The 48 Laws of Power

• Remark: The Laws of Power can be summed up by recognizing the following:
  1. You are nothing without power. You cannot do anything without power.
  2. If you do not seek power over others, others will seek power over you.
  3. People want to experience power, whether it be true power, in the sense of being in a position of power, or the feeling of power, in the sense of a delusion or the illusion of control.
  4. Conversely, people do not like to feel like they are not in control. People do not like to be wrong. People see themselves as right (intellectually or morally).
  5. The ego of others stands in the way of the feeling of power. People impose their wills, their ego, on other people, and in turn there is friction among them.
  6. Your own ego stands in the way of you achieving power. Hence, to seek power is to *let go of your own ego. *
  7. The quest for power is neither good nor bad, if anything morals are another form of ego — they are a way to impose a form of superiority upon others.
  8. To seek power is to be more mindful of others’ egos and to adapt accordingly. View things from the lens of empathy— understand the other person’s viewpoint
  9. Often it is enough to appear correct than it is to be correct. People tend to be superficial and only look at the surface level.

1. Never Outshine The Master §

• Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. All Masters want to appear more superior than other people.
• You can inadvertently outshine a Master by simply being yourself. Never be yourself in front of an insecure master.
• Never imagine that just because you have the Master’s favor you can do anything.
• If you play it right, your Master will fall and you will outlive and outshine them.

2. Never Put Too Much Trust In Friends, Learn How To Use Enemies. §

• You have more to fear from friends than from enemies. They will betray you more quickly for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and ingenuine.
• Honesty rarely strengthens a friendship. Friends make for good people to do your dirty work.
• Friends make us complacent. In the end, skill and competence are far more important than friendly feelings.
• If you never expect gratitude from a friend, you will be pleasantly surprised when they prove grateful.
• Hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal and reliable than a friend, because he has more to prove. Without enemies, we grow lazy. The man of power welcomes conflict.
• Remember:
  • Never pick a fight with someone you are not sure you can defeat.
  • If you have no apparent enemies, set up a convenient target, even friends (possibly as a scapegoat).
  • Use enemies to define your cause more clearly.
• You are better off with a declared opponent than not knowing where your real enemies lie.

3. Conceal Your Intentions §

• Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions.
• Use Decoyed Objects of Desire and Red Herrings to Throw People Off The Scent.
  • By being open you make yourself predictable and familiar that it is impossible to respect or fear you.
  • If you yearn for power, lay honesty aside. Keep false appearances to appear sociable.
  • People easily mistake sincerity for honesty; People want to believe others are honest. Honesty is just a decoy in the deceiver’s weapons.
• Use Smoke Screens to Disguise Your Actions.
  • The bland exterior is often the perfect smoke screen. It is this unreadability that draws people to you and makes you appear a person of power.
  • Noble gestures are themselves deceptive.
  • We like to think our behavior conforms to patterns. Establish patterns and play to the anticipation of others.
  • People mistake appearances for reality. Blend in with those around you.
• Reversal: Deception becomes more difficult the more you use it. In such a case, use honesty as a weapon and favor being an honest man instead

4. Always Say Less Than Necessary §

• The more you say the more common you appear, and the less in control. Also, you are more likely to say something foolish.
• The less you say, the more profound and mysterious you appear. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less.
• Generally, you cannot get people to do what you wanted to do simply by talking to them.
• Reversal: use silence with discretion. When silence leads to vagueness, set your foot down. Additionally, do not close off the opportunity to deceive by talking more.

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. Reputation gives us security.
• Sow doubt to destroy your enemy’s reputations.
• Appearances are the barometer to judgment. Maintain a reputation of your own creation to maintain a degree of control.
• There is nothing to be gained by neglecting your reputation. Not caring about what others think of you gives you a reputation of insolence and arrogance. By not caring, you let others decide this for you. Be the master of your own fate and guard your reputation

6. Court Attention At All Costs. §

• Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing
• Do anything to make yourself seem larger than life and shine more brightly than those around you.
  • Court scandal. Do something different and odd to stand out, or be mysterious. All attention is good attention, and all attention brings power.
  • People feel superior to those whose actions they can predict. Show them you are in control by playing against their expectations.
• An air of mystery heightens your presence; it creates anticipation. Use mystery to beguile, seduce, even frighten
  • The mysterious makes your forces seem larger and more terrifying Mysterious people put others in an inferior position—that of trying to figure them out.

7. Get Others To Do The Work For You But Always Take The Credit §

• Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance safe you time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed.
• Credit is as, if not more important as the thing itself. Be vigilant and ruthless in keeping your creation quiet.
• Never do yourself what others can do for you. It is far better to conserve your forces, pounce on the work others have done and find a way to make it your own.
• Steal from the past and look like a genius. It saves effort.
• Reversal: Do not be greedy. Know when to let other people share credit to serve your purpose.

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 their own plans in the process.
• The aggressive person is rarely in full control. Turn that aggression against them.
• The essence of power is the ability to keep the initiative. Thus
  • Master your emotions
  • Play with the emotions of others.
• If you make your opponent come to you, you create the illusion that he is in control.
• If on one occasion you make it a point of dignity that others must come to you and you succeed, they will continue to do so even after you stop trying
• Reversal: Know when to be aggressive to demoralize others. Lure when time is on your side. Attack when the enemy is weak and needs to be crushed. The key to power in any case is to make others respond to your terms

9. Win Through Your Actions, Never Through Argument §

• Demonstrate, do not explicate. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions without saying a word.
• Understand that words are never neutral. Each man believes they are right and words rarely convince them. Therefore, if you need to convince them, do so indirectly.
• Use Symbolism as an extra layer of power.
• If it does not matter in the long run, whether the other person agrees, then it is best not to even bother with a demonstration

10. Infection. Avoid The Unhappy and Unlucky. §

• The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Thus, do not pity the unfortunate.
• Judge people on the effects they have on the world, not the reasons they give for their problems
• In the game of power, the people you associate with are critical. There is nothing to be gained by associating with those who are miserable. There is only power and good fortune to be obtained by associating with the fortunate

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
• Be the only one who can do what you do. Become irreplaceable or make it look like you are, unless you want to be replaced.
• Dependence does not imply love. In fact, it may inspire fear instead.
• Reversal: The dependence of others on you makes you dependent on them as well. Interdependence remains the law. Independence is rare and often the fatal exception.

12. Use Selective Honesty and Generosity To Disarm Your Victim §

• One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones
• Learn to give before you take.
• What is required is a reputation for honesty built on a series of acts. By playing on people’s emotion, calculated acts of kindness can turn people into gullible children
• Reversal: If you have a reputation for deception, play to the people’s image and be deceptive. Once trust is broken, it rarely heals.

13. When Asking For Help, Appeal To People’s Self-Interest, Never To Their Mercy or Gratitude §

• If you need to turn to an ally for help, Do not bother to remind them of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Gratitude is a terrible burden that people gladly discard.
• Instead, uncover something in the request that will benefit him and emphasize it out of all proportion
• Most people opt for the future and forget the past.
• Reversal: Distinguish the differences among powerful people. When they ooze greed, do not appeal to their charity. When they want to look charitable and noble, do not appeal to their greed

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. Using others as spies, however, is unreliable as you have little control over them.
• 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
• Every occasion is an opportunity for artful spying. Emphasize friendly chatter but gather information. Lay traps to make people reveal something about themselves.
• The brilliance of the maneuver is that not only will you learn, they will mistake your interest in them for friendship
• As a countermeasure, give out false information to others. Control the information and you control the game.

15. Crush Your Enemy Totally §

• If the 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.
• Have no mercy. Allow your enemies no option. Crush your enemies as totally as they would crush you. The only peace and security you can hope for from your enemies is their disappearance
• If they cannot be banished from the court, pay no heed to the friendliness they feign
• Reversal: Sometimes, it is better to let your enemy destroy themselves. If they survive and plot revenge, do not let your guard down and crush them again.

16. Use Absence To Increase Respect And Honor §

• The more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear. Learn when to leave; Create value through scarcity.
• Absence stimulates the imagination. Love never dies of starvation, but often indigestion
• Reversal: In the beginning, do the opposite. Make yourself omnipresent. Only what is seen and loved will be missed in its absence.

17. Keep Others In Suspended Terror — Cultivate An Air Of Unpredictability §

• Nothing is more terrifying than the sudden and unpredictable. Predictability gives a sense of control.
• A person of power instills a kind of fear by deliberately unsettling those around them to keep initiative on their side.
• The more capricious you appear, the more respect you will gather. Only the terminally subordinate act in a predictable manner
• Reversal: Predictability can be used to disarm people into a pattern. Too much unpredictability may also be seen as a sign of indecisiveness.

18. Do Not Build Fortresses To Protect Yourself — Isolation Is Dangerous §

• The world is dangerous—everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems safest, but isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from. It cuts you off from valuable information, makes you conspicuous and an easy target.
• Better to circulate among people, find allies, mingle. Place yourself at the center of things. You are shielded from your enemies by the crowd.
• Isolation engenders awkwardness and leads to further isolation as people start avoiding you. The more isolated you are the harder it is to break out of your isolation

19. Know Who You’re Dealing With — Do Not Offend The Wrong Person §

• Study the weaknesses of people before deciding whether or not to deal with them.
  • Never rely on instincts. Gather concrete knowledge.
  • Never Trust Appearances. Never trust the version that people give of themselves.
• Some Opponents:
  • The Arrogant and Proud: There is no sanity in perceived slights against them.
  • The Hopelessly Insecure: Their ego is fragile. Their hurt simmers when offended.
  • The Suspicious: Susceptible to Confirmation Biases and Paranoia. Play to this but carefully.
  • The Serpents: Cold and Unaffectionate. Their vengeance is hidden with a front. Crush them totally.
  • The Plain and Unintelligent: Hard to deceive, and usually a waste of time to deal with.

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.
• Be Courted By All
  • 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. Give them hope but never satisfaction.
  • Desire is like a virus: If we see that someone is desired by other people, we tend to find this person desirable too
• 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 and wait.
  • Better still, be the mediator that gains power as the go-between.
  • If you succumb to their emotional entreaties, you will find your mind and time occupied by their problems
  • People may condemn you as heartless, but in the end independence and self-reliance will gain you more respect
• The key is to maintain independence by keeping yourself from getting emotionally involved. Preserve the unspoken option of being able to leave at any moment and reclaim freedom

21. Play A Sucker To Catch A Sucker — Seem Dumber than Your Mark §

• No one likes feeling stupider than the next person.
• Make your victims feel smarter or better than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you have ulterior motives.
• To reveal the true nature of your intelligence rarely pays of. Downplay it.
• Reversal: Power may require you to show your knowledge and authority. Play the professor when necessary, but never impose such attitude for its own sake.

22. Use The Surrender Tactic — Transform Weakness Into Power §

• When you are weaker, never fight for honor’s sake. Choose surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, torment, and irritate your opponent. It gives you time to wait and initiate a counter-attack.
• Do not give your opponent the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you—surrender first. Make surrender a tool of power. By yielding, you control the situation
• No one comes to help the weak. The weak are alone and must submit
• Martyrdom is an inexact tactic that is as violent as the aggression it combats. There is something selfish and arrogant about martyrs as if they felt their followers were less important than their own glory.

23. Concentrate Your Forces §

• Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point.
• Intensity defeats Extensivity every time. What is bloated beyond its proportions inevitably collapses.
• Only the fool flails about without fixing his target. Concentrate on a single goal, and beat it into submission.
• Reversal:
  • Sometimes it is better to disperse as a tactic.
  • If you concentrate on a single source of power, be prepared for when it is gone.
  • Being too single minded makes you look intolerable.

24. Play The Perfect Courtier §

• The Perfect Courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power
• The court serves power in many ways, but most of all it glorifies the ruler. It has the following rules:
  • Avoid Ostentation. Talk less about yourself than other people.
  • Practice Nonchalance. Do what is assigned to you; do it to the best of your abilities, and never do more.
  • Be frugal with flattery. Flatter indirectly
  • Arrange to be noticed. Create a subtly distinctive image.
  • Alter your style and Language According to the Person you are dealing with. Think of it as artful acting. Viewing people as equals makes you look condescending.
  • Never be the bearer of bad news. The King kills the messenger who brings bad news.
  • Never affect friendliness and intimacy with your master. The Master only wants subordinates not friends. Make the distance between you clear.
  • Never Criticize Those Above you directly. When you criticize, the Master sees the critic not the criticism itself.
  • Be frugal in asking those above you as favors. Nothing irritates a master more than having to reject someone’s request. Better to earn your favors. Importantly, do not ask favors on another person’s behalf.
  • Never joke about appearances or taste.
  • Do not be the court cynic. If you constantly criticize your equals or subordinates, some of that criticism will rub off on you
  • Be self-observant. Train your mind to see yourself as others see you.
  • Master your emotions. It may be lying, but being honest and upfront makes other see you as obnoxious and arrogant.
  • Fit the Spirit of the times. Your spirit and way of thinking must keep up with the times, even if they offend your sensibilities.
  • Be a source of pleasure. Human nature dictates we flee from what is unpleasant and distasteful. Control your unpleasant qualities and obscure them when necessary.

25. Re-Create Yourself §

• Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Recreate yourself by forging a new identity that commands attention and never bores the audience.
• Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you. Adopt the plasticity of the actor who can mold his or her face to the emotion required
• All the world’s a stage. The world wants to assign you a role in life. Once you accept this role you are doomed.
• Overacting can be counterproductive. Play the role seamlessly. It is less what you do than how you do it.
• Learn to play many roles.

26. Keep Your Hands Clean §

• You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency. Maintain a spotless appearance.
• Conceal Your Mistakes — Have a Scapegoat Around To Take the Blame
  • Everyone makes mistake, but those who are truly clever manage to hide them, and to make sure someone else is blamed
• Make Use Of The Cat’s Paw
  • 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, dangerous work for you.
  • When the Cat’s Paw’s role is finished, find a way to get rid of them
• Reversal: When using these techniques, make sure you are not seen as the manipulator. If you have power and are secure in it, you should sometimes play the penitent

27. People On People’s Need To Believe to Create a Cult-Like Following §

• People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause to follow.
• The larger the group gathered around you, the easier it is to deceive. In a larger crowd, it becomes harder for an individual to remain skeptical.
• Some Steps:
  • Keep It Vague ; Keep It Simple. Make the subject of your cult new and fresh so few will understand it
  • Emphasize The Visual and The Sensual Over The Intellectual. Appeal to all the senses, but do not make anyone really think. Make the most ordinary affairs seem extraordinary
  • Borrow The Forms Of Organized Religion To Structure The Group Create rituals; organize your followers into hierarchies; rank them on grades of sanctity; give them religious-sounding titles; ask them for sacrifices; talk and act like a prophet
  • Disguise Your Source Of Income Never reveal your wealth comes from your followers’ pockets. Make it seem to come from the truth of your methods
  • Set Up An Us-Versus-Them Dynamic. Given a straw man to react against your followers will tighten and cohere. They have your cause to believe in and infidels to destroy
• Reversal: In playing with the crowd, you are playing with fire, and must constantly keep an eye out for any sparks of doubt

28. Enter Action With Boldness §

• Hesitation puts obstacles in your path; boldness eliminates them.
• Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid
• Some Manifestations:
  • The Bolder the Lie The Better. Largeness of scale deceives the human eye; it awes us and is so self-evident that we cannot imagine there is any illusion or deception afoot.
  • Lions Circle The Hesitant Prey. Once you are seen as the kind of person who quickly goes on the defensive you will be pushed around with no mercy.
  • Boldness Strikes Fear; Fear Creates Authority. By intimidating with a bold move, you establish a precedent
  • Going Halfway With Half A Heart Digs The Deeper Grave. Enter an action with less than total confidence and you set up obstacles in your own path.
  • Hesitation Creates Gaps; Boldness Obliterates Them. The boldness of a move leaves no space for doubt and worry
  • Audacity Separates You From The Herd. Voice what the public feels—the expression of shared feelings is always powerful.
• Reversal: Use boldness at the right moment. Use feigned timidity to lure people.

29. Plan All The Way To The End §

• The ending is everything. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead
• Never lose your head over a vague open-ended dream—plan to the end
• Improvisation will only bring you as far as the next crisis. Most believe that they are aware of the future. What they are really doing is succumbing to what they want the future to be
• So much of power is not what you do but what you do not do — that is, to ignore immediate dangers and pleasure.
• If you are clear and far thinking enough, you will understand that the future is uncertain, and you must be open to adaptation. Only having a clear objective, and a far-reaching plan allows that freedom

30. Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless. §

• When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more. What is understandable is not awe-inspiring
• Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you. In doing so, you seem to have the grace and ease of a god.
• Seeing an actor try so hard only breaks the illusion and makes us uncomfortable
• Resist the urge to have your vanity gratified.
• As long as the partial disclosure of tricks and techniques is carefully planned, it is ultimate in carefulness. This gives the audience the illusion of being superior and involved.

31. Control The Options — 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 that they are in control but are actually your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor, whichever way they choose
• Allow your victims their choice of poison and cloak your involvement in providing it to them
• Some options:
  • Withdrawal. You give people a sense of how things will fall apart without you and you offer them a choice
  • Color The Choices. Present the choices in such a way that the one you prefer always seemed to be the best solution compared to the others.
  • Force The Resister. Push them to choose what you want them to do by appearing to advocate the opposite.
  • Alter the Playing Field. Your opponents know their hand is being forced, but it doesn’t matter because you have changed the playing field entirely.
  • The Shrinking Options. Force your opponent’s hand by gradually reducing their options, with each option progressively getting worse.
  • The Weak Man On The Precipice. Control the weak by controlling their options. Exaggerate to them the dangers of choosing the alternative.
  • Brothers In Crime. Implicate in your deceptions the very person who can do the most harm to you if you fail. Their involvement can be subtle—even a hint of their involvement will narrow their options and buy their silence.
  • The Horns Of A Dilemma. Have your opponent choose between two options, both of which will hurt them.
• Reversal: Sometimes limiting the options of other people limits your own. This tactic works better for those whose power is fragile and who cannot operate openly.

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.
• To gain power, you must be a source of pleasure for those around you—and pleasure comes from playing to people’s fantasies It is the oppressiveness of reality that allows fantasy to take root and bloom
• Never let the fantasy be familiar, keep your victim dreaming and desiring.
• Never be distracted by people’s glamorous portraits of themselves, search and dig for what really imprisons them.
• Reversal: the danger to tapping into fantasy is the public half-realizes it is being duped, but it keeps the dream alive anyway

33. Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew §

• Everyone has a weakness. Once found, a weakness is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.
• Some Techniques:
  • Pay Attention To Gesture And Unconscious Signals. A person’s weakness is revealed by seemingly unimportant gestures and passing words. What oozes out in the little things outside or conscious control reveals weaknesses.
  • Find The Helpless Child. Most weaknesses begin in childhood. Be on the lookout for any behavior that should have been outgrown.
  • Look for Contrasts. An overt trait often conceals its opposite. By probing beyond appearances, you will find people’s weaknesses in the opposite of the qualities they reveal to you.
  • Find The Weak Link. In the search for weaknesses, it is not what but who that matters. In a group acting with the appearance of one will, there is always a weak link in the chain. Find one person who will bend under pressure.
  • Fill The Void. The insecure and unhappy are the people least able to disguise their weaknesses. The ability to fill their emotional voids is a great source of power and an indefinitely prolongable one.
  • Feed On Uncontrollable Emotions. The uncontrollable emotion can be a paranoid fear. Look for passions and obsessions that cannot be controlled
• Reversal: Playing on people’s weakness may stir an action you cannot control. The more emotional the weakness, the greater the potential danger. Know the limits of the game and never get carried away by your control. You are after power not the thrill of control.

34. Be Royal In Your Fashion — Act Like A King To Be Treated Like One §

• The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated. By acting regally and confident in your powers, you make yourself seem destined to wear a crown.
• It is within your power to set your own price. How you carry yourself reflects what you think of yourself.
• Never pretend to erase the distance from the crowd. This comes off as arrogant.
• Be overcome by your self-belief. Even while you know you are practicing a kind of deception on yourself, act like a king. You are likely to be treated as one.
• Ask for less and that is what you will get. Ask for more and you send a signal that you are worth a king’s ransom
• Reversal: Regal bearing should not be confused with arrogance. Never loom too high above the crowd or you make yourself a target.
• It is true that you can sometimes find power through a kind of earthly vulgarity, but understand there will always be people more vulgar than you. You will be easily replaced by someone younger and worse.

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.
• Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.
  • Handle drawn out time defensively. When you force the pace out of fear and impatience, you create a nest of problems that require fixing, and you end up taking much longer
  • Handle short-term time offensively. The trick in forcing time is to upset the timing of others.
  • Handle End Time with speed and force. You can wait as long as necessary for the conclusion to come, but when it comes it must come quickly.
• It is the inner turmoil caused by our emotions tends to make time move faster.

36. Disdain Things You Cannot Have — Ignoring Them Is The Best Revenge §

• If there is something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you show the more superior you seem.
• You choose to let things bother you. You can just as easily choose not to notice the irritating offender. By acknowledging other people, you open yourself to their influence. By ignoring people you cancel them out.
  • Periodically show you can do without other people.
  • Remember that commitment and engagement weaken you.
• It is tempting to want to fix our mistakes, but the harder we try, the worse we make them
• Never show that something has affected you. That only shows you have acknowledged a problem. Contempt is a dish best served cold and without affectation
  • If there is something you want but cannot have, you should act as if it never interested you in the first place.
  • When you are attacked by an inferior, deflect people’s attention by making it appear that the attack has not even registered. Treat your blunders lightly. Use such a tactic if you are with a master.
• Reversal: Most small problems vanish on their own, but some problems fester until you attend to them. Keep an eye on them privately. Develop the skill of sensing problems when they are small, and taking care of them before they become intractable.

37. Create Compelling Spectacles §

• Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of power—everyone responds to them. The image imposes itself as a given.
• Stage spectacles for those around you, then, 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; they want an immediate appeal to their emotions.

38. Think As You Like But Behave Like Others §

• If you make a show of going against the times, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down upon them.
• It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.
• There are ideas and values that most people accept and it is pointless to argue. Arguments do not work for most hold ideas without thinking about them. The need to show contrarian thought makes one disliked by the people whose beliefs they challenge
• The power you gain from blending in is that of being left alone to have the thoughts you want to have. If you stick to conventional appearances in public, few will believe you think differently in private.
• When you go into society, leave behind your own ideas and values and put on the mask that is most appropriate for the group in which you find yourself
• Reversal: The only time it is worth standing out is when you already stand out—when you have achieved an unshakable position of power. However, even then, those who attain heights of power would be better off at least affecting the common touch.

39. Stir Up Waters To Catch Fish §

• Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive. Anger only cuts off options. Stay calm and objective.
• Play on uncontrollable emotions. If you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decided advantage. Find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings
• Tantrums neither intimidate nor inspire loyalty. Losing your temper makes one give unfair and exaggerated accusations. To show frustration is to show one’s helplessness and loss of control
• Nothing in the social realm and in the game of power is personal.
• Look at the emotional outburst as a disguised power move, an attempt to control or punish you cloaked in the form of hurt feelings and anger
• Reversal: Bait the powerful, but test the waters first. If they have no gap in strength, you have nothing to gain and everything to lose by provoking them. Additionally, there are times when controllable anger is good. Make anger more meaningful by making it more infrequent.

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.
• It is often wise to pay the full price—there is no cutting corners with excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating; generosity is a sign and a magnet for power as it deceives people.
• In the realm of power, everything must be judged by its cost. Everything has a price
• The prospect of easy, sudden wealth plays havoc with the emotions. Sudden wealth rarely lasts for its built on nothing solid.
• Kinds of suckers:
  • Greedy Fish - They view others as pawns or obstructions in their pursuit of wealth. Over the years, they end up isolated or lured by easy money.
  • Bargain Demons - They do not realize the cost in time, dignity, and peace of mind behind an object. They waste time digging for bargains for items that are cheap. For these people, the bargain is an end in itself.
  • Sadist - They play power games with money to assert their power. They think that paying for something gives them the right to torture and abuse the seller. Better to take the short term financial lost than deal with these people.

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, 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 identity by changing course.
• The privileges of birth are impediments to power. They make us complacent. Be merciless with the past—even your own earlier achievements Only the weak rest on their laurels and dote on past triumphs.
• It is superstitious to believe that the method of the past will work in the present
• Do not let yourself spend years creating yourself only to let your guard down and allow the ghost of the past to sneak back in
• Reversal:
  • The past often has elements worth appropriating, qualities that would be foolish to reject out of a need to distinguish yourself. Make your display of doing things differently from the past have a sense of logic
  • Keep an eye on the young, your future rivals in power. They will pull the same trick on you. Never give them the chance to do the same to you.

42. Strike The Shepherd And The Sheep Will Scatter §

• Trouble can often be traced to a certain strong individual. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply. Do not negotiate with them—they are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them.
• Act before it becomes impossible to disentangle one strand of misery from another. Let one person suffer so that the rest can live in peace.
• The shepherd thrives by hiding in the group. Isolate the shepherd and make your power known. Strike the shepherd and dishearten the sheep beyond any rational measure
• Reversal:
  • Do not attempt if the enemy has a way to repay the favor.
  • Sometimes it is better to keep people at your side where you can watch them. Keep them close but conspire to remove their support base

43. Work On The Hearts and Minds of Others §

• Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. Seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.
• It is infuriating to meet with a person who makes no effort to seduce or persuade you. Avoid talking about yourself. Do not ignore the individuality of the other.
• Remember that you are surrounded by people who have absolutely no reason to help you unless it is in their interest to do so.

44. Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect §

• Looking at the mirror sometimes makes us feel that we are seeing ourselves as others see us—an object rather than a subject.
• Some Mirror Effects
  • Neutralizing Effect. Do what your enemies do; following their actions as best you can, and they cannot see what you are up to. This has a mocking and infuriating effect.
  • Narcissus Effect. Mimic a person psychologically to play with the unsatisfied self-love of a child. Show you understand another person by reflecting their innermost feelings.
  • Moral Effect. Teach others a lesson by giving them a taste of their own medicine. Objectify the qualities you want them to feel ashamed of.
  • Hallucinatory Effect. Create a perfect copy of an object, place or person. This copy acts as a kind of dummy, and people take it for the real thing because appearances matter more than substance.
• Reversal:
  • Be wary of overusing it. If others catch on that you are simply mirroring the crowd, they will lash out at you.
  • Beware the mirrored situation, that is when this trick is applied to you.
  • If you notice people associating you with some past event, do everything you can to separate yourself from that memory

45. Preach The Need For Change, But Never Reform Too Much At Once §

• 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.
• Never underestimate the hidden conservatism of those around you. The man who initiates strong reforms often becomes the scapegoat for any kind of dissatisfaction.
• The past is powerful. What has happened before seems greater. The fact that the past is dead and buried gives you the freedom to reinterpret it.
• Reversal:
  • Pay attention to the zeitgeist. The changes you make must seem less innovative than they actually are.
  • If the past was painful, it is self-destructive to associate with it, but make sure to avoid the appearance of a void or vacuum. Fill that space with new rituals.

46. Never Appear Too Perfect §

• Envy creates silent enemies. Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses.
• Only a minority can succeed at the game of life, and naturally this rouses envy due to our inflated sense of self. The envy of the masses can be deflected by appearing as one of them in style and value.
• Dealing with Envy
  • Accept the fact that there will be people better than you in some way. However, expel envy outward and use it to push yourself to surpass them.
  • Understand that as you gain power, those below you will feel envious of you. Do not naively accept the façade they show you. Read between the lines.
  • Expect that when people envy you, they will work against you insidiously. Forestall envy instead, and prevent it from taking root.
  • Do not try to help or do favors for those who envy you. They will think you are condescending them.
  • Be extra sensitive in environments that are more conducive to envy. In such a case, take none of the envy personally.
• Reversal: Once envy is there, it is sometimes better to display the utmost disdain for those who envy you. Make every new triumph and opportunity to make the envious squirm

47. Do Not Go Past The Mark You Aimed For — In Victory Learn When To Stop §

• 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.
• There is nothing more intoxicating than victory, and nothing more dangerous. Realize that in the moment of triumph, you also have to rely on cunning and strategy all the more.
• Even with self-control, be prepared to control your subordinates in victory
• Bad luck teaches valuable lessons; good luck deludes you with the opposite lesson. If you prepare for a fall, it is less likely to ruin you when it happens.
• The moment of finality has great dramatic impact. What comes last sticks in the mind as an exclamation point.
• In the moment of victory, be merciless and crush your enemies completely.

48. Assume Formlessness §

• Never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes. Adapt.
• When locked in the past, the powerful look comical—they are overripe fruit waiting to fall from the tree. Be vigilant lest the form of your character has taken makes you seem like a relic
• Nothing in the world can remain stable forever. The shell or system you evolve for your protection will someday prove your undoing
• See events through your own eyes and ignore the advice others constantly peddle.
• Formlessness is a tool. Never confuse it with a go-with-the-flow style, or a resignation to twists of fortune
• Reversal: When you play with formlessness, keep on top of the process, and keep your long-term strategy in mind. When you assume a form, use concentration speed and power

Links §

• 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

• Persuasion - these techniques are crucial for power.

• Doublespeak

• Problem Solving Strategies - additional strategies which may be applied to the game of power.