Book: "The 48 Laws of Power".
Once you have set your mind to rise to power the first law you have to learn is:
Law Nº. 1 - Never shadow your master.
The worst thing you can do when you are trying to climb positions in your job or in any activity where you have a vertical figure in the organization chart of power is to demonstrate your superiority in talent and ability to your superiors. What you will cause by trying to impress them will be the opposite of the desired effect, you will inspire fear and insecurity in your superiors. In the world of organizations this is known as "the chronos syndrome", the person who suffers from this syndrome is the person who upon ascending to a position of power clings to maintain it in an unhealthy way and does everything in his power to avoid being displaced; this also leads these people to subdue and manipulate their subordinates preventing them from developing and generating new ideas. The way to make this law work for you is to make your superior feel more talented than he really is, this way he will not feel intimidated and you will gain his sympathy.
Law Nº. 10 - Danger of contagion.
Avoid losers and unhappy people, for moods are contagious and toxic. Like an infectious disease, people who are unhappy and losers are the architects of their own misfortune and end up transmitting it. Often these people present themselves as victims, which may be because the things that led to their misfortune are unconsciously self-generated. We acquire other people's problems and become them.
The way to make this law useful to us is to be alert and identify these people and once identified do not pity them or try to help them because they will not change their way of thinking, but you can become infected by them. Do the opposite, associate with happy and fortunate people is the most basic rule of life and thanks to it you will benefit more than with any other therapy.
Law Nº. 13 - When you ask for help, do not appeal to people's compassion or gratitude, but to their selfishness.
This is very similar to the principles taught by Dale Carnegie in his book "How to Win Friends and Influence People," when he says that when you want to get something from others you must awaken in them a vehement desire, never depend on favors you have done in the past, gratitude is something that is forgotten and often ignored. When you want a favor from someone you must appeal to their selfishness and somehow benefit them.
The way to make this law work for us is to first give something in return to then achieve your purpose.
Law Nº 18 - Do not build fortresses to protect yourself: isolation is dangerous.
Machiavelli said that from his strictly military perspective isolating yourself in a fortress is a mistake. Once you are alone and isolated in your fortress everyone will know you are there and the fortress will become your prison as you are vulnerable to contagious pests and diseases that you will not be able to successfully deal with or eradicate. The way to successfully use this law is as Louis XIV did when he ascended to the throne after France was embroiled in different revolts instigated by the nobility. Once the palace of Versailles was built he decided to put himself in the center of those powerful conspirators, living and coexisting with them on a daily basis, in this way he had the opportunity to personally watch over all the inhabitants of the palace and first hand learn of any conspiracy against them; otherwise if he had isolated himself from the powerful nobility he would have generated more resentment against the crown and they would have conspired a new revolt.
By nature the human being is a social creature and must always be surrounded by people to survive, going against his nature makes him weak. When you are in danger instead of being introverted and avoiding the person who wants to harm you, look for and generate truces with new allies and move in different circles. This is the strategy that has been used for many centuries among the powerful.
Law Nº 23 - Concentrate your forces.
When you want to obtain power using this law you must avoid dispersing your forces in different points and you must focus. An example of this law is that of the Rothschilds, one of the most famous families of Jewish bankers. The patron of the family had been isolated in a ghetto on the outskirts of the city of Frankfurt (Germany) due to the rigid laws that existed at that time that forbade him to have any kind of contact with people outside his religion. He decided to concentrate his efforts on two tasks: to make an alliance with an important businessman who was part of the German nobility and the second task was that when doing business he did not go to third parties to associate, but rather he went to his children and close relatives. The five heirs of the fortune controlled the business and finances inherited by their father and decided to expand to different parts of Europe, thus becoming the most prestigious bankers in the world. The power of the Rothschilds came from the exclusion of outsiders and to further concentrate their forces they decided to marry exclusively with first cousins of the family.
Law Nº. 24 - Play the role of the perfect courtier.
The book refers to court life, no matter if it was in Europe, in the Byzantine Empire or in the Chinese courts; times have not changed. According to Machiavelli people react as if the sun, the planets, the moon have changed their movement and power, and are different from what they were in the past. The following laws must be followed in order to gain access to power in court politics:
- Avoid ostentation so that your actions do not attract attention and if you are planning to attack do not arouse suspicion.
- Be frugal with your compliments, do not be excessive with your compliments because if you do it too often they lose their value.
- Make yourself noticed, for if you do not make yourself noticed among the other courtiers you will never gain access to power.
- Never presume friendship or intimacy with your master, it is necessary that your master makes this distinction because it can arouse envy among others.
- Never criticize directly those who are above you, it is preferable to be cautious and subtle than to sin the opposite.
Law Nº. 27 - Play on people's need to have faith in something to get unconditional followers.
This law has been used for many years by leaders, demagogues and populists. Adolf Hitler used this law to come to power after World War I. Germany had fallen into a deep economic crisis. Germany had fallen into a deep economic, political and social crisis that seemed very difficult to overcome. At this time there were beerhouses, which were not bars as we might think but places where ideas and political debates were exchanged, which were used by Adolf Hitler to create the German National Labor Party or better known as the Nazi Party. This would be the platform he would use in his rise to power and the first great technique he used was: vagueness and vagueness as two great magnets along with an ultra-nationalist discourse full of demagogy. He said that once he came to power the German people would strengthen the army, put an end to unemployment and to the tyranny of the Jews who at that time in Germany concentrated most of politics and commerce; promises to which he never gave a specific channel but his speech was passionate and vigorous which attracted the masses. Once his movement became more popular he led hundreds of followers to protest in the streets of Munich for which he was arrested, this was the moment when he wrote his famous book "My Struggle", thus becoming a martyr and an idol for the people for his ultra-right and nationalist ideals, creating millions of followers throughout Germany, who would blindly follow him to the most horrible and atrocious policies such as the extermination of the Jews.
The way we can make this law work for us is to find a way to attract the will of the people and make them imagine that they can get all these benefits. Once you have gotten into the collective will of the people, you will become a prophet, a god or a genie.
Law Nº 33 - Discover the Achilles heel of others.
Individuals, like great walls and fortresses, have fissures in their structure through which they can be destroyed. Your task will be to find that weakness in individuals so that you can use it to your advantage.
An example of this law was when King Henry II of France died and Catherine de Medici, general, queen and mother of the successors to the throne, had to take over the crown, which was a sign of weakness because without the figure of the king they would be vulnerable to attack by their enemies. Catalina identified her two greatest enemies, Antonio and Luis de Borbón of the Kingdom of Navarra, and in a very audacious act she named Antonio de Borbón as lieutenant general of the kingdom. This position forced him to live at court, which Catherine used to her advantage to identify his weaknesses and, realizing that Antonio had a weakness for women, Catherine sent the most beautiful woman in the court to seduce and spy on him. Once Antonio was madly in love with that woman, Catalina sent that same woman to seduce his brother Luis, causing a rupture between the two brothers. This Machiavellian act succeeded in separating the two brothers, thus preventing them from joining forces against Catalina.
The conclusion of this law is that knowing your opponent's weakness will allow you to create a strategy to attack him.
Law Nº 34 - Act like a king to be treated like a king.
This Law has great resonance with the story of Christopher Columbus. We all know the story of the discoverer of America, but we also need to understand how he obtained financing from Queen Isabella the Catholic thanks to which he was able to discover America. The true origin of Christopher Columbus is that he came from a humble family where his father was a cheese seller, but he never felt intimidated or diminished or inferior to anyone. Columbus sought to enter the world of the greatest aristocrats of the time with a false story that he constantly repeated that he came from a noble Genoese family. In search of better fortune he went to Lisbon and through an attitude of superiority and enigmatic presence he eventually managed to enter the Portuguese nobility. Columbus would marry a woman of the court with strong connections to the crown and using his wife's connections he managed to meet with the king of Portugal to request funding for the project of seeking new routes to reach the Far East. This request was denied by the king, but the king was captivated by the great presence and confidence that Columbus had and let him know so. Despite the failed attempt to obtain financing in Portugal, Columbus turned to Spain using the same techniques and in that case his request was well received by Queen Isabella, thus achieving his goal.
The way to use this law is to address others as Christopher Columbus did, because although Columbus was a mediocre, knew less about the sea than other navigators, was a bad leader and often confused continents with small islands and vice versa, he was a genius in the art of selling himself, from him emanates a sense of confidence and security that had no relation to his origins or economic resources; in our hands is to emanate a great security when addressing people of great power. If you do what Columbus did, do not doubt that you will reach the peak of power.
Law Nº 39 - Stir the waters to ensure a good catch.
When you want to come to power there will be many enemies who will try to get you out of their positions, to make you angry and when this happens you must remember this law, because attacking your enemies when you are angry or motivated by other types of emotions is counterproductive and the only thing you will achieve is to weaken your power and you will lose the respect of your followers. Remember that to make decisions you must always be cold and calculating.
An example of this law was when Napoleon had returned to Paris after several months of battles and his spies had discovered that in his absence two of his closest men had conspired against him. Napoleon, realizing this plot, did not react like the great emperor and leader of the most successful army in Europe, but behaved like an angry child, slandering the conspirators in public and in front of his closest men, and, clouded by his anger, had these two men expelled from court instead of imprisoning or shooting them, which would have been more appropriate punishments for this act of treason. But the military and other witnesses who witnessed this childish act by the emperor lost respect for Napoleon because he did not know how to control his emotions in a moment of anger. This news traveled the length and breadth of France and the French people lost the trust they had placed in him. This attitude would be the beginning of the end of Napoleon because in later years he would become entrenched in an absurd war against Russia and consequently he would lose the battle of Waterloo from which he could never recover.
The way to make this law work for us is to do the opposite of what Napoleon did: keep a cool head and do not get carried away by provocations, since the only thing you will achieve is to weaken your influence and cloud your decision making.
Law Nº 46 - Never show yourself to be too perfect.
You have to remember that the laws shown in this book are not only to be executed but also to know how to defend yourself against people who want to use them against you. As you are discharging positions of power you will inevitably cause envy in many people. Remember that success is desired by many people, but achieved by very few.
You should follow two strategies to use this law to your advantage:
Accept that there will always be individuals superior to you and accept that you may become envious of them, but don't let that feeling poison your soul. Use these feelings to motivate you and push you to surpass that person someday.
You must understand that as you gain more power those below you will envy you and put obstacles in your way to cause your downfall. In many occasions these envies can be caused by yourself, so it is best to avoid being ostentatious in public, show yourself simple and respectful to others.
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