would be foolish to renounce an inheritance—you can at least begin from
Ground zero psychologically. 2. Throw off the weight of the past and chart a new direction. 3. Recognize like Alexander instinctively that privileges of birth are impediments to power. 4. Be merciless with the past, not only with your father and his father but with
Your own earlier achievements. 5. Only the weak rest on their laurels and dote on past triumphs; in the game of power there is never time to rest. Louis XIV died, in 1715, after a glorious fifty-five year reign, all eyes focused on his great-grandson and chosen successor,
The future Louis XV. From a country that had descended into civil war in the late 1640s, Louis XIV forged the mighiest realm in Europe. Great generals would tremble in his presence. A cook once made a mistake in preparing a dish and committed suicide rather than face
The king’s wrath. Louis had many mistresses, but their power ended in the bedroom. He filled his court with the most brilliant minds of the age. The symbol of his power was Versailles: Refusing to accept the palace of his forefathers, the Louvre, he built his
Own palace in what was then the middle of nowhere, symbolizing that this was a new order he had founded, one without precedent. He made Versailles the centerpiece of his reign, a place that all the powerful of Europe envied and visited with a sense of awe. “In essence,
Louis took a great void – the decaying monarchy of France – and filled it with his own symbols and radiant power.” Louis XV, on the other hand, symbolizes the fate of all those who inherit something large or who follow in a great man’s footsteps. It would seem easy
For a son or successor to build on the grand foundation left for them, but in the realm of power the opposite is true. The pampered, indulged son almost always squanders the inheritance, for he does not start with the father’s need to fill the void. As Machiavelli states, necessity
Is what impels men to take action, and once the necessity is gone, only rot and decay are left. “But when they began to make sovereignty hereditary, the children quickly degenerated from their fathers; and, so far from trying to equal
Their father’s virtues, they considered that a prince had nothing else to do than to excel all the rest in idleness, indulgence, and every other variety of pleasure.” – Niccolo Bernardo Machiavelli Here’s 5 Reasons to Bury the Past 1. The past prevents the young hero
From creating his own world. 2. He must do as his father did, even after that father is dead or powerless. 3. The hero must bow and scrape before his predecessor and yield to tradition and precedent. 4. What had success in the past must be carried over to the present,
Even though circumstances have greatly changed. 5. The past also weighs the hero down with an inheritance that he is terrified of losing, making him timid and cautious. The question then arises, how does one Bury the Past? Power depends on the ability to fill a void, to
Occupy a field that has been cleared of the dead weight of the past. 1. Only after the father figure has been properly done away with will you have the necessary space to create and establish a new order. 2. Variations on the execution of the king that disguise
The violence of the impulse by channeling it in socially acceptable forms. 3. Perhaps the simplest way to escape the shadow of the past is simply to belittle it, playing on the timeless antagonism between the generations, stirring up the young against the old. 4.
Establish distance from your predecessor which demands some symbolism, a way of advertising itself publicly… as Louis had changed the king’s palace from the Louvre to Versailles. Essentially, the problem is the following 1. The overbearing predecessor fills the vistas
Before you with symbols of the past. 2. You have no room to create your own name. And 3. The superstitious belief that if the person before you succeeded by doing A, B, and C, you can re-create their success by doing the same thing. You MUST go with the times, adapt
And overcome. This is part of the solution 1. Hunt out the vacuums—those areas in culture that have been left vacant. 2. With this you can become the first and principal figure to shine. 3. Make a name for yourself where no shadows could obscure your presence. But
Remember: You are your own father. Do not let yourself spend years creating yourself only to let your guard down and allow the ghost of the past—father, habit, history—to sneak back in. As always tread lightly. The past often has elements worth appropriating,
Qualities that would be foolish to reject out of a need to distinguish yourself. Even Alexander the Great recognized this important fact because he was influenced by his father’s skill in organizing an army. Making a display of doing things differently from your predecessor
Can make you seem childish and in fact out of control, unless your actions have logic of their own. Finally, it is often wise to keep an eye on the young, your future rivals in power. Just as you try to rid yourself of your father, they will soon play the same
Trick on you, denigrating everything you have accomplished. Just as you rise by rebelling against the past, keep an eye on those rising from below, and never give them the chance to do the same to you. “Step into the annals of the illacertus Video
Library—a digital archive rich with 8 years of ad-free content. Delve into the depths of audiobooks, animations, and more, spanning philosophy, history and personal development. Secure a timeless 30% off for a year. Begin your expedition today!” Law Number 42: Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep Will Scatter.
Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual – the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoner of goodwill. If you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate
With them – they are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter. “Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.” “When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter.” “Cut the snake
At the head.” These are fairly common proverbs, but what do they mean? Within any group, trouble can most often be traced to a single source, the unhappy, chronically dissatisfied one who will always stir up dissension and infect the group with his or her ill ease. Before
You know what hit you the dissatisfaction spreads. Act before it becomes impossible to disentangle one strand of misery from another, or to see how the whole thing started. Isolation, then, is one of the most powerful ways to deal with that source of trouble. Who Should
You Isolate? · Powerful people who have alienated themselves from the group. · People whose power has gone to their heads, and they consider themselves superior. · Those people who have perhaps lost their knack of communicating with ordinary folk, basically people breaking
Law 18, isolation is dangerous. · Search out people who hold high positions yet who find themselves isolated on the board. And find the one head that matters—the person with willpower, or smarts, or, most important of all, charisma. Identify and Shut the Hell Raisers Down 1. First, recognize troublemakers by their overbearing
Presence, or by their complaining nature. 2. Once you spot them do not try to reform them or appease them—that will only make things worse. 3. Do not attack them, whether directly or indirectly, for they are poisonous in nature and will work underground to destroy
You. 4. Do as the Athenians did: Banish them before it is too late. 5. Separate them from the group before they become the eye of a tornado. 6. Do not give them time to stir up anxieties and sow discontent. 7. Do not give them room to move. Let one person suffer
So that the rest can live in peace. 8. Once you recognize who the stirrer is, pointing it out to other people will accomplish a great deal. 9. Understanding who controls the group dynamic is a critical realization. 10. Stirrers drive by hiding in the group, disguising their
Actions among the reactions of others. But why isolate, can’t you just hire an assassin and go about your daily life? Well, that is an option, but as history has shown, not a very good one. You see, getting rid of someone doesn’t dissolve the loyalty of those who
Were close to your enemy. Rather isolate, as · They are vulnerable to you, and your presence becomes magnified. · It can prove a powerful way of bringing people under your spell to seduce or swindle them. · Here they feel weak, and succumb
To deception more easily. · Powerful though they may be, people like this can be turned to use. · It is often better to isolate your enemies than to destroy them—you seem less brutal. · They are like apples falling into your lap, easily seduced, and able to catapult
You into power yourself. · Isolation disheartenes the sheep beyond any rational measure. · Cancer begins with a single cell; excise it before it spreads beyond cure. How does one isolate his enemies? · Render their actions visible and they lose their power to upset. · Separate
Your victims from their power base or their usual social context. · The result is the same as that achieved with the help of an assassin, for in the game of power, isolation spells death. There’s 3 kinds of isolation, · the Physical (banishment or absence from
The court). · the Political (narrowing their base of support). · and the Psychological (alienating them from the group through slander and insinuation). Remember these when someone is trying to isolate you. Machiavelli wrote “Any harm you do to a man should be done in
Such a way that you need not fear his revenge.”, basically what Law 15 is all about: crushing your opponents completely. If you act to isolate your enemy, make sure he lacks the means to repay the favor. If you apply this Law, in other words, apply it from a position of superiority,
So that you have nothing to fear from his resentment. Law Number 43: Work on the Heart and Mind of Others. Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn.
And the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.
Example: Near the end of the reign of Louis XV, all of France seemed desperate for change. When the king’s grandson and chosen successor, the future Louis XVI, married the fifteen-year-old daughter of the empress of Austria, the French caught a glimpse of the future that seemed
Hopeful. The young bride, Marie-Antoinette. But as soon as Marie-Antoinette became queen she abandoned herself to the pleasures she loved the most—ordering and wearing the most expensive gowns and jewelry in the realm; sporting the most elaborate hair in history,
Her sculpted coiffures rising as much as three feet above her head; and throwing a constant succession of masked balls and fêtes. All of these whims she paid for on credit, never concerning herself with the cost or who paid the bills. She had been running up
Her huge expenditures, the country was headed for ruin, but her subjects could rot in hell for all she cared. In 1789, an unprecedented event took place: the beginning of the French Revolution. The queen did not worry—let the people have their little rebellion, she
Seemed to think; it would soon quiet down and she would be able to resume her life of pleasure. That year the people marched on Versailles, forcing the royal family to quit the palace and take residence in Paris. This was a triumph for the rebels, but it offered
The queen an opportunity to heal the wounds she had opened and establish contact with the people. The queen, however, had not learned her lesson: Not once would she leave the palace during her stay in Paris. In October of 1793, when the revolution officially
Declared the end of the monarchy, she was found guilty and finally knelt at the guillotine, unrepentant and defiant to the bitter end. Here are five of the most disastrous attitudes in the Realm of Power 1. Types like Marie-Antoinette live in their own bubble. 2. They seem to
Feel they are born kings and queens, and that attention is owed them. 3. They do not consider anyone else’s nature, but bulldoze over people with their self-righteous arrogance. 4. Pampered and indulged as children, so as adults they still believe that everything must come to
Them; convinced of their own charm. 5. They make no effort to charm, seduce, or gently persuade anyone. The Energy and Art of Seduction commands that 1. At all times you must attend to those around you, gauging their particular psychology, 2. Tailor your words to what you
Know will entice and seduce them. 3. The higher you are elevated above the crowd, the greater the need to remain attuned to the hearts and minds of those below you, 4. Create a base of support to maintain you at the pinnacle. Wrong Moves · Your first option, “to not
Distress yourself with such petty affairs,” may be quick and easy, but over time it brews ugly emotions in the hearts of the vanquished. · Their resentment turns to hatred; such animosity keeps you on the edge. · You spend your energy protecting what you have gained,
Growing paranoid and defensive. · Without that base of support, your power will teeter, and at the slightest change of fortune those below will gladly assist in your fall from grace. · Force will only strengthen their resistance. Think Critically Before You Act.
Use patience, it brings you peace of mind; it converts a potential enemy into a pillar of support. · Take the time to calculate and attune yourself to your targets’ emotional makeup and psychological weaknesses. · Be alert to what separates them from everyone
Else (their individual psychology) and what they share with everyone else · Soften them up, alternate harshness with mercy. · Play on their basic fears: hate, jealousy and also primary emotions · Once you break them down, you will have a lifelong friend and fiercely
Loyal ally. · Demonstrating, as simply as possible, how an action will benefit them. · Self-interest is the strongest motive of all: it secures the deal. · The wider your support base the stronger your power. But tread lightly Understanding that one alienated, disaffected
Soul can spark a blaze of discontent, you too must constantly win over more allies on all levels—a time will inevitably come when you will need them. Law Number 44: Disarm and Infuriate With the Mirror Effect. The mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception: When you mirror
Your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up
A mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson. Few can resist the power of the Mirror Effect. Example: Early on in his career, the ambitious statesman and general Alcibiades of Athens (450-404 B.C.) fashioned a formidable weapon that became the source of his power.
In every encounter with others, he would sense their moods and tastes, then carefully tailor his words and actions to mirror their inmost desires. He would seduce them with the idea that their values were superior to everyone else’s, and that his goal was to model himself
On them or help them realize their dreams. Few could resist his charm. The first man to fall under his spell was the philosopher Socrates. Alcibiades represented the opposite of the Socratic ideal of simplicity and uprightness: He lived lavishly and was completely unprincipled.
Whenever he met Socrates, however, he mirrored the older man’s sobriety, eating simply, accompanying Socrates on long walks, and talking only of philosophy and virtue. Socrates was not completely fooled—he was not unaware of Alcibiades’ other life. But that only made him vulnerable to a logic that flattered him: Only in my presence, he
Felt, does this man submit to a virtuous influence; only I have such power over him. This feeling intoxicated Socrates, who became Alcibiades’ fervent admirer and supporter, one day even risking his own life to rescue the young man in battle. Alcibiades then charmed the Athenians,
Got accused of profaning sacred statues and fled, he then charmed the Spartans, impregnated the king’s wife and fled and lastly he charmed the Persians, secretly helped the Athenians win their war with Sparta and, well fled Persia, but returned back home where the Athenians
Embraced him with open arms in 408 B.C. Wherever Alcibiades went, whoever he had to deal with, he would leave behind his own values and appear to share the values of his victims. No one could resist a man who not only concurred with them, but also admired their ways of
Living, seeming to be one of their own. This mirror effect, this very early discovery of what some call a neuro simplistic programming technique today, was way more effective than any sharpened sword and shield Alcibiades could have wielded. Greene describes these Four Main Mirror Effects 1. The Neutralizing Effect, 2. The Narcissus
Effect, 3. The Moral Effect and 4. The Hallucinatory Effect. 1. The Neutralizing Effect Do what your enemies do, following their actions as best you can, and they can’t see what you’re up to as their strategy for dealing with you depends on your
Reaction. 2. The Narcissus Effect You look deep into the souls of other people; fathom their inmost desires, their values, their tastes, their spirit; and you reflect it back to them, feeding their narcissism. 3. The Moral Effect You mirror what other people
Have done to you, and do so in a way that makes them realize you are doing to them exactly what they did to you. 4. The Hallucinatory Effect comes from creating a perfect copy of an object, a place or a person. Mirroring people is extremely effective You give them
The feeling that you share their thoughts and goals. If they suspect you have ulterior motives, the mirror shields you, preventing them from figuring you out. By playing the double, you steal their thunder, suck away their initiative and make them feel helpless.
You also gain the ability to choose when and how to unsettle them. The mirror saves you mental energy: simply echoing the moves of others gives you the space you need to develop a strategy of your own. But tread lightly Mirrors contain great power but also dangerous
Reefs.· You can often back into a mirrored situation without fully understanding it.· Most often you suffer by the comparison, seeming either weaker than the previous occupant of your position or else tainted by any unpleasant associations that person has left behind.·
Avoid the association-effects like the plague. · In a mirrored situation you have little or no control over the reflections and recollections that will be connected to you.· Any situation beyond your control is dangerous. · Doesn’t matter if the person or event has positive
Associations, you will suffer from not being able to live up to them, since the past generally appears greater than the present. · If you recognize people associating you with some past event or person, do everything you can to separate yourself from that memory and
To shatter the reflection. Law Number 45: Preach Change But Never Reform Quickly. Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If
You are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past. Sometime in the early 1520s, King Henry VIII of England
Decided to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, because she had failed to bear him a son, and because he had fallen in love with the young and comely Anne Boleyn. The pope opposed the divorce, and threatened the king with excommunication. The king’s most powerful
Minister, Cardinal Wolsey, also saw no need for divorce—and his halfhearted support of the king cost him his position and soon his life. One man in Henry’s cabinet, Thomas Cromwell, not only supported him in his desire for a divorce but had an idea for realizing
It: a complete break with the past. He convinced the king that by severing ties with Rome and making himself the head of a newly formed English church, he could divorce Catherine and marry Anne. By 1531 Henry saw this as the only solution.
To reward Cromwell for his simple but brilliant idea, he elevated this son of a blacksmith to the post of royal councillor. So far, as we’ve seen in Law 36: Disdain Things You Cannot Have, this strategy was a great success. King Henry successfully impregnated his new, fertile
Wife and could now rest assured his legacy would carry on. But this new character, Thomas Cromwell – he wasn’t in any way subtle about his approach. He envisioned a new Protestant order in England, with the power of the Catholic Church smashed and its vast wealth in the
Hands of the king and the government. And his ways of going about it were unabashedly bold. He began to seize the holdings of the churches and monasteries of England, putting them out of existence one by one. Virtually overnight, England was converted to a new
Official religion. A terror fell on the country. Some people had suffered under the Catholic Church, which before the reforms had been immensely powerful, but most Britons had strong ties to Catholicism and to its comforting rituals. They watched in horror as churches
Were demolished, images of the Madonna and saints were broken in pieces, stained-glass windows were smashed, and the churches’ treasures were confiscated. 1535 powerful revolts in the North of England threatened to topple Henry from his throne. By the following
Year he had suppressed the rebellions, but he had also begun to see the costs of Cromwell’s reforms. The king himself had never wanted to go this far—he had only wanted a divorce. Consequences of Change 1. The man who initiates strong reforms often becomes the scapegoat
For any kind of dissatisfaction. 2. Eventually the reaction to your reforms may consume you, for change is upsetting to the human animal, even when it is for the good. You can see this, for example, with the youtube comment section. When it actually improved, but people
Were still upset, because change is generally a wish people have, but dislike when it’s happening. Ironic, to say the least. · The world is and always has been full of insecurity and threat. · We latch on to familiar faces and create habits and rituals to make the
World more comfortable. 3. Change can be pleasant and even sometimes desirable in the abstract, but too much of it creates an anxiety that will stir and boil beneath the surface and then eventually erupt. You are Not a Psychic but Anticipation is a Good Thing 1. Never
Underestimate the hidden conservatism of those around you. It is powerful and entrenched. 2. Never let the seductive charms of an idea cloud your reason: 3. You cannot make people see the world your way. 4. You cannot wrench them into the future with painful changes.
They will rebel. 5. If reform is necessary, anticipate the reaction against it and find ways to disguise the change and sweeten the poison. The Powerful Past 1. What has happened before seems greater; habit and history give any act weight. · Use this to your advantage. 2. When you destroy the familiar you create
A void or vacuum. · People fear the chaos that will flood in to fill it. 3. You must avoid stirring up such fears at all cost. 4. Borrow the weight and legitimacy from the past, however remote, to create a comforting and familiar presence. · This will give your
Actions romantic associations, add to your presence, and cloak the nature of the changes you are attempting. 5. The fact that the past is dead and buried gives you the freedom to reinterpret it. To support your cause, tinker with the facts. 6. The past is a text in which
You can safely insert your own lines. So, how does one approach times of reforming change? 1. A simple gesture like using an old title or keeping the same number for a group will tie you to the past and support you with the authority of history. 2. Make a loud and public
Display of support for the values of the past. 3. Seem to be a zealot for tradition and few will notice how unconventional you really are. 4. Quietly enact a radical change, while appearing to safeguard tradition. 5. The changes you make must seem less innovative than they
Are. · If your reform is too far ahead of its time, few will understand it, and it will stir up anxiety and be hopelessly misinterpreted. 6. If you work in a tumultuous time, there is power to be gained by preaching a return to the past, to comfort, tradition, and ritual.
7. During a period of stagnation, on the other hand, play the card of reform and revolution—but beware of what you stir up. · Those who finish a revolution are rarely those who start it. You will not succeed at this dangerous game unless you are willing to forestall the inevitable
Reaction against it by playing with appearances and building on the past. As always be warned · The past is a corpse to be used as you see fit. · If what happened in the recent past was painful and harsh, it is self-destructive to associate yourself with it. · Even an
Ugly recent history will seem preferable to an empty space. · Fill that space immediately with new rituals and forms. · Soothing and growing familiar, these will secure your position among the masses. The perfect example, once again, is, as detailed in Law 26: Keep Your
Hands Clean, Cesare Borgia, who was facing a great disdain from the populus for all the gruesome actions that had come with his ascent to the throne. They wanted immediate change or a revolution would’ve broken out. Cesare picked up on that, blamed Remiro Di Orco,
Made a public display of his spiked up head, then went on to throw many balls, fetes, hand out food – basically appear like a saint. In short, he calmed the people who had wanted his downfall with prompt change and strategic generosity as seen in Law 40 with Louis XIV,
By leaving the dark past behind and announcing the good times that lie ahead. Law Number 46: Never Appear Too Perfect. Law Number 46) Never Appear Too Perfect. Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates
Silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity. Keep these 5 Key Lessons in mind to avoid envy and succeed under the radar unscathed.
1. Relatability: People are often more comfortable around those who seem human and approachable. If you appear too perfect, others might feel intimidated or distant from you. 2. Humility: Demonstrating humility by acknowledging your imperfections can foster a sense of trust
And openness. It shows that you are self-aware and not trying to project an unrealistic image. 3. Strategic Vulnerability: Revealing a controlled level of vulnerability can be a strategic move. It allows you to connect with others on a more personal level and can be a tool
For building alliances. 4. Avoiding Resentment: Perfection can breed envy and resentment. By acknowledging your flaws, you reduce the likelihood of creating negative feelings among your peers or competitors. 5. Adaptability: Being open about imperfections can also signal a willingness to learn and grow. This flexibility can be an asset in
Dynamic environments. Law Number 47: In Victory Learn When To Stop. The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril and the heat of victory arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for and by going
Too far you make more enemies than you defeat. do not allow success to go to your head. there is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. set a goal and when you reach it, stop. No single person in history has occupied a
More delicate and precarious position than the King’s mistress. she had no real or legitimate power base to fall back on in times of trouble. she was surrounded by packs of envious courtiers eagerly anticipating her fall from grace and finally since the source of her power was
Usually her physical beauty for most royal mistresses that fall was inevitable and unpleasant. When Jean Antoinette was on was a middle-class child of nine she had been told by a fortune-teller that she would someday be the King’s favorite. This seemed an absurd dream since the Royal
Mistress almost always came from the aristocracy. Jean nevertheless believed herself destined to seduce the King and doing so became her obsession. She applied herself to the talents the King’s favorite had to have, music, dancing, acting, horseback riding and she excelled
In every one of them. Word quickly spread of her beauty, talent, charm and intelligence. Jean Poisson became close friends with Voltaire Montesquieu and other great minds of the time, but she never lost sight of the goal she had set for herself as a girl, to capture the
Heart of the king. In 1744 Louis the Fifteenth’s current mistress the Duchesse de Chateauroux had died. Jean placed herself everywhere he would be. At masked balls, at their site at the Opera, wherever their paths would cross and wherever
She could display her many talents. The King succumbed to her charms and in a ceremony at Versailles in September of 1745 this 24 year-old daughter of a middle-class banking agent was officially inaugurated as the King’s mistress. From now on she would be known as
Madame de Pompadour. She organized elaborate hunting parties, masked balls and whatever else it would take to keep the king amused and averted outside the bedroom. She became a patroness of the Arts and the arbiter of taste and fashion for all of France. Her enemies
At the court only grew in number with each new success but Madame de Pompadour thwarted them in a totally novel way for a king’s mistress, with extreme politeness. In 1751 when Madame de Pompadour was at the height of her power she experienced her worst
Crisis. She found it increasingly difficult to meet the Kings demands in bed. This was usually the point at which the mistress would meet her end, struggling to maintain her position as her beauty faded. But Madame de Pompadour encouraged the King to set up a brothel on
The grounds of Versailles. There the middle aged King could have liaisons with the most beautiful young girls in the realm. Her reign as mistress had lasted an unprecedented 20 years. She was regretted by all, wrote the Duke de Croy for she was kindly and helpful
To everyone who approached her. Madame de Pompadour was aware of the temporariness of her power. She succeeded where all others had failed because she never pressed her good fortune. Instead of bullying the quarters from her powerful position as the King’s mistress,
She tried to win their support. She never revealed the slightest hint of greed or arrogance. When she could no longer perform her physical duties as mistress, she did not fret at the fault of someone replacing her in bed. She simply encouraged the King to take young
Lovers knowing that the younger and prettier they were, the less of a threat they posed, since they could not compare to her in charm and sophistication, and would soon bore the monarch. Notice how Jean Antoinette was so aside from her origins, appeared to be perfect
And still managed not to stir up too much envy. And where there was trouble brewing she dealt with it with extreme kindness. Much like the generous act of gifting valuable materials, she would offer her uniquely positive character with a genuine smile. Law Number 48: Assume Formlessness.
By taking a shape, by having a visible plan you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be
As fluid and formless as water. Never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes. When a Spartan boy reached the age of seven he was taken from his mother and placed in a military club where he was trained to fight
And underwent the strictest discipline. The boys slept on beds of reeds, they were allotted only one outer garment to wear for an entire year. They studied none of the arts. Music was banned and only slaves were permitted to practice the crafts that were necessary
To sustain them. The only skills the Spartans taught were those of warfare. Children seniors weaklings were left to die in a cavern in the mountains. No system of money or trading was allowed in Sparta. Acquired wealth they believed with so selfishness and dissension
Weakening their warrior discipline. Sparta was a society dedicated to the art of war. Spartans would be tougher stronger and fiercer than their neighbors. This was the only way they could ensure their stability and survival. The spartans’ single-mindedness allowed them
To forge the most powerful infantry in the world. They marched in perfect order and fought with incomparable bravery. Their tight-knit phalanxes could vanquish an army ten times their size as they proved in defeating the Persians at Thermopylae. A Spartan column
On the March would strike terror in the enemy. It seemed to have no weaknesses yet although the Spartans proved themselves mighty warriors they had no interest in creating an empire. They only wanted to keep what they had already conquered and to defended against invaders.
Decades would pass without a single change in the system that had succeeded so well in preserving Sparta’s status quo. At the same time that the Spartans were evolving their warlike culture Athens was rising to equal prominence. They took the sea, became great
Merchants and spread their currency throughout the Mediterranean. Unlike the rigid Spartans the Athenians responded to every problem with consummate creativity adapting to the occasion and creating new social forms. The new arts at an incredible pace. Their society was in
Constant flux. In 431 BC the war that had been brewing between Athens and Sparta for so long finally erupted. It lasted 27 years but after many twists of Fortune the Spartan war machine finally emerged victorious. Sparta had defeated Athens but the fluid Athenian
Way of life was slowly breaking down its discipline and loosening its rigid order. They were adapting to losing their empire, managing to thrive as a cultural and economic center. Meanwhile Sparta grew weaker and weaker. Some 30 years after defeating Athens, it lost an important
Battle with the city-state of Thebes. Almost overnight this once mighty nation collapsed and would never recover. In facing a serious problem. controlling superior numbers Sparta reacted like an animal that develops the shell to protect itself from the environment. But like a turtle the Spartans sacrificed mobility for safety. They had no
Culture beyond warfare, no arts to relieve the tension. A constant anxiety about the status quo. Victory would mean new lands to govern, which they did not want. Defeat would mean the end of their military machine, which they didn’t want either. Only stasis allowed
Them to survive but nothing in the world can remain stable forever and the shell or system you evolved for your protection will someday prove your undoing. “When you want to fight us, we don’t let you and you can’t find us. But when we want to
Fight you, we make sure that you can’t get away and we hit you squarely . . . and wipe you out. . . . The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue. Mao Tse-tung, 1893.
Congratulations on making it through to the end but have you internalized all of the lessons within these three hours. Come back and rewatch the explanation of these laws at any time. As long as human beings are the way they are, it is timeless wisdom. Watch the condensed
30-minute version of the 48 Laws of Power here. Or join the illacertus Video Library at 30% off with the discount link in the description and listen to over threehundred hours worth of audiobooks and watch or download exclusive animations on power, strategy and seduction
Ad-free. All links are in the description. Congratulations on making it all the way through the in-depth 48 Laws of Power Director’s Cut Remastered Animation. Where do you go from here? Chances are you may want to check out the illacertus Video Archive for the full-length versions of the following videos. Enjoy.
The Art of Seduction by Robert Greene. Law Number 1 – Choose the Right Target. In Paris of the 1770s the young Vicomte de Valmont had had enough of seducing the easy wives of illustrious aristocrats in the city. Having gotten bored of the repetition he visited
His aunt at her château in the countryside. His close friends were taking bets as to when he’d hurry back to Paris but the Vicomte had found himself a new objective. As Robert Greene wrote “She was not a court lady; her taste in clothing
Was atrocious (she always covered her neck with ghastly frills) and her conversation lacked wit. For some reason, however, far from Paris, Valmont began to see these traits in a new light. He followed her to the chapel where she went every morning to pray. He caught
Glimpses of her at dinner, or playing cards. Unlike the ladies of Paris, she seemed unaware of her charms; this excited him. Because of the heat, she wore a simple linen dress, which revealed her figure. A piece of muslin covered her breasts, letting him more than imagine
Them. Her hair, unfashionable in its slight disorder, conjured the bedroom. And her face—he had never noticed how expressive it was. Her features lit up when she gave alms to a beggar; she blushed at the slightest praise. She was so natural and unself-conscious. And when
She talked of her husband, or religious matters, he could sense the depth of her feelings. If such a passionate nature were ever detoured into a love affair …” The Vicomte de Valmont studied the Présidente de Tourvel and proceeded his advances only
When he saw his charms working on her. Being from Paris Valmont was of a rather exotic nature for the Présidente. With her husband absent on his duties far away the Vicomte filled a void in her life. Being left alone and unhappy someone as notable as the Vicomte
Noticed her and gave her all of the attention she had been craving. You want to pursue the person who charms you in a way that cannot be explained by words. Someone whose looks, personality and behavior attracts you beyond the superficial.
The Presidente de Tourvel was unlike the women of Paris. She was unlike the Vicomte de Valmont. Thus she had qualities they lacked and even secretly envied. Look for signs in your potential partner from blushing, unusual shyness, strong eye contact accompanied by a suggestive smile, playing with her hair or adjusting her wardrobe as
She hangs on your every word and keep the seduction going. [gumroad.illacertus.com] [Thank you.]
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This book should be renamed “The Lawyers’ Manifesto”