48 Laws of Power – by Robert Greene

“Do not leave your reputation to chance or gossip; it is your life’s artwork, and you must craft it, hone it, and display it with the care of an artist.”   

This is an absolute bible for socially and politically navigating the world of relationships. In every single interaction, one individual will have more power and more status, and the other will have less.

Be that in your work, business, romance, friendships, family, or otherwise, this book will show you’re the ‘dos and dont’s’. You can read this book to best suit you: you can use it to help you in situations when you have less power, it can help you get more power, or it can help you use your power on others.Take a read of 48 Laws of Power 

Warning: Proceed with caution. This is a powerful book with powerful laws – ignore them at your peril.  

Law 1 – Never Outshine The Master. “Always make those above your feel comfortably secure. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite”.

Law 4 – Always say less than necessary. “The more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control… Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less”.

Law 9 – 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 in stronger than any momentary change of opinion”.

Law 13 – When asking for help, appeal to people’s self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude. “Uncover something in your request, or in your alliance, that will benefit them, and emphasize it out of all proportion”.

Law 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”.

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48 Laws of Power 

“The human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will tun wild and cause you grief.”

  In every single interaction, one individual will have more power and more status, and the other will have less. Be that in your work, business, romance, friendships, family, or otherwise, this book will show you’re the ‘dos and don’ts’. The feeling of having no power over people and events is generally unbearable to us – when we feel helpless we feel miserable. No one wants less power – everyone wants more.  You can read this book to best suit you: you can use it to help you in situations when you have less power, it can help you get more power, or it can help you use your power on others.   

Law 1 –  Never outshine the master 

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please and 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 will attain the heights of power.

   When you show yourself in the world and display your talents, you naturally stir up all kinds of resentment, envy, and other manifestations of insecurity.  This is to be expected. You cannot spend your life worrying about the petty feelings of others. With those above you, however, you must take a different approach. When it comes to power, outshining the master is the worst mistake of all. You can simply outshine a master by being yourself.

 You must flatter and puff up your master. Overt flattery can be effective but has its limits; it is too direct and obvious and looks bad to other courtiers. Discrete flattery is much more powerful. If you are more intelligent than your master, make him appear more intelligent than you. Act naive if you need.  Commit harmless mistakes that will not hurt you in the long run, but will give you the chance to ask for help.

 Law 5– So much depends on reputation – guard it with your life 

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them. It takes years to build your reputation, but it can be ruined in seconds.

Law 9: Win through your actions, never through argument 

It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate. Words are a dime a dozen. Everyone knows that in the heat of argument, we will say anything to support our case. We would quote the bible or pull out random statistics or pretend to be acting on someone else’s authority. But who can ever actually be persuaded by bags of air like that? When aiming for power, or trying to conserve it, always look for the indirect route, and always choose your battles carefully. If it does not matter if you win this argument or not, save you efforts and know when to walk away. 

Law 10: Infection – avoid the unhappy and unlucky 

You can die from someone else’s misery – emotional states are as infection 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.

  The infecting character type stems from the inward instability that radiates outward, drawing disaster upon itself. There is almost a desire to destroy and unsettle. You could spend a lifetime studying the pathology of the infecting character, but don’t waste your time – just learn the lesson. When you suspect you are in the presence of an infector, don’t argue, don’t try to help, don’t pass on the person to your friends, or you will become enmeshed. Flee the infectors presence or suffer the consequences.

 Those misfortunes amongst us who have been brought down by circumstances beyond our control deserve all the help and sympathy you can give them. But there are others who are not born to misfortune or unhappiness, but who draw it upon themselves by their destructive actions and unsettling effect on others. Depicted in the book 48 Laws of Power

 Law 11 – Learn to keep people dependant 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.

  Those who are replaceable get destroyed. Sooner or later, someone will come along who can do the job just as well – someone younger, fresher, less expensive and less threatening. Be the only one who can do what you do, and make the fate of those who hire you so entwined with yours that they cannot possibly get rid of you. If you are ambitious, it is much wiser to seek out weak rulers or masters with whom you can create a relationship of dependence. You become their strength, their intelligence, their spine. 

Law 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.

  Boldness and hesitation elicit very different psychological responses in their targets. Hesitation puts obstacles in your path, boldness eliminates them. Once you understand this, you will realize it is essential to overcome your natural timidity and practice the art of audacity. People have a sixth sense for the weakness of others. If in a first encounter you demonstrate your willingness to compromise, back down and retreat, you will bring out the lion even in people who are not necessarily bloodthirsty. Everything depends on perception, and once you are seen as the kind of person who quickly goes on the defensive, who is willing to negotiate and be amenable, you will be pushed around without mercy. If interested in some corporation or deep dealt business book must follow