What Is the 48 Laws of Power Book about
Keep people unbalanced and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no idea what you`re doing, they can`t prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, wrap them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late. Use this tactic in the following way: don`t hide your intentions by closing yourself off (at the risk of sounding mysterious and making people suspicious), but by constantly talking about your desires and goals – but not your true desires. You will kill three birds with one stone: you seem friendly, open and confident; You hide your intentions; And you send your rivals on time-consuming wild goose hunts. Many believe that influencing your workplace requires connecting with a powerful supervisor. Greene advises against it. Since everything is judged by appearance, you need to stand out. Make yourself appear bigger, more interesting and more mysterious than the masses.
One way to do this is to surround your name with sensations and scandals. Remember that notoriety, whatever it is, brings power. It is better to be slandered than to be ignored. Greene, meanwhile, warns that in some cases, it`s better to appeal to feelings of generosity than greed. Therefore, you need to determine the type of person you are interacting with. You should not appeal to their greed if they want to be kind and are happy to help you for some reason (pride or vanity). If they don`t care about appearing charitable and just take care of themselves, you`ll have to play on their greed rather than their generosity. DO: Make what you say sound vague, open, and sphinx-like. While Mastery is a great book, it`s not the one Robert Greene put on the map. All 48 laws of power were.
The book was published in 1998 after he took a big risk to quit his previous job, which he hated, and became a bestseller and has since sold over a million copies. The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political skill. He mastered the art of indirection; He flatters, yields to superiors and asserts his power over others in the strangest and most graceful way. Learn and apply the laws of courtesy and there will be no limit to the extent to which you can stand up in court. Think of the power play as a game, Greene says. The book teaches us to think deeply about power in order to better understand ourselves, our friends, and the world. Joseph in the Bible is an example of someone who could relate to this principle. When he told his brothers about his dream, it triggered jealousy. It wasn`t quite a “feat” yet. But because his siblings were already jealous of him, his thoughts of success almost cost him his life.
Several centuries after the fall of the Han Dynasty (222 AD), Chinese history followed the same pattern of violent and bloody coups, one after another. Army personnel had planned to kill a weak emperor and then replace him on the dragon throne with a strong general. The general would found a new dynasty and crown himself emperor; To ensure his own survival, he killed his fellow generals. A few years later, however, the pattern would resume: new generals would rise up and assassinate him or his sons. Being emperor of China meant being alone, surrounded by a pack of enemies – it was the least powerful and least secure position in the empire. Reflecting and dominating the opposition`s options for action are just two of the many ways to come to power. It`s the power to hide your intentions. Throughout his career, Bismarck had been a loyal, if not ardent, supporter of Prussian power. He dreamed of German unification, of going to war with Austria and humiliating the country that had divided Germany for so long. As a former soldier, he regarded war as a glorious enterprise.
Greene says that the better you transmit power, the better you become a friend, a lover, and a person. This is because you learn to make others feel good, which makes them dependent on you, as a source of great joy to be there. DO: Use strong visual images to capture people`s emotions. All problems can usually be attributed to one person. By eradicating this individual and preventing him from operating, you will stop his influence. Do not waste time, otherwise their influence will multiply. In each group, power is concentrated in the hands of one or two people. Therefore, it is important to understand who controls the group.
This becomes more difficult because troublemakers prefer to hide their actions. However, isolate their power, and they become superfluous. You need to maintain an impeccable appearance. They should never be associated with bad actions. To do this, use scapegoats to hide your involvement. Your reputation depends more on what you hide than what you reveal. You should always have a handy scapegoat on hand when you need to hide your most questionable activities. And yet, The 48 Laws of Power is a book to think twice before reading.
The fight took place the next day in a gym. Weil took care of the money, which was deposited in a locked box for security. In the hotel room, everything went according to plan. The financiers looked gloomy to see how bad their fighter was, and Geezil dreamed of the easy money he would earn. Then suddenly, a wild impulse from the financier`s fighter hit Gross hard in the face and caused him to fall. When he hit the canvas, blood splattered from his mouth. He coughed, then stood still. One of the financiers, a former doctor, checked his pulse; He was dead. The millionaires panicked: all had to get out before the police arrived – they could all be charged with murder.
The feeling of having no power over people and events is usually unbearable for us – when we feel helpless, we feel miserable. No one wants less power; Everyone wants more. In today`s world, however, it is dangerous to appear too power-hungry to be open about one`s power movements. We must appear fair and decent. So we have to be subtle – sympathetic but cunning, democratic but devious.