48 Laws of Power

LAW 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

oppositeinspire fear and insecurity. Make

your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will

attain the heights of power.

LAW 2

NEVER PUT TOO MUCH TRUST IN FRIENDS, LEARN HOW

TO USE ENEMIES

Be wary of friendsthey will betray you more quickly, for they are

easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical.

But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend,

because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from

friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to

make them.

LAW 3

CONCEAL YOUR INTENTIONS

Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the

purpose behind your actions. If they have no

clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide

them far enough down the wrong path, envelop

them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your

intentions, it will be too late.

LAW 4

ALWAYS SAY LESS THAN NECESSARY

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 sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and

intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are

to say something foolish.

LAW 5

SO MUCH DEPENDS ON REPUTATIONGUARD 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.

LAW 6

COURT ATTENTION AT ALL COST

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.

LAW 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 save you

valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike 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.

LAW 8

MAKE OTHER PEOPLE COME TO YOUUSE 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 gainsthen attack. You hold

the cards.

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 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.

LAW 10

INFECTION: AVOID THE UNHAPPY AND UNLUCKY

You can die from someone else's miseryemotional 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.

LAW 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.

LAW 12

USE SELECTIVE HONESTY AND GENEROSITY TO DISARM

YOUR VICTIM

One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of

dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity

bringdown 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 gifta Trojan horsewill serve the

same purpose.

LAW 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 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.

LAW 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.

LAW 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, afire 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.

LAW 16

USE ABSENCE TO INCREASE RESPECT AND HONOR

Too much circulation makes the price go down: The more you are

seen and heard from, the more common you appear. If you are

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.

LAW 17

KEEP OTHERS IN SUSPENDED TERROR: 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.

LAW 18

DO NOT BUILD FORTRESSES TO PROTECT

YOURSELFISOLATION IS DANGEROUS

The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhereeveryone

has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation

exposes you to more dangers than it protects you fromit cuts you off

from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy

target. Better to circulate among people, find allies, mingle. You are

shielded from your enemies by the crowd.

LAW 19

KNOW WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITHDO 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, then

never offend or deceive the wrong person.

LAW 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 othersplaying

people against one another, making them pursue

you.

LAW 21

PLAY A SUCKER TO CATCH A SUCKERSEEM DUMBER THAN

YOUR MARK

No one likes feeling stupider than the next person. The trick,

then, is to make your victims feel smartand not just smart, but

smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect

that you may have ulterior motives.

LAW 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, time

to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to

wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating

yousurrender first. By turning the other cheek you infuriate and

unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power.

LAW 23

CONCENTRATE YOUR FORCES Conserve your forces and

energies by keeping them concentrated at theirstrongest point. You

gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting

from one shallow mine to anotherintensity defeats ex-tensity 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.

LAW 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 courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise

in the court.

LAW 2 5

RE-CREATE YOURSELF

Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create

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 actionsyour power will be enhanced and

your character will seem larger than life.

LAW 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.

LAW 2 7

PLAY ON PEOPLE'S NEED TO BELIEVE TO CREATE A

CULTLIKE FOLLOWING

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.

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.

LAW 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.

LAW 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 workit only

raises questions. Teach no one your tricks or they will be used

against you.

LAW 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 they are in control, but are actually

your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor

whichever one they choose. Forte 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.

LAW 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.

LAW 3 3

DISCOVER EACH MAN'S THUMBSCREW

Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That

weakness is usually an 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.

LAW 34

BE ROYAL IN YOUR OWN FASHION: ACT LIKE A KING TO BE

TREATED LIKE ONE

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.

LAW 35

MASTER THE ART OF TIMING

Never seem to be in a hurryhurrying 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.

LAW 36

DISDAIN THINGS YOU CANNOT HAVE: IGNORING THEM IS

THE BEST REVENGE

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.

LAW 37

CREATE COMPELLING SPECTACLES

Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of

powereveryone responds to them. 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.

LAW 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 an sure to appreciate your

uniqueness.

LAW 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.

LAW 40

DESPISE THE FREE LUNCH

What is offered for free is dangerousit 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 pricethere is no cutting corners with

excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for

generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.

LAW 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.

LAW 42

STRIKE THE SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP WILL SCATTER

Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individualthe 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 themthey are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by

isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and

the sheep will scatter.

LAW 43

WORK ON THE HEARTS AND MINDS 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.

LAW 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.

LAW 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. 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.

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. 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.

LAW 47

DO NOT GO PAST THE MARK YOU AIMED FOR; IN VICTORY,

LEARN WHEN TO STOP

The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In

the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfi-dence 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.

LAW 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.

48 Laws of Power

PREFACE

The feeling of having no power over people and events is

generally unbearable to uswhen we feel helpless we feel miserable.

No one wants less power; everyone wants more. In the world today,

however, it is dangerous to seem too power hungry, to be overt with

your power moves. We have to seem fair and decent. So we need to

be subdecongenial yet cunning, democratic yet devious.

This game of constant duplicity most resembles the power

dynamic that existed in the scheming world of the old aristocratic

court. Throughout history, a court has always formed itself around

the person in powerking, queen, emperor, leader. The courtiers who

filled this court were in an especially delicate position: They had to

serve their masters, but if they seemed to fawn, if they curried favor

too obviously, the other courtiers around them would notice and

would act against them. Attempts to win the master's favor, then, had

to be subde. And even skilled courtiers capable of such subdety still

had to protect themselves from their fellow courtiers, who at all

moments were scheming to push them aside.

Meanwhile the court was supposed to represent the height of

civilization and refinement. Violent or overt power moves were

frowned upon; courtiers would work silendy and secredy against any

among them who used force. This was die courtier's dilemma: While

appearing the very paragon of elegance, tiiey had to outwit and

diwart their own opponents in the subdest of ways. The successful

courtier learned over time to make all of his moves indirect; if he

stabbed an opponent in the back, it was widi a velvet glove on his

hand and the sweetest of smiles on his face. Instead of using

coercion or outright treachery, the perfect courtier got his way

through seduction, charm, deception, and subde strategy, always

planning several moves ahead. Life in die court was a never-ending

game tfiat required constant vigilance and tactical thinking. It was

civilized war.

Today we face a peculiarly similar paradox to diat of the courtier:

Everything must appear civilized, decent, democratic, and fair. But if

we play by those rules too stricdy, if we take them too literally, we are

crushed by tiiose around us who are not so foolish. As the great

Renaissance diplomat and courtier Niccolo Machiavelli wrote, “Any

man who tries to be good all die time is bound to come to ruin

among die great number who are not good.” The court imagined

itself die pinnacle of refinement, but underneath its glittering surface

a cauldron of dark emotionsgreed, envy, lust, hatredboiled and

simmered. Our world today similarly imagines itself the pinnacle of

fairness, yet the same ugly emotions still stir within us, as they have

forever. The game is the same. Outwardly, you must seem to respect

the niceties, but inwardly, unless you are a fool, you learn quickly to

be prudent, and to do as Napoleon advised: Place your iron hand

inside a velvet glove. If, like the courtier of times gone by, you can

master the arts of indirection, learning to seduce, charm, deceive,

and subtiy outmaneuver your opponents, you will attain the heights

of power. You will be able to make people bend to your will without

their realizing what you have done. And if they do not realize what

you have done, they will neitfier resent nor resist you.

To some people the notion of consciously playing power

gamesno matter how indirectseems evil, asocial, a relic of the past.

They believe they can opt out of the game by behaving in ways that

have nothing to do with power. You must beware of such people, for

while diey express such opinions outwardly, they are often among

the most adept players at power. They utilize strategies that cleverly

disguise the nature of the manipulation involved. These types, for

example, will often display their weakness and lack of power as a

kind of moral virtue. But true powerlessness, without any motive of

self-interest, would not publicize its weakness to gain sympathy or

respect. Making a show of one's weakness is actually a very

effective strategy, subtle and deceptive, in the game of power (see

Law 22, the Surrender Tactic).

Another strategy of the supposed nonplayer is to demand

equality in every area of life. Everyone must be treated alike,

whatever tiieir status and strength. But if, to avoid die taint of power,

you attempt to treat everyone equally and fairly, you will confront the

problem diat some people do certain things better than others.

Treating everyone equally means ignoring their differences, elevating

the less skillful and suppressing those who excel. Again, many of

diose who behave this way are actually deploying another power

strategy, redistributing people's rewards in a way that they

determine.

Yet another way of avoiding the game would be perfect honesty

and straightforwardness, since one of the main techniques of those

who seek power is deceit and secrecy. But being perfectly honest

will inevitably hurt and insult a great many people, some of whom will

choose to injure you in return. No one will see your honest statement

as completely objective and free of some personal motivation. And

they will be right: In truth, the use of honesty is indeed a power

strategy, intended to convince people of one's noble, good-hearted,

selfless character. It is a form of persuasion, even a subde form of

coercion.

Finally, those who claim to be nonplayers may affect an air of

naivete, to protect them from the accusation that they are after

power. Beware again, however, for die appearance of naivete can be

an effective means of

deceit (see Law 21, Seem Dumber Than Your Mark). And even

genuine naivete is not free of the snares of power. Children may be

naive in many ways, but they often act from an elemental need to

gain control over those around them. Children suffer greatiy from

feeling powerless in the adult world, and they use any means

available to get their way. Genuinely innocent people may still be

playing for power, and are often horribly effective at the game, since

they are not hindered by reflection. Once again, those who make a

show or display of innocence are the least innocent of all.

You can recognize these supposed nonplayers by the way they

flaunt their moral qualities, their piety, their exquisite sense of justice.

But since all of us hunger for power, and almost all of our actions are

aimed at gaining it, the nonplayers are merely throwing dust in our

eyes, distracting us from their power plays with their air of moral

superiority. If you observe them closely, you will see in fact that they

are often the ones most skillful at indirect manipulation, even if some

of them practice it unconsciously. And they greatly resent any

publicizing of the tactics they use every day.

If the world is like a giant scheming court and we are trapped

inside it, there is no use in trying to opt out of the game. That will

only render you powerless, and powerlessness will make you

miserable. Instead of struggling against the inevitable, instead of

arguing and whining and feeling guilty, it is far better to excel at

power. In fact, the better you are at dealing with power, the better

friend, lover, husband, wife, and person you become. By following

the route of the perfect courtier (see Law 24) you learn to make

others feel better about themselves, becoming a source of pleasure

to them. They will grow dependent on your abilities and desirous of

your presence. By mastering the 48 laws in this book, you spare

others the pain that comes from bungling with powerby playing with

fire without knowing its properties. If the game of power is

inescapable, better to be an artist than a denier or a bungler.

The only means to gain one's ends with people are force and

cunning. Love also, they say; but that is to wait for sunshine, and life

needs every moment.

Learning the game of power requires a certain way of looking at

the world, a shifting of perspective. It takes effort and years of

practice, for much of the game may not come naturally. Certain basic

skills are required, and once you master these skills you will be able

to apply the laws of power more easily.

The most important of these skills, and power's crucial

foundation, the ability to master your emotions. An emotional

response to a situation the single greatest barrier to power, a

mistake that will cost you a lot more than any temporary satisfaction

you might gain by expressing your feelings. Emotions cloud reason,

and if you cannot see the situation clearly, you cannot prepare for

and respond to it with any degree of control.

Anger is the most destructive of emotional responses, for it

clouds your vision the most. It also has a ripple effect that invariably

makes situations less controllable and heightens your enemy's

resolve. If you are trying to destroy an enemy who has hurt you, far

better to keep him off-guard by feigning friendliness than showing

your anger.

I thought to myself

with what means, with

what deceptions, with

how many varied arts,

with what industry a

man sharpens his wits

to deceive another,

and through these

variations the world is

made more beautiful

Francesco Vettori,

contemporary and

friend of

Machiavelli,

early sixteenth

CENTURY

There are no principles; there are only events. There is no good

and bad, there are only circumstances. The superior man espouses

events and circumstances in order to guide them. If there were

principles and fixed laws, nations would not change them as we

change our shirts and a man can not be expected to be wiser than

an entire nation.

Honore de Balzac, 1799-1850

Love and affection are also potentially destructive, in that they

blind you to die often self-serving interests of those whom you least

suspect of playing a power game. You cannot repress anger or love,

or avoid feeling them, and you should not try. But you should be

careful about how you express them, and most important, they

should never influence your plans and strategies in any way.

Related to mastering your emotions is the ability to distance

yourself from the present moment and think objectively about the

past and future. Like Janus, the double-faced Roman deity and

guardian of all gates and doorways, you must be able to look in bodi

directions at once, the better to handle danger from wherever it

comes. Such is the face you must create for yourselfone face looking

continuously to the future and die odier to the past.

For the future, die motto is, “No days unalert.” Nothing should

catch you by surprise because you are constandy imagining

problems before they arise. Instead of spending your time dreaming

of your plan's happy ending, you must work on calculating every

possible permutation and pitfall that might emerge in it. The further

you see, the more steps ahead you plan, die more powerful you

become.

The other face of Janus looks constandy to the pastdiough not to

remember past hurts or bear grudges. That would only curb your

power. Half of die game is learning how to forget those events in die

past that eat away at you and cloud your reason. The real purpose of

the backward-glancing eye is to educate yourself constantlyyou look

at the past to learn from those who came before you. (The many

historical examples in this book will gready help that process.) Then,

having looked to die past, you look closer at hand, to your own

actions and diose of your friends. This is die most vital school you

can learn from, because it comes from personal experience.

You begin by examining the mistakes you have made in die past,

die ones diat have most grievously held you back. You analyze diem

in terms of the 48 laws of power, and you extract from them a lesson

and an oath: “I shall never repeat such a mistake; I shall never fall

into such a trap again.” If you can evaluate and observe yourself in

this way, you can learn to break the patterns of the pastan

immensely valuable skill.

Power requires the ability to play with appearances. To this end

you must learn to wear many masks and keep a bag full of deceptive

tricks. Deception and masquerade should not be seen as ugly or

immoral. All human interaction requires deception on many levels,

and in some ways what separates humans from animals is our ability

to lie and deceive. In Greek myths, in India's Mahabharata cycle, in

the Middle Eastern epic of Gilga-mesh, it is the privilege of the gods

to use deceptive arts; a great man, Odysseus for instance, was

judged by his ability to rival the craftiness of the gods, stealing some

of dieir divine power by matching them in wits and deception.

Deception is a developed art of civilization and die most potent

weapon in the game of power.

You cannot succeed at deception unless you take a somewhat

distanced approach to yourselfunless you can be many different

people, wearing the mask that the day and the moment require. With

such a flexible approach to all appearances, including your own, you

lose a lot of the inward heaviness that holds people down. Make

your face as malleable as the actor's, work to conceal your intentions

from others, practice luring people into traps. Playing with

appearances and mastering arts of deception are among the

aesthetic pleasures of life. They are also key components in die

acquisition of power.

If deception is the most potent weapon in your arsenal, then

patience in all things is your crucial shield. Patience will protect you

from making moronic blunders. Like mastering your emotions,

patience is a skillit does not come naturally. But nothing about power

is natural; power is more godlike than anything in the natural world.

And patience is the supreme virtue of the gods, who have nothing

but time. Everything good will happenthe grass will grow again, if you

give it time and see several steps into the future. Impatience, on the

other hand, only makes you look weak. It is a principal impediment to

power.

Power is essentially amoral and one of the most important skills

to acquire is the ability to see circumstances rather than good or evil.

Power is a gamethis cannot be repeated too oftenand in games you

do not judge your opponents by dieir intentions but by the effect of

dieir actions. You measure their strategy and their power by what

you can see and feel. How often are someone's intentions made the

issue only to cloud and deceive! What does it matter if another

player, your friend or rival, intended good things and had only your

interests at heart, if the effects of his action lead to so much ruin and

confusion It is only natural for people to cover up their actions with all

kinds of justifications, always assuming that they have acted out of

goodness. You must learn to inwardly laugh each time you hear this

and never get caught up in gauging someone's intentions and

actions through a set of moral judgments that are really an excuse

for the accumulation of power.

It is a game. Your opponent sits opposite you. Both of you

behave as gendemen or ladies, observing the rules of the game and

taking nodiing personally. You play with a strategy and you observe

your opponent's moves with as much calmness as you can muster.

In die end, you will appreciate the politeness of those you are playing

with more than their good and sweet intentions. Train your eye to

follow the results of dieir moves, the outward circumstances, and do

not be distracted by anything else.

Half of your mastery of power comes from what you do not do,

what you do not allow yourself to get dragged into. For this skill you

must learn to judge all mings by what diey cost you. As Nietzsche

wrote, “The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains

with it, but in what one pays for itwhat it costs us.” Perhaps you will

attain your goal, and a worthy goal at that, but at what price Apply

this standard to everydiing, including wheuier to collaborate wim

other people or come to their aid. In die end,

life is short, opportunities are few, and you have only so much

energy to draw on. And in this sense time is as important a

consideration as any other. Never waste valuable time, or mental

peace of mind, on the affairs of othersthat is too high a price to pay.

Power is a social game. To learn and master it, you must develop

die ability to study and understand people. As the great seventeenth-

century thinker and courtier Baltasar Gracian wrote: “Many people

spend time studying die properties of animals or herbs; how much

more important it would be to study those of people, with whom we

must live or die!” To be a master player you must also be a master

psychologist. You must recognize motivations and see through the

cloud of dust with which people surround their actions. An

understanding of people's hidden motives is die single greatest piece

of knowledge you can have in acquiring power. It opens up endless

possibilities of deception, seduction, and manipulation.

People are of infinite complexity and you can spend a lifetime

watching them without ever fully understanding them. So it is all the

more important, dien, to begin your education now. In doing so you

must also keep one principle in mind: Never discriminate as to whom

you study and whom you trust. Never trust anyone completely and

study everyone, including friends and loved ones.

Finally, you must learn always to take the indirect route to power.

Disguise your cunning. Like a billiard ball that caroms several times

before it hits its target, your moves must be planned and developed

in the least obvious way. By training yourself to be indirect, you can

thrive in the modern court, appearing die paragon of decency while

being the consummate manipulator.

Consider The 48 Laws of Power a kind of handbook on the arts

of indirection. The laws are based on die writings of men and women

who have studied and mastered the game of power. These writings

span a period of more dian three diousand years and were created

in civilizations as disparate as ancient China and Renaissance Italy;

yet they share common threads and themes, together hinting at an

essence of power diat has yet to be fully articulated. The 48 laws of

power are the distillation of this accumulated wisdom, gadiered from

the writings of the most illustrious strategists (Sun-tzu, Clausewitz),

statesmen (Bismarck, Talleyrand), courtiers (Castiglione, Gracian),

seducers (Ninon de Lenclos, Casanova), and con artists (“Yellow

Kid” Weil) in history.

The laws have a simple premise: Certain actions almost always

increase one's power (the observance of the law), while otfiers

decrease it and even ruin us (the transgression of die law). These

transgressions and observances are illustrated by historical

examples. The laws are timeless and definitive.

The 48 Laws of Power can be used in several ways. By reading

die book straight through you can learn about power in general.

Although several of the laws may seem not to pertain direcdy to your

life, in time you will

probably find that all of them have some application, and that in

fact they are interrelated. By getting an overview of the entire subject

you will best be able to evaluate your own past actions and gain a

greater degree of control over your immediate affairs. A thorough

reading of the book will inspire thinking and reevaluation long after

you finish it.

The book has also been designed for browsing and for examining

the law that seems at mat particular moment most pertinent to you.

Say you are experiencing problems with a superior and cannot

understand why your efforts have not lead to more gratitude or a

promotion. Several laws specifically address the master-underling

relationship, and you are almost certainly transgressing one of them.

By browsing the initial paragraphs for the 48 laws in the table of

contents, you can identify the pertinent law.

Finally, the book can be browsed through and picked apart for

entertainment, for an enjoyable ride through the foibles and great

deeds of our predecessors in power. A warning, however, to those

who use the book for this purpose: It might be better to turn back.

Power is endlessly seductive and deceptive in its own way. It is a

labyrinthyour mind becomes consumed widi solving its infinite

problems, and you soon realize how pleas-andy lost you have

become. In other words, it becomes most amusing by taking it

seriously. Do not be frivolous with such a critical matter. The gods of

power frown on the frivolous; they give ultimate satisfaction only to

those who study and reflect, and punish tiiose who skim the surfaces

looking for a good time.

Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to

ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who

wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use

that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.

The Prince, Niccolb Machiavelli, 1469-1527

48 Laws of Power

LAW 1

NEVER OUTSHINE THE MASTER

JUDGMENT

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 oppositeinspire fear and

insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are

and you will attain the heights of power.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

Nicolas Fouquet, Louis XIV's finance minister in the first years of

his reign, was a generous man who loved lavish parties, pretty

women, and poetry. He also loved money, for he led an extravagant

lifestyle. Fouquet was clever and very much indispensable to the

king, so when the prime minister, Jules Mazarin, died, in 1661, the

finance minister expected to be named the successor. Instead, the

king decided to abolish the position. This and other signs made

Fouquet suspect that he was falling out of favor, and so he decided

to ingratiate himself with the king by staging the most spectacular

party the world had ever seen. The party's ostensible purpose would

be to commemorate the completion of Fouquet's chateau, Vaux-le-

Vicomte, but its real function was to pay tribute to the king, the guest

of honor.

The most brilliant nobility of Europe and some of the greatest

minds of the timeLa Fontaine, La Rochefoucauld, Madame de

Sevigne attended the party. Moliere wrote a play for the occasion, in

which he himself was to perform at the evening's conclusion. The

party began with a lavish seven-course dinner, featuring foods from

the Orient never before tasted in France, as well as new dishes

created especially for the night. The meal was accompanied with

music commissioned by Fouquet to honor the king.

After dinner there was a promenade through the chateau's

gardens. The grounds and fountains of Vaux-le-Vicomte were to be

the inspiration for Versailles.

Fouquet personally accompanied the young king through the

geometrically aligned arrangements of shrubbery and flower beds.

Arriving at the gardens' canals, they witnessed a fireworks display,

which was followed by the performance of Moliere's play. The party

ran well into the night and everyone agreed it was the most amazing

affair they had ever attended.

The next day, Fouquet was arrested by the king's head

musketeer, D'Artagnan. Three months later he went on trial for

stealing from the country's treasury. (Actually, most of the stealing he

was accused of he had done on the king's behalf and with the king's

permission.) Fouquet was found guilty and sent to the most isolated

prison in France, high in the Pyrenees Mountains, where he spent

die last twenty years of his life in solitary confinement.

Interpretation

Louis XIV, the Sun King, was a proud and arrogant man who

wanted to be the center of attention at all times; he could not

countenance being outdone in lavishness by anyone, and certainly

not his finance minister. To succeed Fouquet, Louis chose Jean-

Baptiste Colbert, a man famous for his parsimony and for giving the

dullest parties in Paris. Colbert made sure that any money liberated

from the treasury went straight into Louis's hands. With the money,

Louis built a palace even more magnificent than Fouquet'sthe

glorious palace of Versailles. He used the same architects,

decorators, and garden designer. And at Versailles, Louis hosted

parties even more extravagant uian the one that cost Fouquet his

freedom.

Let us examine the situation. The evening of the party, as

Fouquet presented spectacle on spectacle to Louis, each more

magnificent than the one before, he imagined the affair as

demonstrating his loyalty and devotion to the king. Not only did he

think the party would put him back in die king's favor, he thought it

would show his good taste, his connections, and his popularity,

making him indispensable to die king and demonstrating that he

would make an excellent prime minister. Instead, however, each new

spectacle, each appreciative smile bestowed by the guests on

Fouquet, made it seem to Louis that his own friends and subjects

were more charmed by the finance minister dian by the king himself,

and that Fouquet was actually flaunting his wealth and power. Rather

than flattering Louis XIV, Fouquet's elaborate party offended the

king's vanity. Louis would not admit this to anyone, of courseinstead,

he found a convenient excuse to rid himself of a man who had

inadvertently made him feel insecure.

Such is the fate, in some form or other, of all those who

unbalance the master's sense of self, poke holes in his vanity, or

make him doubt his preeminence.

When the evening began, Fouquet was at the top of the world. By

the time it had ended, he was at the bottom.

Voltaire, 1694-1778

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In the early 1600s, the Italian astronomer and mathematician

Galileo found himself in a precarious position. He depended on the

generosity of great rulers to support his research, and so, like all

Renaissance scientists, he would sometimes make gifts of his

inventions and discoveries to the leading patrons of the time. Once,

for instance, he presented a military compass he had invented to the

Duke of Gonzaga. Then he dedicated a book explaining the use of

the compass to the Medicis. Both rulers were grateful, and dirough

them Galileo was able to find more students to teach. No matter how

great the discovery, however, his patrons usually paid him with gifts,

not cash. This made for a life of constant insecurity and dependence.

There must be an easier way, he thought.

Galileo hit on a new strategy in 1610, when he discovered the

moons of Jupiter. Instead of dividing the discovery among his

patronsgiving one the telescope he had used, dedicating a book to

another, and so onas he had done in the past, he decided to focus

exclusively on the Medicis. He chose the Medicis for one reason:

Shortly after Cosimo I had established the Medici dynasty, in 1540,

he had made Jupiter, the mightiest of the gods, the Medici symbola

symbol of a power that went beyond politics and banking, one linked

to ancient Rome and its divinities.

Galileo turned his discovery of Jupiter's moons into a cosmic

event

honoring the Medicis' greatness. Shortly after the discovery, he

announced that “the bright stars [the moons of Jupiter] offered

themselves in the heavens” to his telescope at the same time as

Cosimo IPs enthronement. He said that the number of the

moonsfourharmonized with the number of the Medicis (Cosimo II

had three brothers) and that the moons orbited Jupiter as these four

sons revolved around Cosimo I, the dynasty's founder. More than

coincidence, this showed that the heavens themselves reflected the

ascendancy of the Medici family. After he dedicated the discovery to

the Medicis, Galileo commissioned an emblem representing Jupiter

sitting on a cloud with the four stars circling about him, and

presented this to Cosimo II as a symbol of his link to the stars.

In 1610 Cosimo II made Galileo his official court philosopher and

mathematician, with a full salary. For a scientist this was the coup of

a lifetime. The days of begging for patronage were over.

Interpretation

In one stroke, Galileo gained more with his new strategy than he

had in years of begging. The reason is simple: All masters want to

appear more brilliant than other people.

They do not care about science or empirical trutii or the latest

invention; they care about their name and their glory. Galileo gave

the Medicis infinitely more glory by linking their name with cosmic

forces than he had by making them the patrons of some new

scientific gadget or discovery.

Scientists are not spared the vagaries of court life and patronage.

They too must serve masters who hold the purse strings. And their

great intellectual powers can make the master feel insecure, as if he

were only there to supply the fundsan ugly, ignoble job. The

producer of a great work wants to feel he is more than just the

provider of the financing. He wants to appear creative and powerful,

and also more important than the work produced in his name.

Instead of insecurity you must give him glory. Galileo did not

challenge the intellectual authority of the Medicis with his discovery,

or make them feel inferior in any way; by literally aligning them with

the stars, he made them shine brilliantly among the courts of Italy.

He did not outshine the master, he made the master outshine all

others.

KEYS TO POWER

Everyone has insecurities. 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 perhaps

the worst mistake of all.

Do not fool yourself into thinking that life has changed much

since the days of Louis XIV and the Medicis. Those who attain high

standing in life are like kings and queens: They want to feel secure in

their positions, and

superior to those around them in intelligence, wit, and charm. It is

a deadly but common misperception to believe that by displaying

and vaunting your gifts and talents, you are winning die master's

affection. He may feign appreciation, but at his first opportunity he

will replace you with someone less intelligent, less attractive, less

threatening, just as Louis XIV replaced the sparkling Fouquet with

the bland Colbert. And as with Louis, he will not admit the truth, but

will find an excuse to rid himself of your presence.

This Law involves two rules that you must realize. First, you can

inadvertently outshine a master simply by being yourself. There are

masters who are more insecure than others, monstrously insecure;

you may naturally outshine them by your charm and grace.

No one had more natural talents than Astorre Manfredi, prince of

Faenza. The most handsome of all the young princes of Italy, he

captivated his subjects with his generosity and open spirit.

In the year 1500, Cesare Borgia laid siege to Faenza. When the

city surrendered, the citizens expected the worst from the cruel

Borgia, who, however, decided to spare the town: He simply

occupied its fortress, executed none of its citizens, and allowed

Prince Manfredi, eighteen at the time, to remain with his court, in

complete freedom.

A few weeks later, though, soldiers hauled Astorre Manfredi away

to a Roman prison. A year after that, his body was fished out of the

River Tiber, a stone tied around his neck. Borgia justified the horrible

deed with some sort of trumped-up charge of treason and

conspiracy, but the real problem was that he was notoriously vain

and insecure. The young man was outshining him without even

trying. Given Manfredi's natural talents, the prince's mere presence

made Borgia seem less attractive and charismatic. The lesson is

simple: If you cannot help being charming and superior, you must

learn to avoid such monsters of vanity. Either that, or find a way to

mute your good qualities when in the company of a Cesare Borgia.

Second, never imagine that because the master loves you, you

can do anything you want. Entire books could be written about

favorites who fell out of favor by taking their status for granted, for

daring to outshine. In late-sixteenth-century Japan, the favorite of

Emperor Hideyoshi was a man called Sen no Rikyu. The premier

artist of the tea ceremony, which had become an obsession with the

nobility, he was one of Hideyoshi's most trusted advisers, had his

own apartment in the palace, and was honored throughout Japan.

Yet in 1591, Hideyoshi had him arrested and sentenced to death.

Rikyu took his own life, instead. The cause for his sudden change of

fortune was discovered later: It seems that Rikyu, former peasant

and later court favorite, had had a wooden statue made of himself

wearing sandals (a sign of nobility) and posing loftily. He had had

this statue placed in the most important temple inside the palace

gates, in clear sight of the royalty who often would pass by. To

Hideyoshi this signified that Rikyu had no sense of limits. Presuming

that he had the same rights as those of the highest nobility, he had

forgotten that his position depended on the emperor, and had come

to believe that he had earned it on his own. This was

an unforgivable miscalculation of his own importance and he paid

for it with his life. Remember the following: Never take your position

for granted and never let any favors you receive go to your head.

Knowing the dangers of outshining your master, you can turn tiiis

Law to your advantage. First 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. Discreet flattery is

much more powerful. If you are more intelligent than your master, for

example, seem the opposite: Make him appear more intelligent than

you. Act naive. Make it seem that you need his expertise. Commit

harmless mistakes that will not hurt you in the long run but will give

you die chance to ask for his help. Masters adore such requests. A

master who cannot bestow on you the gifts of his experience may

direct rancor and ill will at you instead.

If your ideas are more creative dian your master's, ascribe them

to him, in as public a manner as possible. Make it clear that your

advice is merely an echo of his advice.

If you surpass your master in wit, it is okay to play the role of the

court jester, but do not make him appear cold and surly by

comparison. Tone down your humor if necessary, and find ways to

make him seem the dispenser of amusement and good cheer. If you

are naturally more sociable and generous than your master, be

careful not to be the cloud that blocks his radiance from odiers. He

must appear as the sun around which everyone revolves, radiating

power and brilliance, die center of attention. If you are dirust into the

position of entertaining him, a display of your limited means may win

you his sympathy. Any attempt to impress him with your grace and

generosity can prove fatal: Learn from Fouquet or pay die price.

In all of diese cases it is not a weakness to disguise your

strengdis if in die end they lead to power. By letting others outshine

you, you remain in control, instead of being a victim of tiieir

insecurity. This will all come in handy the day you decide to rise

above your inferior status. If, like Galileo, you can make your master

shine even more in the eyes of odiers, then you are a godsend and

you will be instantiy promoted.

Image:

The Stars in the

Sky. There can be only

one sun at a time. Never

obscure the sunlight, or

rival the sun's brilliance;

rather, fade into the sky and

find ways to heighten

the master star's

intensity.

Authority: Avoid outshining the master. All superiority is odious,

but the superiority of a subject over his prince is not only stupid, it is

fatal. This is a lesson that the stars in the sky teach usthey may be

related to the sun, and just as brilliant, but they never appear in her

company. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

You cannot worry about upsetting every person you come across,

but you must be selectively cruel. If your superior is a falling star,

there is nothing to fear from outshining him. Do not be mercifulyour

master had no such scruples in his own cold-blooded climb to the

top. Gauge his strength. If he is weak, discreetly hasten his downfall:

Outdo, outcharm, outsmart him at key moments. If he is very weak

and ready to fall, let nature take its course. Do not risk outshining a

feeble superiorit might appear cruel or spiteful. But if your master is

firm in his position, yet you know yourself to be the more capable,

bide your time and be patient. It is the natural course of things that

power eventually fades and weakens. Your master will fall someday,

and if you play it right, you will oudive and someday outshine him.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 2

NEVER PUT TOO MUCH

TRUST IN FRIENDS, LEARN

HOW TO USE ENEMIES

JUDGMENT

Be wary of friendsthey will betray you more quickly, for they are

easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical.

But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend,

because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from

friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to

make them.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

In the mid-ninth century A.D., a young man named Michael III

assumed the dirone of the Byzantine Empire. His mother, the

Empress Theodora, had been banished to a nunnery, and her lover,

Theoctistus, had been murdered; at the head of the conspiracy to

depose Theodora and enthrone Michael had been Michael's uncle,

Bardas, a man of intelligence and ambition. Michael was now a

young, inexperienced ruler, surrounded by intriguers, murderers, and

profligates. In this time of peril he needed someone he could trust as

his councillor, and his tiioughts turned to Basilius, his best friend.

Basilius had no experience whatsoever in government and politicsin

fact, he was the head of the royal stablesbut he had proven his love

and gratitude time and again.

They had met a few years before, when Michael had been

visiting the stables just as a wild horse got loose. Basilius, a young

groom from peasant Macedonian stock, had saved Michael's life.

The groom's strength and courage had impressed Michael, who

immediately raised Basilius from die obscurity of being a horse

trainer to die position of head of die stables. He loaded his friend

with gifts and favors and tiiey became inseparable. Basilius was sent

to the finest school in Byzantium, and the crude peasant became a

cultured and sophisticated courtier.

Now Michael was emperor, and in need of someone loyal. Who

could he better trust with the post of chamberlain and chief councillor

than a young man who owed him everything

Basilius could be trained for the job and Michael loved him like a

brother. Ignoring die advice of those who recommended die much

more qualified Bardas, Michael chose his friend.

Basilius learned well and was soon advising the emperor on all

matters of state. The only problem seemed to be moneyBasilius

never had enough. Exposure to the splendor of Byzantine court life

made him avaricious for the perks of power. Michael doubled, then

tripled his salary, ennobled him, and married him off to his own

mistress, Eudoxia Ingerina. Keeping such a trusted friend and

adviser satisfied was worth any price. But more trouble was to come.

Bardas was now head of die army, and Basilius convinced Michael

diat die man was hopelessly ambitious. Under die illusion diat he

could control his nephew, Bardas had conspired to put him on the

dirone, and he could conspire again, diis time to get rid of Michael

and assume die crown himself. Basilius poured poison into Michael's

ear until the emperor agreed to have his uncle murdered. During a

great horse race, Basilius closed in on Bardas in the crowd and

stabbed him to death. Soon after, Basilius asked that he replace

Bardas as head of the army, where he could keep control of die

realm and quell rebellion. This was granted.

Now Basilius's power and wealdi only grew, and a few years later

Michael, in financial straits from his own extravagance, asked him to

pay back some of die money he had borrowed over the years. To

Michael's shock and astonishment, Basilius refused, wiui a look of

such impudence

To have a good enemy, choose a friend: He knows where to

strike.

Diane de Poitiers, 1499-1566, mistress of Henri II of France

Every time I bestow a

vacant office I make a

hundred discontented

persons and one

ingrate.

Louis XIV, 1638-1715

Thus for my own part I have more than once been deceived by

the person I loved most and of whose love, above everyone else's, I

have been most confident. So that I believe that it rnay be right to

love and serve one person above all others, according to merit and

worth, but never to trust so much in this tempting trap of friendship

as to have cause to repent of it later on.

Baldassare

Castiglione,

1478-1529

I'l II',

SNAKK. TIIK I ARMKR. AM) TIIK IIKIiON A snake chased by

hunters asked a farmer to save its life. To hide it from its pursuers,

the farmer squatted and let the snake crawl into his belly. But when

the danger had passed and the farmer asked the snake to come out,

the snake refused. It was warm and safe inside. On his way home,

the man saw a heron and went up to him and whispered what had

happened. The heron told him to squat and strain to eject the snake.

When the snake snuck its head out, the heron caught it, pulled it out,

and killed it. The farmer was worried that the snake's poison might

still be inside him, and the heron told him that the cure for snake

poison was to cook and eat six white fowl. “ You 're a white fo w I, ”

said the farmer. “You'll do for a start.” He grabbed the heron, put it in

a bag, and carried it home, where he hung it up while he told his wife

what had happened. “I'm surprised at you,” said the wife. “The bird

does you a kindness, rids you of the evil in your belly, saves your life

in fact, yet you catch it and talk of killing it. ” She immediately

released the heron, and it flew away. But on its way, it gouged out

her eyes. Moral: When you see water flo wing uphill, it

means that someone

that me emperor suddenly realized his predicament: The former

stable boy had more money, more allies in the army and senate, and

in the end more power than the emperor himself. A few weeks later,

after a night of heavy drinking, Michael awoke to find himself

surrounded by soldiers. Basilius watched as they stabbed the

emperor to death. Then, after proclaiming himself emperor, he rode

his horse through the streets of Byzantium, brandishing the head of

his former benefactor and best friend at die end of a long pike.

Interpretation

Michael III staked his future on the sense of gratitude he thought

Basilius must feel for him. Surely Basilius would serve him best; he

owed die emperor his wealtii, his education, and his position. Then,

once Basilius was in power, anything he needed it was best to give

to him, strengdiening the bonds between the two men. It was only on

the fateful day when the emperor saw that impudent smile on

Basilius's face diat he realized his deadly mistake.

He had created a monster. He had allowed a man to see power

up closea man who tiien 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 dieir

success by their own merits.

At Michael's moment of realization, he could still have saved his

own life, but friendship and love blind every man to their interests.

Nobody believes a friend can betray. And Michael went on

disbelieving until the day his head ended up on a pike.

Lord, protect me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies.

Voltaire, 1694-1778

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

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, dien 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, die 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

enemiesit was die least powerful, least secure position in the realm.

In A.D. 959, General Chao K'uang-yin became Emperor Sung.

He knew die odds, die probability diat witiiin a year or two he would

be murdered; how could he break the pattern Soon after becoming

emperor, Sung ordered a banquet to celebrate the new dynasty, and

invited die most powerful commanders in die army. After tiiey had

drunk much wine, he

is repaying a kindness.

African folk faff

dismissed the guards and everybody else except the generals,

who now feared he would murder them in one fell swoop. Instead, he

addressed them: “The whole day is spent in fear, and I am unhappy

both at the table and in my bed. For which one of you does not

dream of ascending the throne I do not doubt your allegiance, but if

by some chance your subordinates, seeking wealth and position,

were to force die emperor's yellow robe upon you in turn, how could

you refuse it” Drunk and fearing for their lives, the generals

proclaimed their innocence and their loyalty. But Sung had other

ideas: “The best way to pass one's days is in peaceful enjoyment of

riches and honor. If you are willing to give up your commands, I am

ready to provide you with fine estates and beautiful dwellings where

you may take your pleasure with singers and girls as your

companions.”

The astonished generals realized that instead of a life of anxiety

and struggle Sung was offering diem riches and security. The next

day, all of me generals tendered their resignations, and diey retired

as nobles to the estates mat Sung bestowed on them.

In one stroke, Sung turned a pack of “friendly” wolves, who would

likely have betrayed him, into a group of docile lambs, far from all

power.

Over the next few years Sung continued his campaign to secure

his rule. In A.D. 971, King Liu of the Southern Han finally

surrendered to him after years of rebellion. To Liu's astonishment,

Sung gave him a rank in die imperial court and invited him to the

palace to seal meir newfound friendship widi wine. As King Liu took

the glass that Sung offered him, he hesitated, fearing it contained

poison. “Your subject's crimes certainly merit deafh,” he cried out,

“but I beg Your Majesty to spare your subject's life. Indeed I dare not

drink this wine.” Emperor Sung laughed, took die glass from Liu, and

swallowed it himself. There was no poison. From men on Liu

became his most trusted and loyal friend.

At me time, China had splintered into many smaller kingdoms.

When Ch'ien Shu, the king of one of these, was defeated, Sung's

ministers advised the emperor to lock diis rebel up. They presented

documents proving that he was still conspiring to kill Sung. When

Ch'ien Shu came to visit the emperor, however, instead of locking

him up, Sung honored him. He also gave him a package, which he

told the former king to open when he was halfway home. Ch'ien Shu

opened the bundle on his return journey and saw diat it contained all

the papers documenting his conspiracy. He realized mat Sung knew

of his murderous plans, yet had spared him nonetheless. This

generosity won him over, and he too became one of Sung's most

loyal vassals.

Interpretation

A Chinese proverb compares friends to die jaws and teeth of a

dangerous animal: If you are not careful, you will find diem chewing

you up. Emperor Sung knew die jaws he was passing between when

he assumed die dirone: His “friends” in die army would chew him up

like meat, and if he somehow survived, his “friends” in the

government would have him for supper.

There are many who think therefore that a wise prince ought,

when he has the chance, to foment astutely some enmity, so that by

suppressing it he will augment his greatness. Princes, and especially

new ones, have found more faith and more usefulness in those men,

whom at the beginning of their power they regarded with suspicion,

than in those they at first confided in. Pandolfo Petrucci, prince of

Siena, governed his state more by those whom he suspected than

by others.

Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527

A brahman, a great expert in Veda who has become a great

archer as well, offers his services to his good friend, who is now the

king. The brahman cries out when he sees the king, “Recognize me,

your friend!” The king answers him with contempt and then explains:

"Yes, we were friends before, but our friendship was based on what

power we had. . . . I was friends with you, good brahman, because it

served my purpose. No pauper is friend to the rich, no fool to the

wise, no coward to the

brave. An old friend who needs him It is two men of equal wealth

and equal birth who contract friendship and marriage, not a rich man

and a pauper.... An old friendwho needs him

THE MAHABHARATA, C. THIRD CENTURY B.C.

Pick up a bee from

kindness, and learn the

limitations of kindness.

Sufi proverb

Emperor Sung would have no truck with “friends”he bribed his

fellow generals witii splendid estates and kept diem far away. This

was a much better way to emasculate them than killing them, which

would only have led other generals to seek vengeance. And Sung

would have nothing to do with “friendly” ministers. More often than

not, they would end up drinking his famous cup of poisoned wine.

Instead of relying on friends, Sung used his enemies, one after

the other, transforming them into far more reliable subjects. While a

friend expects more and more favors, and seethes with jealousy,

these former enemies expected nothing and got everything. A man

suddenly spared the guillotine is a grateful man indeed, and will go

to die ends of die earth for the man who has pardoned him. In time,

these former enemies became Sung's most trusted friends.

And Sung was finally able to break die pattern of coups, violence,

and civil warthe Sung Dynasty ruled China for more man Uiree

hundred years.

In a speech Abraham Lincoln delivered at the height of the Civil

War,

he referred to the Southerners as fellow human beings who were

error. An elderly lady chastised him for not calling them

irreconcilable

enemies who must be destroyed. “Why, madam,” Lincoln replied,

“do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends”

Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because

gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure. Tacitus, c. a.d. 55-120

KEYS TO POWER

It is natural to want to employ your friends when you find yourself

in times of need. The world is a harsh place, and your friends soften

die harshness. Besides, you know diem. Why depend on a stranger

when you have a friend at hand

The problem is that you often do not know your friends as well as

you imagine. Friends often agree on tilings in order to avoid an

argument. They cover up their unpleasant qualities so as to not

offend each other. They laugh extra hard at each odier's jokes. Since

honesty rarely strengthens friendship, you may never know how a

friend truly feels. Friends will say that they love your poetry, adore

your music, envy your taste in clothesmaybe they mean it, often they

do not.

When you decide to hire a friend, you gradually discover the

qualities he or she has kept hidden. Strangely enough, it is your act

of kindness tiiat unbalances everything. People want to feel they

deserve their good fortune. The receipt of a favor can become

oppressive: It means you have been chosen because you are a

friend, not necessarily because you are deserving. There is almost a

touch of condescension in die act of hiring friends tiiat secredy

afflicts diem. The injury will come out slowly: A littie more honesty,

flashes of resentment and envy here and there, and before you know

it your friendship fades. The more favors and gifts you supply to

revive the friendship, die less gratitude you receive.

Ingratitude has a long and deep history. It has demonstrated its

powers

for so many centuries, that it is truly amazing that people

continue to underestimate them. Better to be wary. If you never

expect gratitude from a friend, you will be pleasantly surprised when

they do prove grateful.

The problem with using or hiring friends is that it will inevitably

limit your power. The friend is rarely the one who is most able to help

you; and in the end, skill and competence are far more important

than friendly feelings. (Michael III had a man right under his nose

who would have steered him right and kept him alive: That man was

Bardas.)

All working situations require a kind of distance between people.

You are trying to work, not make friends; friendliness (real or false)

only obscures that fact. The key to power, then, is the ability to judge

who is best able to further your interests in all situations. Keep

friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.

Your enemies, on the other hand, are an untapped gold mine that

you must learn to exploit. When Talleyrand, Napoleon's foreign

minister, decided in 1807 that his boss was leading France to ruin,

and the time had come to turn against him, he understood the

dangers of conspiring against the emperor; he needed a partner, a

confederatewhat friend could he trust in such a project He chose

Joseph Fouche, head of the secret police, his most hated enemy, a

man who had even tried to have him assassinated. He knew that

their former hatred would create an opportunity for an emotional

reconciliation. He knew that Fouche would expect nothing from him,

and in fact would work to prove that he was worthy of Talleyrand's

choice; a person who has something to prove will move mountains

for you. Finally, he knew that his relationship with Fouche would be

based on mutual self-interest, and would not be contaminated by

personal feeling. The selection proved perfect; although the

conspirators did not succeed in toppling Napoleon, the union of such

powerful but unlikely partners generated much interest in the cause;

opposition to the emperor slowly began to spread. And from then on,

Talleyrand and Fouche had a fruitful working relationship. Whenever

you can, bury the hatchet with an enemy, and make a point of putting

him in your service.

As Lincoln said, you destroy an enemy when you make a friend

of him. In 1971, during the Vietnam War, Henry Kissinger was the

target of an unsuccessful kidnapping attempt, a conspiracy involving,

among others, the renowned antiwar activist priests the Berrigan

brothers, four more Catholic priests, and four nuns. In private,

without informing the Secret Service or the Justice Department,

Kissinger arranged a Saturday-morning meeting with three of the

alleged kidnappers. Explaining to his guests that he would have

most American soldiers out of Vietnam by mid-1972, he completely

charmed them. They gave him some “Kidnap Kissinger” buttons and

one of them remained a friend of his for years, visiting him on

several occasions. This was not just a onetime ploy: Kissinger made

a policy of working with those who disagreed with him. Colleagues

commented that he seemed to get along better with his enemies

than with his friends.

Without enemies around us, we grow lazy. An enemy at our heels

sharpens our wits, keeping us focused and alert. It is sometimes

better,

PHOI-'ITI.V; B> 01 li I'AKMIKS

King Hiero chanced upon a time, speaking with one of his

enemies, to be told in a reproachful manner that he had stinking

breath. Whereupon the good king, being somewhat dismayed in

himself, as soon as he returned home chided his wife, “How does it

happen that you never told me of this problem ”The woman, being a

simple, chaste, and harmless dame, said, “Sir, I had thought all

men's breath had smelled so. ” Thus it is plain that faults that are

evident to the senses, gross and corporal, or otherwise notorious to

the world, we know by our enemies sooner than by our friends and

familiars.

Plutarch, c. a.d. 46-120

then, to use enemies as enemies rather than transforming them

into friends or allies.

Mao Tse-tung saw conflict as key in his approach to power. In

1937 the Japanese invaded China, interrupting the civil war between

Mao's Communists and their enemy, the Nationalists.

Fearing that the Japanese would wipe them out, some

Communist leaders advocated leaving the Nationalists to fight the

Japanese, and using the time to recuperate. Mao disagreed: The

Japanese could not possibly defeat and occupy a vast country like

China for long. Once they left, the Communists would have grown

rusty if they had been out of combat for several years, and would be

ill prepared to reopen their struggle with the Nationalists. To fight a

formidable foe like the Japanese, in fact, would be the perfect

training for the Communists' ragtag army. Mao's plan was adopted,

and it worked: By the time the Japanese finally retreated, the

Communists had gained the fighting experience that helped them

defeat the Nationalists.

Years later, a Japanese visitor tried to apologize to Mao for his

country's invasion of China. Mao interrupted, “Should I not thank you

instead” Widiout a worthy opponent, he explained, a man or group

cannot grow stronger.

Mao's strategy of constant conflict has several key components.

First, be certain that in the long run you will emerge victorious. Never

pick a fight with someone you are not sure you can defeat, as Mao

knew the Japanese would be defeated in time. Second, if you have

no apparent enemies, you must sometimes set up a convenient

target, even turning a friend into an enemy. Mao used this tactic time

and again in politics. Third, use such enemies to define your cause

more clearly to the public, even framing it as a struggle of good

against evil. Mao actually encouraged China's disagreements with

the Soviet Union and the United States; without clear-cut enemies,

he believed, his people would lose any sense of what Chinese

Communism meant. A sharply defined enemy is a far stronger

argument for your side than all the words you could possibly put

together.

Never let the presence of enemies upset or distress youyou are

far better off with a declared opponent or two than not knowing

where your real enemies lie. The man of power welcomes conflict,

using enemies to enhance his reputation as a surefooted fighter who

can be relied upon in times of uncertainty.

Image: The Jaws of Ingratitude. Authority:

Knowing what would happen Know how to use

if you put a finger in enemies for your own

the mouth of a lion, profit. You must learn to grab a

you would stay sword not by its blade, which would

clear of it. cut you, but by the handle, which allows

With friends you to defend yourself. The wise man

you will have profits more from his enemies,

no such caution, and than a fool from his friends.

if you hire them, they will (Baltasar Gracian,

eat you alive with ingratitude. 1601-16 5 8)

REVERSAL

Although it is generally best not to mix work with friendship, there

are times when a friend can be used to greater effect than an enemy.

A man of power, for example, often has dirty work that has to be

done, but for the sake of appearances it is generally preferable to

have other people do it for him; friends often do this the best, since

their affection for him makes them willing to take chances. Also, if

your plans go awry for some reason, you can use a friend as a

convenient scapegoat. This “fall of the favorite” was a trick often

used by kings and sovereigns: They would let their closest friend at

court take the fall for a mistake, since the public would not believe

that they would deliberately sacrifice a friend for such a purpose. Of

course, after you play that card, you have lost your friend forever. It

is best, then, to reserve the scapegoat role for someone who is close

to you but not too close.

Finally, the problem about working with friends is that it confuses

the boundaries and distances that working requires. But 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.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 3

CONCEAL YOUR INTENTIONS

JUDGMENT

Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the

purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up

to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the

wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they

realize your intentions, it will be too late.

PART I: USE DECOYED OBJECTS OF DESIRE AND RED

HERRINGS TO THROW PEOPLE OFF THE SCENT

If at any point in the deception you practice people have the

slightest suspicion as to your intentions, all is lost. Do not give them

the chance to sense what you are up to: Throw them off the scent by

dragging red herrings across the path. Use false sincerity, send

ambiguous signals, set up misleading objects of desire. Unable to

distinguish the genuine from the false, they cannot pick out your real

goal.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

Over several weeks, Ninon de Lenclos, the most infamous

courtesan of seventeendi-century France, listened patiently as the

Marquis de Sevigne explained his struggles in pursuing a beautiful

but difficult young countess. Ninon was sixty-two at me time, and

more than experienced in matters of love; the marquis was a lad of

twenty-two, handsome, dashing, but hopelessly inexperienced in

romance. At first Ninon was amused to hear the marquis talk about

his mistakes, but finally she had had enough. Unable to bear

ineptitude in any realm, least of all in seducing a woman, she

decided to take the young man under her wing. First, hi had to

understand mat mis was war, and that the beautiful countess was a

Citadel to which he had to lay siege as carefully as any general.

Every step had to be planned and executed with die utmost attention

to detail and nuance.

Instructing die marquis to start over, Ninon told him to approach

the countess with a bit of distance, an air of nonchalance. The next

time die two were alone togemer, she said, he would confide in the

countess as would a friend but not a potential lover. This was to

mrow her off the scent. The countess was no longer to take his

interest in her for grantedperhaps he was only interested in

friendship.

Ninon planned ahead. Once the countess was confused, it would

be time to make her jealous. At the next encounter, at a major fete in

Paris, die marquis would show up wim a beautiful young woman at

his side. This beautiful young woman had equally beautiful friends,

so tiiat wherever die countess would now see die marquis, he would

be surrounded by the most stunning young women in Paris. Not only

would die countess be seething widi jealousy, she would come to

see die marquis as someone who was desired by otiiers. It was hard

for Ninon to make the marquis understand, but she patiendy

explained that a woman who is interested in a man wants to see mat

omer women are interested in him, too. Not only does tiiat give him

instant value, it makes it all the more satisfying to snatch him from

their clutches.

Once the countess was jealous but intrigued, it would be time to

beguile her. On Ninon's instructions, the marquis would fail to show

up at affairs where die countess expected to see him. Then,

suddenly, he would appear at salons he had never frequented

before, but tiiat die countess at-

tended often. She would be unable to predict his moves. All of

this would push her into the state of emotional confusion that is a

prerequisite for successful seduction.

These moves were executed, and took several weeks. Ninon

monitored the marquis's progress: Through her network of spies, she

heard how the countess would laugh a little harder at his witticisms,

listen more closely to his stories. She heard that the countess was

suddenly asking questions about him. Her friends told her that at

social affairs the countess would often look up at the marquis,

following his steps. Ninon felt certain that the young woman was

falling under his spell. It was a matter of weeks now, maybe a month

or two, but if all went smoothly, the citadel would fall.

A few days later the marquis was at the countess's home. They

were alone. Suddenly he was a different man: This time acting on his

own impulse, rather than following Ninon's instructions, he took the

countess's hands and told her he was in love with her. The young

woman seemed confused, a reaction he did not expect. She became

polite, then excused herself. For the rest of the evening she avoided

his eyes, was not there to say good-night to him. The next few times

he visited he was told she was not at home. When she finally

admitted him again, the two felt awkward and uncomfortable with

each other. The spell was broken.

Interpretation

Ninon de Lenclos knew everything about the art of love. The

greatest writers, thinkers, and politicians of the time had been her

loversmen like La Rochefoucauld, Moliere, and Richelieu. Seduction

was a game to her, to be practiced with skill. As she got older, and

her reputation grew, the most important families in France would

send their sons to her to be instructed in matters of love.

Ninon knew that men and women are very different, but when it

comes to seduction they feel the same: Deep down inside, they often

sense when they are being seduced, but they give in because they

enjoy the feeling of being led along. It is a pleasure to let go, and to

allow the other person to detour you into a strange country.

Everything in seduction, however, depends on suggestion. You

cannot announce your intentions or reveal them direcdy in words.

Instead you must throw your targets off the scent. To surrender to

your guidance they must be appropriately confused. You have to

scramble your signalsappear interested in another man or woman

(the decoy), then hint at being interested in the target, then feign

indifference, on and on. Such patterns not only confuse, they excite.

Imagine this story from the countess's perspective: After a few of

the marquis's moves, she sensed the marquis was playing some sort

of game, but die game delighted her. She did not know where he

was leading her, but so much the better. His moves intrigued her,

each of them keeping her waiting for the next oneshe even enjoyed

her jealousy and confusion, for sometimes any emotion is better than

the boredom of security. Perhaps the marquis had ulterior motives;

most men do. But she was willing to wait and

see, and probably if she had been made to wait long enough,

what he was up to would not have mattered.

The moment the marquis uttered that fatal word “love,” however,

all was changed. This was no longer a game widi moves, it was an

artless show of passion. His intention was revealed: He was

seducing her. This put everything he had done in a new light. All that

before had been charming now seemed ugly and conniving; the

countess felt embarrassed and used. A door closed that would never

open again.

Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today

without being one. Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what

looks like cunning,

Baltasar (Wacidn, 1601-1658

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In 1850 the young Otto von Bismarck, then a thirty-five-year-old

deputy in the Prussian parliament, was at a turning point in his

career. The issues of the day were the unification of the many states

(including Prussia) into which Germany was then divided, and a war

against Austria, the powerful neighbor to the south diat hoped to

keep die Germans weak and at odds, even threatening to intervene

if tiiey tried to unite. Prince William, next in line to be Prussia's king,

was in favor of going to war, and die parliament rallied to the cause,

prepared to back any mobilization of troops. The only ones to

oppose war were the present king, Frederick William IV, and his

ministers, who preferred to appease the powerful Austrians.

Throughout his career, Bismarck had been a loyal, even

passionate supporter of Prussian might and power. He dreamed of

German unification, of going to war against Austria and humiliating

the country that for so long had kept Germany divided. A former

soldier, he saw warfare as a glorious business.

This, after all, was the man who years later would say, “The great

questions of the time will be decided, not by speeches and

resolutions, but by iron and blood.”

Passionate patriot and lover of military glory, Bismarck

nevertheless gave a speech in parliament at the height of the war

fever mat astonished all who heard it. “Woe unto the statesman,” he

said, “who makes war without a reason mat will still be valid when

the war is over! After the war, you will all look differendy at these

questions. Will you men have the courage to turn to the peasant

contemplating the ashes of his farm, to the man who has been

crippled, to the father who has lost his children” Not only did

Bismarck go on to talk of the madness of this war, but, strangest of

all, he praised Austria and defended her actions. This went against

everything he had stood for. The consequences were immediate.

Bismarck was against the warwhat could diis possibly mean Otiier

deputies were confused, and several of them changed their votes.

Eventually die king and his ministers won out, and war was averted.

A few weeks after Bismarck's infamous speech, the king, grateful

that

he had spoken for peace, made him a cabinet minister. A few

years later he became the Prussian premier. In this role he

eventually led his country and a peace-loving king into a war against

Austria, crushing the former empire and establishing a mighty

German state, with Prussia at its head.

Interpretation

At me time of his speech in 1850, Bismarck made several

calculations. First, he sensed that the Prussian military, which had

not kept pace with other European armies, was unready for warthat

Austria, in fact, might very well win, a disastrous result for the future.

Second, if the war were lost and Bismarck had supported it, his

career would be gravely jeopardized. The king and his conservative

ministers wanted peace; Bismarck wanted power. The answer was

to throw people off the scent by supporting a cause he detested,

saying things he would laugh at if said by anomer. A whole country

was fooled. It was because of Bismarck's speech that the king made

him a minister, a position from which he quickly rose to be prime

minister, attaining the power to strengthen die Prussian military and

accomplish what he had wanted all along: the humiliation of Austria

and the unification of Germany under Prussia's leadership.

Bismarck was certainly one of die cleverest statesman who ever

lived, a master of strategy and deception. No one suspected what he

was up to in mis case. Had he announced his real intentions, arguing

that it was better to wait now and fight later, he would not have won

the argument, since most Prussians wanted war at that moment and

mistakenly believed diat their army was superior to the Austrians.

Had he played up to die king, asking to be made a minister in

exchange for supporting peace, he would not have succeeded

either: The king would have distrusted his ambition and doubted his

sincerity.

By being completely insincere and sending misleading signals,

however, he deceived everyone, concealed his purpose, and

attained every-diing he wanted. Such is the power of hiding your

intentions.

KEYS TO POWER

Most people are open books. They say what they feel, blurt out

their opinions at every opportunity, and constandy reveal their plans

and intentions. They do tiiis for several reasons. First, it is easy and

natural to always want to talk about one's feelings and plans for the

future. It takes effort to control your tongue and monitor what you

reveal. Second, many believe mat by being honest and open they

are winning people's hearts and showing their good nature.They are

greatly deluded. Honesty is actually a blunt instrument, which

bloodies more than it cuts. Your honesty is likely to offend people; it

is much more prudent to tailor your words, telling people what they

want to hear rather than the coarse and ugly trum of what you feel or

diink. More important, by being unabashedly open you make yourself

so predictable and familiar diat it is almost impossible to respect or

fear you, and power will not accrue to a person who cannot inspire

such emotions.

If you yearn for power, quickly lay honesty aside, and train

yourself in the art of concealing your intentions. Master the art and

you will always have the upper hand. Basic to an ability to conceal

one's intentions is a simple truth about human nature: Our first

instinct is to always trust appearances. We cannot go around

doubting the reality of what we see and hearconstantly imagining

that appearances concealed sometiiing else would exhaust and

terrify us. This fact makes it relatively easy to conceal one's

intentions. 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. In seduction, set up

conflicting^ signals, such as desire and indifference, and you not

only throw them off the scent, you inflame meir desire to possess

you.

A tactic that is often effective in setting up a red herring is to

appear to support an idea or cause that is actually contrary to your

own sentiments. (Bismarck used this to great effect in his speech in

1850.) Most people will believe you have experienced a change of

heart, since it is so unusual to play so lightly with something as

emotional as one's opinions and values. The same applies for any

decoyed object of desire: Seem to want something in which you are

actually not at all interested and your enemies will be thrown off the

scent, making all kinds of errors in their calculations.

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

wantedto 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.

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.

Another powerful tool in throwing people off the scent is false

sincerity. People easily mistake sincerity for honesty. Remembertheir

first instinct is to trust appearances, and since they value honesty

and want to believe in the honesty of those around tiiem, they will

rarely doubt you or see through your act. Seeming to believe what

you say gives your words great weight. This is how Iago deceived

and destroyed Othello: Given the depth of his emotions, the

apparent sincerity of his concerns about Desde-mona's supposed

infidelity, how could Othello distrust him This is also how the great

con artist Yellow Kid Weil pulled the wool over suckers' eyes:

Seeming to believe so deeply in the decoyed object he was dangling

in front of them (a phony stock, a touted racehorse), he made its

reality hard to doubt. It is important, of course, not to go too far in this

area. Sincerity is a tricky tool: Appear overpassionate and you raise

suspicions. Be measured and believable or your ruse will seem the

put-on mat it is.

To make your false sincerity an effective weapon in concealing

your intentions, espouse a belief in honesty and forthrightness as

important social values. Do tiiis as publicly as possible. Emphasize

your position on tiiis subject by occasionally divulging some heartfelt

thoughtthough only one that is actually meaningless or irrelevant, of

course. Napoleon's minister Talleyrand was a master at taking

people into his confidence by revealing some apparent secret. This

feigned confidencea decoywould then elicit a real confidence on die

other person's part.

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 omers. Honesty is merely another decoy

in their arsenal of weapons.

PART II: USE SMOKE SCREENS TO DISGUISE YOUR

ACTIONS

Deception is always the best strategy, but the best deceptions

require a screen

of smoke to distract people's attention from your real purpose.

The bland

exteriorlike the unreadable poker faceis often the perfect smoke

screen,

hiding your intentions behind the comfortable and familiar. If you

lead the

sucker down a familiar path, he won't catch on when you lead

him into a

trap.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I

In 1910, a Mr. Sam Geezil of Chicago sold his warehouse

business for close to $ 1 million. He settled down to semiretirement

and the managing of his many properties, but deep inside he itched

for the old days of deal-making. One day a young man named

Joseph Weil visited his office, wanting to buy an apartment he had

up for sale. Geezil explained the terms: The price was $8,000, but he

only required a down payment of $2,000. Weil said he would sleep

on it, but he came back the following day and offered to pay the full

$8,000 in cash, if Geezil could wait a couple of days, until a deal

Weil was working on came through. Even in semiretirement, a clever

businessman like Geezil was curious as to how Weil would be able

to come up wim so much cash (roughly $150,000 today) so quickly.

Weil seemed reluctant to say, and quickly changed the subject, but

Geezil was persistent. Finally, after assurances of confidentiality,

Weil told Geezil the following story.

Weil's uncle was the secretary to a coterie of multimillionaire

financiers. These wealthy gentlemen had purchased a hunting lodge

in Michigan ten years ago, at a cheap price. They had not used die

lodge for a few years, so they had decided to sell it and had asked

Weil's uncle to get whatever he could for it. For reasonsgood

reasonsof his own, the uncle had been nursing a grudge against the

millionaires for years; this was his chance to get back at them. He

would sell die property for $35,000 to a setup man (whom it was

Weil's job to find). The financiers were too wealdiy to worry about

this low price. The set-up man would men turn around and sell the

property again for its real price, around $155,000. The uncle, Weil,

and die tiiird man would split the profits from this second sale. It was

all legal and for a good causethe uncle's just retribution.

Geezil had heard enough: He wanted to be the set-up buyer. Weil

was reluctant to involve him, but Geezil would not back down: The

idea of a large profit, plus a little adventure, had him champing at the

bit. Weil explained mat Geezil would have to put up the $35,000 in

cash to bring die deal off. Geezil, a millionaire, said he could get die

money with a snap of his fingers. Weil finally relented and agreed to

arrange a meeting between the uncle, Geezil, and die financiers, in

the town of Galesburg, Illinois.

On die train ride to Galesburg, Geezil met the unclean impressive

JKIIl'. KINC OF ISUAFI.. I-'KICNS WORSHIP Oh Till'. 1DOI.

BAAL

Then Jehu assembled all the people, and said to them, “Ahab

served Ba 'al a little; but Jehu will serve him much more. Now

therefore call to me all the prophets of Ba'al, all his worshippers and

all his priests; let none be missing, for I have a great sacrifice to offer

to Ba 'al; whoever is missing shall not live.” But Jehu did it with

cunning in order to destroy the worshippers of Ba 'al. And Jehu

ordered, “Sanctify a solemn assembly for Ba 'al. ” So they

proclaimed it. And Jehu sent throughout all Israel; and all the

worshippers of Ba'al came, so that there was not a man left who did

not come. And they entered the house of Ba'al, and the house of

Ba'al was filled from one end to the other. . . . Then Jehu went into

the house of Ba'al... and he said to the worshippers of Ba'al,

"Search, and see that there is no servant of the LORD here

among you, but only

the worshippers of

Ba'al." Then he went in

to offer sacrifices and

burnt offerings.

Now Jehu had

stationed eighty men

outside, and said, "The

man who allows any of

those whom I give into

your hands to escape

shall forfeit his life." So

as soon as he had made

an end of offering the

burnt offering, Jehu

said to the guard and to

the officers, "Go in and

slay them; let not a man

escape."

So when they put them

to the sword, the guard

and the officers cast

them out and went into

the inner room of the

house of Ba'al and they

brought out the pillar

that was in the house of

Ba'al and burned it.

And they demolished

the pillar of Ba 'al and

demolished the house

of Ba'al, and made it a

latrine to this day.

Thus Jehu wiped out

Ba'al from Israel.

old testament, 2 kings 10:18-28

man, with whom he avidly discussed business. Weil also brought

along a companion, a somewhat paunchy man named George

Gross. Weil explained to Geezil that he himself was a boxing trainer,

that Gross was one of the promising prizefighters he trained, and

that he had asked Gross to come along to make sure the fighter

stayed in shape. For a promising fighter, Gross was unimpressive

lookinghe had gray hair and a beer bellybut Geezil was so excited

about the deal that he didn't really think about the man's flabby

appearance.

Once in Galesburg, Weil and his uncle went to fetch the

financiers while Geezil waited in a hotel room with Gross, who

promptly put on his boxing trunks. As Geezil half watched, Gross

began to shadowbox. Distracted as he was, Geezil ignored how

badly die boxer wheezed after a few minutes of exercise, although

his style seemed real enough. An hour later, Weil and his uncle

reappeared with the financiers, an impressive, intimidating group of

men, all wearing fancy suits. The meeting went well and the

financiers agreed to sell the lodge to Geezil, who had already had

the $35,000 wired to a local bank.

This minor business now setded, the financiers sat back in their

chairs and began to banter about high finance, throwing out the

name 'J. P. Morgan" as if they knew the man. Finally one of them

noticed die boxer in the corner of the room. Weil explained what he

was doing diere. The financier countered that he too had a boxer in

his entourage, whom he named. Weil laughed brazenly and

exclaimed that his man could easily knock out their man.

Conversation escalated into argument. In the heat of passion, Weil

challenged the men to a bet. The financiers eagerly agreed and left

to get their man ready for a fight the next day.

As soon as Uiey had left, the uncle yelled at Weil, right in front of

Geezil: They did not have enough money to bet with, and once the

financiers discovered this, the uncle would be fired. Weil apologized

for getting him in this mess, but he had a plan: He knew the odier

boxer well, and with a littie bribe, they could fix the fight. But where

would the money come from for the bet the uncle replied. Without it

they were as good as dead. Finally Geezil had heard enough.

Unwilling to jeopardize his deal with any ill will, he offered his own

$35,000 cash for part of the bet. Even if he lost that, he would wire

for more money and still make a profit on the sale of the lodge. The

uncle and nephew thanked him. With their own $15,000 and Geezil's

$35,000 they would manage to have enough for the bet. That

evening, as Geezil watched the two boxers rehearse die fix in the

hotel room, his mind reeled at the killing he was going to make from

both the boxing match and the sale of the lodge.

The fight took place in a gym the next day. Weil handled the

cash, which was placed for security in a locked box. Everything was

proceeding as planned in the hotel room. The financiers were

looking glum at how badly their fighter was doing, and Geezil was

dreaming about the easy money he was about to make. Then,

suddenly, a wild swing by the financier's fighter hit Gross hard in the

face, knocking him down. When he hit the canvas, blood spurted

from his mouth. He coughed, then lay still.

One of die financiers, a former doctor, checked his pulse; he was

dead. The millionaires panicked: Everyone had to get out before the

police arrived they could all be charged with murder.

Terrified, Geezil hightailed it out of the gym and back to Chicago,

leaving behind his $35,000 which he was only too glad to forget, for

it seemed a small price to pay to avoid being implicated in a crime.

He never wanted to see Weil or any of the others again.

After Geezil scurried out, Gross stood up, under his own steam.

The blood that had spurted from his mouth came from a ball filled

with chicken blood and hot water diat he had hidden in his cheek.

The whole affair had been masterminded by Weil, better known as

“the Yellow Kid,” one of die most creative con artists in history. Weil

split the $35,000 with the financiers and the boxers (all fellow con

artists)a nice little profit for a few days' work.

Interpretation

The Yellow Kid had staked out Geezil as the perfect sucker long

before he set up the con. He knew the boxing-match scam would be

the perfect ruse to separate Geezil from his money quickly and

definitively. But he also knew diat if he had begun by trying to

interest Geezil in the boxing match, he would have failed miserably.

He had to conceal his intentions and switch attention, create a

smoke screenin this case die sale of the lodge.

On die train ride and in the hotel room Geezil's mind had been

completely occupied with the pending deal, the easy money, the

chance to hobnob with wealthy men. He had failed to notice that

Gross was out of shape and middle-aged at best. Such is die

distracting power of a smoke screen. Engrossed in the business

deal, Geezil's attention was easily diverted to the boxing match, but

only at a point when it was already too late for him to notice the

details that would have given Gross away. The match, after all, now

depended on a bribe radier than on die boxer's physical condition.

And Geezil was so distracted at die end by die illusion of me boxer's

death mat he completely forgot about his money.

Learn from the Yellow Kid: The familiar, inconspicuous front is the

perfect smoke screen. Approach your mark with an idea diat seems

ordinary enougha business deal, financial intrigue. The sucker's

mind is distracted, his suspicions allayed. That is when you gentiy

guide him onto the second path, die slippery slope down which he

slides helplessly into your trap.

SNEAK ACROSS THE OCEAN IN HROAD DAYEICHT

This means to create a front that eventually becomes imbued

with an atmosphere or impression of familiarity, within which the

strategist may maneuver unseen while all eyes are trained to see

obvious familiarities.

“THE THIRTY-SIX STRATEGIES,” QUOTED IN THE IAPANESE

ART OF WAR,

Thomas Cleary, 1991

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW II

In the mid- 1920s, the powerful warlords of Etiiiopia were coming

to the realization diat a young man of die nobility named Haile

Selassie, also known as Ras Tafari, was outcompeting them all and

nearing the point where he could proclaim himself their leader,

unifying the country for the first time in decades. Most of his rivals

could not understand how tiiis wispy, quiet, mild-mannered man had

been able to take control. Yet in

1927, Selassie was able to summon the warlords, one at a time,

to come to Addis Ababa to declare their loyalty and recognize him as

leader.

Some hurried, some hesitated, but only one, Dejazmach Balcha

of Sidamo, dared defy Selassie totally. A blustery man, Balcha was a

great warrior, and he considered the new leader weak and unworthy.

He pointedly stayed away from die capital. Finally Selassie, in his

gende but stern way, commanded Balcha to come. The warlord

decided to obey, but in doing so he would turn the tables on diis

pretender to die Ediiopian dirone: He would come to Addis Ababa at

his own speed, and widi an army of 10,000 men, a force large

enough to defend himself, perhaps even start a civil war. Stationing

tiiis formidable force in a valley three miles from the capital, he

waited, as a king would. Selassie would have to come to him.

Selassie did indeed send emissaries, asking Balcha to attend an

afternoon banquet in his honor. But Balcha, no fool, knew historyhe

knew that previous kings and lords of Ethiopia had used banquets as

a trap. Once he was there and full of drink, Selassie would have him

arrested or murdered. To signal his understanding of die situation, he

agreed to come to the banquet, but only if he could bring his

personal bodyguard600 of his best soldiers, all armed and ready to

defend him and diemselves. To Balcha's surprise, Selassie

answered with the utmost politeness diat he would be honored to

play host to such warriors.

On the way to the banquet, Balcha warned his soldiers not to get

drunk and to be on their guard. When they arrived at the palace,

Selassie was his charming best. He deferred to Balcha, treated him

as if he desperately needed his approval and cooperation. But

Balcha refused to be charmed, and he warned Selassie that if he did

not return to his camp by nightfall, his army had orders to attack die

capital. Selassie reacted as if hurt by his mistrust. Over the meal,

when it came time for the traditional singing of songs in honor of

Ethiopia's leaders, he made a point of allowing only songs honoring

the warlord of Sidamo. It seemed to Balcha that Selassie was

scared, intimidated by this great warrior who could not be outwitted.

Sensing the change, Balcha believed that he would be the one to

call die shots in the days to come.

At the end of the afternoon, Balcha and his soldiers began their

march back to camp amidst cheers and gun salutes. Looking back to

the capital over his shoulder, he planned his strategyhow his own

soldiers would march through the capital in triumph widiin weeks,

and Selassie would be put in his place, his place being either prison

or death. When Balcha came in sight of his camp, however, he saw

that something was terribly wrong. Where before there had been

colorful tents stretching as far as die eye could see, now there was

nodiing, only smoke from doused fires. What devil's magic was this

A witness told Balcha what had happened. During the banquet, a

large army, commanded by an ally of Selassie's, had stolen up on

Balcha's encampment by a side route he had not seen. This army

had not come to fight, however: Knowing that Balcha would have

heard a noisy batde and

hurried back with his 600-man bodyguard, Selassie had,armed

his own troops with baskets of gold and cash. They had surrounded

Balcha's army and proceeded to purchase every last one of their

weapons. Those who refused were easily intimidated. Within a few

hours, Balcha's entire force had been disarmed and scattered in all

directions.

Realizing his danger, Balcha decided to march south with his 600

soldiers to regroup, but the same army that had disarmed his

soldiers blocked his way. The other way out was to march on the

capital, but Selassie had set a large army to defend it. Like a chess

player, he had predicted Balcha's moves, and had checkmated him.

For the first time in his life, Balcha surrendered. To repent his sins of

pride and ambition, he agreed to enter a monastery.

Interpretation

Throughout Selassie's long reign, no one could quite figure him

out. Ethiopians like their leaders fierce, but Selassie, who wore the

front of a gende, peace-loving man, lasted longer than any of them.

Never angry or impatient, he lured his victims with sweet smiles,

lulling them with charm and obsequiousness before he attacked. In

the case of Balcha, Selassie played on the man's wariness, his

suspicion that the banquet was a trap which in fact it was, but not the

one he expected. Selassie's way of allaying Balcha's fearsletting him

bring his bodyguard to the banquet, giving him top billing there,

making him feel in controlcreated a thick smoke screen, concealing

the real action three miles away.

Remember: The paranoid and wary are often the easiest to

deceive. Win their trust in one area and you have a smoke screen

that blinds their view in anodier, letting you creep up and level them

with a devastating blow. A helpful or apparently honest gesture, or

one that implies the other person's superioritythese are perfect

diversionary devices.

Properly set up, the smoke screen is a weapon of great power. It

enabled the gentle Selassie to totally destroy his enemy, without

firing a single bullet.

Do not underestimate the power of Tafari. He creeps like a

mouse but he has jaws like a lion.

Balclia of Sidamo's last words before entering the monastery

KEYS TO POWER

If you believe that deceivers are colorful folk who mislead with

elaborate lies and tall tales, you are greatly mistaken. The best

deceivers utilize a bland and inconspicuous front that calls no

attention to themselves. They know that extravagant words and

gestures immediately raise suspicion. Instead, they envelop their

mark in the familiar, the banal, the harmless. In Yellow Kid Weil's

dealings with Sam Geezil, the familiar was a business deal. In the

Ethiopian case, it was Selassie's misleading obsequiousness exacdy

what Balcha would have expected from a weaker warlord.

Once you have lulled your suckers' attention with the familiar,

they will not notice the deception being perpetrated behind their

backs. This derives from a simple truth: people can only focus on

one thing at a time. It is really too difficult for them to imagine that the

bland and harmless person they are dealing with is simultaneously

setting up something else. The grayer and more uniform the smoke

in your smoke screen, the better it conceals your intentions. In the

decoy and red herring devices discussed in Part I, you actively

distract people; in the smoke screen, you lull your victims, drawing

them into your web. Because it is so hypnotic, this is often the best

way of concealing your intentions.

The simplest form of smoke screen is 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. It was said that no one could read

Franklin D. Roosevelt's face. Baron James Rothschild made a

lifelong practice of disguising his real thoughts behind bland smiles

and nondescript looks. Stendhal wrote of Talleyrand, “Never was a

face less of a barometer.” 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.”

An adaptable concept, the smoke screen can be practiced on a

number of levels, all playing on the psychological principles of

distraction and misdirection. One of the most effective smoke

screens is the 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.

The art dealer Joseph Duveen was once confronted with a

terrible problem. The millionaires who had paid so dearly for

Duveen's paintings were running out of wall space, and with

inheritance taxes getting ever higher, it seemed unlikely that they

would keep buying. The solution was the National Gallery of Art in

Washington, D.C., which Duveen helped create in 1937 by getting

Andrew Mellon to donate his collection to it. The National Gallery

was the perfect front for Duveen. In one gesture, his clients avoided

taxes, cleared wall space for new purchases, and reduced the

number of paintings on the market, maintaining the upward pressure

on their prices. All this while the donors created the appearance of

being public benefactors.

Another effective smoke screen is the pattern, the establishment

of a series of actions that seduce die victim into believing you will

continue in die same way. The pattern plays on the psychology of

anticipation: Our behavior conforms to patterns, or so we like to

think.

In 1878 the American robber baron Jay Gould created a

company diat began to threaten die monopoly of die telegraph

company Western Union. The directors of Western Union decided to

buy Gould's company up

they had to spend a hefty sum, but they figured they had

managed to rid themselves of an irritating competitor. A few months

later, though, Gould was it at again, complaining he had been treated

unfairly. He started up a second company to compete with Western

Union and its new acquisition. The same thing happened again:

Western Union bought him out to shut him up. Soon the pattern

began for the third time, but now Gould went for uie jugular: He

suddenly staged a bloody takeover struggle and managed to gain

complete control of Western Union. He had established a pattern

that had tricked the company's directors into thinking his goal was to

be bought out at a handsome rate. Once they paid him off, they

relaxed and failed to notice that he was actually playing for higher

stakes. The pattern is powerful in that it deceives the other person

into expecting the opposite of what you are really doing.

Another psychological weakness on which to construct a smoke

screen is the tendency to mistake appearances for realitythe 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. During the Cold

War of the 1950s and '60s, as is now notorious, a slew of British civil

servants passed secrets to the Soviets. They went undetected for

years because they were apparently decent chaps, had gone to all

the right schools, and fit the old-boy network perfectly. Blending in is

the perfect smoke screen for spying. The better you do it, the better

you can conceal your intentions.

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 maskit is often your unreadability that

draws people to you and makes you appear a person of power.

Image: A Sheep's Skin. A sheep never marauds, a sheep never

deceives, a sheep is magnificently dumb and docile. With a

sheepskin on his back, a fox can pass right into the chicken coop.

Authority: 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. (Ninon de Lenclos, 1623-

1706)

REVERSAL

No smoke screen, red herring, false sincerity, or any other

diversionary device will succeed in concealing your intentions if you

already have an established reputation for deception. And as you get

older and achieve success, it often becomes increasingly difficult to

disguise your cunning. Everyone knows you practice deception;

persist in playing naive and you run the risk of seeming die rankest

hypocrite, which will severely limit your room to maneuver. In such

cases it is better to own up, to appear the honest rogue, or, better,

the repentant rogue. Not only will you be admired for your frankness,

but, most wonderful and strange of all, you will be able to continue

your stratagems.

As P. T. Barnum, the nineteentii-century king of humbuggery,

grew older, he learned to embrace his reputation as a grand

deceiver. At one point he organized a buffalo hunt in New Jersey,

complete witii Indians and a few imported buffalo. He publicized die

hunt as genuine, but it came off as so completely fake that die

crowd, instead of getting angry and asking for their money back, was

gready amused. They knew Barnum pulled tricks all the time; diat

was the secret of his success, and they loved him for it. Learning a

lesson from this affair, Barnum stopped concealing all of his devices,

even revealing his deceptions in a tell-all autobiography. As

Kierkegaard wrote, “The world wants to be deceived.”

Finally, although it is wiser to divert attention from your purposes

by presenting a bland, familiar exterior, diere are times when die

colorful, conspicuous gesture is die right diversionary tactic. The

great charlatan mountebanks of seventeendi- and eighteenth-

century Europe used humor and entertainment to deceive their

audiences. Dazzled by a great show, the public would not notice the

charlatans' real intentions. Thus the star charlatan himself would

appear in town in a night-black coach drawn by black horses.

Clowns, tightrope walkers, and star entertainers would accompany

him, pulling people in to his demonstrations of elixirs and quack

potions. The charlatan made entertainment seem like die business of

die day; the business of die day was actually die sale of the elixirs

and quack potions.

Spectacle and entertainment, clearly, are excellent devices to

conceal your intentions, but diey cannot be used indefinitely. The

public grows tired and suspicious, and eventually catches on to die

trick. And indeed die charlatans had to move quickly from town to

town, before word spread tiiat die potions were useless and die

entertainment a trick. Powerful people with bland exteriors, on the

odier handdie Talleyrands, die Rotii-schilds, die Selassiescan

practice tiieir deceptions in die same place tiiroughout their lifetimes.

Their act never wears thin, and rarely causes suspicion. The colorful

smoke screen should be used cautiously, then, and only when die

occasion is right.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 4

ALWAYS SAY LESS THAN NECESSARY

JUDGMENT

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 sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and

intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are

to say something foolish.

Down on his luck, [the screenwriter] Michael Arlen went to New

York in 1944. To drown his sorrows he paid a visit to the famous

restaurant “21.” In the lobby, he ran into Sam Goldwyn, who offered

the somewhat impractical advice that he should buy racehorses. At

the bar Arlen met Louis B. Mayer, an old acquaintance, who asked

him what were his plans for the future. “1 was just talking to Sam

Goldwyn ...” began Arlen. “How much did he offer you ” interrupted

Mayer. “Not enough,” he replied evasively. “Would you take fifteen

thousand for thirty weeks” asked Mayer. No hesitation this time.

“Yes,” said Arlen.

the little, brown

book of anecdotes,

Clifton Fadiman,

f.d., 1985

One oft-told tale about

Kissinger...

involved a report that

Winston Lord had

worked on for days.

After giving it to

Kissinger, he got it

back with the notation,

"Is this the best you

can do" Lord rewrote

and polished and

finally resubmitted it;

back it came with the

same curt question.

After redrafting it one

more timeand once

again getting the same

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

Gnaeus Marcius, also known as Coriolanus, was a great military

hero of ancient Rome. In die first half of the fifth century B.C. he won

many important battles, saving the city from calamity time and time

again. Because he spent most of his time on the batdefield, few

Romans knew him personally, making him something of a legendary

figure.

In 454 B.C., Coriolanus decided it was time to exploit his

reputation and enter politics. He stood for election to the high rank of

consul. Candidates for this position traditionally made a public

address early in the race, and when Coriolanus came before the

people, he began by displaying the dozens of scars he had

accumulated over seventeen years of fighting for Rome. Few in the

crowd really heard the lengthy speech diat followed; those scars,

proof of his valor and patriotism, moved the people to tears.

Coriolanus's election seemed certain.

When die polling day arrived, however, Coriolanus made an entry

into the forum escorted by the entire senate and by the city's

patricians, the aristocracy. The common people who saw this were

disturbed by such a blustering show of confidence on election day.

And then Coriolanus spoke again, mostly addressing the wealthy

citizens who had accompanied him. His words were arrogant and

insolent. Claiming certain victory in die vote, he boasted of his

battlefield exploits, made sour jokes that appealed only to die

patricians, voiced angry accusations against his opponents, and

speculated on the riches he would bring to Rome. This time the

people listened: They had not realized diat tins legendary soldier

was also a common braggart.

News of Coriolanus's second speech spread quickly dirough

Rome, and the people turned out in great numbers to make sure he

was not elected. Defeated, Coriolanus returned to the battlefield,

bitter and vowing revenge on the common folk who had voted

against him. Some weeks later a large shipment of grain arrived in

Rome. The senate was ready to distribute this food to die people, for

free, but just as they were preparing to vote on die question

Coriolanus appeared on the scene and took the senate floor. The

distribution, he argued, would have a harmful effect on the city as a

whole. Several senators appeared won over, and the vote on the

distribution fell into doubt. Coriolanus did not stop diere: He went on

to condemn die concept of democracy itself. He advocated getting

rid of the people's representativesdie tribunesand turning over the

governing of the city to the patricians.

When word of Coriolanus's latest speech reached the people,

their anger knew no bounds. The tribunes were sent to the senate to

demand diat Coriolanus appear before them. He refused. Riots

broke out all over the city. The senate, fearing die people's wrath,

finally voted in favor of the grain distribution. The tribunes were

appeased, but the people still demanded that Coriolanus speak to

them and apologize. If he repented, and agreed to keep his opinions

to himself, he would be allowed to return to the batdefield.

Coriolanus did appear one last time before the people, who

listened to

him in rapt silence. He started slowly and softly, but as the

speech went on, he became more and more blunt. Yet again he

hurled insults! His tone was arrogant, his expression disdainful. The

more he spoke, the angrier the people became. Finally they shouted

him down and silenced him.

The tribunes conferred, condemned Coriolanus to death, and

ordered the magistrates to take him at once to the top of the

Tarpeian rock and throw him over. The delighted crowd seconded

the decision. The patricians, however, managed to intervene, and

the sentence was commuted to a lifelong banishment. When the

people found out that Rome's great military hero would never return

to the city, they celebrated in the streets. In fact no one had ever

seen such a celebration, not even after the defeat of a foreign

enemy.

question from KissingerLord snapped, “Damn it, yes, it's the best

I can do.” To which Kissinger replied: “Fine, then I guess I'll read it

this time.”

kissinger, Walter Isaacson, 1992

Interpretation

Before his entrance into politics, the name of Coriolanus evoked

awe.

His battlefield accomplishments showed him as a man of great

bravery. Since the citizens knew little about him, all kinds of legends

became attached to his name. The moment he appeared before the

Roman citizens, however, and spoke his mind, all that grandeur and

mystery vanished. He bragged and blustered like a common soldier.

He insulted and slandered people, as if he felt threatened and

insecure. Suddenly he was not at all what the people had imagined.

The discrepancy between the legend and the reality proved

immensely disappointing to those who wanted to believe in their

hero. The more Coriolanus said, the less powerful he appeareda

person who cannot control his words shows that he cannot control

himself, and is unworthy of respect.

Had Coriolanus said less, the people would never have had

cause to be offended by him, would never have known his true

feelings. He would have maintained his powerful aura, would

certainly have been elected consul, and would have been able to

accomplish his antidemocratic goals. But 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 run wild and cause you grief. Power

cannot accrue to those who squander their treasure of words.

Oysters open completely when the moon is full; and when the

crab sees one

it throws a piece of stone or seaweed into it and the oyster

cannot close

again so that it serves the crab for meat. Such is the fate of him

who opens

his mouth too much and thereby puts himself at the mercy of the

listener.

Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519

The King [Louis XIV] maintains the most impenetrable secrecy

about affairs of Slate. The ministers attend council meetings, but he

confides his plans to them only when he has reflected at length upon

them and has come to a definite decision. 1 wish you might see the

King. His expression is inscrutable; his eyes like those of a fox. He

never discusses State affairs except with his ministers in Council.

When he speaks to courtiers he refers only to their respective

prerogatives or duties. Even the most frivolous of his utterances has

the air of being the pronouncement of an oracle.

Primi Visconti, quoted in louis xiv, Louis Bertrand, 1928

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In the court of Louis XIV, nobles and ministers would spend days

and nights debating issues of state. They would confer, argue, make

and break alliances, and argue again, until finally the critical moment

arrived: Two of them would be chosen to represent the different

sides to Louis himself, who would decide what should be done. After

these persons were chosen,

Undutiful words of a

subject do often take

deeper root than the

memory of ill deeds....

The late Earl of Essex

told Queen Elizabeth

that her conditions

were as crooked as her

carcass; but it cost him

his head, which his

insurrection had not

cost him but for that

speech.

Sir Walter Ralhioh,

1554-1618

everyone would argue some more: How should the issues be

phrased What would appeal to Louis, what would annoy him At what

time of day should the representatives approach him, and in what

part of the Versailles palace What expression should they have on

their faces

Finally, after all this was settled, the fateful moment would finally

arrive. The two men would approach Louisalways a delicate

matterand when they finally had his ear, they would talk about the

issue at hand, spelling out the options in detail.

Louis would listen in silence, a most enigmatic look on his face.

Finally, when each had finished his presentation and had asked for

the king's opinion, he would look at them botii and say, “I shall see.”

Then he would walk away.

The ministers and courtiers would never hear another word on

this subject from the kingthey would simply see the result, weeks

later, when he would come to a decision and act. He would never

bother to consult them on the matter again.

Interpretation

Louis XIV was a man of very few words. His most famous remark

is “L'etat, c'est moi”ll am the state“); nothing could be more pithy yet

more eloquent. 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.”

It is even more damaging for a minister to say foolish things than

to do them.

Cardinal de Retz, 1613-1679

KEYS TO POWER

Power is in many ways a game of appearances, and when you

say less than necessary, you inevitably appear greater and more

powerful than you are. 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.

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 reveal valuable information about them and their

weaknesses. They will leave a meeting with you feeling as if they

had been robbed, and they will go home and ponder your every

word. This extra attention to your brief comments will only add to

your power.

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. As a young man, the artist Andy Warhol had

the revelation that it was generally impossible to get people to do

what you wanted them to do by talking to them. They would turn

against you, subvert your wishes, disobey you out of sheer

perversity. He once told a friend, “I learned that you actually have

more power when you shut up.”

In his later life Warhol employed this strategy with great success.

His interviews were exercises in oracular speech: He would say

something vague and ambiguous, and the interviewer would twist in

circles trying to figure it out, imagining there was something profound

behind his often meaningless phrases. Warhol rarely talked about his

work; he let others do the interpreting. He claimed to have learned

this technique from that master of enigma Marcel Duchamp, anotiier

twentieth-century artist who realized early on that the less he said

about his work, the more people talked about it. And the more they

talked, the more valuable his work became.

By saying less than necessary you create the appearance of

meaning and power. Also, the less you say, the less risk you run of

saying something foolish, even dangerous. In 1825 a new czar,

Nicholas I, ascended the throne of Russia. A rebellion immediately

broke out, led by liberals demanding that the country modernizethat

its industries and civil structures catch up with the rest of Europe.

Brutally crushing this rebellion (the Decembrist Uprising), Nicholas I

sentenced one of its leaders, Kondraty Ryleyev, to death. On the day

of the execution Ryleyev stood on the gallows, the noose around his

neck. The trapdoor openedbut as Ryleyev dangled, the rope broke,

dashing him to the ground. At the time, events like this were

considered signs of providence or heavenly will, and a man saved

from execution this way was usually pardoned. As Ryleyev got to his

feet, bruised and dirtied but believing his neck had been saved, he

called out to the crowd, “You see, in Russia they don't know how to

do anything properly, not even how to make rope!”

A messenger immediately went to the Winter Palace with news of

the failed hanging. Vexed by this disappointing turnabout, Nicholas I

nevertheless began to sign the pardon. But then: “Did Ryleyev say

anything after this miracle” the czar asked the messenger. “Sire,” the

messenger replied, “he said that in Russia they don't even know how

to make rope.”

“In that case,” said the Czar, “let us prove the contrary,” and he

tore up the pardon. The next day Ryleyev was hanged again. This

time the rope did not break.

Learn the lesson: Once the words are out, you cannot take them

back. Keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm:

The mo-

mentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be

outweighed by the price you pay.

Image :

The Oracle at Delphi.

When visitors consulted the

Oracle, the priestess would utter

a few enigmatic words that seemed

full of meaning and import. No one

disobeyed the words of the Oracle

they held power over life and death.

Authority: Never start moving your own lips and teeth before the

subordinates do. The longer I keep quiet, the sooner others move

their lips and teeth. As they move their lips and teeth, I can thereby

understand tiieir real intentions.... If the sovereign is not mysterious,

the ministers will find opportunity to take and take. (Han-fei-tzu,

Chinese philosopher, third century B.C.)

REVERSAL

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. It is

occasionally wiser to imitate the court jester, who plays the fool but

knows he is smarter than the king. He talks and talks and entertains,

and no one suspects that he is more than just a fool.

Also, words can sometimes act as a kind of smoke screen for any

deception you might practice. By bending your listener's ear with

talk, you can distract and mesmerize them; the more you talk, in fact,

the less suspicious of you they become. The verbose are not

perceived as sly and manipulative but as helpless and

unsophisticated. This is the reverse of the silent policy employed by

the powerful: By talking more, and making yourself appear weaker

and less intelligent than your mark, you can practice deception with

greater ease.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 5

SO MUCH DEPENDS ON

REPUTATIONGUARD IT

WITH YOUR LIFE

JUDGMENT

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.

A frightful epidemic sent To earth by Heaven intent to vent Its fury

on a sinful world, to call It by its rightful name, the pestilence, That

Acheron-filling vial of virulence Had fallen on every animal. Not all

were dead, but all lay near to dying, And none was any longer trying

To find new fuel to feed life's flickering fires. No foods excited their

desires; No more did wolves and foxes rove In search of harmless,

helpless prey; And dove would not consort with dove, For love and

joy had flown away. The Lion assumed the chair to say: "Dear

friends, I doubt not it's for heaven's high ends That on us sinners

woe must fall. Let him of us who's sinned the most Fall victim to the

avenging heavenly host, And may he win salvation for us all; For

history teaches us that in these crises We must make sacrifices.

Undeceived and stern-eyed, let's inspect Our conscience. As I

recollect, To put my greedy appetite to sleep, I've banqueted on

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I

During China's War of the Three Kingdoms (a.D. 207-265), the

great general Chuko Liang, leading the forces of the Shu Kingdom,

dispatched his vast army to a distant camp while he rested in a small

town with a handful of soldiers. Suddenly sentinels hurried in with the

alarming news that an enemy force of over 150,000 troops under

Sima Yi was approaching. With only a hundred men to defend him,

Chuko Liang's situation was hopeless. The enemy would finally

capture this renowned leader.

Without lamenting his fate, or wasting time trying to figure out

how he had been caught, Liang ordered his troops to take down their

flags, throw open the city gates, and hide. He himself men took a

seat on the most visible part of the city's wall, wearing a Taoist robe.

He lit some incense, strummed his lute, and began to chant. Minutes

later he could see the vast enemy army approaching, an endless

phalanx of soldiers. Pretending not to notice them, he continued to

sing and play the lute.

Soon the army stood at the town gates. At its head was Sima Yi,

who instantly recognized the man on the wall.

Even so, as his soldiers itched to enter the unguarded town

through its open gates, Sima Yi hesitated, held them back, and

studied Liang on the wall. Then, he ordered an immediate and

speedy retreat.

Interpretation

Chuko Liang was commonly known as the “Sleeping Dragon.”

His exploits in the War of the Three Kingdoms were legendary. Once

a man claiming to be a disaffected enemy lieutenant came to his

camp, offering help and information. Liang instantly recognized the

situation as a setup; this man was a false deserter, and should be

beheaded. At the last minute, though, as the ax was about to fall,

Liang stopped the execution and offered to spare the man's life if he

agreed to become a double agent. Grateful and terrified, the man

agreed, and began supplying false information to the enemy. Liang

won battle after battle.

On another occasion Liang stole a military seal and created false

documents dispatching his enemy's troops to distant locations. Once

the troops had dispersed, he was able to capture three cities, so that

he controlled an entire corridor of the enemy's kingdom. He also

once tricked the enemy into believing one of its best generals was a

traitor, forcing the man to escape and join forces with Liang. The

Sleeping Dragon carefully cultivated his reputation of being the

cleverest man in China, one who always had a trick up his sleeve.

As powerful as any weapon, this reputation struck fear into his

enemy.

Sima Yi had fought against Chuko Liang dozens of times and

knew him well. When he came on the empty city, with Liang praying

on the wall, he was stunned. The Taoist robes, the chanting, the

incensethis had to be a game of intimidation. The man was obviously

taunting him, daring him to walk into a trap. The game was so

obvious that for one moment it crossed Yi's mind that Liang actually

was alone, and desperate. But so great was his fear of Liang that he

dared not risk finding out. Such is the

power of reputation. It can put a vast army on the defensive, even

force them into retreat, without a single arrow being fired.

For, as Cicero says, even those who argue against fame still

want the books they

write against it to bear their name in the title and hope to become

famous for

despising it. Everything else is subject to barter: we will let our

friends have

our goods and our lives if need be; but a case of sharing our

fame and

making someone else the gift of our reputation is hardly to be

found.

Montaigne, 1533-1592

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW II

In 1841 the young P. T. Barnum, trying to establish his reputation

as America's premier showman, decided to purchase the American

Museum in Manhattan and turn it into a collection of curiosities that

would secure his fame. The problem was that he had no money. The

museum's asking price was $15,000, but Barnum was able to put

together a proposal that appealed to the institution's owners even

though it replaced cash up front with dozens of guarantees and

references. The owners came to a verbal agreement with Barnum,

but at the last minute, the principal partner changed his mind, and

the museum and its collection were sold to the directors of Peale's

Museum. Barnum was infuriated, but the partner explained that

business was businessthe museum had been sold to Peale's

because Peale's had a reputation and Barnum had none.

Barnum immediately decided that if he had no reputation to bank

on, his only recourse was to ruin die reputation of Peale's.

Accordingly he launched a letter-writing campaign in the

newspapers, calling the owners a bunch of “broken-down bank

directors” who had no idea how to run a museum or entertain

people. He warned the public against buying Peale's stock, since the

business's purchase of another museum would invariably spread its

resources thin. The campaign was effective, die stock plummeted,

and widi no more confidence in Peale's track record and reputation,

the owners of die American Museum reneged on their deal and sold

the whole thing to Barnum.

It took years for Peale's to recover, and they never forgot what

Barnum had done. Mr. Peale himself decided to attack Barnum by

building a reputation for “high-brow entertainment,” promoting his

museum's programs as more scientific than those of his vulgar

competitor. Mesmerism (hypnotism) was one of Peale's “scientific”

attractions, and for a while it drew big crowds and was quite

successful. To fight back, Barnum decided to attack Peale's

reputation yet again.

Barnum organized a rival mesmeric performance in which he

himself apparently put a little girl into a trance. Once she seemed to

have fallen deeply under, he tried to hypnotize members of the

audiencebut no matter how hard he tried, none of the spectators fell

under his spell, and many of them began to laugh. A frustrated

Barnum finally announced that to prove the little girl's trance was

real, he would cut off one of her fingers

many a sheep Who'd injured me in no respect, And even in my

time been known to try Shepherd pie. If need be, then, I'll die. Yet I

suspect That others also ought to own their sins. It's only fair that all

should do their best To single out the guiltiest."

“Sire, you're too good a king,” the Fox begins; "Such scruples are

too delicate. My word, To eat sheep, that profane and vulgar herd,

That's sin Nay, Sire, enough for such a crew To be devoured by

such as you; While of the shepherds we may say That they deserved

the worst they got, Theirs being the lot that over us beasts plot A

flimsy dream-begotten sway." Thus spake the Fox, and toady cheers

rose high,

While none dared cast too cold an eye On Tiger's, Bear's, and

other em in en ces' Most unpardonable offences.

Each, of never mind what currish breed, Was really a saint, they

all agreed.

Then came the Ass, to say: “I do recall How once 1 crossed an

abbey-mead Where hunger, grass in plenty, and withal, I have no

doubt, some imp of greed, Assailed me, and I shaved a tongue's-

breadth wide Where frankly I'd no right to any grass. ”

All forthwith fell full cry upon the Ass: A Wolf of some book-

learning testified That that curst beast must suffer their despite, That

gallskinned author of their piteous plight. They judged him fit for

nought but gallows-bait: How vile, another's grass to sequestrate!

His death alone could expiate A crime so heinous, as full well he

learns. The court, as you're of great or poor estate, Will paint you

either white or black by turns.

the best fables

of la fontaine,

Jean de La Fontaine,

1621-1695

witiiout her noticing. But as he sharpened die knife, die litde girl's

eyes popped open and she ran away, to die audience's delight. He

repeated diis and otiier parodies for several weeks. Soon no one

could take Peale's show seriously, and attendance went way down.

Within a few weeks, the show closed. Over the next few years

Barnum established a reputation for audacity and consummate

showmanship that lasted his whole life. Peale's reputation, on the

otiier hand, never recovered.

Interpretation

Barnum used two different tactics to ruin Peale's reputation. The

first was simple: He sowed doubts about die museum's stability and

solvency. Doubt is a powerful weapon: Once you let it out of die bag

with insidious rumors, your opponents are in a horrible dilemma. On

the one hand they can deny the rumors, even prove diat you have

slandered diem. But a layer of suspicion will remain: Why are they

defending themselves so desperately Maybe die rumor has some

trudi to it If, on die otiier hand, tiiey take the high road and ignore

you, die doubts, unrefuted, will be even stronger. If done correctiy,

the sowing of rumors can so infuriate and unsettle your rivals that in

defending tiiemselves they will make numerous mistakes. This is die

perfect weapon for those who have no reputation of their own to

work from.

Once Barnum did have a reputation of his own, he used die

second, gender tactic, the fake hypnotism demonstration: He

ridiculed his rivals' reputation. This too was extremely successful.

Once you have a solid base of respect, ridiculing your opponent botii

puts him on die defensive and draws more attention to you,

enhancing your own reputation. Outright slander and insult are too

strong at diis point; tiiey are ugly, and may hurt you more tiian help

you. But gentie barbs and mockery suggest that you have a strong

enough sense of your own worth to enjoy a good laugh at your rival's

expense. A humorous front can make you out as a harmless

entertainer while poking holes in die reputation of your rival.

It is easier to cope with a bad conscience than with a bad

reputation.

Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900

KEYS TO POWER

The people around us, even our closest friends, will always to

some extent remain mysterious and unfathomable. Their characters

have secret recesses that they never reveal. The unknowableness of

other people could prove disturbing if we thought about it long

enough, since it would make it impossible for us really to judge otiier

people. So we prefer to ignore this fact, and to judge people on their

appearances, on what is most visible to our eyesclotiies, gestures,

words, actions. In the social realm, appearances are die barometer

of almost all of our judgments, and you must never be misled into

believing otiierwise. One false slip, one awkward or sudden change

in your appearance, can prove disastrous.

This is the reason for the supreme importance of making and

maintaining a reputation that is of your own creation.

That reputation will protect you in the dangerous game of

appearances, distracting the probing eyes of others from knowing

what you are really like, and giving you a degree of control over how

the world judges youa powerful position to be in. Reputation has a

power like magic: Widi one stroke of its wand, it can double your

strengtfi. It can also send people scurrying away from you. Whether

the exact same deeds appear brilliant or dreadful can depend

entirely on the reputation of the doer.

In the ancient Chinese court of the Wei kingdom there was a man

named Mi Tzu-hsia who had a reputation for supreme civility and

gracious-ness. He became the ruler's favorite. It was a law in Wei

that “whoever rides secretly in the ruler's coach shall have his feet

cut off,” but when Mi Tzu-hsia's mother fell ill, he used the royal

coach to visit her, pretending that the ruler had given him permission.

When the ruler found out, he said, “How dutiful is Mi Tzu-hsia! For

his mother's sake he even forgot that he was committing a crime

making him liable to lose his feet!”

Another time the two of them took a stroll in an orchard. Mi Tzu-

hsia began eating a peach that he could not finish, and he gave the

ruler die other half to eat. The ruler remarked, “You love me so much

mat you would even forget your own saliva taste and let me eat the

rest of the peach!”

Later, however, envious fellow courtiers, spreading word that Mi

Tzu-hsia was actually devious and arrogant, succeeded in damaging

his reputation; the ruler came to see his actions in a new light. “This

fellow once rode in my coach under pretense of my order,” he told

the courtiers angrily, “and another time he gave me a half-eaten

peach.” For the same actions that had charmed the ruler when he

was the favorite, Mi Tzu-hsia now had to suffer the penalties. The

fate of his feet depended solely on the strength of his 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

(subtly, though; take care to build slowly, and widi a firm foundation),

and watch as it spreads like wildfire.

A solid reputation increases your presence and exaggerates your

strengths without your 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 II, the German

general Erwin Rommel had a reputation for cunning and for

deceptive maneuvering that struck terror into everyone who faced

him. Even when his forces were depleted, and when 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.

Your success seems destined by your past triumphs. Much of the

sue-

cess of Henry Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy rested on his

reputation for ironing out differences; no one wanted to be seen as

so unreasonable that Kissinger could not sway him. A peace treaty

seemed a fait accompli as soon as Kissinger's name became

involved in the negotiations.

Make your reputation simple and base it on one sterling quality.

This single qualityefficiency, say, or seductivenessbecomes 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 die way for his future conquests; women who had heard of his

powers became immensely curious, and wanted to discover for

memselves what had made him so romantically successful.

Perhaps you have already stained your reputation, so that you

are prevented from establishing a new one. In such cases it is wise

to associate with someone whose image counteracts your own,

using dieir good name to whitewash and elevate yours. It is hard, for

example, to erase a reputation for dishonesty by yourself; but a

paragon of honesty can help. When P. T. Barnum wanted to clean up

a reputation for promoting vulgar entertainment, he brought the

singer Jenny Lind over from Europe. She had a stellar, high-class

reputation, and die American tour Barnum sponsored for her gready

enhanced his own image. Similarly the great robber barons of

nineteendi-century America were long unable to rid diemselves of a

reputation for cruelty and mean-spiritedness. Only when tiiey began

collecting art, so that the names of Morgan and Frick became

permanendy associated with tiiose of da Vinci and Rembrandt, were

they able to soften dieir unpleasant image.

Reputation is a treasure to be carefully collected and hoarded.

Especially when you are first establishing it, you must protect it

strictiy, anticipating all attacks on it. Once it is solid, do not let

yourself get angry or defensive at the slanderous comments of your

enemiestiiat reveals insecurity, not confidence in your reputation.

Take die high road instead, and never appear desperate in your self-

defense. On die other hand, 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 battie, and your own thus-

far-small reputation gives him a small target when he tries to return

your fire. 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 inadvertentiy ruin your own.

Thomas Edison, considered the inventor who harnessed

electricity, believed that a workable system would have to be based

on direct current (DC). When the Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla

appeared to have succeeded in creating a system based on

alternating current (AC), Edison was furious. He determined to ruin

Tesla's reputation, by making the public believe tiiat die AC system

was inherendy 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 die world's

first execution by electrocution, using an AC current. But Edison's

electrocution experiments had all been widi small creatures; the

charge was too weak, and the man was only half killed. In perhaps

die 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

die time his campaign damaged his own reputation more than

Tesla's. He backed off. The lesson is simplenever go too far in

attacks like these, for that will draw more attention to your own

vengefulness than to the person you are slandering. When your own

reputation is solid, use subtler tactics, such as satire and ridicule, to

weaken your opponent while making you out as a charming rogue.

The mighty lion toys widi die mouse that crosses his pathany otiier

reaction would mar his fearsome reputation.

Image".

A Mine Full of

Diamonds and Rubies.

You dug for it, you found it,

and your wealth is now assured.

Guard it with your life. Robbers and thieves

will appear from all sides. Never take your wealth

for granted, and constantly renew ittime

will diminish the jewels' luster,

and bury them from sight.

Authority: Therefore I should wish our courtier to bolster up his

inherent worth with skill and cunning, and ensure that whenever he

has to go where he is a stranger, he is preceded by a good

reputation. . . . For the fame which appears to rest on the opinions of

many fosters a certain unshakable belief in a man's worth which is

then easily strengthened in minds already thus disposed and

prepared. (Baldassare Castiglione, 1478-1529)

REVERSAL

There is no possible Reversal. Reputation is critical; there are no

exceptions to this law. Perhaps, not caring what others think of you,

you gain a reputation for insolence and arrogance, but that can be a

valuable image in itselfOscar Wilde used it to great advantage. Since

we must live in society and must depend on the opinions of others,

there is nothing to be gained by neglecting your reputation. By not

caring how you are perceived, you let others decide this for you. Be

the master of your fate, and also of your reputation.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 6

COURT ATTENTION AT ALL COST

JUDGMENT

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.

PART I: SURROUND YOUR NAME WITH THE SENSATIONAL

AND SCANDALOUS

Draw attention to yourself by creating an unforgettable, even

controversial image. Court scandal. Do anything to make yourself

seem larger than life and shine more brightly than those around you.

Make no distinction between kinds of attentionnotoriety of any sort

will bring you power. Better to be slandered and attacked than

ignored.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

P. T. Barnum, America's premier nineteenth-century showman,

started his career as an assistant to the owner of a circus, Aaron

Turner. In 1836 die circus stopped in Annapolis, Maryland, for a

series of performances. On the morning of opening day, Barnum

took a stroll through town, wearing a new black suit. People started

to follow him. Someone in the gathering crowd shouted out that he

was the Reverend Ephraim K. Avery, infamous as a man acquitted of

the charge of murder but still believed guilty by most Americans. The

angry mob tore off Barnum's suit and was ready to lynch him. After

desperate appeals, Barnum finally convinced them to follow him to

the circus, where he could verify his identity.

Once there, old Turner confirmed that this was all a practical

jokehe himself had spread the rumor that Barnum was Avery. The

crowd dispersed, but Barnum, who had nearly been killed, was not

amused. He wanted to know what could have induced his boss to

play such a trick. “My dear Mr. Barnum,” Turner replied, “it was all for

our good. Remember, all we need to ensure success is notoriety.”

And indeed everyone in town was talking about the joke, and the

circus was packed that night and every night it stayed in Annapolis.

Barnum had learned a lesson he would never forget.

Barnum's first big venture of his own was the American Museuma

collection of curiosities, located in New York. One day a beggar

approached Barnum in die street. Instead of giving him money,

Barnum decided to employ him. Taking him back to the museum, he

gave die man five bricks and told him to make a slow circuit of

several blocks. At certain points he was to lay down a brick on the

sidewalk, always keeping one brick in hand. On the return journey he

was to replace each brick on the street with the one he held.

Meanwhile he was to remain serious of countenance and to answer

no questions. Once back at the museum, he was to enter, walk

around inside, then leave dirough the back door and make the same

bricklaying circuit again.

On the man's first walk through the streets, several hundred

people watched his mysterious movements. By his fourth circuit,

onlookers swarmed around him, debating what he was doing. Every

time he entered the museum he was followed by people who bought

tickets to keep watching him. Many of diem were distracted by the

museum's collections, and stayed inside. By the end of the first day,

the brick man had drawn over a

T1IK WASP AND 11 IK PKINCE

A wasp named Pin Tail was long in quest of some deed that

would make him forever famous. So one day he entered the king's

palace and stung the little prince, who was in bed. The prince awoke

with loud cries. The king and his courtiers rushed in to see what had

happened. The prince was yelling as the wasp stung him again and

again. The courtiers tried to catch the wasp, and each in turn was

stung. The whole royal household rushed in, the news soon spread,

and people flocked to the palace. The city was in an uproar, all

business suspended. Said the wasp to itself, before it expired from

its efforts, “A name without fame is like fire without flame. There is

nothing like attracting notice at any cost.” Indian fable

Even when I'm railed

at, I get my quota of

renown.

Pihtro Arhiino. 1492-1556

A work that was voluntarily presented to a prince was bound to

seem in some way special. The artist himself might also try to attract

the attention of the court through his behaviour. In Vasari's judgment

Sodoma was “well known both for his personal eccentricities and for

his reputation as a good painter.” Because Pope Leo X “found

pleasure in such strange, harebrained individuals,” he made Sodoma

a knight, causing the artist to go completely out of his mind. Van

Mander found it odd that the products of Cornells Ketel 's

experiments in mouth and foot painting were bought by notable

persons “because of their oddity,” yet Ketel was only adding a

variation to similar experiments by Titian, Ugo da Carpi and Talma

Giovane, who, according to Boschini painted with their fingers

“because they wished to imitate the method used by the Supreme

Creator.” Van Mander

thousand people into the museum. A few days later die police

ordered him to cease and desist from his walksthe crowds were

blocking traffic. The bricklaying stopped but thousands of New

Yorkers had entered the museum, and many of those had become P.

T. Barnum converts.

Barnum would put a band of musicians on a balcony overlooking

the street, beneath a huge banner proclaiming FREE music for the

millions. What generosity, New Yorkers thought, and they flocked to

hear the free concerts. But Barnum took pains to hire the worst

musicians he could find, and soon after the band struck up, people

would hurry to buy tickets to the museum, where they would be out

of earshot of the band's noise, and of the booing of the crowd.

One of the first oddities Bamum toured around the country was

Joice Heth, a woman he claimed was 161 years old, and whom he

advertised as a slave who had once been George Washington's

nurse. After several months the crowds began to dwindle, so

Barnum sent an anonymous letter to the papers, claiming that Heth

was a clever fraud. ^Joice Heth,“ he wrote, ”is not a human being but

an automaton, made up of whalebone, india-rubber, and numberless

springs." Those who had not bothered to see her before were

immediately curious, and those who had already seen her paid to

see her again, to find out whether the rumor that she was a robot

was true.

In 1842, Barnum purchased the carcass of what was purported to

be a mermaid. This creature resembled a monkey with the body of a

fish, but the head and body were perfecdy joinedit was truly a

wonder. After some research Barnum discovered that die creature

had been experdy put together in Japan, where the hoax had caused

quite a stir.

He nevertheless planted articles in newspapers around the

country claiming the capture of a mermaid in the Fiji Islands. He also

sent the papers woodcut prints of paintings showing mermaids. By

the time he showed the specimen in his museum, a national debate

had been sparked over the existence of these mythical creatures. A

few months before Barnum's campaign, no one had cared or even

known about mermaids; now everyone was talking about them as if

they were real. Crowds flocked in record numbers to see the Fiji

Mermaid, and to hear debates on the subject.

A few years later, Barnum toured Europe with General Tom

Thumb, a five-year-old dwarf from Connecticut whom Barnum

claimed was an eleven-year-old English boy, and whom he had

trained to do many remarkable acts. During this tour Barnum's name

attracted such attention that Queen Victoria, that paragon of sobriety,

requested a private audience with him and his talented dwarf at

Buckingham Palace. The English press may have ridiculed Barnum,

but Victoria was royally entertained by him, and respected him ever

after.

Interpretation

Barnum understood the fundamental truth about attracting

attention:

Once people's eyes are on you, you have a special legitimacy.

For Barnum,

creating interest meant creating a crowd; as he later wrote,

“Every crowd has a silver lining.” And crowds tend to act in

conjunction. If one person stops to see your beggarman laying bricks

in the street, more will do the same. They will gather like dust

bunnies. Then, given a gentle push, they will enter your museum or

watch your show. To create a crowd you have to do sometiiing

different and odd. Any kind of curiosity will serve the purpose, for

crowds are magnetically attracted by the unusual and inexplicable.

And once you have their attention, never let it go. If it veers toward

other people, it does so at your expense. Barnum would ruthlessly

suck attention from his competitors, knowing what a valuable

commodity it is.

At the beginning of your rise to the top, then, spend all your

energy on attracting attention. Most important: The quality of the

attention is irrelevant. No matter how badly his shows were

reviewed, or how slanderously personal were the attacks on his

hoaxes, Barnum would never complain. If a newspaper critic reviled

him particularly badly, in fact, he made sure to invite the man to an

opening and to give him the best seat in the house. He would even

write anonymous attacks on his own work, just to keep his name in

the papers. From Barnum's vantage, attentionwhether negative or

positivewas the main ingredient of his success. The worst fate in the

world for a man who yearns fame, glory, and, of course, power is to

be ignored.

reports that Gossaert attracted the attention of Emperor Charles

V by wearing a fantastic paper costume. In doing so he was adopting

the tactics used by Dinocrates, who, in order to gain access to

Alexander the Great, is said to have appeared disguised as the

naked Hercules when the monarch was sitting in judgment.

the court artist, Martin Warnke. 1993

If the courtier happens to engage in arms in some public

spectacle

such as jousting. . . he will ensure that the horse he has is

beautifully

caparisoned, that he himself is suitably attired, with appropriate

mottoes and ingenious devices to attract the eyes of the

onlookers

in his direction as surely as the lodestone attracts iron.

Baldassare Castiglione., 1478-1529

KEYS TO POWER

Burning more brighdy than those around you is a skill that no one

is born with. You have to learn to attract attention, “as surely as the

lodestone attracts iron.” 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.

It is a common mistake to imagine that this peculiar appearance

of yours should not be controversial, mat 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. Barnum, we have seen, welcomed

personal attacks and felt no need to defend himself. He deliberately

courted the image of being a humbug.

The court of Louis XIV contained many talented writers, artists,

great beauties, and men and women of impeccable virtue, but no

one was more talked about than the singular Due de Lauzun. The

duke was short, almost dwarfish, and he was prone to the most

insolent kinds of behaviorhe 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 at any cost.

Society craves larger-dian-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 diis law, and all professionals must have a

bit of the showman about diem.

The great scientist Thomas Edison knew that to raise money he

had to remain in die public eye at any cost. Almost as important as

die inventions diemselves was how he presented diem to the public

and courted attention.

Edison would design visually dazzling experiments to display his

discoveries widi electricity. He would talk of future inventions mat

seemed fantastic at the timerobots, and machines that could

photograph thoughtand that he had no intention of wasting his

energy on, but tiiat made the public talk about him. He did everything

he could to make sure diat he received more attention than his great

rival Nikola Tesla, who may actually have been more brilliant tiian he

was but whose name was far less known. In 1915, it was rumored

that Edison and Tesla would be joint recipients of mat year's Nobel

Prize in physics. The prize was eventually given to a pair of English

physicists; only later was it discovered mat die prize committee had

actually approached Edison, but he had turned tiiem down, refusing

to share the prize widi 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 die attention that would have come even from sharing

die prize.

If you find yourself in a lowly position tiiat offers little opportunity

for you to draw attention, an effective trick is to attack die most

visible, most famous, most powerful person you can find. When

Pietro Aretino, a young Roman servant boy of die early sixteenth

century, wanted to get attention as a writer of verses, he decided to

publish a series of satirical poems ridiculing die 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 die public's attention, when die act can wear

thin.

Once in the limelight you must constantiy renew it by adapting

and varying your method of courting attention. If you don't, die public

will grow tired, will take you for granted, and will move on to a newer

star. The game requires constant vigilance and creativity. Pablo

Picasso never allowed himself to fade into die background; if his

name became too at-

tached to a particular style, he would deliberately upset die public

with a new series of paintings that went against all expectations.

Better to create somediing ugly and disturbing, he believed, than to

let viewers grow too familiar with his work. Understand: People feel

superior to die person whose actions diey can predict. If you show

diem who is in control by playing against their expectations, you bodi

gain their respect and tighten your hold on dieir fleeting attention.

Image: The Limelight. The actor who steps into this brilliant light

attains a heightened presence. All eyes are on him. There is room

for only one actor at a time in the limelight's narrow beam; do

whatever it takes to make yourself its focus. Make your gestures so

large, amusing, and scandalous that the light stays on you while the

other actors are left in the shadows.

Authority: Be ostentatious and be seen. . . . What is not seen is

as diough 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, 1601-1658)

PART II: CREATE AN AIR OF MYSTERY

In a world growing increasingly banal and familiar, what seems

enigmatic 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

anticipationeveryone will be watching you to see what happens next.

Use mystery to beguile, seduce, even frighten.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

Beginning in 1905, rumors started to spread throughout Paris of a

young Oriental girl who danced in a private home, wrapped in veils

mat she gradually discarded. A local journalist who had seen her

dancing reported tiiat “a woman from the Far East had come to

Europe laden with perfume and jewels, to introduce some of the

richness of the Oriental colour and life into the satiated society of

European cities.” Soon everyone knew die dancer's name: Mata

Hari.

Early that year, in the winter, small and select audiences would

gather in a salon filled with Indian statues and other relics while an

orchestra played music inspired by Hindu and Javanese melodies.

After keeping the audience waiting and wondering, Mata Hari would

suddenly appear, in a startling costume: a white cotton brassiere

covered with Indian-type jewels; jeweled bands at the waist

supporting a sarong that revealed as much as it concealed; bracelets

up the arms. Then Mata Hari would dance, in a style no one in

France had seen before, her whole body swaying as if she were in a

trance. She told her excited and curious audience that her dances

told stories from Indian mythology and Javanese folktales. Soon the

cream of Paris, and ambassadors from far-off lands, were competing

for invitations to the salon, where it was rumored that Mata Hari was

actually performing sacred dances in the nude.

The public wanted to know more about her. She told journalists

that she was actually Dutch in origin, but had grown up on the island

of Java. She would also talk about time spent in India, how she had

learned sacred Hindu dances there, and how Indian women “can

shoot straight, ride horseback, and are capable of doing logarithms

and talk philosophy.” By the summer of 1905, although few Parisians

had actually seen Mata Hari dance, her name was on everyone's

lips.

As Mata Hari gave more interviews, the story of her origins kept

changing: She had grown up in India, her grandmother was the

daughter of a Javanese princess, she had lived on the island of

Sumatra where she had spent her time “horseback riding, gun in

hand, and risking her life.” No one knew anything certain about her,

but journalists did not mind these changes in her biography. They

compared her to an Indian goddess, a creature from the pages of

Baudelairewhatever their imagination wanted to see in this

mysterious woman from the East.

In August of 1905, Mata Hari performed for the first time in public.

Crowds thronging to see her on opening night caused a riot. She

had now become a cult figure, spawning many imitations. One

reviewer wrote, “Mata Hari personifies all die poetry of India, its

mysticism, its voluptuousness, its hypnotizing charm.” Anodier noted,

“If India possesses such unexpected treasures, men all Frenchmen

will emigrate to the shores of the Ganges.”

Soon the fame of Mata Hari and her sacred Indian dances spread

beyond Paris. She was invited to Berlin, Vienna, Milan. Over the next

few years she performed throughout Europe, mixed with the highest

social circles, and earned an income that gave her an independence

rarely enjoyed by a woman of the period. Then, near die end of

World War I, she was arrested in France, tried, convicted, and finally

executed as a German spy. Only during the trial did the truth come

out: Mata Hari was not from Java or India, had not grown up in the

Orient, did not have a drop of Eastern blood in her body. Her real

name was Margaredia Zelle, and she came from die stolid northern

province of Friesland, Holland.

Interpretation

When Margaretha Zelle arrived in Paris, in 1904, she had half a

franc in her pocket. She was one of the thousands of beautiful young

girls who flocked to Paris every year, taking work as artists' models,

nightclub dancers, or vaudeville performers at die Folies Bergere.

After a few years they would inevitably be replaced by younger girls,

and would often end up on die streets, turning to prostitution, or else

returning to the town they came from, older and chastened.

Zelle had higher ambitions. She had no dance experience and

had never performed in the theater, but as a young girl she had

traveled with her family and had witnessed local dances in Java and

Sumatra. Zelle clearly understood that what was important in her act

was not the dance itself, or even her face or figure, but her ability to

create an air of mystery about herself. The mystery she created lay

not just in her dancing, or her costumes, or die stories she would tell,

or her endless lies about her origins; it lay in an atmosphere

enveloping everything she did. There was notiiing you could say for

sure about hershe was always changing, always surprising her

audience witii new costumes, new dances, new stories. This air of

mystery left die public always wanting to know more, always

wondering about her next move. Mata Hari was no more beautiful

tiian many of die otiier young girls who came to Paris, and she was

not a particularly good dancer. What separated her from die mass,

what attracted and held die public's attention and made her famous

and wealtiiy, was her mystery. People are enthralled by mystery;

because it invites constant interpretation, diey never tire of it. The

mysterious cannot be grasped. And what cannot be seized and

consumed creates power.

KEYS TO POWER

In die past, the world was filled with the terrifying and unknowable

diseases, disasters, capricious despots, the mystery of death itself.

What we could not understand we reimagined as myths and spirits.

Over the centuries, though, we have managed, through science and

reason, to illuminate the darkness; what was mysterious and

forbidding has grown familiar and comfortable. Yet diis light has a

price: in a world diat is ever more banal, diat has had its mystery and

myth squeezed out of it, we secretly crave enigmas, people or things

that cannot be instantiy interpreted, seized, and consumed.

That is the power of die mysterious: It invites layers of

interpretation, excites our imagination, seduces us into believing that

it conceals something marvelous. The world has become so familiar

and its inhabitants so predictable that what wraps itself in mystery

will almost always draw die limelight to it and make us watch it.

Do not imagine diat to create an air of mystery you have to be

grand and awe-inspiring. Mystery that is woven into your day-to-day

demeanor, and is subde, has mat much more power to fascinate and

attract attention. Remember: Most people are upfront, can be read

like an open book, take little care to control their words or image, and

are hopelessly predictable. By simply holding back, keeping silent,

occasionally uttering ambiguous phrases, deliberately appearing

inconsistent, and acting odd in die subdest of ways, you will emanate

an aura of mystery. The people around you will men magnify diat

aura by constantiy trying to interpret you.

Both artists and con artists understand the vital link between

being mysterious and attracting interest. Count Victor Lustig, the

aristocrat of swindlers, played die game to perfection. He was

always doing things mat were different, or seemed to make no

sense. He would show up at die best hotels in a limo driven by a

Japanese chauffeur; no one had ever seen a Japanese chauffeur

before, so this seemed exotic and strange. Lustig would dress in die

most expensive clothing, but always widi sometiiinga medal, a

flower, an armbandout of place, at least in conventional terms. This

was seen not as tasteless but as odd and intriguing. In hotels he

would be seen receiving telegrams at all hours, one after the other,

brought to him by his Japanese chauffeurtelegrams he would tear up

widi utter nonchalance. (In fact they were fakes, completely blank.)

He would sit alone in the dining room, reading a large and

impressive-looking book, smiling at people yet remaining aloof.

Widiin a few days, of course, die entire hotel would be abuzz with

interest in diis strange man.

All this attention allowed Lustig to lure suckers in with ease. They

would beg for his confidence and his company. Everyone wanted to

be seen widi diis mysterious aristocrat. And in the presence of diis

distracting enigma, they wouldn't even notice that diey were being

robbed blind.

An air of mystery can make the mediocre appear intelligent and

profound. It made Mata Hari, a woman of average appearance and

intelligence, seem like a goddess, and her dancing divinely inspired.

An air of

mystery about an artist makes his or her artwork immediately

more intriguing, a trick Marcel Duchamp played to great effect. It is

all very easy to dosay little about your work, tease and titillate with

alluring, even contradictory comments, then stand back and let

others try to make sense of it all.

Mysterious people put others in a kind of inferior positionthat of

trying to figure them out. To degrees that they can control, diey also

elicit die fear surrounding anything uncertain or unknown. All great

leaders know that an aura of mystery draws attention to them and

creates an intimidating presence. Mao Tse-tung, for example,

cleverly cultivated an enigmatic image; he had no worries about

seeming inconsistent or contradicting himselfthe very

contradictoriness of his actions and words meant that he always had

the upper hand. No one, not even his own wife, ever felt diey

understood him, and he therefore seemed larger than life. This also

meant that the public paid constant attention to him, ever anxious to

witness his next move.

If your social position prevents you from completely wrapping

your actions in mystery, you must at least learn to make yourself less

obvious. Every now and men, act in a way that does not mesh with

other people's perception of you. This way you keep those around

you on the defensive, eliciting the kind of attention that makes you

powerful. Done right, the creation of enigma can also draw the kind

of attention that strikes terror into your enemy.

During the Second Punic War (219-202 B.C.), the great

Carthaginian general Hannibal was wreaking havoc in his march on

Rome. Hannibal was known for his cleverness and duplicity.

Under his leadership Carthage's army, though smaller than those

of the Romans, had constandy outmaneuvered them. On one

occasion, though, Hannibal's scouts made a horrible blunder, leading

his troops into a marshy terrain with the sea at their back. The

Roman army blocked the mountain passes mat led inland, and its

general, Fabius, was ecstaticat last he had Hannibal trapped.

Posting his best sentries on the passes, he worked on a plan to

destroy Hannibal's forces. But in the middle of the night, die sentries

looked down to see a mysterious sight: A huge procession of lights

was heading up die mountain. Thousands and thousands of lights. If

this was Hannibal's army, it had suddenly grown a hundredfold.

The sentries argued heatedly about what this could mean:

Reinforcements from the sea Troops tiiat had been hidden in die

area Ghosts No explanation made sense.

As they watched, fires broke out all over the mountain, and a

horrible noise drifted up to them from below, like the blowing of a

million horns. Demons, they thought. The sentries, the bravest and

most sensible in the Roman army, fled their posts in a panic.

By the next day, Hannibal had escaped from the marshland.

What was his trick Had he really conjured up demons Actually what

he had done was order bundles of twigs to be fastened to the horns

of the thousands of oxen that traveled with his troops as beasts of

burden. The twigs were then

lit, giving the impression of the torches of a vast army heading up

the mountain. When the flames burned down to the oxen's skin, they

stampeded in all directions, bellowing like mad and setting fires all

over the mountainside. The key to mis device's success was not the

torches, the fires, or the noises in themselves, however, but the fact

that Hannibal had created a puzzle that captivated the sentries'

attention and gradually terrified them. From the mountaintop there

was no way to explain this bizarre sight. If the sentries could have

explained it they would have stayed at their posts.

If you find yourself trapped, cornered, and on the defensive in

some situation, try a simple experiment: Do something that cannot

be easily explained or interpreted. Choose a simple action, but carry

it out in a way that unsettles your opponent, a way with many

possible interpretations, making your intentions obscure. Don't just

be unpredictable (although this tactic too can be successfulsee Law

17); like Hannibal, create a scene that cannot be read. There will

seem to be no method to your madness, no rhyme or reason, no

single explanation. If you do this right, you will inspire fear and

trembling and the sentries will abandon their posts. Call it the

“feigned madness of Hamlet” tactic, for Hamlet uses it to great effect

in Shakespeare's play, frightening his stepfather Claudius through

die mystery of his behavior. The mysterious makes your forces seem

larger, your power more terrifying.

Image: The Dance of the Veilsthe veils envelop the dancer. What

they reveal causes excitement. What they conceal heightens

interest. The essence of mystery.

Authority: 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, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

In the beginning of your rise to the top, you must attract attention

at all cost, but as you rise higher you must constantly adapt. Never

wear the public out with the same tactic. An air of mystery works

wonders for those who need to develop an aura of power and get

themselves noticed, but it must seem measured and under control.

Mata Hari went too far with her fabrications; although the accusation

that she was a spy was false, at the time it was a reasonable

presumption because all her lies made her seem suspicious and

nefarious. Do not let your air of mystery be slowly transformed into a

reputation for deceit. The mystery you create must seem a game,

playful and unthreatening. Recognize when it goes too far, and pull

back.

There are times when the need for attention must be deferred,

and when scandal and notoriety are the last things you want to

create. The attention you attract must never offend or challenge the

reputation of those above younot, at any rate, if they are secure. You

will seem not only paltry but desperate by comparison. There is an

art to knowing when to draw notice and when to wididraw.

Lola Montez was one of die great practitioners of the art of

attracting attention. She managed to rise from a middle-class Irish

background to being the lover of Franz Liszt and then the mistress

and political adviser of King Ludwig of Bavaria. In her later years,

though, she lost her sense of proportion.

In London in 1850 there was to be a performance of

Shakespeare's Macbeth featuring the greatest actor of the time,

Charles John Kean. Everyone of consequence in English society

was to be there; it was rumored that even Queen Victoria and Prince

Albert were to make a public appearance. The custom of the period

demanded that everyone be seated before the queen arrived. So the

audience got there a little early, and when the queen entered her

royal box, diey observed die convention of standing up and

applauding her. The royal couple waited, then bowed. Everyone sat

down and the lights were dimmed. Then, suddenly, all eyes turned to

a box opposite Queen Victoria's: A woman appeared from the

shadows, taking her seat later tiian the queen. It was Lola Montez.

She wore a diamond tiara on her dark hair and a long fur coat over

her shoulders. People whispered in amazement as the ermine cloak

was dropped to reveal a low-necked gown of crimson velvet. By

turning tfieir heads, the audience could see that the royal couple

deliberately avoided looking at Lola's box. They followed Victoria's

example, and for the rest of the evening Lola Montez was ignored.

After that evening no one in fashionable society dared to be seen

with her. All her magnetic powers were reversed. People would flee

her sight. Her future in England was finished.

Never appear overly greedy for attention, then, for it signals

insecurity, and insecurity drives power away. Understand that there

are times when it is not in your interest to be the center of attention.

When in the presence of a king or queen, for instance, or the

equivalent thereof, bow and retreat to the shadows; never compete.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 7

GET OTHERS TO DO THE

WORK FOR YOU, BUT

ALWAYS TAKE THE CREDIT

JUDGMENT

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 a godlike 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.

TRANSGRESSION AND OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW In 1883 a

young Serbian scientist named Nikola Tesla was working for the

European division of die Continental Edison Company. He was a

brilliant inventor, and Charles Batchelor, a plant manager and a

personal friend of Thomas Edison, persuaded him he should seek

his fortune in America, giving him a letter of introduction to Edison

himself. So began a life of woe and tribulation mat lasted until Tesla's

death.

When Tesla met Edison in New York, the famous inventor hired

him on the spot. Tesla worked eighteen-hour days, finding ways to

improve the primitive Edison dynamos. Finally he offered to redesign

diem completely. To Edison diis seemed a monumental task mat

could last years wimout paying off, but he told Tesla, “There's fifty

diousand dollars in it for you if you can do it.” Tesla labored day and

night on the project and after only a year he produced a greatiy

improved version of the dynamo, complete with automatic controls.

He went to Edison to break the good news and receive his $50,000.

Edison was pleased with the improvement, for which he and his

company would take credit, but when it came to the issue of the

money he told the young Serb, “Tesla, you don't understand our

American humor!,” and offered a small raise instead.

Tesla's obsession was to create an alternating-current system

(AC) of electricity. Edison believed in the direct-current system (DC),

and not only refused to support Tesla's research but later did all he

could to sabotage him. Tesla turned to die great Pittsburgh magnate

George Westinghouse, who had started his own electricity company.

Westinghouse completely funded Tesla's research and offered him a

generous royalty agreement on future profits. The AC system Tesla

developed is still the standard today but after patents were filed in

his name, other scientists came forward to take credit for the

invention, claiming mat they had laid the groundwork for him. His

name was lost in the shuffle, and the public came to associate the

invention widi Westinghouse himself.

A year later, Westinghouse was caught in a takeover bid from J.

Pierpont Morgan, who made him rescind the generous royalty

contract he had signed widi Tesla. Westinghouse explained to the

scientist mat his company would not survive if it had to pay him his

full royalties; he persuaded Tesla to accept a buyout of his patents

for $216,000a large sum, no doubt, but far less dian the $12 million

mey were worth at the time. The financiers had divested Tesla of the

riches, the patents, and essentially me credit for the greatest

invention of his career.

The name of Guglielmo Marconi is forever linked widi the

invention of radio. But few know mat in producing his inventionhe

broadcast a signal across the English Channel in 1899Marconi made

use of a patent Tesla had filed in 1897, and that his work depended

on Tesla's research. Once again Tesla received no money and no

credit. Tesla invented an induction motor as well as the AC power

system, and he is die real “fatiier of radio.” Yet none of diese

discoveries bear his name. As an old man, he lived in poverty.

THE TORTOISE. THE ELEPHANT AND THE HIPPOPOTAMI'S

One day the tortoise met the elephant, who trumpeted, “Out of

my way, you weakling / might step on you!” The tortoise was not

afraid and stayed where he was, so the elephant stepped on him,

but could not crush him. “Do not boast, Mr. Elephant, I am as strong

as you are!”said the tortoise, but the elephant just laughed. So the

tortoise asked him to come to his hill the next morning.

The next day, before sunrise, the tortoise ran down the hill to the

river, where he met the hippopotamus, who was just on his way back

into the water after his nocturnal feeding. “Mr Hippo! Shall we have a

tug-of-war I bet I'm as strong as you are!” said the tortoise. The

hippopotamus laughed at this ridiculous idea, but agreed. The

tortoise produced a long rope and told the hippo to hold it in his

mouth until the tortoise shouted “Hey!” Then the tortoise ran back up

the hill where he found the elephant, who was getting impatient. He

gave the elephant the other end of the rope and said, “When I say

'Hey!' pull, and you'll see which of us is the strongest.” Then he ran

halfway back down the

hill, to a place where he couldn be seen, and shouted, “Hey!” The

elephant and the hippopotamus pulled and pulled, but neither could

budge the otherthey were of equal strength. They both agreed that

the tortoise was as strong as thev were. Never do what others can

do for you. The tortoise let others do the work for him while he got

the credit.

ZaIRHAN FAlil.h

To be sure, if the hunter relies on the security of the carriage,

utilizes the legs of the six horses, and makes Wang Liang hold their

reins, then he will not tire himself and will find it easy to overtake

swift animals. Now supposing he discarded the advantage of the

carriage, gave up the useful legs of the horses and the skill of Wang

Liang, and alighted to run after the animals, then even though his

legs were as quick as Lou Chi's, he would not be in time to overtake

the animals. In fact, if good horses and strong carriages are taken

into use, then mere bondmen and bondwomen will be good enough

to catch the animals.

Han-lki-tzi;,

Chinlsk philosopher,

third (tintury b.c.

In 1917, during his later impoverished years, Tesla was told he

was to receive the Edison Medal of the American Institute of

Electrical Engineers. He turned the medal down. “You propose,” he

said, “to honor me with a medal which I could pin upon my coat and

strut for a vain hour before the members of your Institute. You would

decorate my body and continue to let starve, for failure to supply

recognition, my mind and its creative products, which have supplied

the foundation upon which the major portion of your Institute exists.”

Interpretation

Many harbor the illusion that science, dealing with facts as it

does, is beyond the petty rivalries that trouble the rest of the world.

Nikola Tesla was one of those. He believed science had nothing to

do with politics, and claimed not to care for fame and riches. As he

grew older, though, this ruined his scientific work. Not associated

with any particular discovery, he could attract no investors to his

many ideas. While he pondered great inventions for the future,

others stole the patents he had already developed and got the glory

for themselves.

He wanted to do everything on his own, but merely exhausted

and impoverished himself in the process.

Edison was Tesla's polar opposite. He wasn't actually much of a

scientific thinker or inventor; he once said that he had no need to be

a mathematician because he could always hire one. That was

Edison's main method. He was really a businessman and publicist,

spotting the trends and the opportunities that were out there, then

hiring the best in the field to do the work for him. If he had to he

would steal from his competitors. Yet his name is much better known

than Tesla's, and is associated with more inventions.

The lesson is twofold: First, the credit for an invention or creation

is as important, if not more important, than the invention itself. You

must secure the credit for yourself and keep others from stealing it

away, or from piggybacking on your hard work. To accomplish this

you must always be vigilant and ruthless, keeping your creation quiet

until you can be sure there are no vultures circling overhead.

Second, learn to take advantage of other people's work to further

your own cause. Time is precious and life is short. If you try to do it

all on your own, you run yourself ragged, waste energy, and burn

yourself out. It is far better to conserve your forces, pounce on the

work others have done, and find a way to make it your own.

Everybody steals in commerce and industry.

I've stolen a lot myself.

But I know how to steal.

Thomas Edison, 1847-1931

KEYS TO POWER

A hen who had lost her sight, and was accustomed to scratching

till continued to scratch awav most diligently. Of what use was

sighted hen who spared her tender feet never moved from her

side,

The world of power has the dynamics of the jungle: There are

those who live by hunting and killing, and there are also vast

numbers of creatures (hyenas, vultures) who live off the hunting of

others. These latter, less imaginative types are often incapable of

doing the work that is essential for the creation of power. They

understand early on, though, mat if they wait the earth in search of

long enough, they can always find another animal to do the work for

them. /'Ç"' although Mind, Do not be naive: At this very moment,

while you are slaving away on some project, there are vultures

circling above trying to figure out a way to survive and even thrive off

your creativity. It is useless to complain about this, it to the

industrious or to wear yourself ragged with bitterness, as Tesla did.

Better to protect fool Another sharp yourself and join the game. Once

you have established a power base, become a vulture yourself, and

save yourself a lot of time and energy.

Of the two poles of this game, one can be illustrated by the

example of and enjoyed, without the explorer Vasco Nunez de

Balboa. Balboa had an obsessionthe dis- scratching, the fruit of

covery of El Dorado, a legendary city of vast riches.

Early in the sixteenth century, after countless hardships and

brushes

often as the blind hen scratched up a barlcv-

TABLKS,

GOTTIIOl.D Ll-SSIMi.

1729-1781

with death, he found evidence of a great and wealthy empire to

the south corn, her watchful of Mexico, in present-day Peru. By

conquering this empire, the Incan, and companion devoured seizing

its gold, he would make himself the next Cortes. The problem was

that even as he made this discovery, word of it spread among

hundreds of other conquistadors. He did not understand diat half the

game was keeping it quiet, and carefully watching those around him.

A few years after he discovered the location of the Incan empire, a

soldier in his own army, Francisco Pizarro, helped to get him

beheaded for treason. Pizarro went on to take what Balboa had

spent so many years trying to find.

The other pole is that of the artist Peter Paul Rubens, who, late in

his career, found himself deluged with requests for paintings. He

created a system: In his large studio he employed dozens of

outstanding painters, one specializing in robes, another in

backgrounds, and so on. He created a vast production line in which

a large number of canvases would be worked on at the same time.

When an important client visited the studio, Rubens would shoo his

hired painters out for the day. While the client watched from a

balcony, Rubens would work at an incredible pace, with unbelievable

energy. The client would leave in awe of this prodigious man, who

could paint so many masterpieces in so short a time.

This is the essence of the Law: Learn to get others to do the work

for you while you take the credit, and you appear to be of godlike

strength and power. If you think it important to do all the work

yourself, you will never get far, and you will suffer the fate of the

Balboas and Teslas of the world. Find people with the skills and

creativity you lack. Either hire them, while putting your own name on

top of theirs, or find a way to take their work and make it your own.

Their creativity thus becomes yours, and you seem a genius to the

world.

There is another application of this law that does not require the

parasitic use of your contemporaries' labor: Use the past, a vast

storehouse of

knowledge and wisdom. Isaac Newton called this “standing on

the shoulders of giants.” He meant that in making his discoveries he

had built on the achievements of others. A great part of his aura of

genius, he knew, was attributable to his shrewd ability to make the

most of the insights of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance

scientists. Shakespeare borrowed plots, characterizations, and even

dialogue from Plutarch, among other writers, for he knew that

nobody surpassed Plutarch in the writing of subde psychology and

witty quotes. How many later writers have in their tarn borrowed from

plagiarized Shakespeare

We all know how few of today's politicians write their own

speeches. Their own words would not win them a single vote; their

eloquence and wit, whatever diere is of it, they owe to a speech

writer. Other people do the work, they take the credit. The upside of

this is that it is a kind of power that is available to everyone. Learn to

use the knowledge of the past and you will look like a genius, even

when you are really just a clever borrower.

Writers who have delved into human nature, ancient masters of

strategy, historians of human stupidity and folly, kings and queens

who have learned the hard way how to handle the burdens of

powertheir knowledge is gathering dust, waiting for you to come and

stand on their shoulders. Their wit can be your wit, their skill can be

your skill, and they will never come around to tell people how

unoriginal you really are. You can slog through life, making endless

mistakes, wasting time and energy trying to do things from your own

experience. Or you can use the armies of die past. As Bismarck

once said, “Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit

by others' experience.”

Image: The Vulture. Of all the creatures in the jungle, he has it

the easiest. The hard work of others becomes his work; their failure

to survive becomes his nourishment. Keep an eye on the

Vulturewhile you are hard at work, he is circling above. Do not fight

him, join him.

Authority: There is much to be known, life is short, and life is not

life without knowledge. It is therefore an excellent device to acquire

knowledge from everybody. Thus, by the sweat of another's brow,

you win the reputation of being an oracle. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-

1658)

REVERSAL

There are times when taking the credit for work that others have

done is not the wise course: If your power is not firmly enough

established, you will seem to be pushing people out of the limelight.

To be a brilliant exploiter of talent your position must be unshakable,

or you will be accused of deception.

Be sure you know when letting other people share the credit

serves your purpose. It is especially important to not be greedy when

you have a master above you. President Richard Nixon's historic

visit to the People's Republic of China was originally his idea, but it

might never have come off but for the deft diplomacy of Henry

Kissinger. Nor would it have been as successful without Kissinger's

skills. Still, when the time came to take credit, Kissinger adroitiy let

Nixon take die lion's share. Knowing that the truth would come out

later, he was careful not to jeopardize his standing in the short term

by hogging the limelight. Kissinger played the game expertly: He

took credit for the work of those below him while graciously giving

credit for his own labors to those above. That is the way to play the

game.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 8

MAKE OTHER PEOPLE

COME TO YOU

USE BAIT IF NECESSARY

JUDGMENT

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

gainsthen attack. You hold the cards.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

At die Congress of Vienna in 1814, die major powers of Europe

gadiered to carve up the remains of Napoleon's fallen Empire. The

city was full of gaiety and die balls were die most splendid in

memory. Hovering over die proceedings, however, was die shadow

of Napoleon himself. Instead of being executed or exiled far away,

he had been sent to die island of Elba, not far from die coast of Italy.

Even imprisoned on an island, a man as bold and creative as

Napoleon Bonaparte made everyone nervous. The Austrians plotted

to kill him on Elba, but decided it was too risky. Alexander I, Russia's

temperamental czar, heightened die anxiety by dirowing a fit during

the congress when a part of Poland was denied him: “Beware, I shall

loose die monster!” he mreatened. Everyone knew he meant

Napoleon. Of all die statesmen gadiered in Vienna, only Talleyrand,

Napoleon's former foreign minister, seemed calm and unconcerned.

It was as if he knew somediing the odiers did not.

Meanwhile, on die island of Elba, Napoleon's life was a mockery

of his previous glory. As Elba's “king,” he had been allowed to form a

court there was a cook, a wardrobe mistress, an official pianist, and

a handful of courtiers. All this was designed to humiliate Napoleon,

and it seemed to work.

That winter, however, there occurred a series of events so

strange and dramatic they might have been scripted in a play. Elba

was surrounded by British ships, dieir cannons covering all possible

exit points. Yet somehow, in broad daylight on 26 February 1815, a

ship with nine hundred men on board picked up Napoleon and put to

sea. The English gave chase but the ship got away. This almost

impossible escape astonished die public throughout Europe, and

terrified die statesmen at the Congress of Vienna.

Akhough it would have been safer to leave Europe, Napoleon not

only chose to return to France, he raised die odds by marching on

Paris with a tiny army, in hopes of recapturing the throne. His

strategy workedpeople of all classes direw themselves at his feet. An

army under Marshal Ney sped from Paris to arrest him, but when die

soldiers saw dieir beloved former leader, diey changed sides.

Napoleon was declared emperor again. Volunteers swelled the ranks

of his new army. Delirium swept the country. In Paris, crowds went

wild. The king who had replaced Napoleon fled the country.

For die next hundred days, Napoleon ruled France. Soon,

however, the giddiness subsided. France was bankrupt, its

resources nearly exhausted, and diere was little Napoleon could do

about mis. At die Batde of Waterloo, in June of diat year, he was

finally defeated for good. This time his enemies had learned dieir

lesson: They exiled him to the barren island of Saint Helena, off the

west coast of Africa. There he had no more hope of escape.

Interpretation

Only years later did the facts of Napoleon's dramatic escape from

Elba come to light. Before he decided to attempt diis bold move,

visitors to his court had told him diat he was more popular in France

than ever, and diat

the country would embrace him again. One of tiiese visitors was

Austria's General Koller, who convinced Napoleon that if he

escaped, the European powers, England included, would welcome

him back into power. Napoleon was tipped off that the English would

let him go, and indeed his escape occurred in the middle of the

afternoon, in full view of English spyglasses.

What Napoleon did not know was that there was a man behind it

all, pulling the strings, and that this man was his former minister,

Talleyrand. And Talleyrand was doing all this not to bring back the

glory days but to crush Napoleon once and for all. Considering the

emperor's ambition unsettling to Europe's stability, he had turned

against him long ago. When Napoleon was exiled to Elba, Talleyrand

had protested. Napoleon should be sent farther away, he argued, or

Europe would never have peace. But no one listened.

Instead of pushing his opinion, Talleyrand bided his time. Working

quiedy, he eventually won over Casdereagh and Metternich, the

foreign ministers of England and Austria.

Together these men baited Napoleon into escaping. Even Roller's

visit, to whisper the promise of glory in die exile's ear, was part of the

plan. Like a master cardplayer, Talleyrand figured eveiything out in

advance. He knew Napoleon would fall into the trap he had set. He

also foresaw that Napoleon would lead the country into a war, which,

given France's weakened condition, could only last a few mondis.

One diplomat in Vienna, who understood that Talleyrand was behind

it all, said, “He has set the house ablaze in order to save it from the

plague.”

When I have laid bait for deer,

I don't shoot at the first doe that comes to sniff,

but wait until the whole herd has gathered round.

Otto von Bismarck, 1815-1898

KEYS TO POWER

How many times has this scenario played itself out in history: An

aggressive leader initiates a series of bold moves mat begin by

bringing him much power. Slowly, however, his power reaches a

peak, and soon everything turns against him. His numerous enemies

band together; trying to maintain his power, he exhausts himself

going in this direction and that, and inevitably he collapses. The

reason for this pattern is that the aggressive person is rarely in full

control. He cannot see more than a couple of moves ahead, cannot

see the consequences of diis bold move or that one. Because he is

constantiy being forced to react to the moves of his evergrowing host

of enemies, and to the unforeseen consequences of his own rash

actions, his aggressive energy is turned against him.

In the realm of power, you must ask yourself, what is the point of

chasing here and mere, trying to solve problems and defeat my

enemies, if I never feel in control Why am I always having to react to

events instead of directing them The answer is simple: Your idea of

power is wrong. You

have mistaken aggressive action for effective action. And most

often the most effective action is to stay back, keep calm, and let

others be frustrated by the traps you lay for them, playing for long-

term power rather than quick victory.

Remember: The essence of power is the ability to keep the

initiative, to get others to react to your moves, to keep your opponent

and those around you on the defensive. When you make other

people come to you, you suddenly become the one controlling the

situation. And the one who has control has power. Two things must

happen to place you in this position: You yourself must learn to

master your emotions, and never to be influenced by anger;

meanwhile, however, you must play on people's natural tendency to

react angrily when pushed and baited. In the long run, the ability to

make others come to you is a weapon far more powerful than any

tool of aggression.

Study how Talleyrand, the master of the art, performed this

delicate trick. First, he overcame the urge to try to convince his

fellow statesmen that they needed to banish Napoleon far away. It is

only natural to want to persuade people by pleading your case,

imposing your will with words. But this often turns against you. Few

of Talleyrand's contemporaries believed Napoleon was still a threat,

so that if he had spent a lot of energy trying to convince them, he

would only have made himself look foolish. Instead, he held his

tongue and his emotions in check. Most important of all, he laid

Napoleon a sweet and irresistible trap. He knew the man's

weakness, his impetuosity, his need for glory and the love of the

masses, and he played all this to perfection. When Napoleon went

for the bait, there was no danger that he might succeed and turn the

tables on Talleyrand, who better than anyone knew France's

depleted state. And even had Napoleon been able to overcome

these difficulties, the likelihood of his success would have been

greater were he able to choose his time and place of action. By

setting the proper trap, Talleyrand took the time and place into his

own hands.

All of us have only so much energy, and there is a moment when

our energies are at their peak. When you make the other person

come to you, he wears himself out, wasting his energy on the trip. In

the year 1905, Russia and Japan were at war. The Japanese had

only recently begun to modernize their warships, so that the

Russians had a stronger navy, but by spreading false information the

Japanese marshal Togo Heihachiro baited the Russians into leaving

their docks in the Baltic Sea, making them believe they could wipe

out the Japanese fleet in one swift attack. The Russian fleet could

not reach Japan by the quickest routethrough the Strait of Gibraltar

and then the Suez Canal into the Indian Oceanbecause these were

controlled by the British, and Japan was an ally of Great Britain.

They had to go around the Cape of Good Hope, at die southern tip of

Africa, adding over more than six thousand miles to die voyage.

Once the fleet passed the Cape, the Japanese spread another false

story: They were sailing to launch a counterattack. So the Russians

made the entire journey to Japan on combat alert. By the time diey

arrived, their seamen were tense, exhausted, and overworked, while

the Japanese had been waiting at their ease. Despite die

odds and their lack of experience in modern naval warfare, the

Japanese crushed the Russians.

One added benefit of making the opponent come to you, as the

Japanese discovered with the Russians, is that it forces him to

operate in your territory. Being on hostile ground will make him

nervous and often he will rush his actions and make mistakes. For

negotiations or meetings, it is always wise to lure others into your

territory, or the territory of your choice. You have your bearings, while

they see nothing familiar and are subdy placed on the defensive.

Manipulation is a dangerous game. Once someone suspects he

is being manipulated, it becomes harder and harder to control him.

But when you make your opponent come to you, you create the

illusion that he is controlling the situation. He does not feel the

strings that pull him, just as Napoleon imagined that he himself was

the master of his daring escape and return to power.

Everything depends on the sweetness of your bait. If your trap is

attractive enough, the turbulence of your enemies' emotions and

desires will blind them to reality. The greedier they become, the more

they can be led around.

The great nineteenth-century robber baron Daniel Drew was a

master at playing the stock market. When he wanted a particular

stock to be bought or sold, driving prices up or down, he rarely

resorted to the direct approach. One of his tricks was to hurry

through an exclusive club near Wall Street, obviously on his way to

the stock exchange, and to pull out his customary red bandanna to

wipe his perspiring brow. A slip of paper would fall from this

bandanna that he would pretend not to notice. The club's members

were always trying to foresee Drew's moves, and they would pounce

on the paper, which invariably seemed to contain an inside tip on a

stock. Word would spread, and members would buy or sell the stock

in droves, playing perfectly into Drew's hands.

If you can get other people to dig their own graves, why sweat

yourself Pickpockets work this to perfection. The key to picking a

pocket is knowing which pocket contains the wallet. Experienced

pickpockets often ply their trade in train stations and other places

where there is a clearly marked sign reading BEWARE OF

PICKPOCKETS. Passersby seeing the sign invariably feel for their

wallet to make sure it is still there. For the watching pickpockets, this

is like shooting fish in a barrel. Pickpockets have even been known

to place their own BEWARE OF PICKPOCKETS signs to ensure

their success.

When you are making people come to you, it is sometimes better

to let them know you are forcing their hand. You give up deception

for overt manipulation. The psychological ramifications are profound:

The person who makes others come to him appears powerful, and

demands respect.

Filippo Brunelleschi, the great Renaissance artist and architect,

was a great practitioner of the art of making others come to him as a

sign of his power. On one occasion he had been engaged to repair

the dome of die Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence. The

commission was impor-

tant and prestigious. But when the city officials hired a second

man, Lorenzo Ghiberti, to work with Brunelleschi, the great artist

brooded in secret. He knew that Ghiberti had gotten the job through

his connections, and that he would do none of the work and get half

the credit. At a critical moment of the construction, then, Brunelleschi

suddenly developed a mysterious illness. He had to stop work, but

pointed out to city officials that they had hired Ghiberti, who should

have been able to continue the work on his own. Soon it became

clear that Ghiberti was useless and the officials came begging to

Brunelleschi. He ignored mem, insisting that Ghiberti should finish

the project, until finally they realized the problem: They fired Ghiberti.

By some miracle, Brunelleschi recovered within days. He did not

have to throw a tantrum or make a fool of himself; he simply

practiced the art of “making others come to you.”

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.

Image: The Honeyed Bear Trap. The bear hunter does not chase

his prey; a bear that knows it is hunted is nearly impossible to catch

and is ferocious if cornered. Instead, the hunter lays traps baited with

honey. He does not exhaust himself and risk his life in pursuit He

baits, then waits.

Authority: Good warriors make others come to them, and do not

go to others. This is the principle of emptiness and fullness of others

and self. When you induce opponents to come to you, then their

force is always empty; as long as you do not go to them, your force

is always full. Attacking emptiness with fullness is like throwing

stones on eggs. (Zhang Yu, eleventh-century commentator on The

Art of War)

REVERSAL

Although it is generally the wiser policy to make others exhaust

themselves chasing you, there are opposite cases where striking

suddenly and aggressively at the enemy so demoralizes him that his

energies sink. Instead of making others come to you, you go to

them, force the issue, take the lead. Fast attack can be an awesome

weapon, for it forces the other person to react without the time to

tiiink or plan. With no time to think, people make errors of judgment,

and are thrown on die defensive. This tactic is the obverse of waiting

and baiting, but it serves die same function: You make your enemy

respond on your terms.

Men like Cesare Borgia and Napoleon used tiie element of speed

to intimidate and control. A rapid and unforeseen move is terrifying

and demoralizing. You must choose your tactics depending on the

situation. If you have time on your side, and know that you and your

enemies are at least at equal strength, then deplete their strength by

making them come to you. If time is against youyour enemies are

weaker, and waiting will only give them the chance to recovergive

tiiem no such chance. Strike quickly and they have nowhere to go.

As the boxer Joe Louis put it, “He can run, but he can't hide.”

48 Laws of Power

LAW 9

WIN THROUGH YOUR

ACTIONS, NEVER THROUGH ARGUMENT

JUDGMENT

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.

A vizier had served his master for some thirty years and was

known and admired for his loyalty, truthfulness, and devotion to God.

His honesty, however, had made him many enemies in the court,

who spread stories of his duplicity and perfidy. They worked on the

sultan dav in and day out until he loo came to distrust the innocent

vizier and finally ordered the man who had served him so well to he

put to death. In this realm, those condemned to death were tied up

and thrown into the pen where the sultan kept his fiercest hunting

dogs. The dogs would promptly tear the victim to pieces. Before

being thrown to the dogs, however, the vizier asked for one last

request. “I would like ten days' respite,”he said, “so that I can pay tnv

debts, collect any monev due to me, return items that people have

put in my care, and share out my goods among the mendiers of tnv

family and mv children and appoint a guardian for them. ” After

receiving a guar antee that the vizier would not try to escape, the

sultan granted this request. The vizier hurried home, collected one

hundred gold pieces, then paid a visit to the huntsman who looked

after the sultan \s

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

In 131 B.C., the Roman consul Publius Crassus Dives Mucianus,

laying siege to the Greek town of Pergamus, found himself in need

of a battering ram to force through the town's walls. He had seen a

couple of hefty ship's masts in a shipyard in Athens a few days

before, and he ordered that the larger of these be sent to him

immediately. The military engineer in Athens who received the order

felt certain that the consul really wanted the smaller of the masts. He

argued endlessly with the soldiers who delivered the request: The

smaller mast, he told them, was much better suited to the task. And

indeed it would be easier to transport.

The soldiers warned the engineer that their master was not a

man to argue with, but he insisted that the smaller mast would be the

only one that would work with a machine that he was constructing to

go with it. He drew diagram after diagram, and went so far as to say

that he was the expert and they had no clue what they were talking

about. The soldiers knew their leader and at last convinced the

engineer that it would be better to swallow his expertise and obey.

After they left, though, the engineer thought about it some more.

What was the point, he asked himself, in obeying an order that would

lead to failure And so he sent the smaller mast, confident that the

consul would see how much more effective it was and reward him

jusdy.

When the smaller mast arrived, Mucianus asked his soldiers for

an explanation. They described to him how the engineer had argued

endlessly for the smaller mast, but had finally promised to send the

larger one. Mucianus went into a rage. He could not concentrate on

the siege, or consider the importance of breaching the walls before

the town received reinforcements. All he could think about was the

impudent engineer, whom he ordered to be brought to him

immediately.

Arriving a few days later, the engineer gladly explained to the

consul, one more time, the reasons for the smaller mast. He went on

and on, using me same arguments he had made with the soldiers.

He said it was wise to listen to experts in these matters, and if the

attack was only tried with the battering ram he had sent, die consul

would not regret it. Mucianus let him finish, then had him stripped

naked before the soldiers and flogged and scourged with rods until

he died.

Interpretation

The engineer, whose name has not been recorded by history,

had spent his life designing masts and pillars, and was respected as

the finest engineer in a city that had excelled in the science. He

knew that he was right. A smaller ram would allow more speed and

carry more force. Larger is not necessarily better. Of course the

consul would see his logic, and would eventually understand that

science is neutral and reason superior. How could the consul

possibly persist in his ignorance if the engineer showed him detailed

diagrams and explained the theories behind his advice

The military engineer was the quintessence of die Arguer, a type

found everywhere among us. The Arguer does not understand that

words

are never neutral, and that by arguing with a superior he impugns

the intelligence of one more powerful than he. He also has no

awareness of the person he is dealing with. Since each man

believes that he is right, and words will rarely convince him

otherwise, the arguer's reasoning falls on deaf ears. When cornered,

he only argues more, digging his own grave. Once he has made the

other person feel insecure and inferior in his beliefs, the eloquence

of Socrates could not save the situation.

It is not simply a question of avoiding an argument with those

who stand above you. We all believe we are masters in the realm of

opinions and reasoning. You must be careful, then: Learn to

demonstrate the correctness of your ideas indirectiy.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In 1502, in Florence, Italy, an enormous block of marble stood in

the works department of the church of Santa Maria del Fiore. It had

once been a magnificent piece of raw stone, but an unskillful sculptor

had mistakenly bored a hole through it where there should have

been a figure's legs, generally mutilating it. Piero Soderini,

Florence's mayor, had contemplated trying to save die block by

commissioning Leonardo da Vinci to work on it, or some other

master, but had given up, since everyone agreed mat die stone had

been ruined. So, despite the money that had been wasted on it, it

gathered dust in the dark halls of the church.

This was where things stood until some Florentine friends of the

great Michelangelo decided to write to the artist, then living in Rome.

He alone, they said, could do sometiiing wim die marble, which was

still magnificent raw material. Michelangelo traveled to Florence,

examined die stone, and came to the conclusion mat he could in fact

carve a fine figure from it, by adapting the pose to the way the rock

had been mutilated. Soderini argued that this was a waste of

timenobody could salvage such a disasterbut he finally agreed to let

the artist work on it. Michelangelo decided he would depict a young

David, sling in hand.

Weeks later, as Michelangelo was putting the final touches on the

statue, Soderini entered the studio. Fancying himself a bit of a

connoisseur, he studied the huge work, and told Michelangelo that

while he thought it was magnificent, die nose, he judged, was too

big. Michelangelo realized that Soderini was standing in a place right

under the giant figure and did not have the proper perspective.

Without a word, he gestured for Soderini to follow him up the

scaffolding. Reaching the nose, he picked up his chisel, as well as a

bit of marble dust mat lay on the planks. Wim Soderini just a few feet

below him on the scaffolding, Michelangelo started to tap lightly with

the chisel, letting the bits of dust he had gathered in his hand to fall

littie by litde. He actually did nothing to change the nose, but gave

every appearance of working on it. After a few minutes of this

charade he stood aside: “Look at it now.” “I like it better,” replied

Soderini, “you've made it come alive.”

dogs. He offered this man the one hundred gold pieces and said,

“Let me look after the dogs for ten days. ” The huntsman agreed,

and for the next ten days the vizier cared for the beasts with great

attention, grooming them well and feeding them handsomely. By the

end of the ten days they were eating out of his hand.

On the. eleventh day the vizier was called before the sultan, the

charges were repeated, and the sultan watched as the vizier was

tied up and thrown to the dogs. Yet when the beasts saw him, they

ran up to him with wagging tails. They nibbled affectionately at his

shoulders and began playing with him. The sultan and the other

witnesses were amazed, and the sultan asked the vizier why the

dogs had spared his life. The vizier replied, 'I have looked after these

dogs for ten days. The sultan has seen the result for himself. I have

looked after you for thirty years, and what is the result I am

condemned to death on the strength of accusations brought by my

enemies. " The sultan blushed with shame. He not only pardoned

the vizier but gave him a fine set of clothes and handed over to him

the men who had slandered his reputation. The noble vizier set them

free and continued to treat them with kindness.

THE .SUBTLE RUSE: THE BOOK OF ARABIC WISDOM AND

(HULK, THIRTEENTH CENTURY

'run works of a.masls

When Apries had been deposed in the way I have described,

Amasis came to the throne. He belonged to the district ofSais and

was a native of the town called Siuph. At first the Egyptians were

inclined to be contemptuous, and did not think much of him because

of his humble and undistinguished origin; but later on he cleverly

brought them to heel, without having recourse to harsh measures.

Amongst his innumerable treasures, he had a gold footbath, which

he and his guests used on occasion to wash their feet in. This he

broke up, and with the material had a statue made to one of the

gods, which he then set up in what he thought the most suitable spot

in the city. The Egyptians constantly coming upon the statue, treated

it with profound reverence, and as soon as Amasis heard of the

effect it had upon them, he called a meeting and revealed the fact

that the deeply revered statue was once a footbath, which they

washed their feet and pissed and vomited in. He went on to say that

his own case was much the same, in that once he had been only an

ordinary person and was now their king; so that just as they had

come to revere the transformed footbath, so they had better pay

Interpretation

Michelangelo knew that by changing the shape of the nose he

might ruin the entire sculpture. Yet Soderini was a patron who prided

himself on his aesthetic judgment. To offend such a man by arguing

would not only gain Michelangelo nothing, it would put future

commissions in jeopardy. Michelangelo was too clever to argue. His

solution was to change Soderini's perspective (literally bringing him

closer to the nose) without making him realize that this was the

cause of his misperception.

Fortunately for posterity, Michelangelo found a way to keep the

perfection of the statue intact while at the same time making Soderini

believe he had improved it Such is the double power of winning

through actions rather than argument: No one is offended, and your

point is proven.

KEYS TO POWER

In the realm of power you must learn to judge your moves by

their long-term effects on other people. The problem in trying to

prove a point or gain a victory through argument is mat in the end

you can never be certain how it affects the people you're arguing

with: They may appear to agree with you politely, but inside they may

resent you. Or perhaps something you said inadvertently even

offended themwords have that insidious ability to be interpreted

according to the other person's mood and insecurities. Even the best

argument has no solid foundation, for we have all come to distrust

the slippery nature of words. And days after agreeing with someone,

we often revert to our old opinion out of sheer habit.

Understand this: Words are a dime a dozen. Everyone knows

that in the heat of an argument, we will all say anything to support

our cause. We will quote the Bible, refer to unverifiable statistics.

Who can be persuaded by bags of air like that Action and

demonstration are much more powerful and meaningful. They are

there, before our eyes, for us to see“Yes, now the statue's nose does

look just right.” There are no offensive words, no possibility of

misinterpretation. No one can argue with a demonstrated proof. As

Baltasar Gracian remarks, “The truth is generally seen, rarely heard.”

Sir Christopher Wren was England's version of the Renaissance

man. He had mastered the sciences of mathematics, astronomy,

physics, and physiology. Yet during his extremely long career as

England's most celebrated architect he was often told by his patrons

to make impractical changes in his designs. Never once did he argue

or offend. He had other ways of proving his point.

In 1688 Wren designed a magnificent town hall for the city of

Westminster. The mayor, however, was not satisfied; in fact he was

nervous. He told Wren he was afraid the second floor was not

secure, and that it could all come crashing down on his office on the

first floor. He demanded that Wren add two stone columns for extra

support. Wren, the consummate engineer, knew that these columns

would serve no purpose, and that the

mayor's fears were baseless. But build them he did, and the

mayor was grateful. It was only years later that workmen on a high

scaffold saw that the columns stopped just short of the ceiling.

They were dummies. But both men got what they wanted: The

mayor could relax, and Wren knew posterity would understand that

his original design worked and the columns were unnecessary.

The power of demonstrating your idea is that your opponents do

not get defensive, and are therefore more open to persuasion.

Making them literally and physically feel your meaning is infinitely

more powerful than argument.

A heckler once interrupted Nikita Khrushchev in the middle of a

speech in which he was denouncing the crimes of Stalin. “You were

a colleague of Stalin's,” the heckler yelled, “why didn't you stop him

then” Khrushschev apparently could not see the heckler and barked

out, “Who said that” No hand went up. No one moved a muscle.

After a few seconds of tense silence, Khrushchev finally said in a

quiet voice, “Now you know why I didn't stop him.” Instead of just

arguing that anyone facing Stalin was afraid, knowing that the

slightest sign of rebellion would mean certain death, he had made

them feel what it was like to face Stalinhad made them feel the

paranoia, the fear of speaking up, the terror of confronting the leader,

in this case Khrushchev. The demonstration was visceral and no

more argument was necessary.

The most powerful persuasion goes beyond action into symbol.

The power of a symbola flag, a mythic story, a monument to some

emotional eventis that everyone understands you without anything

being said. In 1975, when Henry Kissinger was engaged in some

frustrating negotiations with the Israelis over the return of part of the

Sinai desert that they had seized in the 1967 war, he suddenly broke

off a tense meeting and decided to do some sight-seeing. He paid a

visit to the ruins of the ancient fortress of Masada, known to all

Israelis as the place where seven hundred Jewish warriors

committed mass suicide in A.D. 73 rather than give in to the Roman

troops besieging them. The Israelis instantly understood the

message of Kissinger's visit: He was indirecdy accusing them of

courting mass suicide. Although the visit did not by itself change their

minds, it made them think far more seriously than any direct warning

would have. Symbols like this one carry great emotional significance.

When aiming for power, or trying to conserve it, always look for

the indirect route. And also choose your batdes carefully. If it does

not matter in the long run whemer the other person agrees with

youor if time and their own experience will make them understand

what you meanthen it is best not even to bother with a

demonstration. Save your energy and walk away.

honor and respect to him, too. In this way the Egyptians were

persuaded to accept him as their master.

the histories, Herodotus, fifth century b.c.

COD AND ABRAHAM

The Most High God had promised that He would not take

Abraham 's soul unless the man wanted to die and asked Him to do

so. When Abraham's life was drawing to a close, and God

determined to seize him, He sent an angel in the guise of a decrepit

old man who was almost entirely incapacitated. The old man

stopped outside Abraham's door and said to him, “Oh Abraham, I

would like something to eat.” Abraham was amazed to hear him say

this. “Die,” exclaimed Abraham. “It would be better for you than to go

on living in that condition.” Abraham always kept food ready at his

home for passing guests. So he gave the old man a bowl containing

broth and meat with bread crumbs. The old man sat down to eat. He

swallowed laboriously, with great effort, and once when he took

some food it dropped from his hand, scattering on the ground. “Oh

Abraham,” he said,

“help me to eat.”Abraham took the food in his hand and lifted it to

the old man's lips. But it slid down his beard and over his chest.

“What i.s your age, old man” asked Abraham. The old man

mentioned a number of years slightly greater than Abraham '.v old

age. Then Abraham exclaimed: “Oh Lord Our God, take me unto You

before I reach this man Is age and .sink into the same condition as

he is in now. ” No sooner had Abraham spoken those words than

God took possession of his soul.

THE SUBTLH RUSE:

THE HOOK OK ARABIC

WISDOM AND GUILE,

THIRTEENTH CENTURY

Image: The Seesaw. Up and down and up and down go the

arguers, getting nowhere fast. Get off the seesaw and show them

your meaning without kick ing or pushing. Leave them at the top and

let gravity bring them gently to the ground.

Authority: Never argue. In society nothing must be discussed;

give only results. (Benjamin Disraeli, 1804-1881)

REVERSAL

Verbal argument has one vital use in the realm of power: To

distract and cover your tracks when you are practicing deception or

are caught in a lie. In such cases it is to your advantage to argue

with all the conviction you can muster. Draw the other person into an

argument to distract them from your deceptive move. When caught

in a lie, the more emotional and certain you appear, the less likely it

seems that you are lying.

This technique has saved the hide of many a con artist. Once

Count Victor Lustig, swindler par excellence, had sold dozens of

suckers around the country a phony box with which he claimed to be

able to copy money. Discovering their mistake, the suckers generally

chose not to go the police, rather than risk the embarrassment of

publicity. But one Sheriff Richards,

LAW 9

of Remsen County, Oklahoma, was not the kind of man to accept

being conned out of $ 10,000, and one morning he tracked Lustig

down to a hotel in Chicago.

Lustig heard a knock on the door. When he opened it he was

looking down the barrel of a gun. “What seems to be the problem” he

calmly asked. “You son of a bitch,” yelled the sheriff, “I'm going to kill

you. You conned me with that damn box of yours!” Lustig feigned

confusion. “You mean it's not working” he asked. “You know it's not

working,” replied the sheriff. “But that's impossible,” said Lustig.

“There's no way it couldn't be working. Did you operate it properly” “I

did exactly what you told me to do,” said the sheriff. “No, you must

have done something wrong,” said Lustig. The argument went in

circles. The barrel of the gun was gently lowered.

Lustig next went to phase two in the argument tactic: He poured

out a whole bunch of technical gobbledygook about the box's

operation, completely beguiling the sheriff, who now appeared less

sure of himself and argued less forcefully. “Look,” said Lustig, “I'll

give you your money back right now. I'll also give you written

instructions on how to work the machine and I'll come out to

Oklahoma to make sure it's working properly. There's no way you

can lose on that.” The sheriff reluctandy agreed. To satisfy him

totally, Lustig took out a hundred one-hundred-dollar bills and gave

diem to him, telling him to relax and have a fun weekend in Chicago.

Calmer and a littie confused, the sheriff finally left. Over die next few

days Lustig checked the paper every morning. He finally found what

he was looking for: A short article reporting Sheriff Richards's arrest,

trial, and conviction for passing counterfeit notes. Lustig had won the

argument; the sheriff never bodiered him again.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 10

INFECTION: AVOID THE UNHAPPY AND UNLUCKY

JUDGMENT

You can die from someone else's miseryemotional 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.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

Born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1818, Marie Gilbert came to Paris in

the

1840s to make her fortune as a dancer and performer. Taking the

name

Lola Montez (her mother was of distant Spanish descent), she

claimed to

be a flamenco dancer from Spain. By 1845 her career was

languishing, and

to survive she became a courtesanquickly one of the more

successful in

Paris.

Only one man could salvage Lola's dancing career: Alexandre

Dujarier, owner of die newspaper with the largest circulation in

France, and also the newspaper's drama critic. She decided to woo

and conquer him. Investigating his habits, she discovered mat he

went riding every morning. An excellent horsewoman herself, she

rode out one morning and “accidentally” ran into him. Soon they

were riding together every day. A few weeks later Lola moved into

his apartment.

For a while the two were happy together. With Dujarier's help,

Lola began to revive her dancing career. Despite the risk to his social

standing, Dujarier told friends he would marry her in the spring. (Lola

had never told him mat she had eloped at age nineteen with an

Englishman, and was still legally married.) Although Dujarier was

deeply in love, his life started to slide downhill.

His fortunes in business changed and influential friends began to

avoid him. One night Dujarier was invited to a party, attended by

some of the wealthiest young men in Paris. Lola wanted to go too

but he would not allow it. They had their first quarrel, and Dujarier

attended the party by himself. There, hopelessly drunk, he insulted

an influential drama critic, Jean-Baptiste Rosemond de Beauvallon,

perhaps because of something the critic had said about Lola. The

following morning Beauvallon challenged him to a duel. Beauvallon

was one of the best pistol shots in France. Dujarier tried to

apologize, but the duel took place, and he was shot and killed. Thus

ended the life of one of the most promising young men of Paris

society. Devastated, Lola left Paris.

In 1846 Lola Montez found herself in Munich, where she decided

to woo and conquer King Ludwig of Bavaria. The best way to

Ludwig, she discovered, was through his aide-de-camp, Count Otto

von Rechberg, a man with a fondness for pretty girls. One day when

the count was breakfasting at an outdoor cafe, Lola rode by on her

horse, was “accidentally” thrown from the saddle, and landed at

Rechberg's feet. The count rushed to help her and was enchanted.

He promised to introduce her to Ludwig.

Rechberg arranged an audience with die king for Lola, but when

she arrived in the anteroom, she could hear the king saying he was

too busy to meet a favor-seeking stranger. Lola pushed aside the

sentries and entered his room anyway. In the process, die front of

her dress somehow got torn (perhaps by her, perhaps by one of the

sentries), and to the astonishment of all, most especially the king,

her bare breasts were brazenly exposed. Lola was granted her

audience widi Ludwig. Fifty-five hours later she made her debut on

the Bavarian stage; the reviews were terrible, but that did not stop

Ludwig from arranging more performances.

A mil found itself carried by a crow to the top of a tall campanile,

and by falling into a crevice succeeded in escaping its dread fate. It

then besought the wall to shelter it, by appealing to it by the grace of

God, and praising its height, and the beauty and noble tone of its

bells. “Alas,” it went on, “as I have not been able to drop beneath the

green branches of my old Father and to lie in the fallow earth

covered bv his fallen leaves, do you, at least, not abandon me.

When 1 found myself in the beak of the cruel crow 1 made a vow,

that if I escaped I would end my life in a little hole. ” At these words,

the wall, moved with compassion, was content to shelter the nut in

the spot where it had fallen. Within a short time, the nut burst open:

Its roots reached in between the crevices of the stones and began to

push them apart; its-shoots pressed up toward the sky. Thev soon

rose above the building, and as the twisted roots grew thicker they

began to thrust the walls apart and force the ancient stones from

their old places. Then the wall, loo late and in vain, bewailed the

cause of its destruction, and in short time it fell in ruin.

Leonardo da Vinci. 1452-1519

Ill Itis own time Simon Thomas was a great doctor. I remember

that I happened to meet him one day at the home of a rich old

consumptive: He told his patient when discussing ways to cure him

that one means was to provide occasions for me to enjoy his

company: He could then fix his eves on the freshness of my

countenance and his thoughts on the overflowing cheerfulness and

vigor of my young manhood; by filling all his senses with the flower

of my youth his condition might improve. He forgot to add that mine

might get worse.

MONTAIGNF,

1533-1592

Many things are said to be infectious. Sleepiness can be

infectious, and yawning as well. In large-scale strategy. when the

enemy is agitated and shows an inclination to rush, do not mind in

the least. Make a show of complete calmness, and the enemy will be

taken by this and will become relaxed. You infect their spirit. You can

infect them with a carefree, drunklike spirit, with boredom, or even

weakness.

Ludwig was, in his own words, “bewitched” by Lola. He started to

appear in public with her on his arm, and then he bought and

furnished an apartment for her on one of Munich's most fashionable

boulevards. Although he had been known as a miser, and was not

given to flights of fancy, he started to shower Lola with gifts and to

write poetry for her. Now his favored mistress, she catapulted to

fame and fortune overnight.

Lola began to lose her sense of proportion. One day when she

was out riding, an elderly man rode ahead of her, a bit too slowly for

her liking. Unable to pass him, she began to slash him with her riding

crop. On another occasion she took her dog, unleashed, out for a

stroll. The dog attacked a passerby, but instead of helping the man

get the dog away, she whipped him with the leash. Incidents like this

infuriated the stolid citizens of Bavaria, but Ludwig stood by Lola and

even had her naturalized as a Bavarian citizen. The king's entourage

tried to wake him to the dangers of the affair, but those who criticized

Lola were summarily fired.

While Bavarians who had loved their king now outwardly

disrespected him, Lola was made a countess, had a new palace built

for herself, and began to dabble in politics, advising Ludwig on

policy. She was the most powerful force in the kingdom. Her

influence in the king's cabinet continued to grow, and she treated the

other ministers with disdain. As a result, riots broke out throughout

the realm. A once peaceful land was virtually in the grip of civil war,

and students everywhere were chanting, “Raus mit Lola!”

By February of 1848, Ludwig was finally unable to withstand the

pressure. With great sadness he ordered Lola to leave Bavaria

immediately. She left, but not until she was paid off. For the next five

weeks the Bavarians' wrath was turned against their formerly

beloved king. In March of that year he was forced to abdicate.

Lola Montez moved to England. More than anything she needed

respectability, and despite being married (she still had not arranged

a divorce from the Englishman she had wed years before), she set

her sights on George Trafford Heald, a promising young army officer

who was the son of an influential barrister. Although he was ten

years younger than Lola, and could have chosen a wife among the

prettiest and wealthiest young girls of English society, Heald fell

under her spell. They were married in 1849. Soon arrested on the

charge of bigamy, she skipped bail, and she and Heald made their

way to Spain. They quarreled horribly and on one occasion Lola

slashed him with a knife. Finally, she drove him away. Returning to

England, he found he had lost his position in the army. Ostracized

from English society, he moved to Portugal, where he lived in

poverty. After a few months his short life ended in a boating accident.

A few years later the man who published Lola Montez's

autobiography went bankrupt

In 1853 Lola moved to California, where she met and married a

man named Pat Hull. Their relationship was as stormy as all the

others, and she left Hull for another man. He took to drink and fell

into a deep depression that lasted until he died, four years later, still

a relatively young man.

At the age of forty-one, Lola gave away her clothes and finery

and turned to God. She toured America, lecturing on religious topics,

dressed in white and wearing a halolike white headgear. She died

two years later, in 1861.

Interpretation

Lola Montez attracted men witii her wiles, but her power over

them went beyond the sexual. It was through the force of her

character tiiat she kept her lovers enthralled. Men were sucked into

the maelstrom she churned up around her. They felt confused,

upset, but die strength of the emotions she stirred also made diem

feel more alive.

As is often the case widi infection, die problems would only arise

over time. Lola's inherent instability would begin to get under her

lovers' skin. They would find diemselves drawn into her problems,

but dieir emotional attachment to her would make diem want to help

her. This was the crucial point of die diseasefor Lola Montez could

not be helped. Her problems were too deep. Once die lover identified

widi diem, he was lost. He would find himself embroiled in quarrels.

The infection would spread to his family and friends, or, in die case

of Ludwig, to an entire nation. The only solution would be to cut her

off, or suffer an eventual collapse.

The infecting-character type is not restricted to women; it has

notiiing to do with gender. It stems from an inward instability tiiat

radiates outward, drawing disaster upon itself. There is almost a

desire to destroy and unsettle. You could spend a lifetime studying

die pathology of infecting characters, but don't waste your time-just

learn die lesson. When you suspect you are in die presence of an

infector, don't argue, don't try to help, don't pass die person on to

your friends, or you will become enmeshed. Flee die infector's

presence or suffer the consequences.

Regard no foolish man as cultured, though you may reckon a

gifted man as wise; and esteem no ignorant abstainer a true ascetic.

Do not consort with fools, especially those who consider themselves

wise. And be not self-satisfied with your own ignorance. Let your

intercourse be only with men of good repute; for it is by such

association that men themselves attain to good repute. Do you not

observe how .sesame-oil is mingled with roses or violets and how,

when it has been for some time in association with roses or violets, it

ceases to be sesame-oil and is called oil of roses or oil of violets

a mirror for princks, Kai Ka'us Ibn

Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. . .

I do not know the man I should avoid so soon as that spare

Cassius. . . .

Such men as he be never at heart's ease whiles they behold a

greater

than themselves, and therefore are they very dangerous.

Julius Caesar, William, Shakespeare, 1564-1616

KEYS TO POWER

Those misfortunates among us who have been brought down by

circumstances beyond their control deserve all die help and

sympathy we can give diem. But diere are otiiers who are not born to

misfortune or unhappi-ness, but who draw it upon diemselves by

tiieir destructive actions and un-setding effect on odiers. It would be

a great tiling if we could raise diem up, change tiieir patterns, but

more often tiian not it is their patterns tiiat end up getting inside and

changing us. The reason is simplehumans are extremely susceptible

to the moods, emotions, and even the ways of thinking of tiiose with

whom tiiey spend tiieir time.

The incurably unhappy and unstable have a particularly strong

infect-

ing power because their characters and emotions are so intense.

They often present themselves as victims, making it difficult, at first,

to see their miseries as self-inflicted. Before you realize the real

nature of their problems you have been infected by them.

Understand this: In the game of power, the people you associate

with are critical. 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.

Never underestimate the dangers of infection.

There are many kinds of infector to be aware of, but one of the

most insidious is the sufferer from chronic dissatisfaction. Cassius,

the Roman conspirator against Julius Caesar, had the discontent

that comes from deep envy. He simply could not endure the

presence of anyone of greater talent. Probably because Caesar

sensed the man's interminable sourness, he passed him up for the

position of first praetorship, and gave the position to Brutus instead.

Cassius brooded and brooded, his hatred for Caesar becoming

pathological. Brutus himself, a devoted republican, disliked Caesar's

dictatorship; had he had the patience to wait, he would have become

the first man in Rome after Caesar's death, and could have undone

the evil that the leader had wrought. But Cassius infected him with

his own rancor, bending his ear daily with tales of Caesar's evil. He

finally won Brutus over to the conspiracy. It was the beginning of a

great tragedy. How many misfortunes could have been avoided had

Brutus learned to fear the power of infection.

There is only one solution to infection: quarantine. But by the time

you recognize the problem it is often too late. A Lola Montez

overwhelms you with her forceful personality. Cassius intrigues you

with his confiding nature and the depth of his feelings. How can you

protect yourself against such insidious viruses The answer lies in

judging people on the effects they have on the world and not on the

reasons they give for their prob-

Image: A Virus. Unseen, it lems. Infectors can be recognized by

the misfortune they draw on them-

enters your pores without selves, their turbulent past, their long

line of broken relationships, their un-

warning, spreading silently and stable careers, and the very force

of their character, which sweeps you up

slowly. Before you are aware of and makes you lose your reason.

Be forewarned by these signs of an infec-

the infection, it is deep inside you. tor; learn to see the discontent

in their eye. Most important of all, do not take pity. Do not enmesh

yourself in trying to help. The infector will remain unchanged, but you

will be unhinged.

The other side of infection is equally valid, and perhaps more

readily understood: There are people who attract happiness to

themselves by 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.

This applies to more than good cheer and success: All positive

qualities can infect us. Talleyrand had many strange and intimidating

traits, but most agreed that he surpassed all Frenchmen in

graciousness, aristocratic charm, and wit. Indeed he came from one

of the oldest noble families in the country, and despite his belief in

democracy and the French Republic, he retained his courtly

manners. His contemporary Napoleon was in many ways the

oppositea peasant from Corsica, taciturn and ungracious, even

violent.

There was no one Napoleon admired more than Talleyrand. He

envied his minister's way with people, his wit and his ability to charm

women, and as best he could, he kept Talleyrand around him, hoping

to soak up the culture he lacked. There is no doubt that Napoleon

changed as his rule continued. Many of the rough edges were

smoothed by his constant association with Talleyrand.

Use the positive side of this emotional osmosis to advantage. If,

for example, you are miserly by nature, you will never go beyond a

certain limit; only generous souls attain greatness. Associate with the

generous, then, and they will infect you, opening up everything that

is tight and restricted in you. If you are gloomy, gravitate to the

cheerful. If you are prone to isolation, force yourself to befriend the

gregarious. Never associate with those who share your defectsthey

will reinforce everything that holds you back. Only create

associations with positive affinities. Make this a rule of life and you

will benefit more than from all the therapy in the world.

Authority: 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, 1601-

1658)

REVERSAL

This law admits of no reversal. Its application is universal. There

is nothing to be gained by associating with those who infect you with

their misery; there is only power and good fortune to be obtained by

associating with the fortunate. Ignore this law at your peril.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 11

LEARN TO KEEP PEOPLE DEPENDENT ON YOU

JUDGMENT

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.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

Sometime in the Middle Ages, a mercenary soldier (a

condottiere) , whose name has not been recorded, saved the town of

Siena from a foreign aggressor. How could the good citizens of

Siena reward him No amount of money or honor could possibly

compare in value to the preservation of a city's liberty. The citizens

thought of making the mercenary the lord of the city, but even that,

they decided, wasn't recompense enough. At last one of them stood

before the assembly called to debate this matter and said, “Let us kill

him and then worship him as our patron saint.” And so they did.

The Count of Carmagnola was cue of the bravest and most

successful of all the condottieri. In 1442, late in his life, he was in the

employ of the city of Venice, which was in the midst of a long war

with Florence. The count was suddenly recalled to Venice. A favorite

of the people, he was received there with all kinds of honor and

splendor. That evening he was to dine with the doge himself, in the

doge's palace. On the way into die palace, however, he noticed diat

die guard was leading him in a different direction from usual.

Crossing the famous Bridge of Sighs, he suddenly realized where

they were taking himto die dungeon. He was convicted on a

trumped-up charge and the next day in the Piazza San Marco,

before a horrified crowd who could not understand how his fate had

changed so drastically, he was beheaded.

Interpretation

Many of the great condottieri of Renaissance Italy suffered die

same fate as the patron saint of Siena and the Count of Carmagnola:

They won batde after battle for their employers only to find

themselves banished, imprisoned, or executed. The problem was not

ingratitude; it was diat there were so many other condottieri as able

and valiant as diey were. They were replaceable. Nodiing was lost

by killing diem. Meanwhile, the older among them had grown

powerful themselves, and wanted more and more money for their

services. How much better, then, to do away with them and hire a

younger, cheaper mercenary. That was the fate of the Count of

Carmagnola, who had started to act impudendy and independendy.

He had taken his power for granted widiout making sure that he was

truly indispensable.

Such is the fate (to a less violent degree, one hopes) of diose

who do not make otiiers dependent on them. Sooner or later

someone comes along who can do the job as well as they

cansomeone younger, fresher, less expensive, less threatening.

Be die only one who can do what you do, and make the fate of

diose who hire you so entwined with yours that they cannot possibly

get rid of you. Otherwise you will someday be forced to cross your

own Bridge of Sighs.

Two horses were carrying two loads. The [rout Horse went well,

but the rear Horse was lazy. I he men began to pile the rear Horse's

load on the front Horse; when thev had transferred it all. the rear

Horse found it easv going, and he said to the front Horse: “Toil and

sweat! The more you trv, the more von have to suffer. ” When thev

reached the tavern, the owner said; “Whv should I fodder two horses

when I carry all on one I had better give the one all the food it wants,

and cut the throat of the other; at least I shall have the hide. ”And so

he ditl.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

When Otto von Bismarck became a deputy in die Prussian

parliament in

1847, he was thirty-two years old and without an ally or friend.

Looking

INK CAT THAT WALKKI) in 1II \1SI. 1.1

Then the Woman laughed and set the Cat a bowl of the warm

while milk and said, “O Cat, you are as clever as a man, but

remember that your bargain was not made with the Man or the Dog,

and I do not know what they will do when they come home. ” “What

is that to me ” said the Cat. “If I have my place in the Cave by the fire

and my warm white milk three times a day, I do not care what the

Man or the Dog can do.” . . . And from that day to this. Best Beloved,

three proper Men out of five will always throw things at a Cat

whenever they meet him, and all proper Dogs will chase him up a

tree. But the Cat keeps his side of the bargain too. He will kill mice,

and he will be kind to Babies when he is in the house, just as long as

they do not pull his tail too hard. But when he has done that, and

between times, and when the moon gets up and the night comes, he

is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to him. Then

he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the Wet Wild Trees or on

the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone.

just so stories,

Rudyard Kipling,

1865-1936

around him, he decided that the side to ally himself with was not

the parliament's liberals or conservatives, not any particular minister,

and certainly not the people. It was with the king, Frederick William

IV. This was an odd choice to say the least, for Frederick was at a

low point of his power. A weak, indecisive man, he consistently gave

in to the liberals in parliament; in fact he was spineless, and stood for

much that Bismarck disliked, personally and politically. Yet Bismarck

courted Frederick night and day. When other deputies attacked the

king for his many inept moves, only Bismarck stood by him.

Finally, it all paid off: In 1851 Bismarck was made a minister in

the king's cabinet. Now he went to work. Time and again he forced

the king's hand, getting him to build up the military, to stand up to the

liberals, to do exactly as Bismarck wished. He worked on Frederick's

insecurity about his manliness, challenging him to be firm and to rule

with pride. And he slowly restored the king's powers until die

monarchy was once again the most powerful force in Prussia.

When Frederick died, in 1861, his brother William assumed the

throne. William disliked Bismarck intensely and had no intention of

keeping him around. But he also inherited the same situation his

brother had: enemies galore, who wanted to nibble his power away.

He actually considered abdicating, feeling he lacked the strength to

deal with this dangerous and precarious position. But Bismarck

insinuated himself once again. He stood by the new king, gave him

strength, and urged him into firm and decisive action. The king grew

dependent on Bismarck's strong-arm tactics to keep his enemies at

bay, and despite his antipathy toward the man, he soon made him

his prime minister. The two quarreled often over policy Bismarck was

much more conservativebut the king understood his own

dependency. Whenever the prime minister threatened to resign, the

king gave in to him, time after time. It was in fact Bismarck who set

state policy.

Years later, Bismarck's actions as Prussia's prime minister led die

various German state" to be united into one country. Now Bismarck

finagled the king into letting himself be crowned emperor of

Germany. Yet it was really Bismarck who had reached the heights of

power. As right-hand man to the emperor, and as imperial chancellor

and knighted prince, he pulled all the levers.

Interpretation

Most young and ambitious politicians looking out on the political

landscape of 1840s Germany would have tried to build a power base

among those with the most power. Bismarck saw different. Joining

forces with the powerful can be foolish: They will swallow you up,

just as the doge of Venice swallowed up the Count of Carmagnola.

No one will come to depend on you if they are already strong. If you

are ambitious, it is much wiser to seek out weak rulers or masters

with whom you can create a relationship of dependency. You

become their strength, their intelligence, their spine. What power you

hold! If they got rid of you die whole edifice would collapse.

Necessity rules the world. People rarely act unless compelled to.

If you create no need for yourself, then you will be done away widi 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,” in

Bismarck's phrase, then you will survive your masters as Bismarck

did. You will have all the benefits of power without the thorns that

come from being a master.

Thus a wise prince will think of ways to keep his citizens of every

sort

and under every circumstance dependent on the state and on

him;

and then they will always be trustworthy.

Niccolb Machiavelli, 1469-1527

KEYS TO POWER

The ultimate power is the power to get people to do as you wish.

When you can do this without having to force people or hurt them,

when they willingly grant you what you desire, then your power is

untouchable. The best way to achieve this position is to create a

relationship of dependence. The master requires your services; he is

weak, or unable to function without you; you have enmeshed

yourself in his work so deeply that doing away with you would bring

him great difficulty, or at least would mean valuable time lost in

training another to replace you. Once such a relationship is

established you have the upper hand, the leverage to make the

master do as you wish. It is the classic case of the man behind the

tbrone, the servant of the king who actually controls the king.

Bismarck did not have to bully either Frederick or William into doing

his bidding. He simply made it clear that unless he got what he

wanted he would walk away, leaving the king to twist in the wind.

Both kings soon danced to Bismarck's tune.

Do not be one of the many who mistakenly believe that the

ultimate form of power is independence. Power involves a

relationship between people; you will always need others as allies,

pawns, or even as weak masters who serve as your front. The

completely independent man would live in a cabin in the woodshe

would have the freedom to come and go as he pleased, but he

would have no power. The best you can hope for is that others will

grow so dependent on you diat you enjoy a kind of reverse

independence: Their need for you frees you.

Louis XI (1423-1483), the great Spider King of France, had a

weakness for astrology. He kept a court astrologer whom he

admired, until one day the man predicted mat a lady of the court

would die within eight days. When the prophecy came true, Louis

was terrified, thinking that either the man had murdered the woman

to prove his accuracy or that he was so versed in his science that his

powers threatened Louis himself. In either case he had to be killed.

One evening Louis summoned the astrologer to his room, high in

the castle. Before the man arrived, the king told his servants that

when he gave

An extravagant young Vine, vainly ambitious of independence,

and fond of rambling at large, despised the alliance of a stately elm

that grew near, and courted her embraces. Having risen to some

small height without any kind of support, she shot forth her flimsy

branches to a very uncommon and superfluous length; calling on her

neighbour to take notice how little she wanted his assistance. “Poor

infatuated shrub, ” replied the elm, “how inconsistent is thy conduct!

Wouldst thou be truly independent, thou shouldst carefully apply

those juices to the enlargement of thy stem, which thou lavishest in

vain upon unnecessary foliage. 1 shortly shall behold thee grovelling

on the ground; yet countenanced. indeed, by many of the human

race, who, intoxicated with vanity, have despised economy; and who,

to support for a moment their empty boast of independence, have

exhausted the very source of it in frivolous expenses. ”

FABLES,

Robert Dodslhy,

1703-1764

the signal they were to pick the astrologer up, carry him to the

window, and hurl him to the ground, hundreds of feet below.

The astrologer soon arrived, but before giving the signal, Louis

decided to ask him one last question: “You claim to understand

astrology and to know the fate of others, so tell me what your fate

will be and how long you have to live.”

“I shall die just three days before Your Majesty,” the astrologer

replied. The king's signal was never given. The man's life was

spared. The Spider King not only protected his astrologer for as long

as he was alive, he lavished him with gifts and had him tended by

the finest court doctors.

The astrologer survived Louis by several years, disproving his

power of prophecy but proving his mastery of power.

This is the model: Make others dependent on you. To get rid of

you might spell disaster, even death, and your master dares not

tempt fate by finding out. There are many ways to obtain such a

position. Foremost among them is to possess a talent and creative

skill that simply cannot be replaced.

During the Renaissance, the major obstacle to a painter's

success was finding the right patron. Michelangelo did this better

man anyone else: His patron was Pope Julius II. But he and the

pope quarreled over the building of the pope's marble tomb, and

Michelangelo left Rome in disgust. To the amazement of those in the

pope's circle, not only did the pope not fire him, he sought him out

and in his own haughty way begged the artist to stay. Michelangelo,

he knew, could find anomer patron, but he could never find another

Michelangelo.

You do not have to have the talent of a Michelangelo; you do

have to have a skill that sets you apart from the crowd. You should

create a situation in which you can always latch on to another master

or patron but your master cannot easily find another servant with

your particular talent. And if, in reality, you are not actually

indispensable, you must find a way to make it look as if you are.

Having the appearance of specialized knowledge and skill gives you

leeway in your ability to deceive those above you into thinking they

cannot do without you. Real dependence on your master's part,

however, leaves him more vulnerable to you than the faked variety,

and it is always within your power to make your skill indispensable.

This is what is meant by the intertwining of fates: Like creeping

ivy, you have wrapped yourself around the source of power, so that it

would cause great trauma to cut you away. And you do not

necessarily have to entwine yourself around the master; another

person will do, as long as he or she too is indispensable in the chain.

One day Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, was visited

in his office by a gloomy group of his executives. It was 1951, when

die witchhunt against Communists in Hollywood, carried on by the

U.S. Congress's House Un-American Activities Committee, was at its

height. The executives had bad news: One of their employees, the

screenwriter John Howard Lawson, had been singled out as a

Communist. They had to get rid of him right away or suffer the wrath

of me committee.

Harry Cohn was no bleeding-heart liberal; in fact, he had always

been a die-hard Republican.

His favorite politician was Benito Mussolini, whom he had once

visited, and whose framed photo hung on his wall. If there was

someone he hated Cohn would call him a “Communist bastard.” But

to the executives' amazement Cohn told them he would not fire

Lawson. He did not keep the screenwriter on because he was a

good writerthere were many good writers in Hollywood. He kept him

because of a chain of dependence: Lawson was Humphrey Bogart's

writer and Bogart was Columbia's star. If Cohn messed with Lawson

he would ruin an immensely profitable relationship. That was worth

more dian the terrible publicity brought to him by his defiance of the

committee.

Henry Kissinger managed to survive the many bloodlettings that

went on in the Nixon White House not because he was the best

diplomat Nixon could findthere were other fine negotiatorsand not

because the two men got along so well: They did not. Nor did they

share their beliefs and politics. Kissinger survived because he

entrenched himself in so many areas of the political structure drat to

do away with him would lead to chaos. Michelangelo's power was

intensive, depending on one skill, his ability as an artist; Kissinger's

was extensive. He got himself involved in so many aspects and

departments of the administration that his involvement became a

card in his hand. It also made him many allies. If you can arrange

such a position for yourself, getting rid of you becomes dangerousall

sorts of interdependencies will unravel. Still, the intensive form of

power provides more freedom tiian the extensive, because those

who have it depend on no particular master, or particular position of

power, for their security.

To make others dependent on you, one route to take is the

secret-intelligence tactic. By knowing other people's secrets, by

holding information that they wouldn't want broadcast, you seal your

fate with theirs. You are untouchable. Ministers of secret police have

held this position throughout the ages: They can make or break a

king, or, as in the case of J. Edgar Hoover, a president. But the role

is so full of insecurities and paranoia that the power it provides

almost cancels itself out. You cannot rest at ease, and what good is

power if it brings you no peace

One last warning: Do not imagine that your master's dependence

on you will make him love you. In fact, he may resent and fear you.

But, as Machiavelli said, it is better to be feared man loved. Fear you

can control; love, never. Depending on an emotion as subde and

changeable as love or friendship will only make you insecure. Better

to have others depend on you out of fear of the consequences of

losing you man out of love of your company.

Image: Vines with Many Thorns. Below, the roots grow deep and

wide. Above, the vines push through bushes, entwine themselves

around trees and poles and window ledges. To get rid of them

would cost such toil and blood, it is easier to let them climb.

Authority: Make people depend on you. More is to be gained from

such dependence than courtesy. He who has slaked his thirst,

immediately turns his back on the well, no longer needing it. When

dependence disappears, so does civility and decency, and then

respect. The first lesson which experience should teach you is to

keep hope alive but never satisfied, keeping even a royal patron ever

in need of you. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

The weakness of making others depend on you is that you are in

some measure dependent on them. But trying to move beyond that

point means getting rid of those above youit means standing alone,

depending on no one. Such is die monopolistic drive of a J. P.

Morgan or a John D. Rockefellerto drive out all competition, to be in

complete control. If you can corner the market, so much the better.

No such independence comes without a price. You are forced to

isolate yourself. Monopolies often turn inward and destroy

themselves from die internal pressure. They also stir up powerful

resentment, making tiieir enemies bond together to fight them. The

drive for complete control is often ruinous and fruitless.

Interdependence remains die law, independence a rare and often

fatal exception. Better to place yourself in a position of mutual

dependence, then, and to follow this critical law ratfier dian look for

its reversal. You will not have die unbearable pressure of being on

top, and die master above you will in essence be your slave, for he

will depend on you.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 12

USE SELECTIVE HONESTY AND GENEROSITY TO DISARM

YOUR VICTIM

JUDGMENT

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 gifta Trojan horsewill serve the

same purpose.

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Francesco Giuseppe Borri of Milan, whose death in 1695 fell just

within the seventeenth century . . . was a forerunner of that special

type of charlatunical adventurer, the courtier or “cavalier” impostor. . .

. His real period of glory began after he moved to Amsterdam. There

he assumed the title of Medico Universale, maintained a great

retinue, and drove about in a coach with six horses.. .. Patients

streamed to him, and some invalids had themselves carried in sedan

chairs all the way from Paris to his place in Amsterdam. Borri took no

payment for his consultations: He distributed great sums among the

poor and was never known to receive any money through the post or

bills of exchange. As he continued to live with such splendor,

nevertheless, it was presumed that he possessed the philosophers'

stone. Suddenly this benefactor disappeared from Amsterdam. Then

it was discovered that he had taken with him money and diamonds

that had been placed in his charge.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

Sometime in 1926, a tall, dapperly dressed man paid a visit to Al

Capone, the most feared gangster of his time. Speaking with an

elegant Continental accent, the man introduced himself as Count

Victor Lustig. He promised that if Capone gave him $50,000 he could

double it. Capone had more than enough funds to cover the

“investment,” but he wasn't in die habit of entrusting large sums to

total strangers. He looked the count over: Something about the man

was differenthis classy style, his mannerand so Capone decided to

play along. He counted out the bills personally and handed them to

Lustig. “Okay, Count,” said Capone. “Double it in sixty days like you

said.” Lustig left with the money, put it in a safe-deposit box in

Chicago, then headed to New York, where he had several other

money-making schemes in progress.

The $50,000 remained in the bank box untouched. Lustig made

no effort to double it. Two months later he returned to Chicago, took

die money from die box, and paid Capone anodier visit. He looked at

the gangster's stony-faced bodyguards, smiled apologetically, and

said, “Please accept my profound regrets, Mr. Capone. I'm sorry to

report that die plan failed ... I failed.”

Capone slowly stood up. He glowered at Lustig, debating which

part of the river to throw him in. But the count reached into his coat

pocket, withdrew the $50,000, and placed it on the desk. “Here, sir,

is your money, to die penny. Again, my sincere apologies. This is

most embarrassing. Things didn't work out die way I tiiought diey

would. I would have loved to have doubled your money for you and

for myselfLord knows I need itbut die plan just didn't materialize.”

Capone sagged back into his chair, confused. “I know you're a

con man, Count,” said Capone. “I knew it die moment you walked in

here. I expected either one hundred thousand dollars or nodiing. But

this .. . getting my money back . . . well.” “Again my apologies, Mr.

Capone,” said Lustig, as he picked up his hat and began to leave.

“My God! You're honest!” yelled Capone. “If you're on the spot,

here's five to help you along.” He counted out five one-tiiousand-

dollar bills out of die $50,000. The count seemed stunned, bowed

deeply, mumbled his tiianks, and left, taking die money.

The $5,000 was what Lustig had been after all along.

Interpretation

Count Victor Lustig, a man who spoke several languages and

prided himself on his refinement and culture, was one of die great

con artists of modern times. He was known for his audacity, his

fearlessness, and, most important, his knowledge of human

psychology. He could size up a man in minutes, discovering his

weaknesses, and he had radar for suckers. Lustig knew tiiat most

men build up defenses against crooks and odier troublemakers. The

con artist's job is to bring tiiose defenses down.

One sure way to do diis is tiirough an act of apparent sincerity

and honesty. Who will distrust a person literally caught in die act of

being hon-

est Lustig used selective honesty many times, but with Capone

he went a step further. No normal con man would have dared such a

con; he would have chosen his suckers for their meekness, for that

look about them that says they will take their medicine without

complaint. Con Capone and you would spend the rest of your life

(whatever remained of it) afraid. But Lustig understood that a man

like Capone spends his life mistrusting others. No one around him is

honest or generous, and being so much in the company of wolves is

exhausting, even depressing. A man like Capone yearns to be the

recipient of an honest or generous gesture, to feel that not everyone

has an angle or is out to rob him.

Lustig's act of selective honesty disarmed Capone because it

was so unexpected. A con artist loves conflicting emotions like

these, since the person caught up in them is so easily distracted and

deceived.

Do not shy away from practicing this law on the Capones of the

world. With a well-timed gesture of honesty or generosity, you will

have the most brutal and cynical beast in the kingdom eating out of

your hand.

Everything turns gray when I don't have at least one mark on the

horizon.

Life then seems empty and depressing. I cannot understand

honest men.

They lead desperate lives, full of boredom.

KEYS TO POWER

The essence of deception is distraction. Distracting the people

you want to deceive gives you the time and space to do something

tiiey won't notice. An act of kindness, generosity, or honesty is often

the most powerful form of distraction because it disarms other

people's suspicions. It turns them into children, eagerly lapping up

any kind of affectionate gesture.

In ancient China this was called “giving before you take”the giving

makes it hard for die other person to notice the taking. It is a device

with infinite practical uses. Brazenly taking something from someone

is dangerous, even for the powerful. The victim will plot revenge. It is

also dangerous simply to ask for what you need, no matter how

politely: Unless the other person sees some gain for themselves,

they may come to resent your neediness. 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”

admissionwhatever it takes.

Selective honesty is best employed on your first encounter with

someone. We are all creatures of habit, and our first impressions last

a long time. If someone believes you are honest at die start of your

relationship it takes a lot to convince them otherwise. This gives you

room to maneuver.

Jay Gould, like Al Capone, was a man who distrusted everyone.

By die time he was thirty-three he was already a multimillionaire,

mostly dirough deception and strong-arming. In the late 1860s,

Gould invested heavily in the Erie Railroad, then discovered tiiat the

market had

been flooded with a vast amount of phony stock certificates for

the company. He stood to lose a fortune and to suffer a lot of

embarrassment.

In the midst of this crisis, a man named Lord John Gordon-

Gordon offered to help. Gordon-Gordon, a Scottish lord, had

apparendy made a small fortune investing in railroads.

By hiring some handwriting experts "Gordon-Gordon was able to

prove to Gould that the culprits for the phony stock certificates were

actually several top executives with the Erie Railroad itself. Gould

was grateful. Gordon-Gordon then proposed that he and Gould join

forces to buy up a controlling interest in Erie. Gould agreed. For a

while the venture appeared to prosper. The two men were now good

friends, and every time Gordon-Gordon came to Gould asking for

money to buy more stock, Gould gave it to him. In 1873, however,

Gordon-Gordon suddenly dumped all of his stock, making a fortune

but drastically lowering the value of Gould's own holdings. Then he

disappeared from sight.

Upon investigation, Gould found out that Gordon-Gordon's real

name was John Crowningsfield, and that he was the bastard son of

a merchant seaman and a London barmaid. There had been many

clues before then that 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.

A single act of honesty is often not enough. What is required is a

reputation for honesty, built on a series of actsbut these can be quite

inconsequential. Once this reputation is established, as with first

impressions, it is hard to shake.

In ancient China, Duke Wu of Cheng decided it was time to take

over the increasingly powerful kingdom of Hu. Telling no one of his

plan, he married his daughter to Hu's ruler. He then called a council

and asked his ministers, “I am considering a military campaign.

Which country should we invade” As he had expected, one of his

ministers replied, “Hu should be invaded.” The duke seemed angry,

and said, “Hu is a sister state now. Why do you suggest invading

her” He had the minister executed for his impolitic remark. The ruler

of Hu heard about this, and considering other tokens of Wu's

honesty and the marriage with his daughter, he took no precautions

to defend himself from Cheng. A few weeks later, Cheng forces

swept through Hu and took die country, never to relinquish it.

Honesty is one of the best ways to disarm the wary, but it is not

the only one. Any kind of noble, apparently selfless act will serve.

Perhaps the best such act, though, is one of generosity. Few people

can resist a gift, even from die most hardened enemy, which is why it

is often the perfect way to disarm people. A gift brings out the child in

us, instandy 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.

Over three thousand years ago the ancient Greeks traveled

across die sea to recapture the beautiful Helen, stolen away from

them by Paris, and

to destroy Paris's city, Troy. The siege lasted ten years, many

heroes died, yet neither side had come close to victory. One day, the

prophet Calchas assembled the Greeks.

“Stop battering away at these walls!” he told them. "You must find

ruse. We cannot take must find some cunning ning Greek leader

with the idea of building hiding soldiers inside it, Trojans as a gift.

Achilles, was disgusted unmanly. Better for battlefield than to gain

But the soldiers, faced another ten years of death, on the one hand

the other, chose the

Image: The Trojan Horse. Your guile is hidden inside a

magnificent gift that proves irresistible to your opponent. The walls

open. Once inside, wreak havoc.

some other way, some Troy by force alone. We stratagem." The

cun-Odysseus fhen came up a giant wooden horse, then offering it

to the Neoptolemus, son of with this idea; it was thousands to die on

the victory so deceitfully. with a choice between manliness, honor,

and and a quick victory on

horse, which was prompdy built. The trick was successful and

Troy fell. One gift did more for the Greek cause than ten years of

fighting.

Selective kindness should also be part of your arsenal of

deception. For years the ancient Romans had besieged the city of

the Faliscans, always unsuccessfully. One day, however, when the

Roman general Camillus was encamped outside the city, he

suddenly saw a man leading some children toward him. The man

was a Faliscan teacher, and the children, it turned out, were the sons

and daughters of the noblest and wealthiest citizens of the town. On

the pretense of taking these children out for a walk, he had led them

straight to the Romans, offering them as hostages in hopes of

ingratiating himself with Camillus, the city's enemy.

Camillus did not take the children hostage. He stripped the

teacher, tied his hands behind his back, gave each child a rod, and

let them whip him all the way back to the city. The gesture had an

immediate effect on the Faliscans. Had Camillus used die children

as hostages, some in the city would have voted to surrender. And

even if the Faliscans had gone on fighting, their resistance would

have been halfhearted. Camillus's refusal to take advantage of die

situation broke down the Faliscans' resistance, and they

surrendered. The general had calculated correcdy. And in any case

he had had nothing to lose: He knew mat the hostage ploy would not

have ended die war, at least not right away. By turning die situation

around, he earned his enemy's trust and respect, disarming them.

Selective kindness will often break down even the most stubborn

foe: Aiming right for the heart, it corrodes the will to fight back.

Remember: By playing on people's emotions, calculated acts of

kindness can turn a Capone into a gullible child. As with any

emotional approach, the tactic must be practiced with caution: If

people see through it, their disappointed feelings of gratitude and

warmth will become the most violent hatred and distrust. Unless you

can make the gesture seem sincere and heartfelt, do not play with

fire.

Authority: When Duke Hsien of Chin was about to raid Yii, he

presented to them a jade and a team of horses. When Earl Chih was

about to raid Ch'ou-yu, he presented to them grand chariots. Hence

the saying: “When you are about to take, you should give.” (Han-fei-

tzu, Chinese philosopher, third century B.C.)

REVERSAL

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. In these

cases it is better to play the rogue.

Count Lustig, pulling the biggest con of his career, was about to

sell the Eiffel Tower to an unsuspecting industrialist who believed the

government was auctioning it off for scrap metal. The industrialist

was prepared to hand over a huge sum of money to Lustig, who had

successfully impersonated a government official. At the last minute,

however, the mark was suspicious. Something about Lustig bothered

him. At die meeting in which he was to hand over the money, Lustig

sensed his sudden distrust.

Leaning over to fhe industrialist, Lustig explained, in a low

whisper, how low his salary was, how difficult his finances were, on

and on. After a few minutes of this, the industrialist realized that

Lustig was asking for a bribe. For the first time he relaxed. Now he

knew he could trust Lustig: Since all government officials were

dishonest, Lustig had to be real. The man forked over the money. By

acting dishonest, Lustig seemed the real McCoy. In this case

selective honesty would have had the opposite effect.

As the French diplomat Talleyrand grew older, his reputation as a

master liar and deceiver spread. At the Congress of Vienna (1814-

1815), he would spin fabulous stories and make impossible remarks

to people who knew he had to be lying. His dishonesty had no

purpose except to cloak the moments when he really was deceiving

them. One day, for example, among friends, Talleyrand said with

apparent sincerity, “In business one ought to show one's hand.” No

one who heard him could believe their ears: A man who never once

in his life had shown his cards was telling other people to show

theirs. Tactics like this made it impossible to distinguish Talleyrand's

real deceptions from his fake ones. By embracing his reputation for

dishonesty, he preserved his ability to deceive.

Nothing in the realm of power is set in stone. Overt

deceptiveness will sometimes cover your tracks, even making you

admired for the honesty of your dishonesty.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 13

WHEN ASKING FOR HELP,

APPEAL TO PEOPLE'S

SELF-INTEREST,

NEVER TO THEIR MERCY

OR GRATITUDE

JUDGMENT

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

A peasant had in his garden an apple-tree, which bore no fruit,

but only served as a perch for the sparrows and grasshoppers. He

resolved to cut it down, and, taking his ax in hand, made a bold

stroke at its roots. The grasshoppers and sparrows entreated him

not to cut down the tree that sheltered them, but to spare it, and they

would sing to him and lighten his labors. He paid no attention to their

request, but gave the tree a second and a third blow with his ax.

When he reached the hollow of the tree, he found a hive full of

honey. Having tasted the honeycomb, he threw down his ax, and,

looking on the tree as sacred, took great care of it. Self-interest

alone moves some men.

FABLES,

Aesop, sixth century b.c.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

In the early fourteendi century, a young man named Castruccio

Castracani rose from the rank of common soldier to become lord of

the great city of Lucca, Italy. One of the most powerful families in the

city, the Poggios, had been instrumental in his climb (which

succeeded through treachery and bloodshed), but after he came to

power, they came to feel he had forgotten them. His ambition

outweighed any gratitude he felt. In 1325, while Castruccio was

away fighting Lucca's main rival, Florence, the Poggios conspired

with other noble families in the city to rid themselves of this

troublesome and ambitious prince.

Mounting an insurrection, the plotters attacked and murdered the

governor whom Castruccio had left behind to rule the city. Riots

broke out, and the Castruccio supporters and the Poggio supporters

were poised to do battle. At die height of the tension, however,

Stefano di Poggio, the oldest member of the family, intervened, and

made both sides lay down their arms.

A peaceful man, Stefano had not taken part in the conspiracy. He

had told his family it would end in a useless bloodbath. Now he

insisted he should intercede on the family's behalf and persuade

Castruccio to listen to their complaints and satisfy their demands.

Stefano was the oldest and wisest member of the clan, and his

family agreed to put their trust in his diplomacy rather man in their

weapons.

When news of the rebellion reached Castruccio, he hurried back

to Lucca. By the time he arrived, however, the fighting had ceased,

through Stefano's agency, and he was surprised by the city's calm

and peace. Stefano di Poggio had imagined that Castruccio would

be grateful to him for his part in quelling die rebellion, so he paid die

prince a visit. He explained how he had brought peace, then begged

for Castruccio's mercy. He said mat die rebels in his family were

young and impetuous, hungry for power yet inexperienced; he

recalled his family's past generosity to Castruccio. For all tiiese

reasons, he said, the great prince should pardon the Poggios and

listen to their complaints. This, he said, was the only just thing to do,

since the family had willingly laid down their arms and had always

supported him.

Castruccio listened patiendy. He seemed not the slightest bit

angry or resentful. Instead, he told Stefano to rest assured that

justice would prevail, and he asked him to bring his entire family to

die palace to talk over their grievances and come to an agreement.

As diey took leave of one another, Castruccio said he thanked God

for the chance he had been given to show his clemency and

kindness. That evening die entire Poggio family came to die palace.

Castruccio immediately had them imprisoned and a few days later all

were executed, including Stefano.

Interpretation

Stefano di Poggio is die embodiment of all those who believe that

the justice and nobility of dieir cause will prevail. Certainly appeals to

justice and gratitude have occasionally succeeded in the past, but

more often than not

they have had dire consequences, especially in dealings with the

Castruc-cios of the world. Stefano knew that the prince had risen to

power through treachery and ruthlessness. This was a man, after all,

who had put a close and devoted friend to death. When Castruccio

was told that it had been a terrible wrong to kill such an old friend, he

replied that he had executed not an old friend but a new enemy.

A man like Castruccio knows only force and self-interest. When

the rebellion began, to end it and place oneself at his mercy was the

most dangerous possible move. Even once Stefano di Poggio had

made that fatal mistake, however, he still had options: He could have

offered money to Castruccio, could have made promises for the

future, could have pointed out what the Poggios could still contribute

to Castruccio's powertheir influence with the most influential families

of Rome, for example, and die great marriage they could have

brokered.

Instead Stefano brought up the past, and debts that carried no

obligation. Not only is a man not obliged to be grateful, gratitude is

often a terrible burden that he gladly discards. And in this case

Castruccio rid himself of his obligations to the Poggios by eliminating

the Poggios.

Most men are so thoroughly subjective that nothing really

interests them but themselves. They always think of their own case

as soon as ever any remark is made, and their whole attention is

engrossed and absorbed by the merest chance reference to

anything which affects them personally, be it never so remote.

Arthur

Schopenhauer,

1788-1860

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In 433 B.C., just before the Peloponnesian War, the island of

Corcyra (later called Corfu) and the Greek city-state of Corinth stood

on the brink of conflict. Both parties sent ambassadors to Athens to

try to win over the Athenians to their side. The stakes were high,

since whoever had Athens on his side was sure to win. And whoever

won the war would certainly give the defeated side no mercy.

Corcyra spoke first. Its ambassador began by admitting that the

island had never helped Athens before, and in fact had allied itself

with Athens's enemies. There were no ties of friendship or gratitude

between Corcyra and Athens. Yes, the ambassador admitted, he

had come to Athens now out of fear and concern for Corcyra's

safety. The only thing he could offer was an alliance of mutual

interests. Corcyra had a navy only surpassed in size and strengdi by

Athens's own; an alliance between the two states would create a

formidable force, one that could intimidate the rival state of Sparta.

That, unfortunately, was all Corcyra had to offer.

The representative from Corinth then gave a brilliant, passionate

speech, in sharp contrast to the dry, colorless approach of the

Corcyran. He talked of everything Corinth had done for Athens in die

past. He asked how it would look to Athens's other allies if the city

put an agreement with a former enemy over one with a present

friend, one that had served Athens's interest loyally: Perhaps those

allies would break their agreements with Athens if tiiey saw that their

loyalty was not valued. He referred to Hellenic law, and the need to

repay Corinth for all its good deeds. He finally went on to list the

many services Corinth had performed for Athens, and the

importance of showing gratitude to one's friends.

After the speech, the Athenians debated the issue in an

assembly. On

the second round, they voted overwhelmingly to ally with Corcyra

and drop Corinth.

Interpretation

History has remembered the Atiienians nobly, but they were the

preeminent realists of classical Greece. With them, all the rhetoric,

all the emotional appeals in the world, could not match a good

pragmatic argument, especially one that added to their power.

What the Corinthian ambassador did not realize was that his

references to Corinth's past generosity to Athens only irritated the

Athenians, subdy asking them to feel guilty and putting them under

obligation. The Athenians couldn't care less about past favors and

friendly feelings. At the same time, they knew that if their other allies

thought them ungrateful for abandoning Corinth, these city-states

would still be unlikely to break their ties to Athens, the preeminent

power in Greece. Atiiens ruled its empire by force, and would simply

compel any rebellious ally to return to the fold.

When people choose between talk about the past and talk about

the future, a pragmatic person will always opt for the future and

forget the past. As die Corcyrans realized, it is always best to speak

pragmatically to a pragmatic person. And in the end, most people

are in fact pragmaticthey will rarely act against their own self-

interest.

It has always been a rule that the weak should be subject to the

strong;

and besides, we consider that we are worthy of our power. Up till

the

present moment you, too, used to think that we were; but now,

after

calculating your own interest, you are beginning to talk in terms of

right

and wrong. Considerations of this kind have never yet turned

people aside

from the opportunities of aggrandizement offered by superior

strength.

Athenian representative to Sparta,

quoted in The Peloponnesian War, Thucydide.s, c. 465-395 B.C.

KEYS TO POWER

In your quest for power, you will constantiy find yourself in the

position of asking for help from those more powerful than you. There

is an art to asking for help, an art that depends on your ability to

understand the person you are dealing with, and to not confuse your

needs with theirs.

Most people never succeed at this, because they are completely

trapped in their own wants and desires. They start from the

assumption that the people they are appealing to have a selfless

interest in helping them. They talk as if their needs mattered to these

peoplewho probably couldn't care less. Sometimes they refer to

larger issues: a great cause, or grand emotions such as love and

gratitude. They go for the big picture when simple, everyday realities

would have much more appeal. What they do not realize is 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.

In die sixteendi century, Portuguese missionaries tried for years

to convert the people of Japan to Catholicism, while at the same time

Portugal had a monopoly on trade between Japan and Europe.

Although the missionaries did have some success, they never got far

among the ruling elite; by the beginning of the seventeenth century,

in fact, tiieir proselytizing had completely antagonized the Japanese

emperor Ieyasu. When the Dutch began to arrive in Japan in great

numbers, Ieyasu 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 religiondie Dutch wanted only to

trade. Ieyasu swifdy moved to evict die Portuguese. From then on,

he would only deal with the practical-minded Dutch.

Japan and Holland were vasdy different cultures, but each

shared a timeless and universal concern: self-interest. Every person

you deal with is like anotiier culture, an alien land with a past tiiat has

nothing to do witii yours. Yet you can bypass die differences between

you and him by appealing to his self-interest. Do not be subde: You

have valuable knowledge to share, you will fill his coffers with gold,

you will make him live longer and happier. This is a language mat all

of us speak and understand.

A key step in die process is to understand die other person's

psychology. Is he vain Is he concerned about his reputation or his

social standing Does he have enemies you could help him vanquish

Is he simply motivated by money and power

When die Mongols invaded China in the twelfth century, they

threat-ened to obliterate a culture that had thrived for over two

thousand years. Their leader, Genghis Khan, saw nothing in China

but a country tiiat lacked pasturing for his horses, and he decided to

destroy die place, leveling all its cities, for “it would be better to

exterminate the Chinese and let the grass grow.” It was not a soldier,

a general, or a king who saved die Chinese from devastation, but a

man named Yelu Ch'u-Ts'ai. A foreigner himself, Ch'u-Ts'ai had come

to appreciate die superiority of Chinese culture. He managed to

make himself a trusted adviser to Genghis Khan, and persuaded him

that he would reap riches out of the place if, instead of destroying it,

he simply taxed everyone who lived tiiere. Khan saw the wisdom in

diis and did as Ch'u-Ts'ai advised.

When Khan took the city of Kaifeng, after a long siege, and

decided to massacre its inhabitants (as he had in otiier cities diat had

resisted him), Ch'u-Ts'ai told him tiiat the finest craftsmen and

engineers in China had fled to Kaifeng, and it would be better to put

them to use. Kaifeng was spared. Never before had Genghis Khan

shown such mercy, but then it really wasn't mercy tiiat saved

Kaifeng. Ch'u-Ts'ai knew Khan well. He was a barbaric peasant who

cared nothing for culture, or indeed for anytiiing otiier than warfare

and practical results. Ch'u-Ts'ai chose to appeal to the only emotion

that would work on such a man: greed.

Self-interest is the lever tiiat will move people. Once you make

them 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 die way to acquiring power, you must train

yourself to tiiink 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 tiiis art and there will be no limits to what you can

accomplish.

Image: A Cord that Binds. The cord of mercy and gratitude is

threadbare, and will break at the first shock. Do not throw such a

lifeline. The cord of mutual self-interest is woven of many fibers and

cannot easily be severed. It will serve you well for years.

Authority: The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to

let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours.

(Jean de La Bruyere, 1645-1696)

REVERSAL

Some people will see an appeal to their self-interest as ugly and

ignoble. They actually prefer to be able to exercise charity, mercy,

and justice, which are their ways of feeling superior to you: When

you beg them for help, you emphasize their power and position.

They are strong enough to need nothing from you except the chance

to feel superior. This is the wine that intoxicates them. They are

dying to fund your project, to introduce you to powerful

peopleprovided, of course, that all this is done in public, and for a

good cause (usually the more public, the better). Not everyone, then,

can be approached through cynical self-interest. Some people will be

put off by it, because they don't want to seem to be motivated by

such things. They need opportunities to display their good heart.

Do not be shy. Give them that opportunity. It's not as if you are

conning them by asking for helpit is really their pleasure to give, and

to be seen giving. You must distinguish the differences among

powerful people and figure out what makes them tick. When they

ooze greed, do not appeal to meir charity. When they want to look

charitable and noble, do not appeal to their greed.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 14

POSE AS A FRIEND, WORK AS A SPY

JUDGMENT

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.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

Joseph Duveen was undoubtedly the greatest art dealer of his

timefrom 1904 to 1940 he almost single-handedly monopolized

America's millionaire art-collecting market. But one prize plum

eluded him: the industrialist Andrew Mellon. Before he died, Duveen

was determined to make Mellon a client.

Duveen's friends said this was an impossible dream. Mellon was

a stiff, taciturn man. The stories he had heard about the congenial,

talkative Duveen rubbed him die wrong wayhe had made it clear he

had no desire to meet the man. Yet Duveen told his doubting friends,

“Not only will Mellon buy from me but he will buy only from me.” For

several years he tracked his prey, learning the man's habits, tastes,

phobias. To do this, he secredy put several of Mellon's staff on his

own payroll, worming valuable information out of them. By the time

he moved into action, he knew Mellon about as well as Mellon's wife

did.

In 1921 Mellon was visiting London, and staying in a palatial suite

on the third floor of Claridge's Hotel. Duveen booked himself into the

suite just below Mellon's, on the second floor. He had arranged for

his valet to befriend Mellon's valet, and on the fateful day he had

chosen to make his move, Mellon's valet told Duveen's valet, who

told Duveen, that he had just helped Mellon on with his overcoat,

and that the industrialist was making his way down the corridor to

ring for the lift.

Duveen's valet hurriedly helped Duveen witii his own overcoat.

Seconds later, Duveen entered the lift, and lo and behold, there was

Mellon. “How do you do, Mr. Mellon” said Duveen, introducing

himself. “I am on my way to die National Gallery to look at some

pictures.” How uncanny diat was precisely where Mellon was

headed. And so Duveen was able to accompany his prey to the one

location that would ensure his success. He knew Mellon's taste

inside and out, and while the two men wandered through the

museum, he dazzled the magnate with his knowledge. Once again

quite uncannily, they seemed to have remarkably similar tastes.

Mellon was pleasantiy surprised: This was not the Duveen he

had expected. The man was charming and agreeable, and clearly

had exquisite taste. When they returned to New York, Mellon visited

Duveen's exclusive gallery and fell in love with the collection.

Everything, surprisingly enough, seemed to be precisely the kind of

work he wanted to collect. For the rest of his life he was Duveen's

best and most generous client.

Interpretation

A man as ambitious and competitive as Joseph Duveen left

nothing to chance. What's the point of winging it, of just hoping you

may be able to charm this or that client It's like shooting ducks

blindfolded. Arm yourself with a litde knowledge and your aim

improves.

Mellon was the most spectacular of Duveen's catches, but he

spied on many a millionaire. By secredy putting members of his

clients' household staffs on his own payroll, he would gain constant

access to valuable infor-

mation about dieir masters' comings and goings, changes in

taste, and other such tidbits of information that would put him a step

ahead. A rival of Duveen's who wanted to make Henry Frick a client

noticed that whenever he visited this wealthy New Yorker, Duveen

was there before him, as if he had a sixth sense. To otiier dealers

Duveen seemed to be everywhere, and to know everything before

they did. His powers discouraged and disheartened them, until many

simply gave up going after the wealthy clients who could make a

dealer rich.

Such is the power of artful spying: It makes you seem all-

powerful, clairvoyant. Your knowledge of your mark can also make

you seem charming, so well can you anticipate his desires. No one

sees the source of your power, and what they cannot see they

cannot fight.

Rulers see through spies, as cows through smell, Brahmins

through scriptures and the rest oj the people through their normal

eyes.

Knutilya, Indian philosopher, third century B.C.

KEYS TO POWER

In the realm of power, your goal is a degree of control over future

events. Part of die problem you face, then, is that people won't tell

you all their thoughts, emotions, and plans. Controlling what they

say, they often keep the most critical parts of their character

hiddentheir weaknesses, ulterior motives, obsessions. The result is

that you cannot predict their moves, and are constandy in the dark.

The trick is to find a way to probe them, to find out their secrets and

hidden intentions, without letting them know what you are up to.

This is not as difficult as you might think. A friendly front will let

you secredy gather information on friends and enemies alike. Let

odiers consult the horoscope, or read tarot cards: You have more

concrete means of seeing into the future.

The most common way of spying is to use other people, as

Duveen did. The method is simple, powerful, but risky: You will

certainly gamer information, but you have litde control over the

people who are doing die work. Perhaps diey will inepdy reveal your

spying, or even secretly turn against you. It is far better to be die spy

yourself, to pose as a friend while secredy gathering information.

The French politician Talleyrand was one of the greatest

practitioners of diis art. He had an uncanny ability to worm secrets

out of people in polite conversation. A contemporary of his, Baron de

Vitrolles, wrote, “Wit and grace marked his conversation. He

possessed die art of concealing his thoughts or his malice beneath a

transparent veil of insinuations, words diat imply something more

than they express. Only when necessary did he inject his own

personality.” The key here is Talleyrand's ability to suppress himself

in the conversation, to make odiers talk endlessly about diemselves

and inadvertendy reveal dieir intentions and plans.

If you have reason to suspect that a person is telling you a lie,

look as though you believed every word he said. This will give him

courage to go on; he will become more vehement in his assertions,

and in the end betray himself. Again, if you perceive that a person is

trying to conceal something from you, but with only partial success,

look as though you did not believe him. The opposition on your part

will provoke him into leading out his reserve of truth and bringing the

whole force of it to bear upon your incredulity.

Arthur

1788-1860

Throughout Talleyrand's life, people said he was a superb

conversationalistyet he actually said very httle. He never talked

about his own ideas; he got others to reveal theirs. He would

organize friendly games of charades for foreign diplomats, social

gatherings where, however, he would carefully weigh their words,

cajole confidences out of them, and gather information invaluable to

his work as France's foreign minister. At die Congress of Vienna

(1814-1815) he did his spying in other ways: He would blurt out what

seemed to be a secret (actually something he had made up), dien

watch his listeners' reactions. He might tell a gathering of diplomats,

for instance, mat a reliable source had revealed to him mat the czar

of Russia was planning to arrest his top general for treason. By

watching the diplomats' reactions to this made-up story, he would

know which ones were most excited by the weakening of the

Russian armyperhaps their goverments had designs on Russia As

Baron von Stetten said, “Monsieur Talleyrand fires a pistol into the air

to see who will jump out the window.”

During social gamerings and innocuous encounters, pay

attention. This is when people's guards are down. By suppressing

your own personality, you can make them reveal things. The

brilliance of the maneuver is that they will mistake your interest in

them for friendship, so that you not only learn, you make allies.

Nevertheless, you should practice this tactic with caution and

care. If people begin to suspect you are worming secrets out of them

under the cover of conversation, they will stricdy avoid you.

Emphasize friendly chatter, not valuable information. Your search for

gems of information cannot be too obvious, or your probing

questions will reveal more about yourself and your intentions than

about the information you hope to find.

A trick to try in spying comes from La Rochefoucauld, who wrote,

“Sincerity is found in very few men, and is often the cleverest of

ruses one is sincere in order to draw out the confidence and secrets

of the other.” By pretending to bare your heart to another person, in

other words, you make mem more likely to reveal their own secrets.

Give them a false confession and they will give you a real one.

Another trick was identified by the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer,

who suggested vehemendy contradicting people you're in

conversation with as a way of irritating mem, stirring them up so that

mey lose some of the control over dieir words. In their emotional

reaction they will reveal all kinds of truths about themselves, truths

you can later use against them.

Another method of indirect spying is to test people, to lay litde

traps that make them reveal things about themselves. Chosroes II, a

notoriously clever seventh-century king of the Persians, had many

ways of seeing through his subjects without raising suspicion. If he

noticed, for instance, mat two of his courtiers had become

particularly friendly, he would call one of them aside and say he had

information that the other was a traitor, and would soon be killed.

The king would tell the courtier he trusted him more tiian anyone,

and that he must keep this information secret. Then he

would watch the two men carefully. If he saw that the second

courtier had not changed in his behavior toward the king, he would

conclude that the first courtier had kept the secret, and he would

quickly promote the man, later taking him aside to confess, “I meant

to kill your friend because of certain information that had reached

me, but, when I investigated the matter, I found it was untrue.” If, on

the odier hand, the second courtier started to avoid the king, acting

aloof and tense, Chosroes would know that the secret had been

revealed. He would ban the second courtier from his court, letting

him know that the whole business had only been a test, but that

even though the man had done nothing wrong, he could no longer

trust him. The first courtier, however, had revealed a secret, and him

Chosroes would ban from his entire kingdom.

It may seem an odd form of spying that reveals not empirical

information but a person's character. Often, however, it is the best

way of solving problems before they arise.

By tempting people into certain acts, you learn about their loyalty,

their honesty, and so on. And this kind of knowledge is often the

most valuable of all: Armed with it, you can predict their actions in

the future.

Image:

The Third Eye of

the Spy. In the land of

the two-eyed, the third eye

gives you the omniscience

of a god. You see further than

others, and you see deeper

into them. Nobody is

safe from the eye

but you.

Authority: Now, the reason a brilliant sovereign and a wise

general conquer the enemy whenever they move, and their

achievements surpass those of ordinary men, is their foreknowledge

of the enemy situation. This “foreknowledge” cannot be elicited from

spirits, nor from gods, nor by analogy with past events, nor by

astrologic calculations. It must be obtained from men who know the

enemy situationfrom spies. (Sun-tzu, The Art of War, fourth century

B.C.)

REVERSAL

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 batde for information, dien, is giving out

false information. As Winston Churchill said, “Truth is so precious

mat she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.” You

must surround yourself with such a bodyguard, so that your truth

cannot be penetrated. By planting the information of your choice, you

control the game.

In 1944 the Nazis' rocket-bomb attacks on London suddenly

escalated. Over two diousand V-l flying bombs fell on the city, killing

more than five thousand people and wounding many more.

Somehow, however, the Germans consistendy missed their targets.

Bombs that were intended for Tower Bridge, or Piccadilly, would fall

well short of the city, landing in die less populated suburbs. This was

because, in fixing tfieir targets, the Germans relied on secret agents

they had planted in England. They did not know that these agents

had been discovered, and that in their place, English-controlled

agents were feeding them subdy deceptive information.

The bombs would hit farther and farther from their targets every

time they fell. By the end of the campaign they were landing on cows

in the country. 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.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 15

CRUSH YOUR ENEMY TOTALLY

JUDGMENT

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, afire 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.

The remnants of an enemy can become active like those of a

disease or fire. Hence, these should be exterminated completely....

One should never ignore an enemy, knowing him to be weak. He

becomes dangerous in due course, like the spark of fire in a

haystack.

Kautilya,

Indian philosopher,

third c'kntury b.c.

tiik thai' at si\k;a

On the day Ramiro was executed, Cesare I Borgia) quit Cesena,

leaving the mutilated body on the town square, and marched south.

Three days later he arrived at Fano, where he received the envoys

of the city of Ancona, who assured him of their loyalty. A messenger

from Vitellozzo Vitelli announced that the little A driatic port of

Sinigaglia had surrendered to the condottieri [mercenary soldiers].

Only the citadel, in charge of the Genoese Andrea Doria, still held

out, and Doria refused to hand it over to anyone except Cesare

himself. [Borgia] sent word that he would arrive the next day, which

was just what the

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

No rivalry between leaders is more celebrated in Chinese history

than the struggle between Hsiang Yu and Liu Pang. These two

generals began their careers as friends, fighting on the same side.

Hsiang Yu came from the nobility; large and powerful, given to bouts

of violence and temper, a bit dull-witted, he was yet a mighty warrior

who always fought at the head of his troops. Liu Pang came from

peasant stock. He had never been much of a soldier, and preferred

women and wine to fighting; in fact, he was something of a

scoundrel. But he was wily, and he had the ability to recognize the

best strategists, keep them as his advisers, and listen to their advice.

He had risen in the army through these strengths.

In 208 B.C., the king of Ch'u sent two massive armies to conquer

the powerful kingdom of Ch'in. One army went north, under the

generalship of Sung Yi, with Hsiang Yu second in command; the

other, led by Liu Pang, headed straight toward Ch'in. The target was

the kingdom's splendid capital, Hsien-yang. And Hsiang Yu, ever

violent and impatient, could not stand the idea that Liu Pang would

get to Hsien-yang first, and perhaps would assume command of the

entire army.

At one point on the northern front, Hsiang's commander, Sung Yi,

hesitated in sending his troops into batde. Furious, Hsiang entered

Sung Yi's tent, proclaimed him a traitor, cut off his head, and

assumed sole command of the army. Without waiting for orders, he

left the northern front and marched direcdy on Hsien-yang. He felt

certain he was the better soldier and general than Liu, but, to his

utter astonishment, his rival, leading a smaller, swifter army,

managed to reach Hsien-yang first. Hsiang had an adviser, Fan

Tseng, who warned him, “This village headman [Liu Pang] used to

be greedy only for riches and women, but since entering the capital

he has not been led astray by wealth, wine, or sex. That shows he is

aiming high.”

Fan Tseng urged Hsiang to kill his rival before it was too late. He

told the general to invite the wily peasant to a banquet at their camp

outside Hsien-yang, and, in the midst of a celebratory sword dance,

to have his head cut off. The invitation was sent; Liu fell for the trap,

and came to the banquet. But Hsiang hesitated in ordering the sword

dance, and by the time he gave the signal, Liu had sensed a trap,

and managed to escape. “Bah!” cried Fan Tseng in disgust, seeing

that Hsiang had botched the plot. “One cannot plan with a simpleton.

Liu Pang will steal your empire yet and make us all his prisoners.”

Realizing his mistake, Hsiang hurriedly marched on Hsien-yang,

this time determined to hack off his rival's head. Liu was never one to

fight when the odds were against him, and he abandoned the city.

Hsiang captured Hsien-yang, murdered the young prince of Ch'in,

and burned the city to the ground. Liu was now Hsiang's bitter

enemy, and he pursued him for many months, finally cornering him

in a walled city. Lacking food, his army in disarray, Liu sued for

peace.

Again Fan Tseng warned Hsiang, "Crush him now! If you let him

again, you will be sorry later.“ But Hsiang decided to be merciful.

He wanted to bring Liu back to Ch'u alive, and to force his former

friend to acknowledge him as master. But Fan proved right: Liu

managed to use the negotiations for his surrender as a distraction,

and he escaped with a small army. Hsiang, amazed that he had yet

again let his rival slip away, once more set out after Liu, this time

with such ferocity diat he seemed to have lost his mind. At one point,

having captured Liu's father in battle, Hsiang stood the old man up

during the fighting and yelled to Liu across the line of troops,

”Surrender now, or I shall boil your father alive!“ Liu calmly

answered, ”But we are sworn brothers. So my father is your father

also. If you insist on boiling your own father, send me a bowl of the

soup!" Hsiang backed down, and the struggle continued.

A few weeks later, in the thick of the hunt, Hsiang scattered his

forces unwisely, and in a surprise attack Liu was able to surround his

main garrison. For the first time the tables were turned. Now it was

Hsiang who sued for peace. Liu's top adviser urged him to destroy

Hsiang, crush his army, show no mercy. “To let him go would be like

rearing a tigerit will devour you later,” the adviser said. Liu agreed.

Making a false treaty, he lured Hsiang into relaxing his defense,

then slaughtered almost all of his army. Hsiang managed to escape.

Alone and on foot, knowing mat Liu had put a bounty on his head, he

came upon a small group of his own retreating soldiers, and cried

out, “I hear Liu Pang has offered one thousand pieces of gold and a

fief of ten thousand families for my head. Let me do you a favor.”

Then he slit his own throat and died.

Interpretation

Hsiang Yu had proven his ruthlessness on many an occasion. He

rarely hesitated in doing away witii a rival if it served his purposes.

But with Liu Pang he acted differently. He respected his rival, and did

not want to defeat him through deception; he wanted to prove his

superiority on the battlefield, even to force the clever Liu to surrender

and to serve him. Every time he had his rival in his hands, something

made him hesitatea fatal sympathy with or respect for the man who,

after all, 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.

This is the fate that faces all of us when we sympathize with our

enemies, when pity, or the hope of reconciliation, makes us pull back

from doing away with them. We only strengthen their fear and hatred

of us. We have beaten them, and they are humiliated; yet we nurture

these resentful vipers who will one day kill us. Power cannot be dealt

with this way. It must be exterminated, crushed, and denied the

chance to return to haunt us. This is all the truer with a former friend

who has become an enemy. The law governing fatal antagonisms

reads: Reconcihation is out of die question. Only one side can win,

and it must win totally.

Liu Pang learned this lesson well. After defeating Hsiang Yu, this

son

condottieri wanted to hear. Once he reached Sinigagliu, Ccsare

would be an easy prey, caught between the citadel and their forces

ringing the town.... The condottieri were sure they had military

superiority, believing that the departure of the French troops had left

Cesare with only a small force. In fact, according to Machiavelli,

[Borgia] had left Cesena with ten thousand infantrymen and three

thousand horse, taking pains to split up his men so that they would

march along parallel routes before converging on Sinigaglia. The

reason for such a large force was that he knew, from a confession

extracted from Ramiro de Lorca, what the condottieri had up their

sleeve. He therefore decided to turn their own trap against them.

This was the masterpiece of trickery that the historian Paolo Giovio

later called “the magnificent deceit.” At dawn on December 3111502],

Cesare reached the outskirts of Sinigaglia.... Led by Michelotto

Corella, Cesare's advance guard of two hundred lances took up its

position on the canal bridge.... This control of the bridge effectively

prevented the conspira-tors' troops from withdrawing. . . . Cesare

greeted the condottieri effusively and invited them to join him....

Michelotto

had prepared the

Palazzo Bernardino

for Cesare's use, and

the duke invited the

condottieri inside....

Once indoors the men

were quietlv arrested

by guards who crept up

from the rear.. . .

jCesare/ gave orders

for an attack on

Vitelli's and Orsini's

soldiers in the outlying

areas.... That night,

while their troops were

being crushed, Miche-

lotto throttled Olive-

retto and Vitelli in the

Bernardino palace. . . .

A t one fell swoop,

IBorgiaj had got rid of

his former generals and

worst enemies.

thh boroias,

Ivan Cloui.as,

To have ultimate

victory, you must be

ruthless.

Napolkon Bonaparte. 1769-L821

of a farmer went on to become supreme commander of the

armies of Ch'u. Crushing his next rivalthe king of Ch'u, his own

former leaderhe crowned himself emperor, defeated everyone in his

path, and went down in history as one of the greatest rulers of China,

the immortal Han Kao-tsu, founder of the Han Dynasty.

Those who seek to achieve things should show no mercy.

Kautilya, Indian philosopher, third century B.C.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

Wu Chao, born in A.D. 625, was the daughter of a duke, and as a

beautiful young woman of many charms, she was accordingly

attached to the harem of Emperor T'ai Tsung.

The imperial harem was a dangerous place, full of young

concubines vying to become the emperor's favorite. Wu's beauty and

forceful character quickly won her this battle, but, knowing that an

emperor, like other powerful men, is a creature of whim, and that she

could easily be replaced, she kept her eye on the future.

Wu managed to seduce the emperor's dissolute son, Kao Tsung,

on the only possible occasion when she could find him alone: while

he was relieving himself at the royal urinal. Even so, when the

emperor died and Kao Tsung took over the throne, she still suffered

the fate to which all wives and concubines of a deceased emperor

were bound by tradition and law: Her head shaven, she entered a

convent, for what was supposed to be the rest of her life. For seven

years Wu schemed to escape. By communicating in secret with the

new emperor, and by befriending his wife, the empress, she

managed to get a highly unusual royal edict allowing her to return to

the palace and to the royal harem. Once there, she fawned on the

empress, while still sleeping with the emperor. The empress did not

discourage thisshe had yet to provide the emperor with an heir, her

position was vulnerable, and Wu was a valuable ally.

In 654 Wu Chao gave birth to a child. One day the empress came

to visit, and as soon as she had left, Wu smothered the newbornher

own baby. When the murder was discovered, suspicion immediately

fell on the empress, who had been on the scene moments earlier,

and whose jealous nature was known by all. This was precisely Wu's

plan. Shortly thereafter, the empress was charged with murder and

executed. Wu Chao was crowned empress in her place. Her new

husband, addicted to his life of pleasure, gladly gave up the reins of

government to Wu Chao, who was from then on known as Empress

Wu.

Although now in a position of great power, Wu hardly felt secure.

There were enemies everywhere; she could not let down her guard

for one moment. Indeed, when she was forty-one, she began to fear

that her beautiful young niece was becoming the emperor's favorite.

She poisoned the woman with a clay mixed into her food. In 675 her

own son, touted as the

heir apparent, was poisoned as well. The next-eldest

sonillegitimate, but now the crown princewas exiled a little later on

trumped-up charges. And when the emperor died, in 683, Wu

managed to have the son after that declared unfit for the throne. All

this meant that it was her youngest, most ineffectual son who finally

became emperor. In this way she continued to rule.

Over the next five years there were innumerable palace coups.

All of them failed, and all of the conspirators were executed. By 688

mere was no one left to challenge Wu. She proclaimed herself a

divine descendant of Buddha, and in 690 her wishes were finally

granted: She was named Holy and Divine “Emperor” of China.

Wu became emperor because there was literally nobody left from

the previous T'ang dynasty. And so she ruled unchallenged, for over

a decade of relative peace. In 705, at the age of eighty, she was

forced to abdicate.

Interpretation

All who knew Empress Wu remarked on her energy and

intelligence. At the time, there was no glory available for an

ambitious woman beyond a few years in the imperial harem, then a

lifetime walled up in a convent. In Wu's gradual but remarkable rise

to the top, she was never naive. She knew that any hesitation, any

momentary weakness, would spell her end. If, every time she got rid

of a rival a new one appeared, the solution was simple: She had to

crush them all or be killed herself. Other emperors before her had

followed the same path to the top, but Wuwho, as a woman, had

next to no chance to gain powerhad to be more ruthless still.

Empress Wu's forty-year reign was one of the longest in Chinese

history. Although the story of her bloody rise to power is well known,

in China she is considered one of the period's most able and

effective rulers.

A priest asked the dying Spanish statesman and general Ramon

Maria Narvdez

(1800-1868), “Does your Excellency forgive all your enemies ” “I

do not have to forgive my enemies, ” answered Narvdez, “J have

had them all shot. ”

KEYS TO POWER

It is no accident that die two stories illustrating this law come from

China: Chinese history abounds with examples of enemies who were

left alive and returned to haunt the lenient. “Crush the enemy” is a

key strategic tenet of Sun-tzu, the fourth-century-B.C. author of The

Art of War. The idea is simple: Your enemies wish you ill. There is

nothing they want more than to eliminate you. If, in your struggles

with them, you stop halfway or even three quarters of the way, out of

mercy or hope of reconciliation, you only make them more

determined, more embittered, and tiiey will someday take revenge.

They may act friendly for the time being, but this is only because you

have defeated them. They have no choice but to bide their time.

The solution: Have no mercy. Crush your enemies as totally as

they

would crush you. Ultimately the only peace and security you can

hope for from your enemies is their disappearance.

Mao Tse-tung, a devoted reader of Sun-tzu and of Chinese

history generally, knew the importance of this law. In 1934 the

Communist leader and some 75,000 poorly equipped soldiers fled

into the desolate mountains of western China to escape Chiang Kai-

shek's much larger army, in what has since been called the Long

March.

Chiang was determined to eliminate every last Communist, and

by a few years later Mao had less than 10,000 soldiers left. By 1937,

in fact, when China was invaded by Japan, Chiang calculated that

the Communists were no longer a threat. He chose to give up the

chase and concentrate on the Japanese. Ten years later the

Communists had recovered enough to rout Chiang's army. Chiang

had forgotten the ancient wisdom of crushing the enemy; Mao had

not. Chiang was pursued until he and his entire army fled to the

island of Taiwan. Nothing remains of his regime in mainland China to

this day.

The wisdom behind “crushing the enemy” is as ancient as the

Bible: Its first practitioner may have been Moses, who learned it from

God Himself, when He parted the Red Sea for the Jews, then let the

water flow back over the pursuing Egyptians so that “not so much as

one of them remained.” When Moses returned from Mount Sinai with

the Ten Commandments and found his people worshipping the

Golden Calf, he had every last offender slaughtered. And just before

he died, he told his followers, finally about to enter the Promised

Land, that when they had defeated the tribes of Canaan they should

“utterly destroy them . . . make no covenant with them, and show no

mercy to them.”

The goal of total victory is an axiom of modern warfare, and was

codified as such by Carl von Clausewitz, the premier philosopher of

war. Analyzing the campaigns of Napoleon, von Clausewitz wrote,

“We do claim that direct annihilation of the enemy's forces must

always be the dominant consideration.... Once a major victory is

achieved there must be no talk of rest, of breathing space . . . but

only of the pursuit, going for the enemy again, seizing his capital,

attacking his reserves and anything else that might give his country

aid and comfort.” The reason for this is that after war come

negotiation and the division of territory. If you have only won a partial

victory, you will inevitably lose in negotiation what you have gained

by war.

The solution is simple: Allow your enemies no options. Annihilate

them and their territory is yours to carve. The goal of power is to

control your enemies completely, to make them obey your will. You

cannot afford to go halfway. If they have no options, they will be

forced to do your bidding. This law has applications far beyond the

battlefield. Negotiation is the insidious viper that will eat away at your

victory, so give your enemies nothing to negotiate, no hope, no room

to maneuver. They are crushed and that is that.

Realize this: In your struggle for power you will stir up rivalries

and

create enemies. There will be people you cannot win over, who

will remain your enemies no matter what. But whatever wound you

inflicted on them, deliberately or not, do not take their hatred

personally. Just recognize that there is no possibility of peace

between you, especially as long as you stay in power. If you let them

stick around, they will seek revenge, as certainly as night follows

day. To wait for diem to show their cards is just silly; as Empress Wu

understood, by then it will be too late.

Be realistic: With an enemy like this around, you will never be

secure. Remember the lessons of history, and the wisdom of Moses

and Mao: Never go halfway.

It is not, of course, a question of murder, it is a question of

banishment. Sufficiently weakened and then exiled from your court

forever, 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.

Your only weapon in such a situation is your own wariness. If you

cannot banish them immediately, then plot for the best time to act.

Image: A Viper crushed beneadi your foot but left alive, will rear

up and bite you with a double dose of venom. An enemy that is left

around is like a half-dead viper that you nurse back to health. Time

makes the venom grow stronger.

Authority: For it must be noted, that men must either be caressed

or else annihilated; they will revenge themselves for small injuries,

but cannot do so for great ones; the injury therefore that we do to a

man must be such that we need not fear his vengeance. (Niccolo

Machiavelli, 1469-1527)

REVERSAL

This law should very rarely be ignored, but it does sometimes

happen that it is better to let your enemies destroy themselves, if

such a thing is possible, than to make them suffer by your hand. In

warfare, for example, a good general knows that if he attacks an

army when it is cornered, its soldiers will fight much more fiercely. It

is sometimes better, then, to leave them an escape route, a way out.

As they retreat, they wear themselves out, and are ultimately more

demoralized by the retreat than by any defeat he might inflict on the

battlefield. When you have someone on the ropes, thenbut only

when you are sure they have no chance of recoveryyou might let

them hang themselves. Let them be the agents of their own

destruction. The result will be the same, and you won't feel half as

bad.

Finally, sometimes by crushing an enemy, you embitter them so

much that they spend years and years plotting revenge. The Treaty

of Versailles had such an effect on the Germans. Some would argue

that in the long run it would be better to show some leniency. The

problem is, your leniency involves another riskit may embolden the

enemy, which still harbors a grudge, but now has some room to

operate. It is almost always wiser to crush your enemy. If tfiey plot

revenge years later, do not let your guard down, but simply crush

them again.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 16

USE ABSENCE TO

INCREASE RESPECT

AND HONOR

JUDGMENT

Too much circulation makes the price go down: The more you are

seen and heard from, the more common you appear. If you are

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.

The first man who saw a camel fled; The second ventured within

distance; The third dared slip a halter round its head. Familiarity in

this existence Makes all things tame, for what may seem Terrible or

bizarre, when once our eyes Have had time to acclimatize, Becomes

quite commonplace. Since I'm on this theme, I've heard of sentinels

posted by the shore Who, spotting something far-away afloat,

Couldn 't resist the shout: “A sail! A sail! A mighty man-of-war!” Five

minutes later it's a packet boat, And then a skiff, and then a bale,

And finally some sticks bobbing about. I know of plenty such To

whom this story applies People whom distance magnifies, Who,

close to, don 7 amount to much.

SELECTED IABLHS,

JhAN nv. La Fontaine. 1621-1695

TRANSGRESSION AND OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW Sir

Guillaume de Balaun was a troubadour who roamed the South of

France in the Middle Ages, going from castle to castle, reciting

poetry, and playing the perfect knight. At the castle of Javiac he met

and fell in love with the beautiful lady of the house, Madame

Guillelma de Javiac. He sang her his songs, recited his poetry,

played chess with her, and little by little she in turn fell in love with

him. Guillaume had a friend, Sir Pierre de Bar-jac, who traveled with

him and who was also received at the casde. And Pierre too fell in

love with a lady in Javiac, the gracious but temperamental Viernetta.

Then one day Pierre and Viernetta had a violent quarrel. The lady

dismissed him, and he sought out his friend Guillaume to help heal

the breach and get him back in her good graces. Guillaume was

about to leave the castle for a while, but on his return, several weeks

later, he worked his magic, and Pierre and the lady were reconciled.

Pierre felt that his love had increased tenfoldthat there was no

stronger love, in fact, than the love that follows reconciliation. The

stronger and longer the disagreement, he told Guillaume, the

sweeter the feeling that comes with peace and rapprochement.

As a troubadour, Sir Guillaume prided himself on experiencing all

the joys and sorrows of love. On hearing his friend's talk, he too

wanted know the bliss of reconciliation after a quarrel. He therefore

feigned great anger with Lady Guillelma, stopped sending her love

letters, and abruptly left the casde and stayed away, even during the

festivals and hunts. This drove the young lady wild.

Guillelma sent messengers to Guillaume to find out what had

happened, but he turned the messengers away. He thought all this

would make her angry, forcing him to plead for reconciliation as

Pierre had. Instead, however, his absence had the opposite effect: It

made Guillelma love him all the more. Now the lady pursued her

knight, sending messengers and love notes of her own. This was

almost unheard ofa lady never pursued her troubadour. And

Guillaume did not like it. Guillelma's forwardness made him feel she

had lost some of her dignity. Not only was he no longer sure of his

plan, he was no longer sure of his lady.

Finally, after several months of not hearing from Guillaume,

Guillelma gave up. She sent him no more messengers, and he

began to wonderperhaps she was angry Perhaps the plan had

worked after all So much the better if she was. He would wait no

moreit was time to reconcile. So he put on his best robe, decked the

horse in its fanciest caparison, chose a magnificent helmet, and rode

off to Javiac.

On hearing that her beloved had returned, Guillelma rushed to

see him, knelt before him, dropped her veil to kiss him, and begged

forgiveness for whatever slight had caused his anger. Imagine his

confusion and despairhis plan had failed abysmally. She was not

angry, she had never been angry, she was only deeper in love, and

he would never experience the joy of reconciliation after a quarrel.

Seeing her now, and still desperate

to taste that joy, he decided to try one more time: He drove her

away with harsh words and threatening gestures. She left, this time

vowing never to see him again.

The next morning the troubadour regretted what he had done. He

rode back to Javiac, but the lady would not receive him, and ordered

her servants to chase him away, across the drawbridge and over the

hill. Guil-laume fled. Back in his chamber he collapsed and started to

cry: He had made a terrible mistake. Over the next year, unable to

see his lady, he experienced the absence, the terrible absence, that

can only inflame love. He wrote one of his most beautiful poems, “My

song ascends for mercy praying.” And he sent many letters to

Guillelma, explaining what he had done, and begging forgiveness.

After a great deal of this, Lady Guillelma, remembering his

beautiful songs, his handsome figure, and his skills in dancing and

falconry, found herself yearning to have him back. As penance for

his cruelty, she ordered him to remove the nail from the little finger of

his right hand, and to send it to her along with a poem describing his

miseries.

He did as she asked. Finally Guillaume de Balaun was able to

taste the ultimate sensationa reconciliation even surpassing that of

his friend Pierre.

Interpretation

Trying to discover the joys of reconciliation, Guillaume de Balaun

inadvertently experienced the truth of the law of absence and

presence. 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, die

lover's imagination takes flight, and a stimulated imagination cannot

help but make love grow stronger. Conversely, the more Guillelma

pursued Guillaume, the less he loved hershe had become too

present, too accessible, leaving no room for his imagination and

fancy, so that his feelings were suffocating. When she finally stopped

sending messengers, he was able to breathe again, and to return to

his plan.

What witiidraws, what becomes scarce, suddenly seems to

deserve our respect and honor. What stays too long, inundating us

with its presence, makes us disdain it. In the Middle Ages, ladies

were constantiy putting their knights through trials of love, sending

them on some long and arduous questall to create a pattern of

absence and presence. Indeed, had Guillaume not left his lady in the

first place, she might have been forced to send him away, creating

an absence of her own.

Absence diminishes minor passions and inflames great ones, as

the wind douses a candle and fans afire.

La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680

While serving under the Duke Ai of Lit, Tien Jao, resenting his

obscure position, said to his master, “I am going to wander far away

like a snow goose. ”

“What do you mean by thai ” inquired the Duke.

“Do you see the cock ” said T'ien Jao in reply. “Its crest is a

symbol of civility; its powerful talons suggest strength; its daring to

fight any enemy denotes courage; its instinct to invite others

whenever food is obtained shows benevolence; and, last but not

least, its punctuality in keeping the time through the night gives us an

example of veracity. In spite, however, of these five virtues, the cock

is daily killed to fill a dish on your table. Why The reason is that it is

found within our reach. On the other hand, the snow goose traverses

in one flight a thousand li. Resting in your garden, it preys on your

fishes and turtles and pecks your millet. Though devoid of any of the

cock's five virtues, yet you prize this bird for the sake of its scarcity.

This being so, I shall fly far like a snow goose. ”

ANCIFNT CHINESE PARABLES,

Yu Hsiu Sen, eix, 1974

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

For many centuries the Assyrians ruled upper Asia widi an iron

fist. In the eighth century B.C., however, the people of Medea (now

northwestern Iran) revolted against them, and finally broke free. Now

the Medes had to establish a new government. Determined to avoid

any form of despotism, they refused to give ultimate power to any

one man, or to establish a monarchy. Without a leader, however, the

country soon fell into chaos, and fractured into small kingdoms, with

village fighting against village.

In one such village lived a man named Deioces, who began to

make a name for himself for fair dealing and the ability to settle

disputes.

He did this so successfully, in fact, that soon any legal conflict in

the area was brought to him, and his power increased. Throughout

the land, the law had fallen into disreputethe judges were corrupt,

and no one entrusted their cases to the courts any more, resorting to

violence instead. When news spread of Deioces' wisdom,

incorruptibility, and unshakable impartiality, Medean villages far and

wide turned to him to settle all manner of cases. Soon he became

the sole arbiter of justice in the land.

At the height of his power, Deioces suddenly decided he had had

enough. He would no longer sit in the chair of judgment, would hear

no more suits, setde no more disputes between brother and brother,

village and village. Complaining that he was spending so much time

dealing with other people's problems that he had neglected his own

affairs, he retired. The country once again descended into chaos.

With the sudden withdrawal of a powerful arbiter like Deioces, crime

increased, and contempt for the law was never greater. The Medes

held a meeting of all the villages to decide how to get out of their

predicament. “We cannot continue to live in this country under these

conditions,” said one tribal leader. “Let us appoint one of our number

to rule so that we can live under orderly government, rather man

losing our homes altogedier in the present chaos.”

And so, despite all that the Medes had suffered under the

Assyrian despotism, they decided to set up a monarchy and name a

king. And the man they most wanted to rule, of course, was the fair-

minded Deioces. He was hard to convince, for he wanted nothing

more to do with the villages' infighting and bickering, but the Medes

begged and pleadedwithout him die country had descended into a

state of lawlessness. Deioces finally agreed.

Yet he also imposed conditions. An enormous palace was to be

constructed for him, he was to be provided with bodyguards, and a

capital city was to be built from which he could rule. All of this was

done, and Deioces settled into his palace. In the center of the

capital, the palace was surrounded by walls, and completely

inaccessible to ordinary people. Deioces then established the terms

of his rule: Admission to his presence was forbidden.

Communication with the king was only possible through

messengers. No one in the royal court could see him more than

once a week, and then only by permission.

Deioces ruled for fifty-three years, extended the Medean empire,

and established die foundation for what would later be the Persian

empire, under his great-great-grandson Cyrus. During Deioces'

reign, the people's

respect for him gradually turned into a form of worship: He was

not a mere mortal, they believed, but the son of a god.

Interpretation

Deioces was a man of great ambition. He determined early on

that the

country needed a strong ruler, and that he was die man for the

job.

In a land plagued with anarchy, the most powerful man is the

judge and arbiter. So Deioces began his career by making his

reputation as a man of impeccable fairness.

At the height of his power as a judge, however, Deioces realized

die truth of the law of absence and presence: By serving so many

clients, he had become too noticeable, too available, and had lost

die respect he had earlier enjoyed. People were taking his services

for granted. The only way to regain the veneration and power he

wanted was to witiidraw completely, and let die Medes taste what life

was like widiout him. As he expected, diey came begging for him to

rule.

Once Deioces had discovered the truth of this law, he carried it to

its ultimate realization. In the palace his people had built for him,

none could see him except a few courtiers, and those only rarely. As

Herodotus wrote, “There was a risk that if they saw him habitually, it

might lead to jealousy and resentment, and plots would follow; but if

nobody saw him, the legend would grow that he was a being of a

different order from mere men.”

A man said to a Dervish: “Why do I not see you more often ” The

Dervish

replied, "Because the words 'Why have you not been to see me'

are

sweeter to my ear than the words 'Why have you come again'"

Mulla Jami, quoted in Idries Shah's Caravan of Dreams, 1968

KEYS TO POWER

Everything in the world depends on absence and presence. A

strong presence will draw power and attention to youyou shine more

brighdy man those around you. But a point is inevitably reached

where too much presence creates me opposite effect: The more you

are seen and heard from, die more your value degrades. You

become a habit. No matter how hard you try to be different, subdy,

without your knowing why, people respect you less and less. At the

right moment you must learn to witiidraw yourself before diey

unconsciously push you away. It is a game of hide-and-seek.

The truth of this law can most easily be appreciated in matters of

love and seduction. In the beginning stages of an affair, the lover's

absence stimulates your imagination, forming a sort of aura around

him or her. But mis aura fades when you know too muchwhen your

imagination no longer has room to roam. The loved one becomes a

person like anyone else, a person whose presence is taken for

granted. This is why the seventeenth-century French courtesan

Ninon de Lenclos advised constant feints at withdrawal from one's

lover. “Love never dies of starvation,” she wrote, “but often of

indigestion.”

The moment you allow yourself to be treated like anyone else, it

is too lateyou are swallowed and digested. To prevent this you need

to starve the other person of your presence. Force their respect by

threatening them with the possibility that they will lose you for good;

create a pattern of presence and absence.

Once you die, everything about you will seem different You will be

surrounded by an instant aura of respect. People will remember their

criticisms of you, their arguments with you, and will be filled with

regret and guilt. They are missing a presence mat will never return.

But you do not have to wait until you die: By completely withdrawing

for a while, you create a kind of death before death. And when you

come back, it will be as if you had come back from the deadan air of

resurrection will cling to you, and people will be relieved at your

return. This is how Deioces made himself king.

Napoleon was recognizing the law of absence and presence

when he said, “If I am often seen at the theater, people will cease to

notice me.” Today, in a world inundated with presence through the

flood of images, the game of withdrawal is all the more powerful. We

rarely know when to witiidraw anymore, and nothing seems private,

so we are awed by anyone who is able to disappear by choice.

Novelists J. D. Salinger and Thomas Pynchon have created cultlike

followings by knowing when to disappear.

Another, more everyday side of this law, but one that

demonstrates its truth even further, is the law of scarcity in the

science of economics. By withdrawing something from the market,

you create instant value. In seventeenth-century Holland, the upper

classes wanted to make die tulip more than just a beautiful

flowerthey wanted it to be a kind of status symbol. Making the flower

scarce, indeed almost impossible to obtain, they sparked what was

later called tulipomania. A single flower was now worth more than its

weight in gold. In our own century, similarly, the art dealer Joseph

Duveen insisted on making the paintings he sold as scarce and rare

as possible. To keep their prices elevated and their status high, he

bought up whole collections and stored them in his basement. The

paintings that he sold became more than just paintings!they were

fetish objects, their value increased by their rarity. “You can get all

the pictures you want at fifty thousand dollars apiecethat's easy,” he

once said. “But to get pictures at a quarter of a million apiecethat

wants doing!”

Image:

The Sun. It can only be

appreciated by its absence.

The longer the days of rain, the

more the sun is craved. But too many

hot days and the sun overwhelms.

Learn to keep yourself obscure and

make people demand your return.

Extend the law of scarcity to your own skills. Make what you are

offering the world rare and hard to find, and you instandy increase its

value.

There always comes a moment when those in power overstay

their welcome. We have grown tired of them, lost respect for them;

we see them as no different from the rest of mankind, which is to say

that we see them as rather worse, since we inevitably compare their

current status in our eyes to their former one. There is an art to

knowing when to retire. If it is done right, you regain the respect you

had lost, and retain a part of your power.

The greatest ruler of the sixteenth century was Charles V. King of

Spain, Hapsburg emperor, he governed an empire tiiat at one point

included much of Europe and the New World. Yet at the height of his

power, in 1557, he retired to die monastery of Yuste. All of Europe

was captivated by his sudden wididrawal; people who had hated and

feared him suddenly called him great, and he came to be seen as a

saint. In more recent times, die film actress Greta Garbo was never

more admired dian when she retired, in 1941. For some her absence

came too soonshe was in her mid-thirtiesbut she wisely preferred to

leave on her own terms, rather dian waiting for her audience to grow

tired of her.

Make yourself too available and die aura of power you have

created around yourself will wear away. Turn the game around:

Make yourself less accessible and you increase die value of your

presence.

Authority. Use absence to create respect and esteem. If presence

diminishes fame, absence augments it. A man who when absent is

regarded as a lion becomes when present something common and

ridiculous. Talents lose their luster if we become too familiar with

them, for the outer shell of the mind is more readily seen than its rich

inner kernel. Even the outstanding genius makes use of retirement

so that men may honor him and so that the yearning aroused by his

absence may cause him to be esteemed. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-

1658)

REVERSAL

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 is attained,

absence is dangerousinstead of fanning the flames, it will extinguish

them.

In love and seduction, similarly, absence is only effective once

you have surrounded the other with your image, been seen by him or

her everywhere. Everything must remind your lover of your

presence, so that when you do choose to be away, the lover will

always be thinking of you, will always be seeing you in his or her

mind's eye.

Remember: In the beginning, make yourself not scarce but

omnipresent. Only what is seen, appreciated, and loved will be

missed in its absence.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 17

KEEP OTHERS IN

SUSPENDED TERROR:

CULTIVATE AN AIR OF

UNPREDICTABILITY

JUDGMENT

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.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In May of 1972, chess champion Boris Spassky anxiously

awaited his rival Bobby Fischer in Reykjavik, Iceland. The two men

had been scheduled to meet for the World Championship of Chess,

but Fischer had not arrived on time and the match was on hold.

Fischer had problems with the size of the prize money, problems

with the way the money was to be distributed, problems with the

logistics of holding the match in Iceland. He might back out at any

moment.

Spassky tried to be patient. His Russian bosses felt that Fischer

was humiliating him and told him to walk away, but Spassky wanted

this match. He knew he could destroy Fischer, and nothing was

going to spoil die greatest victory of his career. “So it seems that all

our work may come to nothing,” Spassky told a comrade. “But what

can we do It is Bobby's move. If he comes, we play. If he does not

come; we do not play. A man who is willing to commit suicide has the

initiative.”

Fischer finally arrived in Reykjavik, but the problems, and the

threat of cancellation, continued. He disliked the hall where the

match was to be fought, he criticized the lighting, he complained

about die noise of the cameras, he even hated the chairs in which he

and Spassky were to sit. Now the Soviet Union took the initiative and

threatened to withdraw their man.

The bluff apparendy worked: After all die weeks of waiting, the

endless and infuriating negotiations, Fischer agreed to play.

Everyone was relieved, no one more than Spassky. But on die day of

the official introductions, Fischer arrived very late, and on the day

when the “Match of the Century” was to begin, he was late again.

This time, however, the consequences would be dire: If he showed

up too late he would forfeit die first game. What was going on Was

he playing some sort of mind game Or was Bobby Fischer perhaps

afraid of Boris Spassky It seemed to the assembled grand masters,

and to Spassky, that this young kid from Brooklyn had a terrible case

of the jitters. At 5:09 Fischer showed up, exactly one minute before

die match was to be canceled.

The first game of a chess tournament is critical, since it sets the

tone for die months to come. It is often a slow and quiet struggle,

with the two players preparing themselves for the war and trying to

read each other's strategies. This game was different Fischer made

a terrible move early on, perhaps the worst of his career, and when

Spassky had him on die ropes, he seemed to give up. Yet Spassky

knew diat Fischer never gave up. Even when facing checkmate, he

fought to the bitter end, wearing the opponent down. This time,

diough, he seemed resigned. Then suddenly he broke out a bold

move that put the room in a buzz. The move shocked Spassky, but

he recovered and managed to win the game. But no one could figure

out what Fischer was up to. Had he lost deliberately Or was he

rattled Unset-ded Even, as some thought, insane

After his defeat in the first game, Fischer complained all the more

loudly about die room, die cameras, and everything else. He also

failed to

show up on time for die second game. This time the organizers

had had enough: He was given a forfeit. Now he was down two

games to none, a position from which no one had ever come back to

win a chess championship. Fischer was clearly unhinged. Yet in the

third game, as all those who witnessed it remember, he had a

ferocious look in his eye, a look that clearly bothered Spassky. And

despite the hole he had dug for himself, he seemed supremely

confident. He did make what appeared to be another blunder, as he

had in the first gamebut his cocky air made Spassky smell a trap. Yet

despite die Russian's suspicions, he could not figure out the trap,

and before he knew it Fischer had checkmated him. In fact Fischer's

unorthodox tactics had completely unnerved his opponent. At the

end of the game, Fischer leaped up and rushed out, yelling to his

confederates as he smashed a fist into his palm, “I'm crushing him

with brute force!”

In the next games Fischer pulled moves that no one had seen

from him before, moves that were not his style. Now Spassky started

to make blunders. After losing the sixth game, he started to cry. One

grand master said, “After diis, Spassky's got to ask himself if it's safe

to go back to Russia.” After the eighth game Spassky decided he

knew what was happening: Bobby Fischer was hypnotizing him. He

decided not to look Fischer in the eye; he lost anyway.

After the fourteenth game he called a staff conference and

announced, “An attempt is being made to control my mind.” He

wondered whether the orange juice they drank at the chess table

could have been drugged. Maybe chemicals were being blown into

die air. Finally Spassky went public, accusing the Fischer team of

putting something in the chairs that was altering Spassky's mind.

The KGB went on alert: Boris Spassky was embarrassing the Soviet

Union!

The chairs were taken apart and X-rayed. A chemist found

nothing unusual in them. The only things anyone found anywhere, in

fact, were two dead flies in a lighting fixture. Spassky began to

complain of hallucinations. He tried to keep playing, but his mind was

unraveling. He could not go on. On September 2, he resigned.

Although still relatively young, he never recovered from diis defeat.

Interpretation

In previous games between Fischer and Spassky, Fischer had

not fared well. Spassky had an uncanny ability to read his

opponent's strategy and use it against him. Adaptable and patient,

he would build attacks that would defeat not in seven moves but in

seventy. He defeated Fischer every time mey played because he

saw much further ahead, and because he was a brilliant psychologist

who never lost control. One master said, “He doesn't just look for the

best move. He looks for the move that will disturb the man he is

playing.”

Fischer, however, finally understood that this was one of the keys

to Spassky's success: He played on your predictability, defeated you

at your own game. Everything Fischer did for die championship

match was an at-

tempt to put the initiative on his side and to keep Spassky off-

balance. Clearly the endless waiting had an effect on Spassky's

psyche. Most powerful of all, tfiough, were Fischer's deliberate

blunders and his appearance of having no clear strategy. In fact, he

was doing everything he could to scramble his old patterns, even if it

meant losing die first match and forfeiting the second.

Spassky was known for his sangfroid and levelheadedness, but

for the first time in his life he could not figure out his opponent. He

slowly melted down, until at die end he was die one who seemed

insane.

Chess contains die 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 diem to try to foresee your moves. Allowing

him notiiing 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, diey are kept in a state of terrorwaiting, uncertain,

confused.

Life at court is a serious, melancholy game of chess, which

requires us to draw

up our pieces and batteries, form a plan, pursue it, parry that of

our

adversary. Sometimes, however, it is better to take risks

and play the most capricious, unpredictable move.

Jean de La Bruyere, 1645-1696

KEYS TO POWER

Nodiing is more terrifying dian the sudden and unpredictable.

That is why

we are so frightened by earthquakes and tornadoes: We do not

know when

they will strike. After one has occurred, we wait in terror for the

next one.

To a lesser degree, diis is the effect tiiat unpredictable human

behavior has

onus.

Animals behave in set patterns, which is why we are able to hunt

and kill them. Only man has the capacity to consciously alter his

behavior, to improvise and overcome the weight of routine and habit.

Yet most men do not realize diis power. They prefer die comforts of

routine, of giving in to the animal nature that has diem repeating die

same compulsive actions time and time again. They do this because

it requires no effort, and because diey mistakenly believe that if they

do not unsetde others, they will be left alone. Understand: A person

of power instills a kind of fear by deliberately unsetding those around

him to keep the initiative on his side. You sometimes need to strike

witiiout warning, to make others tremble when they least expect it. It

is a device that the powerful have used for centuries.

Filippo Maria, the last of die Visconti dukes of Milan in fifteenth-

century Italy, consciously did die opposite of what everyone

expected of him. For instance, he might suddenly shower a courtier

witii attention, and dien, once die man had come to expect a

promotion to higher office,

he allowed him a fair amount of latitude in handling his paintings,

then one day, for no apparent reason, he told die man he would no

longer give him any work to sell. As Rcasso explained, “Rosenberg

would spend the next forty-eight hours trying to figure out why. Was I

reserving things for some other dealer I'd go on working and

sleeping and Rosenberg would spend his time figuring. In two days

he'd come back, nerves jangled, anxious, saying, After all, dear

friend, you wouldn't turn me down if I offered you this much [naming

a substantially higher figure] for uiose paintings rather than the price

I've been accustomed to paying you, would you'”

Unpredictability is not only a weapon of terror: 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, die more capricious you appear,

die more respect you will garner. Only die terminally subordinate act

in a predictable manner.

Image: The Cyclone. A wind that cannot be foreseen. Sudden

shifts in the barometer, inexplicable changes in direction and

velocity. There is no defense: A cyclone sows terror and confusion.

Authority: The enlightened ruler is so mysterious that he seems

to dwell nowhere, so inexplicable that no one can seek him. He

reposes in nonaction above, and his ministers tremble below. (Han-

fei-tzu, Chinese philosopher, third century B.C.)

REVERSAL

Sometimes predictability can work in your favor: By creating a

pattern for people to be familiar and comfortable with, you can lull

them to sleep. They have prepared everything according to their

preconceived notions about you. You can use this in several ways:

First, it sets up a smoke screen, a comfortable front behind which

you can carry on deceptive actions. Second, it allows you on rare

occasions to do something completely against the pattern, unsettling

your opponent so deeply he will fall to the ground wimout being

pushed.

In 1974 Muhammad Ali and George Foreman were scheduled to

fight for the world heavyweight boxing championship. Everyone

knew what would happen: Big George Foreman would try to land a

knockout punch while Ali would dance around him, wearing him out.

That was Ali's way of fighting, his pattern, and he had not changed it

in more than ten years. But in this case it seemed to give Foreman

the advantage: He had a devastating punch, and if he waited, sooner

or later Ali would have to come to him. Ali, the master strategist, had

other plans: In press conferences 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. That plan would

be suicide on Ali's part; he was playing the comedian, as usual.

Then, before the fight, Ali's trainer loosened the ropes around the

ring, something a trainer would do if his boxer were intending to slug

it out. But no one believed this ploy; it had to be a setup.

To everyone's amazement, Ali did exacdy 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 trapthe trap he had been told to expect.

A warning: Unpredictability can work against you sometimes,

especially if you are in a subordinate position. There are times when

it is better to let people feel comfortable and settled around you than

to disturb them. Too much unpredictability will be seen as a sign of

indecisiveness, or even of some more serious psychic problem.

Patterns are powerful, and you can terrify people by disrupting them.

Such power should only be used judiciously.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 18

DO NOT BUILD FORTRESSES

TO PROTECT YOURSELF

ISOLATION IS DANGEROUS

JUDGMENT

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 fromit cuts you off

from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy

target. Better to circulate among people, find allies, mingle. You are

shielded from your enemies by the crowd.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

Ch'in Shih Huang Ti, the first emperor of China (221-210 B.C.),

was the mightiest man of his day. His empire was vaster and more

powerful than that of Alexander the Great. He had conquered all of

the kingdoms surrounding his own kingdom of Ch'in and unified

them into one massive realm called China. But in the last years of

his life, few, if anyone, saw him.

The emperor lived in the most magnificent palace built to that

date, in the capital of Hsien-yang. The palace had 270 pavilions; all

of these were connected by secret underground passageways,

allowing the emperor to move through the palace without anyone

seeing him. He slept in a different room every night, and anyone who

inadvertendy laid eyes on him was instandy beheaded. Only a

handful of men knew his whereabouts, and if they revealed it to

anyone, they, too, were put to deadi.

The first emperor had grown so terrified of human contact that

when he had to leave die palace he traveled incognito, disguising

himself carefully. On one such trip through the provinces, he

suddenly died. His body was borne back to the capital in the

emperor's carriage, with a cart packed with salted fish trailing behind

it to cover up die smell of the rotting corpseno one was to know of

his death. He died alone, far from his wives, his family, his friends,

and his courtiers, accompanied only by a minister and a handful of

eunuchs.

Interpretation

Shih Huang Ti started off as the king of Ch'in, a fearless warrior

of unbridled ambition. Writers of die time described him as a man

with “a waspish nose, eyes like slits, the voice of a jackal, and the

heart of a tiger or wolf.” He could be merciful sometimes, but more

often he “swallowed men up without a scruple.” It was through

trickery and violence that he conquered the provinces surrounding

his own and created China, forging a single nation and culture out of

many. He broke up the feudal system, and to keep an eye on die

many members of the royal families that were scattered across the

realm's various kingdoms, he moved 120,000 of them to the capital,

where he housed the most important courtiers in the vast palace of

Hsien-yang. He consolidated the many walls on the borders and built

them into me Great Wall of China. He standardized die country's

laws, its written language, even die size of its cartwheels.

As part of this process of unification, however, the first emperor

outlawed the writings and teachings of Confucius, the philosopher

whose ideas on the moral life had already become virtually a religion

in Chinese culture. On Shih Huang Ti's order, tiiousands of books

relating to Confucius were burned, and 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

mat “Ch'in has been victorious for four generations, yet has lived in

constant terror and apprehension of destruction.”

As die emperor withdrew deeper and deeper into the palace to

protect

INK MASOI K or TIIK Ul:i) l)K V] II

The “Red Death ” had long devastated the country. No pestilence

had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its

sealthe redness and horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and

sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with

dissolution.... And the whole seizure, progress, and termination of

the disease, were the incidents of half an hour.

But the Prince Pros-pero was happy and dauntless and saga-

clous. When his dominions were half-depopulated, he summoned to

his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among

the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the

deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an

extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own

eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This

wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought

furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved

to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses

of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply

provisioned. With such

precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion. The

external world could take care of itself. In the meantime it was folly to

grieve, or to think. The prince had provided all the appliances of

pleasure. There were buffoons, there were improvisator!, there were

ballet-dancers, there were musicians, there was Beauty, there was

wine. All these and security were within. Without was the “Red

Death.” It was toward the close of the fifth or sixth month of his

seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that

the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends at a masked

ball of the most unusual magnificence. It was a voluptuous scene,

that masquerade.... ... And the revel went whirlingly on, until at

length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon the clock....

And thus too, it happened, perhaps, that before the last echoes of

the last chime had utterly sunk into silence, there were many

individuals in the crowd who had found leisure to become aware of

the presence of a masked figure which had arrested the attention of

no single individual before.... The figure was tall and gaunt, and

shrouded from head to foot in the habiliments of the grave. The

mask which concealed the visage

himself, he slowly lost control of the realm. Eunuchs and

ministers enacted political policies without his approval or even his

knowledge; they also plotted against him. By the end, he was

emperor in name only, and was so isolated that barely anyone knew

he had died. He had probably been poisoned by the same scheming

ministers who encouraged his isolation.

That is what isolation brings: Retreat into a fortress and you lose

contact with the sources of your power. You lose your ear for what is

happening around you, as well as a sense of proportion. Instead of

being safer, you cut yourself off from the kind of knowledge on which

your life depends. Never enclose yourself so far from the streets that

you cannot hear what is happening around you, including the plots

against you.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

Louis XIV had the palace of Versailles built for him and his court

in the 1660s, and it was like no other royal palace in the world. As in

a beehive, everything revolved around the royal person. He lived

surrounded by the nobility, who were allotted apartments nestied

around his, their closeness to him dependent on their rank. The

king's bedroom occupied the literal center of the palace and was the

focus of everyone's attention. Every morning the king was greeted in

this room by a ritual known as the lever.

At eight A.M., the king's first valet, who slept at the foot of the

royal bed, would awaken His Majesty. Then pages would open the

door and admit those who had a function in the lever. The order of

their entry was precise: First came the king's illegitimate sons and

his grandchildren, then the princes and princesses of the blood, and

then his physician and surgeon. There followed the grand officers of

the wardrobe, the king's official reader, and those in charge of

entertaining the king. Next would arrive various government officials,

in ascending order of rank. Last but not least came those attending

the lever by special invitation. By the end of the ceremony, the room

would be packed with well over a hundred royal attendants and

visitors.

The day was organized so that all the palace's energy was

directed at and passed through the king. Louis was constantly

attended by courtiers and officials, all asking for his advice and

judgment. To all their questions he usually replied, “I shall see.”

As Saint-Simon noted, “If he turned to someone, asked him a

question, made an insignificant remark, the eyes of all present were

turned on this person. It was a distinction that was talked of and

increased prestige.” There was no possibility of privacy in the palace,

not even for the king every room communicated with another, and

every hallway led to larger rooms where groups of nobles gathered

constantly. Everyone's actions were interdependent, and nothing and

no one passed unnoticed: “The king not only saw to it mat all the

high nobility was present at his court,” wrote Saint-Simon, "he

demanded the same of the minor nobility. At his lever and coucher,

at his meals, in his gardens of Versailles, he always looked

about him, noticing everything. He was offended if the most

distinguished nobles did not live permanendy at court, and those

who showed themselves never or hardly ever, incurred his full

displeasure. If one of these desired something, the king would say

proudly: 'I do not know him,' and the judgment was irrevocable."

Interpretation

Louis XIV came to power at the end of a terrible civil war, the

Fronde. A principal instigator of the war had been the nobility, which

deeply resented me growing power of the throne and yearned for the

days of feudalism, when the lords ruled their own fiefdoms and the

king had little authority over them. The nobles had lost the civil war,

but they remained a fractious, resentful lot.

The construction of Versailles, then, was far more than the

decadent whim of a luxury-loving king. It served a crucial function:

The king could keep an eye and an ear on everyone and everything

around him. The once proud nobility was reduced to squabbling over

the right to help the king put on his robes in the morning. There was

no possibility here of privacyno possibility of isolation. Louis XIV very

early grasped the truth that for a king to isolate himself is gravely

dangerous. In his absence, conspiracies will spring up like

mushrooms after rain, animosities will crystallize into factions, and

rebellion will break out before he has the time to react. To combat

this, sociability and openness must not only be encouraged, they

must be formally organized and channeled.

These conditions at Versailles lasted for Louis's entire reign,

some fifty years of relative peace and tranquillity. Through it all, not a

pin dropped without Louis hearing it.

Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favorable to virtue.

. . .

Remember that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious,

probably superstitious, and possibly mad.

Dr. Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784

KEYS TO POWER

Machiavelli makes the argument that in a stricdy military sense a

fortress is invariably a mistake. It becomes a symbol of power's

isolation, and is an easy target for its builders' enemies. Designed to

defend you, fortresses actually cut you off from help and cut into

your flexibility. They may appear impregnable, but once you retire to

one, everyone knows where you are; and a siege does not have to

succeed to turn your fortress into a prison. With their small and

confined spaces, fortresses are also extremely vulnerable to the

plague and contagious diseases. In a strategic sense, the isolation of

a fortress provides no protection, and actually creates more

problems than it solves.

was made so nearly to resemble the counte-nanee of a stiffened

corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting

the cheat. And yet all this might have been endured, if not approved,

by the mad revellers around. But the mummer had gone so far as to

assume the type of the Red Death. His vesture was dabbled in blood

and his broad brow, with all the features of the face, was sprinkled

with the scarlet horror.... .. .A throng of the revellers at once threw

themselves into the black apartment, and, seizing the mummer,

whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the

ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave

cerements and corpse-like mask, which they handled with so violent

a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form. And now was

acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a

thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-

bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture

of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last

of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and

Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

the masque of the red death, Edgar Allan Poe. 1809-1849

Because humans are social creatures by nature, power depends

on social interaction and circulation. To make yourself powerful you

must place yourself at the center of things, as Louis XIV did at

Versailles. All activity should revolve around you, and you should be

aware of everything happening on the street, and of anyone who

might be hatching plots against you. The danger for most people

comes when they feel threatened. In such times they tend to retreat

and close ranks, to find security in a kind of fortress. In doing so,

however, they come to rely for information on a smaller and smaller

circle, and lose perspective on events around them. They lose

maneuverability and become easy targets, and their isolation makes

them paranoid. As in warfare and most games of strategy, isolation

often precedes defeat and death.

In moments of uncertainty and danger, you need to fight this

desire to turn inward. Instead, make yourself more accessible, seek

out old allies and make new ones, force yourself into more and more

different circles. This has been the trick of powerful people for

centuries.

The Roman statesman Cicero was born into the lower nobility,

and had little chance of power unless he managed to make a place

for himself among the aristocrats who controlled the city. He

succeeded brilliantly, identifying everyone with influence and figuring

out how they were connected to one another. He mingled

everywhere, knew everyone, and had such a vast network of

connections that an enemy here could easily be counterbalanced by

an ally there.

The French statesman Talleyrand played the game the same

way. Although he came from one of the oldest aristocratic families in

France, he made a point of always staying in touch with what was

happening in the streets of Paris, allowing him to foresee trends and

troubles. He even got a certain pleasure out of mingling with shady

criminal types, who supplied him with valuable information. Every

time there was a crisis, a transition of powerthe end of the Directory,

the fall of Napoleon, the abdication of Louis XVIIIhe was able to

survive and even thrive, because he never closed himself up in a

small circle but always forged connections with the new order.

This law pertains to kings and queens, and to those of the

highest power: The moment you lose contact with your people,

seeking security in isolation, rebellion is brewing. Never imagine

yourself so elevated that you can afford to cut yourself off from even

the lowest echelons. By retreating to a fortress, you make yourself

an easy target for your plotting subjects, who view your isolation as

an insult and a reason for rebellion.

Since humans are such social creatures, it follows that the social

arts that make us pleasant to be around can be practiced only by

constant exposure and circulation. The more you are in contact with

others, the more graceful and at ease you become. Isolation, on the

other hand, engenders an awkwardness in your gestures, and leads

to further isolation, as people start avoiding you.

In 1545 Duke Cosimo I de' Medici decided that to ensure the

immor-

tality of his name he would commission frescoes for the main

chapel of the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. He had many great

painters to choose from, and in the end he picked Jacopo da

Pontormo. Getting on in years, Pontormo wanted to make these

frescoes his chef d'oeuvre and legacy. His first decision was to close

the chapel off with walls, partitions, and blinds. He wanted no one to

witness the creation of his masterpiece, or to steal his ideas. He

would outdo Michelangelo himself. When some young men broke

into the chapel out of curiosity, Jacopo sealed it off even further.

Pontormo filled the chapel's ceiling with biblical scenesthe

Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah's ark, on and on. At the top of the

middle wall he painted Christ in his majesty, raising the dead on

Judgment Day. The artist worked on the chapel for eleven years,

rarely leaving it, since he had developed a phobia for human contact

and was afraid his ideas would be stolen.

Pontormo died before completing the frescoes, and none of diem

has survived. But the great Renaissance writer Vasari, a friend of

Pontormo's who saw the frescoes shortly after the artist's death, left

a description of what they looked like. There was a total lack of

proportion. Scenes bumped against scenes, figures in one story

being juxtaposed witfi those in another, in maddening numbers.

Pontormo had become obsessed with detail but had lost any sense

of the overall composition. Vasari left off his description of die

frescoes by writing diat if he continued, “I think I would go mad and

become entangled in this painting, just as I believe mat in the eleven

years of time Jacopo spent on it, he entangled himself and anyone

else who saw it.” Instead of crowning Pontormo's career, the work

became his undoing.

These frescoes were visual equivalents of die effects of isolation

on die human mind: a loss of proportion, an obsession with detail

combined with an inability to see die larger picture, a kind of

extravagant ugliness that no longer communicates. Clearly, isolation

is as deadly for the creative arts as for die social arts. Shakespeare

is die most famous writer in history because, as a dramatist for die

popular stage, he opened himself up to die masses, making his work

accessible to people no matter what Uieir education and taste.

Artists who hole themselves up in their fortress lose a sense of

proportion, tiieir work communicating only to dieir small circle. Such

art remains cornered and powerless.

Finally, since power is a human creation, it is inevitably increased

by contact with other people. Instead of falling into the fortress

mentality, view die world in die following manner: It is like a vast

Versailles, with every room communicating with anotiier. You need to

be permeable, able to float in and out of different circles and mix witfi

different types. That kind of mobility and social contact will protect

you from plotters, who will be unable to keep secrets from you, and

from your enemies, who will be unable to isolate you from your allies.

Always on the move, you mix and mingle in die rooms of die palace,

never sitting or settling in one place. No hunter can fix his aim on

such a swift-moving creature.

Image: The Fortress. High up on the hill, the citadel becomes a

symbol of all that is hateful in power and authority. The citizens of the

town betray you to the first enemy that comes. Cut off from

communication and intelligence, the citadel falls with ease.

Authority: A good and wise prince, desirous of maintaining that

character, and to avoid giving the opportunity to his sons to become

oppressive, will never build fortresses, so that they may place their

reliance upon the good will of meir subjects, and not upon the

strength of citadels. (Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527)

REVERSAL

It is hardly ever right and propitious to choose isolation. Without

keeping an ear on what is happening in the streets, you will be

unable to protect yourself. About the only thing that constant human

contact cannot facilitate is thought. The weight of society's pressure

to conform, and die lack of distance from other people, can make it

impossible to think clearly about what is going on around you. As a

temporary recourse, men, isolation can help you to gain perspective.

Many a serious thinker has been produced in prisons, where we

have nothing to do but think. Machiavelli could write The Prince only

once he found himself in exile and isolated on a farm far from the

political intrigues of Florence.

The danger is, however, that mis kind of isolation will sire all

kinds of strange and perverted ideas. You may gain perspective on

the larger picture, but you lose a sense of your own smallness and

limitations. Also, the more isolated you are, the harder it is to break

out of your isolation when you choose toit sinks you deep into its

quicksand without your noticing. If you need time to think, then,

choose isolation only as a last resort, and only in small doses. Be

careful to keep your way back into society open.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 19

KNOW WHO YOU'RE

DEALING WITH

DO NOT OFFEND THE

WRONG PERSON

JUDGMENT

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,

thennever offend or deceive the wrong person.

When you meet a

swordsman, draw your

sword: Do not recite

poetry to one who is

not a poet.

From a Ch'an

Buddhist classic,

quoted in

thunder in the sky,

translated by

Thomas Cleary, 1993

OPPONENTS, SUCKERS, AND VICTIMS: Preliminary Typology

In your rise to power you will come across many breeds of opponent,

sucker, and victim. The highest form of the art of power is the ability

to distinguish the wolves from die lambs, the foxes from die hares,

the hawks from die vultures. If you make diis distinction well, you will

succeed widi-out needing to coerce anyone too much. But if you deal

blindly with whomever crosses your padi, you will have a life of

constant sorrow, if you even live tiiat long. Being able to recognize

types of people, and to act accordingly, is critical. The following are

die five most dangerous and difficult types of mark in the jungle, as

identified by artistscon and otherwiseof the past.

II IK HK\ K\CK OK

koi'k nv. \

[Lope de] Aguirre's character is amply illustrated in an anecdote

from the. chronicle of Garcilaso de la Vega, who related that in 1548

Aguirre was a member of a platoon of soldiers escorting Indian

slaves from the mines at Potosl [Bolivia] to a royal treasury depot.

The Indians were illegally burdened with great quantities of silver,

and a local official arrested Aguirre, sentencing him to receive two

hundred lashes in lieu of a fine for oppressing the Indians. "The

soldier Aguirre, having received a notification of the sentence,

besought the alcalde that, instead of flogging him, he would put him

to death, for that he was a gentleman by birth.... All this had no effect

on the alcalde, who ordered the executioner to bring a beast, and

execute the sentence. The executioner came to the

The Arrogant and Proud Man. Although he may initially disguise

it, tiiis 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 an oversensitive

and overactive pride, flee. Whatever you are hoping for from him

isn't worth it.

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 tiiat 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.

Mr. Suspicion. Anotiier variant on the breeds above, this is a

future Joe Stalin. He sees what he wants to seeusually the worstin

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 constandy deceived.

Play on his suspicious nature to get him to turn against odier people.

But if you do become die target of his suspicions, watch out.

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 coldblooded 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.

The Plain, Unassuming, and Often Unintelligent Man. Ah, your

ears prick up when you find such a tempting victim. But this man is a

lot harder

to deceive than you imagine. Falling for a ruse often takes

intelligence and imaginationa sense of die possible rewards. The

blunt man will not take die bait because he does not recognize it. He

is diat unaware. The danger widi this man is not mat 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 a marka joke, a story. If his reaction is utterly literal, this is

die type you are dealing with. Continue at your own risk.

TRANSGRESSIONS OF THE LAW

Transgression I

In the early part of the thirteenth century, Muhammad, the shah of

Khwarezm, managed after many wars to forge a huge empire,

extending west to present-day Turkey and south to Afghanistan. The

empire's center was the great Asian capital of Samarkand. The shah

had a powerful, well-trained army, and could mobilize 200,000

warriors within days.

In 1219 Muhammad received an embassy from a new tribal

leader to the east, Genghis Khan. The embassy included all sorts of

gifts to the great Muhammad, representing the finest goods from

Khan's small but growing Mongol empire. Genghis Khan wanted to

reopen die Silk Route to Europe, and offered to share it with

Muhammad, while promising peace between the two empires.

Muhammad did not know this upstart from the east, who, it

seemed to him, was extremely arrogant to try to talk as an equal to

one so clearly his superior. He ignored Khan's offer. Khan tried

again: This time he sent a caravan of a hundred camels filled with

the rarest articles he had plundered from China. Before the caravan

reached Muhammad, however, Inalchik, die governor of a region

bordering on Samarkand, seized it for himself, and executed its

leaders.

Genghis Khan was sure diat this was a mistakethat Inalchik had

acted without Muhammad's approval. He sent yet another mission to

Muhammad, reiterating his offer and asking that the governor be

punished. This time Muhammad himself had one of the

ambassadors beheaded, and sent the other two back with shaved

headsa horrifying insult in the Mongol code of honor. Khan sent a

message to die shah: “You have chosen war. What will happen will

happen, and what it is to be we know not; only God knows.”

Mobilizing his forces, in 1220 he attacked Inalchik's province, where

he seized the capital, captured the governor, and ordered him

executed by having molten silver poured into his eyes and ears.

Over the next year, Khan led a series of guerrilla-like campaigns

against die shah's much larger army. His metiiod was totally novel for

the timehis soldiers could move very fast on horseback, and had

mastered the art of firing widi bow and arrow while mounted. The

speed and flexibility of his forces allowed him to deceive Muhammad

as to his intentions and die directions of his movements. Eventually

he managed first to sur-

prison, and put Aguirre on the beast.... The beast was driven on,

and he received the lashes. ..." When freed, Aguirre announced his

intention of killing the official who had sentenced him, the alcalde

Esquivel. Esquivel's term of office expired and he fled to Lima, three

hundred twenty leagues away, but within fifteen days Aguirre had

tracked him there. The frightened judge journeyed to Quito, a trip of

four hundred leagues, and in twenty days Aguirre arrived.

“When Esquivel heard of his presence,” according to Garcilaso,

“he made another journey of five hundred leagues to Cuzco; but in a

few days Aguirre also arrived, having travelled on foot and without

shoes, saying that a whipped man has no business to ride a horse,

or to go where he would be seen by others. In this way, Aguirre

followed his judge for three years, and four months.” Wearying of the

pursuit, Esquivel remained at Cuzco, a city so sternly governed that

he felt he would be safe from Aguirre. He took a house near the

cathedral and never ventured outdoors without a sword and a

dagger. "However, on a certain Monday, at noon, Aguirre entered his

house, and having walked all over it, and having traversed a corridor,

a saloon, a chamber, and an inner

chamber where the

judge kept his books,

he at last found him

asleep over one of his

books, and slabbed him

to death. The murderer

then went out, but

when he came to the

door of the house, he

found that he had

forgotten his hat, and

had the temerity to

return and fetch it, and

then walked down

the street."

the golden dream:

seekers of el dorado,

Walker Chapman,

A troublesome Crow seated herself on the back of a Sheep. The

Sheep, much against his will, carried her backward and forward for a

long time, and at last said, “If you had treated a dog in this way, you

would have had your deserts from his sharp teeth.” To this the Crow

replied, "I despise the weak, and yield to the strong. I know whom I

may bully, and whom I must flatter; and thus I hope to prolong my life

to a good old age.

FABLES,

Aesop, sixth century b.c.

round Samarkand, then to seize it. Muhammad fled, and a year

later died, his vast empire broken and destroyed. Genghis Khan was

sole master of Samarkand, the Silk Route, and most of northern

Asia. Interpretation

Never assume that die person you are dealing with is weaker or

less important than you are. Some men are slow to take offense,

which may make you misjudge the thickness of their skin, and fail to

worry about insulting them. But should you offend their honor and

their pride, tiiey will overwhelm you with a violence that seems

sudden and extreme given their slowness to anger. 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 witii a Genghis Khan.

Transgression II

In the late 1910s some of the best swindlers in America formed a

con-artist ring based in Denver, Colorado. In the winter months they

would spread across the southern states, plying their trade. In 1920

Joe Furey, a leader of the ring, was working his way through Texas,

making hundreds of thousands of dollars with classic con games. In

Fort Worth, he met a sucker named J. Frank Norfleet, a cattleman

who owned a large ranch. Norfleet fell for the con. Convinced of die

riches to come, he emptied his bank account of $45,000 and handed

it over to Furey and his confederates. A few days later they gave him

his “millions,” which turned out to be a few good dollars wrapped

around a packet of newspaper clippings.

Furey and his men had worked such cons a hundred times

before, and the sucker was usually so embarrassed by his gullibility

that he quietly learned his lesson and accepted the loss. But Norfleet

was not like otiier suckers. He went to die police, who told him there

was httle they could do. “Then I'll go after those people myself,”

Norfleet told the detectives. “I'll get them, too, if it takes die rest of

my life.” His wife took over the ranch as Norfleet scoured the country,

looking for others who had been fleeced in the same game. One

such sucker came forward, and the two men identified one of the con

artists in San Francisco, and managed to get him locked up. The

man committed suicide rather tiian face a long term in prison.

Norfleet kept going. He tracked down another of the con artists in

Montana, roped him like a calf, and dragged him through die muddy

streets to the town jail. He traveled not only across the country but to

England, Canada, and Mexico in search of Joe Furey, and also of

Furey's right-hand man, W. B. Spencer. Finding Spencer in Montreal,

Norfleet chased him through the streets. Spencer escaped but the

rancher stayed on his trail and caught up with him in Salt Lake City.

Preferring the mercy of the law to Norfleet's wrath, Spencer turned

himself in.

Norfleet found Furey in Jacksonville, Florida, and personally

hauled him off to face justice in Texas. But he wouldn't stop there: He

continued on to Denver, determined to break up the entire ring.

Spending not only

large sums of money but another year of his life in the pursuit, he

managed to put all of the con ring's leaders behind bars. Even some

he didn't catch had grown so terrified of him that they too turned

themselves in.

After five years of hunting, Norfleet had single-handedly

destroyed the country's largest confederation of con artists. The

effort bankrupted him and ruined his marriage, but he died a satisfied

man. Interpretation

Most men accept the humiliation of being conned with a sense of

resignation. They learn their lesson, recognizing that there is no such

thing as a free lunch, and that they have usually been brought down

by their own greed for easy money. Some, however, refuse to take

their medicine. Instead of reflecting on their own gullibility and

avarice, they see themselves as totally innocent victims.

Men like this may seem to be crusaders for justice and honesty,

but they are actually immoderately insecure. Being fooled, being

conned, has activated their self-doubt, and they are desperate to

repair the damage. Were the mortgage on Norfleet's ranch, the

collapse of his marriage, and the years of borrowing money and

living in cheap hotels worth his revenge over his embarrassment at

being fleeced To the Norfleets of the world, overcoming their

embarrassment is worth any price.

All people have insecurities, and often the best way to deceive a

sucker is to play upon his insecurities. But in the realm of power,

everything is a question of degree, and the person who is decidedly

more insecure than the average mortal presents great dangers. Be

warned: If you practice deception or trickery of any sort, study your

mark well. Some people's insecurity and ego fragility cannot tolerate

the slightest offense. To see if you are dealing with such a type, test

them firstmake, 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.

Transgression III

In the fifth century B.C., Ch'ung-erh, the prince of Ch'in (in

present-day China), had been forced into exile. He lived

modesdyeven, sometimes, in povertywaiting for the time when he

could return home and resume his princely life. Once he was

passing through the state of Cheng, where the ruler, not knowing

who he was, treated him rudely. The ruler's minister, Shu Chan, saw

this and said, “This man is a worthy prince. May Your Highness treat

him with great courtesy and thereby place him under an obligation!”

But the ruler, able to see only the prince's lowly station, ignored this

advice and insulted the prince again. Shu Chan again warned his

master, saying, “If Your Highness cannot treat Ch'ung-erh with

courtesy, you should put him to death, to avoid calamity in the

future.” The ruler only scoffed.

Years later, the prince was finally able to return home, his

circumstances gready changed. He did not forget who had been kind

to him, and

who had been insolent, during his years of poverty. Least of all

did he forget his treatment at the hands of the ruler of Cheng. At his

first opportunity he assembled a vast army and marched on Cheng,

taking eight cities, destroying the kingdom, and sending the ruler into

an exile of his own. Interpretation

You can never be sure who you are dealing with. A man who is of

littie importance and means today can be a person of power

tomorrow. We forget a lot in our lives, but we rarely forget an insult.

How was me ruler of Cheng to know that Prince Ch'ung-erh was

an ambitious, calculating, cunning type, a serpent with a long

memory There was really no way for him to know, you may saybut

since mere was no way, it would have been better not to tempt the

fates by finding out. There is notfiing to be gained by insulting a

person unnecessarily. Swallow the impulse to offend, even if the

other person seems weak. The satisfaction is meager compared to

the danger mat someday he or she will be in a position to hurt you.

Transgression IV

The year of 1920 had been a particularly bad one for American

art dealers. Big buyersdie robber-baron generation of die previous

centurywere getting to an age where they were dying off like flies,

and no new millionaires had emerged to take dieir place. Things

were so bad diat a number of the major dealers decided to pool their

resources, an unheard-of event, since art dealers usually get along

like cats and dogs.

Joseph Duveen, art dealer to the richest tycoons of America, was

suffering more man the others mat year, so he decided to go along

with this alliance. The group now consisted of the five biggest

dealers in the country. Looking around for a new client, they decided

mat their last best hope was Henry Ford, then the wealthiest man in

America. Ford had yet to venture into the art market, and he was

such a big target that it made sense for them to work togedier.

The dealers decided to assemble a list, “The 100 Greatest

Paintings in me World” (all of which they happened to have in stock),

and to offer the lot of them to Ford. With one purchase he could

make himself the world's greatest collector. The consortium worked

for weeks to produce a magnificent object: a three-volume set of

books containing beautiful reproductions of the paintings, as well as

scholarly texts accompanying each picture. Next they made a

personal visit to Ford at his home in Dearborn, Michigan. There mey

were surprised by the simplicity of his house: Mr. Ford was obviously

an extremely unaffected man.

Ford received them in his study. Looking through the book, he

expressed astonishment and delight. The excited dealers began

imagining the millions of dollars mat would shortly flow into their

coffers. Finally, however, Ford looked up from die book and said,

“Gendemen, beautiful books like tiiese, with beautiful colored

pictures like these, must cost an awful lot!” “But Mr. Ford!” exclaimed

Duveen, "we don't expect you to buy these

books. We got tiiem up especially for you, to show you the

pictures. These books are a present to you.“ Ford seemed puzzled.

”Gendemen,“ he said, ”it is extremely nice of you, but I really don't

see how I can accept a beautiful, expensive present like mis from

strangers.“ Duveen explained to Ford that the reproductions in the

books showed paintings mey had hoped to sell to him. Ford finally

understood. ”But gendemen,“ he exclaimed, ”what would I want widi

die original pictures when the ones right here in these books are so

beautiful" Interpretation

Joseph Duveen prided himself on studying his victims and clients

in advance, figuring out dieir weaknesses and die peculiarities of

dieir tastes before he ever met diem. He was driven by desperation

to drop this tactic just once, in his assault on Henry Ford. It took him

mondis to recover from his misjudgment, both mentally and

monetarily. Ford was the unassuming plain-man type who just isn't

worth the botiier. He was the incarnation of those literal-minded folk

who do not possess enough imagination to be deceived. From then

on, Duveen saved his energies for the Mellons and Morgans of the

worldmen crafty enough for him to entrap in his snares.

KEYS TO POWER

The ability to measure people and to know who you're dealing

with is die most important skill of all in gadiering and conserving

power. Without it you are blind: Not only will you offend the wrong

people, you will choose the wrong types to work on, and will think

you are flattering people when you are actually insulting them.

Before embarking on any move, take the measure of your mark or

potential opponent. Otiierwise you will waste time and make

mistakes. Study people's weaknesses, the chinks in dieir armor, dieir

areas of bodi pride and insecurity. Know tiieir ins and outs before you

even decide whetiier or not to deal widi diem.

Two final words of caution: First, 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. Notiiing can

substitute for gathering concrete knowledge. Study and spy on your

opponent for however long it takes; diis will pay off in die long run.

Second, never trust appearances. Anyone widi a serpent's heart

can use a show of kindness to cloak it; a person who is blustery on

die outside is often really a coward. Learn to see through

appearances and their contradictions. Never trust die version that

people give of themselvesit is utterly unreliable.

Image: The Hunter. He does not lay the same trap for a wolf as

for a fox. He does not set bait where no one will take it. He knows his

prey thoroughly, its habits and hideaways, and hunts accordingly.

Autiiority: Be convinced, that there are no persons so insignificant

and inconsiderable, but may, some time or other, have it in their

power to be of use to you; which they certainly will not, if you have

once shown them contempt. Wrongs are often forgiven, but

contempt never is. Our pride remembers it for ever. (Lord

Chesterfield, 1694-1773)

REVERSAL

What possible good can come from ignorance about other people

Learn to tell die lions from the lambs or pay the price. Obey this law

to its fullest extent; it has no reversaldo not bother looking for one.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 20

DO NOT COMMIT TO ANYONE

JUDGMENT

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.

PART I: 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.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

When Queen Elizabeth I ascended the throne of England, in

1558, there was much to-do about her finding a husband. The issue

was debated in Parliament, and was a main topic of conversation

among Englishmen of all classes; they often disagreed as to whom

she should marry, but everyone thought she should marry as soon

as possible, for a queen must have a king, and must bear heirs for

the kingdom. The debates raged on for years. Meanwhile the most

handsome and eligible bachelors in the realmSir Robert Dudley, the

Earl of Essex, Sir Walter Raleighvied for Elizabeth's hand. She did

not discourage them, but she seemed to be in no hurry, and her hints

as to which man might be her favorite often contradicted each other.

In 1566, Parliament sent a delegation to Elizabeth urging her to

marry before she was too old to bear children. She did not argue, nor

did she discourage the delegation, but she remained a virgin

nonetheless.

The delicate game that Elizabeth played with her suitors slowly

made her the subject of innumerable sexual fantasies and the object

of cultish worship. The court physician, Simon Forman, used his

diary to describe his dreams of deflowering her. Painters represented

her as Diana and other goddesses. The poet Edmund Spenser a^d

others wrote eulogies to the Virgin Queen. She was referred to as "th

Throughout Europe, kings and princes knew that a marriage with

Elizabeth would seal an alliance between England and any nation.

The king of Spain wooed her, as did the prince of Sweden and the

archduke of Austria. She politely refused them all.

The great diplomatic issue of Elizabeth's day was posed by the

revolt of the Flemish and Dutch Lowlands, which were then

possessions of Spain. Should England break its alliance with Spain

and choose France as its main ally on the Continent, thereby

encouraging Flemish and Dutch independence By 1570 it had come

to seem that an alliance with France would be England's wisest

course. France had two eligible men of noble blood, the dukes of

Anjou and Alencon, brothers of the French king. Would either of

them marry Elizabeth Both had advantages, and Elizabeth kept the

hopes of both alive. The issue simmered for years. The duke of

Anjou made sev-

eral visits to England, kissed Elizabeth in public, even called her

by pet names; she appeared to requite his affections. Meanwhile, as

she flirted with the two brothers, a treaty was signed that sealed

peace between France and England. By 1582 Elizabeth felt she

could break off the courtship. In the case of the duke of Anjou in

particular, she did so witii great relief: For the sake of diplomacy she

had allowed herself to be courted by a man whose presence she

could not stand and whom she found physically repulsive. Once

peace between France and England was secure, she dropped the

unctuous duke as politely as she could.

By this time Elizabeth was too old to bear children. She was

accordingly able to live the rest of her life as she desired, and she

died die Virgin Queen. She left no direct heir, but ruled through a

period of incomparable peace and cultural fertility.

Interpretation

Elizabeth had good reason not to marry: She had witnessed die

mistakes of Mary Queen of Scots, her cousin. Resisting the idea of

being ruled by a woman, the Scots expected Mary to marry and

marry wisely. To wed a foreigner would be unpopular; to favor any

particular noble house would open up terrible rivalries. In the end

Mary chose Lord Darnley, a Catholic. In doing so she incurred the

wrath of Scodand's Protestants, and endless turmoil ensued.

Elizabeth knew that marriage can often lead to a female ruler's

undoing: By marrying and committing to an alliance widi one party or

nation, the queen becomes embroiled in conflicts that are not of her

choosing, conflicts which may eventually overwhelm her or lead her

into a futile war. Also, die husband becomes the de facto ruler, and

often tries to do away with his wife the queen, as Darnley tried to get

rid of Mary. Elizabeth learned the lesson well. She had two goals as

a ruler: to a oid marriage and to avoid war. She managed to combine

these goals by umgling die possibility of marriage in order to forge

alliances. The moment she committed to any single suitor would

have been the moment she lost her power. She had to emanate

mystery and desirability, never discouraging anyone's hopes but

never yielding.

Through this lifelong game of flirting and withdrawing, Elizabedi

dominated die country and every man who sought to conquer her. As

the center of attention, she was in control. Keeping her

independence above all, Elizabeth protected her power and made

herself an object of worship.

I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married.

Queen Elizabeth I, 1533-1603

KEYS TO POWER

Since power depends greatly on appearances, you must learn

the tricks that will enhance your image. Refusing to commit to a

person or group is one of these. 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. This aura of power only grows with

time: 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. Desire is like a virus: If we see that someone is desired

by other people, we tend to find this person desirable too.

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. Encourage the attention, stimulate

their interest, but do not commit at any cost. Accept the gifts and

favors if you so desire, but be careful to maintain your inner

aloofness. You cannot inadvertentiy allow yourself to feel obligated

to anyone.

Remember, though: The goal is not to put people off, or to make

it seem that you are incapable of commitment. Like the Virgin

Queen, you need to stir the pot, excite interest, lure people with the

possibility of having you. You have to bend to their attention

occasionally, thenbut never too far.

The Greek soldier and statesman Alcibiades played this game to

perfection. It was Alcibiades who inspired and led the massive

Athenian armada that invaded Sicily in 414 B.C. When envious

Athenians back home tried to bring him down by accusing him of

trumped-up charges, he defected to the enemy, the Spartans,

instead of facing a trial back home. Then, after the Athenians were

defeated at Syracuse, he left Sparta for Persia, even though the

power of Sparta was now on the rise. Now, however, both die

Athenians and the Spartans courted Alcibiades because of his

influence with tile Persians; and the Per tans showered him with

honors because of his power over the Athenians and the Spartans.

He made promises to every side but committed to none, and in die

end he held all the cards.

If you aspire to power and influence, try the Alcibiades tactic: Put

yourself in the middle between competing powers. Lure one side

with the promise of your help; the other side, always wanting to

outdo its enemy, will pursue you as well. As each side vies for your

attention, you will immediately seem a person of great influence and

desirability. More power will accrue to you than if you had rashly

committed to one side. To perfect this tactic you need to keep

yourself inwardly free from emotional entanglements, and to view all

those around you as pawns in your rise to the top. You cannot let

yourself become the lackey for any cause.

In die midst of die 1968 U.S. presidential election, Henry

Kissinger made a phone call to Richard Nixon's team. Kissinger had

been allied with Nelson Rockefeller, who had unsuccessfully sought

the Republican nomination. Now Kissinger offered to supply the

Nixon camp with valuable inside information on the negotiations for

peace in Vietnam that were then going on in Paris. He had a man on

die negotiating team keeping him informed of die latest

developments. The Nixon team gladly accepted his offer.

At the same time, however, Kissinger also approached the

Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, and offered his aid. The

Humphrey people

asked him for inside information on Nixon and he supplied it.

“Look,” Kissinger told Humphrey's people, “I've hated Nixon for

years.” In fact he had no interest in either side. What he really

wanted was what he got: the promise of a high-level cabinet post

from both Nixon and Humphrey. Whichever man won the election,

Kissinger's career was secure.

The winner, of course, was Nixon, and Kissinger duly went on to

his cabinet post. Even so, he was careful never to appear too much

of a Nixon man. When Nixon was reelected in 1972, men much more

loyal to him than Kissinger were fired. Kissinger was also the only

Nixon high official to survive Watergate and serve under the next

president, Gerald Ford. By maintaining a little distance he thrived in

turbulent times.

Those who use this strategy often notice a strange phenomenon:

People who rush to the support of others tend to gain little respect in

the process, for their help is so easily obtained, while those who

stand back find themselves besieged with supplicants. Their

aloofness is powerful, and everyone wants them on their side.

When Picasso, after early years of poverty, had become the most

successful artist in the world, he did not commit himself to this dealer

or that dealer, although they now besieged him from all sides with

attractive offers and grand promises. Instead, he appeared to have

no interest in their services; this technique drove them wild, and as

they fought over him his prices only rose. When Henry Kissinger, as

U.S. secretary of state, wanted to reach detente with the Soviet

Union, he made no concessions or conciliatory gestures, but courted

China instead. This infuriated and also scared the Sovietsthey were

already politica'ly isolated and feared further isolation if the United

States and China came together. Kissinger's move pushed them to

the negotiating table. The tactic has a parallel in seduction: When

you want to seduce a woman, Stendhal advises, court her sister first.

Stay aloof and people will come to you. It will become a

challenge for them to win your affections. As long as you imitate the

wise Virgin Queen and stimulate their hopes, you will remain a

magnet of attention and desire.

Image:

The Virgin Queen.

The center of attention,

desire, and worship. Never

succumbing to one suitor or the

other, the Virgin Queen keeps

them all revolving around

her like planets, unable to

leave her orbit but never

getting any closer

to her.

Authority: Do not commit yourself to anybody or anything, for that

is to be a slave, a slave to every man. . . . Above all, keep yourself

free of commitments and obligations they are the device of another

to get you into his power. . . . (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

PART II: 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.

The kites and the crows made an agreement among themselves

that thev should go halves in everything obtained in the forest. One

day thev saw a fox that had been wounded by hunters lying helpless

under a tree, and gathered round it. The crows said, “ We will take

the upper half of the fox. ” “ Then we will take the lower half,”said the

kites. The fox laughed at this, and said, “I always thought the kites

were superior in creation to the crows; as such they must get the

upper half of my body, of which my head, with the brain and other

delicate things in it, forms a portion.” “Oh, yes, that is right, ” said the

kites, “we will have that part of the fox. ” “ Not at all, ” said the crows,

“we must have it, as already agreed. ” Then a war arose between the

rival parties, and a great many fell on both sides, and the remaining

few escaped with difficulty. The fox continued there for some days,

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In the late fifteenth century, the strongest city-states in

ItalyVenice, Florence, Rome, and Milanfound themselves constandy

squabbling. Hovering above their struggles were the nations of

France and Spain, ready to grab whatever they could from the

weakened Italian powers. And trapped in the middle was the small

state of Mantua, ruled by the young Duke Gianfrancesco Gonzaga.

Mantua was strategically located in northern Italy, and it seemed only

a matter of time before one of the powers swallowed it up and it

ceased to exist as an independent kingdom.

Gonzaga was a fierce warrior and a skilled commander of troops,

and he became a kind of mercenary general for whatever side paid

him best. In the year 1490, he married Isabella d'Este, daughter of

the ruler of another small Italian duchy, Ferrara. Since he now spent

most of his time away fron Mantua, it fell to Isabella to rule in his

stead.

Isabella's first true test as ruler came in 1498, when King Louis

XII of France was preparing armies to attack Milan. In their usual

perfidious fashion, the Italian states immediately looked for ways to

profit from Milan's difficulties. Pope Alexander VI promised not to

intervene, thereby giving the French carte blanche. The Venetians

signaled mat they would not help Milan, eitiierand in exchange for

tiiis, they hoped the French would give them Mantua. The ruler of

Milan, Lodovico Sforza, suddenly found himself alone and

abandoned. He turned to Isabella d'Este, one of his closest friends

(also rumored to be his lover), and begged her to persuade Duke

Gonzaga to come to his aid. Isabella tried, but her husband balked,

for he saw Sforza's cause as hopeless. And so, in 1499, Louis

swooped down on Milan and took it widi ease.

Isabella now faced a dilemma: If she stayed loyal to Lodovico,

the French would now move against her. But if, instead, she allied

herself with France, she would make enemies elsewhere in Italy,

compromising Mantua once Louis eventually withdrew. And if she

looked to Venice or Rome for help, they would simply swallow up

Mantua under the cloak of coming to her aid. Yet she had to do

something. The mighty king of France was breathing down her neck:

She decided to befriend him, as she had befriended Lodovico Sforza

before himwith alluring gifts, witty, intelligent letters, and the

possibility of her company, for Isabella was famous as a woman of

incomparable beauty and charm.

In 1500 Louis invited Isabella to a great party in Milan to

celebrate his victory. Leonardo da Vinci built an enormous

mechanical lion for the affair: When die lion opened its mouth, it

spewed fresh lilies, the symbols of French royalty. At die party

Isabella wore one of her celebrated dresses (she had by far the

largest wardrobe of any of the Italian princesses), and just as she

had hoped, she charmed and captivated Louis, who ignored all the

other ladies vying for his attention. She soon became his constant

companion, and in exchange for her friendship he pledged to protect

Mantua's independence from Venice.

As one danger receded, however, another, more worrying one

arose, this time from die soudi, in the form of Cesare Borgia. Starting

in 1500, Borgia had marched steadily northward, gobbling up all the

small kingdoms in his path in the name of his father, Pope

Alexander. Isabella understood Cesare perfecdy: He could be neidier

trusted nor in any way offended. He had to be cajoled and kept at

arm's lengdi. Isabella began by sending him giftsfalcons, prize dogs,

perfumes, and dozens of masks, which she knew he always wore

when he walked die streets of Rome. She sent messengers widi

flattering greetings (aldiough these messengers also acted as her

spies). At one point Cesare asked if he could house some troops in

Mantua; Isabella managed to dissuade him politely, knowing full well

diat once die troops were quartered in die city, they would never

leave.

Even while Isabella was charming Cesare, she convinced

everyone around her to take care never to utter a harsh word about

him, since he had spies everywhere and would use the slightest

pretext for invasion. When Isabella had a child, she asked Cesare to

be the godfather. She even dangled in front of him the possibility of a

marriage between her family and his. Somehow it all worked, for

although elsewhere he seized everything in his path, he spared

Mantua.

In 1503 Cesare's fadier, Alexander, died, and a few years later

the new pope, Julius II, went to war to drive die French troops from

Italy. When the ruler of FerraraAlfonso, Isabella's brothersided widi

the French, Julius decided to attack and humble him. Once again

Isabella found herself in the middle: die pope on one side, the

French and her brother on the ouier. She dared not ally herself with

either, but to offend either would be equally disastrous. Again she

played die double game at which she had become so expert. On die

one hand she got her husband Gonzaga to fight for the pope,

knowing he would not fight very hard. On the other she let French

troops pass through Mantua to come to Ferrara's aid. While she

publicly complained that the French had “invaded” her territory, she

privately supplied diem with valuable information. To make die

invasion plausible to Julius, she even had die French pretend to

plunder Mantua. It worked once again: The pope left Mantua alone.

In 1513, after a lengdiy siege, Julius defeated Ferrara, and die

French troops withdrew. Worn out by the effort, the pope died a few

montiis later. Widi his death, the nightmarish cycle of batties and

petty squabbles began to repeat itself.

leisurely feeding on the dead kites and crows, and then left the

place hale and hearty, observing, “The weak benefit by the quarrels

of the mighty.”

INDIAN FABLES

Men of great abilities are slow to act, for it is easier to avoid

occasions for committing yourself than to come well out of a

commitment. Such occasions test your judgment; it is safer to avoid

them than to emerge victorious from them. One obligation leads to a

greater one, and you come very near to the brink of disaster.

Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658

THE EAGLE AND THE SOW

An eagle built a nest on a tree, and hatched out some eaglets.

And a wild sow brought her litter under the tree. The eagle used to

fly off after her prey, and bring it back to her young. And the sow

rooted around the tree and hunted in the woods, and when night

came she would bring her young something to eat. And the eagle

and the sow lived in neighborly fashion. And a grimalkin laid her

plans to destroy the eaglets and the little sucking pigs. She went to

the eagle, and said: “Eagle, you had better not fly very far away.

Beware of the sow; she is planning an evil design. She is going to

undermine the roots of the tree. You see she is rooting all the time.”

Then the grimalkin went to the sow and said: “Sow, you have not a

good neighbor. Last evening I heard the eagle saying to her eaglets:

'My dear little eaglets, I am going to treat you to a nice little pig. Just

as soon as the sow is gone, I will bring you a little young sucking

pig.'” From that time the eagle ceased to fly out after prey, and the

sow did not go any more into the forest. The eaglets and the young

pigs perished of starvation, and grimalkin feasted on them.

FABLES,

Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910

A great deal changed in Italy during Isabella's reign: Popes came

and went, Cesare Borgia rose and then fell, Venice lost its empire,

Milan was invaded, Florence fell into decline, and Rome was sacked

by die Hapsburg Emperor Charles V. Through all this, tiny Mantua

not only survived but thrived, its court die envy of Italy. Its weakh and

sovereignty would remain intact for a century after Isabella's death,

in 1539.

Interpretation

Isabella d'Este understood Italy's political situation with amazing

clarity: Once you took the side of any of the forces in the field, you

were doomed. The powerful would take you over, the weak would

wear you down. Any new alliance would lead to a new enemy, and

as this cycle stirred up more conflict, odier forces would be dragged

in, until you could no longer extricate yourself. Eventually you would

collapse from exhaustion.

Isabella steered her kingdom on the only course that would bring

her safely through. She would not allow herself to lose her head

through loyalty to a duke or a king. Nor would she try to stop the

conflict that raged around herthat would only drag her into it. And in

any case the conflict was to her advantage. If the various parties

were fighting to the death, and exhausting tiiemselves in the

process, they were in no position to gobble up Mantua. The source

of Isabella's power was her clever ability to seem interested in the

affairs and interests of each side, while actually committing to no one

but herself and her kingdom.

Once you step into a fight that is not of your own choosing, you

lose all initiative. The combatants' interests become your interests;

you become tiieir tool. Learn to control yourself, to restrain your

natural tendency to take sides and join the fight. Be friendly and

charming to each of the combatants, then step back as tiiey collide.

With every battle tiiey grow weaker, while you grow stronger widi

every battle you avoid.

When the snipe and the mussel struggle, the fisherman gets the

benefit.

Ancient Chinese saying

KEYS TO POWER

To succeed in the game of power, you have to master your

emotions. But even if you succeed in gaining such self-control, you

can never control die temperamental dispositions of those around

you. And tiiis presents a great danger. Most people operate in a

whirlpool of emotions, constantiy reacting, churning up squabbles

and conflicts. Your self-control and autonomy will only bother and

infuriate them. They will try to draw you into die whirlpool, begging

you to take sides in tiieir endless battles, or to make peace for them.

If you succumb to their emotional entreaties, little by little you will find

your mind and time occupied by their problems. Do not allow

whatever compassion and pity you possess to suck you in. You can

never win in tiiis game; die conflicts can only multiply.

On the other hand, you cannot completely stand aside, for diat

would

cause needless offense. To play the game properly, you must

seem interested in other people's problems, even sometimes appear

to take their side. But while you make outward gestures of support,

you must maintain your inner energy and sanity by keeping your

emotions disengaged. No matter how hard people try to pull you in,

never let your interest in tiieir affairs and petty squabbles go beyond

the surface. Give them gifts, listen wim a sympathetic look, even

occasionally play the charmerbut inwardly keep both the friendly

kings and the perfidious Borgias at arm's length. By refusing to

commit and thus maintaining your autonomy you retain the initiative:

Your moves stay matters of your own choosing, not defensive

reactions to the push-and-pull of those around you.

Slowness to pick up your weapons can be a weapon itself,

especially if you let other people exhaust themselves fighting, then

take advantage of their exhaustion. In ancient China, the kingdom of

Chin once invaded the kingdom of Hsing. Huan, the ruler of a nearby

province, thought he should rush to Hsing's defense, but his adviser

counseled him to wait: “Hsing is not yet going to ruin,” he said, “and

Chin is not yet exhausted. If Chin is not exhausted, [we] cannot

become very influential. Moreover, the merit of supporting a state in

danger is not as great as the virtue of reviving a ruined one.” The

adviser's argument won the day, and as he had predicted, Huan later

had the glory bodi of rescuing Hsing from the brink of destruction

and then of conquering an exhausted Chin. He stayed out of the

fighting until the forces engaged in it had worn each other down, at

which point it was safe for him to intervene.

That is what holding back from the fray allows you: time to

position yourself to take advantage of the situation once one side

starts to lose. You can also take the game a step further, by

promising your support to both sides in a conflict while maneuvering

so that the one to come out ahead in the struggle is you. This was

what Castruccio Castracani, ruler of the Italian town of Lucca in the

fourteenth century, did when he had designs on the town of Pistoia.

A siege would have been expensive, costing both lives and money,

but Castruccio knew that Pistoia contained two rival factions, the

Blacks and the Whites, which hated one another. He negotiated with

die Blacks, promising to help mem against the Whites; then, without

their knowledge, he promised the Whites he would help them against

the Blacks. And Castruccio kept his promiseshe sent an army to a

Black-controlled gate to the city, which the sentries of course

welcomed in. Meanwhile another of his armies entered through a

White-controlled gate. The two armies united in the middle, occupied

the town, killed the leaders of both factions, ended die internal war,

and took Pistoia for Castruccio.

Preserving your autonomy gives you options when people come

to blowsyou can play the mediator, broker the peace, while really

securing your own interests. You can pledge support to one side and

the other may have to court you with a higher bid. Or, like

Castruccio, you can appear to take bodi sides, then play the

antagonists against each odier.

Oftentimes when a conflict breaks out, you are tempted to side

with the stronger party, or the one that offers you apparent

advantages in an al-

I'HE PRICE OF ENVY

While a poor woman stood in the marketplace selling cheeses, a

cat came along and carried off a cheese. A dog saw the pilferer and

tried to take the cheese away from him. The cat stood up to the dog.

So they pitched into each other. The dog barked and snapped; the

cat spat and scratched, but they could bring the battle to no decision.

“Let's go to the fox and have him referee the matter,” the cat finally

suggested.

“Agreed,” said the dog. So they went to the fox. The fox listened

to their arguments with a judicious air.

“Foolish animals,” he chided them, “why carry on like that If both

of you are willing, I'll divide the cheese in two and you'll both be

satisfied.”

“Agreed,” said the cat and the dog. So the fox took out his knife

and cut the cheese in two, but, instead of cutting it lengthwise, he cut

it in the width. “My half is smaller!” protested the dog. The fox looked

judiciously through his spectacles at the dog's share.

“You're right, quite right!” he decided. So he went and bit off a

piece of the cat's share.

“That will make it even!” he said. When the cat saw what the fox

did she began to yowl:

"Just look! My part's

smaller now!"

The fox again put on

his spectacles and

looked judiciously at

the cat's share.

“Right you are!” said

the fox. "Just a

moment, and I'll make

it right."

And he went and bit

off a piece from the

dog's cheese

This went on so long,

with the fox nibbling

first at the dog's and

then at the cat's share,

that he finally ate up

the whole cheese before

their eyes.

A TREASURY OH JEWISH I'OLKLORt,

Nathan Ausubel, ed., 1948

liance. This is risky business. First, it is often difficult to foresee

which side will prevail in the long run. But even if you guess right and

ally yourself with the stronger party, you may find yourself swallowed

up and lost, or conveniendy forgotten, when they become victors.

Side with the weaker, on the other hand, and you are doomed. But

play a waiting game and you cannot lose.

In France's July Revolution of 1830, after three days of riots, the

statesman Talleyrand, now elderly, sat by his Paris window, listening

to the pealing bells that signaled the riots were over. Turning to an

assistant, he said, “Ah, the bells! We're winning.” “Who's 'we,' mon

prince” the assistant asked. Gesturing for the man to keep quiet,

Talleyrand replied, “Not a word! I'll tell you who we are tomorrow.” He

well knew that only fools rush into a situationthat by committing too

quickly you lose your maneuverability. People also respect you less:

Perhaps tomorrow, they think, you will commit to another, different

cause, since you gave yourself so easily to this one. Good fortune is

a fickle god and will often pass from one side to the other.

Commitment to one side deprives you of the advantage of time and

the luxury of waiting. Let others fall in love with this group or that; for

your part don't rush in, don't lose your head.

Finally, there are occasions when it is wisest to drop all pretence

of appearing supportive and instead to trumpet your independence

and self-reliance. The aristocratic pose of independence is

particularly important for those who need to gain respect. George

Washington recognized this in his work to establish the young

American republic on firm ground. As president, Washington avoided

the temptation of making an alliance with France or England, despite

the pressure on him to do so. He wanted the country to earn the

world's respect through its independence. Although a treaty with

France might have helped in the short term, in the long run he knew

it would be more effective to establish the nation's autonomy. Europe

would have to see the United States as an equal power.

Remember: You have only so much energy and so much time.

Every moment wasted on the affairs of others subtracts from your

strength. You may be afraid that people will condemn you as

heartless, but in the end, maintaining your independence and self-

reliance will gain you more respect and place you in a position of

power from which you can choose to help others on your own

initiative.

Image: A Thicket of Shrubs. In the forest, one shrub latches on to

another, entangling its neighbor with its thorns, the thicket slowly

extending its impenetrable domain. Only what keeps its distance and

stands apart can grow and rise above the thicket.

Authority: Regard it as more courageous not to become involved

in an engagement than to win in battle, and where there is already

one interfering fool, take care that there shall not be two. (Baltasar

Gracian, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

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 sideif only for appearances' sake, to

prove you are capable of attachment.

Even men, however, the key will be to maintain your inner

independenceto 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.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 21

PLAY A SUCKER TO CATCH

A SUCKERSEEM DUMBER

THAN YOUR MARK

JUDGMENT

No one likes feeling stupider than the next person. The

trick, then, is to make your victims feel smartand not

just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of

this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior

motives.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In the winter of 1872, the U.S. financier Asbury Harpending was

visiting London when he received a cable: A diamond mine had been

discovered in the American West. The cable came from a reliable

sourceWilliam Ralston, owner of the Bank of Californiabut

Harpending nevertheless took it as a practical joke, probably inspired

by the recent discovery of huge diamond mines in South Africa.

True, when reports had first come in of gold being discovered in the

western United States, everyone had been skeptical, and those had

turned out to be true. But a diamond mine in the West! Harpending

showed the cable to his fellow financier Baron Rothschild (one of the

richest men in the world), saying it must be a joke. The baron,

however, replied, “Don't be too sure about that. America is a very

large country. It has furnished the world with many surprises already.

Perhaps it has others in store.” Harpending prompdy took the first

ship back to the States.

When Harpending reached San Francisco, tiiere was an

excitement in the air recalling the Gold Rush days of the late 1840s.

Two crusty prospectors named Philip Arnold and John Slack had

been the ones to find the diamond mine. They had not divulged its

location, in Wyoming, but had led a highly respected mining expert to

it several weeks back, taking a circular route so he could not guess

his whereabouts. Once there, the expert had watched as die miners

dug up diamonds. Back in San Francisco the expert had taken die

gems to various jewelers, one of whom had estimated tfieir worth at

$1.5 million.

Harpending and Ralston now asked Arnold and Slack to

accompany them back to New York, where the jeweler Charles

Tiffany would verify the original estimates. The prospectors

responded uneasilythey smelled a trap: How could tiiey trust diese

city slickers What if Tiffany and the financiers managed to steal die

whole mine out from under them Ralston tried to allay their fears by

giving them $100,000 and placing another $300,000 in escrow for

them. If the deal went through, they would be paid an additional

$300,000. The miners agreed.

The litde group traveled to New York, where a meeting was held

at die mansion of Samuel L. Barlow. The cream of the city's

aristocracy was in attendanceGeneral George Brinton McClellan,

commander of the Union forces in the Civil War; General Benjamin

Buder; Horace Greeley, editor of the newspaper the New York

Tribune; Harpending; Ralston; and Tiffany. Only Slack and Arnold

were missingas tourists in the city, they had decided to go sight-

seeing.

When Tiffany announced diat the gems were real and worth a

fortune, the financiers could barely control dieir excitement. They

wired Roth-schild and other tycoons to tell them about the diamond

mine and inviting them to share in the investment. At the same time,

they also told the prospectors that they wanted one more test: They

insisted tiiat a mining expert of their choosing accompany Slack and

Arnold to the site to verify its weahh. The prospectors reluctandy

agreed. In the meantime, diey said,

Now, there is nothing of which a man is prouder than of

intellectual ability, for it is this that gives him his commanding place

in the animal world. It is an exceedingly rash thing to let anyone see

that you are decidedly superior to him in this respect, and to let other

people see it too.... Hence, while rank and riches may always reckon

upon deferential treatment in society, that is something which

intellectual ability can never expect: To be ignored is the greatest

favour shown to it; and if people notice it at all, it is because they

regard it as a piece of impertinence, or else as something to which

its possessor has no legitimate right, and upon which he dares to

pride himself; and in retaliation and revenge for his conduct, people

secretly try and humiliate him in some other way; and if they wait to

do this, it is only for a fitting opportunity. A man may be as humble as

possible in his demeanour, and yet hardly ever get people to

overlook his crime in standing intellectually above them. In the

Garden of Roses, Sadi makes the remark: “You should know that

foolish people are a hundredfold more averse to meeting the wise

than the wise are indisposed for the company of the foolish.”

On the other hand, it is a real recommendation to be stupid. For

just as warmth is agreeable to the body, so it does the mind good to

feel its superiority; and a man will seek company likely to give him

this feeling, as instinctively as he will approach the fireplace or walk

in the sun if he wants to get warm. But this means that he will be

disliked on account of his superiority; and if a man is to be liked, he

must really be inferior in point of intellect.

Arthur

schopeniiauhr,

1788-1860

they had to return to San Francisco. The jewels that Tiffany had

examined they left with Harpending for safekeeping.

Several weeks later, a man named Louis Janin, the best mining

expert in the country, met the prospectors in San Francisco. Janin

was a born skeptic who was determined to make sure that the mine

was not a fraud. Accompanying Janin were Harpending, and several

other interested financiers. As with the previous expert, the

prospectors led the team through a complex series of canyons,

completely confusing them as to their whereabouts. Arriving at the

site, the financiers watched in amazement as Janin dug the area up,

leveling anthills, turning over boulders, and finding emeralds, rubies,

sapphires, and most of all diamonds. The dig lasted eight days, and

by the end, Janin was convinced: He told the investors that they now

possessed the richest field in mining history. “With a hundred men

and proper machinery,” he told them, “I would guarantee to send out

one million dollars in diamonds every thirty days.”

Returning to San Francisco a few days later, Ralston,

Harpending, and company acted fast to form a $10 million

corporation of private investors. First, however, they had to get rid of

Arnold and Slack. That meant hiding their excitementthey certainly

did not want to reveal the field's real value. So they played possum.

Who knows if Janin is right, they told the prospectors, the mine may

not be as rich as we think. This just made the prospectors angry.

Trying a different tactic, the financiers told the two men that if they

insisted on having shares in the mine, they would end up being

fleeced by the unscrupulous tycoons and investors who would run

the corporation; better, they said, to take the $700,000 already

offeredan enormous sum at the timeand put their greed aside. This

the prospectors seemed to understand, and they finally agreed to

take the money, in return signing the rights to the site over to the

financiers, and leaving maps to it.

News of the mine spread like wildfire. Prospectors fanned out

across Wyoming. Meanwhile Harpending and group began spending

the millions they had collected from their investors, buying

equipment, hiring the best men in the business, and furnishing

luxurious offices in New York and San Francisco.

A few weeks later, on their first trip back to the site, they learned

the hard trutii: Not a single diamond or ruby was to be found. It was

all a fake. They were ruined. Harpending had unwittingly lured the

richest men in the world into the biggest scam of the century.

Interpretation

Arnold and Slack pulled off their stupendous con not by using a

fake engineer or bribing Tiffany: All of the experts had been real. All

of them honestly believed in the existence of the mine and in the

value of the gems. What had fooled them all was nothing else than

Arnold and Slack themselves. The two men seemed to be such

rubes, such hayseeds, so naive, that no one for an instant had

believed them capable of an audacious scam. The prospectors had

simply observed the law of appearing more stupid than the markthe

deceiver's First Commandment.

The logistics of the con were quite simple. Months before Arnold

and Slack announced the “discovery” of the diamond mine, they

traveled to Europe, where they purchased some real gems for

around $12,000 (part of the money they had saved from their days

as gold miners). They then salted the “mine” with these gems, which

the first expert dug up and brought to San Francisco. The jewelers

who had appraised these stones, including Tiffany himself, had

gotten caught up in the fever and had grossly overestimated their

value. Then Ralston gave the prospectors $100,000 as security, and

immediately after their trip to New York they simply went to

Amsterdam, where they bought sacks of uncut gems, before

returning to San Francisco. The second time they salted the mine,

there were many more jewels to be found.

The effectiveness of the scheme, however, rested not on tricks

like these but on the fact that Arnold and Slack played their parts to

perfection. On their trip to New York, where they mingled with

millionaires and tycoons, they played up their clodhopper image,

wearing pants and coats a size or two too small and acting

incredulous at everything they saw in the big city. No one believed

that these country simpletons could possibly be conning the most

devious, unscrupulous financiers of the time. And once Harpending,

Ralston, and even Rothschild accepted the mine's existence, anyone

who doubted it was questioning the intelligence of the world's most

successful businessmen.

In the end, Harpending's reputation was ruined and he never

recovered; Rothschild learned his lesson and never fell for another

con; Slack took his money and disappeared from view, never to be

found. Arnold simply went home to Kentucky. After all, his sale of his

mining rights had been legitimate; the buyers had taken the best

advice, and if the mine had run out of diamonds, that was their

problem. Arnold used the money to greatly enlarge his farm and

open up a bank of his own.

KEYS TO POWER

The feeling that someone else is more intelligent than we are is

almost intolerable. We usually try to justify it in different ways: “He

only has book knowledge, whereas I have real knowledge.” “Her

parents paid for her to get a good education. If my parents had had

as much money, if I had been as privileged.. . .” “He's not as smart

as he thinks.” Last but not least: “She may know her narrow little field

better than I do, but beyond that she's really not smart at all. Even

Einstein was a boob outside physics.”

Given how important the idea of intelligence is to most people's

vanity, it is critical never inadvertendy to insult or impugn a person's

brain power. That is an unforgivable sin. But if you can make this iron

rule work for you, it opens up all sorts of avenues of deception.

Subliminally reassure people that they are more intelligent than you

are, or even that you are a bit of a moron, and you can run rings

around them. The feeling of intellectual superiority you give them will

disarm their suspicion-muscles.

In 1865 the Prussian councillor Otto von Bismarck wanted Austria

sign a certain treaty. The treaty was totally in the interests of

Prussia and against the interests of Austria, and Bismarck would

have to strategize to get the Austrians to agree to it. But the Austrian

negotiator, Count Blome, was an avid cardplayer. His particular

game was quinze, and he often said mat he could judge a man's

character by the way he played quinze. Bismarck knew of tiiis saying

of Blome's.

The night before the negotiations were to begin, Bismarck

innocendy engaged Blome in a game of quinze. The Prussian would

later write, “That was the very last time I ever played quinze. I played

so recklessly that everyone was astonished. I lost several diousand

talers [the currency of the time], but I succeeded in fooling [Blome],

for he believed me to be more venturesome than I am and I gave

way.” Besides appearing reckless, Bismarck also played the widess

fool, saying ridiculous tilings and bumbling about with a surplus of

nervous energy.

All this made Blome feel he had gathered valuable information.

He knew mat Bismarck was aggressivethe Prussian already had that

reputation, and the way he played had confirmed it. And aggressive

men, Blome knew, can be foolish And rash. Accordingly, when the

time came to sign the treaty, Blome thought he had the advantage. A

heedless fool like Bismarck, he thought, is incapable of cold-blooded

calculation and deception, so he only glanced at the treaty before

signing ithe failed to read the fine print. As soon as the ink was dry, a

joyous Bismarck exclaimed in his face, “Well, I could never have

believed that I should find an Austrian diplomat willing to sign that

document!”

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. 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.

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. Claudius before he became

emperor of Rome, and the prince of France who later became Louis

XIII, used this tactic when those above them suspected they might

have designs on the dirone. By playing die fool as young men, diey

were left alone. When the time came for them to strike, and to act

with vigor and decisiveness, they caught everyone off-guard.

Intelligence is the obvious quality to downplay, but why stop there

Taste and sophistication rank close to intelligence on die vanity

scale; make people feel they are more sophisticated tiian you are

and dieir guard will come down. As Arnold and Slack knew, an air of

complete naivete can work wonders. Those fancy financiers were

laughing at diem behind their

backs, but who laughed loudest in the end 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.

Image:

The Opossum. In playing

dead, the opossum plays stupid.

Many a predator has therefore left it

alone. Who could believe that such an

ugly, unintelligent, nervous little creature

could be capable of such deception

Authority: Know how to make use of stupidity: The wisest man

plays this card at times. There are occasions when the highest

wisdom consists in appearing not to knowyou must not be ignorant

but capable of playing it. It is not much good being wise among fools

and sane among lunatics. He who poses as a fool is not a fool. The

best way to be well received by all is to clothe yourself in the skin of

the dumbest of brutes. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

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 truththat you are actually much smarter than

you lookthey 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.

The art dealer Joseph Duveen was once attending a soiree at the

New York home of a tycoon to whom he had recently sold a Diirer

painting for

a high price. Among die guests was a young French art critic who

seemed extremely knowledgeable and confident. Wanting to impress

this man, the tycoon's daughter showed him the Diirer, which had not

yet been hung. The critic studied it for a time, then finally said, “You

know, I don't think this Diirer is right.” He followed the young woman

as she hurried to tell her father what he had said, and listened as the

magnate, deeply unsetded, turned to Duveen for reassurance.

Duveen just laughed. “How very amusing,” he said. “Do you realize,

young man, that at least twenty other art experts here and in Europe

have been taken in too, and have said that painting isn't genuine

And now you've made the same mistake.” His confident tone and air

of authority intimidated the Frenchman, who apologized for his

mistake.

Duveen knew that the art market was flooded with fakes, and that

many paintings had been falsely ascribed to old masters. He tried his

best to distinguish the real from the fake, but in his zeal to sell he

often overplayed a work's authenticity. What mattered to him was

that the buyer believed he had bought a Diirer, and that Duveen

himself convinced everyone of his “expertness” through his air of

irreproachable authority. Thus, it is important to be able to play the

professor when necessary and never impose such an attitude for its

own sake.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 22

USE THE SURRENDER

TACTIC: TRANSFORM

WEAKNESS INTO POWER

JUDGMENT

When you are weaker, never fight for honor's sake; choose

surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, time to

torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to

wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating

yousurrender first. By turning the other cheek you infuriate and

unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power.

A man who had climbed upon a certain fig tree, was bending the

boughs toward him and plucking the ripe fruit, which he then put into

his mouth to destroy and gnaw with his hard teeth. The chestnut,

seeing this, tossed its long branches and with tumultuous rustle

exclaimed: “Oh Fig! How much less protected by nature you are than

I. See how my sweet offspring are set In close array; first clothed in

soft wrappers over which is the hard but softly lined husk. And not

content with this much care, nature has also given us these, sharp

and close-set spines, so that the hand of man cannot hurt us.” Then

the fig tree began to laugh, and after the laughter it said: “You know

well that man is of such ingenuity that he will bereave even you of

your children. But in your case he will do it by means of rods and

stones; and when they are felled he will trample them with his feet or

hit them with stones, so that your offspring will emerge from their

armor crushed and maimed; while I am touched carefully by his

hands, and never, like you, with roughness.”

Leonardo daVinci, 1452-1519

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

The island of Melos is strategically situated in the heart of the

Mediterranean. In classical times, die city of Adiens dominated die

sea and coastal areas around Greece, but Sparta, in the

Peloponnese, had been Melos's original colonizer. During the

Peloponnesian War, dien, the Melians refused to ally diemselves

with Athens and remained loyal to Mother Sparta. In 416 B.C. the

Athenians sent an expedition against Melos. Before launching an all-

out attack, however, they dispatched a delegation to persuade die

Melians to surrender and become an ally rather than suffer

devastation and defeat.

“You know as well as we do,” the delegates said, “mat die

standard of justice depends on die equality of power to compel, and

diat in fact die strong do what diey have die power to do and the

weak accept what diey have to accept.” When the Melians

responded that this denied the notion of fair play, the Athenians said

that those in power determined what was fair and what was not. The

Melians argued diat diis audiority belonged to die gods, not to

mortals. “Our opinion of die gods and our knowledge of men,” replied

a member of the Athenian delegation, “lead us to conclude diat it is a

general and necessary law of nature to rule whatever one can.”

The Melians would not budge. Sparta, they insisted, would come

to their defense. The Athenians countered that die Spartans were a

conservative, practical people, and would not help Melos because

they had nothing to gain and a lot to lose by doing so.

Finally the Melians began to talk of honor and die principle of

resisting brute force. “Do not be led astray by a false sense of

honor,” said die Atiie-nians. “Honor often brings men to ruin when

they are faced widi an obvious danger that somehow affects their

pride. There is nothing disgraceful in giving way to the greatest city

in Hellas when she is offering you such reasonable terms.” The

debate ended. The Melians discussed die issue among diemselves,

and decided to trust in die aid of the Spartans, the will of the gods,

and the lightness of their cause. They politely declined the

Athenians' offer.

A few days later the Athenians invaded Melos. The Melians

fought nobly, even without the Spartans, who did not come to their

rescue. It took several attempts before the Adienians could surround

and besiege their main city, but the Melians finally surrendered. The

Athenians wasted no timethey put to death all die men of military age

diat they could capture, diey sold die women and children as slaves,

and diey repopulated die island widi their own colonists. Only a

handful of Melians survived.

Interpretation

The Athenians were one of the most eminently practical people in

history, and diey made die most practical argument they could with

the Melians: When you are weaker, tiiere is nothing to be gained by

fighting a useless fight. No one comes to help the weakby doing so

uiey would only put diemselves in jeopardy. The weak are alone and

must submit. Fighting

gives you nothing to gain but martyrdom, and in the process a lot

of people who do not believe in your cause will die.

Weakness is no sin, and can even become a strength if you learn

how to play it right. Had the Melians surrendered in the first place,

they would have been able to sabotage the Athenians in subtle

ways, or might have gotten what they could have out of the alliance

and then left it when the Athenians themselves were weakened, as

in fact happened several years later. Fortunes change and the

mighty are often brought down. Surrender conceals great power:

Lulling the enemy into complacency, it gives you time to recoup, time

to undermine, time for revenge. Never sacrifice that time in

exchange for honor in a battle that you cannot win.

Weak people never give way when they ought to. Cardinal de

Retz, 1613-1679

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

Sometime in the 1920s the German writer Bertolt Brecht became

a convert to the cause of Communism. From then on his plays,

essays, and poems reflected his revolutionary fervor, and he

generally tried to make his ideological statements as clear as

possible. When Hitler came to power in Germany, Brecht and his

Communist colleagues became marked men. He had many friends

in the United StatesAmericans who sympatiiized with his beliefs, as

well as fellow German intellectuals who had fled Hider. In 1941,

accordingly, Brecht emigrated to the United States, and chose to

settle in Los Angeles, where he hoped to make a living in the film

business.

Over the next few years Brecht wrote screenplays with a

pointedly an-ticapitalist slant. He had little success in Hollywood, so

in 1947, the war having ended, he decided to return to Europe. That

same year, however, the U.S. Congress's House Un-American

Activities Committee began its investigation into supposed

Communist infiltration in Hollywood. It began to gather information

on Brecht, who had so openly espoused Marxism, and on

September 19, 1947, only a month before he had planned to leave

the United States, he received a subpoena to appear before the

committee. In addition to Brecht, a number of other writers,

producers, and directors were summoned to appear as well, and this

group came to be known as the Hollywood 19.

Before going to Washington, the Hollywood 19 met to decide on

a plan of action. Their approach would be confrontational. Instead of

answering questions about their membership, or lack of it, in the

Communist Party, they would read prepared statements that would

challenge the aumority of the committee and argue that its activities

were unconstitutional. Even if this strategy meant imprisonment, it

would gain publicity for their cause.

Brecht disagreed. What good was it, he asked, to play the martyr

and gain a litde public sympathy if in the process they lost the ability

to stage their plays and sell their scripts for years to come He felt

certain they were

Voltaire was living in exile in London at a time when anti-French

sentiment was at its highest. One day walking through the streets, he

found himself surrounded by an angry crowd. “Hang him. Hang the

Frenchman, ” they yelled. Voltaire calmly addressed the mob with

the following words: “Men of England! You wish to kill me because 1

am a Frenchman. Am I not punished enough in not being born an

Englishman” The crowd cheered his thoughtful words, and escorted

him safely back to his lodgings.

the little, brown book of anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman, ed., 1985

all more intelligent than the members of the committee. Why

lower themselves to the level of tfieir opponents by arguing widi them

Why not outfox the committee by appearing to surrender to it while

subdy mocking it The Hollywood 19 listened to Brecht politely, but

decided to stick to their plan, leaving Brecht to go his own way.

The committee finally summoned Brecht on October 30. They

expected him to do what others among the Hollywood 19 who had

testified before him had done: Argue, refuse to answer questions,

challenge the committee's right to hold its hearing, even yell and hurl

insults. Much to dieir surprise, however, Brecht was the very picture

of congeniality. He wore a suit (something he rarely did), smoked a

cigar (he had heard that the committee chairman was a passionate

cigar smoker), answered their questions politely, and generally

deferred to their authority.

Unlike the other witnesses, Brecht answered the question of

whether he belonged to the Communist Party: He was not a

member, he said, which happened to be the truth. One committee

member asked him, “Is it true you have written a number of

revolutionary plays” Brecht had written many plays with overt

Communist messages, but he responded, “I have written a number

of poems and songs and plays in the fight against Hider and, of

course, diey can be considered, therefore, as revolutionary because

I, of course, was for the overthrow of that government.” This

statement went unchallenged.

Brecht's English was more than adequate, but he used an

interpreter throughout his testimony, a tactic that allowed him to play

subde games with language. When committee members found

Communist leanings in lines from English editions of his poems, he

would repeat the lines in German for the interpreter, who would then

retranslate them; and somehow they would cjome out innocuous. At

one point a committee member read one of Brecht's revolutionary

poems out loud in English, and asked him if he had written it. “No,”

he responded, “I wrote a German poem, which is very different from

this.” The audior's elusive answers baffled the committee members,

but his politeness and the way he yielded to their authority made it

impossible for them to get angry with him.

After only an hour of questioning, the committee members had

had enough. “Thank you very much,” said the chairman, “You are a

good example to the [other] witnesses.” Not only did diey free him,

diey offered to help him if he had any trouble with immigration

officials who might detain him for their own reasons. The following

day, Brecht left the United States, never to return.

Interpretation

The Hollywood 19's confrontational approach won them a lot of

sympathy, and years later they gained a kind of vindication in public

opinion. But they were also blacklisted, and lost valuable years of

profitable working time. Brecht, on the other hand, expressed his

disgust at the committee more indirectiy. It was not that he changed

his beliefs or compromised his values; instead, during his short

testimony, he kept die upper hand by ap-

pearing to yield while all the time running circles around the

committee with vague responses, outright lies that went

unchallenged because they were wrapped in enigmas, and word

games. In the end he kept die freedom to continue his revolutionary

writing (as opposed to suffering imprisonment or detainment in die

United States), even while subdy mocking die committee and its

authority with his pseudo-obedience.

Keep in mind die following: People trying to make a show of their

authority are easily deceived by die surrender tactic. Your outward

sign of submission makes diem feel important; satisfied that you

respect them, they become easier targets for a later counterattack,

or for the kind of indirect ridicule used by Brecht. Measuring your

power over time, never sacrifice long-term maneuverability for the

short-lived glories of martyrdom.

When the great lord passes, the wise peasant bows deeply and

silently farts.

Ethiopian proverb

KEYS TO POWER

What gets us into trouble in the realm of power is often our own

overreac-tion to the moves of our enemies and rivals. That

overreaction creates problems we would have avoided had we been

more reasonable. It also has an endless rebound effect, for die

enemy then overreacts as well, much as die Athenians did to die

Melians. It is always our first instinct to react, to meet aggression

with some other kind of aggression. But die next time someone

pushes you and you find yourself starting to react, try this: Do not

resist or fight back, but yield, turn die odier cheek, bend. You will find

tiiat this often neutralizes dieir behaviorthey expected, even wanted

you to react with force and so diey are caught off-guard and

confounded by your lack of resistance. By yielding, you in fact

control the situation, because your surrender is part of a larger plan

to lull them into believing they have defeated you.

This is die essence of the surrender tactic: Inwardly you stay firm,

but outwardly you bend. Deprived of a reason to get angry, your

opponents will often be bewildered instead. And diey are unlikely to

react with more violence, which would demand a reaction from you.

Instead you are allowed the time and space to plot the countermoves

that will bring them down. In die battle of die intelligent against die

brutal and die aggressive, the surrender tactic is die supreme

weapon. It does require self-control: Those who genuinely surrender

give up their freedom, and may be crushed by the humiliation of their

defeat. You have to remember that you only appear to surrender, like

the animal that plays dead to save its hide.

We have seen diat it can be better to surrender than to fight;

faced witii a more powerful opponent and a sure defeat, it is often

also better to surrender than to run away. Running away may save

you for the time being, but the aggressor will eventually catch up with

you. If you surrender instead, you have an opportunity to coil around

your enemy and strike with your fangs from close up.

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 counterblow. Had Goujian run away,

he would have lost this chance.

When foreign trade began to threaten Japanese independence in

the mid-nineteenth century, die Japanese debated how to defeat the

foreigners. One minister, Hotta Masayoshi, wrote a memorandum in

1857 that influenced Japanese policy for years to come: “I am

therefore convinced that our policy should be to conclude friendly

alliances, to send ships to foreign countries everywhere and conduct

trade, to copy the foreigners where they are at their best and so

repair our own shortcomings, to foster our national strength and

complete our armaments, and so gradually subject the foreigners to

our influence until in the end all the countries of the world know the

blessings of perfect tranquillity and our hegemony is acknowledged

throughout the globe.” This is a brilliant application of the Law: Use

surrender to gain access to your enemy. Learn his ways, insinuate

yourself with him slowly, outwardly conform to his customs, but

inwardly maintain your own culture. Eventually 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. And

had Japan resisted Western influence by force, it might well have

suffered a devastating invasion that would have permanendy altered

its culture.

Surrender can also offer a way of mocking your enemies, of

turning their power against them, as it did for Brecht. Milan

Kundera's novel The Joke, based on the author's experiences in a

penal camp in Czechoslovakia, tells the story of how the prison

guards organized a relay race, guards against prisoners. For the

guards this was a chance to show off their physical superiority. The

prisoners knew they were expected to lose, so they went out of their

way to obligemiming exaggerated exertion while barely moving,

running a few yards and collapsing, limping, jogging ever so slowly

while the guards raced ahead at full speed. Both by joining the race

and by losing it, they had obliged the guards obediently; but their

“overobedience” had mocked the event to the point of ruining it.

Overobe-diencesurrenderwas here a way to demonstrate superiority

in a reverse manner. Resistance would have engaged the prisoners

in the cycle of

violence, lowering them to the guards' level. Overobeying the

guards, however, made them ridiculous, yet they could not righdy

punish the prisoners, who had only done what they asked.

Power is always in fluxsince the game is by nature fluid, and an

arena of constant struggle, those with power almost always find

themselves eventually on the downward swing. If you find yourself

temporarily weakened, the surrender tactic is perfect for raising

yourself up againit 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 die long run you cannot win. If

you surrender, you will almost always emerge victorious.

Image: An Oak Tree. The oak that resists the wind loses its

branches one by one, and with nothing left to protect it, the trunk

finally snaps. The oak that bends lives longer, its trunk growing

wider, its roots deeper and more tenacious.

Authority: Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye

and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but

whosoever shall smite thee on titiy right cheek, turn to him the other

also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat,

let them have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go

a mile, go with him twain. (Jesus Christ, in Matthew 5:38-41)

REVERSAL

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 die, others may gain power and inspiration from your

example.

Yet martyrdom, surrender's reversal, is a messy, inexact tactic,

and is as violent as die aggression it combats. For every famous

martyr there are thousands more who have inspired neither a

religion nor a rebellion, so that if martyrdom does sometimes grant a

certain power, it does so unpredictably. More important, you will not

be around to enjoy that power, such as it is. And there is finally

something selfish and arrogant about martyrs, as if they felt their

followers were less important than their own glory.

When power deserts you, it is best to ignore this Law's reversal.

Leave martyrdom alone: The pendulum will swing back your way

eventually, and you should stay alive to see it.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 23

CONCENTRATE YOUR FORCES

JUDGMENT

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

anotherintensity 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.

Tin: cookk and

THE IJOHSK

A goose who was

plucking grass upon a

common thought

herself affronted by a

horse who fed near her;

and, in hissing accents,

thus addressed him: "I

am certainly a more

noble and perfect

animal than you, for

the whole range and

extent of your faculties

is confined to one

element. I can walk

upon the ground as

well as you; I have,

besides, wings, with

which I can raise

myself in the air; and

when I please, I can

sport on ponds and

lakes, and refr¡.sh

myself in the iol

waters. I enjoy the

different powers of a

bird, a fish, and a

quadruped."

The horse, snorting

somewhat disdainfully,

replied: "It is true you

inhabit three elements,

but you make no very

distinguished figure in

any one of them. You

fly, indeed; but your

flight is so heavy and

clumsy, that you have

no right to put yourself

on a level with the lark

or the swallow. You can

swim on the surface of

the waters, but you

cannot live in them as

fishes do; you cannot

find your food in that

element, nor glide

smoothly along the

bottom of the waves.

And when you walk, or

rather waddle, upon

the ground, with your

broad feet and your

long neck stretched out,

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

In China in the early sixth century B.C., the kingdom of Wu began

a war with the neighboring northern provinces of the Middle

Kingdom. Wu was a growing power, but it lacked the great history

and civilization of the Middle Kingdom, for centuries die center of

Chinese culture. By defeating the Middle Kingdom, the king of Wu

would instantly raise his status.

The war began with great fanfare and several victories, but it

soon bogged down. A victory on one front would leave the Wu

armies vulnerable on another. The king's chief minister and adviser,

Wu Tzu-hsiu, warned him that the barbarous state of Yueh, to the

south, was beginning to notice the kingdom of Wu's problems and

had designs to invade. The king only laughed at such worriesone

more big victory and the great Middle Kingdom would be his.

In the year 490, Wu Tzu-hsiu sent his son away to safety in the

kingdom of Ch'i. In doing so he sent the king a signal that he

disapproved of the war, and that he believed the king's selfish

ambition was leading Wu to ruin. The king, sensing betrayal, lashed

out at his minister, accusing him of a lack of loyalty and, in a fit of

anger, ordered him to kill himself. Wu Tzu-hsiu obeyed his king, but

before he plunged the knife into his chest, he cried, “Tear out my

eyes, oh King, and fix them on the gate of Wu, so that I may see the

triumphant entry of Yueh.”

As Wu Tzu-hsiu had predicted, within a few years a Yueh army

passed beneath the gate of Wu. As the barbarians surrounded the

palace, the king remembered his minister's last wordsand felt the

dead man's disembodied eyes watching his disgrace. Unable to bear

his shame, the king killed himself, “covering his face so that he

would not have to meet the reproachful gaze of his minister in the

next world.”

Interpretation

The story of Wu is a paradigm of all the empires that have come

to ruin by overreaching. Drunk with success and sick with ambition,

such empires expand to grotesque proportions and meet a ruin that

is total. 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.

For the Chinese, the fate of the kingdom of Wu serves as an

elemental lesson on what happens when you dissipate your forces

on several fronts, losing sight of distant dangers for the sake of

present gain. “If you are not in danger,” says Sun-tzu, “do not fight.”

It is almost a physical law: What is bloated beyond its proportions

inevitably collapses. The mind must not wander from goal to goal, or

be distracted by success from its sense of purpose and proportion.

What is concentrated, coherent, and connected to its past has

power. What is dissipated, divided, and distended rots and falls to

the ground. The bigger it bloats, the harder it falls.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

The Rothschild banking family had humble beginnings in the

Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt, Germany. The city's harsh laws made it

impossible for Jews to mingle outside the ghetto, but the Jews had

turned this into a virtueit made them self-reliant, and zealous to

preserve their culture at all costs. Mayer Amschel, the first of the

Rothschilds to accumulate wealth by lending money, in the late

eighteenth century, well understood the power that comes from this

kind of concentration and cohesion.

First, Mayer Amschel allied himself witii one family, the powerful

princes of Thurn und Taxis. Instead of spreading his services out, he

made himself these princes' primary banker. Second, he entrusted

none of his business to outsiders, using only his children and close

relatives. The more unified and tight-knit the family, the more

powerful it would become. Soon Mayer Amschel's five sons were

running the business. And when Mayer Amschel lay dying, in 1812,

he refused to name a principal heir, instead setting up all of his sons

to continue the family tradition, so that they would stay united and

would resist the dangers of diffusion and of infiltration by outsiders.

Once Mayer Amschel's sons controlled the family business, they

decided mat the key to wealth on a larger scale was to secure a

foothold in die finances of Europe as a whole, rather tiian being tied

to any one country or prince. Of the five brothers, Nathan had

already opened up shop in London. In 1813 James moved to Paris.

Amschel remained in Frankfurt, Salomon established himself in

Vienna, and Karl, the youngest son, went to Naples. With each

sphere of influence covered, they could tighten their hold on

Europe's financial markets.

This widespread network, of course, opened the Rodischilds to

the very danger of which their fadier had warned mem: diffusion,

division, dissension. They avoided mis danger, and established

themselves as the most powerful force in European finance and

politics, by once again resorting to the strategy of the

ghettoexcluding outsiders, concentrating their forces. The

Rothschilds established the fastest courier system in Europe,

allowing them to get news of events before all their competitors.

They held a virtual monopoly on information. And their internal

communications and correspondence were written in Frankfurt

Yiddish, and in a code that only the brothers could decipher. There

was no point in stealing mis information no one could understand it.

“Even the shewdest bankers cannot find their way through the

Rothschild maze,” admitted a financier who had tried to infiltrate the

clan.

In 1824 James Rothschild decided it was time to get married.

This presented a problem for the Rothschilds, since it meant

incorporating an outsider into the Rothschild clan, an outsider who

could betray its secrets. James therefore decided to marry within the

family, and chose the daughter of his brother Salomon. The brothers

were ecstaticthis was the perfect solution to their marriage problems.

James's choice now became the family policy: Two years later,

Nathan married off his daughter to

hissing at everyone who passes by, you bring upon yourself the

derision of all beholders. 1 confess that I am only formed to move

upon the ground; but how graceful is my make! How well turned my

limbs! How highly finished my whole body! How great my strength!

How astonishing my speed! I had much rather be confined to one

element, and be admired in that, than be a goose in all!"

FABLES FROM BOCCACCIO AND CHAUCER,

Dr. John Aikin, 1747-1822

Beware of dissipating your powers; strive constantly to

concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others

doing, but it is sure to repent of every ill-judged outlay.

Johann von Goethe, 1749-1832

Salomon's son. In die years to come, the five brotiiers arranged

eighteen matches among their children, sixteen of these being

contracted between first cousins.

“We are like the mechanism of a watch: Each part is essential,”

said brother Salomon. As in a watch, every part of the business

moved in concert with every other, and the inner workings were

invisible to the world, which only saw die movement of the hands.

While odier rich and powerful families suffered irrecoverable

downturns during the tumultous first half of the nineteenth century,

the tight-knit Rothschilds managed not only to preserve but to

expand dieir unprecedented wealth.

Interpretation

The Rothschilds were born in strange times. They came from a

place diat had not changed in centuries, but lived in an age that gave

birth to the Industrial Revolution, die French Revolution, and an

endless series of upheavals. The Rotiichilds kept die past alive,

resisted Uie patterns of dispersion of their era and for this are

emblematic of the law of concentration.

No one represents this better than James Rodischild, die son

who established himself in Paris. In his lifetime James witnessed die

defeat of Napoleon, die restoration of die Bourbon monarchy, the

bourgeois monarchy of Orleans, the return to a republic, and finally

the enthronement of Napoleo i III. French styles and fashions

changed at a relentiess pace during all this turmoil. Without

appearing to be a relic of the past, James steered his family as if die

ghetto lived on widiin diem. He kept alive his clan's inner cohesion

and strength. Only through such an anchoring in die past was die

family able to tiirive amidst such chaos. Concentration was die

foundation of the Rothschilds' power, wealth, and stability.

The best strategy is always to be very strong; first in general,

then

at the decisive point. . . . There is no higher and simpler law of

strategy

than that of keeping one's forces concentrated. . . . In short the

first principle is: act with the utmost concentration.

On War, Carl von Clausewitz, 1 7801831

KEYS TO POWER

The world is plagued by greater and greater divisionwitiiin

countries, political groups, families, even individuals. We are all in a

state of total distraction and diffusion, hardly able to keep our minds

in one direction before we are pulled in a thousand others. The

modern world's level of conflict is higher tiian ever, and we have

internalized it in our own lives.

The solution is a form of retreat inside ourselves, to the past, to

more concentrated forms of thought and action. As Schopenhauer

wrote, “Intellect is a magnitude of intensity, not a magnitude of

extensity.” Napoleon knew die value of concentrating your forces at

die enemy's weakest spot

it was the secret of his success on the battlefield. But his

willpower and his mind were equally modeled on this notion. Single-

mindedness of purpose, total concentration on the goal, and the use

of these qualities against people less focused, people in a state of

distractionsuch an arrow will find its mark every time and overwhelm

the enemy.

Casanova attributed his success in life to his ability to

concentrate on a single goal and push at it until it yielded. It was his

ability to give himself over completely to the women he desired that

made him so intensely seductive. For the weeks or months that one

of these women lived in his orbit, he thought of no one else. When

he was imprisoned in the treacherous “leads” of the doge's palace in

Venice, a prison from which no one had ever escaped, he

concentrated his mind on the single goal of escape, day after day. A

change of cells, which meant that months of digging had all been for

naught, did not discourage him; he persisted and eventually

escaped. “I have always believed,” he later wrote, “that when a man

gets it into his head to do something, and when he exclusively

occupies himself in that design, he must succeed, whatever the

difficulties. That man will become Grand Vizier or Pope.”

Concentrate c 1 a single goal, a single task, and beat it into

submission. In the world of power you will constantly need help from

other people, usually those more powerful than you. The fool flits

from one person to another, believing that he will survive by

spreading himself out. It is a corollary of the law of concentration,

however, that much energy is saved, and more power is attained, by

affixing yourself to a single, appropriate source of power. The

scientist Nikola Tesla ruined himself by believing that he somehow

maintained his independence by not having to serve a single master.

He even turned down J. P. Morgan, who offered him a rich contract.

In the end, Tesla's “independence” meant that he could depend on

no single patron, but was always having to toady up to a dozen of

them. Later in his life he realized his mistake.

All the great Renaissance painters and writers wresded with this

problem, none more so tilan the sixteenth-century writer Pietro

Aretino. Throughout his life Aretino suffered die indignities of having

to please diis prince and that. At last, he had had enough, and

decided to woo Charles V, promising the emperor the services of his

powerful pen. He finally discovered the freedom that came from

attachment to a single source of power. Michelangelo found this

freedom with Pope Julius II, Galileo with the Medicis. In the end, die

single patron appreciates your loyalty and becomes dependent on

your services; in the long run the master serves die slave.

Finally, 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 diose widi the tides. In die game of power, only the fool

flails about without fixing his target. You must find out who controls

die operations, who is the real director behind the scenes. As

Richelieu discovered at die beginning of his rise to die top of die

French political scene during die

early seventeenth century, it was not King Louis XIII who decided

things, it was the king's mother. And so he attached himself to her,

and catapulted through the ranks of the courtiers, all the way to the

top.

It is enough to strike oil onceyour wealth and power are assured

for a lifetime.

Image: The Arrow. You cannot hit two targets

with one arrow. If your thoughts stray, you

miss the enemy's heart. Mind and

arrow must become one. Only

with such concentration of

mental and physical

power can your arrow

hit the target and

pierce the

heart.

Authority: Prize intensity more than extensity. Perfection resides

in quality, not quantity. Extent alone never rises above mediocrity,

and it is die misfortune of men with wide general interests that while

they would like to have their finger in every pie, they have one in

none. Intensity gives eminence, and rises to the heroic in matters

sublime. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

There are dangers in concentration, and moments when

dispersion is the proper tactical move. Fighting the Nationalists for

control of China, Mao Tse-tung and the Communists fought a

protracted war on several fronts, using sabotage and ambush as

their main weapons. Dispersal is often suitable for the weaker side; it

is, in fact, a crucial principle of guerrilla warfare. When fighting a

stronger army, concentrating your forces only makes you an easier

targetbetter 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.

This is what happened to Cesare Borgia, who derived his power

from his father, Pope Alexander VI. It was the pope who gave

Cesare armies to fight with and wars to wage in his name. When he

suddenly died (perhaps from poison),

Cesare was as good as dead. He had made far too many

enemies over the years, and was now wimout his father's protection.

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

die other. Even if you concentrate on die single source of power, you

still must practice caution, and j repare 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 die arts. The Renaissance painter

Paolo Uccello was so obsessed widi perspective diat his paintings

look lifeless and contrived. Whereas Leonardo da Vinci interested

himself in everythingarchitecture, painting, warfare, sculpture,

mechanics. Diffusion was the source of his power. But such genius is

rare, and the rest of us are better off erring on the side of intensity.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 24

PLAY THE PERFECT COURTIER

JUDGMENT

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 courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise

in the court.

COURT SOCIETY

It is a fact of human nature r^t the structure of a court society

forms itself around power. In the pasVthe 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.

To be a courtier was a dangerous game. A nineteenth-century

Arab traveler to the court of Darfur, in what is now Sudan, reported

that courtiers there had to do whatever the sultan did: If he were

injured, they had to suffer me same injury; if he fell off his horse

during a hunt, they fell, too. Mimicry like tiiis appeared in courts all

over the world. More troublesome was the danger of displeasing the

rulerone wrong move spelled death or exile. The successful courtier

had to walk a tightrope, pleasing but not pleasing too much, obeying

but somehow distinguishing himself from the other courtiers, while

also never distinguishing himself so far as to make the ruler

insecure.

Great courtiers diroughout history have mastered the science of

manipulating people. They make die king feel more kingly; they

make everyone else fear dieir power. They are magicians of

appearance, knowing that most things at court are judged by how

diey seem. Great courtiers are gracious and polite; their aggression

is veiled and indirect. Masters of the word, they never say more dian

necessary, getting the most out of a compliment or hidden insult.

They are magnets of pleasurepeople want to be around them

because they know how to please, yet they neitiier fawn nor

humiliate tiiemselves. Great courtiers become the king's favorites,

enjoying the benefits of that position. They often end up more

powerful than the ruler, for mey are wizards in the accumulation of

influence.

Many today dismiss court life as a relic of the past, a historical

curiosity. They reason, according to Machiavelli, “as though heaven,

the sun, die elements, and men had changed the order of their

motions and power, and were different from what they were in

ancient times.” There may be no more Sun Kings but there are still

plenty of people who believe the sun revolves around diem. 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.

A courtier is rarely asked to fall off a horse anymore, but the laws

tiiat govern court politics are as timeless as the laws of power. There

is much to be learned, then, from great courtiers past and present.

THE LAWS OF COURT POLITICS

Avoid Ostentation. It is never prudent to prattle on about yourself

or call too much attention to your actions. The more you talk about

your deeds

the two no(;s

Barbos, the faithful yard-dog who serves his master zealously.

happens to see his old acquaintance Joujou, the curly lapdog,

seated at the window on a soft down cushion. Sidling fondly up to

her, like a child to a parent, he all but weeps with emotion; and there,

under the window, he whines, wags his tail, and bounds about.

“What sort of life do you lead now, Joujoutka, ever since the master

took you into his mansion You remember, no doubt, how we often

used to suffer hunger out in the yard. What is your present service

like” “It would be a sin in me to murmur against my good fortune, ”

answers Joujoutka. “My master cannot make enough of me. I live

amidst riches and plenty, and I eat and drink off silver. 1 frolic with

the master, and, if I get tired, I take my ease on carpels or on a soft

couch. And how do you get on” “I” replies Barbos, letting his tail

dangle like a whip, and hanging his head. "I live as J used to do. I

suffer from cold and hunger; and here, while guarding my master's

house, I have to sleep at the foot of the wall, and I get drenched in

the rain. And if 1 bark at the wrong time, I am whipped. But how did

you, Joujou, who were

so small and weak, get taken into favor, while I jump out of my

skin to no purpose What is it you do “ ” 'What is it you do ' A pretty

question to ask!“ replied Joujou, mockingly. ”I walk upon my hind

legs."

Ivan Kriloff,

1768-1844

the more suspicion you cause. You also stir up enough envy

among your peers to induce treachery and backstabbing. Be careful,

ever so careful, in trumpeting your own achievements, and always

talk less about yourself than about other people. Modesty is

generally preferable.

Practice Nonchalance. Never seem to be working too hard. Your

talent must appear to flow naturally, with an ease that makes people

take you for a genius rather than a workaholic. Even when

something demands a lot of sweat, make it look effortlesspeople

prefer to not see your blood and toil, which is another form of

ostentation. It is better for them to marvel at how gracefully you have

achieved your accomplishment than to wonder why it took so much

work.

/; is a wise thing to be polite; consequently, it is a stupid thing to

be rude. To make enemies by unnecessary and wilful incivility, is just

as insane a proceeding as to set your house on fire. For politeness is

like a counteran avowedly false coin, with which it is foolish to be

stingy. A sensible man will be generous in the use of it.... Wax, a

substance naturally hard and brittle, can be made soft by the

application of a little warmth, so that it will take any shape you

please. In the same way, by being polite and friendly, you can make

people pliable and obliging, even though they are apt to be crabbed

and malevolent. Hence politeness is to human nature what warmth is

to wax.

Arthur

Schopenhauer,

1788-1860

Be Frugal with Flattery. It may seem that your superiors cannot

get enough flattery, but too much of even a good thing loses its

value. It also stirs up suspicion among your peers. Learn to flatter

indirectlyby downplaying your own contribution, for example, to make

your master look better.

Arrange to Be Noticed. There is a paradox: You cannot display

yourself too brazenly, yet you must also get yourself noticed. In the

court of Louis XIV, whoever the king decided to look at rose instandy

in the court hierarchy. You stand no chance of rising if the ruler does

not notice you in the swamp of courtiers. This task requires much art.

It is often initially a matter of being seen, in the literal sense. Pay

attention to your physical appearance, then, and find a way to create

a distinctivea subtly distinctivestyle and image.

Alter Your Style and Language According to the Person You Are

Dealing With. The pseudo-belief in equalitydie idea that talking and

acting the same way with everyone, no matter what their rank,

makes you somehow a paragon of civilizationis a terrible mistake.

Those below you will take it as a form of condescension, which it is,

and those above you will be offended, although they may not admit

it. You must change your style and your way of speaking to suit each

person. This is not lying, it is acting, and acting is an art, not a gift

from God. Learn the art. This is also true for the great variety of

cultures found in the modern court: Never assume that your criteria

of behavior and judgment are universal. Not only is an inability to

adapt to another culture the height of barbarism, it puts you at a

disadvantage.

Never Be the Bearer of Bad News. The king kills the messenger

who brings bad news: This is a cliche but there is truth to it. You

must struggle and if necessary lie and cheat to be sure that the lot of

the bearer of bad news falls on a colleague, never on you. Bring only

good news and your approach will gladden your master.

ISO

Never Affect Friendliness and Intimacy with Your Master. He does

not want a friend for a subordinate, he wants a subordinate. Never

approach him in an easy, friendly way, or act as if you are on the

best of termsthat is his prerogative. If he chooses to deal with you on

this level, assume a wary chumminess. Otherwise err in the opposite

direction, and make the distance between you clear.

Never Criticize Those Above You Directly. This may seem

obvious, but there are often times when some sort of criticism is

necessaryto say nothing, or to give no advice, would open you to

risks of another sort. You must learn, however, to couch your advice

and criticism as indirectly and as politely as possible. Think twice, or

three times, before deciding you have made them sufficiently

circuitous. Err on the side of subtlety and gentieness.

Be Frugal in Asking Those Above You for Favors. Nothing

irritates a master more than having to reject someone's request. It

stirs up guilt and resentment. Ask for favors as rarely as possible,

and know when to stop. Rather than making yourself the supplicant,

it is always better to earn your favors, so that the ruler bestows them

willingly. Most important: Do not ask for favors on another person's

behalf, least of all a friend's.

Never Joke About Appearances or Taste. A lively wit and a

humorous disposition are essential qualities for a good courtier, and

there are times when vulgarity is appropriate and engaging. But

avoid any kind of joke about appearance or taste, two highly

sensitive areas, especially with those above you. Do not even try it

when you are away from them. You will dig your own grave.

Do Not Be the Court Cynic. Express admiration for the good work

of others. If you constandy criticize your equals or subordinates

some of that criticism will rub off on you, hovering over you like a

gray cloud wherever you go. People will groan at each new cynical

comment, and you will irritate them. By expressing modest

admiration for other people's achievements, you paradoxically call

attention to your own. The ability to express wonder and

amazement, and seem like you mean it, is a rare and dying talent,

but one still greatiy valued.

Be Self-observant The mirror is a miraculous invention; without it

you would commit great sins against beauty and decorum. You also

need a mirror for your actions. This can sometimes come from other

people telling you what they see in you, but that is not the most

trustworthy method: You must be the mirror, training your mind to try

to see yourself as others see you. Are you acting too obsequious Are

you trying too hard to please Do you seem desperate for attention,

giving the impression that you are on the decline Be observant about

yourself and you will avoid a mountain of blunders.

Master Your Emotions. As an actor in a great play, you must learn

to cry and laugh on command and when it is appropriate. You must

be able both to disguise your anger and frustration and to fake your

contentment and agreement. You must be the master of your own

face. Call it lying if you like; but if you prefer to not play the game and

to always be honest and upfront, do not complain when others call

you obnoxious and arrogant.

Fit the Spirit of the Times. A slight affectation of a past era can be

charming, as long as you choose a period at least twenty years

back; wearing the fashions of ten years ago is ludicrous, unless you

enjoy the role of court jester. Your spirit and way of thinking must

keep up with the times, even if the times offend your sensibilities. Be

too forward-thinking, however, and no one will understand you. It is

never a good idea to stand out too much in this area; you are best off

at least being able to mimic the spirit of the times.

Be a Source of Pleasure. This is critical. It is an obvious law of

human nature that we will flee what is unpleasant and distasteful,

while charm and the promise of delight will draw us like moths to a

flame. Make yourself the flame and you will rise to the top. Since life

is otherwise so full of unpleasantness and pleasure so scarce, you

will be as indispensable as food and drink. This may seem obvious,

but what is obvious is often ignored or unappreciated. There are

degrees to this: Not everyone can play the role of favorite, for not

everyone is blessed with charm and wit. But we can all control our

unpleasant qualities and obscure them when necessary.

A man who knows the court is master of his gestures, of his eyes

and

of his face; he is profound, impenetrable; he dissimulates bad

offices,

smiles at his enemies, controls his irritation, disguises his

passions,

belies his heart, speaks and acts against his feelings.

Jean de La Bruyere, 16451696

SCENES OF COURT LIFE: Exemplary Deeds and Fatal

Mistakes

Scene I

Alexander the Great, conqueror of the Mediterranean basin and

the Middle East through to India, had had the great Aristotle as his

tutor and mentor, and throughout his short life he remained devoted

to philosophy and his master's teachings. He once complained to

Aristotle that during his long campaigns he had no one with whom he

could discuss philosophical matters. Aristotle responded by

suggesting that he take Callisthenes, a former pupil of Aristotle's and

a promising philosopher in his own right, along on the next

campaign.

Aristotle had schooled Callisthenes in the skills of being a

courtier, but

the young man secretly scoffed at them. He believed in pure

philosophy, in unadorned words, in speaking the naked truth. If

Alexander loved learning so much, Callisthenes thought, he could

not object to one who spoke his mind. During one of Alexander's

major campaigns, Callisthenes spoke his mind one too many times

and Alexander had him put to death. Interpretation

In court, honesty is a fool's game. Never be so self-absorbed as

to believe that the master is interested in your criticisms of him, no

matter how accurate they are.

Scene II

Beginning in the Han Dynasty two thousand years ago, Chinese

scholars compiled a series of writings called the 21 Histories, an

official biography of each dynasty, including stories, statistics, census

figures, and war chronicles. Each history also contained a chapter

called “Unusual Events,” and here, among the listings of

earthquakes and floods, there would sometimes suddenly appear

descriptions of such bizarre manifestations as two-headed sheep,

geese flying backward, stars suddenly appearing in different parts of

the sky, and so on. The earthquakes could be historically verified,

but the monsters and weird natural phenomena were clearly inserted

on purpose, and invariably occurred in clusters. What could this

mean

The Chinese emperor was considered more than a manhe was a

force of nature. His kingdom was the center of the universe, and

everything revolved around him. He embodied the world's perfection.

To criticize him or any of his actions would have been to criticize the

divine order. No minister or courtier dared approach the emperor

with even the slightest cautionary word. But emperors were fallible

and the kingdom suffered gready by their mistakes. Inserting

sightings of strange phenomena into the court chronicles was the

only way to warn them. The emperor would read of geese flying

backward and moons out of orbit, and realize that he was being

cautioned. His actions were unbalancing the universe and needed to

change. Interpretation

For Chinese courtiers, the problem of how to give the emperor

advice was an important issue. Over the years, thousands of them

had died trying to warn or counsel their master. To be made safely,

their criticisms had to be indirectyet if they were too indirect they

would not be heeded. The chronicles were their solution: Identify no

one person as the source of criticism, make the advice as

impersonal as possible, but let the emperor know the gravity of the

situation.

Your master is no longer the center of the universe, but he still

imagines that everything revolves around him. When you criticize

him he sees the person criticizing, not the criticism itself. Like the

Chinese courtiers, you must find a way to disappear behind the

warning. Use symbols and other indirect methods to paint a picture

of the problems to come, without putting your neck on the line.

Scene III

Early in his career, the French architect Jules Mansart received

commissions to design minor additions to Versailles for King Louis

XIV. For each design he would draw up his plans, making sure they

followed Louis's instructions closely. He would then present them to

His Majesty.

The courtier Saint-Simon described Mansart's technique in

dealing with the king: “His particular skill was to show the king plans

that purposely included something imperfect about them, often

dealing with the gardens, which were not Mansart's specialty. The

king, as Mansart expected, would put his finger exacdy on the

problem and propose how to solve it, at which point Mansart would

exclaim for all to hear that he would never have seen the problem

that the king had so masterfully found and solved; he would burst

with admiration, confessing that next to the king he was but a lowly

pupil.” At the age of thirty, having used these methods time and time

again, Mansart received a prestigious royal commission: Although he

was less talented and experienced than a number of other French

designers, he was to take charge of the enlargement of Versailles.

He was the king's architect from then on. Interpretation

As a young man, Mansart had seen how many royal craftsmen in

the service of Louis XIV had lost their positions not through a lack of

talent but through a costly social blunder. He would not make that

mistake. Mansart always strove to make Louis feel better about

himself, to feed the king's vanity as publicly as possible.

Never imagine that skill and talent are all mat matter. In court the

courtier's art is more important than his talent; never spend so much

time on your studies that you neglect your social skills. And the

greatest skill of all is the ability to make the master look more

talented than those around him.

Scene IV

Jean-Baptiste Isabey had become the unofficial painter of the

Napoleonic court. During the Congress of Vienna in 1814, after

Napoleon, defeated, had been imprisoned on the island of Elba, the

participants in these meetings, which were to decide the fate of

Europe, invited Isabey to immortalize the historic events in an epic

painting.

When Isabey arrived in Vienna, Talleyrand, the main negotiator

for the French, paid the artist a visit. Considering his role in the

proceedings, the statesman explained, he expected to occupy center

stage in the painting. Isabey cordially agreed. A few days later the

Duke of Wellington, the main negotiator for the English, also

approached Isabey, and said much the same thing that Talleyrand

had. The ever polite Isabey agreed that the great duke should

indeed be the center of attention.

Back in his studio, Isabey pondered the dilemma. If he gave the

spotlight to either of the two men, he could create a diplomatic rift,

stirring up all sorts of resentment at a time when peace and concord

were critical.

When the painting was finally unveiled, however, both Talleyrand

and Wellington felt honored and satisfied. The work depicts a large

hall filled with diplomats and politicians from all over Europe. On one

side die Duke of Wellington enters the room, and all eyes are turned

toward him; he is the “center” of attention. In the very center of the

painting, meanwhile, sits Talleyrand. Interpretation

It is often very difficult to satisfy the master, but to satisfy two

masters in one stroke takes die genius of a great courtier. Such

predicaments are common in the life of a courtier: By giving attention

to one master, he displeases anotfier. You must find a way to

navigate mis Scylla and Charybdis safely. Masters must receive tiieir

due; never inadvertendy stir up the resentment of one in pleasing

another.

Scene V

George Brummell, also known as Beau Brummell, made his mark

in die late 1700s by the supreme elegance of his appearance, his

popularization of shoe buckles (soon imitated by all the dandies),

and his clever way with words. His London house was the

fashionable spot in town, and Brummell was the authority on all

matters of fashion. If he disliked your footwear, you immediately got

rid of it and bought whatever he was wearing. He perfected the art of

tying a cravat; Lord Byron was said to spend many a night in front of

die mirror trying to figure out die secret behind Brummell's perfect

knots.

One of Brummell's greatest admirers was the Prince of Wales,

who fancied himself a fashionable young man. Becoming attached to

the prince's court (and provided witii a royal pension), Brummell was

soon so sure of his own authority tiiere that he took to joking about

the prince's weight, referring to his host as Big Ben. Since trimness

of figure was an important quality for a dandy, this was a withering

criticism. At dinner once, when the service was slow, Brummell said

to the prince, “Do ring, Big Ben.” The prince rang, but when die valet

arrived he ordered the man to show Brummell the door and never

admit him again.

Despite falling into die prince's disfavor, Brummell continued to

treat everyone around him with the same arrogance. Without the

Prince of Wales' patronage to support him, he sank into horrible

debt, but he maintained his insolent manners, and everyone soon

abandoned him. He died in the most pitiable poverty, alone and

deranged. Interpretation

Beau Brummell's devastating wit was one of die qualities mat

endeared him to the Prince of Wales. But not even he, the arbiter of

taste and fashion, could get away with a joke about the prince's

appearance, least of all to his face. Never joke about a person's

plumpness, even indirecdyand particularly when he is your master.

The poorhouses of history are filled with people who have made

such jokes at their master's expense.

Scene VI

Pope Urban VIII wanted to be remembered for his skills in writing

poetry, which unfortunately were mediocre at best. In 1629 Duke

Francesco d'Este, knowing the pope's literary pretensions, sent the

poet Fulvio Testi as his ambassador to the Vatican. One of Testi's

letters to the duke reveals why he was chosen: “Once our discussion

was over, I kneeled to depart, but His Holiness made a signal and

walked to another room where he sleeps, and after reaching a small

table, he grabbed a bundle of papers and thus, turning to me witii a

smiling face, he said: 'We want Your Lordship to listen to some of our

compositions.' And, in fact, he read me two very long Pindaric

poems, one in praise of the most holy Virgin, and die other one

about Countess Matilde.”

We do not know exactly what Testi thought of these very long

poems, since it would have been dangerous for him to state his

opinion freely, even in a letter. But he went on to write, “I, following

the mood, commented on each line with the needed praise, and,

after having kissed His Holiness's foot for such an unusual sign of

benevolence [the reading of the poetry], I left.” Weeks later, when the

duke himself visited die pope, he managed to recite entire verses of

die pope's poetry and praised it enough to make the pope “so

jubilant he seemed to lose his mind.” Interpretation

In matters of taste you can never be too obsequious with your

master. Taste is one of die ego's prickliest parts; never impugn or

question the master's tastehis poetry is sublime, his dress

impeccable, and his manner the model for all.

Scene VII

One afternoon in ancient China, Chao, ruler of Han from 358 to

333 B.C., got drunk and fell asleep in the palace gardens. The court

crown-keeper, whose sole task was to look after die ruler's head

apparel, passed Uirough the gardens and saw his master sleeping

without a coat. Since it was getting cold, die crown-keeper placed his

own coat over the ruler, and left.

When Chao awoke and saw the coat upon him, he asked his

attendants, “Who put more clodies on my body” “The crown-keeper,”

they replied. The ruler immediately called for his official coat-keeper

and had him punished for neglecting his duties. He also called for

the crown-keeper, whom he had beheaded. Interpretation

Do not overstep your bounds. Do what you are assigned to do, to

the best of your abilities, and never do more. To think that by doing

more you are doing better is a common blunder. It is never good to

seem to be trying too hardit is as if you were covering up some

deficiency. Fulfilling a task that has not been asked of you just

makes people suspicious. If you are a crown-keeper, be a crown-

keeper. Save your excess energy for when you are not in die court.

Scene VIII

One day, for amusement, the Italian Renaissance painter Fra

Filippo Lippi (1406-1469) and some friends went sailing in a small

boat off Ancona. There they were captured by two Moorish galleys,

which hauled mem off in chains to Barbary, where they were sold as

slaves. For eighteen long months Filippo toiled with no hope of

returning to Italy.

On several occasions Filippo saw the man who had bought him

pass by, and one day he decided to sketch this man's portrait, using

burnt coalcharcoalfrom the fire. Still in his chains, he found a white

wall, where he drew a full-length likeness of his owner in Moorish

clothing. The owner soon heard about this, for no one had seen such

skill in drawing before in these parts; it seemed like a miracle, a gift

from God. The drawing so pleased the owner that he instantly gave

Filippo his freedom and employed him in his court. All the big men

on the Barbary coast came to see the magnificent color portraits that

Fra Filippo then proceeded to do, and finally, in gratitude for the

honor in this way brought upon him, Filippo's owner returned the

artist safely to Italy. Interpretation

We who toil for other people have all in some way been captured

by pirates and sold into slavery. But like Fra Filippo (if to a lesser

degree), most of us possess some gift, some talent, an ability to do

something better than other people. Make your master a gift of your

talents and you will rise above other courtiers. Let him take the credit

if necessary, it will only be temporary: Use him as a stepping stone,

a way of displaying your talent and eventually buying your freedom

from enslavement.

Scene IX

Alfonso I of Aragon once had a servant who told the king that the

night before he had had a dream: Alfonso had given him a gift of

weapons, horses, and clothes. Alfonso, a generous, lordly man,

decided it would be amusing to make this dream come true, and

promptly gave the servant exactly these gifts.

A little while later, the same servant announced to Alfonso that he

had had yet another dream, and in this one Alfonso had given him a

considerable pile of gold florins. The king smiled and said, “Don't

believe in dreams from now on; they lie.” Interpretation

In his treatment of the servant's first dream, Alfonso remained in

control. By making a dream come true, he claimed a godlike power

for himself, if in a mild and humorous way. In the second dream,

however, all appearance of magic was gone; this was nothing but an

ugly con game on the servant's part. Never ask for too much, then,

and know when to stop. It is the master's prerogative to giveto give

when he wants and what he wants, and to do so without prompting.

Do not give him the chance to reject your requests. Better to win

favors by deserving them, so that they are bestowed without your

asking.

Scene X

The great English landscape painter J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851)

was known for his use of color, which he applied with a brilliance and

a strange iridescence. The color in his paintings was so striking, in

fact, that other artists never wanted his work hung next to theirs: It

inevitably made everything around it seem dull.

The painter Sir Thomas Lawrence once had the misfortune of

seeing Turner's masterpiece Cologne hanging in an exhibition

between two works of his own. Lawrence complained bitterly to the

gallery owner, who gave him no satisfaction: After all, someone's

paintings had to hang next to Turner's. But Turner heard of

Lawrence's complaint, and before the exhibition opened, he toned

down the brilliant golden sky in Cologne, making it as dull as the

colors in Lawrence's works. A friend of Turner's who saw the painting

approached the artist with a horrified look: “What have you done to

your picture!” he said. “Well, poor Lawrence was so unhappy,”

Turner replied, “and it's only lampblack. It'll wash off after the

exhibition.” Interpretation

Many of a courtier's anxieties have to do with the master, with

whom most dangers lie. Yet it is a mistake to imagine that the master

is the only one to determine your fate. Your equals and subordinates

play integral parts also. A court is a vast stew of resentments, fears,

and powerful envy. You have to placate everyone who might

someday harm you, deflecting their resentment and envy and

diverting their hostility onto other people.

Turner, eminent courtier, knew that his good fortune and fame

depended on his fellow painters as well as on his dealers and

patrons. How many of the great have been felled by envious

colleagues! Better temporarily to dull your brilliance than to suffer the

slings and arrows of envy.

Scene XI

Winston Churchill was an amateur artist, and after World War II

his paintings became collector's items. The American publisher

Henry Luce, in fact, creator of Time and Life magazines, kept one of

Churchill's landscapes hanging in his private office in New York.

On a tour through the United States once, Churchill visited Luce

in his office, and the two men looked at the painting togetiier. The

publisher remarked, “It's a good picture, but I think it needs

something in the foregrounda sheep, perhaps.” Much to Luce's

horror, Churchill's secretary called the publisher the next day and

asked him to have the painting sent to England. Luce did so,

mortified that he had perhaps offended the former prime minister. A

few days later, however, the painting was shipped back, but slighdy

altered: a single sheep now grazed peacefully in the foreground.

Interpretation

In stature and fame, Churchill stood head and shoulders above

Luce, but Luce was certainly a man of power, so let us imagine a

slight equality between them. Still, what did Churchill have to fear

from an American publisher Why bow to the criticism of a dilettante

A courtin this case the entire world of diplomats and international

statesmen, and also of the journalists who court themis a place of

mutual dependence. It is unwise to insult or offend the taste of

people of power, even if they are below or equal to you. If a man like

Churchill can swallow the criticisms of a man like Luce, he proves

himself a courtier without peer. (Perhaps his correction of the

painting implied a certain condescension as well, but he did it so

subtly that Luce did not perceive any slight.) Imitate Churchill: Put in

the sheep. It is always beneficial to play the obliging courtier, even

when you are not serving a master.

THE DELICATE GAME OF COURTIERSHIP: A Warning

Talleyrand was the consummate courtier, especially in serving his

master Napoleon. When the two men were first getting to know each

other, Napoleon once said in passing, “I shall come to lunch at your

house one of these days.” Talleyrand had a house at Auteuil, in the

suburbs of Paris. “I should be delighted, mon general,” the minister

replied, “and since my house is close to the Bois de Boulogne, you

will be able to amuse yourself with a bit of shooting in the afternoon.”

“I do not like shooting,” said Napoleon, “But I love hunting. Are

there any boars in the Bois de Boulogne” Napoleon came from

Corsica, where boar hunting was a great sport. By asking if there

were boars in a Paris park, he showed himself still a provincial,

almost a rube. Talleyrand did not laugh, however, but he could not

resist a practical joke on the man who was now his master in politics,

although not in blood and nobility, since Talleyrand came from an old

aristocratic family. To Napoleon's question, then, he simply replied,

“Very few, mon general, but I dare say you will manage to find one.”

It was arranged that Napoleon would arrive at Talleyrand's house

the following day at seven A.M. and would spend the morning there.

The “boar hunt” would take place in the afternoon. Throughout the

morning the excited general talked nothing but boar hunting.

Meanwhile, Talleyrand secretly had his servants go to the market,

buy two enormous black pigs, and take them to the great park.

After lunch, the hunters and their hounds set off for the Bois de

Boulogne. At a secret signal from Talleyrand, the servants loosed

one of the pigs. “I see a boar,” Napoleon cried joyfully, jumping onto

his horse to give chase. Talleyrand stayed behind. It took half an

hour of galloping through the park before the “boar” was finally

captured. At the moment of triumph, however, Napoleon was

approached by one of his aides, who knew the creature could not

possibly be a boar, and feared the general would be ridiculed once

the story got out: “Sir,” he told Napoleon, “you realize of course that

this is not a boar but a pig.”

Flying into a rage, Napoleon immediately set off at a gallop for

Talleyrand's house. He realized along the way that he would now be

the butt of many a joke, and that exploding at Talleyrand would only

make him

more ridiculous; it would be better to make a show of good

humor. Still, he did not hide his displeasure well.

Talleyrand decided to try to soothe the general's bruised ego. He

told Napoleon not to go back to Paris yethe should again go hunting

in the park. There were many rabbits there, and hunting them had

been a favorite pastime of Louis XVI. Talleyrand even offered to let

Napoleon use a set of guns that had once belonged to Louis. With

much flattery and cajolery, he once again got Napoleon to agree to a

hunt.

The party left for the park in the late afternoon. Along the way,

Napoleon told Talleyrand, “I'm not Louis XVI, I surely won't kill even

one rabbit.” Yet that afternoon, strangely enough, the park was

teeming with rabbits. Napoleon killed at least fifty of them, and his

mood changed from anger to satisfaction. At the end of his wild

shooting spree, however, the same aide approached him and

whispered in his ear, “To tell die truth, sir, I am beginning to believe

these are not wild rabbits. I suspect that rascal Talleyrand has played

another joke on us.” (The aide was right: Talleyrand had in fact sent

his servants back to the market, where tiiey had purchased dozens

of rabbits and then had released them in die Bois de Boulogne.)

Napoleon immediately mounted his horse and galloped away,

mis time returning straight to Paris. He later threatened Talleyrand,

warned him not to tell a soul what had happened; if he became the

laughingstock of Paris, there would be hell to pay.

It took months for Napoleon to be able to trust Talleyrand again,

and he never totally forgave him his humiliation.

Interpretation

Courtiers are like magicians: They deceptively play with

appearances, only letting those around them see what they want

diem to see. With so much deception and manipulation afoot, it is

essential to keep people from seeing your tricks and glimpsing your

sleight of hand.

Talleyrand was normally the Grand Wizard of Courtiership, and

but for Napoleon's aide, he probably would have gotten away

completely with both pleasing his master and having a joke at the

general's expense. But courtiership is a subde art, and overlooked

traps and inadvertent mistakes can ruin your best tricks. Never risk

being caught in your maneuvers; never let people see your devices.

If that happens you instandy pass in people's perceptions from a

courtier of great manners to a loamsome rogue. It is a delicate game

you play; apply the utmost attention to covering your tracks, and

never let your master unmask you.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 25

RE-CREATE YOURSELF

JUDGMENT

Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create

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 actionsyour power will be enhanced and

your character will seem larger than life.

The man who intends to make his fortune in this ancient capital of

the world [Rome] must be a chameleon susceptible of reflecting the

colors of the atmosphere that surrounds hima Proteus apt to assume

every form, every shape. He must be supple, flexible, insinuating,

close, inscrutable, often base, sometimes sincere, sometimes

perfidious, always concealing a part of his knowledge, indulging in

but one tone of voice, patient, a perfect master of his own

countenance, as cold as ice when any other man would be all fire;

and if unfortunately he is not religious at hearta very common

occurrence for a soul possessing the above requisites he must have

religion in his mind, that is to say, on his face, on his lips, in his

manners; he must suffer quietly, if he be an honest man, the

necessity of knowing himself an arrant hypocrite. The man whose

soul would loathe such a life should leave Rome and seek his

fortune elsewhere. I do not know whether I am praising or excusing

myself, but of all those qualities I possessed but one namely,

flexibility.

MEMOIRS,

Giovanni Casanova, 1725-1798

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I

Julius Caesar made his first significant mark on Roman society in

65 B.C., when he assumed the post of aedile, the official in charge of

grain distribution and public games. He began his entrance into the

public eye by organizing a series of carefully crafted and well-timed

spectacleswild-beast hunts, extravagant gladiator shows, theatrical

contests. On several occasions, he paid for these spectacles out of

his own pocket. To the common man, Julius Caesar became

indelibly associated with these much-loved events. As he slowly rose

to attain the position of consul, his popularity among the masses

served as the foundation of his power. He had created an image of

himself as a great public showman.

In 49 B.C., Rome was on the brink of a civil war between rival

leaders, Caesar and Pompey. At the height of the tension, Caesar,

an addict of the stage, attended a theatrical performance, and

afterward, lost in thought, he wandered in die darkness back to his

camp at the Rubicon, die river that divides Italy from Gaul, where he

had been campaigning. To march his army back into Italy across the

Rubicon would mean the beginning of a war with Pompey.

Before his staff Caesar argued both sides, forming the options

like an actor on stage, a precursor of Hamlet. Finally, to put his

soliloquy to an end, he pointed to a seemingly innocent apparition at

the edge of the rivera very tall soldier blasting a call on a trumpet,

then going across a bridge over the Rubiconand pronounced, “Let us

accept this as a sign from die Gods and follow where tiiey beckon, in

vengeance on our double-dealing enemies. The die is cast.” All of

this he spoke portentously and dramatically, gesturing toward the

river and looking his generals in the eye. He knew that these

generals were uncertain in their support, but his oratory

overwhelmed them widi a sense of die drama of the moment, and of

die need to seize the time. A more prosaic speech would never have

had the same effect. The generals rallied to his cause; Caesar and

his army crossed the Rubicon and by the following year had

vanquished Pompey, making Caesar dictator of Rome.

In warfare, Caesar always played the leading man with gusto. He

was as skilled a horseman as any of his soldiers, and took pride in

outdoing diem in feats of bravery and endurance. He entered battle

astride die strongest mount, so that his soldiers would see him in die

thick of batde, urging diem on, always positioning himself in the

center, a godlike symbol of power and a model for them to follow. Of

all the armies in Rome, Caesar's was the most devoted and loyal.

His soldiers, like die common people who had attended his

entertainments, had come to identify with him and with his cause.

After the defeat of Pompey, die entertainments grew in scale.

Nodiing like mem had ever been seen in Rome. The chariot races

became more spectacular, die gladiator fights more dramatic, as

Caesar staged fights to die deadi among the Roman nobility. He

organized enormous mock naval batdes on an artificial lake. Plays

were performed in every Roman ward. A

192 LAW 25

giant new theater was built that sloped dramatically down the

Tarpeian Rock. Crowds from all over the empire flocked to these

events, the roads to Rome lined widi visitors' tents. And in 45 B.C.,

timing his entry into the city for maximum effect and surprise, Caesar

brought Cleopatra back to Rome after his Egyptian campaign, and

staged even more extravagant public spectacles.

These events were more than devices to divert the masses; they

dramatically enhanced the public's sense of Caesar's character, and

made him seem larger than life. Caesar was die master of his public

image, of which he was forever aware. When he appeared before

crowds he wore the most spectacular purple robes. He would be

upstaged by no one. He was notoriously vain about his appearanceit

was said that one reason he enjoyed being honored by the Senate

and people was that on these occasions he could wear a laurel

wreath, hiding his baldness. Caesar was a masterful orator. He knew

how to say a lot by saying a litde, intuited die moment to end a

speech for maximum effect. He never failed to incorporate a surprise

into his public appearancesa startling announcement tiiat would

heighten their drama.

Immensely popular among the Roman people, Caesar was hated

and feared by his rivals. On the ides of MarchMarch 15in die year 44

B.C., a group of conspirators led by Brutus and Cassius surrounded

him in die senate and stabbed him to deadi. Even dying, however, he

kept his sense of drama. Drawing die top of his gown over his face,

he let go of die clodi's lower part so diat it draped his legs, allowing

him to die covered and decent. According to die 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 die end

of a play: “You too, my child”

Interpretation

The Roman dieater was an event for the masses, attended by

crowds

unimaginable today. Packed into enormous auditoriums, die

audience

would be amused by raucous comedy or moved by high tragedy.

Theater

seemed to contain die essence of life, in its concentrated,

dramatic form.

Like a religious ritual, it had a powerful, instant appeal to die

common

man.

Julius Caesar was perhaps die first public figure to understand

die vital link between power and theater. This was because of his

own obsessive interest in drama. He sublimated tiiis interest by

making himself an actor and director on the world stage. He said his

lines as if diey had been scripted; he gestured and moved through a

crowd widi a constant sense of how he appeared to his audience. He

incorporated surprise into his repertoire, building drama into his

speeches, staging into his public appearances. His gestures were

broad enough for die common man to grasp diem instantiy. He

became immensely popular.

Caesar set die ideal for all leaders and people of power. Like him,

you must learn to enlarge your actions dirough dramatic techniques

such as

surprise, suspense, the creation of sympathy, and symbolic

identification. Also like him, you must be constantiy aware of your

audienceof what will please them and what will bore them. You must

arrange to place yourself at the center, to command attention, and

never to be upstaged at any cost.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW II

In the year 1831, a young woman named Aurore Dupin Dudevant

left her husband and family in the provinces and moved to Paris. She

wanted to be a writer; marriage, she felt, was worse than prison, for

it left her neither the time nor the freedom to pursue her passion. In

Paris she would establish her independence and make her living by

writing.

Soon after Dudevant arrived in the capital, however, she had to

confront certain harsh realities. To have any degree of freedom in

Paris you had to have money. For a woman, money could only come

through marriage or prostitution. No woman had ever come close to

making a living by writing. Women wrote as a hobby, supported by

their husbands, or by an inheritance. In fact when Dudevant first

showed her writing to an editor, he told her, “You should make

babies, Madame, not literature.”

Clearly Dudevant had come to Paris to attempt the impossible. In

the end, though, she came up with a strategy to do what no woman

had ever donea strategy to re-create herself completely, forging a

public image of her own making. Women writers before her had

been forced into a ready-made role, that of the second-rate artist

who wrote mostly for other women. Dudevant decided that if she had

to play a role, she would turn the game around: She would play the

part of a man.

In 1832 a publisher accepted Dudevant's first major novel,

Indiana. She had chosen to publish it under a pseudonym, “George

Sand,” and all of Paris assumed this impressive new writer was

male. Dudevant had sometimes worn men's clothes before creating

“George Sand” (she had always found men's shirts and riding

breeches more comfortable); now, as a public figure, she

exaggerated the image. She added long men's coats, gray hats,

heavy boots, and dandyish cravats to her wardrobe. She smoked

cigars and in conversation expressed herself like a man, unafraid to

dominate the conversation or to use a saucy word.

This strange “male/female” writer fascinated the public. And

unlike other women writers, Sand found herself accepted into the

clique of male artists. She drank and smoked with them, even

carried on affairs with the most famous artists of EuropeMusset,

Liszt, Chopin. It was she who did the wooing, and also the

abandoningshe moved on at her discretion.

Those who knew Sand well understood that her male persona

protected her from the public's prying eyes. Out in the world, she

enjoyed playing the part to the extreme; in private she remained

herself. She also realized that the character of “George Sand” could

grow stale or predictable, and to avoid this she would every now and

then dramatically alter

the character she had created; instead of conducting affairs widi

famous men, she would begin meddling in politics, leading

demonstrations, inspiring student rebellions. No one would dictate to

her die limits of the character she had created. Long after she died,

and after most people had stopped reading her novels, the larger-

than-life theatricality of that character has continued to fascinate and

inspire.

Interpretation

Throughout Sand's public life, acquaintances and other artists

who spent time in her company had the feeling they were in the

presence of a man. But in her journals and to her closest friends,

such as Gustave Flaubert, she confessed diat she had no desire to

be a man, but was playing a part for public consumption. What she

really wanted was the power to determine her own character. She

refused the limits her society would have set on her. She did not

attain her power, however, by being herself; instead she created a

persona that she could constandy adapt to her own desires, a

persona diat attracted attention and gave her presence.

Understand this: 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 die 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 diat 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 die front rows marvel at your audacity.

Do not people talk in society of a man being a great actor They

do not mean by that that he feels, but that he excels in simulating,

though he feels nothing.

Denis Diderot, 1713-1784

KEYS TO POWER

The character you seem to have been born with is not

necessarily who you are; beyond die characteristics you have

inherited, your parents, your friends, and your peers have helped to

shape your personality. The Promethean task of the powerful is to

take control of the process, to stop allowing others that ability to limit

and mold diem. Remake yourself into a character of power. Working

on yourself 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. For

thou-

sands of years, only kings and the highest courtiers had the

freedom to shape their public image and determine their own

identity. Similarly, only kings and the wealthiest lords could

contemplate their own image in art, and consciously alter it. The rest

of mankind played the limited role that society demanded of them,

and had little self-consciousness.

A shift in this condition can be detected in Velazquez's painting

Las Meninas, made in 1656. The artist appears at the left of the

canvas, standing before a painting that he is in the process of

creating, but that has its back to uswe cannot see it. Beside him

stands a princess, her attendants, and one of the court dwarves, all

watching him work. The people posing for the painting are not

directly visible, but we can see them in tiny reflections in a mirror on

the back wallthe king and queen of Spain, who must be sitting

somewhere in die foreground, outside the picture.

The painting represents a dramatic change in the dynamics of

power and the ability to determine one's own position in society. For

Velazquez, the artist, is far more prominendy positioned than the

king and queen. In a sense he is more powerful than they are, since

he is clearly the one controlling the image their image. Velazquez no

longer saw himself as the slavish, dependent artist. He had remade

himself into a man of power. And indeed the first people other than

aristocrats to play openly with their image in Western society were

artists and writers, and later on dandies and bohemians. Today the

concept of self-creation has slowly filtered down to the rest of

society, and has become an ideal to aspire to. Like Velazquez, you

must demand for yourself the power to determine your position in the

painting, and to create your own image.

The first step in the process of self-creation is self-consciousness

being aware of yourself as an actor and taking control of your

appearance and emotions. As Diderot said, the bad actor is the one

who is always sincere. People who wear tiieir hearts on their sleeves

out in society are tiresome and embarrassing. Their sincerity

notwithstanding, it is hard to take them seriously. Those who cry in

public may temporarily elicit sympathy, but sympathy soon turns to

scorn and irritation at dieir self-obsessivenessthey are crying to get

attention, we feel, and a malicious part of us wants to deny them the

satisfaction.

Good actors control themselves better. They can play sincere

and heartfelt, can affect a tear and a compassionate look at will, but

they don't have to feel it. They externalize emotion in a form tiiat

odiers can understand. Method acting is fatal in die real world. No

ruler or leader could possibly play the part if all of the emotions he

showed had to be real. So learn self-control. Adopt the plasticity of

the actor, who can mold his or her face to die emotion required.

The second step in die process of self-creation is a variation on

die George Sand strategy: the creation of a memorable character,

one that compels attention, diat stands out above die other players

on the stage. This was the game Abraham Lincoln played. The

homespun, common country man, he knew, was a kind of president

that America had never had

but would delight in electing. Although many of these qualities

came naturally to him, he played them upthe hat and clothes, the

beard. (No president before him had worn a beard.) Lincoln was also

the first president to use photographs to spread his image, helping to

create the icon of the “homespun president.”

Good drama, however, needs more than an interesting

appearance, or a single stand-out moment. Drama takes place over

timeit is an unfolding event. Rhythm and timing are critical. One of

the most important elements in the rhythm of drama is suspense.

Houdini for instance, could sometimes complete his escape acts in

secondsbut he drew them out to minutes, to make the audience

sweat.

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. Great

rulers from Napoleon to Mao Tse-tung have used theatrical timing to

surprise and divert their public. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

understood the importance of staging political events in a particular

order and rhythm.

At the time of his 1932 presidential election, the United States

was in the midst of a dire economic crisis. Banks were failing at an

alarming rate. Shortly after winning the election, Roosevelt went into

a kind of retreat. He said nothing about his plans or his cabinet

appointments. He even refused to meet the sitting president, Herbert

Hoover, to discuss the transition. By the time of Roosevelt's

inauguration the country was in a state of high anxiety.

In his inaugural address, Roosevelt shifted gears. He made a

powerful speech, making it clear that he intended to lead the country

in a completely new direction, sweeping away the timid gestures of

his predecessors. From then on the pace of his speeches and public

decisionscabinet appointments, bold legislationunfolded at an

incredibly rapid rate. The period after the inauguration became

known as the “Hundred Days,” and its success in altering the

country's mood partly stemmed from Roosevelt's clever pacing and

use of dramatic contrast. He held his audience in suspense, then hit

them with a series of bold gestures that seemed all the more

momentous because they came from nowhere. You must learn to

orchestrate events in a similar manner, never revealing all your cards

at once, but unfolding them in a way that heightens their dramatic

effect.

Besides covering a multitude of sins, good drama can also

confuse and deceive your enemy. During World War II, the German

playwright Bertolt Brecht worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter.

After the war he was called before the House Committee on Un-

American Activities for his supposed Communist sympathies. Other

writers who had been called to testify planned to humiliate the

committee members with an angry emotional stand. Brecht was

wiser: He would play the committee like a violin, charming them

while fooling them as well. He carefully rehearsed his responses,

and brought along some props, notably a cigar on which he puffed

away, knowing the head of the committee liked cigars. And indeed

he proceeded

to beguile the committee with well-crafted responses that were

ambiguous, funny, and double-edged. Instead of an angry, heartfelt

tirade, he ran circles around them with a staged production, and they

let him off scot-free.

Other dramatic effects for your repertoire include the beau geste,

an action at a climactic moment that symbolizes your triumph or your

boldness. Caesar's dramatic crossing of the Rubicon was a beau

geste a move that dazzled the soldiers and gave him heroic

proportions. You must also appreciate the importance of stage

entrances and exits. When Cleopatra first met Caesar in Egypt, she

arrived rolled up in a carpet, which she arranged to have unfurled at

his feet. George Washington twice left power with flourish and

fanfare (first as a general, then as a president who refused to sit for

a third term), showing he knew how to make the moment count,

dramatically and symbolically. Your own entrances and exits should

be crafted and planned as carefully.

Remember that overacting can be counterproductiveit is another

way of spending too much effort trying to attract attention. The actor

Richard Burton discovered early in his career that by standing totally

still onstage, he drew attention to himself and away from the other

actors. It is less what you do that matters, clearly, than how you do

ityour 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 situationbe protean in die faces you

wear. Bismarck played this game to perfection: To a liberal he was a

liberal, to a hawk he was a hawk. He could not be grasped, and what

cannot be grasped cannot be consumed.

Image:

The Greek Sea-God Proteus.

His power came from his ability to

change shape at will, to be whatever the

moment required. When Menelaus, brother

of Agamemnon, tried to seize him, Proteus

transformed himself into a lion, then a serpent, a

panther, a boar, running water, and finally a leafy tree.

Authority: Know how to be all things to all men. A discreet

Proteusa scholar among scholars, a saint among saints. That is the

art of winning over everyone, for like attracts like. Take note of

temperaments and adapt yourself to that of each person you

meetfollow the lead of the serious and jovial in turn, changing your

mood discreedy. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

There can really be no reversal to this critical law: Bad theater is

bad theater. Even appearing natural requires artin other words,

acting. Bad acting only creates embarrassment. Of course you

should not be too dramaticavoid the histrionic gesture. But that is

simply bad theater anyway, since it violates centuries-old dramatic

laws against overacting. In essence there is no reversal to this law.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 26

KEEP YOUR HANDS CLEAN

JUDGMENT

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.

PART I: 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.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I

Near die end of the second century A.D., as China's mighty Han

Empire slowly collapsed, the great general and imperial minister

Ts'ao Ts'ao emerged as the most powerful man in the country.

Seeking to extend his power base and to rid himself of the last of his

rivals, Ts'ao Ts'ao began a campaign to take control of the

strategically vital Central Plain. During the siege of a key city, he

slightly miscalculated the timing for supplies of grain to arrive from

the capital. As he waited for the shipment to come in, die army ran

low on food, and Ts'ao Ts'ao was forced to order the chief of

commissariat to reduce its rations.

Ts'ao Ts'ao kept a tight rein on the army, and ran a network of

informers. His spies soon reported that the men were complaining,

grumbling that he was living well while diey themselves had barely

enough to eat. Perhaps Ts'ao Ts'ao was keeping die food for himself,

they murmured. If the grumbling spread, Ts'ao Ts'ao could have a

mutiny on his hands. He summoned die chief of commissariat to his

tent.

“I want to ask you to lend me something, and you must not

refuse,” Ts'ao Ts'ao told the chief. “What is it” the chief replied. “I

want the loan of your head to show to the troops,” said Ts'ao Ts'ao.

“But I've done nodiing wrong!” cried the chief. “I know,” said Ts'ao

Ts'ao with a sigh, “but if I do not put you to death, there will be a

mutiny. Do not grieveafter you're gone, I'll look after your family.” Put

this way, the request left the chief no choice, so he resigned himself

to his fate and was beheaded that very day. Seeing his head on

public display, die soldiers stopped grumbling. Some saw through

Ts'ao Ts'ao's gesture, but kept quiet, stunned and intimidated by his

violence. And most accepted his version of who was to blame,

preferring to believe in his wisdom and fairness tiian in his

incompetence and cruelty.

Interpretation

Ts'ao Ts'ao came to power in an extremely tumultuous time. In

the struggle for supremacy in the crumbling Han Empire, enemies

had emerged from all sides. The batde for the Central Plain had

proven more difficult than he imagined, and money and provisions

were a constant concern. No wonder that under such stress, he had

forgotten to order supplies in time.

Once it became clear that the delay was a critical mistake, and

that the army was seething with mutiny, Ts'ao Ts'ao had two options:

apology and excuses, or a scapegoat. Understanding the workings

of power and the im-

CHEIAl JUSTICE

A great calamity befell the town of Chelm one day. The town

cobbler murdered one of his customers. So he was brought before

the judge, who sentenced him to die by hanging. When the verdict

was read a townsman arose and cried out, “If your Honor

pleasesyou have sentenced to death the town cobbler! He's the only

one we've got. If you hang him who will mend our shoes ” “Who

Who”criedall. the people of Chelm with one voice. The judge nodded

in agreement and reconsidered his verdict. “Good people of Chelm,”

he said, “what you say is true. Since we have only one cobbler it

would be a great wrong against the community to let him die. As

there are two roofers in the town let one of them be hanged instead.”

a treasury of jewish

folklore,

Nathan Ausubel, ed.,

portance of appearances as he did, Ts'ao Ts'ao did not hesitate

for a moment: He shopped around for the most convenient head and

had it served up immediately.

Occasional mistakes are inevitablethe world is just too

unpredictable. People of power, however, are undone not by the

mistakes they make, but by die way tiiey deal with them. Like

surgeons, they must cut away the tumor with speed and finality.

Excuses and apologies are much too blunt tools for this delicate

operation; the powerful avoid them. By apologizing you open up all

sorts of doubts about your competence, your intentions, any other

mistakes you may not have confessed. Excuses satisfy no one and

apologies make everyone uncomfortable. 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 before people have time to ponder your

responsibility or your possible incompetence.

Would rather betray the whole world than let the world betray me.

General Ts'ao Ts'ao, c. A.D. 155-220

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW II

For several years Cesare Borgia campaigned to gain control of

large parts of Italy in the name of his father, Pope Alexander. In the

year 1500 he managed to take Romagna, in northern Italy. The

region had for years been ruled by a series of greedy masters who

had plundered its wealtii for themselves. Without police or any

disciplining force, it had descended into lawlessness, whole areas

being ruled by robbers and feuding families. To establish order,

Cesare appointed a lieutenant general of die region Remirro de

Oreo, “a cruel and vigorous man,” according to Niccolo Machiavelli.

Cesare gave de Oreo absolute powers.

With energy and violence, de Oreo established a severe, brutal

justice in Romagna, and soon rid it of almost all of its lawless

elements. But in his zeal he sometimes went too far, and after a

couple of years the local population resented and even hated him. In

December of 1502, Cesare took decisive action. He first let it be

known that he had not approved of de Oreo's cruel and violent

deeds, which stemmed from the lieutenant's brutal nature. Then, on

December 22, he imprisoned de Oreo in the town of Ce-sena, and

the day after Christmas the townspeople awoke to find a strange

spectacle in the middle of the piazza: de Oreo's headless body,

dressed in a lavish suit with a purple cape, die head impaled beside

it on a pike, the bloody knife and executioner's block laid out beside

the head. As Machiavelli concluded his comments on the affair, “The

ferocity of this scene left the people at once stunned and satisfied.”

Interpretation

Cesare Borgia was a master player in the game of power. Always

planning several moves ahead, he set his opponents die cleverest

traps. For this Machiavelli honored him above all others in The

Prince.

Cesare foresaw the future with amazing clarity in Romagna: Only

brutal justice would bring order to the region. The process would

take several years, and at first the people would welcome it. But it

would soon make many enemies, and the citizens would come to

resent the imposition of such unforgiving justice, especially by

outsiders. Cesare himself, then, could not be seen as the agent of

this justicethe people's hatred would cause too many problems in the

future. And so he chose the one man who could do the dirty work,

knowing in advance that once the task was done he would have to

display de Oreo's head on a pike. The scapegoat in this case had

been planned from the beginning.

With Ts'ao Ts'ao, the scapegoat was an entirely innocent man; in

the Romagna, he was the offensive weapon in Cesare's arsenal that

let him get the dirty work done without bloodying his own hands.

With this second kind of scapegoat it is wise to separate yourself

from the hatchet man at some point, either leaving him dangling in

the wind or, like Cesare, even making yourself the one to bring him

to justice. Not only are you free of involvement in the problem, you

can appear as the one who cleaned it up.

The Athenians regularly maintained a number of degraded and

useless

beings at the public expense; and when any calamity, such as

plague,

drought, or famine, befell the city . . . [these scapegoats] were led

about. . .

and then sacrificed, apparently by being stoned outside the city.

The Golden Bough, Sir James George Frazer, 1854-1941

KEYS TO POWER

The use of scapegoats is as old as civilization itself, and

examples of it can be found in cultures around the world. The main

idea behind these sacrifices is the shifting of guilt and sin to an

outside figureobject, animal, or manwhich is then banished or

destroyed. The Hebrews used to take a live goat (hence the term

“scapegoat”) upon whose head ihe priest would lay both hands while

confessing the sins of the Children of Israel. Having thus had those

sins transferred to it, the beast would be led away and abandoned in

the wilderness. With the Athenians and the Aztecs, the scapegoat

was human, often a person fed and raised for the purpose. Since

famine and plague were drought to be visited on humans by the

gods, in punishment for wrongdoing, the people suffered not only

from the famine and plague themselves but from blame and guilt.

They freed themselves of guilt by transferring it to an innocent

person, whose death was intended to satisfy the divine powers and

banish the evil from their midst.

It is an extremely human response to not look inward after a

mistake or crime, but rather to look outward and to affix blame and

guilt on a convenient object. When the plague was ravaging Thebes,

Oedipus looked everywhere for its cause, everywhere except inside

himself and his own sin of incest, which had so offended the gods

and occasioned the plague. This profound need to exteriorize one's

guilt, to project it on another person or object, has an immense

power, which the clever know how to harness. Sac-

rifice is a ritual, perhaps the most ancient ritual of all; ritual too is

a well-spring of power. In the killing of de Oreo, note Cesare's

symbolic and ritualistic display of his body. By framing it in this

dramatic way he focused guilt outward. The citizens of Romagna

responded instantly. Because it comes so naturally to us to look

outward rather than inward, we readily accept the scapegoat's guilt.

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. What modern leader will take responsibility for

his blunders He searches out others to blame, a scapegoat to

sacrifice. When Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution failed miserably,

he made no apologies or excuses to the Chinese people; instead,

like Ts'ao Ts'ao before him, he offered up scapegoats, including his

own personal secretary and high-ranking member of the Party, Ch'en

Po-ta.

Franklin D. Roosevelt had a reputation for honesty and fairness.

Throughout his career, however, he faced many situations in which

being the nice guy would have spelled political disasteryet he could

not be seen as the agent of any foul play. For twenty years, then, his

secretary, Louis Howe, played the role de Oreo had. He handled the

backroom deals, the manipulation of the press, the underhanded

campaign maneuvers. And whenever a mistake was committed, or a

dirty trick contradicting Roosevelt's carefully crafted image became

public, Howe served as the scapegoat, and never complained.

Besides conveniently shifting blame, a scapegoat can serve as a

warning to others. In 1631 a plot was hatched to oust France's

Cardinal Richelieu from power, a plot that became known as “The

Day of the Dupes.” It almost succeeded, since it involved the upper

echelons of government, including the queen mother. But through

luck and his own connivances, Richelieu survived.

One of die key conspirators was a man named Marillac, the

keeper of the seals. Richelieu could not imprison him without

implicating the queen modier, an extremely dangerous tactic, so he

targeted Marillac's brother, a marshal in the army. This man had no

involvement in the plot. Richelieu, however, afraid that other

conspiracies might be in the air, especially in the army, decided to

set an example. He tried the brother on trumped-up charges and had

him executed. In this way he indirectly punished the real perpetrator,

who had thought himself protected, and warned any future

conspirators that he would not shrink from sacrificing the innocent to

protect his own power.

In fact it is often wise to choose the most innocent victim possible

as a sacrificial goat. Such people will not be powerful enough to fight

you, and their naive protests may be seen as protesting too

muchmay be seen, in other words, as a sign of their guilt. Be careful,

however, not to create a martyr. It is important that you remain the

victim, the poor leader betrayed

by the incompetence of those around you. If the scapegoat

appears too weak and his punishment too cruel, you may end up the

victim of your own device. Sometimes you should find a more

powerful scapegoatone who will elicit less sympatiry in the long run.

In this vein, history has time and again shown the value of using

a close associate as a scapegoat. This is known as the “fall of the

favorite.” Most kings had a personal favorite at court, a man whom

they singled out, sometimes for no apparent reason, and lavished

with favors and attention. But this court favorite could serve as a

convenient scapegoat in case of a threat to the king's reputation.

The public would readily believe in the scapegoat's guiltwhy would

the king sacrifice his favorite unless he were guilty And the other

courtiers, resentful of the favorite anyway, would rejoice at his

downfall. The king, meanwhile, would rid himself of a man who by

that time had probably learned too much about him, perhaps

becoming arrogant and even disdainful of him. Choosing a close

associate as a scapegoat has the same value as the “fall of the

favorite.” You may lose a friend or aide, but in the long-term scheme

of things, it is more important to hide your mistakes than to hold on

to someone who one day will probably turn against you. Besides,

you can always find a new favorite to take his place.

Image: The Innocent Goat. On the Day of Atonement, the high

priest brings the goat into the temple, places his hands on its head,

and confesses die people's sins, transferring guilt to the guiltless

beast, which is then led to the wilderness and abandoned, the

people's sins

and blame vanishing with him.

Authority: Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being

incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise

conceal die blunders they have made, while fools make them public.

Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is seen. If

you can't be good, be careful. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

PART II: MAKE USE OF THE CAT'S-PAW In the fable, the

Monkey grabs the paw of his friend, the Cat, and uses it to fish

chestnuts out of the fire, thus getting the nuts he craves, 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, dangerous 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.

A monkey and cat, in

roguery and fun

Sworn brothers twain,

both owned a common

master,

Whatever mischief in

the house was done

By Pug and Tom

was contrived each

disaster....

One winter's day was

seen this hopeful pair

Close to the kitchen

fire, as usual, posted.

Amongst the red-hot

coals the cook with

care

Had plac 'd some nice

plump chestnuts to be

roasted,

From whence in smoke

a pungent odor rose,

Whose oily fragrance

struck the monkey's

nose.

“Tom!” says sly Pug,

"pray could not you

and 1

Share this dessert the

cook is pleased to

cater

Had I such claws as

yours, I'd quickly try:

Lend me a hand 'twill

be a coup-de-maitre."

So said, he seized his

colleague's ready paw,

Pulled out the fruit,

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I

In 59 B.C., the future queen Cleopatra of Egypt, then ten years

old, witnessed the overthrow and banishment of her father, Ptolemy

XII, at the hand of his elder daughtersher own sisters. One of the

daughters, Berenice, emerged as the leader of the rebellion, and to

ensure that she would now rule Egypt alone, she imprisoned her

other sisters and murdered her own husband. This may have been

necessary as a practical step to secure her rule. But that a member

of the royal family, a queen no less, would so overtly exact such

violence on her own family horrified her subjects and stirred up

powerful opposition. Four years later this opposition was able to

return Ptolemy to power, and he promptly had Berenice and the

other elder sisters beheaded.

In 51 B.C. Ptolemy died, leaving four remaining children as heirs.

As was the tradition in Egypt, the eldest son, Ptolemy XIII (only ten

at the time), married the elder sister, Cleopatra (now eighteen), and

the couple took the throne together as king and queen. None of the

four children felt satisfied with this; everyone, including Cleopatra,

wanted more power. A struggle emerged between Cleopatra and

Ptolemy, each trying to push the other to the side.

In 48 B.C., with the help of a government faction that feared

Cleopatra's ambitions, Ptolemy was able to force his sister to flee the

country, leaving himself as sole ruler. In exile, Cleopatra schemed.

She wanted to rule alone and to restore Egypt to its past glory, a

goal she felt none of her other siblings could achieve; yet as long as

they were alive, she could not reahze'her dream. And the example of

Berenice had made it clear that no one would serve a queen who

was seen murdering her own kind. Even Ptolemy XIII had not dared

murder Cleopatra, although he knew she would plot against him from

abroad.

Within a year after Cleopatra's banishment, the Roman dictator

Julius Caesar arrived in Egypt, determined to make the country a

Roman colony. Cleopatra saw her chance: Reentering Egypt in

disguise, she traveled hundreds of miles to reach Caesar in

Alexandria. Legend has it that she had

herself smuggled into his presence rolled up inside a carpet,

which was gracefully unfurled at his feet, revealing the young queen.

Cleopatra immediately went to work on the Roman. She appealed to

his love of spectacle and his interest in Egyptian history, and poured

on her feminine charms. Caesar soon succumbed and restored

Cleopatra to the throne.

Cleopatra's siblings seethedshe had outmaneuvered them.

Ptolemy XIII would not wait to see what happened next: From his

palace in Alexandria, he summoned a great army to march on the

city and attack Caesar. In response, Caesar immediately put

Ptolemy and the rest of the family under house arrest. But

Cleopatra's younger sister Arsinoe escaped from the palace and

placed herself at the head of the approaching Egyptian troops,

proclaiming herself queen of Egypt. Now Cleopatra finally saw her

chance: She convinced Caesar to release Ptolemy from house

arrest, under the agreement mat he would broker a truce. Of course

she knew he would do the oppositethat he would fight Arsinoe for

control of the Egyptian army. But this was to Cleopatra's benefit, for it

would divide the royal family. Better still, it would give Caesar the

chance to defeat and kill her siblings in batde.

Reinforced by troops from Rome, Caesar swiftly defeated the

rebels. In the Egyptians' retreat, Ptolemy drowned in the Nile.

Caesar captured Arsinoe and had her sent to Rome as a prisoner.

He also executed the numerous enemies who had conspired against

Cleopatra, and imprisoned others who had opposed her. To reinforce

her position as uncontested queen, Cleopatra now married die only

sibling left, Ptolemy XIVonly eleven at die time, and the weakest of

the lot. Four years later Ptolemy mysteriously died, of poison.

In 41 B.C., Cleopatra employed on a second Roman leader, Marc

Antony, the same tactics she had used so well on Julius Caesar.

After seducing him, she hinted to him that her sister Arsinoe, still a

prisoner in Rome, had conspired to destroy him. Marc Antony

believed her and prompdy had Arsinoe executed, diereby getting rid

of die last of the siblings who had posed such a threat to Cleopatra.

Interpretation

Legend has it mat Cleopatra succeeded dirough her seductive

charms, but in reality her power came from an ability to get people to

do her bidding without realizing diey were being manipulated.

Caesar and Antony not only rid her of her most dangerous

siblingsPtolemy XIII and Arsinoe they decimated all of her enemies,

in both the government and the military. The two men became her

cat's-paws. They entered the fire for her, did the ugly but necessary

work, while shielding her from appearing as the destroyer of her

siblings and fellow Egyptians. And in the end, both men acquiesced

to her desire to rule Egypt not as a Roman colony but as an

independent allied kingdom. And they did all mis for her widiout

realizing how she had manipulated them. This was persuasion of the

subdest and most powerful kind.

and crammed it in his

jaw.

Now came the shining

Mistress of the fane,

And off in haste the

two marauders

scampered.

Tom for his share of

the plunder had the

pain,

Whilst Pug his palate

with the dainties

pampered.

FABLES,

Jean de La Fontaine, 1621-1695

THE CROtt'-IIKN. TIIK COBRA. AM) THK JACKAL

Once upon a time there was a crow and his wife who had built a

nest in a banyan tree. A big snake crawled into the hollow trunk and

ale up the chicks as they were hatched. The crow did not want to

move, since he loved the tree dearly. So he went to his friend the

jackal for advice. A plan of action was devised. The crow and his

wife flew about in implementation. As the wife approached a pond,

she saw the women of the king's court bathing, with pearls,

necklaces, gems, garments, and a golden chain laying on the shore.

The crow-hen seized the golden chain in her beak and flew toward

the banyan tree with the eunuchs in pursuit. When she reached the

tree, she dropped the chain into the hole. As the kings'

men climbed the tree

for the chain, they saw

the swelling hood of

the cobra. So they

killed the snake with

their clubs, retrieved

the golden chain, and

went back to the pond.

And the crow and

his wife lived happily

ever after.

A TALE FROM THE

PANCHA1 ANTRA,

FOURTH CENTURY,

RETOLD IN

THE CRAFT OF POWER,

R.G. H. Siu, 1979

A queen must never dirty her hands with ugly tasks, nor can a

king appear in public with blood on his face. Yet power cannot

survive without the constant squashing of enemiesthere will always

be dirty little tasks that have to be done to keep you on the throne.

Like Cleopatra, you need a cat's-paw.

This will usually be a person from outside your immediate circle,

who will therefore be unlikely to realize how he or she is being used.

You will find these dupes everywherepeople who enjoy doing you

favors, especially if you throw them a minimal bone or two in

exchange. But as they accomplish tasks that may seem to them

innocent enough, or at least completely justified, they are actually

clearing the field for you, spreading the information you feed them,

undermining people they do not realize are your rivals, inadvertently

furthering your cause, dirtying dieir hands while yours remain

spotless.

HOW TO BROADCAST NKWS

When Omar, son of al-Khattab, was converted to Islam, he

wanted the news of his conversion to reach everyone quickly. He

went to see Jamil, son of Ma 'mar al-Jumahi. The latter was

renowned for the speed with which he passed on secrets. If he was

told anything in confidence, he let everyone know about it

immediately. Omar said to him: “I have become a Muslim. Do not say

anything. Keep it dark. Do not mention it in front of anyone.” Jamil

went out into the street and began shouting at the top of his voice:

“Do you believe that Omar, son of al-Khattab, has not become a

Muslim Well, do not believe that! I am telling you that he has!”

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW II

In the late 1920s, civil war broke out in China as the Nationalist

and Communist parties battled for control of the country. In 1927

Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist leader, vowed to kill every last

Communist, and over die next few years he nearly accomplished his

task, pushing his enemies hard until, in 1934-1935, he forced them

into the Long March, a six-thousand-mile retreat from the southeast

to the remote northwest, dirough harsh terrain, in which most of their

ranks were decimated. In late 1936 Chiang planned one last

offensive to wipe them out, but he was caught in a mutiny: His own

soldiers captured him and turned him over to the Communists. Now

he could only expect the worst.

Meanwhile, however, the Japanese began an invasion of China,

and much to Chiang's surprise, instead of killing him the Communist

leader, Mao Tse-tung, proposed a deal: The Communists would let

him go, and would recognize him as commander of their forces as

well as his, if he would agree to fight alongside them against dieir

common enemy. Chiang had expected torture and execution; now he

could not believe his luck. How soft these Reds had become.

Without having to fight a rearguard action against die Communists,

he knew he could beat the Japanese, and then a few years down die

line he would turn around and destroy the Reds with ease. He had

nothing to lose and everything to gain by agreeing to their terms.

The Communists proceeded to fight die Japanese in their usual

fashion, with hit-and-run guerrilla tactics, while the Nationalists

fought a more conventional war. Togetiier, after several years, they

succeeded in evicting the Japanese. Now, however, Chiang finally

understood what Mao had really planned. His own army had met die

brunt of the Japanese artillery, was greatly weakened, and would

take a few years to recover. The Communists, meanwhile, had not

only avoided any direct hits from the Japanese, they had used the

time to recoup their strength, and to spread out

and gain pockets of influence all over China. As soon as the war

against the Japanese ended, the civil war started againbut this time

the Communists enveloped the weakened Nationalists and slowly

beat them into submission. The Japanese had served as Mao's

cat's-paw, inadvertentiy ploughing the fields for die Communists and

making possible dieir victory over Chiang Kai-shek.

Interpretation

Most leaders who had taken as powerful an enemy as Chiang

Kai-shek prisoner would have made sure to kill him. But in doing so

they would have lost the chance Mao exploited. Without the

experienced Chiang as leader of the Nationalists, the fight to drive

die Japanese out might have lasted much longer, widi devastating

results. Mao was far too clever to let anger spoil the chance to kill

two birds with one stone. In essence, Mao used two cat's-paws to

help him attain total victory. First, he cleverly baited Chiang into

taking charge of the war against die Japanese. Mao knew the

Nationalists led by Chiang would do most of the hard fighting and

would succeed in pushing the Japanese out of China, if tiiey did not

have to concern themselves with fighting the Communists at the

same time. The Nationalists, then, were the first cat's-paw, used to

evict the Japanese. But Mao also knew that in die process of leading

the war against the invaders, the Japanese artillery and air support

would decimate the conventional forces of the Nationalists, doing

damage it could take the Communists decades to inflict. Why waste

time and lives if die Japanese could do die job quickly It was this

wise policy of using one cat's-paw after another that allowed the

Communists to prevail.

There are two uses of the cat's-paw: to save appearances, as

Cleopatra did, and to save energy and effort. The latter case in

particular demands that you plan several moves in advance,

realizing that a temporary move backward (letting Chiang go, say)

can lead to a giant leap forward. If you are temporarily weakened

and need time to recover, it will often serve you well to use those

around you botii as a screen to hide your intentions and as a cat's-

paw to do your work for you. Look for a powerful third party who

shares an enemy with you (if for different reasons), then take

advantage of their superior power to deal blows which would have

cost you much more energy, since you are weaker. You can even

gendy guide them into hostilities. Always search out die overly

aggressive as potential cat's-pawsdiey are often more than willing to

get into a fight, and you can choose just the right fight for your

purposes.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW III

Kuriyama Daizen was an adept of Cha-no-yu (Hot Water for Tea,

the Japanese tea ceremony) and a student of the teachings of the

great tea master Sen no Rikyu. Around 1620 Daizen learned that a

friend of his, Hoshino Soemon, had borrowed a large sum of money

(300 ryo) to help a

The news of Omar's conversion to Islam was spread everywhere.

And that was just what he intended.

THE SUBTLE RUSE: THE BOOK OF ARABIC WISDOM AND

GUILE, THIRTEENTH CENTURY

A FOOL AND A WISE MAN

A wise man, walking alone, Was being bothered by a fool

throwing stones at his head. Turning to face him, he said:

"My dear chap, well thrown!

Please accept these few francs. You 've worked hard enough to

get more than mere thanks. Every effort deserves its reward.

But see that man over there He can afford More than 1 can-

Present him with some of your stones: they'll earn a good wage."

Lured by the bait, the stupid man Ran off to repeat the outrage On

the other worthy citizen.

This time he wasn 't paid in money for his stones. Up rushed

serving-men, And seized him and thrashed him and broke all his

bones. In the courts of kings there are pests like this, devoid of

sense: They'll make their

master laugh at your

expense.

To silence their cackle,

should you hand out

rough

Punishment Maybe

you 're not strong

enough.

Better persuade them

to attack

Somebody else, who

can more than pay

them back.

selected fables,

Jean de La Fontaine,

1621-1695

A merchant kept a bird in a cage. He was going to India, the land

from which the bird came, and asked it whether he could bring

anything back for it. The bird asked for its freedom, but was refused.

So he asked the merchant to visit a jungle in India and announce his

captivity to the free birds who were there. The merchant did so, and

no sooner had he spoken when a wild bird, just like his own, fell

senseless out of a tree on to the ground. The merchant thought that

this must be a relative of his own bird, and felt sad that he should

have caused this death. When he got home, the bird asked him

whether he had brought good news from India. “No,”said the

merchant, "1 fear that my news is bad. One of

relative who had fallen into debt. But although Soemon had

managed to bail out his relative, he had simply displaced the burden

onto himself. Daizen knew Soemon wellhe neither cared nor

understood much about money, and could easily get into trouble

through slowness in repaying the loan, which had been made by a

wealthy merchant called Kawachiya Sanemon. Yet if Daizen offered

to help Soemon pay back the loan, he would refuse, out of pride, and

might even be offended.

One day Daizen visited his friend, and after touring the garden

and looking at Soemon's prized peonies, they retired to his reception

room. Here Daizen saw a painting by the master Kano Tennyu. “Ah,”

Daizen exclaimed, “a splendid piece of painting. ... I don't know

when I have seen anything I like better.” After several more bouts of

praise, Soemon had no choice: “Well,” he said, “since you like it so

much, I hope you will do me the favor of accepting it.”

At first Daizen refused, but when Soemon insisted he gave in.

The next day Soemon in turn received a package from Daizen.

Inside it was a beautiful and delicate vase, which Daizen, in an

accompanying note, asked his friend to accept as a token of his

appreciation for the painting that Soemon had so graciously given

him the day before. He explained that the vase had been made by

Sen no Rikyu himself, and bore an inscription from Emperor

Hideyoshi. If Soemon did not care for the vase, Daizen suggested,

he might make a gift of it to an adherent of Cha-no-yuperhaps the

merchant Kawachiya Sanemon, who had often expressed a desire to

possess it. “I hear,” Daizen continued, “he has a fine piece of fancy

paper [the 300-ryo I.O.U.] which you would much like. It is possible

you might arrange an exchange.”

Realizing what his gracious friend was up to, Soemon took the

vase to the wealthy lender. “However did you get this,” exclaimed

Sanemon, when Soemon showed him the vase. “I have often heard

of it, but this is the first time I have ever seen it. It is such a treasure

that it is never allowed outside the gate!” He instandy offered to

exchange the debt note for the flower vase, and to give Soemon 300

ryo more on top of it. But Soemon, who did not care for money, only

wanted the debt note back, and Sanemon gladly gave it to him. Then

Soemon immediately hurried to Daizen's house to thank him for his

clever support.

Interpretation

Kuriyama Daizen understood that the granting of a favor is never

simple: If it is done with fuss and obviousness, its receiver feels

burdened by an obligation. This may give the doer a certain power,

but it is a power that will eventually self-destruct, for it will stir up

resentment and resistance. A favor done indirecdy and elegantly has

ten times more power. Daizen knew a direct approach would only

have offended Soemon. By letting his friend give him the painting,

however, he made Soemon feel that he too had pleased his friend

with a gift. In the end, all three parties emerged from the encounter

feeling fulfilled in their own way.

In essence, Daizen made himself the cat's-paw, the tool to take

the chestnuts out of the fire. He must have felt some pain in losing

the vase, but he gained not only the painting but, more important, the

power of the courtier. The courtier uses his gloved hand to soften

any blows against him, disguise his scars, and make the act of

rescue more elegant and clean. By helping others, the courtier

eventually helps himself. Daizen's example provides the paradigm

for every favor done between friends and peers: never impose your

favors. Search out ways to make yourself the cat's-paw, indirectly

extricating your friends from distress without imposing yourself or

making them feel obligated to you.

One should not be too straightforward. Go and see the forest.

The straight trees are cut down, the crooked ones are left standing.

Kautilya, Indian philosopher, third century B.C.

KEYS TO POWER

As a leader you may imagine that constant diligence, and the

appearance of working harder than anyone else, signify power.

Actually, though, they have the opposite effect: They imply

weakness. Why are you working so hard Perhaps you are

incompetent, and have to put in extra effort just to keep up; perhaps

you are one of those people who does not know how to delegate,

and has to meddle in everything. The truly powerful, on the other

hand, seem never to be in a hurry or overburdened. While others

work their fingers to the bone, they take their leisure. They know how

to find the right people to put in the effort while they save their

energy and keep their hands out of the fire. Similarly, you may

believe that by taking on the dirty work yourself, involving yourself

directly in unpleasant actions, you impose your power and instill fear.

In fact you make yourself look ugly, and abusive of your high

position. Truly powerful people keep their hands clean. Only good

things surround them, and die only announcements they make are of

glorious achievements.

You will often find it necessary, of course, to expend energy, or to

effect an evil but necessary action. But you must never appear to be

this action's agent. Find a cat's-paw. Develop the arts of finding,

using, and, in time, getting rid of these people when their cat's-paw

role has been fulfilled.

On the eve of an important river battle, the great third-century

Chinese strategist Chuko Liang found himself falsely accused of

secretly working for die other side. As proof of his loyalty, his

commander ordered him to produce 100,000 arrows for the army

within three days, or be put to death. Instead of trying to manufacture

the arrows, an impossible task, Liang took a dozen boats and had

bundles of straw lashed to their sides. In the late afternoon, when

mist always blanketed the river, he floated the boats toward the

enemy camp. Fearing a trap from the wily Chuko Liang, the enemy

did not attack the barely visible boats with boats of their own,

your relations collapsed and fell at my feet when I mentioned

your captivity. “ As soon as these words were spoken the merchant's

bird collapsed and fell to the bottom of the cage. ”The news of his

kinsman 's death has killed him, too,“ thought the merchant.

Sorrowfully he picked up the bird and put it on the windowsill. At

once the bird revived and flew to a nearby tree. ”Now you know,“ the

bird said, ”that what you thought was disaster was in fact good news

for me. And how the message, the suggestion of how to behave in

order to free myself, was transmitted to me through you, my captor. "

And he flew away, free at last.

tales of the dervishes, Idries Shah, 1967

DAVID AND BAT1ISHKBA

At the turn of the year, when kings take the field, David sent Joab

out with his other officers and all the Israelite forces, and they

ravaged Amnion and laid siege to Rabbah, while David remained in

Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his couch and, as he

walked about on the roof of the palace, he saw from there a woman

bathing and she was very beautiful. He sent to inquire who she was,

and the answer came, "It must be Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and

wife of

Uriah the Hittite "

David wrote a letter to

Joab and sent Uriah

with it. He wrote in the

letter: "Put Uriah

opposite the enemy

where the fighting is

fiercest and then fall

back, and leave him to

meet his death. "...

Joab ... stationed

Uriah at a point where

he knew they would

put up a stout fight. The

men of the city sallied

out and engaged Joab,

and some of David's

guards fell; Uriah the

Hittite was also killed.

Joab sent David a

dispatch with all the

news of the battle....

When Uriah's wife

heard that her husband

was dead, she mourned

for him; and when the

period of mourning

was over, David sent

for her and brought her

into his house. She

became his wife and

bore him a son.

OLD TESTAMENT, 2SAMUHL, 11-12

but showered them with arrows from the bank. As Liang's boats

inched closer, they redoubled the rain of arrows, which stuck in the

thick straw. After several hours, the men hiding on board sailed the

vessels quickly downstream, where Chuko Liang met diem and

collected his 100,000 arrows.

Chuko Liang would never do work that others could do for himhe

was always thinking up tricks like this one. The key to planning such

a strategy is the ability to think far ahead, to imagine ways in which

other people can be baited into doing the job for you.

An essential element in making this strategy work is to disguise

your goal, shrouding it in mystery, like the strange enemy boats

appearing dimly in the mist. When your rivals cannot be sure what

you are after, they will react in ways that often work against them in

the long run. In fact they will become your cat's-paws. If you disguise

your intentions, it is much easier to guide them into moves mat

accomplish exacdy what you want done, but prefer not to do

yourself. This may require planning several moves in advance, like a

billiard ball that bounces off the sides a few times before heading

into the right pocket.

The early-twentieth-century American con artist Yellow Kid Weil

knew that no matter how skillfully he homed in on the perfect wealthy

sucker, if he, a stranger, approached mis man directly, the sucker

might become suspicious. So Weil would find someone the sucker

already knew to serve as a cat's-pawsomeone lower on the totem

pole who was himself an unlikely target, and would therefore be less

suspicious. Weil would interest mis man in a scheme promising

incredible weahh. Convinced the scheme was for real, the cat's-paw

would often suggest, without prompting, that his boss or wealthy

friend should get involved: Having more cash to invest, this man

would increase the size of the pot, making bigger bucks for all

concerned. The cat's-paw would then involve the wealthy sucker

who had been Weil's target all along, but who would not suspect a

trap, since it was his trusty subordinate who had roped him in.

Devices like mis are often the best way to approach a person of

power: Use an associate or subordinate to hook you up with your

primary target. The cat's-paw establishes your credibility and shields

you from the unsavory appearance of being too pushy in your

courtship.

The easiest and most effective way to use a cat's-paw is often to

plant information with him that he will then spread to your primary

target. False or planted information is a powerful tool, especially if

spread by a dupe whom no one suspects. You will find it very easy to

play innocent and disguise yourself as the source.

The strategic therapist Dr. Milton H. Erickson would often

encounter among his patients a married couple in which the wife

wanted the therapy but the husband absolutely refused it. Rather

than wasting energy trying to deal with the man direcdy, Dr. Erickson

would see the wife alone, and as she talked he would interject

interpretations of the husband's behavior that he knew would rile the

husband up if he heard them. Sure enough, die wife would tell her

husband what the doctor had said. After a few weeks die

husband would be so furious he would insist on joining his wife in

the sessions so he could set the doctor straight.

Finally, you may well find cases in which deliberately offering

yourself as the cat's-paw will ultimately gain you great power. This is

the ruse of the perfect courtier. Its symbol is Sir Walter Raleigh, who

once placed his own cloak on the muddy ground so that Queen

Elizabeth would not sully her shoes. As the instrument that protects

a master or peer from unpleasantness or danger, you gain immense

respect, which sooner or later will pay dividends. And remember: If

you can make your assistance subde and gracious rather than

boastful and burdensome, your recompense will be that much die

more satisfying and powerful.

Image: The Cat's-Paw.

It has long claws to grab

things. It is soft and

padded. Take hold of the cat

and use its paw to pluck

things out of the fire, to claw

your enemy, to play with the

mouse before devouring it.

Sometimes you hurt the

cat, but most often it

doesn't feel a thing.

Authority: Do everything pleasant yourself, everything unpleasant

through third parties. By adopting the first course you win favor, by

taking the second you deflect ill will. Important affairs often require

rewards and punishments. Let only the good come from you and the

evil from others. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

The cat's-paw and the scapegoat must be used with extreme

caution and delicacy. They are like screens that hide your own

involvement in dirty work from the public; if at any moment the

screen is lifted and you are seen as the manipulator, the puppet

master, the whole dynamic turns aroundyour hand will be seen

everywhere, and you will be blamed for misfortunes you may have

had nothing to do with. Once the truth is revealed, events will

snowball beyond your control.

In 1572, Queen Catherine de' Medicis of France conspired to do

away with Gaspard de Coligny, an admiral in the French navy and a

leading member of the Huguenot (French Protestant) community.

Coligny was close to Catherine's son, Charles IX, and she feared his

growing influence on the young king. So she arranged for a member

of the Guise family, one of the most powerful royal clans in France,

to assassinate him.

Secretly, however, Catherine had another plan: She wanted the

Huguenots to blame the Guises for killing one of their leaders, and to

take revenge. With one blow, she would erase or injure two

threatening rivals, Coligny and the Guise family. Yet both plans went

awry. The assassin missed his target, only wounding Coligny;

knowing Catherine as his enemy, he strongly suspected it was she

who had set up the attack on him, and he told the king so. Eventually

the failed assassination and the arguments that ensued from it set

off a chain of events that led to a bloody civil war between Catholics

and Protestants, culminating in the horrifying Massacre of St.

Bartholomew's Eve, in which thousands of Protestants were killed.

If you have to use a cat's-paw or a scapegoat in an action of

great consequence, be very careful: Too much can go wrong. It is

often wiser to use such dupes in more innocent endeavors, where

mistakes or miscalculations will cause no serious harm.

Finally, there are moments when it is advantageous to not

disguise your involvement or responsibility, but rather to take the

blame yourself for some mistake. If you have power and are secure

in it, you should sometimes play the penitent: With a sorrowful look,

you ask for forgiveness from those weaker than you. It is the ploy of

the king who makes a show of his own sacrifices for die good of die

people. Similarly, upon occasion you may want to appear as the

agent of punishment in order to instill fear and trembling in your

subordinates. Instead of the cat's-paw you show your own mighty

hand as a threatening gesture. Play such a card sparingly. If you

play it too often, fear will turn into resentment and hatred. Before you

know it, such emotions will spark a vigorous opposition that will

someday bring you down. Get in the habit of using a cat's-pawit is far

safer.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 27

PLAY ON PEOPLE'S NEED

TO BELIEVE TO CREATE A

CULTLIKE FOLLOWING

JUDGMENT

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.

He was to the charlatan's advantage that the individuals

predisposed to credulity should multiply, that the groups of his

adherents should enlarge to mass proportions, guaranteeing an ever

greater scope for his triumphs. And this was in fact to occur, as

science was popularized, from the Renaissance on down through

succeeding centuries. With the immense growth of knowledge and

its spread through printing in modern times, the mass of the half

educated, the eagerly gullible prey of the quack, also increased,

became indeed a majority; real power could be based on their

wishes, opinions, preferences, and rejections. The charlatan's

empire accordingly widened with the modern dissemination of

knowledge; since he operated on the basis of science, however

much he perverted it, producing gold with a technique borrowed from

chemistry and his wonderful balsams with the apparatus of medicine,

he could not appeal to an entirely ignorant folk. The illiterate would

be protected against his absurdities by their healthy common sense.

His choicest audience would be composed of the semiliterate, those

who had exchanged their common sense for a little distorted

information and had

THE SCIENCE OF CHARLATANISM, OR HOW TO CREATE A

CULT IN FIVE EASY STEPS In searching, as you must, for the

methods that will gain you the most power for the least effort, you will

find the creation of a cultlike following one of the most effective.

Having a large following opens up all sorts of possibilities for

deception; not only will your followers worship you, they will defend

you from your enemies and will voluntarily take on the work of

enticing others to join your fledgling cult. This kind of power will lift

you to another realm: You will no longer have to struggle or use

subterfuge to enforce your will. You are adored and can do no

wrong.

You might think it a gargantuan task to create such a following,

but in fact it is fairly simple. As humans, we have a desperate need

to believe in something, anything. This makes us eminently gullible:

We simply cannot endure long periods of doubt, or of the emptiness

that comes from a lack of something to believe in. Dangle in front of

us some new cause, elixir, get-rich-quick scheme, or the latest

technological trend or art movement and we leap from the water as

one to take the bait. Look at history: The chronicles of the new

trends and cults that have made a mass following for diem-selves

could fill a library. After a few centuries, a few decades, a few years,

a few months, they generally look ridiculous, but at the time they

seem so attractive, so transcendental, so divine.

Always in a rush to believe in something, we will manufacture

saints and faiths out of nothing. Do not let this gullibility go to waste:

Make yourself the object of worship. Make people form a cult around

you.

The great European charlatans of the sixteenth and seventeenth

centuries mastered the art of cultmaking. They lived, as we do now,

in a time of transformation: Organized religion was on the wane,

science on the rise. People were desperate to rally around a new

cause or faith. The charlatans had begun by peddling health elixirs

and alchemic shortcuts to wealth. Moving quickly from town to town,

they originally focused on small groupsuntil, by accident, they

stumbled on a truth of human nature: The larger the group they

gathered around themselves, the easier it was to deceive.

The charlatan would station himself on a high wooden platform

(hence the term “mountebank”) and crowds would swarm around

him. In a group setting, people were more emotional, less able to

reason. Had the charlatan spoken to them individually, they might

have found him ridiculous, but lost in a crowd they got caught up in a

communal mood of rapt attention. It became impossible for them to

find the distance to be skeptical. Any deficiencies in the charlatan's

ideas were hidden by the zeal of the mass. Passion and enthusiasm

swept tiirough the crowd like a contagion, and they reacted violently

to anyone who dared to spread a seed of doubt. Both consciously

studying this dynamic over decades of experiment and

spontaneously adapting to these situations as diey happened, the

charlatans perfected the science of attracting and holding a crowd,

molding die crowd into followers and die followers into a cult.

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 die names of their elixirs and modernizing the look of their

cults. We find diese latter-day charlatans in all arenas of

lifebusiness, 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 die five steps of cultmaking that our charlatan ancestors

perfected over the years.

Step 1: Keep It Vague; Keep It Simple. To create a cult you must

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 two elements: on uie one hand the promise of somediing

great and transformative, and on die other a total vagueness. This

combination will stimulate all kinds of hazy dreams in your listeners,

who will make dieir own connections and see what they want to see.

To make your vagueness attractive, use words of great

resonance but cloudy meaning, words full of heat and enthusiasm.

Fancy tides for simple things are helpful, as are the use of numbers

and the creation of new words for vague concepts. All of these

create the impression of specialized knowledge, giving you a veneer

of profundity. By the same token, try to make the subject of your cult

new and fresh, so diat few will understand it. Done right, the

combination of vague promises, cloudy but alluring concepts, and

fiery endiusiasm will stir people's souls and a group will form around

you.

Talk too vaguely and you have no credibility. But it is more

dangerous to be specific. If you explain in detail the benefits people

will gain by following your cult, you will be expected to satisfy mem.

As a corollary to its vagueness your appeal should also be

simple. Most people's problems have complex causes: deep-rooted

neurosis, interconnected social factors, roots that go way back in

time and are exceedingly hard to unravel. Few, however, have the

patience to deal with this; most people want to hear that a simple

solution will cure their problems. The ability to offer mis kind of

solution will give you great power and build you a following. Instead

of the complicated explanations of real life, return to die primitive

solutions of our ancestors, to good old country remedies, to

mysterious panaceas.

Step 2: Emphasize the Visual and the Sensual over the

Intellectual.

Once people have begun to gadier around you, two dangers will

present themselves: boredom and skepticism. Boredom will make

people go elsewhere; skepticism will allow them the distance to think

rationally about whatever it is you are offering, blowing away die mist

you have artfully created and revealing your ideas for what tiiey are.

You need to amuse the bored, then, and ward off die cynics.

encountered science and education at some time, though briefly

and unsuccessfully.... The great mass of mankind has always been

predisposed to marvel at mysteries, and this was especially true at

certain historic periods when the secure foundations of life seemed

shaken and old values, economic or spiritual, long accepted as

certainties, could no longer be relied upon. Then the numbers of the

charlatan's dupes multipliedthe “self killers,” as a seventeenth-

century Englishman called them.

the power of the

charlatan,

Grete de Francesco,

THE OWI. WHO WAS GOD

Once upon a starless midnight there was an owl who sat on the

branch of an oak tree. Two ground moles tried to slip quietly by,

unnoticed. “You!”said the owl. “Who” they quavered, in fear and

astonishment, for they could not believe it was possible for anyone to

see them in that thick darkness. “You two!” said the owl. The moles

hurried away and told the other creatures of the field and forest that

the owl was the greatest and wisest of all animals because he could

see in the dark

and because he could answer any question. “I'll see about that,”

said a secretary bird, and he called on the owl one night when it was

again very dark. “How many claws am 1 holding up ” said the

secretary bird. “Two,” said the owl, and that was right. “Can you give

me another expression for 'that is to say' or 'namely'” asked the

secretary bird. “To wit,”said the owl. “Why does a lover call on his

love” asked the secretary bird. “To woo,” said the owl. The secretary

bird hastened back to the other creatures and reported that the owl

was indeed the greatest and wisest animal in the world because he

could see in the dark and because he could answer any question.

“Can he see in the daytime, too” asked a red fox. “ Yes,” echoed a

dormouse and a French poodle. “Can he see in the daytime, too” All

the other creatures laughed loudly at this silly question, and they set

upon the red fox and his friends and drove them out of the region.

Then they sent a messenger to the owl and asked him to be their

leader. When the owl appeared among the animals it was high noon

and the sun was shining brightly. He walked very slowly, which gave

him an appearance of great dignity, and he peered about him with

large, staring eyes, which gave him an air

The best way to do this is through theater, or other devices of its

kind. Surround yourself widi luxury, dazzle your followers with visual

splendor, 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. Appeal to

all the senses: Use incense for scent, soothing music for hearing,

colorful charts and graphs for die eye. You might even tickle the

mind, perhaps by using new technological gadgets to give your cult a

pseudo-scientific veneeras long as you do not make anyone really

think. Use die exoticdistant cultures, strange customsto create

dieatrical effects, and to make the most banal and ordinary affairs

seem signs of somediing extraordinary.

Step 3: Borrow the Forms of Organized Religion to Structure the

Group. Your cultlike following is growing; it is time to organize it. Find

a way both elevating and comforting. Organized religions have long

held unquestioned authority for large numbers of people, and

continue to do so in our supposedly secular age. And even if the

religion itself has faded some, its forms still resonate with power. The

lofty and holy associations of organized religion can be endlessly

exploited. Create rituals for your followers; organize diem into a

hierarchy, ranking them in grades of sanctity, and giving diem names

and tides mat resound with religious overtones; ask diem for

sacrifices mat will fill your coffers and increase your power. To

emphasize your gadiering's quasi-religious nature, talk and act like a

prophet. You are not a dictator, after all; you are a priest, a guru, a

sage, a shaman, or any odier word diat hides your real power in the

mist of religion.

Step 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 wim your followers' money. Yet you must never be

seen as hungry for money and the power it brings. It is at diis

moment that you must disguise die source of your income.

Your followers want to believe diat if they follow you all sorts of

good things will fall into dieir lap. By surrounding yourself widi luxury

you become living proof of the soundness of your belief system.

Never reveal that your wealth actually comes from your followers'

pockets; instead, make it seem to come from die trum of your

mediods. Followers will copy your each and every move in die belief

mat it will bring diem the same results, and dieir imitative enthusiasm

will blind diem to the charlatan nature of your wealdi.

Step 5: Set Up an Us-Versus-Them Dynamic. The group is now

large and diriving, a magnet attracting more and more particles. If

you are not careful, though, inertia will set in, and time and boredom

will demagnetize die group. To keep your followers united, you must

now do what all religions and belief systems have done: create an

us-versus-diem dynamic. First, make sure your followers believe

they are part of an exclusive

club, unified by a bond of common goals. Then, to strengdien this

bond, manufacture the notion of a devious enemy out to ruin you.

There is a force of nonbelievers that will do anything to stop you. Any

outsider who tries to reveal the charlatan nature of your belief

system can now be described as a member of this devious force.

If you have no enemies, invent one. Given a straw man to react

against, your followers will tighten and cohere. They have your

cause to believe in and infidels to destroy.

OBSERVANCES OF THE LAW

Observance I

In the year 1653, a twenty-seven-year-old Milan man named

Francesco Giuseppe Borri claimed to have had a vision. He went

around town telling one and all mat the archangel Michael had

appeared to him and announced that he had been chosen to be the

capitano generate of the Army of the New Pope, an army that would

seize and revitalize the world. The archangel had further revealed

that Borri now had the power to see people's souls, and that he

would soon discover the philosopher's stonea long-sought-after

substance that could change base metals into gold. Friends and

acquaintances who heard Borri explain the vision, and who

witnessed the change that had come over him, were impressed, for

Borri had previously devoted himself to a life of wine, women, and

gambling. Now he gave all that up, plunging himself into the study of

alchemy and talking only of mysticism and the occult.

The transformation was so sudden and miraculous, and Borri's

words were so filled with enthusiasm, that he began to create a

following. Unfortunately the Italian Inquisition began to notice him as

wellthey prosecuted anyone who delved into the occultso he left Italy

and began to wander Europe, from Austria to Holland, telling one

and all that “to those who follow me all joy shall be granted.”

Wherever Borri stayed he attracted followers. His method was

simple: He spoke of his vision, which had grown more and more

elaborate, and offered to “look into” the soul of anyone who believed

him (and they were many). Seemingly in a trance, he would stare at

this new follower for several minutes, then claim to have seen the

person's soul, degree of enlightenment, and potential for spiritual

greatness. If what he saw showed promise, he would add the person

to his growing order of disciples, an honor indeed.

The cult had six degrees, into which the disciples were assigned

according to what Borri had glimpsed in their souls. With work and

total devotion to the cult they could graduate to a higher degree.

Borriwhom they called “His Excellency,” and “Universal

Doctor”demanded from them die strictest vows of poverty. All the

goods and moneys they possessed had to be turned over to him. But

diey did not mind handing over their property, for Borri had told them,

"I shall soon bring my chemical

of tremendous importance. “He's God!” screamed a Plymouth

Rock hen. And the others took up the cry “He's God!”So they

followed him wherever he went and when he began to bump into

things they began to bump into things, too. Finally he came to a

concrete highway and he started up the middle of it and all the other

creatures followed him. Presently a hawk, who was acting as

outrider, observed a truck coming toward them at fifty miles an hour,

and he reported to the secretary bird and the secretary bird reported

to the owl. “ There's danger ahead,” said the secretary bird. “ To wit ”

said the owl. The secretary bird told him. “A ren 't you afraid ” He

asked. “Who”said the owl calmly, for he could not see the truck.

“He's God!” cried all the creatures again, and they were still crying

“He's God!” when the truck hit them and ran them down. Some of the

animals were merely injured, but most of them, including the owl,

were killed. Moral: You can fool too many of the people too much of

the time.

the thurber carnival, James Thurber , 1894-1961

To become the founder of a new religion one must he

psychologically infallible in one's knowledge of a certain average

type of souls who have not yet recognized that they belong together.

Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900

Men are so simple of

mind, and so much

dominated by their

immediate needs, that a

deceitful man will

always find plenty who

are ready to be

deceived.

NicroLO Machiavem.i, 1469-1527

111!'. IKMI'LK OF III, VI II ]

[In the late 1780s] the Scottish quack James Graham .. . was

winning a large following and great riches in London.... [Graham]

maintained a show of great scientific technique. In 1772 ... he had

visited Philadelphia, where he met Benjamin Franklin and became

interested in the latter's experiments with electricity. These appear to

have inspired the apparatus in the “Temple of Health,”

studies to a happy conclusion by the discovery of the

philosopher's stone, and by this means we shall all have as much

gold as we desire."

Given his growing wealtii, Borri began to change his style of

living. Renting the most splendid apartment in the city into which he

had temporarily setded, he would furnish it with fabulous furniture

and accessories, which he had begun to collect. He would drive

through the city in a coach studded with jewels, with six magnificent

black horses at its head. He never stayed too long in one place, and

when he disappeared, saying he had more souls to gather into his

flock, his reputation only grew in his absence. He became famous,

although in fact he had never done a single concrete thing.

From all over Europe, the blind, the crippled, and the desperate

came to visit Borri, for word had spread that he had healing powers.

He asked no fee for his services, which only made him seem more

marvelous, and indeed some claimed tfiat in this or mat city he had

performed a miracle cure. By only hinting at his accomplishments, he

encouraged people's imaginations to blow diem up to fantastic

proportions. His wealdi, for example, actually came from the vast

sums he was collecting from his increasingly select group of rich

disciples; yet it was presumed that he had in fact perfected the

philosopher's stone. The Church continued to pursue him,

denouncing him for heresy and witchcraft, and Borri's response to

these charges was a dignified silence; this only enhanced his

reputation and made his followers more passionate. Only die great

are persecuted, after all; how many understood Jesus Christ in his

own time Borri did not have to say a wordhis followers now called the

Pope the Antichrist.

And so Borri's power grew and grew, until one day he left the city

of Amsterdam (where he had setded for a while), absconding with

huge sums of borrowed money and diamonds that had been

entrusted to him. (He claimed to be able to remove the flaws from

diamonds through the power of his gifted mind.) Now he was on the

run. The Inquisition eventually caught up with him, and for the last

twenty years of his life he was imprisoned in Rome. But so great was

the belief in his occult powers that to his dying day he was visited by

wealthy believers, including Queen Christina of Sweden. Supplying

him with money and materials, diese visitors allowed him to continue

his search for die elusive philosopher's stone. Interpretation

Before he formed his cult, Borri seems to have stumbled on a

critical discovery. Tiring of his life of debauchery, he had decided to

give it up and to devote himself to the occult, a genuine interest of

his. He must have noticed, however, mat when he alluded to a

mystical experience (rather than physical exhaustion) as die source

of his conversion, people of all classes wanted to hear more.

Realizing the power he could gain by ascribing the change to

sometiiing external and mysterious, he went further widi his

manufactured visions. The grander the vision, and the more

sacrifices he asked for, die more appealing and believable his story

seemed to become.

Remember: People are not interested in die trutii about change.

They

do not want to hear that it has come from hard work, or from

anything as banal as exhaustion, boredom, or depression; they are

dying to believe in something romantic, otherworldly. They want to

hear of angels and out-of-body experiences. Indulge them. Hint at

the mystical source of some personal change, wrap it in ethereal

colors, and a cuklike following will form around you. Adapt to

people's needs: The messiah must mirror the desires of his

followers. And always aim high. The bigger and bolder your illusion,

the better.

Observance II

In the mid-1700s, word spread in Europe's fashionable society of

a Swiss country doctor named Michael Schiippach who practiced a

different kind of medicine: He used the healing powers of nature to

perform miraculous cures. Soon well-to-do people from all over the

Continent, their ailments both serious and mild, were making the trek

to the alpine village of Lang-nau, where Schiippach lived and

worked. Trudging tiirough the mountains, these visitors witnessed

the most dramatic natural landscapes that Europe has to offer. By

the time they reached Langnau, they were already feeling

transformed and on their way to health.

Schiippach, who had become known as simply the “Mountain

Doctor,” had a small pharmacy in town. This place became quite a

scene: Crowds of people from many different countries would cram

the small room, its walls lined with colorful bottles filled with herbal

cures. Where most doctors of the time prescribed foul-tasting

concoctions that bore incomprehensible Latin titles (as medicines

often do still), Schiippach's cures had names such as “The Oil of

Joy,” “Little Flower's Heart,” or “Against the Monster,” and they tasted

sweet and pleasing.

Visitors to Langnau would have to wait patiently for a visit with

the Mountain Doctor, because every day some eighty messengers

would arrive at the pharmacy bearing flasks of urine from all over

Europe. Schiippach claimed he could diagnose what ailed you

simply by looking at a sample of your urine and reading a written

description of your ailment. (Naturally he read the description very

carefully before prescribing a cure.) When he finally had a spare

minute (the urine samples took up much of his time), he would call

the visitor into his office in the pharmacy. He would then examine this

person's urine sample, explaining that its appearance would tell him

everything he needed to know. Country people had a sense for these

things, he would saytheir wisdom came from living a simple, godly

life with none of the complications of urban living. This personal

consultation would also include a discussion as to how one might

bring one's soul more into harmony with nature.

Schiippach had devised many forms of treatment, each

profoundly unlike the usual medical practices of the time. He was a

believer, for instance, in electric shock tiierapy. To those who

wondered whether this was in keeping with his belief in the healing

power of nature, he would explain that electricity is a natural

phenomenon; he was merely imitating the

the fabulous establishment he opened in London for the sale of

his elixirs.... In the chief room, where he received patients, stood “the

largest air pump in the world ” to assist him in his “philosophical

investigations” into disease, and also a “stupendous metallic

conductor,” a richly gilded pedestal surrounded with retorts and vials

of “etherial and other essences. ” .. .According to J. Ennemoser, who

published a history of magic in 1844 at Leipzig, Graham's “house ...

united the useful with the pleasurable. Everywhere the utmost

magnificence was displayed. Even in the outer court, averred an

eye-witness, it seemed as though art, invention, and riches had been

exhausted. On the side walls in the chambers an arc-shaped glow

was provided by artificial electric light; star rays darted forth;

transparent glasses of all colors were placed with clever selection

and much taste. All this, the same eyewitness assures us, was

ravishing and exalted the imagination to the highest degree.” Visitors

were given a printed sheet of rules for healthy living. In the Great

Apollo Apartment they might join in mysterious rituals, accompanied

by chants: “Hail, Vital Air, aethereal! Magnetic Magic, hail!”And while

they hailed the

magic of magnetism, the windows were darkened, revealing a

ceiling studded with electric stars and a young and lovely “Rosy

Goddess of Health ” in a niche.... Every evening this Temple of

Health was crowded with guests; it had become the fashion to visit it

and try the great twelve-foot bed of state, the “Grand Celestial Bed, ”

said to cure any disease. . . . This bed, according to Ennemoser,

“stood in a splendid room, into which a cylinder led from an adjoining

chamber to conduct the healing currents ... at the same time all sorts

of pleasing scents of strengthening herbs and Oriental incense were

also brought in through glass tubes. The heavenly bed itself rested

upon six solid transparent pillars; the bedclothes were of purple and

sky-blue Atlas silk, spread over a mattress saturated with Arabian

perfumed waters to suit the tastes of the Persian court. The chamber

in which it was placed he called the Sanctum Sanctorum. ... To add

to all this, there were the melodious notes of the harmonica, soft

flutes, agreeable voices, and a great organ.”

the power of the

charlatan,

Crete de Francesco,

power of lightning. One of his patients claimed to be inhabited by

seven devils. The doctor cured him with electrical shocks, and as he

administered these he exclaimed that he could see the devils flying

out of the man's body, one by one. Another man claimed to have

swallowed a hay wagon and its driver, which were causing him

massive pains in the chest. The Mountain Doctor listened patientiy,

claimed to be able to hear the crack of a whip in the man's belly,

promised to cure him, and gave him a sedative and a purgative. The

man fell asleep on a chair outside the pharmacy. As soon as he

awoke he vomited, and as he vomited a hay wagon sped past him

(the Mountain Doctor had hired it for die occasion), the crack of its

whip making him feel that somehow he had indeed expelled it under

die doctor's care.

Over die years, the Mountain Doctor's fame grew. He was

consulted by the powerfuleven the writer Goethe made die trek to his

villageand he became the center of a cult of nature in which

everything natural was considered worthy of worship. Schiippach

was careful to create effects mat would entertain and inspire his

patients. A professor who visited him once wrote, “One stands or sits

in company, one plays cards, sometimes with a young woman; now

a concert is given, now a lunch or supper, and now a litde ballet is

presented. Widi a very happy effect, die freedom of nature is

everywhere united widi die pleasures of die beau monde, and if the

doctor is not able to heal any diseases, he can at least cure

hypochondria and die vapors.” Interpretation

Schiippach had begun his career as an ordinary village doctor.

He would sometimes use in his practice some of the village

remedies he had grown up with, and apparendy he noticed some

results, for soon diese herbal tinctures and natural forms of healing

became his specialty. And in fact his natural form of healing did have

profound psychological effects on his patients. Where die normal

drugs of the time created fear and pain, Schiip-pach's treatments

were comfortable and soothing. The resulting improvement in die

patient's mood was a critical element in the cures he brought about.

His patients believed so deeply in his skills that they willed diem-

selves into health. Instead of scoffing at their irrational explanations

for their ailments, Schiippach used their hypochondria to make it

seem that he had effected a great cure.

The case of die Mountain Doctor teaches us valuable lessons in

die creation of a cultiike following. First, you must find a way to

engage people's will, to make dieir belief in your powers strong

enough that they imagine all sorts of benefits. Their belief will have a

self-fulfilling quality, but you must make sure that it is you, rather

than dieir own will, who is seen as the agent of transformation. Find

die belief, cause, or fantasy that will make diem believe widi a

passion and tiiey will imagine die rest, worshipping you as healer,

prophet, genius, whatever you like.

Second, Schiippach teaches us the everlasting power of belief in

nature, and in simplicity. Nature, in reality, is full of much tiiat is

terrifying poisonous plants, fierce animals, sudden disasters,

plagues. Belief in die

healing, comforting quality of nature is really a constructed myth,

a romanticism. But the appeal to nature can bring you great power,

especially in complicated and stressful times.

This appeal, however, must be handled right. Devise a kind of

theater of nature in which you, as the director, pick and choose the

qualities that fit the romanticism of the times. The Mountain Doctor

played the part to perfection, playing up his homespun wisdom and

wit, and staging his cures as dramatic pieces. He did not make

himself one with nature; instead he molded nature into a cult, an

artificial construction. To create a “natural” effect you actually have to

work hard, making nature theatrical and delightfully pagan.

Otherwise no one will notice. Nature too must follow trends and be

progressive.

Observance III

In 1788, at the age of fifty-five, the doctor and scientist Franz

Mesmer was at a crossroads. He was a pioneer in the study of

animal magnetismthe belief that animals contain magnetic matter,

and that a doctor or specialist can effect miraculous cures by

working on this charged substancebut in Vienna, where he lived, his

theories had met with scorn and ridicule from the medical

establishment. In treating women for convulsions, Mesmer claimed

to have worked a number of cures, his proudest achievement being

the restoration of sight to a blind girl. But another doctor who

examined the young girl said she was as blind as ever, an

assessment with which she herself agreed. Mesmer countered that

his enemies were out to slander him by winning her over to their

side. This claim only elicited more ridicule. Clearly the sober-minded

Viennese were the wrong audience for his theories, and so he

decided to move to Paris and start again.

Renting a splendid apartment in his new city, Mesmer decorated

it appropriately. Stained glass in most of the windows created a

religious feeling, and mirrors on all the walls produced an hypnotic

effect. The doctor advertised that in his apartment he would give

demonstrations of the powers of animal magnetism, inviting the

diseased and melancholic to feel its powers. Soon Parisians of all

classes (but mostiy women, who seemed more attracted to the idea

than men did) were paying for entry to witness the miracles that

Mesmer promised.

Inside the apartment, the scents of orange blossom and exotic

incense wafted through special vents. As the initiates filtered into the

salon where the demonstrations took place, they heard harp music

and the lulling sounds of a female vocalist coming from another

room. In the center of the salon was a long oval container filled with

water that Mesmer claimed had been magnetized. From holes in the

container's metal lid protruded long movable iron rods. The visitors

were instructed to sit around the container, place these magnetized

rods on the body part that gave them pains or problems, and then

hold hands with their neighbors, sitting as close as possible to one

another to help the magnetic force pass between their bodies.

Sometimes, too, they were attached to each other by cords.

Mesmer would leave the room, and “assistant magnetizers”all

hand-

In the town of Tarnopol lived a man by the name of Reb Feivel.

One day, as he sat in his house deeply absorbed in his Talmud, he

heard a loud noise outside. When he went to the window he saw a

lot of little pranksters. “Up to some new piece of mischief, no doubt,”

he thought.

“Children, run quickly to the synagogue,” he cried, leaning out

and improvising the first story that occurred to him. “ You 'II see there

a sea monster, and what a monster! It's a creature with five feet,

three eyes, and a beard like that of a goat, only it's green!”

And sure enough the children scampered off and Reb Feivel

returned to his studies. He smiled into his beard as he thought of the

trick he had played on those little rascals. It wasn 't long before his

studies were interrupted again, this time by running footsteps. When

he went to the window he saw several Jews running. “Where are you

running” he called out.

“To the synagogue!” answered the Jews. “Haven'tyou heard

There's a sea monster, there's a creature with five legs, three eyes,

and a beard like that of a goat, only it's green!” Reb Feivel laughed

with glee, thinking of the trick he had played,

and sat down again to his Talmud. But no sooner had he begun

to concentrate when suddenly he heard a dinning tumult outside.

And what did he see A great crowd of men, women and children, all

running toward the synagogue. “What's up” he cried, sticking his

head out of the window. “ What a question! Why, don't you know”

they answered. “Right in front of the synagogue there 's a sea

monster. It's a creature with five legs, three eyes, and a beard like

that of a goat, only it's green!” And as the crowd hurried by, Reb

Feivel suddenly noticed that the rabbi himself was among them.

“Lord of the world!” he exclaimed. “If the rabbi himself is running with

them surely there must be something happening. Where there's

smoke there's fire!” Without further thought Reb Feivel grabbed his

hat, left his house, and also began running. “Who can tell” he

muttered to himself as he ran, all out of breath, toward the

synagogue.

a treasury of

jewish folklore,

some and strapping young menwould enter with jars of

magnetized water that they would sprinkle on the patients, rubbing

the healing fluid on their bodies, massaging it into their skin, moving

them toward a trancelike state. And after a few minutes a kind of

delirium would overcome the women. Some would sob, some would

shriek and tear their hair, others would laugh hysterically. At the

height of the delirium Mesmer would reenter the salon, dressed in a

flowing silk robe embroidered with golden flowers and carrying a

white magnetic rod. Moving around the container, he would stroke

and soothe the patients until calm was restored. Many women would

later attribute the strange power he had on them to his piercing look,

which, they thought, was exciting or quieting the magnetic fluids in

their bodies.

Within months of his arrival in Paris, Mesmer became the rage.

His supporters included Marie-Antoinette herself, the queen of

France, wife of Louis XVI. As in Vienna, he was condemned by the

official faculty of medicine, but it did not matter. His growing following

of pupils and patients paid him handsomely.

Mesmer expanded his theories to proclaim that all humanity

could be brought into harmony through the power of magnetism, a

concept with much appeal during the French Revolution. A cult of

Mesmerism spread across the country; in many towns, “Societies of

Harmony” sprang up to experiment with magnetism. These societies

eventually became notorious: They tended to be led by libertines

who would turn their sessions into a kind of group orgy.

At the height of Mesmer's popularity, a French commission

published a report based on years of testing the theory of animal

magnetism. The conclusion: Magnetism's effects on the body

actually came from a kind of group hysteria and autosuggestion. The

report was well documented, and ruined Mesmer's reputation in

France. He left the country and went into retirement. Only a few

years later, however, imitators sprang up all over Europe and the cult

of Mesmerism spread once again, its believers more numerous than

ever. Interpretation

Mesmer's career can be broken into two parts. When still in

Vienna, he clearly believed in the validity of his theory, and did all he

could to prove it. But his growing frustration and the disapproval of

his colleagues made him adopt another strategy. First he moved to

Paris, where no one knew him, and where his extravagant theories

found a more fruitful soil. Then he appealed to the French love of

theater and spectacle, making his apartment into a kind of magical

world in which a sensory overload of smells, sights, and sounds

entranced his customers. Most important, from now on he practiced

his magnetism only on a group. The group provided the setting in

which the magnetism would have its proper effect, one believer

infecting the other, overwhelming any individual doubter.

Mesmer thus passed from being a confirmed advocate of

magnetism to the role of a charlatan using every trick in the book to

captivate the pub-

lie. The biggest trick of all was to play on the repressed sexuality

that bubbles under the surface of any group setting. In a group, a

longing for social unity, a longing older than civilization, cries out to

be awakened. This desire may be subsumed under a unifying cause,

but beneath it is a repressed sexuality that the charlatan knows how

to exploit and manipulate for his own purposes.

This is the lesson that Mesmer teaches us: Our tendency to

doubt, the distance that allows us to reason, is broken down when

we join a group. The warmth and infectiousness of the group

overwhelm the skeptical individual. This is the power you gain by

creating a cult. Also, by playing on people's repressed sexuality, you

lead them into mistaking their excited feelings for signs of your

mystical strength. You gain untold power by working on people's

unrealized desire for a kind of promiscuous and pagan unity.

Remember too that the most effective cults mix religion with

science. Take the latest technological trend or fad and blend it with a

noble cause, a mystical faith, a new form of healing. People's

interpretations of your hybrid cult will run rampant, and they will

attribute powers to you that you had never even thought to claim.

Image: The Magnet. An unseen force draws objects to it, which in

turn become magnetized themselves, drawing other pieces to them,

the magnetic power of toe whole constantly increasing. But take

away the original magnet and it all falls apart. Become the magnet,

the invisible force that attracts people's imaginations and holds them

together. Once they have clustered around you, no power can wrest

them away.

Authority: The charlatan achieves his great power by simply

opening a possibility for men to believe what they already want to

believe. . . . The credulous cannot keep at a distance; they crowd

around the wonder worker, entering his personal aura, surrendering

themselves to illusion with a heavy solemnity, like cattle. (Grete de

Francesco)

REVERSAL

One reason to create a following is that a group is often easier to

deceive than an individual, and turns over to you that much more

power. This comes, however, with a danger: 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. The charlatans constantly faced this

danger, and were always ready to move out of town as it inevitably

became clear that their elixirs did not work and their ideas were

sham. Too slow and they paid with their lives. In playing with the

crowd, you are playing with fire, and must constantly keep an eye

out for any sparks of doubt, any enemies who will turn the crowd

against you. When you play with the emotions of a crowd, you have

to know how to adapt, attuning yourself instantaneously to all of the

moods and desires that a group will produce. Use spies, be on top of

everything, and keep your bags packed.

For this reason you may often prefer to deal with people one by

one. Isolating them from their normal milieu can have the same

effect as putting them in a groupit makes them more prone to

suggestion and intimidation. Choose the right sucker and if he

eventually sees through you he may prove easier to escape than a

crowd.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 28

ENTER ACTION WITH BOLDNESS

JUDGMENT

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.

The path of pleasure never leads to glory! The prodigious

achievements of Hercules were the result of high adventure, and

though there is little, either in fable or history, to show that he had

any rivals, still it is recorded that a knight errant, in company with a

fellow adventurer, sought his fortune in a romantic country. He had

not traveled far when his companion observed a post, on which was

written the following inscription: “Brave adventurer, if you have a

desire to discover that which has never been seen by any knight

errant, you have only to pass this torrent, and then take in your arms

an elephant of stone and carry it in one breath to the summit of this

mountain, whose noble head seems blended with the sky.” “But,”said

the knight's companion, “the water may be deep as well as rapid,

and though, notwithstanding, we should pass it, why should we be

encumbered with the elephant What a ridiculous undertaking!” And

philosophically and with nice calculation, he observed that the

elephant might be carried four steps; but for conveying it to the top of

the mountain in one breath, that was not in the power of a mortal,

unless it should

BOLDNESS AND HESITATION: A Brief Psychological

Comparison 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 find it essential to overcome your natural timidity and practice the

art of audacity. The following are among the most pronounced

psychological effects of boldness and timidity.

The Bolder the Lie the Better. We all have weaknesses, and our

efforts are never perfect. But entering action with boldness has the

magical effect of hiding our deficiencies. Con artists know that the

bolder the lie, the more convincing it becomes. The sheer audacity of

the story makes it more credible, distracting attention from its

inconsistencies. When putting together a con or entering any kind of

negotiation, go further than you planned. Ask for the moon and you

will be surprised how often you get it.

Lions Circle the Hesitant Prey. People have a sixth sense for the

weaknesses of others. If, in a first encounter, you demonstrate your

willingness to compromise, back down, and retreat, you 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 die defensive, who is willing to negotiate and be

amenable, you will be pushed around without mercy.

Boldness Strikes Fear; Fear Creates Authority. The bold move

makes you seem larger and more powerful than you are. If it comes

suddenly, with die stealth and swiftness of a snake, it inspires diat

much more fear. By intimidating with a bold move, you establish a

precedent: in every subsequent encounter, people will be on the

defensive, in terror of your next strike.

Going Halfway with Half a Heart Digs the Deeper Grave. If you

enter an action with less than total confidence, you set up

obstacles in your own path. When a problem arises you will grow

confused, seeing options where there are none and inadvertendy

creating more problems still. Retreating from the hunter, the timid

hare scurries more easily into his snares.

Hesitation Creates Gaps, Boldness Obliterates Them. When you

take time to diink, to hem and haw, you create a gap that allows

others time to think as well. Your timidity infects people with awkward

energy, elicits embarrassment. Doubt springs up on all sides.

Boldness destroys such gaps. The swiftness of die move and die

energy of the action leave others no space to doubt and worry. In

seduction, hesitation is fatalit makes your victim conscious of your

intentions. The bold move crowns seduction with triumph: It leaves

no time for reflection.

Audacity Separates You from the Herd. Boldness gives you

presence and makes you seem larger than life. The timid fade into

the wallpaper, the

bold draw attention, and what draws attention draws power. We

cannot keep our eyes off the audaciouswe cannot wait to see their

next bold move.

OBSERVANCES OF THE LAW

Observance I

In May of 1925, five of the most successful dealers in the French

scrap-metal business found themselves invited to an “official” but

“highly confidential” meeting with the deputy director general of the

Ministry of Post and Telegraphs at the Hotel Crillon, then the most

luxurious hotel in Paris. When the businessmen arrived, it was the

director general himself, a Monsieur Lustig, who met diem in a

swank suite on the top floor.

The businessmen had no idea why they had been summoned to

this meeting, and they were bursting with curiosity. After drinks, the

director explained. “Gendemen,” he said, “fhis is an urgent matter

that requires complete secrecy. The government is going to have to

tear down the Eiffel Tower.” The dealers listened in stunned silence

as the director explained that the tower, as recendy reported in the

news, desperately needed repairs. It had originally been meant as a

temporary structure (for the Exposition of 1889), its maintenance

costs had soared over the years, and now, in a time of a fiscal crisis,

the government would have to spend millions to fix it. Many

Parisians considered the Eiffel Tower an eyesore and would be

delighted to see it go. Over time, even the tourists would forget about

itit would live on in photographs and postcards. “Gendemen,” Lustig

said, “you are all invited to make the government an offer for the

Eiffel Tower.”

He gave the businessmen sheets of government stationery filled

with figures, such as the tonnage of the tower's metal. Their eyes

popped as they calculated how much tiiey could make from the

scrap. Then Lustig led them to a waiting limo, which brought them to

the Eiffel Tower. Flashing an official badge, he guided mem through

the area, spicing his tour witii amusing anecdotes. At the end of the

visit he thanked them and asked them to have fheir offers delivered

to his suite within four days.

Several days after the offers were submitted, one of the five, a

Monsieur P., received notice that his bid was the winner, and diat to

secure fhe 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 today of about $1,000,000)a quarter of the toted price. On

delivery of the check, he would receive the documents confirming his

ownership of the Eiffel Tower. Monsieur P. was excitedhe would go

down in history as the man who had bought and torn down the

infamous landmark. But by the time he arrived at the suite, check in

hand, he was beginning to have doubts about the whole affair. Why

meet in a hotel instead of a government building Why hadn't he

heard from other officials Was diis a hoax, a scam As he listened to

Lustig discuss die arrangements for the scrapping of the tower, he

hesitated, and contemplated backing out.

be the dwarf figure of an elephant, fit only to be placed on the top

of a stick; and then what honor would there be in such an adventure

“There is,”said he, “some deception in this writing. It is an enigma

only fit to amuse a child. I shall therefore leave you and your

elephant.” The reasoner then departed; but the adventurous man

rushed with his eyes closed across the water; neither depth nor

violence prevented him, and according to the inscription he saw the

elephant lying on the opposite bank. He took it and carried it to the

top of the hill, where he saw a town. A shriek from the elephant

alarmed the people of the city, who rose in arms; but the adventurer,

nothing daunted, was determined to die a hero. The people,

however, were awed by his presence, and he was astonished to

hear them proclaim him successor to their king, who had recently

died. Great enterprises are only achieved by adventurous spirits.

They who calculate with too great nicety every difficulty and obstacle

which is likely to lie in their way, lose that time in hesitation, which

the more daring seize and render available to the loftiest purposes.

FABLES,

Jean de La Fontaine, 1621-1695

Always set to work without misgivings on the score of

imprudence. Fear of failure in the mind of a performer is, for an

onlooker, already evidence of failure.... Actions are dangerous when

there is doubt as to their wisdom; it would be safer to do nothing.

Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658

In a lowly thatched cottage in the Namsan Valley there lived a

poor couple, Mr. and Mrs. Huh Saeng. The husband confined himself

for seven years and only read books in his cold room.... One day his

wife, all in tears, said to him: “Look here, my good man! What is the

use of all your book reading I have spent my youth in washing and

sewing for other people and yet I have no spare jacket or skirt to

wear and I have had no food to eat during the past three days. I am

hungry and cold. I can stand it no more!” ... Hearing these words, the

middle-aged scholar closed his book ... rose to his feet and ...

without saying another word, he went out of doors. . . .Arriving in the

heart of the

Suddenly, however, he realized that the director had changed his

tone. Instead of talking about the tower, he was complaining about

his low salary, about his wife's desire for a fur coat, about how galling

it was to work hard and be unappreciated. It dawned on Monsieur P.

that this high government official was asking for a bribe. The effect

on him, though, was not outrage but relief. Now he was sure that

Lustig was for real, since in all of his previous encounters with

French bureaucrats, they had inevitably asked for a little greasing of

the palm. His confidence restored, Monsieur P. slipped the director

several thousand francs in bills, then handed him the certified check.

In return he received the documentation, including an impressive-

looking bill of sale. He left the hotel, dreaming of the profits and fame

to come.

Over the next few days, however, as Monsieur P. waited for

correspondence from the government, he began to realize that

something was amiss. A few telephone calls made it clear that there

was no deputy director general Lustig, and there were no plans to

destroy the Eiffel Tower: He had been bilked of over 250,000 francs!

Monsieur P. never went to the police. He knew what kind of

reputation he would get if word got out that he had fallen for one of

the most absurdly audacious cons in history. Besides the public

humiliation, it would have been business suicide. Interpretation

Had Count Victor Lustig, con artist extraordinaire, tried to sell the

Arc de Triomphe, a bridge over the Seine, a statue of Balzac, no one

would have believed him. But the Eiffel Tower was just too large, too

improbable to be part of a con job. In fact it was so improbable that

Lustig was able to return to Paris six months later and “resell” the

Eiffel Tower to a different scrap-iron dealer, and for a higher pricea

sum in francs equivalent today to over $1,500,000!

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. Arm yourself with bigness and

boldnessstretch your deceptions as far as they will go and then go

further. If you sense that the sucker has suspicions, do as the

intrepid Lustig did: Instead of backing down, or lowering his price, he

simply raised his price higher, by asking for and getting a bribe.

Asking for more puts the other person on the defensive, cuts out the

nibbling effect of compromise and doubt, and overwhelms with its

boldness.

Observance II

On his deathbed in 1533, Vasily III, the Grand Duke of Moscow

and ruler of a semi-united Russia, proclaimed his three-year-old son,

Ivan IV, as his successor. He appointed his young wife, Helena, as

regent until Ivan reached his majority and could rule on his own. The

aristocracythe bo-yarssecretly rejoiced: For years the dukes of

Moscow had been trying to extend their authority over the boyars'

turf. With Vasily dead, his heir a mere three years old, and a young

woman in charge of the dukedom, die

boyars would be able to roll back the dukes' gains, wrest control

of the state, and humiliate the royal family.

Aware of these dangers, young Helena turned to her trusted

friend Prince Ivan Obolensky to help her rule. But after five years as

regent she suddenly diedpoisoned by a member of the Shuisky

family, the most fearsome boyar clan. The Shuisky princes seized

control of the government and threw Obolensky in prison, where he

starved to death. At the age of eight, Ivan was now a despised

orphan, and any boyar or family member who took an interest in him

was immediately banished or killed.

And so Ivan roamed the palace, hungry, ill clothed, and often in

hiding from the Shuiskys, who treated him roughly when they saw

him. On some days they would search him out, clothe him in royal

robes, hand him a scepter, and set him on the thronea kind of mock

ritual in which they lampooned his royal pretensions. Then they

would shoo him away. One evening several of them chased the

Metropolitanthe head of the Russian churchthrough the palace, and

he sought refuge in Ivan's room; the boy watched in horror as the

Shuiskys entered, hurled insults, and beat the Metropolitan

mercilessly.

Ivan had one friend in the palace, a boyar named Vorontsov who

consoled and advised him. One day, however, as he, Vorontsov, and

the newest Metropolitan conferred in the palace refectory, several

Shuiskys burst in, beat up Vorontsov, and insulted the Metropolitan

by tearing and treading on his robes. Then they banished Vorontsov

from Moscow.

Throughout all this Ivan maintained a strict silence. To the boyars

it seemed that their plan had worked: The young man had turned

into a terrified and obedient idiot. They could ignore him now, even

leave him alone. But on the evening of December 29, 1543, Ivan,

now thirteen, asked Prince Andrei Shuisky to come to his room.

When the prince arrived, the room was filled with palace guards.

Young Ivan then pointed his finger at Andrei and ordered the guards

to arrest him, have him killed, and throw his body to the bloodhounds

in the royal kennel. Over the next few days Ivan had all of Andrei's

close associates arrested and banished. Caught off-guard by his

sudden boldness, the boyars now stood in mortal terror of this youth,

the future Ivan the Terrible, who had planned and waited for five

years to execute this one swift and bold act that would secure his

power for decades to come. Interpretation

The world is full of boyarsmen who despise you, fear your

ambition, and jealously guard their shrinking realms of power. You

need to establish your authority and gain respect, but the moment

the boyars sense your growing boldness, they will act to thwart you.

This is how Ivan met such a situation: He lay low, showing neither

ambition nor discontent. He waited, and when the time came he

brought the palace guards over to his side. The guards had come to

hate the cruel Shuiskys. Once they agreed to Ivan's plan, he struck

with the swiftness of a snake, pointing his finger at Shuisky and

giving him no time to react.

Negotiate with a boyar and you create opportunities for him. A

small

city, he stopped a passing gentleman. “Hello, my friend! Who is

the richest man in town” “Poor countryman! Don't you know Bydn-

ssi, the millionaire His glittering tile-roofed house pierced by twelve

gates is just over there.” Huh Saeng bent his steps to the rich man's

house. Having entered the big gate, he flung the guest-room door

open and addressed the host: “I need 10,000 yang for capital for my

commercial business and I want you to lend me the money.” “Alright,

sir. Where shall I send the money”

“To the Ansdng Market in care of a commission merchant.” “ Very

well, sir. I will draw on Kim, who does the biggest commission

business in the Ansdng Market. You 'II get the money there.”

“Good-bye, sir.” When Huh Saeng was gone, all the other guests

in the room asked Bydn-ssi why he gave so much money to a

beggarlike stranger whose family name was unknown to him. But the

rich man replied with a triumphant face: "Even though he was in

ragged clothes, he spoke clearly to the point without betraying

shame or inferiority, unlike common people who want to borrow

money for a bad debt. Such a man as he is either mad or self-

confident in doing business. But judging from his dauntless eyes and

booming voice he

is an uncommon man

with a superhuman

brain, worthy of my

trust, I know money

and I know men.

Money often makes a

man small, but a man

like him makes big

money. I am only glad

to have helped a big

man do big business."

BEHIND THE SCENES

OF ROYAl. PALACES

IN KOREA,

Ha Tae-hung, 1983

Fear, which always magnifies objects, gives a body to all their

fancies, which takes for its form whatever they conceive to exist in

their enemies' thoughts; so that fearful persons seldom fail to fall into

real inconveniences, occasioned by imaginary dangers.... And the

duke, whose predominant character was to be always full of fear and

of distrust, was, of all men I have ever seen, the most capable of

falling into false steps, by the dread he had of falling into them; being

in that like unto hares.

Cardinal de Retz, 1613-1679

compromise becomes the toehold he needs to tear you apart.

The sudden bold move, without discussion or warning, obliterates

these toeholds, and builds your authority. You terrify doubters and

despisers and gain the confidence of the many who admire and

glorify those who act boldly.

Observance III

In 1514 the twenty-two-year-old Pietro Aretino was working as a

lowly assistant scullion to a wealthy Roman family. He had ambitions

of greatness as a writer, to enflame the world with his name, but how

could a mere lackey hope to realize such dreams

That year Pope Leo X received from the king of Portugal an

embassy that included many gifts, most prominent among them a

great elephant, the first in Rome since imperial times. The pontiff

adored this elephant and showered it with attention and gifts. But

despite his love and care, the elephant, which was called Hanno,

became deathly ill. The pope summoned doctors, who administered

a five-hundred-pound purgative to the elephant, but all to no avail.

The animal died and the pope went into mourning. To console

himself he summoned the great painter Raphael and ordered him to

create a life-sized painting of Hanno above the animal's tomb,

bearing the inscription, “What nature took away, Raphael has with

his art restored.”

Over the next few days, a pamphlet circulated throughout Rome

that caused great merriment and laughter. Entitled “The Last Will and

Testament of the Elephant Hanno,” it read, in part, “To my heir the

Cardinal Santa Croce, I give my knees, so that he can imitate my

genuflections. ... To my heir Cardinal Sand Quattro, I give my jaws,

so that he can more readily devour all of Christ's revenues. ... To my

heir Cardinal Medici, I give my ears, so that he can hear everyone's

doings. . . .” To Cardinal Grassi, who had a reputation for lechery, the

elephant bequeathed the appropriate, oversized part of his own

anatomy.

On and on the anonymous pamphlet went, sparing none of the

great in Rome, not even the pope. With each one it took aim at their

best-known weakness. The pamphlet ended with verse, “See to it

that Aretino is your friend / For he is a bad enemy to have. / His

words alone could ruin the high pope / So God guard everyone from

his tongue.” Interpretation

With one short pamphlet, Aretino, son of a poor shoemaker and a

servant himself, hurled himself to fame. Everyone in Rome rushed to

find out who this daring young man was. Even the pope, amused by

his audacity, sought him out and ended up giving him a job in the

papal service. Over the years he came to be known as the “Scourge

of Princes,” and his biting tongue earned him the respect and fear of

the great, from the king of France to the Hapsburg emperor.

The Aretino strategy is simple: When you are as small and

obscure as David was, you must find a Goliath to attack. The larger

the target, the more attention you gain. The bolder the attack, the

more you stand out

from the crowd, and the more admiration you earn. Society is full

of those who think daring thoughts but lack the guts to print and

publicize them. Voice what the public feelsthe expression of shared

feelings is always powerful. Search out the most prominent target

possible and sling your boldest shot. The world will enjoy the

spectacle, and will honor the underdogyou, that iswith glory and

power.

KEYS TO POWER

Most of us are timid. We want to avoid tension and conflict and

we want to be liked by all. We may contemplate a bold action but we

rarely bring it to life. We are terrified of the consequences, of what

others might think of us, of the hostility we will stir up if we dare go

beyond our usual place.

Although we may disguise our timidity as a concern for others, a

desire not to hurt or offend them, in fact it is the oppositewe are

really self-absorbed, worried about ourselves and how others

perceive us. Boldness, on the other hand, is outer-directed, and

often makes people feel more at ease, since it is less self-conscious

and less repressed.

This can be seen most clearly in seduction. All great seducers

succeed through effrontery. Casanova's boldness was not revealed

in a daring approach to the woman he desired, or in intrepid words to

flatter her; it consisted in his ability to surrender himself to her

completely and to make her believe he would do anything for her,

even risk his life, which in fact he sometimes did. The woman on

whom he lavished this attention understood that he held nothing

back from her. This was infinitely more flattering than compliments.

At no point during the seduction would he show hesitation or doubt,

simply because he never felt it.

Part of the charm of being seduced is that it makes us feel

engulfed, temporarily outside of ourselves and the usual doubts that

permeate our lives. The moment the seducer hesitates, the charm is

broken, because we become aware of the process, of their

deliberate effort to seduce us, of their self-consciousness. Boldness

directs attention outward and keeps the illusion alive. It never

induces awkwardness or embarrassment. And so we admire the

bold, and prefer to be around them, because their self-confidence

infects us and draws us outside our own realm of inwardness and

reflection.

Few are born bold. Even Napoleon had to cultivate the habit on

the battlefield, where he knew it was a matter of life and death. In

social settings he was awkward and timid, but he overcame this and

practiced boldness in every part of his life because he saw its

tremendous power, how it could literally enlarge a man (even one

who, like Napoleon, was in fact conspicuously small). We also see

this change in Ivan the Terrible: A harmless boy suddenly transforms

himself into a powerful young man who commands authority, simply

by pointing a finger and taking bold action.

You must practice and develop your boldness. You will often find

uses for it. The best place to begin is often the delicate world of

negotiation, par-

THE BOY AND THE NETTLE

A boy playing in the fields got stung by a nettle. He ran home to

his mother, telling her that he had but touched that nasty weed, and

it had stung him. “It was just your touching it, my boy,” said the

mother, “that caused it to sting you; the next time you meddle with a

nettle, grasp it tightly, and it will do you no hurt.”

Do boldly what you do at all.

FABLES,

Aesop,

sixth century b.c.

HOW TO BE VICTORIOUS IN LOVE

But with those who have made an impression upon your heart, I

have noticed that you are timid. This quality might affect a bour-

geoise, but you must attack the heart of a woman of the world with

other weapons.... I tell you on behalf of women: there is not one of

us who does not prefer a little rough handling to too much

consideration. Men lose through blundering more hearts than virtue

saves. The more timidity a lover shows with us the more it concerns

our pride to goad him on; the more respect he has for our

resistance, the more respect we demand of him. We would

willingly say to you men: “Ah, in pity's name do not suppose us to be

so very virtuous; you are forcing us to have too much of it. ...” We

are continually struggling to hide the fact that we have permitted

ourselves to be loved. Put a woman in a position to say that she has

yielded only to a species of violence, or to surprise: persuade her

that you do not undervalue her, and I will answer for her heart. ...A

little more boldness on your part would put you both at your ease. Do

you remember what M. de la Rochefoucauld told you lately: “A

reasonable man in love may act like a madman, but he should not

and cannot act like an idiot. ”

life, letters, and

epicurean philosophy

ok ninon de i.enclos,

Ninon de Lenclos,

1620-1705

ticularly those discussions in which you are asked to set your

own price. How often we put ourselves down by asking for too litde.

When Christopher Columbus proposed that the Spanish court

finance his voyage to the Americas, he also made the insanely bold

demand that he be called “Grand Admiral of the Ocean.” The court

agreed. The price he set was the price he receivedhe demanded to

be treated with respect, and so he was. Henry Kissinger too knew

that in negotiation, bold demands work better than starting off with

piecemeal concessions and trying to meet the other person halfway.

Set your value high, and then, as Count Lustig did, set it higher.

Understand: If boldness is not natural, neither is timidity. It is an

acquired habit, picked up out of a desire to avoid conflict. If timidity

has taken hold of you, then, root it out. Your fears of the

consequences of a bold action are way out of proportion to reality,

and in fact the consequences of timidity are worse. Your value is

lowered and you create a self-fulfilling cycle of doubt and disaster.

Remember: The problems created by an audacious move can be

disguised, even remedied, by more and greater audacity.

Image: The Lion and the Hare. The lion creates no gaps in his

wayhis movements are too swift, his jaws too quick and powerful.

The timid hare will do anything to escape danger, but in its haste to

retreat and flee, it backs into traps, hops smack into its enemies'

jaws.

Authority: I certainly think that it is better to be impetuous than

cautious, for fortune is a woman, and it is necessary, if you wish to

master her, to conquer her by force; and it can be seen that she lets

herself be overcome by the bold rather than by those who proceed

coldly. And therefore, like a woman, she is always a friend to the

young, because they are less cautious, fiercer, and master her with

greater audacity. (Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527)

REVERSAL

Boldness should never be the strategy behind all of your actions.

It is a tactical instrument, to be used at the right moment. Plan and

think ahead, and make the final element the bold move that will bring

you success. In other words, since boldness is a learned response, it

is also one that you learn to control and utilize at will. To go through

life armed only with audacity would be tiring and also fatal. You

would offend too many people, as is proven by those who cannot

control their boldness. One such person was Lola Montez; her

audacity brought her triumphs and led to her seduction of die king of

Bavaria. But since she could never rein in her boldness, it also led to

her downfallin Bavaria, in England, wherever she turned. It crossed

die border between boldness and the appearance of cruelty, even

insanity. Ivan the Terrible suffered the same fate: When the power of

boldness brought him success, he stuck to it, to the point where it

became a lifelong pattern of violence and sadism. He lost the ability

to tell when boldness was appropriate and when it was not.

Timidity has no place in the realm of power; you will often benefit,

however, by being able to feign it. At that point, of course, it is no

longer timidity but an offensive weapon: You are luring people in with

your show of shyness, all the better to pounce on mem boldly later.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 29

PLAN ALL THE WAY TO THE END

JUDGMENT

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.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

In 1510 a ship set out from the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti

and the Dominican Republic) for Venezuela, where it was to rescue

a besieged Spanish colony. Several miles out of port, a stowaway

climbed out of a provision chest: Vasco Nunez de Balboa, a noble

Spaniard who had come to the New World in search of gold but had

fallen into debt and had escaped his creditors by hiding in the chest.

Balboa had been obsessed with gold ever since Columbus had

returned to Spain from his voyages with tales of a fabulous but as

yet undiscovered kingdom called El Dorado. Balboa was one of the

first adventurers to come in search of Columbus's land of gold, and

he had decided from the beginning that he would be the one to find

it, through sheer audacity and single-mindedness. Now diat he was

free of his creditors, nothing would stop him.

Unfortunately the ship's owner, a wealthy jurist named Francisco

Fernandez de Enciso, was furious when told of the stowaway, and

he ordered that Balboa be left on the first island they came across.

Before they found any island, however, Enciso received news that

the colony he was to rescue had been abandoned. This was

Balboa's chance. He told the sailors of his previous voyages to

Panama, and of the rumors he had heard of gold in the area. The

excited sailors convinced Enciso to spare Balboa's life, and to

establish a colony in Panama. Weeks later they named their new

setdement “Darien.”

Darien's first governor was Enciso, but Balboa was not a man to

let others steal the initiative. He campaigned against Enciso among

the sailors, who eventually made it clear that diey preferred him as

governor. Enciso fled to Spain, fearing for his life. Months later, when

a representative of the Spanish crown arrived to establish himself as

the new, official governor of Darien, he was turned away. On his

return voyage to Spain, this man drowned; the drowning was

accidental, but under Spanish law, Balboa had murdered the

governor and usurped his position.

Balboa's bravado had got him out of scrapes before, but now his

hopes of wealth and glory seemed doomed. To lay claim to El

Dorado, should he discover it, he would need the approval of the

Spanish king which, as an outlaw, he would never receive. There

was only one solution. Panamanian Indians had told Balboa of a vast

ocean on the other side of the Central American isthmus, and had

said that by traveling south upon this western coast, he would reach

a fabulous land of gold, called by a name that to his ears sounded

like “Biru.” Balboa decided he would cross the treacherous jungles of

Panama and become the first European to bathe his feet in this new

ocean. From there he would march on El Dorado. If he did this on

Spain's behalf, he would obtain the eternal gratitude of the king, and

would secure his own reprieveonly he had to act before Spanish

authorities came to arrest him.

In 1513, then, Balboa set out, widi 190 soldiers. Halfway across

the isthmus (some ninety miles wide at that point), only sixty soldiers

re-

There are very few menand they are the exceptionswho are able

to think and feel beyond the present moment.

Carl von Clausewitz, 1780-1831

THK TWO THOCS

Two frogs dwelt in the same pool The pool being dried up under

the summer's heat, they left it, and set out together to seek another

home. As they went along they chanced to pass a deep well, amply

supplied with water, on seeing which one of the frogs said to the

other: “Let us descend and make our abode in this well, it will furnish

us with shelter and food.” The other replied with greater caution: “But

suppose the water should fail us, how can we get out again from so

great a depth ” Do nothing without a regard to the consequences.

FABLES,

Aesop,

sixth century b.c.

LAW 29

Look to the end, no

matter what it is you

are considering. Often

enough, God gives a

man a glimpse of

happiness, and then

utterly ruins him.

the histories,

Herodotus,

fifth century b.c.

In ancient times a king ofTartary was out walking with some of his

noblemen. At the roadside was an abdal (a wandering Sufi), who

cried out: “Whoever will give me a hundred dinars, I will give him

some good advice.” The king stopped, and said: “Abdal, what is this

good advice for a hundred dinars'7 ”Sir,“ answered the abdal, ”order

the sum to be given to me, and I will tell it you immediately. “ The

king did so, expecting to hear something extraordinary. The dervish

said to him: ”My advice is this: Never begin anything until you have

reflected what will be the end of it.“At this the nobles and everyone

else present laughed, saying that the abdal had been wise to ask for

his money in advance. But the king said: ” You . have no reason to

laugh at the good advice this abdal has given me. No one is

mained, many having succumbed to the harsh conditionsthe

bloodsucking insects, the torrential rainfall, fever. Finally, from a

mountaintop, Balboa became the first European to lay eyes on the

Pacific Ocean. Days later he marched in his armor into its waters,

bearing the banner of Castile and claiming all its seas, lands, and

islands in the name of the Spanish throne.

Indians from the area greeted Balboa with gold, jewels, and

precious pearls, the like of which he had never seen. When he asked

where these had come from, die Indians pointed south, to the land of

the Incas. But Balboa had only a few soldiers left. For the moment,

he decided, he should return to Darien, send the jewels and gold to

Spain as a token of good will, and ask for a large army to aid him in

the conquest of El Dorado.

When news reached Spain of Balboa's bold crossing of die

isthmus, his discovery of the western ocean, and his planned

conquest of El Dorado, the former criminal became a hero. He was

instandy proclaimed governor of the new land. But before the king

and queen received word of his discovery, they had already sent a

dozen ships, under the command of a man named Pedro Arias

Davila, “Pedrarias,” with orders to arrest Balboa for murder and to

take command of the colony. By the time Pedrarias arrived in

Panama, he had learned that Balboa had been pardoned, and that

he was to share die governorship with the former oudaw.

All the same, Balboa felt uneasy. Gold was his dream, El Dorado

his only desire. In pursuit of this goal he had nearly died many times

over, and to share the wealth and glory with a newcomer would be

intolerable. He also soon discovered that Pedrarias was a jealous,

bitter man, and equally unhappy with the situation. Once again, the

only solution for Balboa was to seize the initiative by proposing to

cross the jungle with a larger army, carrying ship-building materials

and tools. Once on the Pacific coast, he would create an armada

with which to conquer the Incas. Surprisingly enough, Pedrarias

agreed to the planperhaps sensing it would never work. Hundreds

died in this second march through the jungle, and the timber they

carried rotted in die torrential rains. Balboa, as usual, was

undauntedno power in the world could thwart his planand on arriving

at the Pacific he began to cut down trees for new lumber. But the

men remaining to him were too few and too weak to mount an

invasion, and once again Balboa had to return to Darien.

Pedrarias had in any case invited Balboa back to discuss a new

plan, and on the outskirts of the settlement, the explorer was met by

Francisco Pizarro, an old friend who had accompanied him on his

first crossing of the isthmus. But this was a trap: Leading one

hundred soldiers, Pizarro surrounded his former friend, arrested him,

and returned him to Pedrarias, who tried him on charges of rebellion.

A few days later Balboa's head fell into a basket, along with those of

his most trusted followers. Years later Pizarro himself reached Peru,

and Balboa's deeds were forgotten.

Interpretation

Most men are ruled by the heart, not die 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.

Balboa had a dream of glory and wealth, and a vague plan to

reach it. Yet his bold deeds, and his discovery of the Pacific, are

largely forgotten, for he committed what in die world of power is the

ultimate sin: He went part way, leaving the door open for others to

take over. A real man of power would have had the prudence to see

the dangers in the distance the rivals who would want to share in the

conquests, the vultures that would hover once tiiey heard the word

“gold.” Balboa should have kept his knowledge of the Incas secret

until after he had conquered Peru. Only then would his wealth, and

his head, have been secure. Once Pedrarias arrived on the scene, a

man of power and prudence would have schemed to kill or imprison

him, and to take over the army he had brought for die conquest of

Peru. But Balboa was locked in the moment, always reacting

emotionally, never thinking ahead.

What good is it to have the greatest dream in die world if others

reap the benefits and the glory Never lose your head over a vague,

open-ended dreamplan to the end.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

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 mat die other German states

remained weak, divided and submissive. Bismarck believed that

Prussia was destined for something far greater than servant boy 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 tiiese rumblings

of Prussian independence might worry France and England, so he

enlisted Austria in the war, claiming that he was recovering

Schleswig-Holstein for tiieir benefit. In a few months, after the war

was decided, Bismarck demanded that the newly conquered lands

be made part of Prussia. The Austrians of course were furious, but

tiiey compromised: First they agreed to give the Prussians

Schleswig, and a year later tiiey sold them Holstein. The world

began to see that Austria was weakening and that Prussia was on

the rise.

Bismarck's next move was his boldest: In 1866 he convinced

King William of Prussia to withdraw from die German Federation,

and in doing so to go to war with Austria itself. King William's wife,

his son die crown prince, and die princes of the otiier German

kingdoms vehemently opposed such a war. But Bismarck,

undaunted, succeeded in forcing the conflict, and Prussia's superior

army defeated die Austrians in die brutally

unaware of the fact that we should think well before doing

anything. But we are daily guilty of not remembering, and the

consequences are evil. I very much value this dervish's advice."

The king decided to bear the advice always in his mind, and

commanded it to be written in gold on the walls and even engraved

on his silver plate. Not long afterward a plotter desired to kill the king.

He bribed the royal surgeon with a promise of the prime ministership

if he thrust a poisoned lancet into the king 's arm. When the time

came to let some of the king's blood, a silver basin was placed to

catch the blood. Suddenly the surgeon became aware of the words

engraved upon it: “Never begin anything until you have reflected

what will be the end of it.” It was only then that he realized that if the

plotter became king he could have the surgeon killed instantly, and

would not need to fulfill his bargain.

The king, seeing that the surgeon was now trembling, asked him

what was wrong with him. And so he confessed the truth, at that very

moment. The plotter was seized; and the king sent for all the people

who had been present when the abdal gave his advice, and said to

them: “Do you still laugh at the dervish”

caravan of dreams, Idriks Shah, 1968

He who asks fortunetellers the future unwittingly forfeits an inner

intimation of coming events that is a thousand times more exact than

anything they may say.

Walter Benjamin, 1892-1940

short Seven Weeks War. The king and the Prussian generals

then wanted to march on Vienna, taking as much land from Austria

as possible. But Bismarck stopped diemnow he presented himself as

on the side of peace. The result was that he was able to conclude a

treaty with Austria that granted Prussia and the other German states

total autonomy. Bismarck could now position Prussia as die

dominant power in Germany and the head of a newly formed North

German Confederation.

The French and the English began to compare Bismarck to Attila

the Hun, and to fear that he had designs on all of Europe. Once he

had started on the path to conquest, there was no telling where he

would stop. And, indeed, three years later Bismarck provoked a war

with France. First he appeared to give his permission to France's

annexation of Belgium, then at die last moment he changed his

mind. Playing a cat-and-mouse game, he infuriated die French

emperor, Napoleon III, and stirred up his own king against the

French. To no one's surprise, war broke out in 1870. The newly

formed German federation enthusiastically joined in the war on

France, and once again the Prussian military machine and its allies

destroyed the enemy army in a matter of months. Aldiough Bismarck

opposed taking any French land, the generals convinced him that

Alsace-Lorraine would become part of the federation.

Now all of Europe feared the next move of the Prussian monster,

led by Bismarck, the “Iron Chancellor.” And in fact a year later

Bismarck founded the German Empire, with die Prussian king as the

newly crowned emperor and Bismarck himself a prince. But then

somediing strange happened: Bismarck instigated no more wars.

And while the other European powers grabbed up land for colonies

in other continents, he severely limited Germany's colonial

acquisitions. He did not want more land for Germany, but more

security. For the rest of his life he struggled to maintain peace in

Europe and to prevent further wars. Everybody assumed he had

changed, mellowing with the years. They had failed to understand:

This was the final move of his original plan.

Interpretation

There is a simple reason why most men never know when to

come off the attack: They form no concrete idea of their goal. Once

they achieve victory they only hunger for more. To stopto aim for a

goal and then keep to itseems almost inhuman, in fact; yet nothing is

more critical to the maintenance of power. The person who goes too

far in his triumphs creates a reaction that inevitably leads to a

decline. 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 tilings.

From the beginning of his career in politics, Bismarck had one

goal: to form an independent German state led by Prussia. He

instigated the war with Denmark not to conquer territory but to stir up

Prussian nationalism and unite the country. He incited the war with

Austria only to gain

Prussian independence. (This was why he refused to grab

Austrian territory.) And he fomented the war with France to unite the

German kingdoms against a common enemy, and thus to prepare for

the formation of a united Germany.

Once this was achieved, Bismarck stopped. He never let triumph

go to his head, was never tempted by the siren call of more. He held

the reins tightly, and whenever the generals, or the king, or the

Prussian people demanded new conquests, he held them back.

Nothing would spoil the beauty of his creation, certainly not a false

euphoria that pushed those around him to attempt to go past the end

that he had so carefully planned.

Experience shows that, if one foresees from far away the designs

to be

undertaken, one can act with speed when the moment comes to

execute them.

Cardinal Richelieu, 1585-1642

KEYS TO POWER

According to the cosmology of the ancient Greeks, the gods were

thought to have complete vision into die 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 tfieir

emotions, unable to see beyond immediate dangers. Those 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. The comparison is still

validthose among us who think further ahead and patiently bring

their plans to fruition seem to have a godlike power.

Because most people are too imprisoned in the moment to plan

with this kind of foresight, the ability to ignore immediate dangers

and pleasures translates into power. It is the power of being able to

overcome the natural human tendency to react to things as they

happen, and instead to train oneself to step back, imagining the

larger things taking shape beyond one's immediate vision. Most

people believe that tiiey are in fact aware of the future, that they are

planning and thinking ahead. They are usually deluded: What they

are really doing is succumbing to their desires, to what they want the

future to be. Their plans are vague, based on their imaginations

rather than their reality. They may believe they are thinking all the

way to the end, but they are really only focusing on the happy

ending, and deluding themselves by the strength of their desire.

In 415 B.C., the ancient Athenians attacked Sicily, believing their

expedition would bring them riches, power, and a glorious ending to

the sixteen-year Peloponnesian War. They did not consider the

dangers of an invasion so far from home; they did not foresee that

the Sicilians would fight all the harder since the batdes were in their

own homeland, or that all of Athens's enemies would band together

against them, or that war would break out on several fronts,

stretching their forces way too thin. The Sicilian expedition was a

complete disaster, leading to the destruction

of one of the greatest civilizations of all time. The Athenians were

led into this disaster by their hearts, not their minds. They saw only

the chance of glory, not the dangers that loomed in the distance.

Cardinal de Retz, the seventeenth-century Frenchman who

prided himself on his insights into human schemes and why they

mostly fail, analyzed this phenomenon. In the course of a rebellion

he spearheaded against the French monarchy in 1651, the young

king, Louis XIV, and his court had suddenly left Paris and

established themselves in a palace outside the capital. The presence

of the king so close to the heart of the revolution had been a

tremendous burden on the revolutionaries, and they breathed a sigh

of relief. This later proved their downfall, however, since the court's

absence from Paris gave it much more room to maneuver. “The most

ordinary cause of people's mistakes,” Cardinal de Retz later wrote,

“is their being too much frightened at the present danger, and not

enough so at that which is remote.”

The dangers that are remote, that loom in the distanceif we can

see them as they take shape, how many mistakes we avoid. How

many plans we would instandy abort if we realized we were avoiding

a small danger only to step into a larger one. So much of power is

not what you do but what you do not dodie rash and foolish actions

that you refrain from before they get you into trouble. Plan in detail

before you actdo not let vague plans lead you into trouble. Will this

have unintended consequences Will I stir up new enemies Will

someone else take advantage of my labors Unhappy endings are

much more common than happy onesdo not be swayed by the

happy ending in your mind.

The French elections of 1848 came down to a struggle between

Louis-Adolphe Thiers, the man of order, and General Louis Eugene

Cavaignac, the rabble-rouser of the right. When Thiers realized he

was hopelessly behind in this high-stakes race, he searched

desperately for a solution. His eye fell on Louis Bonaparte, grand-

nephew of the great general Napoleon, and a lowly deputy in the

parliament. This Bonaparte seemed a bit of an imbecile, but his

name alone could get him elected in a country yearning for a strong

ruler. He would be Thiers's puppet and eventually would be pushed

offstage. The first part of the plan worked to perfection, and

Napoleon was elected by a large margin. The problem was that

Thiers had not foreseen one simple fact: This “imbecile” was in fact a

man of enormous ambition. Three years later he dissolved

parliament, declared himself emperor, and ruled France for another

eighteen years, much to the horror of Thiers and his party.

The ending is everything. It is the end of the action that

determines who gets the glory, the money, die prize. Your conclusion

must be crystal clear, and you must keep it constantly in mind. You

must also figure out how to ward off the vultures circling overhead,

trying to live off the carcass of your creation. And you must anticipate

the many possible crises that will tempt you to improvise. Bismarck

overcame these dangers because he planned to the end, kept on

course through every crisis, and

never let others steal the glory. Once he had reached his stated

goal, he withdrew into his shell like a turtle. This kind of self-control is

godlike.

When you see several steps ahead, and plan your moves all the

way to the end, you will no longer be tempted by emotion or by die

desire to improvise. Your clarity will rid you of the anxiety and

vagueness that are the primary reasons why so many fail to

conclude tiieir actions successfully. You see the ending and you

tolerate no deviation.

Image:

The Gods on

Mount Olympus.

Looking down on

human actions from the

clouds, they see in advance the

endings of all the great dreams that

lead to disaster and tragedy. And

they laugh at our inability to see beyond

the moment, and at how we delude ourselves.

Authority: How much easier it is never to get in than to get

yourself out! We should act contrary to the reed which, when it first

appears, throws up a long straight stem but afterwards, as though it

were exhausted . . . makes several dense knots, indicating that it no

longer has its original vigor and drive. We must rather begin gendy

and coolly, saving our breath for the encounter and our vigorous

thrusts for finishing off the job. In their beginnings it is we who guide

affairs and hold them in our power; but so often once they are set in

motion, it is they which guide us and sweep us along. (Montaigne,

1533-1592)

REVERSAL

It is a cliche among strategists that your plan must include

alternatives and have a degree of flexibility. That is certainly true. If

you are locked into a plan too rigidly, you will be unable to deal with

sudden shifts of fortune. Once you have examined the future

possibilities and decided on your target, you must build in

alternatives and be open to new routes toward your goal.

Most people, however, lose less from overplanning and rigidity

than from vagueness and a tendency to improvise constantly in the

face of circumstance. There is no real purpose in contemplating a

reversal to this Law, then, for no good can come from refusing to

think far into the future and planning to the end. If you are clear- and

far-thinking enough, you will understand that the future is uncertain,

and that you must be open to adaptation. Only having a clear

objective and a far-reaching plan allows you that freedom.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 30

MAKE YOUR

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

SEEM EFFORTLESS

JUDGMENT

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 workit only

raises questions. Teach no one your tricks or they will be used

against you.

Date Masamune once sent for Tannyu to decorate a pair of gold

screens seven feet high. The artist said he thought black-and-white

sketches would suit them, and went home again after considering

them carefully. The next morning he came early and made a large

quantity of ink into which he dipped a horseshoe he had brought with

him, and then proceeded to make impressions of this all over one of

the screens. Then, with a large brush, he drew a number of lines

across them. Meanwhile Masamune had come in to watch his work,

and at this he could contain his irritation no longer, and muttering,

“What a beastly mess!” he strode away to his own apartments. The

retainers told Tannyu he was in a very bad temper indeed. “He

shouldn't look on while I am at work, then, ” replied the painter, “he

should wait till it is finished. ” Then he took up a smaller brush and

dashed in touches here and there, and as he did so the prints of the

horse-shoe turned into crabs, while the big broad strokes became

rushes. He then turned to the other screen and splashed drops of ink

all over it, and when he had added a few brushstrokes here and

there they became a flight of

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I

The Japanese tea ceremony called Cha-no-yu (“Hot Water for

Tea”) has origins in ancient times, but it reached its peak of

refinement in the sixteenth century under its most renowned

practitioner, Sen no Rikyu. Although not from a noble family, Rikyu

rose to great power, becoming die preferred tea master of the

Emperor Hideyoshi, and an important adviser on aesthetic and even

political matters. For Rikyu, the secret of success consisted in

appearing natural, concealing the effort behind one's work.

One day Rikyu and his son went to an acquaintance's house for

a tea ceremony. On the way in, the son remarked that die lovely

antique-looking gate at their host's house gave it an evocatively

lonely appearance. “I don't think so,” replied his father, “it looks as

though it had been brought from some mountain temple a long way

off, and as if die labor required to import it must have cost a lot of

money.” If the owner of the house had put mis much effort into one

gate, it would show in his tea ceremonyand indeed Sen no Rikyu

had to leave die ceremony early, unable to endure the affectation

and effort it inadvertently revealed.

On another 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 in. This charmed Rikyuthe host needed

a relish for die dish he was serving, and had spontaneously gone

outside to get one. But when the man offered die lemon with some

Osaka rice cake, Rikyu realized that he had planned the cutting of

the lemon all along, to go with this expensive delicacy. The gesture

no longer seemed spontaneousit was a way for die host to prove his

cleverness. He had accidentally revealed how hard he was trying.

Having seen enough, Rikyu politely declined the cake, excused

himself, and left.

Emperor Hideyoshi once planned to visit Rikyu for a tea

ceremony. On the night before he was to come, snow began to fall.

Thinking quickly, Rikyu laid round cushions that fit exacdy on each of

die stepping-stones that led through the garden to his house. Just

before dawn, he rose, saw that it had stopped snowing, and carefully

removed the cushions. When Hideyoshi arrived, he marveled at the

simple beauty of die sightthe per-fecdy round stepping stones,

unencumbered by snowand noticed how it called no attention to die

manner in which Rikyu had accomplished it, but only to die polite

gesture itself.

After Sen no Rikyu died, his ideas had a profound influence on

the practice of the tea ceremony. The Tokugawa shogun Yorinobu,

son of die great Emperor Ieyasu, was a student of Rikyu's teachings.

In his garden he had a stone lantern made by a famous master, and

Lord Sakai Tadakatsu asked if he could come by one day to see it.

Yorinobu replied diat he would be honored, and commanded his

gardeners to put everything in order for the visit. These gardeners,

unfamiliar with the precepts of Cha-no-yu, thought die stone lantern

misshapen, its windows being too small for die present taste. They

had a local workman enlarge the windows. A few days before Lord

Sakai's visit, Yorinobu toured the garden. When he saw die al-

tered windows he exploded with rage, ready to impale on his

sword the fool who had ruined the lantern, upsetting its natural grace

and destroying the whole purpose of Lord Sakai's visit.

When Yorinobu calmed down, however, he remembered that he

had originally bought two of the lanterns, and that the second was in

his garden on the island of Kishu. At great expense, he hired a whale

boat and the finest rowers he could find, ordering them to bring the

lantern to him within two daysa difficult feat at best. But the sailors

rowed day and night, and with the luck of a good wind they arrived

just in time. To Yori-nobu's delight, this stone lantern was more

magnificent than the first, for it had stood untouched for twenty years

in a bamboo thicket, acquiring a brilliant antique appearance and a

delicate covering of moss. When Lord Sakai arrived, later that same

day, he was awed by the lantern, which was more magnificent than

he had imaginedso graceful and at one with the elements.

Fortunately he had no idea what time and effort it had cost Yorinobu

to create this sublime effect.

Interpretation

To Sen no Rikyu, the sudden appearance of something naturally,

almost accidentally 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. The gate came

from too far away, the cutting of the lemon looked contrived.

You will often have to use tricks and ingenuity to create your

effects the cushions in the snow, the men rowing all nightbut 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.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW II

The great escape artist Harry Houdini once advertised his act as

“The Impossible Possible.” And indeed those who witnessed his

dramatic escapes felt that what he did onstage contradicted

commonsense ideas of human capacity.

One evening in 1904, an audience of 4,000 Londoners filled a

theater to watch Houdini accept a challenge: to escape from a pair of

manacles billed as the strongest ever invented. They contained six

sets of locks and nine tumblers in each cuff; a Birmingham maker

had spent five years constructing them. Experts who examined them

said they had never seen anything so intricate, and this intricacy was

thought to make them impossible to escape.

The crowd watched the experts secure the manacles on

Houdini's wrists. Then the escape artist entered a black cabinet on

stage. The minutes

swallows over willow trees. When Masamune saw the finished

work he was as overjoyed at the artist's skill as he had previously

been annoyed at the apparent mess he was making of the screens.

CHA-NO-YU!

THE JAPANESE TEA

CEREMONY

A. L. Sadler, 1962

There was once a wrestling master who was versed in 360 feints

and holds. He took a special liking to one of his pupils, to whom he

taught 359 of them over a period of time. Somehow he never got

around to the last trick. As months went by the young man became

so proficient in the art that he bested everyone who dared to face

him in the ring. He was so proud of his prowess that one day he

boasted before the sultan that he could readily whip his master, were

it not out of respect for his age and gratitude for his tutelage.

The sultan became incensed at this irreverence and ordered an

immediate match with the royal court in attendance. At the gong the

youth barged forward with a lusty yell, only to be confronted with the

unfamiliar 360th feint.

The master seized his former pupil, lifted him high above his

head, and flung him crashing to the ground. The sultan and the

assembly let out a loud cheer. When the sultan asked the master

how he was able to overcome such a strong opponent, the master

confessed that he had reserved a secret technique for himself for

just such a contingency. Then he related the lamentation of a master

of archery, who taught everything he knew. “No one has learned

archery from me,” the poor fellow complained, “who has not tried to

use me as a butt in the end.”

A STORY OF SAADI,

AS TOLD IN

THE CRAFT OF POWER,

R.G. H. Siu, 1979

went by; the more time passed, the more certain it seemed that

these manacles would be die first to defeat him. At one point he

emerged from the cabinet, and asked diat die cuffs be temporarily

removed so diat he could take off his coatit was hot inside. The

challengers refused, suspecting his request was a trick to find out

how the locks worked. Undeterred, and without using his hands,

Houdini managed to lift die coat over his shoulders, turn it inside out,

remove a penknife from his vest pocket widi his teeth, and, by

moving his head, cut the coat off his arms. Freed from die coat, he

stepped back into the cabinet, the audience roaring with approval at

his grace and dexterity.

Finally, having kept the audience waiting long enough, Houdini

emerged from the cabinet a second time, now widi his hands free,

die manacles raised high in triumph. To diis day no one knows how

he managed me escape. Altfiough he had taken close to an hour to

free himself, he had never looked concerned, had shown no sign of

doubt. Indeed it seemed by die end diat he had drawn out die

escape as a way to heighten die drama, to make the audience

worryfor tiiere was no other sign diat die performance had been

anydiing but easy. The complaint about die heat was equally part of

die act. The spectators of diis and odier Houdini performances must

have felt he was toying widi them: These manacles are nothing, he

seemed to say, I could have freed myself a lot sooner, and from a lot

worse.

Over the years, Houdini escaped from die chained carcass of an

embalmed “sea monster” (a half octopus, half whalelike beast diat

had beached near Boston); he had himself sealed inside an

enormous envelope from which he emerged widiout breaking die

paper; he passed tiirough brick walls; he wriggled free from

straitjackets while dangling high in die air; he leaped from bridges

into icy waters, his hands manacled and his legs in chains; he had

himself submerged in glass cases full of water, hands padlocked,

while the audience watched in amazement as he worked himself

free, struggling for close to an hour apparentiy without breadiing.

Each time he seemed to court certain deadi yet survived with

superhuman aplomb. Meanwhile, he said nothing about his mediods,

gave no clues as to how he accomplished any of his trickshe left his

audiences and critics speculating, his power and reputation

enhanced by tiieir struggles with die inexplicable. Perhaps the most

baffling trick of all was making a ten-tiiou-sand-pound elephant

disappear before an audience's eyes, a feat he repeated on stage

for over nineteen weeks. No one has ever really explained how he

did diis, for in die auditorium where he performed the trick, there was

simply nowhere for an elephant to hide.

The effortlessness of Houdini's escapes led some to drink he

used occult forces, his superior psychic abilities giving him special

control over his body. But a German escape artist named Kleppini

claimed to know Houdini's secret: He simply used elaborate gadgets.

Kleppini also claimed to have defeated Houdini in a handcuff

challenge in Holland.

Houdini did not mind all kinds of speculation floating around

about

his methods, but he would not tolerate an outright lie, and in 1902

he challenged Kleppini to a handcuff duel. Kleppini accepted.

Through a spy, he found out the secret word to unlock a pair of

French combination-lock cuffs that Houdini liked to use. His plan was

to choose these cuffs to escape from onstage. This would definitively

debunk Houdinihis “genius” simply lay in his use of mechanical

gadgets.

On the night of the challenge, just as Kleppini had planned,

Houdini offered him a choice of cuffs and he selected the ones with

the combination lock. He was even able to disappear with them

behind a screen to make a quick test, and reemerged seconds later,

confident of victory.

Acting as if he sensed fraud, Houdini refused to lock Kleppini in

the cuffs. The two men argued and began to fight, even wrestling

with each other onstage. After a few minutes of this, an apparently

angry, frustrated Houdini gave up and locked Kleppini in the cuffs.

For the next few minutes Kleppini strained to get free. Something

was wrongminutes earlier he had opened the cuffs behind the

screen; now the same code no longer worked. He sweated, racking

his brains. Hours went by, the audience left, and finally an exhausted

and humiliated Kleppini gave up and asked to be released.

The cuffs that Kleppini himself had opened behind the screen

with die word “C-L-E-F-S” (French for “keys”) now clicked open only

with the word “F-R-A-U-D. ”Kleppini never figured out how Houdini

had accomplished this uncanny feat.

Keep the extent of your abilities unknown. The wise man does

not allow his knowledge and abilities to be sounded to the bottom, if

he desires to be honored by all. He allows you to know them but not

to comprehend them. No one must know the extent of his abilities,

lest he be disappointed. No one ever has an opportunity of

fathoming him entirely. For guesses and doubts about the extent of

his talents arouse more veneration than accurate knowledge of

them, be they ever so great.

Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658

Interpretation

Although we do not know for certain how Houdini accomplished

many of his most ingenious escapes, one thing is clear: It was not

the occult, or any kind of magic, mat gave him his powers, but hard

work and endless practice, all of which he carefully concealed from

the world. Houdini never left anything to chanceday and night he

studied the workings of locks, researched centuries-old sleight-of-

hand tricks, pored over books on mechanics, whatever he could use.

Every moment not spent researching he spent working his body,

keeping himself exceptionally limber, and learning how to control his

muscles and his breathing.

Early on in Houdini's career, an old Japanese performer whom he

toured with taught him an ancient trick: how to swallow an ivory ball,

fhen bring it back up. He practiced this endlessly with a small peeled

potato tied to a stringup and down he would manipulate the potato

wim his throat muscles, until they were strong enough to move it

without the string. The organizers of the London handcuff challenge

had searched Houdini's body thoroughly beforehand, but no one

could check the inside of his throat, where he could have concealed

small tools to help him escape. Even so, Kleppini was fundamentally

wrong: It was not Houdini's tools but his practice, work, and research

that made his escapes possible.

Kleppini, in fact, was completely outwitted by Houdini, who set

the whole thing up. He let his opponent learn the code to the French

cuffs,

LAW 30

then baited him into choosing those cuffs onstage. Then, during

the two men's tussle, the dexterous Houdini was able to change the

code to “F-R-A-U-D.” He had spent weeks practicing this trick, but

the audience saw none of the sweat and toil behind the scenes. Nor

was Houdini ever nervous; he induced nervousness in others. (He

deliberately dragged out the time it would take to escape, as a way

of heightening the drama, and making the audience squirm.) His

escapes from death, always graceful and easy, made him look like a

superman.

As a person of power, you must research and practice endlessly

before appearing in public, onstage or anywhere else. 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 weakeras if anyone who practiced and worked at it

could do what they had done, or as if they weren't really up to the

job. Keep your effort and your tricks to yourself and you seem to

have the grace and ease of a god. One never sees the source of a

god's power revealed; one only sees its effects.

A line [of poetry] will take us hours maybe;

Yet if it does not seem a moment's thought,

Our stitching and unstitching has been naught.

Adam's Curse, William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939

KEYS TO POWER

Humanity's first notions of power came from primitive encounters

with na-turethe flash of lightning in the sky, a sudden flood, the

speed and ferocity of a wild animal. These forces required no

thinking, no planningthey awed us by their sudden appearance, their

gracefulness, and their power over life and death. And this remains

the kind of power we have always wanted to imitate. Through

science and technology we have re-created the speed and sublime

power of nature, but something is missing: Our machines are noisy

and jerky, they reveal their effort. Even the very best creations of

technology cannot root out our admiration for things that move easily

and effortlessly. The power of children to bend us to their will comes

from a kind of seductive charm that we feel in the presence of a

creature less reflective and more graceful than we are. We cannot

return to such a state, but if we can create the appearance of this

kind of ease, we elicit in others the kind of primitive awe that nature

has always evoked in humankind.

One of the first European writers to expound on this principle

came from that most unnatural of environments, the Renaissance

court. In The Book of the Courtier, published in 1528, Baldassare

Castiglione describes the highly elaborate and codified manners of

the perfect court citizen. And yet, Castiglione explains, the courtier

must execute these gestures with what he calls sprezzfltura, the

capacity to make the difficult seem easy. He urges the courtier to

"practice in all tilings a certain nonchalance which conceals all

artistry and makes whatever one says or does seem uncontrived

and effortless.“ We all admire the achievement of some unusual feat,

but if it is accomplished naturally and gracefully, our admiration

increases tenfold ”whereas ... to labor at what one is doing and ... to

make bones over it, shows an extreme lack of grace and causes

everything, whatever its worth, to be discounted."

Much of the idea of sprezzatura came from the world of art. All

the great Renaissance artists carefully kept their works under wraps.

Only the finished masterpiece could be shown to the public.

Michelangelo forbade even popes to view his work in process. A

Renaissance artist was always careful to keep his studios shut to

patrons and public alike, not out of fear of imitation, but because to

see the making of the works would mar the magic of dieir effect, and

their studied atmosphere of ease and natural beauty.

The Renaissance painter Vasari, also the first great art critic,

ridiculed the work of Paolo Uccello, who was obsessed with the laws

of perspective. The effort Uccello spent on improving the

appearance of perspective was too obvious in his workit made his

paintings ugly and labored, overwhelmed by the effort of their

effects. We have the same response when we watch performers who

put too much effort into dieir act: Seeing them trying so hard breaks

the illusion. It also makes us uncomfortable. Calm, graceful

performers, on the odier hand, set us at ease, creating the illusion

that they are not acting but being natural and themselves, even

when everything they are doing involves labor and practice.

The idea of sprezzfltura is relevant to all forms of power, for

power depends vitally on appearances and the illusions you create.

Your public actions are like artworks: They must have visual appeal,

must create anticipation, even entertain. When you reveal the inner

workings of your creation, you become just one more mortal among

others. What is understandable is not awe-inspiringwe tell ourselves

we could do as well if we had the money and time. Avoid the

temptation of showing how clever you areit is far more clever to

conceal the mechanisms of your cleverness.

Talleyrand's application of this concept to his daily life greatly

enhanced the aura of power that surrounded him. He never liked to

work too hard, so he made others do the work for himdie spying, the

research, the detailed analyses. With all this labor at his disposal, he

himself never seemed to strain. When his spies revealed that a

certain event was about to take place, he would talk in social

conversation as if he sensed its imminence. The result was that

people thought he was clairvoyant. His short pithy statements and

witticisms always seemed to summarize a situation perfectly, but

diey were based on much research and thought. To those in

government, including Napoleon himself, Talleyrand gave the

impression of immense poweran effect entirely dependent on the

apparent ease with which he accomplished his feats.

There is another reason for concealing your shortcuts and tricks:

When you let this information out, you give people ideas they can

use against you. You lose the advantages of keeping silent. We tend

to want the world to know what we have donewe want our vanity

gratified by having our hard work and cleverness applauded, and we

may even want sympathy for the hours it has taken to reach our

point of artistry. Learn to control this propensity to blab, for its effect

is often the opposite of what you expected. Remember: The more

mystery surrounds your actions, the more awesome your power

seems. You appear to be die only one who can do what you doand

the appearance of having an exclusive gift is immensely powerful.

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 untappedno one can fathom their limits.

Image: The Racehorse. From up close we would see the strain,

the effort to control the horse, the labored, painful breathing. But

from the distance where we sit and watch, it is all gracefulness, flying

through the air. Keep others at a distance and they will only see the

ease with which you move.

Authority: For whatever action [nonchalance] accompanies, no

matter how trivial it is, it not only reveals the skill of the person doing

it but also very often causes it to be considered far greater than it

really is. This is because it makes the onlookers believe that a man

who performs well with so much facility must possess even greater

skill than he does. (Baldassare Castiglione, 1478-1529)

REVERSAL

The secrecy with which you surround your actions must seem

lighthearted in spirit. A zeal to conceal your work creates an

unpleasant, almost paranoiac impression: you are taking the game

too seriously. Houdini was careful to make the concealment of his

tricks seem a game, all part of the show. Never show your work until

it is finished, but if you put too much effort into keeping it under

wraps you will be like the painter Pontormo, who spent the last years

of his life hiding his frescoes from the public eye and only succeeded

in driving himself mad. Always keep your sense of humor about

yourself.

There are also times when revealing die inner workings of your

projects can prove worthwhile. It all depends on your audience's

taste, and on

the times in which you operate. P. T. Barnum recognized that his

public wanted to feel involved in his shows, and that understanding

his tricks delighted them, pardy, perhaps, because implicitly

debunking people who kept their sources of power hidden from the

masses appealed to America's democratic spirit. The public also

appreciated the showman's humor and honesty. Barnum took this to

the extreme of publicizing his own humbug-gery in his popular

autobiography, written when his career was at its height.

As long as die 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 die audience the illusion

of being superior and involved, even while much of what you do

remains concealed from them.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 31

CONTROL THE OPTIONS:

GET OTHERS TO PLAY WITH

THE CARDS YOU DEAL

JUDGMENT

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.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I

From early in his reign, Ivan IV, later known as 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 twenty-three, Ivan fell ill. Lying in bed,

nearing death, he asked the boyars to swear allegiance to his son as

the new czar. Some hesitated, some even refused. Then and there

Ivan saw he had no power over the boyars. He recovered from his

illness, but he never forgot the lesson: The boyars were out to

destroy him. And indeed in the years to come, many of the most

powerful of them defected to Russia's main enemies, Poland and

Lithuania, where they plotted their return and the overthrow of the

czar. Even one of Ivan's closest friends, Prince Andrey Kurbski,

suddenly turned against him, defecting to Lithuania in 1564, and

becoming the strongest of Ivan's enemies.

When Kurbski began raising troops for an invasion, the royal

dynasty seemed suddenly more precarious than ever. With emigre

nobles fomenting invasion from the west, Tartars bearing down from

the east, and the boyars stirring up trouble within the country,

Russia's vast size made it a nightmare to defend. In whatever

direction Ivan struck, he would leave himself vulnerable on the other

side. Only if he had absolute power could he deal with this many-

headed Hydra. And he had no such power.

Ivan brooded until the morning of December 3, 1564, when the

citizens of Moscow awoke to a strange sight. Hundreds of sleds filled

the square before the Kremlin, loaded with the czar's treasures and

with provisions for the entire court. They watched in disbelief as the

czar and his court boarded the sleds and left town. Without

explaining why, he established himself in a village south of Moscow.

For an entire month a kind of terror gripped the capital, for the

Muscovites feared that Ivan had abandoned them to the bloodthirsty

boyars. Shops closed up and riotous mobs gathered daily. Finally, on

January 3 of 1565, a letter arrived from the czar, explaining that he

could no longer bear the boyars' betrayals and had decided to

abdicate once and for all.

Read aloud in public, the letter had a startling effect: Merchants

and commoners blamed the boyars for Ivan's decision, and took to

the streets, terrifying the nobility with their fury. Soon a group of

delegates representing the church, the princes, and the people made

the journey to Ivan's village, and begged the czar, in the name of the

holy land of Russia, to return to the throne. Ivan listened but would

not change his mind. After days of hearing their pleas, however, he

offered his subjects a choice: Either they grant him absolute powers

to govern as he pleased, with no interference from the boyars, or

they find a new leader.

Faced with a choice between civil war and the acceptance of

despotic power, almost every sector of Russian society “opted” for a

strong czar, calling for Ivan's return to Moscow and the restoration of

law and order. In

The German Chancellor Bismarck, enraged at the constant

criticisms from Rudolf Virchow (the German pathologist and liberal

politician), had his seconds call upon the scientist to challenge him to

a duel. “As the challenged party, I have the choice of weapons, ” said

Virchow, “and I choose these. ” He held aloft two large and

apparently identical sausages. “One of these,” he went on, “is

infected with deadly germs; the other is perfectly sound. Let His

Excellency decide which one he wishes to eat, and I will eat the

other.” A Imost immediately the message came back that the

chancellor had decided to cancel the duel.

the little, brown book of anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman, hd., 1985

Once upon a time there was a king of Armenia, who, being of a

curious turn of mind and in need of some new diversion, sent his

heralds throughout the land to make the following proclamation:

“Hear this! Whatever man among you can prove himself the most

outrageous liar in Armenia shall receive an apple made of pure gold

from the hands of His Majesty the King!” People began to swarm to

the palace from every town and hamlet in the country, people of all

ranks and conditions, princes, merchants, farmers, priests, rich and

poor, tall and short, fat and thin. There was no lack of liars in the

land, and each one told his tale to the king. A ruler, however, has

heard practically every sort of lie, and none of those now told him

convinced the king that he had listened to the best of them. The king

was beginning to grow tired of his new sport and was thinking of

calling the whole contest off without declaring a winner, when there

appeared before him a poor, ragged man, carrying a large

earthenware pitcher under his arm. “What can I do for you” asked

His Majesty. “Sire!” said the poor man, slightly bewil-

February, with much celebration, Ivan returned to Moscow. The

Russians could no longer complain if he behaved dictatoriallythey

had given him this power themselves.

Interpretation

Ivan the Terrible faced a terrible dilemma: To give in to die boyars

would lead to certain destruction, but civil war would bring a different

kind of ruin. Even if Ivan came out of such a war on top, die country

would be devastated and its divisions would be stronger dian ever.

His weapon of choice in the past had been to make a bold, offensive

move. Now, however, that kind of move would turn against himthe

more boldly he confronted his enemies, die worse die reactions he

would spark.

The main weakness of a show of force is that it stirs up

resentment and eventually leads to a response that eats at your

audiority Ivan, immensely creative in the use of power, saw clearly

that die only padi to die kind of victory he wanted was a false

wididrawal. He would not force the country over to his position, he

would give it “options”: eidier his abdication, and certain anarchy, or

his accession to absolute power. To back up his move, he made it

clear diat he preferred to abdicate: “Call my bluff,” he said, “and

watch what happens.” No one called his bluff. By withdrawing for just

a month, he showed the country a glimpse of die nightmares that

would follow his abdicationTartar invasions, civil war, ruin. (All of

these did eventually come to pass after Ivan's deadi, in the infamous

“Time of die Troubles.”)

Withdrawal and disappearance are classic ways of controlling the

options. You give people a sense of how things will fall apart without

you, and you offer diem a “choice”: I stay away and you suffer die

consequences, or I return under circumstances that I dictate. In this

mediod of controlling people's options, they choose the option that

gives you power because die alternative is just too unpleasant. You

force their hand, but indirecdy: They seem to have a choice.

Whenever people feel tiiey have a choice, they walk into your trap

diat much more easily.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW II

As a seventeenth-century French courtesan, Ninon de Lenclos

found diat her life had certain pleasures. Her lovers came from

royalty and aristocracy, and diey paid her well, entertained her witii

tiieir wit and intellect, satisfied her radier demanding sensual needs,

and treated her almost as an equal. Such a life was infinitely

preferable to marriage. In 1643, however, Ninon's motiier died

suddenly, leaving her, at the age of twenty-three, totally alone in the

worldno family, no dowry, notiiing to fall back upon. A kind of panic

overtook her and she entered a convent, turning her back on her

illustrious lovers. A year later she left the convent and moved to

Lyons. When she finally reappeared in Paris, in 1648, lovers and

suitors flocked to her door in greater numbers tiian ever before, for

she was die wittiest and

most spirited courtesan of the time and her presence had been

greatly missed.

Ninon's followers quickly discovered, however, that she had

changed her old way of doing things, and had set up a new system

of options. The dukes, seigneurs, and princes who wanted to pay for

her services could continue to do so, but they were no longer in

controlshe would sleep with them when she wanted, according to her

whim. All their money bought them was a possibility. If it was her

pleasure to sleep with them only once a month, so be it.

Those who did not want to be what Ninon called a payeur could

join the large and growing group of men she called her martyrs men

who visited her apartment principally for her friendship, her biting wit,

her lute-playing, and the company of the most vibrant minds of the

period, including Moliere, La Rochefoucauld, and Saint-Evremond.

The martyrs, too, however, entertained a possibility: She would

regularly select from them a favori, a man who would become her

lover without having to pay, and to whom she would abandon herself

completely for as long as she so desireda week, a few months,

rarely longer. A payeur could not become a favori, but a martyr had

no guarantee of becoming one, and indeed could remain

disappointed for an entire lifetime. The poet Charleval, for example,

never enjoyed Ninon's favors, but never stopped coming to visithe

did not want to do without her company.

As word of this system reached polite French society, Ninon

became the object of intense hostility. Her reversal of the position of

the courtesan scandalized the queen mother and her court. Much to

their horror, however, it did not discourage her male suitorsindeed it

only increased their numbers and intensified their desire. It became

an honor to be a payeur, helping Ninon to maintain her lifestyle and

her glittering salon, accompanying her sometimes to die theater, and

sleeping with her when she chose. Even more distinguished were

the martyrs, enjoying her company without paying for it and

maintaining the hope, however remote, of some day becoming her

favori. That possibility spurred on many a young nobleman, as word

spread that none among the courtesans could surpass Ninon in the

art of love. And so the married and the single, the old and the young,

entered her web and chose one of the two options presented to

them, both of which amply satisfied her.

dered. "Surely you

remember You owe

me a pot of gold, and I

have come to

collect it. "

"You are a perfect liar,

sir!" exclaimed the

king. "I owe you no

money!"

“A perfect liar, am I ”

said the poor man.

" Then give me the

golden apple!"

The king, realizing that

the man was trying to

trick him, started to

hedge.

"No, no! You are not a

liar!"

"Then give me the pot

of gold you owe me,

sire," said the man.

The king saw the

dilemma. He handed

over the golden apple.

armenian folk-tales and fables, retold by Charles Downing, 1993

Interpretation

The life of the courtesan entailed the possibility of a power that

was denied a married woman, but it also had obvious perils. The

man who paid for the courtesan's services in essence owned her,

determining when he could possess her and when, later on, he

would abandon her. As she grew older, her options narrowed, as

fewer men chose her. To avoid a life of poverty she had to amass her

fortune while she was young. The courtesan's legendary greed,

then, reflected a practical necessity, yet also lessened her allure,

since the illusion of being desired is important to men, who are often

alien-

./. P. Morgan Sr. once told a jeweler of his acquaintance that he

was interested in buying a pearl scarf-pin. Just a few weeks later, the

jeweler happened upon a magnificent pearl. He had it mounted in an

appropriate setting and sent it to Morgan, together with a bill for

$5,000. The following day the package was returned. Morgan's

accompanying note read: “/ like the pin, but I don't like the price. If

you will accept the enclosed check for $4,000, please send back the

box with the seal unbroken. ” The enraged jeweler refused the check

and dismissed the messenger in disgust. He opened up the box to

reclaim the unwanted pin, only to find that it had been removed. In its

place was a check for $5,000.

the little, brown

book of anhcdoths,

Clifton Fadiman, h,d.,

ated if their partner is too interested in their money. As the

courtesan aged, then, she faced a most difficult fate.

Ninon de Lenclos had a horror of any kind of dependence. She

early on tasted a kind of equality with her lovers, and she would not

settle into a system that left her such distasteful options. Strangely

enough, the system she devised in its place seemed to satisfy her

suitors as much as it did her. The payeurs may have had to pay, but

the fact that Ninon would only sleep with them when she wanted to

gave them a thrill unavailable with every other courtesan: She was

yielding out of her own desire. The martyrs' avoidance of the taint of

having to pay gave them a sense of superiority; as members of

Ninon's fraternity of admirers, they also might some day experience

the ultimate pleasure of being her favori. Finally, Ninon did not force

her suitors into either category. They could “choose” which side they

preferreda freedom that left them a vestige of masculine pride.

Such is the power of giving people a choice, or rather the illusion

of one, for they are playing with cards you have dealt them. Where

the alternatives set up by Ivan the Terrible involved a certain riskone

option would have led to his losing his powerNinon created a

situation in which every option redounded to her favor. From the

payeurs she received the money she needed to run her salon. And

from the martyrs she gained the ultimate in power: She could

surround herself with a bevy of admirers, a harem from which to

choose her lovers.

The system, though, depended on one critical factor: the

possibility, however remote, that a martyr could become a favori. The

illusion that riches, glory, or sensual satisfaction may someday fall

into your victim's lap is an irresistible carrot to include in your list of

choices. That hope, however slim, will make men accept die most

ridiculous situations, because it leaves them the all-important option

of a dream. The illusion of choice, married to the possibility of future

good fortune, will lure the most stubborn sucker into your glittering

web.

KEYS TO POWER

Words like “freedom,” “options,” and “choice” evoke a power of

possibility far beyond the reality of the benefits they entail. When

examined closely, the choices we havein the marketplace, in

elections, in our jobstend to have noticeable limitations: They are

often a matter of a choice simply between A and B, with the rest of

the alphabet out of the picture. Yet as long as the faintest mirage of

choice flickers on, we rarely focus on the missing options. We

“choose” to believe that the game is fair, and that we have our

freedom. We prefer not to think too much about the depth of our

liberty to choose.

This unwillingness to probe the smallness of our choices stems

from the fact that too much freedom creates a kind of anxiety. The

phrase “unlimited options” sounds infinitely promising, but unlimited

options would actually paralyze us and cloud our ability to choose.

Our limited range of choices comforts us.

This supplies the clever and cunning with enormous opportunities

for deception. For people who are choosing between alternatives

find it hard to believe they are being manipulated or deceived; they

cannot see that you are allowing them a small amount of free will in

exchange for a much more powerful imposition of your own will.

Setting up a narrow range of choices, then, should always be a part

of your deceptions. There is a saying: If you can get the bird to walk

into the cage on its own, it will sing that much more prettily.

The following are among the most common forms of “controlling

the options”:

Color the Choices. This was a favored technique of Henry

Kissinger. As President Richard Nixon's secretary of state, Kissinger

considered himself better informed than his boss, and believed that

in most situations he could make the best decision on his own. But if

he tried to determine policy, he would offend or perhaps enrage a

notoriously insecure man. So Kissinger would propose three or four

choices of action for each situation, and would present them in such

a way that the one he preferred always seemed the best solution

compared to the others. Time after time, Nixon fell for the bait, never

suspecting that he was moving where Kissinger pushed him. This is

an excellent device to use on the insecure master.

Force the Resister. One of the main problems faced by Dr. Milton

H. Er-ickson, a pioneer of hypnosis therapy in the 1950s, was the

relapse. His patients might seem to be recovering rapidly, but their

apparent susceptibility to the therapy masked a deep resistance:

They would soon relapse into old habits, blame the doctor, and stop

coming to see him. To avoid this, Erick-son began ordering some

patients to have a relapse, to make themselves feel as bad as when

they first came into go back to square one. Faced with this option,

the patients would usually “choose” to avoid the relapse which, of

course, was what Erickson really wanted.

This is a good technique to use on children and other willful

people who enjoy doing the opposite of what you ask them to: Push

them to “choose” what you want them to do by appearing to

advocate the opposite.

Alter the Playing Field. In the 1860s, John D. Rockefeller set out

to create an oil monopoly. If he tried to buy up the smaller oil

companies they would figure out what he was doing and fight back.

Instead, he began se-credy buying up the railway companies that

transported the oil. When he then attempted to take over a particular

company, and met with resistance, he reminded diem of their

dependence on the rails. Refusing them shipping, or simply raising

their fees, could ruin their business. Rockefeller altered the playing

field so that die only options the small oil producers had were die

ones he gave diem.

In this tactic your opponents know their hand is being forced, but

it doesn't matter. The technique is effective against those who resist

at all costs.

The Shrinking Options. The late-nineteenth-century art dealer

Am-broise VoUard perfected this technique.

Customers would come to Vollard's shop to see some Cezannes.

He would show three paintings, neglect to mention a price, and

pretend to doze off. The visitors would have to leave without

deciding. They would usually come back the next day to see the

paintings again, but this time Vollard would pull out less interesting

works, pretending he thought they were the same ones. The baffled

customers would look at the new offerings, leave to think them over,

and return yet again. Once again the same thing would happen:

Vollard would show paintings of lesser quality still. Finally the buyers

would realize they had better grab what he was showing them,

because tomorrow they would have to settle for something worse,

perhaps at even higher prices.

A variation on this technique is to raise the price every time the

buyer hesitates and another day goes by. This is an excellent

negotiating ploy to use on the chronically indecisive, who will fall for

the idea that they are getting a better deal today than if they wait till

tomorrow.

The Weak Man on the Precipice. The weak are the easiest to

maneuver by controlling their options. Cardinal de Retz, die great

seventeenth-century provocateur, served as an unofficial assistant to

the Duke of Orleans, who was notoriously indecisive. It was a

constant struggle to convince the duke to take actionhe would hem

and haw, weigh the options, and wait till the last moment, giving

everyone around him an ulcer. But Retz discovered a way to handle

him: He would describe all sorts of dangers, exaggerating them as

much as possible, until the duke saw a yawning abyss in every

direction except one: the one Retz was pushing him to take.

This tactic is similar to “Color the Choices,” but widi the weak you

have to be more aggressive. Work on their emotionsuse fear and

terror to propel them into action. Try reason and they will always find

a way to procrastinate.

Brothers in Crime. This is a classic con-artist technique: You

attract your victims to some criminal scheme, creating a bond of

blood and guilt between you. They participate in your deception,

commit a crime (or think they dosee the story of Sam Geezil in Law

3), and are easily manipulated. Serge Stavisky, the great French con

artist of the 1920s, so entangled the government in his scams and

swindles that die state did not dare to prosecute him, and “chose” to

leave him alone. It is often wise to implicate in your deceptions the

very person who can do you the most harm if you fail. Their

involvement can be subtieeven a hint of their involvement will narrow

their options and buy their silence.

The Horns of a Dilemma. This idea was demonstrated by

General William Sherman's infamous march through Georgia during

the American Civil War. Although the Confederates knew what

direction Sherman was

heading in, they never knew if he would attack from the left or the

right, for he divided his army into two wingsand if the rebels retreated

from one wing they found themselves facing the other. This is a

classic trial lawyer's technique: The lawyer leads the witnesses to

decide between two possible explanations of an event, both of which

poke a hole in their story. They have to answer the lawyer's

questions, but whatever they say they hurt themselves. The key to

this move is to strike quickly: Deny the victim the time to think of an

escape. As they wriggle between the horns of the dilemma, they dig

their own grave.

Understand: In your struggles with your rivals, it will often be

necessary for you to hurt mem. And if you are clearly the agent of

their punishment, expect a counterattackexpect revenge. If, however,

they seem to themselves to be the agents of their own misfortune,

they will submit quietly. When Ivan left Moscow for his rural village,

the citizens asking him to return agreed to his demand for absolute

power. Over the years to come, they resented him less for the terror

he unleashed on the country, because, after all, they had granted

him his power themselves. This is why it is always good to allow your

victims their choice of poison, and to cloak your involvement in

providing it to them as far as possible.

Image: The Horns ofthe Bull. The bullbacks you into the corner

with its hornsnota single horn, which youmight be able to escape, but

a pair of hornsthat trap you within theirhold. Run right or runlefteither

way youmove into their piercingends and are gored.

Authority: For the wounds and every other evil that men inflict

upon themselves spontaneously, and of their own choice, are in the

long run less painful than those inflicted by others. (Niccolo

Machiavelli, 1469-1527)

REVERSAL

Controlling the options has one main purpose: to disguise

yourself as the agent of power and punishment. The tactic works

best, then, for tiiose whose power is fragile, and who cannot operate

too openly without incurring suspicion, resentment, and anger. Even

as a general rule, however, it is rarely wise to be seen as exerting

power directly and forcefully, no matter how secure or strong you

are. It is usually more elegant and more effective to give people the

illusion of choice.

On the other hand, by limiting other people's options you

sometimes limit your own. There are situations in which it is to your

advantage to allow your rivals a large degree of freedom: As you

watch them operate, you give yourself rich opportunities to spy,

gather information, and plan your deceptions. The nineteentii-century

banker James Rothschild liked this method: He felt that if he tried to

control his opponents' movements, he lost the chance to observe

their strategy and plan a more effective course. The more freedom

he allowed them in the short term, the more forcefully he could act

against them in the long run.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 32

PLAY TO PEOPLE'S FANTASIES

JUDGMENT

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.

I IIK ITNKUAI. OF TIIK I.IONKSS

The lion having suddenly lost his queen, every one hastened to

show allegiance to the monarch, by offering consolation. These

compliments, alas, served but to increase the widower's affliction.

Due notice was given throughout the kingdom that the funeral would

be performed at a certain time and place; the lion's officers were

ordered to be in attendance, to regulate the ceremony, and place the

company according to their respective rank. One may well judge no

one absented himself. The monarch gave way to his grief, and the

whole cave, lions having no other temples, resounded with his cries.

After his example, all the courtiers roared in their different tones. A

court is the sort of place where everyone is either sorrowful, gay, or

indifferent to everything, just as the reigning prince may think fit; or if

any one is not actually, he at least tries to appear so; each

endeavors to mimic the master. It is truly said that one mind

animates a thousand bodies, clearly showing that human beings are

mere machines. But let us return to our subject. The stag alone shed

no tears. How could he, forsooth The death of the queen avenged

him; she had

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

The city-state of Venice was prosperous for so long that its

citizens felt their small republic had destiny on its side. In the Middle

Ages and High Renaissance, its virtual monopoly on trade to the

east made it die wealthiest city in Europe. Under a beneficent

republican government, Venetians enjoyed liberties that few other

Italians had ever known. Yet in the sixteenth century dieir fortunes

suddenly changed. The opening of the New World transferred power

to die Atiantic side of Europeto die Spanish and Portuguese, and

later the Dutch and English. Venice could not compete economically

and its empire gradually dwindled. The final blow was the

devastating loss of a prized Mediterranean possession, the island of

Cyprus, captured from Venice by die Turks in 1570.

Now noble families went broke in Venice, and banks began to

fold. A kind of gloom and depression setded over die citizens. They

had known a glittering pasthad eidier lived through it or heard stories

about it from their elders. The closeness of the glory years was

humiliating. The Venetians half believed diat die goddess Fortune

was only playing a joke on them, and that die old days would soon

return. For the time being, tiiough, what could they do

In 1589 rumors began to swirl around Venice of the arrival not far

away of a mysterious man called “II Bragadino,” a master of

alchemy, a man who had won incredible wealtii through his ability, it

was said, to multiply gold through die use of a secret substance. The

rumor spread quickly because a few years earlier, a Venetian

nobleman passing through Poland had heard a learned man

prophesy that Venice would recover her past glory and power if she

could find a man who understood die alchemic art of manufacturing

gold. And so, as word reached Venice of die gold this Bragadino

possessedhe clinked gold coins continuously in his hands, and

golden objects filled his palacesome began to dream: Through him,

their city would prosper again.

Members of Venice's most important noble families accordingly

went togetiier to Brescia, where Bragadino lived. They toured his

palace and watched in awe as he demonstrated his gold-making

abilities, taking a pinch of seemingly worthless minerals and

transforming it into several ounces of gold dust. The Venetian senate

prepared to debate the idea of extending an official invitation to

Bragadino to stay in Venice at the city's expense, when word

suddenly reached them that they were competing with the Duke of

Mantua for his services. They heard of a magnificent party in

Bragadino's palace for the duke, featuring garments with golden

buttons, gold watches, gold plates, and on and on. Worried they

might lose Bragadino to Mantua, die senate voted almost

unanimously to invite him to Venice, promising him the mountain of

money he would need to continue living in his luxurious stylebut only

if he came right away.

Late that year die mysterious Bragadino arrived in Venice. With

his piercing dark eyes under thick brows, and the two enormous

black mastiffs diat accompanied him everywhere, he was forbidding

and impressive. He took up residence in a sumptuous palace on the

island of the Giudecca,

with the republic funding his banquets, his expensive clothes, and

all his other whims. A kind of alchemy fever spread through Venice.

On street corners, hawkers would sell coal, distilling apparatus,

bellows, how-to books on the subject. Everyone began to practice

alchemyeveryone except Bragadino.

The alchemist seemed to be in no hurry to begin manufacturing

the gold that would save Venice from ruin. Strangely enough this

only increased his popularity and following; people thronged from all

over Europe, even Asia, to meet this remarkable man. Months went

by, with gifts pouring in to Bragadino from all sides. Still he gave no

sign of the miracle that the Venetians confidently expected him to

produce. Eventually the citizens began to grow impatient, wondering

if he would wait forever. At first the senators warned them not to

hurry himhe was a capricious devil, who needed to be cajoled.

Finally, though, the nobility began to wonder too, and the senate

came under pressure to show a return on the city's ballooning

investment.

Bragadino had only scorn for die doubters, but he responded to

them. He had, he said, already deposited in the city's mint the

mysterious substance with which he multiplied gold. He could use

this substance up all at once, and produce double the gold, but the

more slowly the process took place, the more it would yield. If left

alone for seven years, sealed in a casket, the substance would

multiply the gold in the mint thirty times over. Most of the senators

agreed to wait to reap the gold mine Bragadino promised. Others,

however, were angry: seven more years of this man living royally at

the public trough! And many of the common citizens of Venice

echoed these sentiments. Finally the alchemist's enemies demanded

he produce a proof of his skills: a substantial amount of gold, and

soon.

Lofty, apparently devoted to his art, Bragadino responded that

Venice, in its impatience, had betrayed him, and would therefore lose

his services. He left town, going first to nearby Padua, then, in 1590,

to Munich, at the invitation of the Duke of Bavaria, who, like the

entire city of Venice, had known great wealth but had fallen into

bankruptcy through his own profligacy, and hoped to regain his

fortune through the famous alchemist's services. And so Bragadino

resumed the comfortable arrangement he had known in Venice, and

the same pattern repeated itself.

Interpretation

The young Cypriot Mamugna had lived in Venice for several

years before reincarnating himself as the alchemist Bragadino. He

saw how gloom had settled on the city, how everyone was hoping for

a redemption from some indefinite source. While other charlatans

mastered everyday cons based on sleight of hand, Mamugna

mastered human nature. With Venice as his target from the start, he

traveled abroad, made some money through his alchemy scams,

and then returned to Italy, setting up shop in Brescia. There he

created a reputation that he knew would spread to Venice. From a

distance, in fact, his aura of power would be all the more impressive.

At first Mamugna did not use vulgar demonstrations to convince peo-

formerly strangled his wife and son. A courtier thought fit to

inform the bereaved monarch, and even affirmed that he had seen

the stag laugh. The rage of a king, says Solomon, is terrible, and

especially that of a lion-king. “Pitiful forester!” he exclaimed, “darest

thou laugh when all around are dissolved in tears We will not soil our

royal claws with thy profane blood! Do thou, brave wolf, avenge our

queen, by immolating this traitor to her august manes.”

Hereupon the stag replied: “Sire, the time for weeping is passed;

grief is here superfluous. Your revered spouse appeared to me but

now, reposing on a bed of roses; I instantly recognized her. 'Friend,'

said she to me, 'have done with this funereal pomp, cease these

useless tears. I have tasted a thousand delights in the Elysian fields,

conversing with those who are saints like myself. Let the king's

despair remain for some time unchecked, it gratifies me.'” Scarcely

had he spoken, when every one shouted: “A miracle! a miracle!” The

stag, instead of being punished, received a handsome gift. Do hut

entertain a king with dreams, flatter him, and tell him a few pleasant

fantastic lies: whatever his indignation against you may be, he will

swallow the bait, and make you his dearest friend.

FABLBS,

Jean de La Fontaine, 1621-1695

If you want to tell lies

that will be believed,

don't tell the truth

that won't.

Emperor Tokugawa

Ieyasu of Japan,

seventeenth century

pie of his alchemic skill. His sumptuous palace, his opulent

garments, the clink of gold in his hands, all these provided a superior

argument to anything rational. And these established the cycle that

kept him going: His obvious wealth confirmed his reputation as an

alchemist, so that patrons like the Duke of Mantua gave him money,

which allowed him to live in wealth, which reinforced his reputation

as an alchemist, and so on. Only once this reputation was

established, and dukes and senators were fighting over him, did he

resort to the trilling necessity of a demonstration. By then, however,

people were easy to deceive: They wanted to believe. The Venetian

senators who watched him multiply gold wanted to believe so badly

that they failed to notice the glass pipe up his sleeve, from which he

slipped gold dust into his pinches of minerals. Brilliant and

capricious, he was the alchemist of their fantasiesand once he had

created an aura like diis, no one noticed his simple deceptions.

Such is the power of the fantasies that take root in us, especially

in times of scarcity and decline. People rarely believe diat their

problems arise from their own misdeeds and stupidity. Someone or

something out there is to blamethe other, the world, the godsand so

salvation comes from the outside as well. Had Bragadino arrived in

Venice armed with a detailed analysis of the reasons behind the

city's economic decline, and of the hard-nosed steps that it could

take to turn things around, he would have been scorned. The reality

was too ugly and the solution too painful mosdy die kind of hard work

that the citizens' ancestors had mustered to create an empire.

Fantasy, on die other handin this case the romance of alchemywas

easy to understand and infinitely more palatable.

To gain power, you must be a source of pleasure for those

around youand 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, the pot of

gold.

No man need despair of gaining converts to the most extravagant

hypothesis who has art enough to represent it in favorable colors.

David Hume, 1711-1776

KEYS TO POWER

Fantasy can never operate alone. It requires the backdrop of the

humdrum and the mundane. It is the oppressiveness of reality that

allows fantasy to take root and bloom. In sixteenth-century Venice,

the reality was one of decline and loss of prestige. The

corresponding fantasy described a sudden recovery of past glories

through the miracle of alchemy. While the reality only got worse, die

Venetians inhabited a happy dream world in which dieir city restored

its fabulous wealth and power overnight, turning dust into gold.

The person who can spin a fantasy out of an oppressive reality

has access to untold power. As you search for the fantasy that will

take hold of the

masses, then, keep your eye on the banal truths that weigh

heavily on us all. Never be distracted by people's glamorous portraits

of themselves and their lives; search and dig for what really

imprisons diem. Once you find that, you have the magical key that

will put great power in your hands.

Aldiough times and people change, let us examine a few of die

oppressive realities tiiat endure, and the opportunities for power they

provide:

The Reality: Change is slow and gradual. It requires hard work, a

bit of luck, a fair amount of self-sacrifice, and a lot ofpatience.

The Fantasy: A sudden transformation will bring a total change in

one's fortunes, bypassing work, luck, self-sacrifice, and time in one

fantastic stroke.

This is of course die fantasy par excellence of the charlatans who

prowl among us to this day, and was die key to Bragadino's success.

Promise a great and total changefrom poor to rich, sickness to

healdi, misery to ecstasyand you will have followers.

How did the great sixteenth-century German quack Leonhard

Thumeisser become the court physician for the Elector of

Brandenburg witiiout ever studying medicine Instead of offering

amputations, leeches, and foul-tasting purgatives (the medicaments

of the time), Thumeisser offered sweet-tasting elixirs and promised

instant recovery. Fashionable courtiers especially wanted his

solution of “drinkable gold,” which cost a fortune. If some inexplicable

illness assailed you, Thumeisser would consult a horoscope and

prescribe a talisman. Who could resist such a fantasyhealth and

well-being without sacrifice and pain!

The Reality: The social realm has hard-set codes and

boundaries. We understand these limits and know that we have to

move within the same familiar circles, day in and day out.

The Fantasy: We can enter a totally new world with different

codes and the promise of adventure.

In the early 1700s, all London was abuzz with talk of a

mysterious stranger, a young man named George Psalmanazar. He

had arrived from what was to most Englishmen a fantastical land: the

island of Formosa (now Taiwan), off the coast of China. Oxford

University engaged Psalmanazar to teach die island's language; a

few years later he translated the Bible into Formosan, then wrote a

bookan immediate best-selleron Formosa's history and geography.

English royalty wined and dined die young man, and everywhere he

went he entertained his hosts widi wondrous stories of his homeland,

and its bizarre customs.

After Psalmanazar died, however, his will revealed diat he was in

fact merely a Frenchman widi a rich imagination. Everything he had

said about Formosaits alphabet, its language, its literature, its entire

culturehe had invented. He had built on die English public's

ignorance of die place to concoct an elaborate story that fulfilled their

desire for the exotic and

strange. British culture's rigid control of people's dangerous

dreams gave him the perfect opportunity to exploit their fantasy.

The fantasy of die exotic, of course, can also skirt die sexual. It

must not come too close, diough, for the physical hinders die power

of fantasy; it can be seen, grasped, and then tired ofthe fate of most

courtesans. The bodily charms of die mistress only whet the

master's appetite for more and different pleasures, a new beauty to

adore. To bring power, fantasy must remain to some degree

unrealized, literally unreal. The dancer Mata Hari, for instance, who

rose to public prominence in Paris before World War I, had quite

ordinary looks. Her power came from the fantasy she created of

being strange'and exotic, unknowable and indecipherable. The taboo

she worked with was less sex itself than the breaking of social

codes.

Anodier form of die fantasy of the exotic is simply die hope for

relief from boredom. Con artists love to play on die oppressiveness

of the working world, its lack of adventure. Their cons might involve,

say, die recovery of lost Spanish treasure, with the possible

participation of an alluring Mexican senorita and a connection to the

president of a South American countryanydiing offering release from

the humdrum.

The Reality: Society is fragmented and full of conflict.

The Fantasy: People can come together in a mystical union of

souls.

In the 1920s the con man Oscar Hartzell made a quick fortune

out of the age-old Sir Francis Drake swindlebasically promising any

sucker who happened to be surnamed “Drake” a substantial share of

the long-lost “Drake treasure,” to which Hartzell had access.

Thousands across the Midwest fell for the scam, which Hartzell

cleverly turned into a crusade against the government and everyone

else who was trying to keep the Drake fortune out of the rightful

hands of its heirs. There developed a mystical union of the

oppressed Drakes, with emotional rallies and meetings. Promise

such a union and you can gain much power, but it is a dangerous

power diat can easily turn against you. This is a fantasy for

demagogues to play on.

The Reality: Death. The dead cannot be brought back, the past

cannot be changed. The Fantasy: A sudden reversal of this

intolerable fact.

This con has many variations, but requires great skill and

subdety.

The beauty and importance of die art of Vermeer have long been

recognized, but his paintings are small in number, and are extremely

rare. In die 1930s, though, Vermeers began to appear on the art

market. Experts were called on to verify diem, and pronounced diem

real. Possession of these new Vermeers would crown a collector's

career. It was like die resurrection of Lazarus: In a strange way,

Vermeer had been brought back to life. The past had been changed.

Only later did it come out that die new Vermeers were the work of

a middle-aged Dutch forger named Han van Meegeren. And he had

chosen

Vermeer for his scam because he understood fantasy: The

paintings would seem real precisely because the public, and the

experts as well, so desperately wanted to believe they were.

Remember: The key to fantasy is distance. The distant has allure

and promise, seems simple and problem free. What you are offering,

then, should be ungraspable. Never let it become oppressively

familiar; it is the mirage in the distance, withdrawing as die sucker

approaches. Never be too direct in describing the fantasykeep it

vague. As a forger of fantasies, let your victim come close enough to

see and be tempted, but keep him far away enough that he stays

dreaming and desiring.

Image: The Moon. Unattainable, always changing shape,

disappearing and reappearing. We look at it, imagine, wonder, and

pinenever familiar, continuous provoker of dreams. Do not offer the

obvious. Promise the moon.

Authority: A lie is an allurement, a fabrication, that can be

embellished into a fantasy. It can be clothed in the raiments of a

mystic conception. Truth is cold, sober fact, not so comfortable to

absorb. A lie is more palatable. The most detested person in the

world is the one who always tells the truth, who never romances. . . .

I found it far more interesting and profitable to romance than to tell

the truth. (Joseph Weil, a.k.a. “The Yellow Kid,” 1875-1976)

REVERSAL

If there is power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses, there

is also danger. Fantasy usually contains an element of playdie public

half realizes it is being duped, but it keeps die dream alive anyway,

relishing the entertainment and the temporary diversion from the

everyday mat you are providing. So keep it lightnever come too

close to the place where you are actually expected to produce

results. That place may prove extremely hazardous.

After Bragadino established himself in Munich, he found that the

sober-minded Bavarians had far less faith in alchemy than the

temperamental Venetians. Only the duke really believed in it, for he

needed it desperately to rescue him from die hopeless mess he was

in. As Bragadino played his familiar waiting game, accepting gifts

and expecting patience, the public grew angry. Money was being

spent and was yielding no results. In 1592 the Bavarians demanded

justice, and eventually Bragadino found himself swinging from the

gallows. As before, he had promised and had not delivered, but this

time he had misjudged the forbearance of his hosts, and his inability

to fulfill tiieir fantasy proved fatal.

One last tiling: Never make the mistake of imagining that fantasy

is always fantastical. It certainly contrasts with reality, but reality itself

is sometimes so theatrical and stylized that fantasy becomes a

desire for simple things. The image Abraham Lincoln created of

himself, for example, as a homespun country lawyer with a beard,

made him the common man's president.

P. T. Barnum created a successful act with Tom Thumb, a dwarf

who dressed up as famous leaders of the past, such as Napoleon,

and lampooned them wickedly. The show delighted everyone, right

up to Queen Victoria, by appealing to the fantasy of the time:

Enough of the vainglorious rulers of history, the common man knows

best. Tom Thumb reversed the familiar pattern of fantasy in which

the strange and unknown becomes the ideal. But the act still obeyed

the Law, for underlying it was the fantasy that the simple man is

without problems, and is happier than the powerful and the rich.

Both Lincoln and Tom Thumb played the commoner but carefully

maintained their distance. Should you play with such a fantasy, you

too must carefully cultivate distance and not allow your “common”

persona to become too familiar or it will not project as fantasy.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 33

DISCOVER EACH MAN'S THUMBSCREW

JUDGMENT

Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That

weakness is usually an 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.

Till', I.ION. IIIK CHAMOIS. AND IT IK FOX

A lion was chasing a chamois along a valley. He had all but

caught it, and with longing eyes was anticipating a certain and a

satisfying repast. It seemed as if it were utterly impossible for the

victim to escape; for a deep ravine appeared to bar the way for both

the hunter and the hunted. But the nimble chamois, gathering

together all its strength, shot like an arrow from a bow across the

chasm, and stood still on the rocky cliff on the other side. Our lion

pulled up short. But at that moment a friend of his happened to be

near at hand. That friend was the fox. “What!” said he, “with your

strength and agility, is it possible that you will yield to a feeble

chamois You have only to will, and you will be able to work wonders.

Though the abyss be deep, yet, if you are only in earnest, I am

certain you will clear it. Surely you can confide in my disinterested

friendship. I would not expose your life to danger if I were not so well

aware of your strength and dexterity. ” The lion's blood waxed hot,

and began to boil in his veins. He flung himself with all his might into

space. But he could not clear the chasm; so down he tumbled

headlong, and was killed by the fall.

FINDING THE THUMBSCREW: A Strategic Plan of Action We all

have resistances. We live with a perpetual armor around ourselves

to defend against change and the intrusive actions of friends and

rivals. We would like nothing more than to be left to do tilings our

own way. Constantly butting up against these resistances will cost

you a lot of energy. One of die most important things to realize about

people, though, is that diey 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, otiiers disguise diem. Those who disguise them are often die

ones most effectively undone through that one chink in their armor.

In planning your assault, keep these principles in mind:

Pay Attention to Gestures and Unconscious Signals. As Sigmund

Freud remarked, “No mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent,

he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every

pore.” This is a critical concept in the search for a person's

weaknessit is revealed by seemingly unimportant gestures and

passing words.

The key is not only what you look for but where and how you

look. Everyday conversation supplies the richest mine of

weaknesses, so train yourself to listen. Start by always seeming

interestedthe appearance of a sympathetic ear will spur anyone to

talk. A clever trick, often used by the nineteenth-century French

statesman Talleyrand, is to appear to open up to the other person, to

share a secret with diem. It can be completely made up, or it can be

real but of no great importance to youthe important thing is that it

should seem to come from the heart. This will usually elicit a

response that is not only as frank as yours but more genuinea

response that reveals a weakness.

If you suspect that someone has a particular soft spot, probe for it

indirectly. If, for instance, you sense diat a man has a need to be

loved, openly flatter him. If he laps up your compliments, no matter

how obvious, you are on die right track. Train your eye for detailshow

someone tips a waiter, what delights a person, die hidden messages

in clothes. Find people's idols, die things they worship and will do

anything to getperhaps you can be die supplier of tiieir fantasies.

Remember: Since we all try to hide our weaknesses, there is little to

be learned from our conscious behavior. What oozes out in the littie

things outside our conscious control is what you want to know.

Find the Helpless Child. Most weaknesses begin in childhood,

before die self builds up compensatory defenses. Perhaps the child

was pampered or indulged in a particular area, or perhaps a certain

emotional need went unfulfilled; as he or she grows older, the

indulgence or the deficiency may be buried but never disappears.

Knowing about a childhood need gives you a powerful key to a

person's weakness.

One sign of this weakness is that when you touch on it the

person will often act like a child. Be on the lookout, then, for any

behavior tiiat should

have been outgrown. If your victims or rivals went without

something important, such as parental support, when they were

children, supply it, or its facsimile. If they reveal a secret taste, a

hidden indulgence, indulge it. In either case they will be unable to

resist you.

Look for Contrasts. An overt trait often conceals its opposite.

People who thump their chests are often big cowards; a prudish

exterior may hide a lascivious soul; the uptight are often screaming

for adventure; the shy are dying for attention. By probing beyond

appearances, you will often find people's weaknesses in the

opposite of the qualities they reveal to you.

Find the Weak Link. Sometimes in your search for weaknesses it

is not what but who that matters. In today's versions of the court,

there is often someone behind the scenes who has a great deal of

power, a tremendous influence over the person superficially on top.

These behind-the-scenes powerbrokers are die group's weak link:

Win their favor and you indirectly influence the king. Alternatively,

even in a group of people acting with the appearance of one willas

when a group under attack closes ranks to resist an outsiderthere is

always a weak link in the chain. Find die one person who will bend

under pressure.

Fill the Void. The two main emotional voids to fill are insecurity

and un-happiness. The insecure are suckers for any kind of social

validation; as for the chronically unhappy, look for die roots of their

unhappiness. The insecure and the unhappy are the people least

able to disguise dieir weaknesses. The ability to fill dieir emotional

voids is a great source of power, and an indefinitely prolongable one.

Feed on Uncontrollable Emotions. The uncontrollable emotion

can be a paranoid feara fear disproportionate to the situationor any

base motive such as lust, greed, vanity, or hatred. People in the grip

of these emotions often cannot control diemselves, and you can do

the controlling for them.

OBSERVANCES OF THE LAW

Observance I

In 1615 the thirty-year-old bishop of Lucon, later known as

Cardinal Richelieu, gave a speech before representatives of die

three estates of France clergy, nobility, and commoners. Richelieu

had been chosen to serve as the moudipiece for the clergyan

immense responsibility for a man still young and not particularly well

known. On all of the important issues of the day, the speech followed

the Church line. But near the end of it Richelieu did something that

had nodiing to do with the Church and everything to do with his

career. He turned to die throne of the fifteen-year-old King Louis XIII,

and to die Queen Modier Marie de' Medicis, who sat beside

Then what did his dear friend do He cautiously made his way

down to the bottom of the ravine, and there, out in the open space

and the free air, seeing that the lion wanted neither flattery nor

obedience now, he set to work to pay the last sad rites to his dead

friend, and in a month picked his bones clean.

FABLES,

Ivan Kriloff, 1768-1844

IRVING l.AZAK

[Hollywood super-agent] Irving Paul Lazar was once anxious to

sell [studio mogul] Jack L. Warner a play. “I had a long meeting with

him today,” Lazar explained [to screenwriter Garson Kanin], “but I

didn 't mention it, I didn't even bring it up.”

“Why not ” I asked. “Because I'm going to wait until the weekend

after next, when I go to Palm Springs.” “I don't understand.” “You

don't I go to Palm Springs every weekend, but Warner isn 't going

this weekend. He's got a preview or something. So he's not coming

down till the next weekend, so that's when I'm going to bring it up.”

"Irving, I'm more and

LAW 33 273

more confused.“ ”Look,1' said Irving impatiently, “I know what I'm

doing. I know how to sell Warner. This is a type of material that he's

uneasy with, so I have to hit him with it hard and suddenly to get an

okay.” “But why Palm Springs” “Because in Palm Springs, every day

he goes to the baths at The Spa. And that's where I'm going to be

when he's there. Now there's a thing about Jack: He's eighty and

he's very vain, and he doesn't like people to see him naked. So

when I walk up to him naked at The Spa / mean he's nakedwell, I'm

naked too, but I don't care who sees me. He does. And I walk up to

him naked, and I start to talk to him about this thing, he 'II be very

embarrassed. And he'll want to get away from me, and the easiest

way is to say ' Yes,' because he knows if he says 'No,' then I'm going

to stick with him, and stay right on it, and not give up. So to get rid of

me, he'll probably say, 'Yes.'” Two weeks later, I read of the

acquisition of this particular property by Warner Brothers. I phoned

Lazarand asked how it had been accomplished. “How do you think”

he asked. “In the buff, that's how ... just the way I told you it was

going to work.”

hollywood,

Garson Kanin,

Louis, as the regent ruling France until her son reached his

majority. Everyone expected Richelieu to say the usual kind words to

the young king. Instead, however, he looked directly at and only at

the queen mother. Indeed his speech ended in long and fulsome

praise of her, praise so glowing that it actually offended some in the

Church. But the smile on the queen's face as she lapped up

Richelieu's compliments was unforgettable.

A year later the queen mother appointed Richelieu secretary of

state for foreign affairs, an incredible coup for the young bishop. He

had now entered the inner circle of power, and he studied the

workings of the court as if it were the machinery of a watch. An

Italian, Concino Concini, was the queen mother's favorite, or rather

her lover, a role that made him perhaps the most powerful man in

France. Concini was vain and foppish, and Richelieu played him

perfectlyattending to him as if he were the king. Within months

Richelieu had become one of Concini's favorites. But something

happened in 1617 that turned everything upside down: the young

king, who up until then had shown every sign of being an idiot, had

Concini murdered and his most important associates imprisoned. In

so doing Louis took command of the country with one blow,

sweeping the queen mother aside.

Had Richelieu played it wrong He had been close to both Concini

and Marie de Medicis, whose advisers and ministers were now all

out of favor, some even arrested. The queen mother herself was

shut up in the Louvre, a virtual prisoner. Richelieu wasted no time. If

everyone was deserting Marie de Medicis, he would stand by her. He

knew Louis could not get rid of her, for the king was still very young,

and had in any case always been inordinately attached to her. As

Marie's only remaining powerful friend, Richelieu filled the valuable

function of liaison between the king and his mother. In return he

received her protection, and was able to survive the palace coup,

even to thrive. Over the next few years the queen mother grew still

more dependent on him, and in 1622 she repaid him for his loyalty:

Through the intercession of her allies in Rome, Richelieu was

elevated to the powerful rank of cardinal.

By 1623 King Louis was in trouble. He had no one he could trust

to advise him, and although he was now a young man instead of a

boy, he remained childish in spirit, and affairs of state came hard to

him. Now that he had taken the throne, Marie was no longer the

regent and theoretically had no power, but she still had her son's ear,

and she kept telling him that Richelieu was his only possible savior.

At first Louis would have none of ithe hated the cardinal with a

passion, only tolerating him out of love for Marie. In the end,

however, isolated in the court and crippled by his own

indecisiveness, he yielded to his mother and made Richelieu first his

chief councilor and later prime minister.

Now Richelieu no longer needed Marie de Medicis. He stopped

visiting and courting her, stopped listening to her opinions, even

argued with her and opposed her wishes. Instead he concentrated

on the king, making himself indispensable to his new master. All the

previous premiers, understanding the king's childishness, had tried

to keep him out of trouble; the

shrewd Richelieu played him differendy, deliberately pushing him

into one ambitious project after another, such as a crusade against

the Huguenots and finally an extended war with Spain. The

immensity of these projects only made the king more dependent on

his powerful premier, the only man able to keep order in the realm.

And so, for the next eighteen 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. Interpretation

Richelieu saw everything as a military campaign, and no strategic

move was more important to him than discovering his enemy's

weaknesses and applying pressure to them. As early as his speech

in 1615, he was looking for the weak link in die chain of power, and

he saw that it was die queen mother. Not that Marie was obviously

weakshe governed both France and her son; but Richelieu saw that

she was really an insecure woman who needed constant masculine

attention. He showered her with affection and respect, even toadying

up to her favorite, Concini. He knew the day would come when the

king would take over, but he also recognized that Louis loved his

mother dearly and would always remain a child in relation to her. The

way to control Louis, then, was not by gaining his favor, which could

change overnight, but by gaining sway over his motiier, for whom his

affection would never change.

Once Richelieu had the position he desiredprime ministerhe

discarded die queen mother, moving on to die next weak link in the

chain: the king's own character. There was a part of him diat would

always be a helpless child in need of higher authority. It was on the

foundation of the king's weakness that Richelieu established his own

power and fame.

Remember: When entering the court, find the weak link. The

person in control is often not the king or queen; it is someone behind

the scenes the favorite, the husband or wife, even flie court fool. This

person may have more weaknesses than the king himself, because

his power depends on all kinds of capricious factors outside his

control.

Finally, when dealing with helpless children who cannot make

decisions, play on their weakness and push them into bold ventures.

They will have to depend on you even more, for you will become the

adult figure whom they rely on to get them out of scrapes and to

safety.

Observance II

In December of 1925, guests at the swankiest hotel in Palm

Beach, Florida, watched with interest as a mysterious man arrived in

a Rolls-Royce driven by a Japanese chauffeur. Over the next few

days they studied this handsome man, who walked widi an elegant

cane, received telegrams at all hours, and only engaged in the

briefest of conversations. He was a count, they heard, Count Victor

Lustig, and he came from one of the wealthiest families in Europebut

this was all they could find out.

Imagine their amazement, dien, when Lustig one day walked up

to one of the least distinguished guests in the hotel, a Mr. Herman

Loller,

As time went on I came to look for the little weaknesses.... It's the

little things that count. On one occasion, I worked on the president of

a large bank in Omaha. The [phony] deal involved the purchase of

the street railway system of Omaha, including a bridge across the

Mississippi River My principals were supposedly German and I had

to negotiate with Berlin. While awaiting word from them I introduced

my fake mining-stock proposition. Since this man was rich, I decided

to play for high stakes.... Meanwhile, I played golf with the banker,

visited his home, and went to the theater with him and his wife.

Though he showed some interest in my stock deal, he still wasn 't

convinced. I had built it up to the point that an investment of

$1,250,000 was required. Of this I was to put up $900,000, the

banker $350,000. But still he hesitated. One evening when 1 was at

his home for dinner I wore some perfumeCoty's “April Violets.” It was

not then considered effeminate for a man to use a dash of perfume.

The banker's wife thought it very lovely. “Where did you get it ” “It is a

rare blend,” I told her, "especially made for me by a

French perfumer. Do you like it“ ”I love it,“ she replied. The

following day I went through my effects and found two empty bottles.

Both had come from France, but were empty. I went to a downtown

department store and purchased ten ounces of Coty's ”April Violets.“

I poured this into the two French bottles, carefully sealed them,

wrapped them in tissue paper. That evening 1 dropped by the

banker's home and presented the two bottles to his wife. ”They were

especially put up for me in Cologne, “ / told her. The next day the

banker called at my hotel. His wife was enraptured by the perfume.

She considered it the most wonderful, the most exotic fragrance she

had ever used. I did not tell the banker he could get all he wanted

right in Omaha. ”She said,“ the banker added, ”that I was fortunate to

be associated with a man like you." From then on his attitude was

changed, for he had complete faith in his wife's judgment. ... He

parted with $350,000. This, incidentally was my biggest [con] score.

“YELLOW KID” WEIL,

1875-1976

head of an engineering company, and entered into conversation

with him. Loller had made his fortune only recendy, and forging

social connections was very important to him. He felt honored and

somewhat mtimidated by this sophisticated man, who spoke perfect

English with a hint of a foreign accent. Over die days to come, the

two became friends.

Loller of course did most of the talking, and one night he

confessed that his business was doing poorly, with more troubles

ahead. In return, Lustig confided in his new friend that he too had

serious money problemsCommunists had seized his family estate

and all its assets. He was too old to learn a trade and go to work.

Luckily he had found an answer“a money-making machine.” “You

counterfeit” Loller whispered in half-shock. No, Lustig replied,

explaining that through a secret chemical process, his machine could

duplicate any paper currency with complete accuracy. Put in a dollar

bill and six hours later you had two, both perfect. He proceeded to

explain how the machine had been smuggled out of Europe, how die

Germans had developed it to undermine the British, how it had

supported the count for several years, and on and on. When Loller

insisted on a demonstration, the two men went to Lustig's room,

where the count produced a magnificent mahogany box fitted witii

slots, cranks, and dials. Loller watched as Lustig inserted a dollar bill

in die box. Sure enough, early die following morning Lustig pulled out

two bills, still wet from die chemicals.

Lustig gave the notes to Loller, who immediately took the bills to

a local bankwhich accepted them as genuine. Now the businessman

feverishly begged Lustig to sell him a machine. The count explained

diat there was only one in existence, so Loller made him a high offer:

$25,000, then a considerable amount (more than $400,000 in

today's terms). Even so, Lustig seemed reluctant: He did not feel

right about making his friend pay so much. Yet finally he agreed to

the sale. After all, he said, “I suppose it matters little what you pay

me. You are, after all, going to recover the amount within a few days

by duplicating your own bills.” Making Loller swear never to reveal

the machine's existence to odier people, Lustig accepted the money.

Later the same day he checked out of the hotel. A year later, after

many futile attempts at duplicating bills, Loller finally went to the

police with the story of how Count Lustig had conned him with a pair

of dollar bills, some chemicals, and a worthless mahogany box.

Interpretation

Count Lustig had an eagle eye for other people's weaknesses.

He saw them in die smallest gesture. Loller, for instance, overtipped

waiters, seemed nervous in conversation with the concierge, talked

loudly about his business. His weakness, Lustig knew, was his need

for social validation and for die respect that he thought his wealth

had earned him. He was also chronically insecure. Lustig had come

to the hotel to hunt for prey. In Loller he homed in on the perfect

suckera man hungering for someone to fill his psychic voids.

In offering Loller his friendship, then, Lustig knew he was offering

him the immediate respect of the other guests. As a count, Lustig

was also offer-

ing the newly rich businessman access to the glittering world of

old wealth. And for the coup de grace, he apparendy owned a

machine mat would rescue Loller from his worries. It would even put

him on a par with Lustig himself, who had also used the machine to

maintain his status. No wonder Loller took the bait.

Remember: When searching for suckers, always look for the

dissatisfied, me unhappy, the insecure. Such people are riddled with

weaknesses and have needs mat you can fill. Their neediness is the

groove in which you place your thumbnail and turn diem at will.

Observance III

In the year 1559, the French king Henri II died in a jousting

exhibition. His son assumed the throne, becoming Francis II, but in

the background stood Henri's wife and queen, Catherine de' Medicis,

a woman who had long ago proven her skill in affairs of state. When

Francis died the next year, Catherine took control of the country as

regent to her next son in line of succession, the future Charles IX, a

mere ten years old at the time.

The main threats to the queen's power were Antoine de Bourbon,

king of Navarre, and his brother, Louis, die powerful prince of Conde,

bom of whom could claim the right to serve as regent instead of

Catherine, who, after all, was Italiana foreigner. Catherine quickly

appointed Antoine lieutenant general of the kingdom, a title that

seemed to satisfy his ambition. It also meant that he had to remain in

court, where Catherine could keep an eye on him. Her next move

proved smarter still: Antoine had a notorious weakness for young

women, so she assigned one of her most attractive maids of honor,

Louise de Rouet, to seduce him. Now Antoine's intimate, Louise

reported all of his actions to Catherine. The move worked so

brilliantly that Catiierine assigned another of her maids to Prince

Conde, and thus was formed her escadron volant “flying squadron”of

young girls whom she used to keep the unsuspecting males in the

court under her control.

In 1572 Catherine married off her daughter, Marguerite de Valois,

to Henri, the son of Antoine and the new king of Navarre. To put a

family that had always struggled against her so close to power was a

dangerous move, so to make sure of Henri's loyalty she unleashed

on him the loveliest member of her “flying squadron,” Charlotte de

Beaune Semblancay, baroness of Sauves. Catherine did this even

diough Henri was married to her daughter. Within weeks, Marguerite

de Valois wrote in her memoirs, “Mme. de Sauves so completely

ensnared my husband that we no longer slept together, nor even

conversed.”

The baroness was an excellent spy and helped to keep Henri

under Catherine's thumb. When the queen's youngest son, the Duke

of Alencon, grew so close to Henri that she feared the two might plot

against her, she assigned the baroness to him as well. This most

infamous member of the flying squadron quickly seduced Alencon,

and soon the two young men fought over her and tiieir friendship

quickly ended, along with any danger of a conspiracy.

And while I am on the subject, there is another fact that deserves

mention. It is this. A man shows his character just in the way in

which he deals with triflesfor then he is off his guard. This will often

afford a good opportunity of observing the boundless egoism of a

man's nature, and his total lack of consideration for others; and if

these defects show themselves in small things, or merely in his

general demeanour, you will find that they also underlie his action in

matters of importance, although he may disguise the fact. This is an

opportunity which should not be missed. If in the little affairs of every

daythe trifles of life ...a man is inconsiderate and seeks only what is

advantageous or convenient to himself, to the prejudice of others'

rights; if he appropriates to himself that which belongs to all alike,

you may be sure there is no justice in his heart, and that he would be

a scoundrel on a wholesale scale, only that law and compulsion bind

his hands.

Arthur

Schopenhauer,

1788-1860

When the two armies [Julius Caesar's and Pompey's] were come

into Pharsalia, and both encamped there, Pompey's thoughts ran the

same way as they had done before, against fighting.... But those

who were about him were greatly confident of success ... as if they

had already conquered.... The cavalry especially were obstinate for

fighting, being splendidly armed and bravely mounted, and valuing

themselves upon the fine horses they kept, and upon their own

handsome persons; as also upon the advantage of their numbers,

for they were five thousand against one thousand of Caesar's. Nor

were the numbers of the infantry less disproportionate, there being

forty-five thousand of Pompey's against twenty-two thousand of the

enemy. [The next day! whilst the infantry was thus sharply engaged

in the main battle, on the flank Pompey 's horse rode up confidently,

and opened [his cavalry's] ranks very wide, that they might surround

the right wing of Caesar. But before they engaged, Caesar's cohorts

rushed out and attacked them, and did not dart their javelins at a

distance, nor strike at the thighs and legs, as they usually did in

close battle, but aimed at their faces. For thus

Interpretation

Catherine had seen very early on the sway mat a mistress has

over a man of power: Her own husband, Henri II, had kept one of the

most infamous mistresses of them all, Diane de Poitiers. What

Catherine learned from the experience was that a man like her

husband wanted to feel he could win a woman over widiout having to

rely on his status, which he had inherited rather dian earned. And

such a need contained a huge blind spot: As long as die woman

began die affair by acting as if she had been conquered, die man

would fail to notice that as time passed the mistress had come to

hold power over him, as Diane de Poitiers did over Henri. It was

Cadierine's strategy to turn this weakness to her advantage, using it

as a way to conquer and control men. All she had to do was unleash

the loveliest women in the court, her “flying squadron,” on men

whom she knew shared her husband's vulnerability.

Remember: Always look for passions and obsessions that cannot

be controlled. The stronger the passion, the more vulnerable die

person. This may seem surprising, for passionate people look

strong. In fact, however, they are simply filling die stage with dieir

theatricality, distracting people from how weak and helpless they

really are. A man's need to conquer women actually reveals a

tremendous helplessness that has made suckers out of them for

thousands of years. Look at the part of a person that is most

visibletheir greed, dieir lust, tiieir intense fear. These are the

emotions they cannot conceal, and over which diey have the least

control. And what people cannot control, you can control for diem.

Observance IV

Arabella Huntington, wife of die great late-nineteentii-century

railroad magnate Collis P. Huntington, came from humble origins and

always struggled for social recognition among her wealdiy peers.

When she gave a party in her San Francisco mansion, few of die

social elite would show up; most of diem took her for a gold digger,

not their kind. Because of her husband's fabulous wealdi, art dealers

courted her, but widi such condescension they obviously saw her as

an upstart. Only one man of consequence treated her differentiy: the

dealer Joseph Duveen.

For die first few years of Duveen's relationship witii Arabella, he

made no effort to sell expensive art to her. Instead he accompanied

her to fine stores, chatted endlessly about queens and princesses he

knew, on and on. At last, she diought, a man who treated her as an

equal, even a superior, in high society. Meanwhile, if Duveen did not

try to sell art to her, he did sub-tiy educate her in his aesdietic

ideasnamely, that die best art was the most expensive art. And after

Arabella had soaked up his way of seeing things, Duveen would act

as if she always had exquisite taste, even tiiough before she met him

her aesdietics had been abysmal.

When Collis Huntington died, in 1900, Arabella came into a

fortune. She suddenly started to buy expensive paintings, by

Rembrandt and Velazquez, for exampleand only from Duveen. Years

later Duveen sold her Gainsborough's Blue Boy for the highest price

ever paid for a work of

art at the time, an astounding purchase for a family that

previously had shown litde interest in collecting. Interpretation

Joseph Duveen instantly understood Arabella Huntington and

what made her tick: She wanted to feel important, at home in society.

Intensely insecure about her lower-class background, she needed

confirmation of her new social status. Duveen waited. Instead of

rushing into trying to persuade her to collect art, he subtly went to

work on her weaknesses. He made her feel that she deserved his

attention not because she was the wife of one of the wealthiest men

in the world but because of her own special characterand this

completely melted her. Duveen never condescended to Arabella;

rather than lecturing to her, he instilled his ideas in her indirectly. The

result was one of his best and most devoted clients, and also the

sale of The Blue Boy.

People's need for validation and recognition, tiieir need to feel

important, is the best kind of weakness to exploit. First, it is almost

universal; second, exploiting it is so very easy. All you have to do is

find ways to make people feel better about their taste, their social

standing, meir intelligence. Once the fish are hooked, you can reel

them in again and again, for yearsyou are filling a positive role,

giving them what they cannot get on their own. They may never

suspect that you are turning them like a thumbscrew, and if they do

they may not care, because you are making them feel better about

themselves, and that is worth any price.

Observance V

In 1862 King William of Prussia named Otto von Bismarck

premier and minister for foreign affairs. Bismarck was known for his

boldness, his ambitionand his interest in strengthening die military.

Since William was surrounded by liberals in his government and

cabinet, politicians who already wanted to limit his powers, it was

quite dangerous for him to put Bismarck in this sensitive position. His

wife, Queen Augusta, had tried to dissuade him, but aKhough she

usually got her way with him, this time William stuck to his guns.

Only a week after becoming prime minister, Bismarck made an

impromptu speech to a few dozen ministers to convince them of the

need to enlarge the army. He ended by saying, “The great questions

of the time will be decided, not by speeches and resolutions of

majorities, but by iron and blood.” His speech was immediately

disseminated throughout Germany. The queen screamed at her

husband that Bismarck was a barbaric militarist who was out to

usurp control of Prussia, and that William had to fire him. The liberals

in the government agreed with her. The outcry was so vehement that

William began to be afraid he would end up on a scaffold, like Louis

XVI of France, if he kept Bismarck on as prime minister.

Bismarck knew he had to get to the king before it was too late.

He also knew he had blundered, and should have tempered his fiery

words. Yet as he contemplated his strategy, he decided not to

apologize but to do the exact opposite. Bismarck knew the king well.

Caesar had instructed them, in hopes that young gentlemen, who

had not known much of battles and wounds, hut came wearing their

hair long, in the flower of their age and height of their beauty, would

be more apprehensive of such blows, and not care for hazarding

both a danger at present and a blemish for the future.

And so it proved, for they were so far from bearing the stroke of

the javelins, that they could not stand the sight of them, but turned

about, and covered their faces to secure them. Once in disorder,

presently they turned about to fly; and so most shamefully ruined all.

For those who had beat them back at once outflanked the infantry,

and falling on their rear, cut them to pieces. Pompey, who

commanded the other wing of the army, when he saw his cavalry

thus broken and flying, was no longer himself nor did he now

remember that he was Pompey the Great, but, like one whom some

god had deprived of his senses, retired to his tent without speaking a

word, and there sat to expect the event, till the whole army was

routed.

THE LIFE OF JULIUS CAESAR.

Plutarch, c. a.d. 46-120

When the two men met, William, predictably, had been worked

into a tizzy by the queen. He reiterated his fear of being guillotined.

But Bismarck only replied, “Yes, then we shall be dead! We must die

sooner or later, and could there be a more respectable way of dying I

should die fighting for the cause of my king and master. Your Majesty

would die sealing with your own blood your royal rights granted by

God's grace. Whether upon the scaffold or upon the battlefield

makes no difference to the glorious staking of body and life on behalf

of rights granted by God's grace!” On he went, appealing to William's

sense of honor and the majesty of his position as head of the army.

How could the king allow people to push him around Wasn't the

honor of Germany more important than quibbling over words Not

only did the prime minister convince die king to stand up to both his

wife and his parliament, he persuaded him to build up the

armyBismarck's goal all along. Interpretation

Bismarck knew the king felt bullied by those around him. He

knew that William had a military background and a deep sense of

honor, and that he felt ashamed at his cravenness before his wife

and his government. William secredy yearned to be a great and

mighty king, but he dared not express this ambition because he was

afraid of ending up like Louis XVI. Where a show of courage often

conceals a man's timidity, William's timidity concealed his need to

show courage and thump his chest.

Bismarck sensed the longing for glory beneatii William's pacifist

front, so he played to the king's insecurity about his manhood, finally

pushing him into diree wars and the creation of a German empire.

Timidity is a potent weakness to exploit. Timid souls often yearn to

be their oppositeto be Napoleons. Yet they lack the inner strength.

You, in essence, can become their Napoleon, pushing them into bold

actions that serve your needs while also making them dependent on

you. Remember: Look to the opposites and never take appearances

at face value.

Image: The Thumbscrew. Your enemy has secrets that he

guards, thinks thoughts he will not reveal. But they come out in ways

he cannot help. It is there somewhere, a groove of weakness on his

head, at his heart, over his belly. Once you find the groove, put your

thumb in it and turn him at will.

Authority: Find out each man's thumbscrew. Tis the art of setting

their wills in action. It needs more skill than resolution. You must

know where to get at anyone. Every volition has a special motive

which varies according to taste. All men are idolaters, some of fame,

odiers of self-interest, most of pleasure. Skill consists in knowing

these idols in order to bring them into play. Knowing any man's

mainspring of motive you have as it were the key to his will. (Baltasar

Gracian, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

Playing on people's weakness has one significant danger: You

may stir up

an action you cannot control.

In your games of power you always look several steps ahead and

plan accordingly. And you exploit the fact that other people are more

emotional and incapable of such foresight. But when you play on

their vulnerabilities, the areas over which they have least control, you

can unleash emotions that will upset your plans. Push timid people

into bold action and they may go too far; answer their need for

attention or recognition and they may need more than you want to

give them. The helpless, childish element you are playing on can

turn against you.

The more emotional the weakness, die greater the potential

danger. Know the limits to this game, then, and never get carried

away by your control over your victims. You are after power, not die

dirill of control.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 34

BE ROYAL IN YOUR OWN

FASHION: ACT LIKE A

KING TO BE TREATED

LIKE ONE

JUDGMENT

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.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

In July of 1830, a revolution broke out in Paris that forced the

king, Charles X, to abdicate. A commission of the highest audiorities

in the land gathered to choose a successor, and the man they picked

was Louis-Philippe, the Duke of Orleans.

From the beginning it was clear that Louis-Philippe would be a

different kind of king, and not just because he came from a different

branch of the royal family, or because he had not inherited the crown

but had been given it, by a commission, putting his legitimacy in

question. Rather it was that he disliked ceremony and the trappings

of royalty; he had more friends among the bankers than among the

nobility; and his style was not to create a new kind of royal rule, as

Napoleon had done, but to downplay his status, the better to mix widi

the businessmen and middle-class folk who had called him to lead.

Thus the symbols that came to be associated with Louis-Philippe

were neither the scepter nor the crown, but the gray hat and

umbrella with which he would proudly walk the streets of Paris, as if

he were a bourgeois out for a stroll. When Louis-Philippe invited

James Rothschild, the most important banker in France, to his

palace, he treated him as an equal. And unlike any king before him,

not only did he talk business with Monsieur Rothschild but that was

literally all he talked, for he loved money and had amassed a huge

fortune.

As the reign of the “bourgeois king” plodded on, people came to

despise him. The aristocracy could not endure the sight of an

unkingly king, and within a few years they turned on him. Meanwhile

the growing class of the poor, including the radicals who had chased

out Charles X, found no satisfaction in a ruler who neither acted as a

king nor governed as a man of the people. The bankers to whom

Louis-Philippe was die most beholden soon realized that it was they

who controlled the country, not he, and they treated him with growing

contempt. One day, at the start of a train trip organized for die royal

family, James Rothschild actually berated himand in publicfor being

late. Once die king had made news by treating the banker as an

equal; now the banker treated the king as an inferior.

Eventually the workers' insurrections that had brought down

Louis-Philippe's predecessor began to reemerge, and die king put

them down with force. But what was he defending so brutally Not the

institution of me monarchy, which he disdained, nor a democratic

republic, which his rule prevented. What he was really defending, it

seemed, was his own fortune, and die fortunes of the bankersnot a

way to inspire loyalty among die citizenry.

In early 1848, Frenchmen of all classes began to demonstrate for

electoral reforms that would make die country truly democratic. By

February the demonstrations had turned violent. To assuage the

populace, Louis-Philippe fired his prime minister and appointed a

liberal as a replacement. But this created the opposite of the desired

effect: The people sensed they could push the king around. The

demonstrations turned into a full-fledged revolution, with gunfire and

barricades in the streets.

Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself

when you are alone. Let your integrity itself be your own standard of

rectitude, and be more indebted to the severity of your own judgment

of yourself than to all external precepts. Desist from unseemly

conduct, rather out of respect for your own virtue than for the

strictures of external authority. Come to hold yourself in awe, and

you will have no need of Seneca's imaginary tutor.

Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658

On the night of February 23, a crowd of Parisians surrounded the

palace. With a suddenness that caught everyone by surprise, Louis-

Philippe abdicated that very evening and fled to England. He left no

successor, nor even die suggestion of onehis whole government

folded up and dissolved like a traveling circus leaving town.

Interpretation

Louis-Philippe consciously dissolved the aura that naturally

pertains to kings and leaders. Scoffing at the symbolism of grandeur,

he believed a new world was dawning, where rulers should act and

be like ordinary citizens. He was right: A new world, without kings

and queens, was certainly on its way. He was profoundly wrong,

however, in predicting a change in the dynamics of power.

The bourgeois king's hat and umbrella amused the French at

first, but soon grew irritating. People knew that Louis-Philippe was

not really like them at allthat the hat and umbrella were essentially a

kind of trick to encourage them in the fantasy that the country had

suddenly grown more equal. Actually, though, the divisions of wealth

had never been greater. The French expected their ruler to be a bit

of a showman, to have some presence. Even a radical like

Robespierre, who had briefly come to power during the French

Revolution fifty years earlier, had understood this, and certainly

Napoleon, who had turned die revolutionary republic into an imperial

regime, had known it in his bones. Indeed as soon as Louis-Philippe

fled the stage, the French revealed their true desire: They elected

Napoleon's grand-nephew president. He was a virtual unknown, but

they hoped he would re-create die great general's powerful aura,

erasing die awkward memory of die “bourgeois king.”

Powerful people may be tempted to affect a common-man aura,

trying to create the illusion that they and dieir subjects or underlings

are basically die same. But the people whom diis false gesture is

intended to impress will quickly see through it. They understand that

they are not being given more powerthat it only appears as if diey

shared in the powerful person's fate. The only kind of common touch

that works is die kind affected by Franklin Roosevelt, a style that said

the president shared values and goals with the common people even

while he remained a patrician at heart. He never pretended to erase

his distance from the crowd.

Leaders who try to dissolve that distance through a false

chumminess gradually lose the ability to inspire loyalty, fear, or love.

Instead they elicit contempt. Like Louis-Philippe, they are too

uninspiring even to be worth the guillotinedie best diey can do is

simply vanish in the night, as if diey were never there.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

When Christopher Columbus was trying to find funding for his

legendary voyages, many around him believed he came from the

Italian aristocracy. This view was passed into history through a

biography written after the explorer's death by his son, which

describes him as a descendant of a Count

Colombo of die Casde of Cuccaro in Montferrat. Colombo in turn

was said to be descended from the legendary Roman general

Colonius, and two of his first cousins were supposedly direct

descendants of an emperor of Constantinople. An illustrious

background indeed. But it was nodiing more than illustrious fantasy,

for Columbus was actually the son of Domenico Colombo, a humble

weaver who had opened a wine shop when Christopher was a young

man, and who then made his living by selling cheese.

Columbus himself had created the myth of his noble background,

because from early on he felt that destiny had singled him out for

great things, and that he had a kind of royalty in his blood.

Accordingly he acted as if he were indeed descended from noble

stock. After an uneventful career as a merchant on a commercial

vessel, Columbus, originally from Genoa, settled in Lisbon. Using die

fabricated story of his noble background, he married into an

established Lisbon family that had excellent connections with

Portuguese royalty.

Through his in-laws, Columbus finagled a meeting with the king

of Portugal, Joao II, whom he petitioned to finance a westward

voyage aimed at discovering a shorter route to Asia. In return for

announcing that any discoveries he achieved would be made in the

king's name, Columbus wanted a series of rights: the tide Grand

Admiral of die Oceanic Sea; die office of viceroy over any lands he

found; and 10 percent of die future commerce with such lands. All of

these rights were to be hereditary and for all time. Columbus made

these demands even diough 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. In short he

had absolutely no qualifications for die journey he proposed.

Furthermore, his petition included no details as to how he would

accomplish his plans, just vague promises.

When Columbus finished his pitch, Joao II smiled: He politely

declined the offer, but left the door open for the future. Here

Columbus must have noticed somediing he would never forget: Even

as the king turned down die sailor's demands, he treated them as

legitimate. He neither laughed at Columbus nor questioned his

background and credentials. In fact die king was impressed by die

boldness of Columbus's requests, and clearly felt comfortable in the

company of a man who acted so confidently. The meeting must have

convinced Columbus tiiat his instincts were correct: By asking for the

moon, he had instandy 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.

A few years later Columbus moved to Spain. Using his

Portuguese connections, he moved in elevated circles at the

Spanish court, receiving subsidies from illustrious financiers and

sharing tables widi dukes and princes. To all these men he repeated

his request for financing for a voyage to die westand also for the

rights he had demanded from Joao II. Some, such as die powerful

duke of Medina, wanted to help, but could not, since they lacked die

power to grant him the tides and rights he wanted. But Columbus

would not back down. He soon realized that only one person

HII'POCLKinKS AT SICYON

In the next generation the family became much more famous

than before through the distinction conferred upon it by Cleisthenes

the master of Sicyon. Cleisthenes . .. had a daughter, Agarista,

whom he wished to marry to the best man in all Greece. So during

the Olympic games, in which he had himself won the chariot race, he

had a public announcement made, to the effect that any Greek who

thought himself good enough to become Cleisthenes' son-in-law

should present himself in Sicyon within sixty daysor sooner if he

wishedbecause he intended, within the year following the sixtieth

day, to betroth his daughter to her future husband. Cleisthenes had

had a race-track and a wrestling-ring specially made for his purpose,

and presently the suitors began to arrive every man of Greek

nationality who had something to be proud of either in his country or

in himself.... Cleisthenes began by asking each [of the numerous

suitorsJ in turn to name his country and parentage; then he kept

them in his house for a year, to get to know them well, entering into

conversation with them sometimes singly, sometimes all together,

and testing each of them for his

manly qualities and temper, education and manners. . .. But the

most important test of all was their behaviour at the dinner-table. All

this went on throughout their stay in Sieyon, and all the time he

entertained them handsomely. For one reason or another it was the

two Athenians who impressed Cleisthenes most favourably, and of

the two Tisander's son Hippocleides came to be preferred. . . At last

the day came which had been fixed for the betrothal, and

Cleisthenes had to declare his choice. lie marked the day by the

sacrifice of a hundred oxen, and then gave a great banquet, to which

not only the suitors but everyone of note in Sieyon was invited.

When dinner was over, the suitors began to compete with each other

in music and in talking in company. In both these accomplishments it

was Hippocleides who proved by far the doughtiest champion, until

at last, as more and more wine was drunk, he asked the flute-player

to play him a tune and began to dance to it. Now it may well be that

he danced to his own satisfaction; Cleisthenes, however, who was

watching the performance, began to have serious doubts about the

whole business. Presently, after a brief pause, Hippocleides sent for

a table; the table was brought, and

could meet his demands: Queen Isabella. In 1487 he finally

managed a meeting with the queen, and although he could not

convince her to finance me voyage, he completely charmed her, and

became a frequent guest in the palace.

In 1492 the Spanish finally expelled the Moorish invaders who

centuries earlier had seized parts of the country. With the wartime

burden on her treasury lifted, Isabella felt she could finally respond to

the demands of her explorer friend, and she decided to pay for three

ships, equipment, the salaries of the crews, and a modest stipend for

Columbus. More important, she had a contract drawn up that

granted Columbus the tides and rights on which he had insisted. The

only one she deniedand only in the contract's fine printwas the 10

percent of all revenues from any lands discovered: an absurd

demand, since he wanted no time limit on it. (Had the clause been

left in, it would eventually have made Columbus and his heirs the

wealthiest family on the planet. Columbus never read the fine print.)

Satisfied that his demands had been met, Columbus set sail mat

same year in search of the passage to Asia. (Before he left he was

careful to hire the best navigator he could find to help him get there.)

The mission failed to find such a passage, yet when Columbus

petitioned the queen to finance an even more ambitious voyage the

following year, she agreed. By then she had come to see Columbus

as destined for great things.

Interpretation

As an explorer Columbus was mediocre at best. He knew less

about the sea man did the average sailor on his ships, could never

determine the latitude and longitude of his discoveries, mistook

islands for vast continents, and treated his crew badly. But in one

area he was a genius: He knew how to sell himself. How else to

explain how the son of a cheese vendor, a low-level sea merchant,

managed to ingratiate himself with the highest royal and aristocratic

families

Columbus had an amazing power to charm the nobility, and it all

came from the way he carried himself. He projected a sense of

confidence mat was completely out of proportion to his means. Nor

was his confidence the aggressive, ugly self-promotion of an

upstartit was a quiet and calm self-assurance. In fact it was the same

confidence usually shown by the nobility themselves. The powerful in

the old-style aristocracies felt no need to prove or assert tiiemselves;

being noble, tiley knew they always deserved more, and asked for it.

With Columbus, then, diey felt an instant affinity, for he carried

himself just the way they didelevated above die crowd, destined for

greatness.

Understand: It is within your power to set your own price. How

you carry yourself reflects what you think of yourself. If you ask for

little, shuffle your feet and lower your head, people will assume this

reflects your character. But tiiis behavior is not youit is only how you

have chosen to present yourself to other people. You can just as

easily present the Columbus front: buoyancy, confidence, and the

feeling that you were born to wear a crown.

With all great deceivers there is a noteworthy occurrence to

which they owe their

power. In the actual act of deception they are overcome by belief

in themselves: it is

this which then speaks so miraculously and compellingly to those

around them.

Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900

KEYS TO POWER

As children, we start our lives with great exuberance, expecting

and demanding everything from the world. This generally carries

over into our first forays into society, as we begin our careers. But as

we grow older the rebuffs and failures we experience set up

boundaries that only get firmer with time. Coming to expect less from

the world, we accept limitations that are really self-imposed. We start

to bow and scrape and apologize for even the simplest of requests.

The solution to such a shrinking of horizons is to deliberately force

ourselves in the opposite directionto downplay the failures and

ignore the limitations, to make ourselves demand and expect as

much as the child. To accomplish this, we must use a particular

strategy upon ourselves. Call it the Strategy of the Crown.

The Strategy of the Crown is based on a simple chain of cause

and effect: If we believe we are destined for great things, our belief

will radiate outward, just as a crown creates an aura around a king.

This outward radiance will infect the people around us, who will think

we must have reasons to feel so confident. People who wear crowns

seem to feel no inner sense of the limits to what they can ask for or

what they can accomplish. This too radiates outward. Limits and

boundaries disappear. Use the Strategy of the Crown and you will be

surprised how often it bears fruit. Take as an example those happy

children who ask for whatever they want, and get it. Their high

expectations are their charm. Adults enjoy granting their wishesjust

as Isabella enjoyed granting the wishes of Columbus.

Throughout history, people of undistinguished birththe Theodoras

of Byzantium, the Columbuses, the Beethovens, the Disraelishave

managed to work the Strategy of the Crown, believing so firmly in

their own greatness that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The

trick is simple: 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.

The crown may separate you from other people, but it is up to

you to make that separation real: 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. Louis-Philippe gave no sense of being different from

other peoplehe was the banker king. And the moment his subjects

threatened him, he caved in. Everyone sensed this and pounced.

Lacking regal dignity and firmness of purpose, Louis-Philippe

seemed an impostor, and the crown was easily toppled from his

head.

Regal bearing should not be confused with arrogance. Arrogance

may seem the king's entitlement, but in fact it betrays insecurity. It is

the very opposite of a royal demeanor.

Hippocleides, climbing on to it, danced first some Laeonian

dances, next some Attic ones, and ended by standing on his head

and beating time with his legs in the air. The Laeonian and Attic

dances were bad enough; but Cleisthenes, though he already

loathed the thought of having a son-in-law like that, nevertheless

restrained himself and managed to avoid an outburst; but when he

saw Hippocleides beating time with his legs, he could bear it no

longer. “Son of Tisander, ” he cried, “you have danced away your

marriage. ”

the histories, Herodotus, fifth century b.c.

Haile Selassie, ruler of Ethiopia for forty or so years beginning in

1930, was once a young man named Lij Tafari. He came from a

noble family, but there was no real chance of him coming to power,

for he was far down the line of succession from die king then on the

throne, Menelik II. Nevertheless, from an early age he exhibited a

self-confidence and a royal bearing that surprised everyone around

him.

At the age of fourteen, Tafari went to live at the court, where he

immediately impressed Menelik and became his favorite. Tafari's

grace under fire, his patience, and his calm self-assurance

fascinated the king. The other young nobles, arrogant, blustery, and

envious, would push this slight, bookish teenager around. But he

never got angrydiat would have been a sign of insecurity, to which he

would not stoop. There were already people around him who felt he

would someday rise to the top, for he acted as if he were already

there.

Years later, in 1936, when the Italian Fascists had taken over

Ethiopia and Tafari, now called Haile Selassie, was in exile, he

addressed the League of Nations to plead his country's case. The

Italians in the audience heckled him with vulgar abuse, but he

maintained his dignified pose, as if completely unaffected. This

elevated him while making his opponents look even uglier. Dignity, in

fact, is invariably the mask to assume under difficult circumstances:

It is as if nothing can affect you, and you have all die time in the

world to respond. This is an extremely powerful pose.

A royal demeanor has odier uses. Con artists have long known

die value of an aristocratic front-, it either disarms people and makes

them less suspicious, or else it intimidates them and puts them on

the defensiveand as Count Victor Lustig knew, once you put a

sucker on the defensive he is doomed. The con man Yellow Kid

Weil, too, would often assume die trappings of a man of wealtii,

along with die nonchalance diat goes with them. Alluding to some

magical method of making money, he would stand aloof, like a king,

exuding confidence as if he really were fabulously rich. The suckers

would beg to be in on die con, to have a chance at die wealth diat he

so clearly displayed.

Finally, to reinforce die inner psychological tricks involved in

projecting a royal demeanor, diere are outward strategies to help you

create die effect. First, the Columbus Strategy: Always make a bold

demand. Set your price high and do not waver. Second, in a dignified

way, go after the highest person in the building. This immediately

puts you on die same plane as the chief executive you are attacking.

It is die David and Goliath Strategy: By choosing a great opponent,

you create the appearance of greatness.

Third, give a gift of some sort to diose above you. This is the

strategy of those who have a patron: By giving your patron a gift, you

are essentially saying diat die two of you are equal. It is the old con

game of giving so diat you can take. When die Renaissance writer

Retro Aretino wanted die Duke of Mantua as his next patron, he

knew diat if he was slavish and sycophantic, die duke would diink

him unworthy; so he approached die duke with gifts, in this case

paintings by the writer's good friend Titian.

Accepting the gifts created a kind of equality between duke and

writer: The duke was put at ease by the feeling that he was dealing

with a man of his own aristocratic stamp. He funded Aretino

generously. The gift strategy is subde and brilliant because you do

not beg: You ask for help in a dignified way mat 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 diat you are worth a king's ransom. Even those who turn you

down respect you for your confidence, and mat respect will

eventually pay off in ways you cannot imagine.

Image: The Crown. Place it upon your head and you assume a

different posetranquil yet radiating assurance. Never show doubt,

never lose your dignity beneath the crown, or it will not fit. It will

seem to be destined for one more worthy. Do not wait for a

coronation; the greatest emperors crown themselves.

Authority: Everyone should be royal after his own fashion. Let all

your actions, even though they are not those of a king, be, in their

own sphere, worthy of one. Be sublime in your deeds, lofty in your

thoughts; and in all your doings show that you deserve to be a king

even though you are not one in reality. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-

1658)

REVERSAL

The idea behind the assumption of regal confidence is to set

yourself apart from omer people, but if you take this too far it will be

your undoing. Never make die mistake of thinking diat you elevate

yourself by humiliating people. Also, it is never a good idea to loom

too high above the crowdyou make an easy target. And mere are

times when an aristocratic pose is eminently dangerous.

Charles I, king of England during the 1640s, faced a profound

public disenchantment with the institution of monarchy. Revolts

erupted throughout the country, led by Oliver Cromwell. Had Charles

reacted to the times with insight, supporting reforms and making a

show of sacrificing some of his power, history might have been

different. Instead he reverted to an even more regal pose, seeming

outraged by the assault on his power and on the divine institution of

monarchy. His stiff kingliness offended people and spurred on their

revolts. And eventually Charles lost his head, literally. Understand:

You are radiating confidence, not arrogance or disdain.

Finally, it is true that you can sometimes find some power through

affecting a kind of earmy vulgarity, which will prove amusing by its

extremeness. But to the extent that you win this game by going

beyond the limits, separating yourself from other people by

appearing even more vulgar than diey are, the 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.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 35

MASTER THE ART OF TIMING

JUDGMENT

Never seem to be in a hurryhurrying 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.

SKRTORIl'S'S I.KSSON

Sertorius's strength was now rapidly increasing, for all the tribes

between the Ebro and the Pyrenees came over to his side, and

troops came flocking daily to join him from every quarter. At the

same time he was troubled by the lack of discipline and the

overconfidenee of these newly arrived barbarians, who would shout

at him to attack the enemy and had no patience with his delaying

tactics, and he therefore tried to win them over by argument. But

when he saw that they were discontented and persisted in pressing

their demands regardless of the circumstances, he let them have

their way and allowed them to engage the enemy; he hoped that

they would suffer a severe defeat without being completely crushed,

and that this would make them better disposed to obey his orders in

future. The event turned out as he expected and Serto-rius came to

their rescue, provided a rallying point for the fugitives, and led them

safely back to his camp. His next step was to revive their dejected

spirits, and so a few days later he summoned a general assembly.

Before it he produced two horses, one of them old and enfeebled,

the other large and lusty and

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

Starting out in life as a nondescript French seminary-school

teacher, Joseph Fouche wandered from town to town for most of the

decade of the 1780s, teaching mathematics to young boys. Yet he

never completely committed himself to the church, never took his

vows as a priesthe had bigger plans. Patiently waiting for his chance,

he kept his options open. And when the French Revolution broke

out, in 1789, Fouche waited no longer: He got rid of his cassock,

grew his hair long, and became a revolutionary. For this was the

spirit of the times. To miss the boat at this critical moment could have

spelt disaster. Fouche did not miss the boat: Befriending the

revolutionary leader Robespierre, he quickly rose in the rebel ranks.

In 1792 the town of Nantes elected Fouche to be its representative

to the National Convention (created that year to frame a new

constitution for a French republic).

When Fouche arrived in Paris to take his seat at the convention,

a violent rift had broken out between die moderates and the radical

Jacobins. Fouche sensed that in the long run neitfier side would

emerge victorious. Power rarely ends up in the hands of those who

start a revolution, or even of tiiose who further it; power sticks to

those who bring it to a conclusion. That was the side Fouche wanted

to be on.

His sense of timing was uncanny. He started as a moderate, for

moderates were in the majority. When the time came to decide on

whether or not to execute Louis XVI, however, he saw that the

people were clamoring for the king's head, so he cast the deciding

votefor the guillotine. Now he had become a radical. Yet as tensions

came to the boil in Paris, he foresaw the danger of being too closely

associated wim any one faction, so he accepted a position in die

provinces, where he could lie low for a while. A few months later he

was assigned to the post of proconsul in Lyons, where he oversaw

the execution of dozens of aristocrats. At a certain moment,

however, he called a halt to the killings, sensing tiiat die mood of the

country was turningand despite the blood already on his hands, die

citizens of Lyons hailed him as a savior from what had become

known as the Terror.

So far Fouche had played his cards brilliantly, but in 1794 his old

friend Robespierre recalled him to Paris to account for his actions in

Lyons. Robespierre had been the driving force behind the Terror. He

had sent heads on both the right and the left rolling, and Fouche,

whom he no longer trusted, seemed destined to provide the next

head. Over the next few weeks, a tense struggle ensued: While

Robespierre railed openly against Fouche, accusing of him

dangerous ambitions and calling for his arrest, the crafty Fouche

worked more indirectiy, quietly gaining support among those who

were beginning to tire of Robespierre's dictatorial control. Fouche

was playing for time. He knew diat the longer he survived, the more

disaffected citizens he could rally against Robespierre. He had to

have broad support before he moved against the powerful leader. He

rallied support among both the moderates and the Jacobins, playing

on the widespread fear of Robespierreeveryone was afraid of being

die next to go to die guillotine. It all came to fruition on July 27: The

convention

turned against Robespierre, shouting down his usual lengthy

speech. He was quickly arrested, and a few days later it was

Robespierre's head, not Fouche's, that fell into the basket.

When Fouche returned to the convention after Robespierre's

death, he played his most unexpected move: Having led the

conspiracy against Robespierre, he was expected to sit with the

moderates, but lo and behold, he once again changed sides, joining

the radical Jacobins. For perhaps the first time in his life he aligned

himself with the minority. Clearly he sensed a reaction stirring: He

knew mat the moderate faction that had executed Robespierre, and

was now about to take power, would initiate a new round of the

Terror, this time against the radicals. In siding widi the Jacobins,

then, Fouche was sitting with the martyrs of the days to comethe

people who would be considered blameless in the troubles that were

on their way. Taking sides with what was about to become the losing

team was a risky gambit, of course, but Fouche must have

calculated he could keep his head long enough to quietly stir up the

populace against the moderates and watch them fall from power.

And indeed, although the moderates did call for his arrest in

December of 1795, and would have sent him to the guillotine, too

much time had passed. The executions had become unpopular with

the people, and Fouche survived the swing of the pendulum one

more time.

A new government took over, the Directoire. It was not, however,

a Jacobin government, but a moderate onemore moderate dian the

government that had reimposed the Terror. Fouche, the radical, had

kept his head, but now he had to keep a low profile. He waited

patiently on the sidelines for several years, allowing time to soften

any bitter feelings against him, then he approached the Directoire

and convinced them he had a new passion: intelligence-gathering.

He became a paid spy for the government, excelled at the job, and in

1799 was rewarded by being made minister of police. Now he was

not just empowered but required to extend his spying to every corner

of Francea responsibility that would greatly reinforce his natural

ability to sniff out where die wind was blowing. One of the first social

trends he detected, in fact, came in the person of Napoleon, a brash

young general whose destiny he right away saw was entwined with

the future of France. When Napoleon unleashed a coup d'etat, on

November 9, 1799, Fouche pretended to be asleep. Indeed he slept

the whole day. For this indirect assistanceit might have been tiiought

his job, after all, to prevent a military coupNapoleon kept him on as

minister of police in the new regime.

Over the next few years, Napoleon came to rely on Fouche more

and more. He even gave this former revolutionary a tide, duke of

Otranto, and rewarded him with great wealth. By 1808, however,

Fouche, always attuned to the times, sensed that Napoleon was on

the downswing. His futile war with Spain, a country mat posed no

threat to France, was a sign that he was losing a sense of

proportion. Never one to be caught on a sinking ship, Fouche

conspired with Talleyrand to bring about Napoleon's downfall. Al-

possessing a flowing tail, which was remarkable for the thickness

and beauty of its hair. By the side of the weak horse stood a tall

strong man, and by the side of the powerful horse a short man of

mean physique. At a signal the strong man seized the tail of his

horse and tried with all his strength to pull it towards him, as if to tear

it off while the weak man began to pull the hairs one by one from the

tail of the strong horse. The strong man, after tugging with all his

might to no purpose and causing the spectators a great deal of

amusement in the process, finally gave up the attempt, while the

weak man quickly and with very little trouble stripped his horse's tail

completely bare. Then Sertorius rose to his feet and said, "Now you

can see, my friends and allies, that perseverance is more effective

than brute strength, and that there are many difficulties that cannot

be overcome if you try to do everything at once, but which will yield if

you master them little by little. The truth is that a steady continuous

effort is irresistible, for this is the way in which Time captures and

subdues the greatest powers on earth. Now Time, you should

remember, is a good friend and ally to those who use their

intelligence to choose the right moment, but a most dangerous

enemy

to those who rush into action at the wrong one."

life of sertorius,

Plutarch,

c. a.d. 46-120

Mr. Shih had two sons:

one loved learning; the

other war. The first

expounded his moral

teachings at the

admiring court of Ch 'i

and was made a tutor,

while the second talked

strategy at the bellicose

court of Ch 'u and was

made a general. The

impecunious Mr. Meng,

hearing of these

successes, sent his own

two sons out to follow

the example of the

Shih boys. The first

expounded his moral

teachings at the court

ofCh'in, but the King

of Ch'in said: "At

present the states are

quarreling violently

and every prince is

busy arming his troops

to the teeth. If I

followed this prig's

pratings we should

soon be annihilated."

So he had the fellow

castrated. Meanwhile,

the second brother

displayed his military

genius at the court of

Wei. But the King of

Wei said: "Mine is a

weak state. If I relied

on force instead of

diplomacy, we should

soon be wiped out. If,

on the other hand, I let

this fire-eater go, he

will offer his services to

another state and then

though die conspiracy failedTalleyrand was fired; Fouche stayed,

but was kept on a tight leashit publicized a growing discontent with

the emperor, who seemed to be losing control. By 1814 Napoleon's

power had crumbled and allied forces finally conquered him.

The next government was a restoration of the monarchy, in the

form of King Louis XVIII, brother of Louis XVI. Fouche, his nose

always sniffing die air for the next social shift, knew Louis would not

last longhe had none of Napoleon's flair. Fouche once again played

his waiting game, lying low, staying away from the spodight. Sure

enough, in February of 1815, Napoleon escaped from die island of

Elba, where he had been imprisoned. Louis XVIII panicked: His

policies had alienated die citizenry, who were clamoring for

Napoleon's return. So Louis turned to the one man who could maybe

have saved his hide, Fouche, the former radical who had sent his

brother, Louis XVI, to die guillotine, but was now one of die most

popular and widely admired politicians in France. Fouche, however,

would not side with a loser: He refused Louis's request for help by

pretending that his help was unnecessaryby swearing that Napoleon

would never return to power (although he knew otherwise). A short

time later, of course, Napoleon and his new citizen army were

closing in on Paris.

Seeing his reign about to collapse, feeling that Fouche had

betrayed him, and certain that he did not want this powerful and able

man on Napoleon's team, King Louis ordered die minister's arrest

and execution. On March 16, 1815, policemen surrounded Fouche's

coach on a Paris boulevard. Was this finally his end Perhaps, but not

immediately: Fouche told the police that an ex-member of

government could not be arrested on the street. They fell for the

story and allowed him to return home. Later that day, though, they

came to his house and once again declared him under arrest.

Fouche noddedbut would the officers be so kind as allow a

gentieman to wash and to change his clothes before leaving his

house for the last time They gave tiieir permission, Fouche left the

room, and the minutes went by. Fouche did not return. Finally the

policemen went into the next roomwhere they saw a ladder against

an open window, leading down to the garden below.

That day and the next the police combed Paris for Fouche, but by

men Napoleon's cannons were audible in the distance and die king

and all the king's men had to flee the city. As soon as Napoleon

entered Paris, Fouche came out of hiding. He had cheated the

executioner once again. Napoleon greeted his former minister of

police and gladly restored him to his old post. During the 100 days

diat Napoleon remained in power, until Waterloo, it was essentially

Fouche who governed France. After Napoleon fell, Louis XVIII

returned to the throne, and like a cat with nine lives, Fouche stayed

on to serve in yet another governmentby tiien his power and

influence had grown so great that not even the king dared challenge

him.

Interpretation

In a period of unprecedented turmoil, Joseph Fouche thrived

through his

mastery of the art of timing. He teaches us a number of key

lessons.

First, it is critical to recognize the spirit of the times. Fouche

always looked two steps ahead, found the wave mat would carry him

to power, and rode it. You must always work with the times,

anticipate twists and turns, and never miss the boat. Sometimes the

spirit of the times is obscure: Recognize it not by what is loudest and

most obvious in it, but by what lies hidden and dormant. Look

forward to the Napoleons of the future rather than holding on to the

ruins of the past.

Second, recognizing the prevailing winds does not necessarily

mean running with them. Any potent social movement creates a

powerful reaction, and it is wise to anticipate what that reaction will

be, as Fouche did after the execution of Robespierre. Rather than

ride the cresting wave of the moment, wait for the tide's ebb to carry

you back to power. Upon occasion bet on the reaction that is

brewing, and place yourself in the vanguard of it.

Finally, Fouche 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 Fouche, he did not

struggle, get emotional, or strike out rashly. He kept his cool and

maintained a low profile, patiendy building support among the

citizenry, the bulwark in his next rise to power. Whenever he found

himself in the weaker position, he played for time, which he knew

would always be his ally if he was patient. Recognize the moment,

then, to hide in die 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

KEYS TO POWER

Time is an artificial concept diat we ourselves have created to

make the limidessness of eternity and die 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. Time, then, depends on perception,

which, we know, can be willfully altered. This is die first thing to

understand 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 witii tilings tends to lengdien

our perception of future time, opens up possibilities that fear and

anger close off, and allows us the patience tiiat is the principal

requirement in the art of timing.

There are three kinds of time for us to deal with; each presents

problems that can be solved with skill and practice. First there is long

time: the drawn-out, years-long kind of time that must be managed

with patience and gentle guidance. Our handling of long time should

be mosdy defensivethis is die art of not reacting impulsively, of

waiting for opportunity.

we shall be in trouble." So he had the fellow's feet cut off. Both

families did exactly the same thing, but one timed it right, the other

wrong. Thus success depends on ... rhythm.

LlEH TZU, QUOTED IN THE CHINESE LOOKING GLASS,

Dennis Bloodworth, 1967

The sultan [of Persia] had sentenced two men to death. One of

them, knowing how much the sultan loved his stallion, offered to

teach the horse to fly within a year in return for his life. The sultan,

fancying himself as the rider of the only flying horse in the world,

agreed. The other prisoner looked at his friend in disbelief. “You

know horses don 'tfly. What made you come up with a crazy idea like

that You're only postponing the inevitable.” “Not so,” said the [first

prisoner]. “I have actually given myself four chances for freedom.

First, the sultan might die during the year. Second, I might die. Third,

the horse might die. And fourth ... I might teach the horse to fly!”

the craft of power.

R.G. H. Siu,

A fisherman in the month of May stood angling on the bank of the

Thames with an artificial fly. He threw his bait with so much art, that

a young trout was rushing toward it, when she was prevented by her

mother. “Never, ” said she, “my child, be too precipitate, where there

is a possibility of danger. Take due time to consider, before you risk

an action that may be fatal. How know you whether yon appearance

be indeed a fly, or the snare of an enemy Let someone else make

the experiment before you. If it be a fly, he will very probably elude

the first attack: and the second may be made, if not with success, at

least with safety.” She had no sooner spoken, than a gudgeon

seized the pretended fly, and became an example to the giddy

daughter of the importance of her mother's counsel.

FABLES,

Robert Dodsley, 1703-1764

Next there is forced time: the short-term time that we can

manipulate as an offensive weapon, upsetting the timing of our

opponents. Finally there is end time, when a plan must be executed

with speed and force. We have waited, found the moment, and must

not hesitate.

Long Time. The famous seventeenth-century Ming painter Chou

Yung relates a story that altered his behavior forever. Late one winter

afternoon he set out to visit a town that lay across die river from his

own town. He was bringing some important books and papers with

him and had commissioned a young boy to help him carry them. As

tile ferry neared the other side of the river, Chou Yung asked the

boatman if they would have time to get to the town before its gates

closed, since it was a mile away and night was approaching. The

boatman glanced at the boy, and at the bundle of loosely tied papers

and books“Yes,” he replied, “if you do not walk too fast.”

As they started out, however, the sun was setting. Afraid of being

locked out of the town at night, prey to local bandits, Chou and the

boy walked faster and faster, finally breaking into a run. Suddenly the

string around the papers broke and the documents scattered on the

ground. It took them many minutes to put the packet together again,

and by the time they had reached the city gates, it was too late.

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 than if you had taken your time. Hurriers may occasionally get

there quicker, but papers fly everywhere, new dangers arise, and

they find themselves in constant crisis mode, fixing the problems that

they themselves have created. Sometimes not acting in the face of

danger is your best moveyou wait, you deliberately slow down. As

time passes it will eventually present opportunities you had not

imagined.

Waiting involves controlling not only your own emotions but those

of your colleagues, who, mistaking action for power, may try to push

you into making rash moves. In your rivals, on the other hand, you

can encourage this same mistake: If you let them rush headlong into

trouble while you stand back and wait, you will soon find ripe

moments to intervene and pick up the pieces. This wise policy was

the principal strategy of the great early-seventeenth-century emperor

Tokugawa Ieyasu of Japan. When his predecessor, the headstrong

Hideyoshi, whom he served as a general, staged a rash invasion of

Korea, Ieyasu did not involve himself. He knew the invasion would

be a disaster and would lead to Hideyoshi's downfall. Better to stand

patientiy on the sidelines, even for many years, and men be in

position to seize power when the time is rightexactly what Ieyasu did,

with great artistry.

You do not deliberately slow time down to live longer, or to take

more pleasure in the moment, but the better to play the game of

power. First, when your mind is uncluttered by constant emergencies

you will see further into the future. Second, you will be able to resist

the baits that people

dangle in front of you, and will keep yourself from becoming

another impatient sucker. Third, you will have more room to be

flexible. Opportunities will inevitably arise that you had not expected

and would have missed had you forced the pace. Fourth, you will not

move from one deal to the next without completing die first one. To

build your power's foundation can take years; make sure that

foundation is secure. Do not be a flash in the pansuccess that is built

up slowly and surely is the only kind that lasts.

Finally, slowing time down will give you a perspective on the

times you live in, letting you take a certain distance and putting you

in a less emotionally charged position to see the shapes of things to

come. Hurriers will often mistake surface phenomena for a real

trend, seeing only what they want to see. How much better to see

what is really happening, even if it is unpleasant or makes your task

harder.

Forced Time. The trick in forcing time is to upset the timing of

othersto make them hurry, to make diem wait, to make diem

abandon their own pace, to distort dieir perception of time. By

upsetting the timing of your opponent while you stay patient, you

open up time for yourself, which is half the game.

In 1473 the great Turkish sultan Mehmed the Conqueror invited

negotiations with Hungary to end the off-and-on war the two

countries had waged for years. When the Hungarian emissary

arrived in Turkey to start the talks, Turkish officials humbly

apologizedMehmed had just left Istanbul, the capital, to battie his

longtime foe, Uzun Hasan. But he urgently wanted peace with

Hungary, and had asked that die emissary join him at the front.

When the emissary arrived at die site of die fighting, Mehmed

had already left it, moving eastward in pursuit of his swift foe. This

happened several times. Wherever the emissary stopped, the Turks

lavished gifts and banquets on him, in pleasurable but time-

consuming ceremonies. Finally Mehmed defeated Uzun and met witii

die emissary. Yet his terms for peace widi Hungary were excessively

harsh. After a few days, the negotiations ended, and the usual

stalemate remained in place. But this was fine widi Mehmed. In fact

he had planned it diat way all along: Plotting his campaign against

Uzun, he had seen tiiat diverting his armies to die east would leave

his western flank vulnerable. To prevent Hungary from taking

advantage of his weakness and his preoccupation elsewhere, he first

dangled the lure of peace before his enemy, dien made them waitall

on his own terms.

Making people wait is a powerful way of forcing time, as long as

tiiey do not figure out what you are up to. You control the clock, they

linger in limboand rapidly come unglued, opening up opportunities

for you to strike. The opposite effect is equally powerful: You make

your opponents hurry. Start off your dealings with diem slowly, dien

suddenly apply pressure, making diem feel tiiat everydiing is

happening at once. People who lack the time to think will make

mistakesso set their deadlines for them.

This was the technique Machiavelli admired in Cesare Borgia,

who, during negotiations, would suddenly press vehementiy for a

decision, upsetting his opponent's timing and patience. For who

would dare make Cesare wait

Joseph Duveen, the famous art dealer, knew that if he gave an

indecisive buyer like John D. Rockefeller a deadlinethe painting had

to leave the country, another tycoon was interested in itdie client

would buy just in time. Freud noticed that patients who had spent

years in psychoanalysis without improvement would miraculously

recover just in time if he fixed a definite date for the end of the

therapy. Jacques Lacan, the famous French psychoanalyst, used a

variation on this tactiche would sometimes end the customary hour

session of therapy after only ten minutes, without warning. After this

happened several times, the patient would realize that he had better

make maximum use of the time, rather than wasting much of the

hour with a lot of talk that meant nothing. The deadline, then, is a

powerful tool. Close off the vistas of indecision and force people to

make up their damn minds or get to the pointnever let them make

you play on their excruciating terms. Never give them time.

Magicians and showmen are experts in forcing time. Houdini

could often wriggle free of handcuffs in minutes, but he would draw

the escape out to an hour, making the audience sweat, as time came

to an apparent standstill. Magicians have always known that the best

way to alter our perception of time is often to slow down the pace.

Creating suspense brings time to a terrifying pause: The slower the

magician's hands move, the easier it is to create the illusion of

speed, making people think the rabbit has appeared instantaneously.

The great nineteenth-century magician Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin

took explicit notice of this effect: “The more slowly a story is told,” he

said, “the shorter it seems.”

Going slower also makes what you are doing more interestingthe

audience yields to your pace, becomes entranced. It is a state in

which time whizzes delightfully by. You must practice such illusions,

which share in the hypnotist's power to alter perceptions of time.

End Time. You can play the game with die utmost artistrywaiting

patiently for the right moment to act, putting your competitors off their

form by messing with their timingbut it won't mean a thing unless you

know how to finish. Do not be one of those people who look like

paragons of patience but are actually just afraid to bring things to a

close: Patience is worthless unless combined with a willingness to

fall ruthlessly on your opponent at the right moment. You can wait as

long as necessary for the conclusion to come, but when it comes it

must come quickly. Use speed to paralyze your opponent, cover up

any mistakes you might make, and impress people with your aura of

authority and finality.

With the patience of a snake charmer, you draw the snake out

with calm and steady rhythms. Once the snake is out, though, would

you dangle your foot above its deadly head There is never a good

reason to allow the

slightest hitch in your endgame. Your mastery of timing can really

only be judged by how you work with end timehow you quickly

change the pace and bring things to a swift and definitive conclusion.

Image: The Hawk. Patiently and silently it circles the sky, high

above, all-seeing with its powerful eyes. Those below have no

awareness that they are being tracked. Suddenly, when the moment

arrives, the hawk swoops down with a speed that cannot be

defended against; before its prey knows what has happened, the

bird's viselike talons have carried it up into the sky.

Authority: There is a tide in the affairs of men, / Which, taken at

the flood, leads on to fortune; / Omitted, all the voyage of their life / Is

bound in shallows and in miseries. {Julius Caesar, William

Shakespeare, 1564-1616)

REVERSAL

There is no power to be gained in letting go of the reins and

adapting to whatever time brings. To some degree you must guide

time or you will be its merciless victim. There is accordingly no

reversal to this law.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 36

DISDAIN THINGS YOU CANNOT HAVE: IGNORING THEM IS

THE BEST REVENGE

JUDGMENT

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.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

The Mexican rebel leader Pancho Villa started out as the chief of

a gang of bandits, but after revolution broke out in Mexico in 1910,

he became a kind of folk herorobbing trains and giving the money to

the poor, leading daring raids, and charming the ladies with romantic

escapades. His exploits fascinated Americanshe seemed a man

from another era, part Robin Hood, part Don Juan. After a few years

of bitter fighting, however, General Carranza emerged as the victor

in the Revolution; the defeated Villa and his troops went back home,

to the northern state of Chihuahua. His army dwindled and he turned

to banditry again, damaging his popularity. Finally, perhaps out of

desperation, he began to rail against die United States, die gringos,

whom he blamed for his troubles.

In March of 1916, Pancho Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico.

Rampaging through the town, he and his gang killed seventeen

American soldiers and civilians. President Woodrow Wilson, like

many Americans, had admired Villa; now, however, the bandit

needed to be punished. Wilson's advisers urged him to send troops

into Mexico to capture Villa. For a power as large as the United

States, they argued, not to strike back at an army that had invaded

its territory would send the worst kind of signal. Furthermore, they

continued, many Americans saw Wilson as a pacifist, a principle the

public doubted as a response to violence; he needed to prove his

mettle and manliness by ordering the use of force.

The pressure on Wilson was strong, and before the month was

out, with the approval of the Carranza government, he sent an army

of ten thousand soldiers to capture Pancho Villa. The venture was

called the Punitive Expedition, and its leader was the dashing

General John J. Pershing, who had defeated guerrillas in the

Philippines and Native Americans in the American Southwest.

Certainly Pershing could find and overpower Pancho Villa.

The Punitive Expedition became a sensational story, and

carloads of U.S. reporters followed Pershing into action. The

campaign, they wrote, would be a test of American power. The

soldiers carried the latest in weaponry, communicated by radio, and

were supported by reconnaissance from the air.

In the first few months, the troops split up into small units to comb

the wilds of northern Mexico. The Americans offered a $50,000

reward for information leading to Villa's capture. But the Mexican

people, who had been disillusioned with Villa when he had returned

to banditry, now idolized him for facing mis mighty American army.

They began to give Pershing false leads: Villa had been seen in this

village, or in that mountain hideaway, airplanes would be dispatched,

troops would scurry after them, and no one would ever see him. The

wily bandit seemed to be always one step ahead of the American

military.

By the summer of that year, the expedition had swelled to

123,000 men. They suffered through the stultifying heat, the

mosquitoes, the wild terrain. Trudging over a countryside in which

they were already resented,

THE FOX AND TKR CHAPKS

A starving fox ...

saw a cluster

Of luscious-looking

grapes of purplish

luster

Dangling above him on

a trellis-frame.

He would have dearly

liked them for his

lunch,

But when he tried and

failed to reach the

bunch:

"Ah well, it's more than

likely they're not

sweet

Good only for green

fools to eat!"

Wasn 'the wise to say they were unripe Rather than whine and

gripe

FABLES,

Jean de La Fontaine, 1621-1695

Once when G K. Chesterton's economic views were abused in

print by George Bernard Shaw, his friends waited in vain for him to

reply. Historian Hilaire Belloc reproached him. “My dear Belloc,”

Chesterton said, “I have answered him. To a man of Shaw's wit,

silence is the one unbearable repartee.”

the little, brown book of anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman, ed., 1985

An ass had once by some accident lost his tail, which was a

grievous affliction to him; and he was everywhere seeking after it,

being fool enough to think he could get it set on again. He passed

through a meadow, and afterwards got into a garden. The gardener

seeing him, and not able to endure the mischief he was doing in

trampling down his plants, fell into a violent rage, ran to the ass, and

never standing on the ceremony of a pillory, cut off both his ears,

and beat him out of the ground. Thus the ass, who bemoaned the

loss of his tail, was in far greater affliction when he saw himself

without ears.

FABLES, PlLPAY,

India, fourth century

iiii: I'uomov ox

Once, when the Toku-daiji minister of the right was chief of the

imperial police, he was holding a meeting of his staff at the middle

gate when an ox belonging to an official named Akikane got loose

and wandered into the ministry building. It climbed up on

they infuriated bodi the local people and the Mexican

government. At one point Pancho Villa hid in a mountain cave to

recover from a gunshot wound he received in a skirmish with the

Mexican army; looking down from his aerie, he could watch Pershing

lead the exhausted American troops back and forth across the

mountains, never getting any closer to their goal.

All the way into winter, Villa played his cat-and-mouse game.

Americans came to see the affair as a kind of slapstick farcein fact

they began to admire Villa again, respecting his resourcefulness in

eluding a superior force. In January of 1917, Wilson finally ordered

Pershing's withdrawal. As the troops made their way back to

American territory, rebel forces pursued them, forcing the U.S. Army

to use airplanes to protect its rear flanks. The Punitive Expedition

was being punished itselfit had turned into a retreat of the most

humiliating sort.

Interpretation

Woodrow Wilson organized the Punitive Expedition as a show of

force: He

would teach Pancho Villa a lesson and in the process show the

world that

no one, large or small, could attack the mighty United States and

get away

with it. The expedition would be over in a few weeks, and Villa

would be

forgotten.

That was not how it played out. The longer the expedition took,

the more it focused attention on the Americans' incompetence and

on Villa's cleverness. Soon what was forgotten was not Villa but the

raid that had started it all. As a minor annoyance became an

international embarrassment, and the enraged Americans

dispatched more troops, die imbalance between die size of the

pursuer and the size of die pursuedwho still managed to stay

freemade the affair a joke. And in the end this white elephant of an

army had to lumber out of Mexico, humiliated. The Punitive

Expedition did the opposite of what it set out to do: It left Villa not

only free but more popular than ever.

What could Wilson have done differendy He could have

pressured the Carranza government to catch Villa for him.

Alternatively, since many Mexicans had tired of Villa before the

Punitive Expedition began, he could have worked quietly with diem

and won their support for a much smaller raid to capture the bandit.

He could have organized a trap on the American side of the border,

anticipating the next raid. Or he could have ignored die matter

altogether for the time being, waiting for the Mexicans themselves to

do away with Villa of their own accord.

Remember: You choose to let things bother you. You can just as

easily choose not to notice the irritating offender, to consider the

matter trivial and unworthy of your interest. That is the powerful

move. What you do not react to cannot drag you down in a futile

engagement. Your pride is not involved. The best lesson you can

teach an irritating gnat is to consign it to oblivion by ignoring it. If it is

impossible to ignore (Pancho Villa had in fact killed American

citizens), then conspire in secret to do away with it, but

never inadvertently draw attention to the bothersome insect that

will go away or die on its own. If you waste time and energy in such

entanglements, it is your own fault. Learn to play the card of disdain

and turn your back on what cannot harm you in the long run.

Just thinkit cost your government $130 million to try to get me. I

took them

over rough, hilly country. Sometimes for fifty miles at a stretch

they had no water.

They had nothing but the sun and mosquitoes.... And nothing

was gained.

Pancho Villa, 1878-1923

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

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 man 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 daughter 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 view their relationship as incestuous and

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. Yet after years of

marriage to Henry, Catherine had failed to produce a son, and in the

early 1520s she had entered menopause. To the king this could only

mean one thing: She had lied about her virginity, their union was

incestuous, and God had punished them.

There was another reason why Henry wanted to get rid of

Catherine: He had fallen in love with a younger woman, Anne

Boleyn. Not only was he in love with her, but if he married her he

could still hope to sire a legitimate son. The marriage to Catherine

had to be annulled. For this, however, Henry had to apply to the

Vatican. But Pope Clement would never annul the marriage.

By the summer of 1527, rumors spread throughout Europe that

Henry was about to attempt the impossibleto annul his marriage

against Clement's wishes. Catherine would never abdicate, let alone

voluntarily enter a nunnery, as Henry had urged her. But Henry had

his own strategy: He stopped sleeping in the same bed with

Catherine, since he considered her his sister-in-law, not his lawful

wife. He insisted on calling her Princess

the dais where the chief was seated and lay there, chewing its

cud. Everyone was sure that this was some grave portent, and urged

that the ox be sent to a yin-yang diviner. However, the prime

minister, the father of the minister of the right, said, “An ox has no

discrimination. It has legsthere is nowhere it won't go. It does not

make sense to deprive an underpaid official of the wretched ox he

needs in order to attend court.” He returned the ox to its owner and

changed the matting on which it had lain. No untoward event of any

kind occurred afterward. They say that if you see a prodigy and do

not treat it as such, its character as a prodigy is destroyed.

essays in idleness,

Kenko,

Japan,

fourteenth century

And in this view it is advisable to let everyone of your

acquaintance whether man or womanfeel now and then that you

could very well dispense with their company. This will consolidate

friendship. Nay, with most people there will be no harm in

occasionally mixing a grain of disdain with your treatment of them;

that will make them value your friendship all the more. Chi non stima

vien stimato, as a subtle Italian proverb has itto disregard is to win

regard. But if we really think very highly of a person, we should

conceal it from him like a crime. This is not a very gratifying thing to

do, but it is right. Why, a dog will not bear being treated too kindly, let

alone a man!

Arthur

Schopenhauer,

1788-1860

A monkey was carrying two handfuls of peas. One little pea

dropped out. He tried to pick it up, and spilt twenty. He tried to pick

up the twenty, and spilt them all. Then he lost his temper, scattered

the peas in all directions, and ran away.

FABLES,

Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910

Dowager of Wales, her title as Arthur's widow. Finally, in 1531, he

banished her from court and shipped her off to a distant casde. The

pope ordered him to return her to court, on pain of excommunication,

the most severe penalty a Catholic could suffer. Henry not only

ignored diis threat, he insisted that his marriage to Cadierine had

been dissolved, and in 1533 he married Anne Boleyn.

Clement refused to recognize the marriage, but Henry did not

care. He no longer recognized the pope's autiiority, and proceeded to

break with the Roman Catholic Church, establishing the Church of

England in its stead, with the king as the head of the new church.

And so, not surprisingly, the newly formed Church of England

proclaimed Anne Boleyn England's rightful queen.

The pope tried every threat in the book, but nothing worked.

Henry simply ignored him. Clement fumedno one had ever treated

him so contemptuously. Henry had humiliated him and he had no

power of recourse. Even excommunication (which he constantly

threatened but never carried out) would no longer matter.

Catherine too felt the devastating sting of Henry's disdain. She

tried to fight back, but in appealing to Henry her words fell on deaf

ears, and soon they fell on no one's. Isolated from die court, ignored

by die king, mad widi anger and frustration, Cadierine slowly

deteriorated, and finally died in January of 1536, from a cancerous

tumor of the heart.

Interpretation

When you pay attention to a person, the two of you become

partners of sorts, each moving in step to die actions and reactions of

the otiier. In the process you lose your initiative. It is a dynamic of all

interactions: By acknowledging otiier people, even if only to fight with

them, you open yourself to dieir influence. Had Henry locked horns

with Cadierine, he would have found himself mired in endless

arguments tiiat would have weakened his resolve and eventually

worn him down. (Cadierine was a strong, stubborn woman.) Had he

set out to convince Clement to change his verdict on the marriage's

validity, or tried to compromise and negotiate with him, he would

have gotten bogged down in Clement's favorite tactic: playing for

time, promising flexibility, but actually getting what popes always got

dieir way.

Henry would have none of this. He played a devastating power

gametotal disdain. By ignoring people you cancel diem out. This

unset-ties and infuriates thembut since they have no dealings witii

you, diere is notiiing they can do.

This is the offensive aspect of the law. Playing the card of

contempt is immensely powerful, for it lets you determine the

conditions of die conflict. The war is waged on your terms. This is the

ultimate power pose: You are the king, and you ignore what offends

you. Watch how tins tactic infuriates peoplehalf of what they do is to

get your attention, and when you withhold it from them, they flounder

in frustration.

MAN: Kick himhe'll forgive you. Flatter himhe may or may not

see through you. But ignore him and he'll hate you.

Idries Shah, Caravan of Dreams, 1968

KEYS TO POWER

Desire often creates paradoxical effects: The more you want

something, the more you chase after it, the more it eludes you. The

more interest you show, the more you repel the object of your desire.

This is because your interest is too strongit makes people awkward,

even fearful. Uncontrollable desire makes you seem weak, unworthy,

pathetic.

You need to turn your back on what you want, show your

contempt and disdain. This is the kind of powerful response mat will

drive your targets crazy. They will respond with a desire of their own,

which is simply to have an effect on youperhaps to possess you,

perhaps to hurt you. If they want to possess you, you have

successfully completed the first step of seduction. If they want to hurt

you, you have unsettled them and made them play by your rules

(see Laws 8 and 39 on baiting people into action).

Contempt is the prerogative of the king. Where his eyes turn,

what he decides to see, is what has reality; what he ignores and

turns his back on is as good as dead. That was the weapon of King

Louis XIVif he did not like you, he acted as if you were not there,

maintaining his superiority by cutting off the dynamic of interaction.

This is the power you have when you play the card of contempt,

periodically showing people mat you can do without them.

If choosing to ignore enhances your power, it follows that the

opposite approachcommitment and engagementoften weakens you.

By paying undue attention to a puny enemy, you look puny, and the

longer it takes you to crush such an enemy, the larger the enemy

seems. When Athens set out to conquer tlie island of Sicily, in 415

B.C., a giant power was attacking a tiny one. Yet by entangling

Athens in a long-drawn-out conflict, Syracuse, Sicily's most

important city-state, was able to grow in stature and confidence.

Finally defeating Athens, it made itself famous for centuries to come.

In recent times, President John F. Kennedy made a similar mistake

in his attitude to Fidel Castro of Cuba: His failed invasion at the Bay

of Pigs, in 1961, made Castro an international hero.

A second danger: If you succeed in crushing the irritant, or even

if you merely wound it, you create sympathy for the weaker side.

Critics of Franklin D. Roosevelt complained bitterly about the money

his administration spent on government projects, but their attacks

had no resonance with the public, who saw the president as working

to end die Great Depression. His opponents thought they had an

example that would show just how wasteful he had become: his dog,

Fala, which he lavished with favors and attention. Critics railed at his

insensitivityspending taxpayers' money on a dog while so many

Americans were still in poverty. But Roosevelt had a response: How

dare his critics attack a defenseless little dog

As some make gossip out of everything, so others make much

ado about everything. They are always talking big, [and] take

everything seriously, making a quarrel and a mystery of it. You

should take very few grievances to heart, for to do so is to give

yourself groundless worry. It is a topsyturvy way of behaving to take

to heart cares which you ought to throw over your shoulder. Many

things which seemed important [at the time] turn out to be of no

account when they are ignored; and others, which seem trifling,

appear formidable when you pay attention to them. Things can easily

be settled at the outset, but not so later on. In many cases, the

remedy itself is the cause of the disease: to let things be is not the

least satisfactory of life's rules.

Baltasar GraciAn, 1601-1658

There was a certain

original man who

desired to catch his

own shadow. He makes

a step or two toward it,

but it moves away from

him. He quickens his

pace; it does the same.

At last he takes to

running; but the

quicker he goes, the

quicker runs the

shadow also, utterly

refusing to give itself

up, just as if it had been

a treasure. But see! our

eccentric friend

suddenly turns round,

and walks away from

it. And presently he

looks behind him; now

the shadow runs

after him.

Ladies fair, I have

often observed ... that

Fortune treats us in a

similar way. One man

tries with all his might

to seize the goddess,

and only loses his time

and his trouble.

Another seems, to all

appearance, to be

running out of her

sight; but, no: she

herself takes a pleasure

in pursuing him.

FABLES,

Ivan Kriloff, 1768-1844

His speech in defense of Fala was one of the most popular he

ever gave. In this case, the weak party involved was the president's

dog and the attack backfiredin the long run, it only made the

president more sympadietic, since many people will naturally side

with the “underdog,” just as the American public came to sympathize

with the wily but outnumbered Pan-cho Villa.

It is tempting to want to fix our mistakes, but the harder we try,

the worse we often make them. It is sometimes more politic to leave

them alone. In 1971, when the New York Times published die

Pentagon Papers, a group of government documents about the

history of U.S. involvement in Indochina, Henry Kissinger erupted

into a volcanic rage. Furious about die Nixon administration's

vulnerability to diis kind of damaging leak, he made

recommendations that eventually led to the formation of a group

called die Plumbers to plug die leaks. This was the unit that later

broke into Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Hotel, setting

off the chain of events that led to Nixon's downfall. In reality the

publication of the Pentagon Papers was not a serious direat to the

administration, but Kissinger's reaction made it a big deal. In trying to

fix one problem, he created an-otiier: a paranoia for security that in

die end was much more destructive to the government. Had he

ignored the Pentagon Papers, the scandal they had created would

eventually have blown over.

Instead of inadvertendy focusing attention on a problem, making

it seem worse by publicizing how much concern and anxiety it is

causing you, it is often far wiser to play die contemptuous aristocrat,

not deigning to acknowledge die problem's existence. There are

several ways to execute this strategy.

First there is the sour-grapes approach. If there is something you

want but that you realize you cannot have, 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. When the writer George Sand's

supporters nominated her to be the first female member of the

Academie Francaise, in 1861, Sand quickly saw that the academy

would never admit her. Instead of whining, though, she claimed she

had no interest in belonging to this group of worn-out, overrated, out-

of-touch windbags. Her disdain was die perfect response: Had she

shown her anger at her exclusion, she would have revealed how

much it meant to her. Instead she branded the academy a club of old

menand why should she be angry or disappointed at not having to

spend her time with them Crying “sour grapes” is sometimes seen as

a reflection of the weak; it is actually the tactic of the powerful.

Second, when you are attacked by an inferior, deflect people's

attention by making it clear that die attack has not even registered.

Look away, or answer sweetly, showing how litde 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.

The Japanese emperor Go-Saiin, a great disciple of the tea

ceremony,

owned a priceless antique tea bowl that all the courtiers envied.

One day a guest, Dainagon Tsunehiro, asked if he could carry the

tea bowl into the light, to examine it more closely. The bowl rarely left

the table, but the emperor was in good spirits and he consented. As

Dainagon carried the bowl to the railing of the verandah, however,

and held it up to the light, it slipped from his hands and fell on a rock

in the garden below, smashing into tiny fragments.

The emperor of course was furious. “It was indeed most clumsy

of me to let it drop in this way,” said Dainagon, with a deep bow, “but

really there is not much harm done. This Ido tea-bowl is a very old

one and it is impossible to say how much longer it would have

lasted, but anyhow it is not a thing of any public use, so I think it

rather fortunate that it has broken thus.” This surprising response

had an immediate effect: The emperor calmed down. Dainagon

neither sniveled nor overapologized, but signaled his own worth and

power by treating his mistake with a touch of disdain. The emperor

had to respond with a similar aristocratic indifference; his anger had

made him seem low and pettyan image Dainagon was able to

manipulate.

Among equals this tactic might backfire: Your indifference could

make you seem callous. But with a master, if you act quickly and

without great fuss, it can work to great effect: You bypass his angry

response, save him the time and energy he would waste by brooding

over it, and allow him the opportunity to display his own lack of

pettiness publicly.

If we make excuses and denials when we are caught in a mistake

or a deception, we stir the waters and make the situation worse. It is

often wiser to play things the opposite way. The Renaissance writer

Pietro Aretino often boasted of his aristocratic lineage, which was, of

course, a fiction, since he was actually the son of a shoemaker.

When an enemy of his finally revealed the embarrassing truth, word

quickly spread, and soon all of Venice (where he lived at the time)

was aghast at Aretino's lies. Had he tried to defend himself, he

would have only dragged himself down. His response was masterful:

He announced that he was indeed the son of a shoemaker, but this

only proved his greatness, since he had risen from the lowest

stratum of society to its very pinnacle. From then on he never

mentioned his previous lie, trumpeting instead his new position on

the matter of his ancestry.

Remember: The powerful responses to niggling, petty

annoyances and irritations are contempt and disdain. Never show

that something has affected you, or that you are offendedthat only

shows you have acknowledged a problem. Contempt is a dish that is

best served cold and without affectation.

Image:

The Tiny

Wound.

It is small but painful and irritating. You try all sorts of

medicaments, you complain, you scratch and pick at the scab.

Doctors only make it worse, transforming the tiny wound into a grave

matter. If only you had left the wound alone, letting time heal it and

freeing yourself of worry.

Authority: Know how to play the card of contempt. It is the most

politic kind of revenge. For there are many of whom we should have

known nothing if their distinguished opponents had taken no notice

of them. There is no revenge like oblivion, for it is the entombment of

the unworthy in the dust of their own nothingness. (Baltasar Gracian,

1601-1658)

REVERSAL

You must play the card of contempt with care and delicacy. Most

small troubles will vanish on their own if you leave diem be; but

some will grow and fester unless you attend to them. Ignore a

person of inferior stature and the next time you look he has become

a serious rival, and your contempt has made him vengeful as well.

The great princes of Renaissance Italy chose to ignore Cesare

Borgia at the outset of his career as a young general in the army of

his father, Pope Alexander VI. By the time they paid attention it was

too latedie cub was now a lion, gobbling up chunks of Italy. Often,

tlien, while you show contempt publicly you will also need to keep an

eye on the problem privately, monitoring its status and making sure it

goes away. Do not let it become a cancerous cell.

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 quietiy go away on its own. In eidier

case, though, never completely take your eye off it. As long as it is

alive it can smolder and spark into life.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 37

CREATE COMPELLING SPECTACLES

JUDGMENT

Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of

powereveryone responds to them. 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.

ANTONY ANDCI.KOI'VIHA

She relied above all upon her physical presence and the spell

and enchantment which it could create.... She came sailing up the

river Cydnus in a barge with a poop of gold, its purple sails billowing

in the wind, while her rowers caressed the water with oars of silver

which dipped in time to the music of the flute, accompanied by pipes

and lutes. Cleopatra herself reclined beneath a canopy of cloth of

gold, dressed in the character of Aphrodite, as we see her in

paintings, while on either side to complete the picture stood boys

costumed as Cupids who cooled her with their fans. Instead of a

crew the barge was lined with the most beautiful of her waiting-

women attired as Nereids and Graces, some at the rudders, others

at the tackle of the sails, and all the while an indescribably rich

perfume, exhaled from innumerable censers, was wafted from the

vessel to the riverbanks. Great multitudes accompanied this royal

progress, some of them following the queen on both sides of the

river from its very mouth, while others hurried down from the city of

Tarsus to gaze at the sight. Gradually the crowds drifted away from

the marketplace,

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I

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 enormous converted beer hall, outside which Berliners

began to notice ever longer lines of peoplethe 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 Berliners had been seen

waiting outside the beer hall in their rags; now magnificent carriages

were parked outside, and gentlemen in frock coats, and ladies with

enormous coiffures, lined the street as sunset drew near. Even folk

with the mildest of ailments came, out of sheer curiosity. As they

waited in line, the poorer clients would explain to the gentlemen and

ladies that the doctor only practiced when the moon was in its

increscent phase. Many would add that they themselves had already

been exposed to die healing powers he called forth from the rays of

the moon. Even those who felt cured kept coming back, drawn by

this powerful experience.

Inside the beer hall, a strange and stirring spectacle greeted the

visitor: Packed into the entrance hall was a crowd of all classes and

ethnic backgrounds, a veritable Tower of Babel. Through tall

windows on the northern side of the hall, silvery moonlight poured in

at odd angles. The doctor and his wife, who, it seemed, was also

able to effect the cure, practiced on the second floor, which was

reached by a stairway, at the end of the hall. As the line edged closer

to the stairs, the sick would hear shouts and cries from above, and

word would spread of, perhaps, a blind gentleman suddenly able to

see.

Once upstairs, the line would fork in two directions, toward a

northern room for the doctor, a southern one for his wife, who

worked only on the ladies. Finally, after hours of anticipation and

waiting in line, the gentlemen patients would be led before the

amazing doctor himself, an elderly man with a few stalks of wild gray

hair and an air of nervous energy. He would take the patient (let us

say a young boy, brought in by his father), 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 boy and his father on their way.

Meanwhile, in the south-facing room, his wife would be doing the

same with the ladieswhich was odd, really, since the moon cannot

appear in two places at once; it cannot have been visible, in other

words, from both windows. Apparendy the mere thought, idea, and

symbol of the moon were enough, for the ladies did not complain,

and would later remark confidently that the wife of the Moon Doctor

had the same healing powers as he.

Interpretation

Dr. Weisleder may have known nothing about medicine, but he

understood human nature. He recognized that 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 restsuch as imagine they can be

healed by the light reflected from a rock a quarter million miles away.

Dr. Weisleder had no need of pills, or of lengtfry lectures on the

moon's power, or of any silly gadgetry to amplify its rays. He

understood that the simpler the spectacle the betterjust the

moonlight pouring in from the side, the stairway leading to the

heavens, and the rays of the moon, whether directly visible or not.

Any added effects might have made it seem that the moon was not

strong enough on its own. And the moon was strong enoughit was a

magnet for fantasies, as it has been throughout history. Simply by

associating himself with the image of the moon, the doctor gained

power.

Remember: Your search for power depends on shortcuts. You

must always circumvent people's suspicions, their perverse desire to

resist your will. Images are an extremely effective shortcut:

Bypassing the head, the seat of doubt and resistance, they aim

straight for the heart. Overwhelming the eyes, they create powerful

associations, bringing people together and stirring their emotions.

With the white light of the moon in their eyes, your targets are

blinded to the deceptions you practice.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW II

In 1536 the future king Henri II of France took his first mistress,

Diane de Poitiers. Diane was thirty-seven at the time, and was the

widow of the grand seneschal of Normandy. Henri, meanwhile, was

a sprightly lad of seventeen, who was just beginning to sow his wild

oats. At first their union seemed merely platonic, with Henri showing

an intensely spiritual devotion to Diane. But it soon became clear tiiat

he loved her in every way, preferring her bed to that of his young

wife, Catherine de' Medicis.

In 1547 King Francis died and Henri ascended to the throne. This

new situation posed perils for Diane de Poitiers. She had just turned

forty-eight, and despite her notorious cold baths and rumored youth

potions, she was beginning to show her age; now that Henri was

king, perhaps he would return to the queen's bed, and do as other

kings had donechoose mistresses from the bevy of beauties who

made the French court the envy of Europe. He was, after all, only

twenty-eight, and cut a dashing figure. But Diane did not give up so

easily. She would continue to enthrall her lover, as she had

enthralled him for the past eleven years.

Diane's secret weapons were symbols and images, to which she

had always paid great attention. Early on in her relationship with

Henri, she had created a motif by intertwining her initials with his, to

symbolize their union. The idea worked like a charm: Henri put this

insignia everywhere on his royal robes, on monuments, on churches,

on the facade of the

where Antony awaited the queen enthroned on his tribunal, until

at last he was left sitting quite alone. And the word spread on every

side that Aphrodite had come to revel with Dionysus for the

happiness of Asia. Antony then sent a message inviting Cleopatra to

dine with him. But she thought it more appropriate that he should

come to her, and so, as he wished to show his courtesy and

goodwill, he accepted and went. He found the preparations made to

receive him magnificent beyond words, but what astonished him

most of all was the extraordinary number of lights. So many of these,

it is said, were let down from the roof and displayed on all sides at

once, and they were arranged and grouped in such ingenious

patterns in relation to each other, some in squares and some in

circles, that they created as brilliant a spectacle as can ever have

been devised to delight the eye.

life of antony, Plutarch, c. a.d. 46-120

In the Middle Ages the symbolist attitude was much more in

evidence. ... Symbolism appears as a sort of short cut of thought.

Instead of looking for the relation

between two things by following the hidden detours of their

causal connexions, thought makes a leap and discovers their

relation not in the connexion of cause and effects, but in a connexion

of signification. ... Symbolist thought permits an infinity of relations

between things. Each thing may denote a number of distinct ideas by

its different special qualities, and a quality may have several

symbolic meanings. The highest conceptions have symbols by the

thousand. Nothing is too humble to represent and glory the sublime.

The walnut signifies Christ: the sweet kernel is His divine nature, the

green and pulpy outer peel is His humanity, the wooden shell

between is the cross. Thus all things raise his thoughts to the

eternal.. .. Every precious stone, besides its natural splendour

sparkles with the brilliance of its symbolic values. The assimilation of

roses and virginity is much more than a poetic comparison, for it

reveals their common essence. As each notion arises in the mind the

logic of symbolism creates an harmony of ideas.

THE WANING OF THE

MIDDLE AGES,

JOHAN HUIZINGA,

Louvre, then the royal palace in Paris. Diane's favorite colors

were black and white, which she wore exclusively, and wherever it

was possible the insignia appeared in these colors. Everyone

recognized the symbol and its meaning. Soon after Henri took the

throne, however, Diane went still further: She decided to identify

herself with the Roman goddess Diana, her namesake. Diana was

the goddess of the hunt, the traditional royal pastime and the

particular passion of Henri. Equally important, in Renaissance art

she symbolized chastity and purity. For a woman like Diane to

identify herself with tiiis goddess would instantly call up those images

in the court, giving her an air of respectability. Symbolizing her

“chaste” relationship with Henri, it would also set her apart from the

adulterous liaisons of royal mistresses past.

To effect this association, Diane began by completely

transforming her casde at Anet. She razed the building's structure

and in its place erected a magnificent Doric-columned edifice

modeled after a Roman temple. It was made in white Normandy

stone flecked with black silex, reproducing Diane's trademark colors

of black and white. The insignia of her and Henri's initials appeared

on the columns, the doors, the windows, the carpet. Meanwhile,

symbols of Dianacrescent moons, stags, and hounds adorned the

gates and facade. Inside, enormous tapestries depicting episodes in

the life of the goddess lay on the floors and hung on the walls. In the

garden stood the famous Goujon sculpture Diane Chasseresse,

which is now in the Louvre, and which had an uncanny resemblance

to Diane de Poitiers. Paintings and other depictions of Diana

appeared in every corner of the casde.

Anet overwhelmed Henri, who soon was trumpeting the image of

Diane de Poitiers as a Roman goddess. In 1548, when the couple

appeared together in Lyons for a royal celebration, the townspeople

welcomed them with a tableau vivant depicting a scene with Diana

the huntress. France's greatest poet of die period, Pierre de

Ronsard, began to write verses in honor of Dianaindeed a kind of

cult of Diana sprang up, all inspired by the king's mistress. It seemed

to Henri that Diane had given herself a kind of divine aura, and as if

he were destined to worship her for the rest of his life. And until his

death, in 1559, he did remain faithful to hermaking her a duchess,

giving her untold wealth, and displaying an almost religious devotion

to his first and only mistress.

Interpretation

Diane de Poitiers, a woman from a modest bourgeois

background, managed to captivate Henri for over twenty years. By

the time he died she was well into her sixties, yet his passion for her

only increased with the years. She knew the king well. He was not

an intellectual but a lover of die outdoorshe particularly loved

jousting tournaments, with their bright pennants, brilliandy

caparisoned horses, and beautifully dressed women. Henri's love of

visual splendor seemed childlike to Diane, and she played on this

weakness of his at every opportunity.

Most astute of all was Diane's appropriation of the goddess

Diana. Here she took the game beyond physical imagery into the

realm of the psychic symbol. It was quite a feat to transform a king's

mistress into an emblem of power and purity, but she managed it.

Without the resonance of the goddess, Diane was merely an aging

courtesan. With the imagery and symbolism of Diana on her

shoulders, she seemed a mythic force, destined for greatness.

You too can play with images like these, weaving visual clues into

an encompassing gestalt, as Diane did with her colors and her

insignia. Establish a trademark like these to set yourself apart. Then

take the game further: Find an image or symbol from the past that

will neatly fit your situation, and put it on your shoulders like a cape.

It will make you seem larger man life.

Because of the light it shines on the other stars which make up a

kind of

court around it, because of the just and equal distribution of its

rays to

all alike, because of the good it brings to all places, producing

life, joy

and action, because of its constancy from which it never varies, I

chose

the sun as the most magnificent image to represent a great

leader.

Louis XIV, the Sun King, 1638-1715

KEYS TO POWER

Using words to plead your case is risky business: Words are

dangerous instruments, and often go astray. The words people use

to persuade us virtually invite us to reflect on them with words of our

own; we mull them over, and often end up believing the opposite of

what they say. (That is part of our perverse nature.) It also happens

that words offend us, stirring up associations unintended by the

speaker.

The visual, on the other hand, short-circuits the labyrinth of

words. It strikes with an emotional power and immediacy that leave

no gaps for reflection and doubt. Like music, it leaps right over

rational, reasonable thoughts. Imagine the Moon Doctor trying to

make a case for his medical practice, trying to convince the

unconverted by telling them about the healing powers of the moon,

and about his own special connection to a distant object in the sky.

Fortunately for him, he was able to create a compelling spectacle

that made words unnecessary. The moment his patients entered the

beer hall, the image of the moon spoke eloquently enough.

Understand: Words put you on the defensive. If you have to

explain yourself your power is already in question. The image, on the

other hand, imposes itself as a given. It discourages questions,

creates forceful associations, resists unintended interpretations,

communicates instantly, and forges bonds that transcend social

differences. Words stir up arguments and divisions; images bring

people together. They are the quintessential instruments of power.

The symbol has the same force, whether it is visual (the statue of

There was a man named Sakamotoya Hechigwan who lived in

upper Kyoto.... When [Emperor] Hideyoshi gave his great Cha-no-yu

[tea ceremony] meeting at Kitano in the tenth month of 1588,

Hechigwan set up a great red umbrella nine feet across mounted on

a stick seven feet high. The circumference of the handle he

surrounded for about two feet by a reed fence in such a way that the

rays of the sun were reflected from it and diffused the colour of the

umbrella all around. This device pleased Hideyoshi so much that he

remitted Hechigwan's taxes as a reward.

CHA-NO-YU:

THE JAPANESE TEA

CEREMONY,

A. L. Sadler, 1962

Diana) or a verbal description of something visual (the words “the

Sun King”). The symbolic object stands for something else,

something abstract (such as the image “Diana” standing for chastity).

The abstract concept purity, patriotism, courage, loveis full of

emotional and powerful associations. The symbol is a shortcut of

expression, containing dozens of meanings in one simple phrase or

object. The symbol of the Sun King, as explained by Louis XIV, can

be read on many layers, but the beauty of it is that its associations

required no explanation, spoke immediately to his subjects,

distinguished him from all other kings, and conjured up a kind of

majesty that went far beyond the words themselves. The symbol

contains untold power.

The first step in using symbols and images is to understand the

primacy of sight among the senses. Before the Renaissance, it has

been argued, sight and the other sensestaste, touch, and so

onoperated on a relatively equal plane. Since then, however, the

visual has come to dominate the others, and is the sense we most

depend on and trust. As Gracian said, “The truth is generally seen,

rarely heard.” When the Renaissance painter Fra Filippo Lippi was a

captured slave among the Moors, he won his freedom by sketching a

drawing of his master on a white wall with a piece of charcoal; when

the owner saw the drawing, he instantly understood the power of a

man who could make such images, and let Fra Lippi go. That one

image was far more powerful than any argument the artist could

have made with words.

Never neglect the way you arrange things visually. Factors like

color, for example, have enormous symbolic resonance. When the

con artist Yellow Kid Weil created a newsletter touting the phony

stocks he was peddling, he called it the “Red Letter Newsletter” and

had it printed, at considerable expense, in red ink. The color created

a sense of urgency, power, and good fortune. Weil recognized

details like these as keys to deceptionas do modern advertisers and

mass-marketers. If you use “gold” in the title of anything you are

trying to sell, for example, print it in gold. Since the eye

predominates, people will respond more to the color than to the

word.

The visual contains great emotional power. The Roman emperor

Con-stantine worshipped the sun as a god for most of his life; one

day, though, he looked up at die sun, and saw a cross superimposed

on it. The vision of the cross over the sun proved to him the

ascendancy of the new religion, and he converted not just himself

but the whole Roman Empire to Christianity soon thereafter. All the

preaching and proselytizing in the world could not have been as

powerful. Find and associate yourself with the images and symbols

that will communicate in this immediate way today, and you will have

untold power.

Most effective of all is a new combinationa fusion of images and

symbols that have not been seen together before, but that through

their association clearly demonstrate your new idea, message,

religion. The creation of new images and symbols out of old ones in

this way has a poetic effect viewers' associations run rampant, giving

them a sense of participation.

Visual images often appear in a sequence, and the order in which

they appear creates a symbol. The first to appear, for instance,

symbolizes power; the image at the center seems to have central

importance.

Near the end of World War II, orders came down from General

Eisenhower that American troops were to lead die way into Paris

after its liberation from the Nazis. The French general Charles de

Gaulle, however, realized that this sequence would imply that the

Americans now commanded die fate of France. Through much

manipulation, de Gaulle made certain that he and the French

Second Armored Division would appear at the head of the liberating

force. The strategy worked: After he had successfully pulled off this

stunt, the Allies started treating him as the new leader of an

independent France. De Gaulle knew tiiat a leader has to locate

himself literally at die head of his troops. This visual association is

crucial to the emotional response that he needs to elicit.

Things change in die game of symbols: It is probably no longer

possible to pose as a “sun king,” or to wrap the mande of Diana

around you. Yet you can associate yourself with such symbols more

indirecdy. And, of course, you can make your own mydiology out of

figures from more recent history, people who are comfortably dead

but still powerfully associative in die public eye. The idea is to give

yourself an aura, a stature tiiat your normal banal appearance simply

will not create. By herself Diane de Poitiers had no such radiant

powers; she was as human and ordinary as most of us. But the

symbol elevated her above die human lot, and made her seem

divine.

Using symbols also has a courtier-like effect, since diey are often

gentler dian brutish words. The psychotherapist Dr. Milton H.

Erickson always tried to find symbols and images that would

communicate to die patient in ways that words could not. When

dealing witii a severely troubled patient, he would not question him

directiy but would talk about something irrelevant, such as driving

tiirough the desert in Arizona, where he practiced in the 1950s. In

describing this he would eventually come to an appropriate symbol

for what he suspected was tile man's problem. If he felt the patient

was isolated, say, Dr. Erickson would talk of a single iron-wood tree,

and how its isolation left it battered by the winds. Making an

emotional connection with die tree as a symbol, die patient would

open up more readily to the doctor's probing.

Use die power of symbols as a way to rally, animate, and unite

your troops or team. During die rebellion against the French crown in

1648, those loyal to the king disparaged the rebels by comparing

them to the slingshots (in French, frondes) that little boys use to

frighten big boys. Cardinal de Retz decided to turn this disparaging

term into die rebels' symbol: The uprising was now known as the

Fronde, and die rebels as frondeurs. They began to wear sashes in

tiieir hats that symbolized the slingshot, and the word became tiieir

rallying cry. Widiout it the rebellion might well have petered out.

Always find a symbol to represent your causedie more emotional

associations, the better.

The best way to use images and symbols is to organize tiiem into

grand spectacle that awes people and distracts them from

unpleasant realities. This is easy to do: People love what is grand,

spectacular, and larger than life. Appeal to their emotions and they

will flock to your spectacle in hordes. The visual is the easiest route

to their hearts.

Image: The Cross and the Sun. Crucifixion and total radiance.

With one imposed over the other, a new reality takes shape a new

power is in the ascendant. The symbolno explanation necessary.

Authority: The people are always impressed by the superficial

appearance of things.... The [prince] should, at fitting times of the

year, keep the people occupied and distracted with festivities and

spectacles. (Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527)

REVERSAL

No power is made available by ignoring images and symbols.

There is no

possible reversal to this law.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 38

THINK AS YOU LIKE

BUT BEHAVE LIKE

OTHERS

JUDGMENT

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.

It is easy to run into danger by trying to swim against the stream.

Only a Socrates could attempt to do that. Disagreement is regarded

as offensive because it is a condemnation of the views of others; the

numbers of the disgruntled grow. on account either of some matter

that has been the object of censure or of some person who has

praised it: Truth is for the few, error is as usual as it is vulgar. Nor is

the wise man to be recognized by what he says in the marketplace,

for he speaks there not with his own voice, but with that of universal

folly, however much his inmost thoughts may gainsay it: The wise

man avoids being contradicted as sedulously as he avoids

contradicting; the publicity of censure is withheld from that which

readily provokes it. Thought is free; it cannot and should not be

coerced; retire into the sanctuary of your silence and if you

sometimes allow yourself to break it, do so under the aegis of a

discreet few.

Baltasar Gractan, 1601-1658

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

Around the year 478 B.C., the city of Sparta sent an expedition to

Persia led by die 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 Atiiens, had

orders to punish the invaders and win back the islands and coastal

towns that the Persians had occupied. Bodi die Athenians and the

Spartans had great respect for Pausaniashe had proven himself as a

fearless warrior, with a flair for the dramatic.

With amazing speed, Pausanias and his troops took Cyprus, then

moved on to the mainland of Asia Minor known as the Hellespont

and captured Byzantium (modern-day Istanbul). Now master of part

of the Persian empire, Pausanias began to show signs of behavior

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 die Persian King Xerxes, and all in all affected

the style and manner of a Persian dictator.

Clearly power and success had gone to Pausanias's head. His

army Athenians and Spartans alikeat first thought this a passing

fancy: He had always been a bit exaggerated in his gestures. But

when he flaunted his disdain for die Greeks' simple way of life, and

insulted the common Greek soldier, they began to feel he had gone

too far. Although there was no concrete evidence for mis, rumors

spread diat he had gone over to the odier side, and that he dreamed

of becoming a kind of Greek Xerxes. To quell die possibility of

mutiny, the Spartans relieved Pausanias of his command and called

him home.

Pausanias, however, continued to dress in the Persian style,

even in Sparta. After a few months he independently hired a trireme

and returned to the Hellespont, telling his compatriots he was going

to continue the fight against the Persians. Actually, however, he had

different plansto make himself ruler of all Greece, with the aid of

Xerxes himself. The Spartans declared him a public enemy and sent

a ship to capture him. Pausanias surrendered, certain that he could

clear himself of the charges of treason. It did come out during die

trial diat during his reign as commander he had offended his fellow

Greeks time and again, erecting monuments, for instance, in his own

name, rather than in those of the cities whose troops had fought

alongside him, as was the custom. Yet Pausanias proved right:

Despite die evidence of his numerous contacts with die enemy, die

Spartans refused to imprison a man of such noble birth, and let him

go.

Now thinking himself untouchable, Pausanias hired a messenger

to take a letter to Xerxes, but the messenger instead took the letter

to the Spartan authorities. These men wanted to find out more, so

they had the messenger arrange to meet Pausanias in a temple

where they could hide and listen behind a partition. What Pausanias

said shocked diemdiey had never heard such contempt for their

ways spoken so brazenly by one of their ownand they made

arrangements for his immediate arrest.

On his way home from the temple, Pausanias got word of what

had happened. He ran to another temple to hide, but the authorities

followed him there and placed sentries all around. Pausanias

refused to surrender. Unwilling to forcibly remove him from the

sacred temple, the authorities kept him trapped inside, until he

eventually died of starvation.

Interpretation

At first glance it might seem that Pausanias simply fell in love

with another culture, a phenomenon as old as time. Never

comfortable with the asceticism of the Spartans, he found himself

enthralled by the Persian love of luxury and sensual pleasure. He put

on Persian robes and perfumes with a sense of deliverance from

Greek discipline and simplicity.

This is how it appears when people adopt a culture in which they

were not raised. Often, however, there is also something else at

play: 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 unques-tioningly 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, indirecdy and subtly, perhaps, but offensively

nonetheless.

As Thucydides wrote of Pausanias, “By his contempt for the laws

and his imitation of foreign ways he had made himself very widely

suspected of being unwilling to abide by normal standards.” Cultures

have norms that reflect centuries of shared beliefs and ideals. Do not

expect to scoff at such things with impunity. You will be punished

somehow, even if just through isolationa position of real

powerlessness.

Many of us, like Pausanias, feel the siren call of the exotic, the

foreign. Measure and moderate diis desire. Flaunting your pleasure

in alien ways of thinking and acting will reveal a different motiveto

demonstrate your superiority over your fellows.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

During the late sixteenth century, a violent reaction against the

Protestant Reformation erupted in Italy. The Counter-Reformation,

as it was called, included its own version of the Inquisition to root out

all deviations from the Catholic Church. Among its victims was the

scientist Galileo, but an important thinker who suffered even greater

persecution was the Dominican monk and philosopher Tommaso

Campanella.

A follower of the materialist doctrine of the Roman philosopher

Epicurus, Campanella did not believe in miracles, or in heaven and

hell. The Church had promoted such superstitions, he wrote, to

control the common folk by keeping them in fear. Such ideas verged

on atheism, and Campanella expressed them incautiously. In 1593

the Inquisition threw him

Bene vixit, qui bene latuit “He lives well who conceals himself

well.”

a.d. 18

Ovid, c. 43 B.C.

Wise men [should be] like coffers with double bottoms: Which

when others look into, being opened, they see not all that they hold.

Sir Walter Raleigh, 1554-1618

WHK.N THK WATKHS WERE CHANCED

Once upon a time Khidr, the teacher of Moses, called upon

mankind with a warning. At a certain date, he said, all the water in

the world which had not been specially hoarded, would disappear. It

would then be renewed, with different water, which would drive men

mad. Only one man listened to the meaning of this advice. He

collected water and went to a secure place where he stored it, and

waited for the water to change its character.

On the appointed date the streams stopped running, the wells

went dry, and the man who had listened, seeing this

LAW 38 319

happening, went to his retreat and drank his preserved water.

When he saw, from his security, the waterfalls again beginning to

flow, this man descended among the other sons of men. He found

that they were thinking and talking in an entirely different way from

before; yet they had no memory of what had happened, nor of

having been warned. When he tried to talk to them, he realized that

they thought that he was mad, and they showed hostility or

compassion, not understanding. At first he drank none of the new

water, but went back to his concealment, to draw on his supplies,

every day. Finally, however, he took the decision to drink the new

water because he could not bear the loneliness of living, behaving

and thinking in a different way from everyone else. He drank the new

water, and became like the rest. Then he forgot all about his own

store of special water, and his fellows began to look upon him as a

madman who had miraculously been restored to sanity.

TALES OF

the dervishes,

Idries Shah,

into prison for his heretical beliefs. Six years later, as a form of

partial release, he was confined to a monastery in Naples.

Southern Italy was controlled by Spain at the time, and in Naples

Campanella became involved in a plot to fight and throw out mese

invaders. His hope was to establish an independent republic based

on his own ideas of Utopia. The leaders of the Italian Inquisition,

working with their Spanish counterparts, had him imprisoned again.

This time diey also tortured him, to discover the true nature of his

impious beliefs: He was subjected to the infamous la veglia, a torture

in which he was suspended by his arms in a squatting position a few

inches above a seat studded with spikes. The posture was

impossible to sustain, and in time die victim would end up sitting on

the spikes, which would tear his flesh at the slightest contact.

During these years, however, Campanella learned something

about power. Facing the prospect of execution for heresy, he

changed his strategy: He would not renounce his behefs, yet he

knew he had to disguise their outward appearance.

To save his life, Campanella feigned madness. He let his

inquisitors imagine that his beliefs stemmed from an incontrollable

unsoundness of mind. For a while the tortures continued, to see if his

insanity was faked, but in 1603 his sentence was commuted to life in

prison. The first four years of this he spent chained to a wall in an

underground dungeon. Despite such conditions, he continued to

writealthough no longer would he be so foolish as to express his

ideas directiy.

One book of Campanella's, The Hispanic Monarchy, promoted

the idea diat Spain had a divine mission to expand its powers around

the world, and offered the Spanish king practical, Machiavelli-type

advice for achieving this. Despite his own interest in Machiavelli, the

book in general presented ideas completely the opposite to his own.

The Hispanic Monarchy was in fact a ploy, an attempt to show his

conversion to orthodoxy in the boldest manner possible. It worked: In

1626, six years after its publication, die pope finally let Campanella

out of prison.

Shortly after gaining his freedom, Campanella wrote Atheism

Conquered, a book attacking free-thinkers, Machiavellians,

Calvinists, and heretics of all stripes. The book is written in the form

of debates in which heretics express their beliefs and are countered

by arguments for the superiority of Catholicism. Campanella had

obviously reformedhis book made that clear. Or did it

The arguments in the mouths of the heretics had never before

been expressed with such verve and freshness. Pretending to

present their side only to knock it down, Campanella actually

summarized die case against Catholicism with striking passion.

When he argued the other side, supposedly his side, on the other

hand, he resorted to stale cliches and convoluted rationales. Brief

and eloquent, the heretics' arguments seemed bold and sincere. The

lengthy arguments for Catholicism seemed tiresome and

unconvincing.

Catholics who read the book found it disturbing and ambiguous,

but

they could not claim it was heretical, or that Campanella should

be returned to prison. His defense of Catholicism, after all, used

arguments they had used themselves. Yet in the years to come,

Atheism Conquered became a bible for atheists, Machiavellians and

libertines who used the arguments Campanella had put in their

mouths to defend their dangerous ideas. Combining an outward

display of conformity witii an expression of his true beliefs in a way

that his sympathizers would understand, Campanella showed that he

had learned his lesson.

Interpretation

In the face of awesome persecution, Campanella devised three

strategic moves that saved his hide, freed him from prison, and

allowed him to continue to express his beliefs. First he feigned

madnessthe medieval equivalent of disavowing responsibility for

one's actions, like blaming one's parents today. Next he wrote a

book that expressed the exact opposite of his own beliefs. Finally,

and most brilliantiy of all, he disguised his ideas while insinuating

them at the same time. It is an old but powerful trick: You pretend to

disagree with dangerous ideas, but in die course of your

disagreement you give diose ideas expression and exposure. You

seem to conform to die prevailing orthodoxy, but diose who know will

understand die irony involved. You are protected.

It is inevitable in society that certain values and customs lose

contact with dieir original motives and become oppressive. And mere

will always be those who rebel against such oppression, harboring

ideas far ahead of their time. As Campanella was forced to realize,

however, there is no point in making a display of your dangerous

ideas if diey only bring you suffering and persecution. Martyrdom

serves no purposebetter to live on in an oppressive world, even to

dirive in it. Meanwhile find a way to express your ideas subdy for

diose who understand you. Laying your pearls before swine will only

bring you trouble.

For a long time I have not said what I believed, nor do I ever

believe

what I say, and if indeed sometimes I do happen to tell the truth,

I hide it among so many lies that it is hard to find.

Niccolo Machiavelli, in a letter to Francesco Guicciardini, May 17,

1521

Never combat any man's opinion; for though you reached the age

of Methuselah, you would never have done setting him right upon all

the absurd things that he believes-It is also well to avoid correcting

people's mistakes in conversation, however good your intentions

may be; for it is easy to offend people, and difficult, if not impossible

to mend them.

If you feel irritated by the absurd remarks of two people whose

conversation you happen to overhear, you should imagine that you

are listening to the dialogue of two fools in a comedy. Probatum est.

The man who comes into the world with the notion that he is really

going to instruct it in matters of the highest importance, may thank

his stars if he escapes with a whole skin.

Arthur

Schopenhauer,

1788-1860

KEYS TO POWER

We all tell lies and hide our true feelings, for complete free

expression is a social impossibility. From an early age we learn to

conceal our thoughts, telling die prickly and insecure what we know

they want to hear, watching carefully lest we offend diem. For most

of us tiiis is naturalthere are ideas and values diat most people

accept, and it is pointless to argue. We believe what we want to,

men, but on die outside we wear a mask.

There are people, however, who see such restraints as an

intolerable infringement on their freedom, and who have a need to

prove the superi-

“Look around you,”

said the citizen. "This is

the largest market in

the world. "

“Oh surely not,” said

the traveller.

"Well, perhaps not

the largest," said the

citizen, "but much

the best."

"You are certainly

wrong there, " said the

traveller. "I can tell

you. ..."

They buried the

stranger in the dusk.

FABLES,

Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894

If Machiavelli had had

a prince for disciple,

the first thing he would

have recommended

him to do would have

been to write a book

against Machiavellism.

Voltaire, 1694-1778

ority of their values and beliefs. In the end, though, their

arguments convince only a few and offend a great deal more. The

reason arguments do not work is that most people hold their ideas

and values widiout thinking about them. There is a strong emotional

content in their beliefs: They really do not want to have to rework

their habits of thinking, and when you challenge them, whether

directly through your arguments or indirecdy through your behavior,

they are hostile.

Wise and clever people learn early on that they can display

conventional behavior and mouth conventional ideas widiout having

to believe in diem. The power these people gain from blending in is

that of being left alone to have die thoughts tfiey want to have, and to

express diem to the people they want to express them to, without

suffering isolation or ostracism. Once tiiey have established

themselves in a position of power, they can try to convince a wider

circle of the correctness of dieir ideas perhaps working indirecdy,

using Campanella's strategies of irony and insinuation.

In the late fourteenth century, the Spanish began a massive

persecution of die Jews, murdering Uiousands and driving others out

of the country. Those who remained in Spain were forced to convert.

Yet over die next three hundred years, die Spanish noticed a

phenomenon diat disturbed them: Many of die converts lived dieir

outward lives as Cadiolics, yet somehow managed to retain their

Jewish beliefs, practicing the religion in private. Many of these so-

called Marranos (originally a derogatory term, being the Spanish for

“pig”) attained high levels of government office, married into die

nobility, and gave every appearance of Christian piety, only to be

discovered late in life as practicing Jews. (The Spanish Inquisition

was specifically commissioned to ferret diem out.) Over the years

they mastered die art of dissimulation, displaying crucifixes liberally,

giving generous gifts to churches, even occasionally making anti-

Semitic remarksand all die while maintaining their inner freedom and

beliefs.

In society, the Marranos knew, outward appearances are what

matter. This remains true today. The strategy is simple: As

Campanella did in writing Atheism Conquered, make a show of

blending in, even going so far as to be the most zealous advocate of

the prevailing orthodoxy. If you stick to conventional appearances in

public few will believe you think differendy in private.

Do not be so foolish as to imagine that in our own time the old

orthodoxies are gone. Jonas Salk, for instance, thought science had

gotten past politics and protocol. And so, in his search for a polio

vaccine, he broke all die rulesgoing public widi a discovery before

showing it to the scientific community, taking credit for die vaccine

widiout acknowledging die scientists who had paved die way, making

himself a star. The public may have loved him but scientists shunned

him. His disrespect for his community's orthodoxies left him isolated,

and he wasted years trying to heal die breach, and struggling for

funding and cooperation.

Bertolt Brecht underwent a modern form of Inquisitionthe House

Un-American Activities Committeeand approached it with

considerable canniness. Having worked off and on in die American

film industry during World War II, in 1947 Brecht was summoned to

appear before the committee to answer questions on his suspected

Communist sympathies. Other writers called before die committee

made a point of attacking its members, and of acting as belligerently

as possible in order to gain sympadry for themselves. Brecht, on die

other hand, who had actually worked steadfastly for the Communist

cause, played the opposite game: He answered questions wim

ambiguous generalities that defied easy interpretation. Call it the

Campanella strategy. Brecht even wore a suita rare event for him

and made a point of smoking a cigar during the proceedings,

knowing that a key committee member had a passion for cigars. In

the end he charmed the committee members, who let him go scot-

free.

Brecht then moved to East Germany, where he encountered a

different kind of Inquisition. Here the Communists were in power, and

they criticized his plays as decadent and pessimistic. He did not

argue with them, but made small changes in the performance scripts

to shut them up. Meanwhile he managed to preserve the published

texts as written. His outward conformity in both cases gave him die

freedom to work unhindered, without having to change his thinking.

In the end, he made his way safely through dangerous times in

different countries through the use of litde dances of orthodoxy, and

proved he was more powerful than the forces of repression.

Not only do people of power avoid the offenses of Pausanias and

Salk, they also learn to play the clever fox and feign the common

touch. This has been die ploy of con artists and politicians

throughout die centuries. Leaders like Julius Caesar and Franklin D.

Roosevelt have overcome their natural aristocratic stance to cultivate

a familiarity with the common man. They have expressed tiiis

familiarity in little gestures, often symbolic, to show the people that

their leaders share popular values, despite their different status.

The logical extension of this practice is die invaluable ability to be

all things to all people. When you go into society, leave behind your

own ideas and values, and put on the mask diat is most appropriate

for die group in which you find yourself. Bismarck played this game

successfully for yearsmere were people who vaguely understood

what he was up to, but not clearly enough that it mattered. People

will swallow die bait because it flatters them to believe that you share

their ideas. They will not take you as a hypocrite if you are carefulfor

how can they accuse you of hypocrisy if you do not let them know

exactly what you stand for Nor will they see you as lacking in values.

Of course you have valuesdie values you share witii diem, while in

their company.

Authority: Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not dirow your

pearls before swine, lest they trample them under foot and turn to

attack you. (Jesus Christ, Matthew 7:6)

Image: The Black The herd shuns the SheeD black sheep,

uncertain whether or not it belongs with them. So it straggles behind,

or wanders away from the herd, where it is cornered by wolves and

promptly devoured. Stay with the herd there is safety in numbers.

Keep your differences in your thoughts and not in your fleece.

REVERSAL

The only time it is worth standing out is when you already stand

out when you have achieved an unshakable position of power, and

can display your difference from others as a sign of the distance

between you. As president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson

would sometimes hold meetings while he sat on the toilet. Since no

one else either could or would claim such a “privilege,” Johnson was

showing people that he did not have to observe the protocols and

niceties of others. The Roman emperor Caligula played the same

game: He would wear a woman's negligee, or a bathrobe, to receive

important visitors. He even went so far as to have his horse elected

consul. But it backfired, for the people hated Caligula, and his

gestures eventually brought his overthrow. The truth is that even

those who attain the heights of power would be better off at least

affecting the common touch, for at some point they may need

popular support.

Finally, there is always a place for the gadfly, the person who

successfully defies custom and mocks what has grown lifeless in a

culture. Oscar Wilde, for example, achieved considerable social

power on this foundation: He made it clear that he disdained the

usual ways of doing things, and when he gave public readings his

audiences not only expected him to insult them but welcomed it. We

notice, however, that his eccentric role eventually destroyed him.

Even had he come to a better end, remember that he possessed an

unusual genius: Without his gift to amuse and delight, his barbs

would simply have offended people.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 39

STIR UP WATERS TO CATCH FISH

JUDGMENT

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.

The Kyoto Shoshidai Itakura Suwo-no-kami Shigemune was very

fond of Cha-no-yu (the tea ceremony), and used to grind his own tea

while sitting in the court as judge. And the reason was this. He once

asked a friend of his who was his companion in Cha-no-yu, a tea

merchant named Eiki, to tell him frankly what was the public opinion

about him. “Well,”said Eiki, “they say that you gel irritated with those

who don't give their evidence very clearly and scold them, and so

people are afraid to bring lawsuits before you and if they do, the truth

does not come out.” “Ah, I am glad you have told me that,” replied

Shigemune, “for now that I consider it, I have fallen into the habit of

speaking sharply to people in this way, and no doubt humble folk and

those who are not ready in speech get flurried and are unable to put

their case in the best light. I will see to it that this does not occur in

the future.” So after this he had a tea mill placed before him in court

and in front of it the paper-covered shoji were drawn to, and

Shigemune sat behind them and ground the tea and thus kept his

mind calm while he heard the cases. And he could

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

In January of 1809, an agitated and anxious Napoleon hurried

back to Paris from his Spanish wars. His spies and confidants had

confirmed a rumor that his foreign minister Talleyrand had conspired

against him with Fouche, the minister of police. Immediately on

arriving in the capital the shocked emperor summoned his ministers

to the palace. Following them into the meeting right after their arrival,

he began pacing up and down, and started rambling vaguely about

plotters working against him, speculators bringing down the stock

market, legislators delaying his policiesand his own ministers

undermining him.

As Napoleon talked, Talleyrand leaned on the mantelpiece,

looking completely indifferent. Facing Talleyrand directly, Napoleon

announced, “For these ministers, treason has begun when they

permit themselves to doubt.” At the word “treason” the ruler expected

his minister to be afraid. But Talleyrand only smiled, calm and bored.

The sight of a subordinate apparently serene in the face of

charges that could get him hanged pushed Napoleon to the edge.

There were ministers, he said, who wanted him dead, and he took a

step closer to Talleyrand who stared back at him unfazed. Finally

Napoleon exploded. “You are a coward,” he screamed in Talleyrand's

face, “a man of no faidi. Nothing is sacred to you. You would sell

your own father. I have showered you with riches and yet there is

nothing you would not do to hurt me.” The other ministers looked at

each other in disbeliefthey had never seen this fearless general, the

conqueror of most of Europe, so unhinged.

“You deserve to be broken like glass,” Napoleon continued,

stamping. “I have the power to do it, but I have too much contempt

for you to bother. Why didn't I have you hanged from die gates of the

Tuileries But there is still time for that.” Yelling, almost out of bream,

his face red, his eyes bulging, he went on, “You, by the way, are

nothing but shit in a silk stocking. ... What about your wife You never

told me that San Carlos was your wife's lover” “Indeed, sire, it did not

occur to me that this information had any bearing on Your Majesty's

glory or my own,” said Talleyrand calmly, completely unflustered.

After a few more insults, Napoleon walked away. Talleyrand slowly

crossed the room, moving with his characteristic limp. As an

attendant helped him with his cloak, he turned to his fellow ministers

(all afraid they would never see him again), and said, “What a pity,

gende-men, that so great a man should have such bad manners.”

Despite his anger, Napoleon did not arrest his foreign minister.

He merely relieved him of his duties aj id banished him from die

court, believing that for this man humiliation would be punishment

enough. He did not realize that word had quickly spread of his

tiradeof how the emperor had completely lost control of himself, and

how Talleyrand had essentially humiliated him by maintaining his

composure and dignity. A page had been turned: For the first time

people had seen die great emperor lose his cool under fire. A feeling

spread that he was on die way down. As Talleyrand later said, “This

is the beginning of the end.”

Interpretation

This was indeed the beginning of the end. Waterloo was still six

years ahead, but Napoleon was on a slow descent to defeat,

crystallizing in 1812 with his disastrous invasion of Russia.

Talleyrand was the first to see the signs of his decline, especially in

the irrational war with Spain. Sometime in 1808, die minister decided

that for the future peace of Europe, Napoleon had to go. And so he

conspired with Fouche.

It is possible that the conspiracy was never anything more than a

ploya device to push Napoleon over the edge. For it is hard to

believe that two of the most practical men in history would only go

halfway in their plotting. They may have been only stirring the

waters, trying to goad Napoleon into a misstep. And indeed, what

they got was the tantrum mat laid out his loss of control for all to see.

In fact, Napoleon's soon-famous blowup that afternoon had a

profoundly negative effect on his public image.

This is the problem with the angry response. At first it may strike

fear and terror, but only in some, and as the days pass and the storm

clears, other responses emergeembarrassment and uneasiness

about the shouter's capacity for going out of control, and resentment

of what has been said. Losing your temper, you always make unfair

and exaggerated accusations. A few such tirades and people are

counting the days until you are gone.

In the face of a conspiracy against him, a conspiracy between his

two most important ministers, Napoleon certainly had a right to feel

angry and anxious. But by responding so angrily, and so publicly, he

only demonstrated his frustration. To show your frustration is to show

that you have lost your power to shape events; it is the helpless

action of the child who resorts to a hysterical fit to get his way. The

powerful never reveal this kind of weakness.

There were a number of tilings Napoleon could have done in this

situation. He could have thought about the fact that two eminently

sensible men had had reason to turn against him, and could have

listened and learned from them. He could have tried to win them

back to him. He could even have gotten rid of them, making their

imprisonment or death an ominous display of his power. No tirades,

no childish fits, no embarrassing after-effects-just a quiet and

definitive severing of ties.

Remember: 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.

easily see whether his composure was ruffled or not by looking at

the tea, which would not fall evenly ground to the proper consistency

if he got excited. And so justice was done impartially and people

went away from his court satisfied.

cha-no-yu:

the japanese tea

ceremony

A.L.Sadler,

If possible, no animosity should be felt for anyone.... To speak

angrily to a person, to show your hatred by what you say or by the

way you look, is an unnecessary proceedingdangerous, foolish,

ridiculous, and vulgar.

Anger or hatred should never be shown otherwise than in what

you do; and feelings will be all the more effective in action, in so far

as you avoid the exhibition of them in any other way. It is only the

coldblooded animals whose bite is poisonous.

Arthur

Schopenhauer.

1788-1860

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

By the late 1920s, Haile 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

(stepdaughter of the late queen) and heir to the throne, Selassie had

spent several years weakening the power of Ethiopia's various

warlords. Now only one real obstacle stood

THK MONKEY AND THE WASP

A monkey, whilst munching a ripe pear, was pestered by the

bare-faced importunities of a wasp, who, nolens volens, would have

a part. After threatening the monkey with his anger if he further

hesitated to submit to his demand, he settled on the fruit; but was as

soon knocked off by the monkey. The irritable wasp now had

recourse to invectiveand, after using the most insulting language,

which the other calmly listened to, he so worked himself up into

violent passion that, losing all consideration of the penalty, he flew to

the face of the monkey, and stung him with such rage that he was

unable to extricate his weapon, and was compelled to tear himself

away, leaving it in the woundthus entailing on himself a lingering

death, accompanied by pains much greater than those he had

inflicted.

FABLF.S,

Jonathan Birch, 1783-1847

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 knew what he had to

do: draw Gugsa out, get under his skin, and push him into action

before he was ready.

For several years, a northern tribe, the Azebu Gallas, had been in

virtual rebellion against the throne, robbing and pillaging local

villages and refusing to pay taxes. Selassie had done nothing to stop

them, letting them grow stronger. Finally, in 1929, he ordered Ras

Gugsa to lead an army against these disobedient tribesmen. Gugsa

agreed, but inwardly he seethedhe had no grudge against the Azebu

Gallas, and the demand that he fight them hurt his pride. He could

not disobey die order, but as he worked to put together an army, he

began to spread an ugly rumorthat Selassie was in cahoots with the

pope, and planned to convert the country to Roman Catholicism and

make it a colony of Italy. Gugsa's army swelled, and some of the

tribes from which its soldiers came secredy agreed to fight Selassie.

In March of 1930 an enormous force of 35,000 men began to march,

not on the Azebu Gallas but south, toward the capital of Addis

Ababa. Made confident by his growing strength, Gugsa now openly

led a holy war to depose Selassie and put the country back in the

hands of true Christians.

He did not see 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, airplanes flew

overhead dropping leaflets announcing that the highest church

officials had recognized Selassie as die true Christian leader of

Ethiopia, and that tiiey had excommunicated Gugsa for fomenting a

civil war. These leaflets severely blunted the emotions behind the

holy crusade. And as batde loomed and the support that Gugsa's

allies had promised him failed to show up, soldiers began to flee or

defect.

When the batde came, the rebel army quicky collapsed. Refusing

to surrender, Ras Gugsa was killed in die fighting. The empress,

distraught over her husband's death, died a few days later. On April

30, Selassie issued a formal proclamation announcing his new tide:

Emperor of Ethiopia.

Interpretation

Haile Selassie always saw several moves ahead. He knew that if

he let Ras Gugsa decide die time and place of the revolt, the danger

would be much greater than if he forced Gugsa to act on Selassie's

terms. So he goaded him into rebellion by offending his manly pride,

asking him to fight people he had no quarrel with on behalf of a man

he hated. Thinking everything out

ahead, Selassie made sure that Gugsa's rebellion would come to

nothing, and mat he could use it to do away with his last two

enemies.

This is 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, steal the initiative. The best

way to do this is to play on uncontrollable emotionspride, vanity,

love, hate. Once die 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.

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.

KEYS TO POWER

Angry people usually end up looking ridiculous, for their response

seems out of proportion to what occasioned it. They have taken

things too seriously, exaggerating the hurt or insult that has been

done to them. They are so sensitive to slight that it becomes comical

how much diey take personally. More comical still is their belief that

their outbursts signify power. The truth is the opposite: Petulance is

not power, it is a sign of helplessness. People may temporarily be

cowed by your tantrums, but in the end they lose respect for you.

They also realize they can easily undermine a person with so little

self-control.

The answer, however, is not to repress our angry or emotional

responses. For repression drains us of energy and pushes us into

strange behavior. Instead we have to change our perspective: We

have to realize that nothing in the social realm, and in the game of

power, is personal.

Everyone is caught up in a chain of events that long predates the

present moment. Our anger often stems from problems in our

childhood, from the problems of our parents which stem from their

own childhood, on and on. Our anger also has roots in the many

interactions with others, the accumulated disappointments and

heartaches that we have suffered. An individual will often appear as

the instigator of our anger but it is much more complicated, goes far

beyond what that individual did to us. If a person explodes with

anger at you (and it seems out of proportion to what you did to

them), you must remind yourself that it is not exclusively directed at

you do not be so vain. The cause is much larger, goes way back in

time, involves dozens of prior hurts, and is actually not worth the

bother to understand. Instead of seeing it as a personal grudge, 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.

This shift of perspective will let you play the game of power with

more clarity and energy. Instead of overreacting, and becoming

ensnared in peo-

DITCH HIGH PRIEST

Kin'yo, an officer of the second rank, had a brother called the

High Priest Ryogaku, an extremely bad-tempered man. Next to his

monastery grew a large nettle-tree which occasioned the nickname

people gave him, the Nettle-tree High Priest. “That name is

outrageous,” said the high priest, and cut down the tree. The stump

still being left, people referred to him now as the Stump High Priest.

More furious than ever, Ryogaku had the stump dug up and thrown

away, but this left a big ditch. People now called him the Ditch High

Priest.

ESSAYS IN IDLENESS, KENKO,

Japan,

fourteenth century

pie's emotions, you will turn their loss of control to your

advantage: You keep your head while they are losing theirs.

During an important batde in the War of the Three Kingdoms, in

die third century A.D., advisers to die commander Ts'ao Ts'ao

discovered documents showing that certain of his generals had

conspired with die enemy, and urged him to arrest and execute

diem. Instead he ordered the documents burned and die matter

forgotten. At this critical moment in the battle, to get upset or

demand justice would have reverberated against him: An angry

action would have called attention to die generals' disloyalty, which

would have harmed die troops' morale. Justice could waithe would

deal with the generals in time. Ts'ao Ts'ao kept his head and made

the right decision.

Compare this to Napoleon's response to Talleyrand: Instead of

taking the conspiracy personally, the emperor should have played

the game like Ts'ao Ts'ao, carefully weighing die consequences of

any action he took. The more powerful response in the end would

have been to ignore Talleyrand, or to bring the minister gradually

back to his side and punish him later.

Anger only cuts off our options, and die powerful cannot thrive

witii-out options. Once you train yourself not to take matters

personally, and to control your emotional responses, you will have

placed yourself in a position of tremendous power: Now you can play

with die emotional responses of odier people. Stir die insecure into

action by impugning their manhood, and by dangling die prospect of

an easy victory before tiieir faces. Do as Houdini did when

challenged by die less successful escape artist Kleppini: Reveal an

apparent weakness (Houdini let Kleppini steal the combination for a

pair of cuffs) to lure your opponent into action. Then you can beat

him with ease. Widi the arrogant too you can appear weaker tiian

you are, taunting diem into a rash action.

Sun Pin, commander of die armies of Ch'i and loyal disciple of

Sun-tzu, once led his troops against the armies of Wei, which

outnumbered him two to one. “Let us light a hundred thousand fires

when our army enters Wei,” suggested Sun Pin, “fifty thousand on

die next day, and only thirty thousand on the third.” On the tiiird day

the Wei general exclaimed, “I knew the men of Ch'i were cowards,

and after only three days more than half of diem have deserted!” So,

leaving behind his slow-moving heavy infantry, the general decided

to seize the moment and move swiftly on die Ch'i camp with a lightiy

armed force. Sun Pin's troops retreated, luring Wei's army into a

narrow pass, where tiiey ambushed and destroyed diem. Widi die

Wei general dead and his forces decimated, Sun Pin now easily

defeated the rest of his army.

In the face of a hot-headed enemy, finally, an excellent response

is no response. Follow the Talleyrand tactic: Notiiing is as infuriating

as a man who keeps his cool while others are losing theirs. If it will

work to your advantage to unsetde people, affect die aristocratic,

bored pose, neimer mocking nor triumphant but simply indifferent.

This will light tiieir fuse.

When they embarrass themselves with a temper tantrum, you will

have gained several victories, one of these being that in the face of

their childishness you have maintained your dignity and composure.

Image: The Pond of Fish. The waters are clear and calm, and the

fish are well below the surface. Stir the waters and they emerge. Stir

it some more and they get angry, rising to the surface, biting

whatever comes near-including a freshly baited hook.

Authority: If your opponent is of a hot temper, try to irritate him. If

he is arrogant, try to encourage his egotism. . . . One who is skilled

at making the enemy move does so by creating a situation according

to which the enemy will act; he entices the enemy with something he

is certain to take. He keeps the enemy on the move by holding out

bait and then attacks him with picked troops. (Sun-tzu, fourth century

B.C.)

REVERSAL

When playing with people's emotions you have to be careful.

Study the

enemy beforehand: Some fish are best left at the bottom of the

pond.

The leaders of the city of Tyre, capital of ancient Phoenicia, felt

confident they could withstand Alexander the Great, who had

conquered the Orient but had not attacked their city, which stood well

protected on the water. They sent ambassadors to Alexander saying

that although they would recognize him as emperor they would not

allow him or his forces to enter Tyre. This of course enraged him,

and he immediately mounted a siege. For four months the city

withstood him, and finally he decided that the struggle was not worth

it, and that he would come to terms with the Tyrians. But they, feeling

that they had already baited Alexander and gotten away with it, and

confident that they could withstand him, refused to

negotiatein fact diey killed his messengers.

This pushed Alexander over die edge. Now it did not matter to

him how long the siege lasted or how large an army it needed; he

had die resources, and would do whatever it took. He remounted his

assault so strenuously mat he captured Tyre witiiin days, burned it to

the ground, and sold its people into slavery.

You can bait the powerful and get mem to commit and divide their

forces as Sun Pin did, but test die waters first. Find die gap in tiieir

strengm. If mere is no gapif diey are impossibly strongyou have

nodiing to gain and everydiing to lose by provoking diem. Choose

carefully whom you bait, and never stir up die sharks.

Finally mere are times when a well-timed burst of anger can do

you good, but your anger must be manufactured and under your

control. Then you can determine exacdy how and on whom it will fall.

Never stir up reactions mat will work against you in the long run. And

use your tiiunder-bolts rarely, to make diem die more intimidating

and meaningful. Whedier purposefully staged or not, if your

outbursts come too often, they will lose Uieir power.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 40

DESPISE THE FREE LUNCH

JUDGMENT

What is offered for free is dangerousit 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 pricethere is no cutting corners with

excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for

generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.

HI Hill) THKASI HI.

Many weak-minded persons in cities hope to discover property

under the surface of the earth and to make some profit from it. In the

Maghrib there are many Berber “students” who are unable to make a

living by natural ways and means. They approach well-to-do people

with papers that have torn margins and contain either non-Arabic

writing or what they claim to be the translation of a document written

by the owner of buried treasures, giving the clue to the hiding place.

In this way, they try to get their sustenance by [persuading the well-

to-do] to send them out to dig and hunt for treasure. Occasionally,

one of these treasure hunters displays strange information or some

remarkable trick of magic with which he fools people into believing

his other claims, although, in fact, he knows nothing of magic and its

procedures.... The things that have been said about /treasure

hunting] have no scientific basis, nor are they based upon [factual]

information. It should be realized that although treasures are found,

this happens rarely and by chance, not by systematic search....

Those who are deluded or afflicted by these things must take refuge

in God

MONEY AND POWER

In the realm of power, everything must be judged by its cost, and

everything has a price. What is offered for free or at bargain rates

often comes with a psychological price tagcomplicated feelings of

obligation, compromises with quality, the insecurity those

compromises bring, on and on. The powerful learn early to protect

their most valuable resources: independence and room to maneuver.

By paying the full price, they keep themselves free of dangerous

entanglements and worries.

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 upto 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 other courtiers,

creating pleasure and making valuable allies.

Look at the masters of powerthe Caesars, the Queen Elizabeths,

the Michelangelos, the Medicis: Not a miser among them. Even the

great con artists spend freely to swindle. Tight purse strings are

unattractivewhen engaged in seduction, Casanova would give

completely not only of himself but of his wallet. The powerful

understand that money is psychologically charged, and that it is also

a vessel of politeness and sociability. They make the human side of

money a weapon in their armory.

For everyone able to play with money, thousands more are

locked in a self-destructive refusal to use money creatively and

strategically. These types represent the opposite pole to the

powerful, and you must learn to recognize themeither to avoid their

poisonous natures or to turn their inflexibility to your advantage:

The Greedy Fish. The greedy fish take the human side out of

money. Cold and ruthless, they see only the lifeless balance sheet;

viewing others solely as either pawns or obstructions in their pursuit

of wealth, they trample on people's sentiments and alienate valuable

allies. No one wants to work with the greedy fish, and over the years

they end up isolated, which often proves their undoing.

Greedy fish are the con artist's bread and butter: Lured by the

bait of easy money, they swallow the ruse hook, line, and sinker.

They are easy to deceive, for they spend so much time dealing with

numbers (not with people) that they become blind to psychology,

including their own. Either avoid them before they exploit you or play

on their greed to your gain.

The Bargain Demon. Powerful people judge everything by what it

costs, not just in money but in time, dignity, and peace of mind. And

this is exactly what Bargain Demons cannot do. Wasting valuable

time digging for bargains, they worry endlessly about what they

could have gotten elsewhere for a litde less. On top of that, the

bargain item they do buy is often shabby; perhaps it needs costly

repairs, or will have to be replaced twice as

fast as a high-quality item. The costs of these pursuitsnot always

in money (though the price of a bargain is often deceptive) but in

time and peace of minddiscourage normal people from undertaking

mem, but for the Bargain Demon the bargain is an end in itself.

These types might seem to harm only themselves, but their

attitudes are contagious: Unless you resist them they will infect you

with the insecure feeling that you should have looked harder to find a

cheaper price. Don't argue with them or try to change diem. Just

mentally add up the cost, in time and inner peace if not in hidden

financial expense, of the irrational pursuit of a bargain.

from their inability to make a living and their laziness in this

respect. They should not occupy themselves with absurdities and

untrue stories.

THE MUOADDIMAH, IBN KhALDUN,

1332-1406

The Sadist. Financial sadists play vicious power games with

money as a way of asserting their power. They might, for example,

make you wait for money that is owed you, promising you that the

check is in the mail. Or if they hire you to work for diem, they meddle

in every aspect of the job, haggling and giving you ulcers. Sadists

seem to think that paying for something gives them the right to

torture and abuse the seller. They have no sense of the courtier

element in money. If you are unlucky enough to get involved with this

type, accepting a financial loss may be better in the long run than

getting entangled in their destructive power games.

The Indiscriminate Giver. Generosity has a definite function in

power: It attracts people, softens diem up, makes allies out of diem.

But it has to be used strategically, with a definite end in mind.

Indiscriminate Givers, on the other hand, are generous because they

want to be loved and admired by all. And their generosity is so

indiscriminate and needy mat it may not have the desired effect: If

they give to one and all, why should die recipient feel special

Attractive as it may seem to make an Indiscriminate Giver your mark,

in any involvement with this type you will often feel burdened by their

insatiable emotional needs.

TRANSGRESSIONS OF THE LAW

Transgression I

After Francisco Pizarro conquered Peru, in 1532, gold from the

Incan Empire began to pour into Spain, and Spaniards of all classes

started dreaming of the instant riches to be had in the New World.

The story soon spread of an Indian chief to the east of Peru who

once each year would ritually cover himself in gold dust and dive into

a lake. Soon word of mouth transformed El Dorado, the “Golden

Man,” into an empire called El Dorado, wealthier than the Incan,

where the streets were paved and the buildings inlaid with gold. This

elaboration of die story did not seem implausible, for surely a diief

who could afford to waste gold dust in a lake must rule a golden

empire. Soon Spaniards were searching for El Dorado all over

northern South America.

THE MISKR

A miser, to make sure of his property, sold all that he had and

converted it into a great lump of gold, which he hid in a hole in the

ground, and went continually to visit and inspect it. This roused the

curiosity of one of his workmen, who, suspecting that there was a

treasure, when his master's back was turned, went to the spot, and

stole it away. When the miser returned and found the place empty,

he wept and tore his hair. But a neighbor who saw him in this

extravagant grief, and learned the cause of it, said: “Fret thyself no

longer, but take a stone and put it in the same place, and think that it

is your lump of gold; for, as you never meant to use it, the one will do

you as much good as the other.”

The worth of money is not in its possession, but in its use.

FABLES,

Aesop,

sixth century b.c.

There is a popular saying in Japan that goes “Tada yori takai

mono wa nai,” meaning: “Nothing is more costly than something

given free of charge.”

THE UNSPOKEN WAY, MlCHIHIRO

Matsumoto, 1988

Yusuf lbn Jafar el-Amudl used to take sums of money, sometimes

very large ones, from those who came to study with him. A

distinguished legalist visiting him once said: “I am enchanted and

impressed by your teachings, and I am sure that you are directing

your disciples in a proper manner. But it is not in accordance with

tradition to take money for knowledge. Besides, the action is open to

misinterpretation.” El-Amudi said: "I have never sold any knowledge.

There is no money on earth sufficient to pay for it. As for

misinterpretation, the abstaining from taking money will not prevent

it, for it will find some other object. Rather should you know that a

man who takes money may be greedy for money, or he may not. But

a man who takes nothing at all is under the gravest

In February of 1541, the largest expedition yet in diis venture, led

by Pizarro's brother Gonzalo, left Quito, in Ecuador. Resplendent in

their armors and colorful silks, 340 Spaniards headed east, along

with 4,000 Indians to carry supplies and serve as scouts, 4,000

swine, dozens of llamas, and close to 1,000 dogs. But the expedition

was soon hit by torrential rain, which rotted its gear and spoiled its

food. Meanwhile, as Gonzalo Pizarro questioned die Indians diey

met along the way, diose who seemed to be widiholding information,

or who had not even heard of die fabulous kingdom, he would torture

and feed to the dogs. Word of the Spaniards' mur-derousness

spread quickly among the Indians, who realized that the only way to

avoid Gonzalo's wrath was to make up stories about El Dorado and

send him as far away as possible. As Gonzalo and his men followed

die leads die Indians gave diem, dien, they were only led farther into

deep jungle.

The explorers' spirits sagged. Their uniforms had long since

shredded; their armor rusted and they threw it away; their shoes

were torn to pieces, forcing Uiem to walk barefoot; the Indian slaves

they had set out with had either died or deserted them; diey had

eaten not only the swine but the hunting dogs and llamas. They lived

on roots and fruit. Realizing that they could not continue this way,

Pizarro decided to risk river travel, and a barge was built out of

rotting wood. But die journey down die treacherous Napo River

proved no easier. Setting up camp on die river's edge, Gonzalo sent

scouts ahead on the barge to find Indian settlements with food. He

waited and waited for the scouts to return, only to find out they had

decided to desert the expedition and continue down the river on their

own.

The rain continued without end. Gonzalo's men forgot about El

Dorado; diey wanted only to return to Quito. Finally, in August of

1542, a little over a hundred men, from an expedition originally

numbering in the thousands, managed to find their way back. To the

residents of Quito they seemed to have emerged from hell itself,

wrapped in tatters and skins, dieir bodies covered in sores, and so

emaciated as to be unrecognizable. For over a year and a half diey

had marched in an enormous circle, two tiiou-sand miles by foot. The

vast sums of money invested in die expedition had yielded nothingno

sign of El Dorado and no sign of gold. Interpretation

Even after Gonzalo Pizarro's disaster, the Spaniards launched

expedition after expedition in search of El Dorado. And like Pizarro

the conquistadors would burn and loot villages, torture Indians,

endure unimaginable hardships, and get no closer to gold. The

money they spent on such expeditions cannot be calculated; yet

despite die futility of the search, the lure of the fantasy endured.

Not only did die search for El Dorado cost millions of livesboth

Indian and Spanishit helped bring the ruin of die Spanish empire.

Gold became Spain's obsession. The gold diat did find its way back

to Spainand a lot didwas reinvested in more expeditions, or in die

purchase of luxuries, ratiier dian in agriculture or any other

productive endeavor. Whole Spanish towns were depopulated as

dieir menfolk left to hunt gold. Farms

fell into ruin, and die army had no recruits for its European wars.

By the end of the seventeenth century, the entire country had shrunk

by more than half of its population; the city of Madrid had gone from

a population of 400,000 to 150,000. With diminishing returns from its

efforts over so many years, Spain fell into a decline from which it

never recovered.

Power requires self-discipline. The prospect of wealdi, particularly

easy, sudden wealth, plays havoc with the emotions. The suddenly

rich believe that more is always possible. The free lunch, die money

that will fall into your lap, is just around the corner.

In this delusion the greedy neglect everything power really

depends on: self-control, the goodwill of others, and so on.

Understand: Widi one exceptiondeathno lasting change in fortune

comes quickly. Sudden wealdi rarely lasts, for it is built on nothing

solid. Never let lust for money lure you out of the protective and

enduring fortress of real power. Make power your goal and money

will find its way to you. Leave El Dorado for suckers and fools.

Transgression II

In the early eighteenth century, no one stood higher in English

society than the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. The duke,

having led successful campaigns against die French, was

considered Europe's premier general and strategist. And his wife,

the duchess, after much maneuvering, had established herself as die

favorite of Queen Anne, who became ruler of England in 1702. In

1704 die duke's triumph at die Battle of Blenheim made him die toast

of England, and to honor him die queen awarded him a large plot of

land in die town of Woodstock, and die funds to create a great

palace mere. Calling his planned home die Palace of Blenheim, die

duke chose as his architect the young John Vanbrugh, a kind of

Renaissance man who wrote plays as well as designed buildings.

And so construction began, in die summer of 1705, with much

fanfare and great hopes.

Vanbrugh had a dramatist's sense of architecture. His palace was

to be a monument to Marlborough's brilliance and power, and was to

include artificial lakes, enormous bridges, elaborate gardens, and

other fantastical touches. From day one, however, die duchess could

not be pleased: She thought Vanbrugh was wasting money on yet

another stand of trees; she wanted die palace finished as soon as

possible. The duchess tortured Vanbrugh and his workmen on every

detail. She was consumed with petty matters; aldiough die

government was paying for Blenheim, she counted every penny.

Eventually her grumbling, about Blenheim and other things too,

created an irreparable rift between her and Queen Anne, who, in

1711, dismissed her from the court, ordering her to vacate her

apartments at the royal palace. When die duchess left (fuming over

the loss of her position, and also of her royal salary), she emptied die

apartment of every fixture down to the brass doorknobs.

Over the next ten years, work on Blenheim would stop and start,

as the funds became harder to procure from die government. The

duchess

suspicion of robbing the disciple of his soul. People who say, 'I

take nothing,' may be found to take away the volition of their victim."

the dermis probe, Idries Shah, 1970

TDK MAIS WHO

LOVED MONEY BETTEK

THAN LIFE

In ancient times there was an old woodcutter who went to the

mountain almost every day to cut wood. It was said that this old man

was a miser who hoarded his silver until It changed to gold, and that

he cared more for gold than anything else in all the world. One day a

wilderness tiger sprang at him and though he ran he could not

escape, and the tiger carried him off in its mouth.

The woodcutter's son saw his father's danger, and ran to save

him if possible. He carried a long knife, and as he could run faster

than the tiger, who had a man to carry, he soon overtook them. His

father was not much hurt, for the tiger held him by his clothes. When

the old woodcutter saw his son about to stab the tiger he called out

in great alarm: "Do not spoil the tiger's skin! Do not spoil the tiger's

skin! If you can kill him without cutting holes in his

skin we ean get many

pieces of silver for it.

Kill him, but do not cut

his body."

While the son was

listening to his father's

instructions the tiger

suddenly dashed off

into the forest, carrying

the old man where the

son could not reach

him, and he was soon

killed.

“Chinese table,”

various kables

from various places,

Diane di Prima, ed.,

It is written in the histories of the prophets that Moses was sent to

Pharaoh with many miracles, wonders and honors. Now the daily

ration for Pharaoh's table was 4,000 sheep, 400 cows, 200 camels,

and a corresponding amount of chickens, fish, beverages, fried

meats, sweets, and other things. All the people of Egypt and all his

army used to eat at his table every day. For 400 years he had

claimed divinity and never ceased providing this food. When Moses

prayed, saying, “O Lord, destroy Pharaoh,” God answered his prayer

and said, “/ shall destroy him in water, and I shall bestow all his

wealth and that of his soldiers on you and your peoples. ” Several

thought Vanbrugh was out to ruin her. She quibbled over every

carload of stone and bushel of lime, counted every extra yard of iron

railing or foot of wainscot, hurling abuse at the wasteful workmen,

contractors, and surveyors. Marlborough, old and weary, wanted

noming more than to settle into the palace in his last years, but the

project became bogged down in a swamp of litigation, the workmen

suing the duchess for wages, the duchess suing the architect right

back. In die midst of this interminable wrangling, the duke died. He

had never spent a night in his beloved Blenheim.

After Marlborough's death, it became clear mat he had a vast

estate, worm over £2 millionmore man enough to pay for finishing

die palace. But the duchess would not relent: She held back

Vanbrugh's wages as well as the workmen's, and finally had the

architect dismissed. The man who took his place finished Blenheim

in a few years, following Vanbrugh's designs to the letter. Vanbrugh

died in 1726, locked out of the palace by the duchess, unable to set

foot in his greatest creation. Foreshadowing the romantic movement,

Blenheim had started a whole new trend in architecture, but had

given its creator a twenty-year nightmare. Interpretation

For die Duchess of Marlborough, money was a way to play

sadistic power games. She saw the loss of money as a symbolic loss

of power. With Vanbrugh her contortions went deeper still: He was a

great artist, and she envied his power to create, to attain a fame

outside her reach. She may not have had his gifts, but she did have

the money to torture and abuse him over the pettiest detailsto ruin

his life.

This kind of sadism, however, bears an awful price. It made

construction that should have lasted ten years take twenty. It

poisoned many a relationship, alienated the duchess from the court,

deeply pained the duke (who wanted only to live peacefully in

Blenheim), created endless lawsuits, and took years off Vanbrugh's

life. Finally, too, posterity had the last word: Vanbrugh is recognized

as a genius while the duchess is forever remembered for her

consummate cheapness.

The powerful must have grandeur of spiritthey can never reveal

any pettiness. And money is the most visible arena in which to

display either grandeur or pettiness. Best spend freely, then, and

create a reputation for generosity, which in the end will pay great

dividends. Never let financial details blind you to the bigger picture of

how people perceive you. Their resentment will cost you in the long

run. And if you want to meddle in the work of creative people under

your hire, at least pay diem well. Your money will buy their

submission better tiian your displays of power.

OBSERVANCES OF THE LAW

Observance I

Pietro Aretino, son of a lowly shoemaker, had catapulted himself

into fame as a writer of biting satires. But like every Renaissance

artist, he needed to find a patron who would give him a comfortable

lifestyle while not inter-

fering with his work. In 1528 Aretino decided to attempt a new

strategy in the patronage game. Leaving Rome, he established

himself in Venice, where few had heard of him. He had a fair amount

of money he had managed to save, but little else. Soon after he

moved into his new home, however, he threw open its doors to rich

and poor, regaling them with banquets and amusements. He

befriended each and every gondolier, tipping mem royally. In the

streets, he spread his money liberally, giving it away to beggars,

orphans, washerwomen. Among the city's commoners, word quickly

spread that Aretino was more than just a great writer, he was a man

of powera kind of lord.

Artists and men of influence soon began to frequent Aretino's

house. Within a few years he made himself a celebrity; no visiting

dignitary would think of leaving Venice without paying him a call. His

generosity had cost him most of his savings, but had bought him

influence and a good name a cornerstone in the foundation of power.

Since in Renaissance Italy as elsewhere the ability to spend freely

was the privilege of the rich, the aristocracy thought Aretino had to

be a man of influence, since he spent money like one. And since the

influence of a man of influence is worth buying, Aretino became the

recipient of all sorts of gifts and moneys. Dukes and duchesses,

wealthy merchants, and popes and princes competed to gain his

favor, and showered him with all kinds of presents.

Aretino's spending habits, of course, were strategic, and the

strategy worked like a charm. But for real money and comfort he

needed a great patron's bottomless pockets. Having surveyed the

possibilities, he eventually set his sights on the extremely wealthy

Marquis of Mantua, and wrote an epic poem that he dedicated to the

marquis. This was a common practice of writers looking for

patronage: In exchange for a dedication they would get a small

stipend, enough to write yet another poem, so that they spent their

lives in a kind of constant servility. Aretino, however, wanted power,

not a measly wage. He might dedicate a poem to the marquis, but he

would offer it to him as a gift, implying by doing so that he was not a

hired hack looking for a stipend but that he and the marquis were

equals.

Aretino's gift-giving did not stop there: As a close friend of two of

Venice's greatest artists, the sculptor Jacopo Sansovino and the

painter Titian, he convinced these men to participate in his gift-giving

scheme. Aretino had studied the marquis before going to work on

him, and knew his taste inside and out; he was able to advise

Sansovino and Titian what subject matter would please the marquis

most. When he then sent a Sansovino sculpture and a Titian painting

to the marquis as gifts from all three of them, the man was beside

himself with joy.

Over die next few months, Aretino sent other giftsswords,

saddles, the glass that was a Venetian specialty, tilings he knew the

marquis prized. Soon he, Titian, and Sansovino began to receive

gifts from the marquis in return. And the strategy went further: When

the son-in-law of a friend of Aretino's found himself in jail in Mantua,

Aretino was able to get the marquis to arrange his release. Aretino's

friend, a wealthy merchant, was a man of great influence in Venice;

by turning the goodwill he had built up

years passed by after this promise, and Pharaoh, doomed to ruin,

continued to live in all his magnificence. Moses was impatient for

God to destroy Pharaoh quickly, and he could not endure to wait any

longer. So he fasted for forty days and went to Mount Sinai, and in

his communing with god he said, "O Lord, Thou didst promise that

Thou wouldst destroy Pharaoh, and still he has forsaken none of his

blasphemies and pretensions. So when wilt Thou destroy him1'

A voice came from The Truth saying, “O Moses, you want Me to

destroy Pharaoh as quickly as possible, but a thousand times a

thousand of My servants want Me never to do so, because they

partake of his bounty and enjoy tranquillity under his rule. By My

power I swear that as long as he provides abundant food and

comfort for My creatures, I shall not destroy him.” Moses said, “Then

when will Thy promise be fulfilled ” God said, “My promise will be

fulfilled when he withholds his provision from My creatures. If ever he

begins to lessen his bounty, know that his hour is drawing near. ”

It chanced that one day Pharaoh said to Haman, "Moses has

gathered the Sons of Israel about him and is causing us disquiet. We

know not what will be

the issue of his affair with us. We must keep our stores full lest at

any time we be without resources. So we must halve our daily

rations and keep the saving in reserve." He deducted 2,000 sheep,

200 cows, and a 100 camels, and similarly every two or three days

reduced the ration. Moses then knew that the promise of The Truth

was near to fulfillment, for excessive economy is a sign of decline

and a bad omen. The masters of tradition say that on the day when

Pharaoh was drowned only two ewes had been killed in his kitchen.

Nothing is better than generosity... .If a man is rich and desires,

without a royal charter, to act like a lord; if he wants men to humble

themselves before him, to revere him and call him lord and prince,

then tell him every day to spread a table with victuals. All those who

have acquired renown in the world, have gained it mainly through

hospitality, while the miserly and avaricious are despised in both

WorldStar, BOOK OF government or rules for kings, Nizam al-Mulk,

eleventh century

with the marquis to use, Aretino had now bought this man's

indebtedness, too, and he in turn would help Aretino when he could.

The circle of influence was growing wider. Time and again, Aretino

was able to cash in on the immense political power of the marquis,

who also helped him in his many court romances.

Eventually, however, the relationship became strained, as Aretino

came to feel that the marquis should have requited his generosity

better. But he would not lower himself to begging or whining: Since

the exchange of gifts between the two men had made them equals, it

would not seem right to bring up money. He simply withdrew from

the marquis's circle and hunted for other wealthy prey, settling first

on the French king Francis, then the Medicis, the Duke of Urbino,

Emperor Charles V, and more. In the end, having many patrons

meant he did not have to bow to any of them, and his power seemed

comparable to that of a great lord. Interpretation

Aretino understood two fundamental properties of money: First,

that it has to circulate to bring power. What money should buy is not

lifeless objects but power over people. By keeping money in

constant circulation, Aretino bought an ever-expanding circle of

influence tfiat in the end more than compensated him for his

expenses.

Second, Aretino understood the key property of the gift. To give a

gift is to imply that you and the recipient are equals at the very least,

or that you are the recipient's superior. A gift also involves an

indebtedness or obligation; when friends, for instance, offer you

something for free, you can be sure they expect something in return,

and that to get it they are making you feel indebted. (The mechanism

may or may not be entirely conscious on their part, but this is how it

works.)

Aretino avoided such encumbrances on his freedom. Instead of

acting like a menial who expects the powerful to pay his way in life,

he turned the whole dynamic around; instead of being indebted to

the powerful, he made the powerful indebted to him. This was the

point of his gift-giving, a ladder that carried him to the highest social

levels. By the end of his life he had become the most famous writer

in Europe.

Understand: Money may determine power relationships, but

those relationships need not depend on the amount of money you

have; they also depend on the way you use it. Powerful people give

freely, buying influence rather than things. If you accept the inferior

position because you have no fortune yet, you may find yourself in it

forever. Play the trick that Aretino played on Italy's aristocracy:

Imagine yourself an equal. Play the lord, give freely, open your

doors, circulate your money, and create the facade of power through

an alchemy that transforms money into influence.

Observance II

Soon after Baron James Rothschild made his fortune in Paris in

the early 1820s, he faced his most intractable problem: How could a

Jew and a German, a total outsider to French society, win the

respect of the xenophobic French upper classes Rothschild was a

man who understood powerhe

knew that his fortune would bring him status, but that if he

remained socially alienated neither his status nor his fortune would

last. So he looked at the society of die time and asked what would

win their hearts.

Charity The French couldn't care less. Political influence He

already had that, and if anything it only made people more

suspicious of him. The one weak spot, he decided, was boredom. In

the period of the restoration of the monarchy, the French upper

classes were bored. So Rothschild began to spend astounding sums

of money on entertaining them. He hired the best architects in

France to design his gardens and ballroom; he hired Marie-Antoine

Careme, the most celebrated French chef, to prepare die most lavish

parties Paris had ever witnessed; no Frenchman could resist, even if

the parties were given by a German Jew. Rothschild's weekly

soirees began to attract bigger and bigger numbers. Over the next

few years he won the only thing that would secure an outsider's

power: social acceptance. Interpretation

Strategic generosity is always a great weapon in building a

support base, particularly for die outsider. But die Baron de

Rodischild was cleverer still: He knew it was his money mat had

created the barrier between him and the French, making him look

ugly and untrustworthy. The best way to overcome this was literally

to waste huge sums, a gesture to show he valued French culture

and society over money. What Rothschild did resembled the famous

podatch feasts of the American Northwest: By periodically destroying

its wealth in a giant orgy of festivals and bonfires, an Indian tribe

would symbolize its power over other tribes. The base of its power

was not money but its ability to spend, and its confidence in a

superiority diat would restore to it all diat die podatch had destroyed.

In the end, the baron's soirees reflected his desire to mingle not

just in France's business world but in its society. By wasting money

on his pot-latches, he hoped to demonstrate that his power went

beyond money into the more precious realm of culture. Rothschild

may have won social acceptance by spending money, but die

support base he gained was one diat money alone could not buy. To

secure his fortune he had to “waste” it. That is strategic generosity in

a nutshelldie ability to be flexible with your wealdi, putting it to work,

not to buy objects, but to win people's hearts.

Observance III

The Medicis of Renaissance Florence had built dieir immense

power on the fortune diey had made in banking. But in Florence,

centuries-old republic diat it was, die idea diat money bought power

went against all the city's proud democratic values. Cosimo de'

Medici, die first of die family to gain great fame, worked around diis

by keeping a low profile. He never flaunted his wealdi. But by die

time his grandson Lorenzo came of age, in the 1470s, the family's

wealdi was too large, and tiieir influence too noticeable, to be

disguised any longer.

Lorenzo solved die problem in his own way by developing die

strategy of distraction diat has served people of wealdi ever since:

He became

THE FLAME-COLORED CLOAK

During the campaign of Cambyses in Egypt, a great many

Greeks visited that country for one reason or another: some, as was

to be expected, for trade, some to serve in the army, others, no

doubt, out of mere curiosity, to see what they could see. Amongst

the sightseers was Aeaces's son Sylo-son, the exiled brother of Poly

crates of Samos. While he was in Egypt, Syloson had an

extraordinary stroke of luck: he was hanging about the streets of

Memphis dressed in a flame-colored cloak, when Darius, who at that

time was a member of Cambyses's guard and not yet of any

particular importance, happened to catch sight of him and, seized

with a sudden longing to possess the cloak, came up to Syloson and

made him an offer for it.

His extreme anxiety to get it was obvious enough to Syloson,

who was inspired to say: “1 am not selling this for any money, but if

you must have it, I will give it to you for free.” Darius thereupon

thanked him warmly and took it. Syloson at the moment merely

thought he had lost it by his foolish good nature; then came the

death of Cambyses and the revolt of the seven against the Magus,

and Darius ascended the throne. Syloson now

had the news that the man whose request for the flame-colored

cloak he had formerly gratified in Egypt had become king of Persia.

He hurried to Susa, sat down at the entrance of the royal palace, and

claimed to be included in the official list of the king's benefactors.

The sentry on guard reported his claim to Darius, who asked in

surprise who the man might be. “For surely,” he said, “as I have so

recently come to the throne, there cannot be any Greek to whom 1

am indebted for a service. Hardly any of them have been here yet,

and I certainly cannot remember owing anything to a Greek. But

bring him in all the same, that I may know what he means by this

claim. ” The guard escorted Syloson into the royal presence, and

when the interpreters asked him who he was and what he had done

to justify the statement that he was the king's benefactor, he

reminded Darius of the story of the cloak, and said that he was the

man who had given it him. “Sir, ” exclaimed Darius, "you are the

most generous of men; for while I was still a person of no power or

consequence you gave me a presentsmall indeed, but deserving

then as much gratitude from me as would the most splendid of gifts

today. I will give you in return more silver and gold than you can

count, that you may

the most illustrious patron of the arts that history has ever known.

Not only did he spend lavishly on paintings, he created Italy's finest

apprentice schools for young artists. It was in one of these schools

that the young Michelangelo first caught the attention of Lorenzo,

who invited the artist to come and live in his house. He did the same

with Leonardo da Vinci. Once under his wing, Michelangelo and

Leonardo requited his generosity by becoming loyal artists in his

stable.

Whenever Lorenzo faced an enemy, he would wield the weapon

of patronage. When Pisa, Florence's traditional enemy, threatened to

rebel against it in 1472, Lorenzo placated its people by pouring

money into its university, which had once been its pride and joy but

had long ago lost its luster. The Pisans had no defense against this

insidious maneuver, which simultaneously fed tfieir love of culture

and blunted their desire for battle. Interpretation

Lorenzo undoubtedly loved the arts, but his patronage of artists

had a practical function as well, of which he was keenly aware. In

Florence at die time, banking was perhaps die least admired way of

making money, and was certainly not a respected source of power.

The arts were at the other pole, the pole of quasi-religious

transcendence. By spending on die arts, Lorenzo diluted people's

opinions of the ugly source of his wealth, disguising himself in

nobility. There is no better use of strategic generosity man mat of

distracting attention from an unsavory reality and wrapping oneself in

the mantle of art or religion.

Observance IV

Louis XIV had an eagle eye for the strategic power of money.

When he came to the throne, the powerful nobility had recendy

proven a thorn in the monarchy's side, and seethed with

rebelliousness. So he impoverished diese aristocrats by making

them spend enormous sums on maintaining their position 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

generosity. It would work like this: 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

mat 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 die favor he had needed all along. A man who had

once vowed to do anything to stop the king would find he had lost

the desire to fight. A straightforward bribe 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. Interpretation

Louis understood that there is a deep-rooted emotional element

in our attitude to money, an element going back to childhood. When

we are chil-

dren, all kinds of complicated feelings about our parents center

around gifts; we see die 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 when the gift comes from someone in

authority. They cannot help opening up; their will is loosened, as

Louis loosened the soil.

To succeed best, the gift should come out of the blue. It should

be remarkable for the fact that a gift like it has never been given

before, or for being preceded by a cold shoulder from the giver. The

more often you give to particular people, the blunter this weapon

becomes. If they don't take your gifts for granted, becoming

monsters of ingratitude, they will resent what appears to be charity.

The sudden, unexpected, one-time gift will not spoil your children; it

will keep them under your thumb.

Observance V

The antique dealer Fushimiya, who lived in the city of Edo

(former name for Tokyo) in the seventeenth century, once made a

stop at a village teahouse. After enjoying a cup of tea, he spent

several minutes scrutinizing the cup, which he eventually paid for

and took away with him. A local artisan, watching this, waited until

Fushimiya left the shop, then approached the old woman who owned

the teahouse and asked her who tiiis man was. She told him it was

Japan's most famous connoisseur, antique dealer to die lord of

Izumo. The artisan ran out of the shop, caught up with Fushimiya,

and begged him to sell him the cup, which must clearly be valuable if

Fushimiya judged it so. Fushimiya laughed heartily: “It's just an

ordinary cup of Bizen ware,” he explained, “and it is not valuable at

all. The reason I was looking at it was that the steam seemed to

hang about it strangely and I wondered if there wasn't a leak

somewhere.” (Devotees of the Tea Ceremony were interested in any

odd or accidental beauty in nature.) Since die artisan still seemed so

excited about it, Fushimiya gave him the cup for free.

The artisan took die cup around, trying to find an expert who

would appraise it at a high price, but since all of them recognized it

as an ordinary teacup he got nowhere. Soon he was neglecting his

own business, thinking only of die cup and die fortune it could bring.

Finally he went to Edo to talk to Fushimiya at his shop. There the

dealer, realizing that he had inadvertently caused this man pain by

making him believe the cup had great worth, paid him 100 ryo (gold

pieces) for the cup as a kindness. The cup was indeed mediocre, but

he wanted to rid the artisan of his obsession, while also allowing him

to feel tiiat his effort had not been wasted. The artisan thanked him

and went on his way.

Soon word spread of Fushimiya's purchase of the teacup. Every

dealer in Japan clamored for him to sell it, since a cup he had bought

for 100 ryo must be worth much more. He tried to explain the

circumstances in which he had bought die cup, but the dealers could

not be dissuaded. Fushimiya finally relented and put die cup up for

sale.

During the auction, two buyers simultaneously bid 200 ryo for the

teacup, and then began to fight over who had bid first. Their fighting

never regret that you onee did a favor to Darius the son of

Hystaspes.“ ”My lord,“ replied Syloson, ”do not give me gold or silver,

but recover Samos for me, my native island, which now since

Oroetes killed my brother Poly-crates is in the hands of one of our

servants. Let Samos be your gift to mebut let no man in the island be

killed or enslaved." Darius consented to Syloson's request, and

dispatched a force under the command of Otanes, one of the seven,

with orders to do everything that Syloson had asked.

the histories, Herodotus, fifth century b.c.

Money is never spent to so much advantage as when you have

been cheated out of it; for at one stroke you have purchased

prudence.

Arthur

Schopenhauer,

1788-1860

Kung-yi Hsiu, premier of Lu, was fond offish. Therefore, people in

the whole country conscientiously bought fish, which they presented

to him. However, Kung-yi would not accept the presents. Against

such a step his younger brother remonstrated with him and said:

“You like fish, indeed. Why don't you accept the present offish ” In

reply, he said: “It is solely because I like fish that I would not accept

the fish they gave me. Indeed, if I accept the fish, I will be placed

under an obligation to them. Once placed under an obligation to

them, I will some time have to bend the law. If I bend the law, I will be

dismissed from the premiership. After being dismissed from the

premiership, I might not be able to supply myself with fish. On the

contrary, if I do not accept the fish from them and am not dismissed

the premiership, however fond of fish, I can always supply myself

with fish.”

Chinese philosopher, third century b.c.

tipped over a table and the teacup fell to the ground and broke

into several pieces. The auction was clearly over. Fushimiya glued

and mended the cup, then stored it away, dunking the affair finished.

Years later, however, the great tea master Matsudaira Fumai visited

the store, and asked to see the cup, which by then had become

legendary. Fumai examined it. “As a piece,” he said, “it is not up to

much, but a Tea Master prizes sentiment and association more than

intrinsic value.” He bought the cup for a high sum. A glued-together

work of less than ordinary craftsmanship had become one of the

most famous objects in Japan. Interpretation

The story shows, first, an essential aspect of money: That it is

humans who have created it and humans who instill it with meaning

and value. Second, with objects as with money, what the courtier

most values are the sentiments and emotions embedded in

themthese are what make them worth having. The lesson is simple:

The more your gifts and your acts of generosity play with sentiment,

the more powerful mey are. The object or concept that plays with a

charged emotion or hits a chord of sentiment has more power than

the money you squander on an expensive yet lifeless present.

Observance VI

Akimoto Suzutomo, a wealthy adherent of the tea ceremony,

once gave his page 100 ryo (gold pieces) and instructed him to

purchase a tea bowl offered by a particular dealer. When the page

saw the bowl, he doubted it was worth that much, and after much

bargaining got the price reduced to 95 ryo. Days later, after

Suzutomo had put the bowl to use, the page proudly told him what

he had done.

“What an ignoramus you are!” replied Suzutomo. “A tea bowl that

anyone asks 100 pieces of gold for can only be a family heirloom,

and a thing like that is only sold when the family is pressed for

money. And in that case tiiey will be hoping to find someone who will

give even 150 pieces for it. So what sort of fellow is it who does not

consider their feelings Quite apart from that, a curio that you give

100 ryo for is something worth having, but one that has only cost 95

gives a mean impression. So never let me see that tea bowl again!”

And he had die bowl locked away, and never took it out.

Interpretation

When you insist on paying less, you may save your five ryo, but

die insult you cause and the cheap impression you create will cost

you in reputation, which is the thing the powerful prize above all.

Learn to pay the full priceit will save you a lot in the end.

Observance VII

Sometime near the beginning of die seventeenth century in

Japan, a group of generals whiled away the time before a big battle

by staging an incense-smelling competition. Each participant anted

up a prize for the contest's winnersbows, arrows, saddles, and odier

items a warrior would covet.

The great Lord Date Masamune happened to pass by and was

induced to participate. For a prize, he offered the gourd that hung

from his belt. Everyone laughed, for no one wanted to win this cheap

item. A retainer of die host finally accepted the gourd.

When die party broke up, however, and the generals were

chatting outside the tent, Masamune brought over his magnificent

horse and gave it to the retainer. “There,” he said, “a horse has come

out of the gourd.” The stunned generals suddenly regretted their

scorn at Masamune's gift. Interpretation

Masamune understood the following: Money gives its possessor

the ability to give pleasure to others. The more you can do this, the

more you attract admiration. When you make a horse come out of a

gourd, you give the ultimate demonstration of your power.

Image: The River. To protect yourself or to save the resource, you

dam it up. Soon, however, the waters become dank and pestilent.

Only the foulest forms of life can live in such stagnant waters;

nothing travels on them, all commerce stops. Destroy the dam.

When water flows and circulates, it generates abundance, wealth,

and power in ever larger circles. The River must flood periodically for

good things to flourish.

/ took money only from those who could afford it and were willing

to go in with me in schemes they fancied would fleece others. They

wanted money for its own sake. I wanted it for the luxuries and

pleasures it would afford me. They were seldom concerned with

human nature. They knew littleand cared lessabout their fellow men.

If they had been keener students of human nature, if they had given

more time to companionship with their fellows and less to the chase

of the almighty dollar, they wouldn 't have been such easy marks.

“Yellow Kid” Weil, 1875-1976

Authority: The great man who is a miser is a great fool, and a

man in high places can have no vice so harmful as avarice. A

miserly man can conquer neither lands nor lordships, for he does not

have a plentiful supply of friends with whom he may work his will.

Whoever wants to have friends must not love his possessions but

must acquire friends by means of fair gifts; for in the same way that

the lodestone subtly draws iron to itself, so the gold and silver that a

man gives attract the hearts of men. (The Romance of the Rose,

Guillaume de Lorris, c. 1200-1238)

REVERSAL

The powerful never forget that what is offered for free is inevitably

a trick. 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, then, and to pay well.

On the other hand, this Law offers great opportunities for

swindling and deception if you apply it from the other side. Dangling

the lure of a free lunch is the con artist's stock in trade.

No man was better at this than the most successful con artist of

our age, Joseph Weil, a.k.a. “The Yellow Kid.” The Yellow Kid

learned early that what made his swindles possible was his fellow

humans' greed. “This desire to get something for nothing,” he once

wrote, “has been very costly to many people who have dealt with me

and with other con men. . . . When people learnas I doubt they

willthat they can't get something for nothing, crime will diminish and

we shall all live in greater harmony.” Over the years Weil devised

many ways to seduce people with the prospect of easy money. He

would hand out “free” real estatewho could resist such an offerand

then the suckers would learn they had to pay $25 to register the

sale. Since the land was free, it seemed worth the high fee, and the

Yellow Kid would make thousands of dollars on the phony

registration. In exchange he would give his suckers a phony deed.

Other times, he would tell suckers about a fixed horse race, or a

stock that would earn 200 percent in a few weeks. As he spun his

stories he would watch the sucker's eyes open wide at the thought of

a free lunch.

The lesson is simple: 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. For a small sum, sell them advice

on how to make millions (P. T. Barnum did this later in life), and that

small sum will become a fortune when multiplied by thousands of

suckers. Lure people in with the prospect of easy money and you

have the room to work still more deceptions on them, since greed is

powerful enough to blind your victims to anything. And as the Yellow

Kid said, half the fun is teaching a moral lesson: Greed does not pay.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 41

AVOID STEPPING INTO A GREAT MAN'S SHOES

JUDGMENT

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.

Many would have shone like the very phoenix in their

occupations if others had not preceded them. Being first is a great

advantage; with eminence, twice as good. Deal the first hand and

you will win the upper ground. . . . Those who go first win fame by

right of birth, and those who follow are like second sons, contenting

themselves with meager portions.... Solomon opted wisely for

pacifism, yielding warlike things to his father. By changing course he

found it easier to become a hero.... And our great Philip II governed

the entire world from the throne of his prudence, astonishing the

ages. If his unconquered father was a model of energy, Philip was a

paradigm of prudence.... This sort of novelty has helped the well-

advised win a place in the roll of the great. Without leaving their own

art, the ingenious leave the common path and take, even in

professions gray with age, new steps toward eminence. Horace

yielded epic poetry to Virgil, and Martial the lyric to Horace. Terence

opted for comedy, Persius for satire, each hoping to be first in his

genre. Bold fancy never succumbed to facile imitation.

a pocket mirror

for heroes,

Baltasar Gracian,

translated by

Christopher Maurer,

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

When 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. Would the boy, only five at the time, prove as

great a leader as the Sun King Louis XIV had transformed a country

on the verge of civil war into the preeminent power in Europe. The

last years of his reign had been difficulthe had been old and tiredbut

it was hoped that the child would develop into the kind of strong ruler

who would reinvigorate the land and add to the firm foundation that

Louis XIV had laid.

To this end the child was given the best minds of France as his

tutors, men who would instruct him in the arts of statecraft, in the

methods that the Sun King had perfected. Nodiing was neglected in

his education. But when Louis XV came to die throne, in 1726, a

sudden change came over him: He no longer had to study or please

others or prove himself. He stood alone at the top of a great country,

widi wealth and power at his command. He could do as he wished.

In die first years of his reign, Louis gave himself over to pleasure,

leaving the government in the hands of a trusted minister, Andre-

Hercule de Fleury. This caused little concern, for he was a young

man who needed to sow his wild oats, and de Fleury was a good

minister. But it slowly became clear that this was more than a

passing phase. Louis had no interest in governing. His main worry

was not France's finances, or a possible war with Spain, but

boredom. He could not stand being bored, and when he was not

hunting deer, or chasing young girls, he whiled away his time at the

gambling tables, losing huge sums in a single night.

The court, as usual, reflected the tastes of the ruler. Gambling

and lavish parties became the obsession. The courtiers had no

concern with the future of Francethey poured their energies into

charming the king, angling for titles that would bring them life

pensions, and for cabinet positions demanding litde work but paying

huge salaries. Parasites flocked to the court, and the state's debts

swelled.

In 1745 Louis fell in love with Madame de Pompadour, a woman

of middle-class origin who had managed to rise dirough her charms,

her intelligence, and a good marriage. Madame de Pompadour

became the official royal mistress; she also became France's arbiter

of taste and fashion. But the Madame had political ambitions as well,

and she eventually emerged as the country's unofficial prime

ministerit was she, not Louis, who wielded hiring-and-firing power

over France's most important ministers.

As he grew older Louis only needed more diversion. On the

grounds of Versailles he built a brothel, Pare aux Cerfs, which

housed some of die prettiest young girls of France. Underground

passages and hidden staircases gave Louis access at all hours.

After Madame de Pompadour died, in 1764, she was succeeded as

royal mistress by Madame du Barry, who soon came to dominate the

court, and who, like de Pompadour before her, began to meddle in

affairs of state. If a minister did not please her he would find himself

fired. All of Europe was aghast when du Barry, the daughter of a

baker, managed to arrange the firing of Etienne de Choiseul, the

foreign

minister and France's most able diplomat. He had shown her too

littie respect. As time went by, swindlers and charlatans made their

nests in Versailles, and enticed Louis's interest in astrology, the

occult, and fraudulent business deals. The young and pampered

teenager who had taken over France years before had only grown

worse with age.

The motto that became attached to Louis's reign was “Apres moi,

le deluge”- “After me the flood,” or, Let France rot after I am gone.

And indeed when Louis did go, in 1774, worn out by debauchery, his

country and his own finances were in horrible disarray. His grandson

Louis XVI inherited a realm in desperate need of reform and a strong

leader. But Louis XVI was even weaker than his grandfather, and

could only watch as the country descended into revolution. In 1792

the republic introduced by the French Revolution declared the end of

the monarchy, and gave die king a new name, “Louis the Last.” A

few months later he kneeled on the guillotine, his about-to-be-

severed head stripped of all the radiance and power that die Sun

King had invested in the crown.

Interpretation

From a country that had descended into civil war in die late

1640s, Louis XIV forged the mightiest 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 XIV had many mistresses, but their power

ended in the bedroom. He filled his court with the most brilliant minds

of die age. The symbol of his power was Versailles: Refusing to

accept die palace of his forefathers, die Louvre, he built his own

palace in what was then the middle of nowhere, symbolizing that diis

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 voidthe decaying monarchy of Franceand filled it with

his own symbols and radiant power.

Louis XV, on the other hand, symbolizes the fate of all those who

inherit somediing large or who follow in a great man's footsteps. It

would seem easy for a son or successor to build on die 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 die father's need to fill a void.

As Machiavelli states, necessity is what impels men to take action,

and once die necessity is gone, only rot and decay are left. Having

no need to increase his store of power, Louis XV inevitably

succumbed to inertia. Under him, Versailles, the symbol of the Sun

King's authority, became a pleasure palace of incomparable banality,

a kind of Las Vegas of die Bourbon monarchy. It came to represent

all that the oppressed peasantry of France hated about their king,

and during die Revolution they looted it with glee.

Louis XV had only one way out of the trap awaiting the son or

successor of a man like the Sun King: to psychologically begin from

nothing, to

LIFE OF PERICLES

As a young man Pericles was inclined to shrink from facing the

people. One reason for this was that he was considered to bear a

distinct resemblance to the tyrant Pisistratus, and when men who

were well on in years remarked on the charm of Pericles' voice and

the smoothness and fluency of his speech, they were astonished at

the resemblance between the two. The fact that he was rich and that

he came of a distinguished family and possessed exceedingly

powerful friends made the fear of ostracism very real to him, and at

the beginning of his career he took no part in politics but devoted

himself to soldiering, in which he showed great daring and

enterprise. However, the time came when Aristides was dead,

Themistocles in exile, and Cimon frequently absent on distant

campaigns. Then at last Pericles decided to attach himself to the

people's party and to take up the cause of the poor and the many

instead of that of the rich and the few, in spite of the fact that this

was quite contrary to his own temperament, which was thoroughly

aristocratic. He was afraid, apparently, of being suspected of aiming

at a dictatorship; so that when he saw that

Cimon '.v sympathies were strongly with the nobles and that

Cimon was the idol of the aristocratic party, Pericles began to

ingratiate himself with the people, partly for self-preservation and

partly by way of securing power against his rival. He now entered

upon a new mode of life. He was never to be seen walking in any

street except the one which led to the market-place and the council

chamber.

the life of pericles,

Plutarch,

c. a.d. 46-120

How beneficial poverty may sometimes be to those with talent,

and how it may serve as a powerful goad to make them perfect or

excellent in whatever occupation they might choose, can be seen

very clearly in the actions of Pietro Perugino. Wishing by means of

his ability to attain some respectable rank, after leaving disastrous

calamities behind in Perugia and coming to Florence, he remained

there many months in poverty, sleeping in a chest, since he had no

other bed; he turned night into day, and with the greatest zeal

continually applied himself to

denigrate the past and his inheritance, and to move in a totally

new direction, creating his own world. Assuming you have the

choice, it would be better to avoid the situation altogether, to place

yourself where there is a vacuum of power, where you can be the

one to bring order out of chaos without having to compete with

another star in the sky. Power depends on appearing larger than

other people, and when you are lost in die shadow of the father, the

king, the great predecessor, you cannot possibly project such a

presence.

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 Machiavelli, 1469-1527

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

Alexander the Great had a dominant passion as a young manan

intense dislike for his father, King Philip of Macedonia. He hated

Philip's cunning, cautious style of ruling, his bombastic speeches, his

drinking and whoring, and his love of wrestling and of other wastes

of time. Alexander knew he had to make himself the very opposite of

his domineering father: He would force himself to be bold and

reckless, he would control his tongue and be a man of few words,

and he would not lose precious time in pursuit of pleasures that

brought no glory. Alexander also resented the fact that Philip had

conquered most of Greece: “My father will go on conquering till there

is nothing extraordinary left for me to do,” he once complained. While

other sons of powerful men were content to inherit wealth and live a

life of leisure, Alexander wanted only to outdo his father, to obliterate

Philip's name from history by surpassing his accomplishments.

Alexander itched to show others how superior he was to his

father. A Thessalian horse-dealer once brought a prize horse named

Bucephalus to sell to Philip. None of the king's grooms could get

near the horseit was far too savageand Philip berated the merchant

for bringing him such a useless beast. Watching the whole affair,

Alexander scowled and commented, “What a horse they are losing

for want of skill and spirit to manage him!” When he had said this

several times, Philip had finally had enough, and challenged him to

take on die horse. He called the merchant back, secretly hoping his

son would have a nasty fall and learn a bitter lesson. But Alexander

was die one to teach the lesson: Not only did he mount Bucephalus,

he managed to ride him at full gallop, taming the horse that would

later carry him all die way to India. The courtiers applauded wildly,

but Philip seethed inside, seeing not a son but a rival to his power.

Alexander's defiance of his father grew bolder. One day die two

men had a heated argument before die entire court, and Philip drew

his sword as if to strike his son; having drunk too much wine,

however, the king stumbled. Alexander pointed at his father and

jeered, "Men of Macedonia,

see there the man who is preparing to pass from Europe to Asia.

He cannot pass from one table to another without falling."

When Alexander was eighteen, a disgrunded courtier murdered

Philip. As word of the regicide spread through Greece, city after city

rose up in rebellion against their Macedonian rulers. Philip's advisers

counseled Alexander, now the king, to proceed cautiously, to do as

Philip had done and conquer through cunning. But Alexander would

do tilings his way: He marched to the furthest reaches of the

kingdom, suppressed the rebellious towns, and reunited the empire

with brutal efficiency.

As a young rebel grows older, his struggle against the father

often wanes, and he gradually comes to resemble the very man he

had wanted to defy. But Alexander's loathing of his father did not end

with Philip's death. Once he had consolidated Greece, he set his

eyes on Persia, the prize that had eluded his father, who had

dreamed of conquering Asia. If he defeated the Persians, Alexander

would finally surpass Philip in glory and fame.

Alexander crossed into Asia with an army of 35,000 to face a

Persian force numbering over a million. Before engaging die

Persians in battle he passed through the town of Gordium. Here, in

the town's main temple, there stood an ancient chariot tied with

cords made of die rind of the cornel tree. Legend had it that any man

who could undo these cordsthe Gordian knotwould rule the world.

Many had tried to untie the enormous and intricate knot, but none

had succeeded. Alexander, seeing he could not possibly untie die

knot with his bare hands, took out his sword and widi one slash cut it

in half. This symbolic gesture showed the world that he would not do

as otiiers, but would blaze his own path.

Against astounding odds, Alexander conquered the Persians.

Most expected him to stop thereit was a great triumph, enough to

secure his fame for eternity. But Alexander had die same relationship

to his own deeds as he had to his father: His conquest of Persia

represented die past, and he wanted never to rest on past triumphs,

or to allow the past to outshine the present. He moved on to India,

extending his empire beyond all known limits. Only his disgrunded

and weary soldiers prevented him from going farther.

Interpretation

Alexander represents an extremely uncommon type in history:

the son of a famous and successful man who manages to surpass

the fatfier in glory and power. The reason this type is uncommon is

simple: The father most often manages to amass his fortune, his

kingdom, because he begins with litUe or nothing. A desperate urge

impels him to succeedhe has nothing to lose by cunning and

impetuousness, and has no famous fatiier of his own to compete

against. This kind of man has reason to believe in himselfto believe

that his way of doing things is the best, because, after all, it worked

for him.

When a man like this has a son, he becomes domineering and

oppressive, imposing his lessons on the son, who is starting off life in

circumstances totally different from diose in which the father himself

began.

the study of his profession. After painting had become second

nature to him, Pietro's only pleasure was always to be working in his

craft and constantly to be painting. And because he always had the

dread of poverty before his eyes, he did things to make money which

he probably would not have bothered to do had he not been forced

to support himself. Perhaps wealth would have closed to him and his

talent the path to excellence just as poverty had opened it up to him,

but need spurred him on since he desired to rise from such a

miserable and lowly position // not perhaps to the summit and

supreme height of excellence, then at least to a point where he could

have enough to live on. For this reason, he took no notice of cold,

hunger, discomfort, inconvenience, toil or shame if he could only live

one day in ease and repose; and he would always sayand as if it

were a proverb that after bad weather, good weather must follow,

and that during the good weather houses must be built for shelter in

times of need.

lives of the artists, Giorgio Vasari, 1511-1574

The slightest acquaintance with chess shows one that it is a play-

substitute for the art of war and indeed it has been a favorite

recreation of some of the greatest military leaders, from William the

Conqueror to Napoleon. In the contest between the opposing armies

the same principles of both strategy and tactics are displayed as in

actual war, the same foresight and powers of calculation are

necessary, the same capacity for divining the plans of the opponent,

and the rigor with which decisions are followed by their

consequences is, if anything, even more ruthless. More than that, it

is plain that the unconscious motive actuating the players is not the

mere love of pugnacity characteristic of all competitive games, but

the grimmer one of father-murder. It is true that the original goal of

capturing the king has been given up, but from the point of view of

motive there is, except in respect of crudity, not appreciable change

in the present goal of sterilizing him in immobility.... “Checkmate ”

means literally “the king is dead.” ... Our knowledge of the

unconscious motivation of chess-playing tells us that what it

represented could only have been the wish to overcome the father in

an acceptable way.... It is no doubt signifi-

Instead of allowing the son to go in a new direction, the father will

try to put him in his own shoes, perhaps secredy wishing die boy will

fail, as Philip half wanted to see Alexander thrown from Bucephalus.

Fathers envy Uieir sons' youdi and vigor, after all, and their desire is

to control and dominate. The sons of such men tend to become

cowed and cautious, terrified of losing what their fadiers have

gained.

The son will never step out of his father's shadow unless he

adopts die ruthless strategy of Alexander: disparage die past, create

your own kingdom, put die father in die shadows instead of letting

him do the same to you. If you cannot materially start from ground

zeroit would be foolish to renounce an inheritanceyou can at least

begin from ground zero psychologically, by throwing off the weight of

die past and charting a new direction. Alexander instinctively

recognized that privileges of birth are impediments to power. Be

merciless with the past, tiiennot only widi your fadier and his fadier

but widi your own earlier achievements. Only the weak rest on their

laurels and dote on past triumphs; in the game of power there is

never time to rest.

KEYS TO POWER

In many ancient kingdoms, for example Bengal and Sumatra,

after die king had ruled for several years his subjects would execute

him. This was done partly as a ritual of renewal, but also to prevent

him from growing too powerfulfor the king would generally try to

establish a permanent order, at the expense of other families and of

his own sons. Instead of protecting die tribe and leading it in times of

war, he would attempt to dominate it. And so he would be beaten to

deadi, or executed in an elaborate ritual. Now that he was no longer

around for his honors to go to his head, he could be worshipped as a

god. Meanwhile die field had been cleared for a new and youdiful

order to establish itself.

The ambivalent, hostile attitude towards the king or father figure

also finds expression in legends of heroes who do not know their

fadier. Moses, the archetypal man of power, was found abandoned

among die bulrushes and never knew his parents; without a father to

compete widi him or limit him, he could attain the heights of power.

Hercules had no earthly father he was the son of the god Zeus. Later

in his life Alexander the Great spread the story that the god Jupiter

Ammon had sired him, not Philip of Mace-don. Legends and rituals

like diese eliminate the human fadier because he symbolizes the

destructive power of die past.

The past prevents the young hero from creating his own worldhe

must do as his father did, even after that father is dead or powerless.

The hero must bow and scrape before his predecessor and yield to

tradition and precedent. What had success in the past must be

carried over to die present, even tiiough circumstances have greatiy

changed. The past also weighs die hero down with an inheritance

that he is terrified of losing, making him timid and cautious.

Power depends on die ability to fill a void, to occupy a field diat

has

been cleared of the dead weight of the past. Only after the father

figure has been properly done away widi will you have die necessary

space to create and establish a new order. There are several

strategies you can adopt to accomplish thisvariations on the

execution of die king that disguise the violence of die impulse by

channeling it in socially acceptable forms.

Perhaps the simplest way to escape the shadow of the past is

simply to belittle it, playing on die timeless antagonism between the

generations, stirring up me young against die old. For diis you need

a convenient older figure to pillory. Mao Tse-tung, confronting a

culture that fiercely resisted change, played on the suppressed

resentment against the overbearing presence of me venerable

Confucius in Chinese culture. John F. Kennedy knew the dangers of

getting lost in the past; he radically distinguished his presidency from

diat of his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and also from die

preceding decade, die 1950s, which Eisenhower personified.

Kennedy, for instance, would not play die dull and fadierly game of

golf a symbol of retirement and privilege, and Eisenhower's passion.

Instead he played football on die White House lawn. In every aspect

his administration represented vigor and youth, as opposed to die

stodgy Eisenhower. Kennedy had discovered an old truth: The young

are easily set against the old, since diey yearn to make their own

place in the world and resent the shadow of tiieir fathers.

The distance you establish from your predecessor often demands

some symbolism, a way of advertising itself publicly. Louis XIV, for

example, created such symbolism when he rejected the traditional

palace of die French kings and built his own palace of Versailles.

King Philip II of Spain did die same when he created his center of

power, die palace of El Esco-rial, in what was then die middle of

nowhere. But Louis carried the game further: He would not be a king

like his fadier or earlier ancestors, he would not wear a crown or

carry a scepter or sit on a dirone, he would establish a new kind of

imposing autiiority widi symbols and rituals of its own. Louis made

his ancestors' rituals into laughable relics of the past. Follow his

example: Never let yourself be seen as following your predecessor's

paui. If you do you will never surpass him. You must physically

demonstrate your difference, by establishing a style and symbolism

that sets you apart.

The Roman emperor Augustus, successor to Julius Caesar,

understood this moroughly. Caesar had been a great general, a

dieatrical figure whose spectacles kept the Romans entertained, an

international emissary seduced by die charms of Cleopatraa larger-

than-life figure. So Augustus, despite his own theatrical tendencies,

competed with Caesar not by trying to outdo him but by

differentiating himself from him: He based his power on a return to

Roman simplicity, an austerity of both style and substance. Against

die memory of Caesar's sweeping presence Augustus posed a quiet

and manly dignity.

The problem widi the overbearing predecessor is that he fills die

vistas before you widi symbols of die past. You have no room to

create your own name. To deal witii diis situation you need to hunt

out the vacuumsthose

cant that [nineteenth-century chess champion Paul] Morphy's

soaring odyssey into the higher realms of chess began just a year

after the unexpectedly sudden death of his father, which had been a

great shock to him, and we may surmise that his brilliant effort of

sublimation was, like Shakespeare's Hamlet and Freud's The

Interpretation of Dreams, a reaction to this critical event....

Something should now be said about the reception Morphy's

successes met with, for they were of such a kind as to raise the

question whether his subsequent collapse may not have been

influenced through his perhaps belonging to the type that Freud has

described under the name of Die am Erfolge scheitern (“Those

wrecked by success”).... Couched in more psychological language,

was Morphy affrighted at his own presumptuousness when the light

of publicity was thrown on [his great success] Freud has pointed out

that the people who break under the strain of too great success do

so because they can endure it only in imagination, not in reality. To

castrate the father in a dream is a very different matter from doing it

in reality. The real situation provokes the unconscious guilt in its full

force, and the penalty may be mental collapse.

THE PROBLEM OF PAUL MORPHY,

Ernest Jones, 1951

areas in culture that have been left vacant and in which you can

become the first and principal figure to shine.

When Pericles of Athens was about to launch a career as a

statesman, he looked for the one thing that was missing in Athenian

politics. Most of the great politicians of his time had allied themselves

with the aristocracy; indeed Pericles himself had aristocratic

tendencies. Yet he decided to tiirow in his hat with the city's

democratic elements. The choice had nothing to do with his personal

beliefs, but it launched him on a brilliant career. Out of necessity he

became a man of the people. Instead of competing in an arena filled

with great leaders both past and present, he would make a name for

himself where no shadows could obscure his presence.

When the painter Diego de Velazquez began his career, he knew

he could not compete in refinement and technique with the great

Renaissance painters who had come before him. Instead he chose

to work in a style that by the standards of the time seemed coarse

and rough, in a way that had never been seen before. And in mis

style he excelled. There were members of the Spanish court who

wanted to demonstrate their own break with the past; the newness of

Velazquez's style thrilled them. Most people are afraid to break so

boldly with tradition, but mey secretly admire those who can break

up the old forms and reinvigorate the culture. This is why there is so

much power to be gained from entering vacuums and voids.

There is a kind of stubborn stupidity that recurs throughout

history, and is a strong impediment to power: 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. This cookie-

cutter approach will seduce the uncreative, for it is easy, and appeals

to their timidity and their laziness. But circumstances never repeat

themselves exactly.

When General Douglas MacArthur assumed command of

American forces in the Philippines during World War II, an assistant

handed him a book containing the various precedents established by

the commanders before him, the methods that had been successful

for them. MacArthur asked the assistant how many copies there

were of this book. Six, the assistant answered. “Well,” the general

replied, “you get all those six copies together and burn themevery

one of them. I'll not be bound by precedents. Any time a problem

comes up, I'll make the decision at onceimmediately.” Adopt this

ruthless strategy toward the past: Burn all the books, and train

yourself to react to circumstances as they happen.

You may believe that you have separated yourself from the

predecessor or father figure, but as you grow older you must be

eternally vigilant lest you become the father you had rebelled

against. As a young man, Mao Tse-tung disliked his father and in the

struggle against him found his own identity and a new set of values.

But as he aged, his father's ways crept back in. Mao's father had

valued manual work over intellect; Mao had scoffed at this as a

young man, but as he grew older he unconsciously returned to his

father's views and echoed such outdated ideas by forcing a whole

generation of Chinese intellectuals into manual labor, a nightmarish

mistake that

cost his regime dearly. 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 pastfather, habit, historyto sneak

back in.

Finally, as noted in the story of Louis XV, plenitude and prosperity

tend to make us lazy and inactive: When our power is secure we

have no need to act. This is a serious danger, especially for those

who achieve success and power at an early age. The playwright

Tennessee Williams, for instance, found himself skyrocketed from

obscurity to fame by the success of The Glass Menagerie. “The sort

of life which I had had previous to this popular success,” he later

wrote, “was one that required endurance, a life of clawing and

scratching, but it was a good life because it was the sort of life for

which the human organism is created. I was not aware of how much

vital energy had gone into this struggle until the struggle was

removed. This was security at last. I sat down and looked about me

and was suddenly very depressed.” Williams had a nervous

breakdown, which may in fact have been necessary for him: Pushed

to the psychological edge, he could start writing with the old vitality

again, and he produced A Streetcar Named Desire. Fyodor

Dostoyevsky, similarly, whenever he wrote a successful novel, would

feel that the financial security he had gained made the act of creation

unnecessary. He would take his entire savings to the casino and

would not leave until he had gambled away his last penny. Once

reduced to poverty he could write again.

It is not necessary to go to such extremes, but you must be

prepared to return to square one psychologically rather than growing

fat and lazy with prosperity. Pablo Picasso could deal with success,

but only by constantly changing the style of his painting, often

breaking completely with what had made him successful before.

How often our early triumphs turn us into a kind of caricature of

ourselves. Powerful people recognize these traps; like Alexander the

Great, they struggle constantly to re-create themselves. The father

must not be allowed to return; he must be slain at every step of the

way.

Image: The Father. He casts a giant shadow over his children,

keeping them in thrall long after he is gone by tying them to the past,

squashing their youthful spirit, and forcing them down the same tired

path he followed himself. His tricks are many. At every crossroads

you must slay the father and step out of his shadow.

Authority: Beware of stepping into a great man's shoesyou will

have to accomplish twice as much to surpass him. Those who follow

are taken for imitators. No matter how much they sweat, they will

never shed that burden. It is an uncommon skill to find a new path

for excellence, a modern route to celebrity. There are many roads to

singularity, not all of them well traveled. The newest ones can be

arduous, but they are often shortcuts to greatness. (Baltasar

Gracian, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

The shadow of a great predecessor could be used to advantage

if it is chosen as a trick, a tactic that can be discarded once it has

brought you power. Napoleon III used the name and legend of his

illustrious grand-uncle Napoleon Bonaparte to help him become first

president and then emperor of France. Once on the throne, however,

he did not stay tied to the past; he quickly showed how different his

reign would be, and was careful to keep the public from expecting

him to attain the heights that Bonaparte had attained.

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 and 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 a logic of their own.

Joseph II, son of the Austrian empress Maria Theresa, made a

show of doing the exact opposite of his motherdressing like an

ordinary citizen, staying in inns instead of palaces, appearing as the

“people's emperor.” Maria Theresa, on the other hand, had been

regal and aristocratic. The problem was that she had also been

beloved, an empress who ruled wisely

after years of learning the hard way. If you have the kind of

intelligence and instinct mat will point you in the right direction,

playing the rebel will not be dangerous. But if you are mediocre, as

Joseph II was in comparison to his mother, you are better off

learning from your predecessor's knowledge and experience, which

are based on something real.

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 die same to you.

The great Baroque artist and architect Pietro Bernini was a

master at sniffing out younger potential rivals and keeping mem in

his shadow. One day a young stonemason named Francesco

Borromini showed Bernini his architectural sketches. Recognizing his

talent immediately, Bernini in-standy hired Borromini as his assistant,

which delighted the young man but was actually only a tactic to keep

him close at hand, so that he could play psychological games on him

and create in him a kind of inferiority complex. And indeed, despite

Borromini's brilliance, Bernini has the greater fame. His strategy with

Borromini he made a lifelong practice: Fearing mat the great sculptor

Alessandro Algardi, for example, would eclipse him in fame, he

arranged it so that Algardi could only find work as his assistant. And

any assistant who rebelled against Bernini and tried to strike out on

his own would find his career ruined.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 42

STRIKE THE SHEPHERD

AND THE SHEEP

WILL SCATTER

JUDGMENT

Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individualthe 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 themthey are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by

isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and

the sheep will scatter.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I

Near the end of the sixth century B.C., the city-state of Athens

overthrew the series of petty tyrants who had dominated its politics

for decades. It established instead a democracy that was to last over

a century, a democracy that became the source of its power and its

proudest achievement. But as the democracy evolved, so did a

problem the Athenians had never faced: How to deal with those who

did not concern themselves with the cohesion of a small city

surrounded by enemies, who did not work for its greater glory, but

thought of only themselves and their own ambitions and petty

intrigues The Athenians understood that these people, if left alone,

would sow dissension, divide the city into factions, and stir up

anxieties, all of which could lead to the ruin of their democracy.

Violent punishment no longer suited the new, civilized order that

Athens had created. Instead the citizens found another, more

satisfying, and less brutal way to deal with the chronically selfish:

Every year they would gather in the marketplace and write on a

piece of earthenware, an ostrakon, the name of an individual they

wanted to see banished from the city for ten years. If a particular

name appeared on six thousand ballots, that person would instantly

be exiled. If no one received six thousand votes, the person with the

most ostraka recording his name would suffer the ten-year

“ostracism.” This ritual expulsion became a kind of festival what a joy

to be able to banish those irritating, anxiety-inducing individuals who

wanted to rise above the group they should have served.

In 490 B.C., Aristides, one of the great generals of Athenian

history, helped defeat the Persians at the battle of Marathon.

Meanwhile, off the battlefield, his fairness as a judge had earned him

the nickname “The Just.” But as the years went by the Athenians

came to dislike him. He made such a show of his righteousness, and

this, they believed, disguised his feelings of superiority and scorn for

the common folk. His omnipresence in Athenian politics became

obnoxious; the citizens grew tired of hearing him called “The Just.”

They feared that this was just the type of manjudgmental,

haughtywho would eventually stir up fierce divisions among them. In

482 B.C., despite Aristides' invaluable expertise in the continuing

war with the Persians, they collected the ostraka and had him

banished.

After Aristides' ostracism, the great general Themistocles

emerged as the city's premier leader. But his many honors and

victories went to his head, and he too became arrogant and

overbearing, constantly reminding the Athenians of his triumphs in

battle, the temples he had built, the dangers he had fended off. He

seemed to be saying mat without him the city would come to ruin.

And so, in 472 B.C., Themistocles' name was filled in on the ostraka

and the city was rid of his poisonous presence.

The greatest political figure in fifth-century Athens was

undoubtedly Pericles. Although several times threatened with

ostracism, he avoided that fate by maintaining close ties with the

people. Perhaps he had learned a lesson as a child from his favorite

tutor, the incomparable Damon, who

The struggle now became fiercer than ever around the royal litter

[of Atahualpa, king of the Incan empire]. It reeled more and more,

and at length, several of the nobles who supported it having been

slain, it was overturned, and the Indian prince would have come with

violence to the ground, had not his fall been broken by the efforts of

Pizarro and some other of the cavaliers, who caught him in their

arms. The imperial borla was instantly snatched from his temples by

a soldier, and the unhappy monarch, strongly secured, was removed

to a neighboring building where he was carefully guarded. All

attempt at resistance now ceased. The fate of the Inca [Atahualpa]

soon spread over town and country. The charm that might have held

the Peruvians together was dissolved. Every man thought only of his

own safety. Even the [IncanJ soldiery encamped on the adjacent

fields took the alarm, and, learning the fatal tidings, were seen flying

in every direction before their pursuers, who in the heat of triumph

showed no touch of mercy. At length night, more pitiful than man,

threw her friendly mantle over the fugitives, and the

scattered troops of Pizarro rallied once more at the sound of the

trumpet in the bloody square of Cajamarca.... [Atahualpa] was

reverenced as more than a human. He was not merely the head of

the state, but the point to which all its institutions converged as to a

common centerthe keystone of the political fabric which must fall to

pieces by its own weight when that was withdrawn. So it fared on the

[execution] of Atahualpa. His death not only left the throne vacant,

without any certain successor, but the manner of it announced to the

Peruvian people that a hand stronger than that of their Incas had

now seized the scepter, and that the dynasty of the Children of the

Sun had passed away forever.

THE CONQUEST OF PERU,

William H. Prescott, 1847

excelled above all other Athenians in his intelligence, his musical

skills, and his rhetorical abilities. It was Damon who had trained

Pericles in die arts of ruling. But he, too, suffered ostracism, for his

superior airs and his insulting manner toward the commoners stirred

up too much resentment.

Toward the end of the century there lived a man named

Hyperbolus. Most writers of the time describe him as the city's most

worthless citizen: He did not care what anyone thought of him, and

slandered whomever he disliked. He amused some, but irritated

many more. In 417 B.C., Hyperbolus saw an opportunity to stir up

anger against the two leading politicians of the time, Alcibiades and

Nicias. He hoped that one of the two would be ostracized and that he

would rise in mat man's place. His campaign seemed likely to

succeed: The Athenians disliked Alcibiades' flamboyant and carefree

lifestyle, and were wary of Nicias' wealth and aloofness. They

seemed certain to ostracize one or die other. But Alcibiades and

Nicias, although they were otherwise enemies, pooled their

resources and managed to turn the ostracism on Hyperbolus

instead. His obnoxious-ness, they argued, could only be terminated

by banishment.

Earlier sufferers of ostracism had been formidable, powerful men.

Hyperbolus, however, was a low buffoon, and with his banishment

the Athenians felt that ostracism had been degraded. And so they

ended the practice that for nearly a hundred years had been one of

die keys to keeping the peace within Athens.

Interpretation

The ancient Athenians had social instincts unknown todaydie

passage of centuries has blunted them. Citizens in the true sense of

the word, the Athenians sensed the dangers posed by asocial

behavior, and saw how such behavior often disguises itself in otiier

forms: the holier-than-thou attitude that silendy seeks to impose its

standards on others; overweening ambition at the expense of the

common good; the flaunting of superiority; quiet scheming; terminal

obnoxiousness. Some of Uiese behaviors would eat away at the

city's cohesion by creating factions and sowing dissension, odiers

would ruin the democratic spirit by making the common citizen feel

inferior and envious. The Athenians did not try to reeducate people

who acted in these ways, or to absorb them somehow into the group,

or to impose a violent punishment that would only create other

problems. The solution was quick and effective: Get rid of them.

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 widi 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 anodier, or to

see how die whole thing started. First, recognize troublemakers by

their overbearing presence, or by their complaining nature. Once you

spot them do not try to reform them or appease diemmat will only

make things worse. Do not attack diem, whether directly or indirecdy,

for diey are poisonous in nature and

will work underground to destroy you. Do as the Adienians did:

Banish them before it is too late. Separate them from the group

before they become the eye of a whirlpool. Do not give diem time to

stir up anxieties and sow discontent; do not give them room to move.

Let one person suffer so that the rest can live in peace.

When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter.

Chinese saying

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW II

In 1296 the cardinals of die Catholic Church met in Rome to

select a new pope. They chose Cardinal Gaetani, for he was

incomparably shrewd; such a man would make die Vatican a great

power. Taking the name Boniface VIII, Gaetani soon proved he

deserved the cardinals' high opinion of him: He plotted his moves

carefully in advance, and stopped at nodiing to get his way. Once in

power, Boniface quickly crushed his rivals and unified the Papal

States. The European powers began to fear him, and sent delegates

to negotiate widi him. The German King Albrecht of Austria even

yielded some territory to Boniface. All was proceeding according to

the pope's plan.

One piece did not fall into place, however, and diat was Tuscany,

the richest part of Italy. If Boniface could conquer Florence,

Tuscany's most powerful city, die region would be his. But Florence

was a proud republic, and would be hard to defeat. The pope had to

play his cards skillfully.

Florence was divided by two rival factions, the Blacks and die

Whites. The Whites were the merchant families diat had recendy and

quickly risen to power and weakh; the Blacks were the older money.

Because of their popularity widi die people, die Whites retained

control of the city, to the Blacks' increasing resentment. The feud

between the two grew steadily more bitter.

Here Boniface saw his chance: He would plot to help the Blacks

take over the city, and Florence would be in his pocket. And as he

studied die situation he began to focus on one man, Dante Alighieri,

die celebrated writer, poet, and ardent supporter of die Whites.

Dante had always been interested in politics. He believed

passionately in die republic, and often chastised his fellow citizens

for their lack of spine. He also happened to be the city's most

eloquent public speaker. In 1300, die year Boniface began plotting to

take over Tuscany, Dante's fellow citizens had voted him in to

Florence's highest elected position, making him one of the city's six

priors. During his six-mondi term in die post, he had stood firmly

against the Blacks and against all of die pope's attempts to sow

disorder.

By 1301, however, Boniface had a new plan: He called in Charles

de Valois, powerful brother of die king of France, to help bring order

to Tuscany. As Charles marched through northern Italy, and Florence

seedied widi anxiety and fear, Dante quickly emerged as die man

who could rally

THE WOLVES AND THE SHEEP

Once upon a time, the wolves sent an embassy to the sheep,

desiring that there might be peace between them for the time to

come. “Why,” said they, “should we be for ever waging this deadly

strife Those wicked dogs are the cause of all; they are incessantly

barking at us, and provoking us. Send them away, and there will be

no longer any obstacle to our eternal friendship and peace.” The silly

sheep listened, the dogs were dismissed, and the flock, thus

deprived of their best protectors, became an easy prey to their

treacherous enemy.

FABLES,

Aesop,

sixth century b.c.

[Themistocles's] fellow citizens reached the point at which their

jealousy made them listen to any slander at his expense, and so [he]

was forced to remind the assembly of his achievements until they

could bear this no longer. He once said to those who were

complaining of him: “Why are you tired of receiving benefits so often

from the same men” Besides this he gave offense to the people

when he built the temple of Artemis, for not only did he style the

goddess Artemis Aristohoule, or Artemis wisest in counselwith the

hint that it was he who had given the best counsel to the Athenians

and the Greeksbut he chose a site for it near his own house at

Melite.... So at last the Athenians banished him. They made use of

the ostracism to humble his great reputation and his authority, as

indeed was their habit with any whose power they regarded as

oppressive, or who had risen to an eminence which they considered

out of keeping with the equality of a democracy.

the life of

themistocles,

Plutarch,

c. a.d. 46-120

the people, arguing vehemently against appeasement and

working desperately to arm the citizens and to organize resistance

against die pope and his puppet French prince. By hook or by crook,

Boniface had to neutralize Dante. And so, even as on the one hand

he threatened Florence with Charles de Valois, on the other he held

out the olive branch, the possibility of negotiations, hoping Dante

would take the bait. And indeed the Florentines decided to send a

delegation to Rome and try to negotiate a peace. To head the

mission, predictably, they chose Dante.

Some warned the poet that the wily pope was setting up a trap to

lure him away, but Dante went to Rome anyway, arriving as the

French army stood before the gates of Florence. He felt sure that his

eloquence and reason would win the pope over and save the city.

Yet when the pope met die poet and the Florentine delegates, he

instandy intimidated them, as he did so many. “Fall on your knees

before me!” he bellowed at their first meeting. “Submit to me! I tell

you that in all truth I have nothing in my heart but to promote your

peace.” Succumbing to his powerful presence, the Florentines

listened as the pope promised to look after dieir interests. He then

advised them to return home, leaving one of their members behind

to continue the talks. Boniface signaled that the man to stay was to

be Dante. He spoke with the utmost politeness, but in essence it was

an order.

And so Dante remained in Rome. And while he and the pope

continued their dialogue, Florence fell apart. With no one to rally the

Whites, and with Charles de Valois using the pope's money to bribe

and sow dissension, the Whites disintegrated, some arguing for

negotiations, others switching sides. Facing an enemy now divided

and unsure of itself, the Blacks easily destroyed them widiin weeks,

exacting violent revenge on them. And once the Blacks stood firmly

in power, the pope finally dismissed Dante from Rome.

The Blacks ordered Dante to return home to face accusations

and stand trial. When the poet refused, the Blacks condemned him

to be burned to death if he ever set foot in Florence again. And so

Dante began a miserable life of exile, wandering through Italy,

disgraced in the city that he loved, never to return to Florence, even

after his death.

Interpretation

Boniface knew that if he only had a pretext to lure Dante away,

Florence would crumble. He played die oldest card in the

bookthreatening with one hand while holding out the olive branch

with the otherand Dante fell for it. Once the poet was in Rome, the

pope kept him there for as long as it took. For Boniface understood

one of the principal precepts in the game of power: One resolute

person, one disobedient spirit, can turn a flock of sheep into a den of

lions. So he isolated the troublemaker. Without the backbone of the

city to keep them together, the sheep quickly scattered.

Learn the lesson: Do not waste your time lashing out in all

directions at what seems to be a many-headed enemy. Find the one

head that mat-

tersthe person with willpower, or smarts, or, most important of all,

charisma. Whatever it costs you, lure this person away, for once he

is absent his powers will lose their effect. His isolation can be

physical (banishment or absence from the court), political (narrowing

his base of support), or psychological (alienating him from the group

through slander and insinuation). Cancer begins with a single cell;

excise it before it spreads beyond cure.

KEYS TO POWER

In the past, an entire nation would be ruled by a king and his

handful of ministers. Only the elite had any power to play witii. Over

the centuries, power has gradually become more and more diffused

and democratized. This has created, however, a common

misperception that groups no longer have centers of powerthat

power is spread out and scattered among many people. Actually,

however, power has changed in its numbers but not in its essence.

There may be fewer mighty tyrants commanding the power of life

and death over millions, but there remain thousands of petty tyrants

ruling smaller realms, and enforcing tiieir will dirough indirect power

games, charisma, and so on. In every group, power is concentrated

in the hands of one or two people, for this is one area in which

human nature will never change: People will congregate around a

single strong personality like planets orbiting a sun.

To labor under the illusion diat tiiis kind of power center no longer

exists is to make endless mistakes, waste energy and time, and

never hit the target. Powerful people never waste time. Outwardly

they may play along with the gamepretending that power is shared

among manybut inwardly they keep their eyes on the inevitable few

in die group who hold the cards. These are die ones they work on.

When troubles arise, they look for die underlying cause, the single

strong character who started the stirring and whose isolation or

banishment will settle die waters again.

In his family-dierapy practice, Dr. Milton H. Erickson found that if

the family dynamic was unsettled and dysfunctional there was

inevitably one person who was the stirrer, the troublemaker. In his

sessions he would symbolically isolate tins rotten apple by seating

him or her apart from the others, if only by a few feet. Slowly the

odier family members would see the physically separate person as

the source of their difficulty. Once you recognize who the stirrer is,

pointing it out to odier people will accomplish a great deal.

Understanding who controls die group dynamic is a critical

realization. Remember: Stirrers dirive by hiding in the group,

disguising their actions among the reactions of others. Render their

actions visible and diey lose dieir power to upset.

A key element in games of strategy is isolating die enemy's

power. In chess you try to corner the king. In die Chinese game of go

you try to isolate the enemy's forces in small pockets, rendering

them immobile and ineffectual. It is often better to isolate your

enemies than to destroy

themyou seem less brutal. The result, though, is the same, for in

die game of power, isolation spells deadi.

The most effective form of isolation is somehow to separate your

victims from their power base. When Mao Tse-tung wanted to

eliminate an enemy in the ruling elite, he did not confront the person

directly; he silently and stealthily worked to isolate die man, divide

his allies and turn diem away from him, shrink his support. Soon the

man would vanish on his own.

Presence and appearance have great import in die game of

power. To seduce, particularly in the beginning stages, you need to

be constantly present, or create die feeling that you are; if you are

often out of sight, die charm will wear off. Queen Elizabedi's prime

minister, Robert Cecil, had two main rivals: die queen's favorite, die

Earl of Essex, and her former favorite, Sir Walter Raleigh. He

contrived to send them both on a mission against Spain; with them

away from the court he managed to wrap his tentacles around die

queen, secure his position as her top adviser and weaken her

affection for Raleigh and the earl. The lesson here is twofold: First,

your absence from the court spells danger for you, and you should

never leave die scene in a time of turmoil, for your absence can botii

symbolize and induce a loss of power; second, and on die odier

hand, luring your enemies away from the court at critical moments is

a great ploy.

Isolation has other strategic uses. When trying to seduce people,

it is often wise to isolate them from dieir usual social context. Once

isolated they are vulnerable to you, and your presence becomes

magnified. Similarly, con artists often look for ways to isolate their

marks from their normal social milieux, steering them into new

environments in which diey are no longer comfortable. Here they feel

weak, and succumb to deception more easily. Isolation, then, can

prove a powerful way of bringing people under your spell to seduce

or swindle diem.

You will often find powerful people who have alienated

themselves from the group. Perhaps their power has gone to their

heads, and they consider themselves superior; perhaps they have

lost the knack of communicating with ordinary folk. Remember: This

makes them vulnerable. Powerful though they be, people like diis

can be turned to use.

The monk Rasputin gained his power over Czar Nicholas and

Czarina Alexandra of Russia through dieir tremendous isolation from

the people. Alexandra in particular was a foreigner, and especially

alienated from everyday Russians; Rasputin used his peasant

origins to insinuate himself into her good graces, for she desperately

wanted to communicate witii her subjects. Once in the court's inner

circle, Rasputin made himself indispensable and attained great

power. Heading straight for the center, he aimed for die one figure in

Russia who commanded power (the czarina dominated her

husband), and found he had no need to isolate her for the work was

already done. The Rasputin strategy can bring you great power:

Always search out people who hold high positions yet who find tiiem-

selves isolated on the board. They are like apples falling into your

lap, easily seduced, and able to catapult you into power yourself.

Finally, the reason you strike at the shepherd is because such an

action will dishearten the sheep beyond any rational measure. When

Hernando Cortes and Francisco Pizarro led their tiny forces against

the Aztec and Incan empires, they did not make the mistake of

fighting on several fronts, nor were they intimidated by die numbers

arrayed against them; they captured the kings, Moctezuma and

Atahualpa. Vast empires fell into tiieir hands. With die leader gone

the center of gravity is gone; there is nothing to revolve around and

everything falls apart. Aim at the leaders, bring them down, and look

for the endless opportunities in the confusion that will ensue.

Image: A Flock of Fatted

Sheep. Do not waste precious

time trying to steal a sheep or two; do

not risk life and limb by setting upon

the dogs that guard the flock. Aim at the

shepherd. Lure him away and the dogs

will follow. Strike him down and the flock will

scatteryou can pick them off one by one.

Authority: If you draw a bow, draw the strongest. If you use an

arrow, use the longest. To shoot a rider, first shoot his horse. To

catch a gang of bandits, first capture its leader. Just as a country has

its border, so the killing of men has its limits. If the enemy's attack

can be stopped [with a blow to the head], why have any more dead

and wounded than necessary (Chinese poet Tu Fu, Tang dynasty,

eighth century)

REVERSAL

“Any harm you do to a man should be done in such a way mat

you need not fear his revenge,” writes Machiavelli. 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.

Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln's successor as U.S.

president, saw Ulysses S. Grant as a troublesome member of his

government. So he isolated Grant, as a prelude to forcing him out.

This only enraged the great general, however, who responded by

forming a support base in the Republican party and going on to

become the next president. It would have been far wiser to keep a

man like Grant in the fold, where he could do less harm, than to

make him revengeful. And so you may often find it better to keep

people on your side, where you can watch them, than to risk creating

an angry enemy. Keeping them close, you can secretly whit-tie away

at their support base, so that when the time comes to cut them loose

they will fall fast and hard without knowing what hit them.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 43

WORK ON THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF OTHERS

JUDGMENT

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.

Thinking of the means by which he could most effectively

persuade the Persians to revolt, [Cyrus's] deliberations led him to

adopt the following plan, which he found best suited to his purpose.

He wrote on a roll of parchment that Astyages had appointed him to

command the Persian army; then he summoned an assembly of the

Persians, opened the roll in their presence and read out what he had

written. “And now, he added, I have an order for you: every man is to

appear on parade with a billhook. ...” The order was obeyed. All the

men assembled with their billhooks, and Cyrus's next command was

thai before the day was out they should clear a certain piece of

rough land full of thorn-bushes, about eighteen or twenty furlongs

square. This too was done, whereupon Cyrus issued the further

order that they should present themselves again on the following

day, after having taken a bath. Meanwhile, Cyrus collected and

slaughtered all his father's goats, sheep, and oxen in preparation for

entertaining the whole Persian army at a banquet, together with the

best wine and bread he could procure. The next day the guests

assembled, and were

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

Near the end of the reign of Louis XV, all of France seemed

desperate for change. When the king's grandson and chosen

successor, die future Louis XVI, married the fifteen-year-old daughter

of die empress of Austria, die French caught a glimpse of die future

diat seemed hopeful. The young bride, Marie-Antoinette, was

beautiful and full of life. She instantiy changed the mood of die court,

which was rank with Louis XV's debaucheries; even the common

people, who had yet to see her, talked excitedly of Marie-Antoinette.

The French had grown disgusted widi the series of mistresses who

had dominated Louis XV, and diey looked forward to serving dieir

new queen. In 1773, when Marie-Antoinette publicly rode through

the streets of Paris for the first time, applauding crowds swarmed

around her carriage. “How fortunate,” she wrote her mother, “to be in

a position in which one can gain widespread affection at so littie

cost.”

In 1774 Louis XV died and Louis XVI took the tiirone. As soon as

Marie-Antoinette became queen she abandoned herself to die

pleasures she loved die mostordering and wearing die most

expensive gowns and jewelry in die realm; sporting die most

elaborate hair in history, her sculpted coiffures rising as much as

diree feet above her head; and dirowing a constant succession of

masked balls and fetes. All of these whims she paid for on credit,

never concerning herself widi die cost or who paid die bills.

Marie-Antoinette's greatest pleasure was the creation and

designing of a private Garden of Eden at die Petit Trianon, a chateau

on die grounds of Versailles with its own woods. The gardens at die

Petit Trianon were to be as “natural” as possible, including moss

applied by hand to the trees and rocks. To heighten the pastoral

effect, the queen employed peasant milkmaids to milk die finest-

looking cows in the realm; launderers and cheese-makers in special

peasant outfits she helped design; shepherds to tend sheep with silk

ribbons around their necks. When she inspected die barns, she

would watch her milkmaids squeezing milk into porcelain vases

made at the royal ceramic works. To pass die time, Marie-Antoinette

would gatiier flowers in the woods around die Petit Trianon, or watch

her “good peasants” doing tiieir “chores.” The place became a

separate world, its community limited to her chosen favorites.

Widi each new whim, the cost of maintaining the Petit Trianon

soared. Meanwhile, France itself was deteriorating: There was

famine and widespread discontent. Even socially insulated courtiers

seemed with resentmentdie queen treated them like children. Only

her favorites mattered, and diese were becoming fewer and fewer.

But Marie-Antoinette did not concern herself widi this. Not once

throughout her reign did she read a minister's report. Not once did

she tour die provinces and rally the people to her side. Not once did

she mingle among die Parisians, or receive a delegation from diem.

She did none of tiiese tilings because as queen she felt die people

owed her their affection, and she was not required to love diem in

return.

In 1784 die queen became embroiled in a scandal. As part of an

elaborate swindle, die most expensive diamond necklace in Europe

had been

purchased under her name, and during the swindlers' trial her

lavish lifestyle became public: People heard about the money she

spent on jewels and dresses and masked dances. They gave her the

nickname “Madame Deficit,” and from then on she became the focus

of the people's growing resentment. When she appeared in her box

at the opera the audience greeted her witii hisses. Even the court

turned against her. For while she had been running up her huge

expenditures, the country was headed for ruin.

Five years later, in 1789, an unprecedented event took place: the

beginning of die French Revolution. The queen did not worrylet the

people have dieir Uttle rebellion, she seemed to think; it would soon

quiet down and she would be able to resume her life of pleasure.

That year die people marched on Versailles, forcing the royal family

to quit the palace and take residence in Paris. This was a triumph for

die rebels, but it offered die queen an opportunity to heal the wounds

she had opened and establish contact witii die people. The queen,

however, had not learned her lesson: Not once would she leave the

palace during her stay in Paris. Her subjects could rot in hell for all

she cared.

In 1792 the royal couple was moved from the palace to a prison,

as the revolution officially declared die end of die monarchy. The

following year Louis XVI was tried, found guilty, and guillotined. As

Marie-Antoinette awaited die same fate, hardly a soul came to her

defensenot one of her former friends in die court, not one of

Europe's odier monarchs (who, as members of dieir own countries'

royal families, had all die reason in die world to show that revolution

did not pay), not even her own family in Austria, including her

brother, who now sat on the throne. She had become the world's

pariah. In October of 1793, she finally knelt at the guillotine,

unrepentant and defiant to die bitter end.

Interpretation

From early on, Marie-Antoinette acquired the most dangerous of

attitudes: As a young princess in Austria she was endlessly flattered

and cajoled. As die future queen of the French court she was the

center of everyone's attention. She never learned to charm or please

other people, to become attuned to dieir individual psychologies. She

never had to work to get her way, to use calculation or cunning or die

arts of persuasion. And like everyone who is indulged from an early

age, she evolved into a monster of in-sensitivity.

Marie-Antoinette became the focus of an entire country's

dissatisfaction because it is so infuriating to meet with a person who

makes no effort to seduce you or attempt to persuade you, even if

only for die purpose of deception. And do not imagine diat she

represents a bygone era, or diat she is even rare. Her type is today

more common than ever. Such types live in dieir own bubbletiiey

seem to feel tiiey are born kings and queens, and that attention is

owed them. They do not consider anyone else's nature, but bulldoze

over people with the self-righteous arrogance of a Marie-Antoinette.

Pampered and indulged as children, as adults tiiey still believe

told to sit down on the grass and enjoy themselves. After the

meal Cyrus asked them which they preferred yesterday's work or

today's amusement; and they replied that it was indeed a far cry

from the previous day's misery to their present pleasures. This was

the answer which Cyrus wanted; he seized upon it at once and

proceeded to lay bare what he had in mind. “Men of Persia,” he said,

“listen to me: obey my orders, and you will be able to enjoy a

thousand pleasures as good as this without ever turning your hands

to menial labor; but, if you disobey, yesterday 's task will be the

pattern of innumerable others you will be forced to perform. Take my

advice and win your freedom. 1 am the man destined to undertake

your liberation, and it is my belief that you are a match for the Medes

in war as in everything else. It is the truth I tell you. Do not delay, but

fling off the yoke of Astyages at once.”

The Persians had long resented their subjection to the Medes. At

last they had found a leader, and welcomed with enthusiasm the

prospect of liberty.... On the present occasion the Persians under

Cyrus rose against the Medes and from then onwards were masters

of Asia.

the histories, Herodotus, fifth century b.c..

'I UK

The north wind and the

sun were disputing

which was the stronger,

and agreed to

acknowledge as the

victor whichever of

them could strip a

traveler of his clothing.

The wind tried first.

But its violent gusts

only made the man

hold his clothes tightly

around him, and when

it blew harder still the

cold made him so

uncomfortable that he

put on an extra wrap.

Eventually the wind

got tired of it and

handed him over to the

sun. The sun shone first

with a moderate

warmth, which made

the man take off his

topcoat. Then it blazed

fiercely, till, unable

to stand the heat,

he stripped and went

off to bathe in a

nearby river.

Persuasion is more

effective than force.

FABLES,

Aesop, sixth century b.c.

that everything must come to them; convinced of their own

charm, they make no effort to charm, seduce, or gently persuade.

In the realm of power, such attitudes are disastrous. At all times

you must attend to those around you, gauging their particular

psychology, tailoring your words to what you know will entice and

seduce them. This requires energy and art. The higher your station,

the greater the need to remain attuned to the hearts and minds of

those below you, creating a base of support to maintain you at the

pinnacle. Without that base, your power will teeter, and at the

slightest change of fortune those below will gladly assist in your fall

from grace.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

In A.D. 225, Chuko Liang, master strategist and chief minister to

the ruler of Shu in ancient China, confronted a dangerous situation.

The kingdom of Wei had mounted an all-out attack on Shu from the

north. More dangerous still, Wei had formed an alliance with the

barbarous states to the south of Shu, led by King Menghuo. Chuko

Liang had to deal with this second menace from the south before he

could hope to fend off Wei in the north.

As Chuko Liang prepared to march south against the barbarians,

a wise man in his camp offered him advice. It would be impossible,

this man said, to pacify the region by force. Liang would probably

beat Menghuo, but as soon as he headed north again to deal with

Wei, Menghuo would reinvade. “It is better to win hearts,” said the

wise man, “than cities; better to battie with hearts than with weapons.

I hope you will succeed in winning the hearts of these people.” “You

read my thoughts,” responded Chuko Liang.

As Liang expected, Menghuo launched a powerful attack. But

Liang laid a trap and managed to capture a large part of Menghuo's

army, including the king himself. Instead of punishing or executing

his prisoners, however, he separated the soldiers from their king,

had their shackles removed, regaled them with food and wine, and

then addressed them. “You are all upright men,” he said. “I believe

you all have parents, wives, and children waiting for you at home.

They are doubtless shedding bitter tears at your fate. I am going to

release you, so that you can return home to your loved ones and

comfort them.” The men thanked Liang with tears in their eyes; then

he sent for Menghuo. “If I release you,” asked Liang, “what will you

do” “I will pull my army together again,” answered the king, “and lead

it against you to a decisive battle. But if you capture me a second

time, I will bow to your superiority.” Not only did Liang order

Menghuo released, he gave him a gift of a horse and saddle. When

angry lieutenants wondered why he did this, Liang told them, “I can

capture that man as easily as I can take something out of my pocket.

I am trying to win his heart. When I do, peace will come of itself here

in the south.”

As Menghuo had said he would, he attacked again. But his own

officers, whom Liang had treated so well, rebelled against him,

captured him, and turned him over to Liang, who asked him again

die same question as

before. Menghuo replied that he had not been beaten fairly, but

merely betrayed by his own officers; he would fight again, but if

captured a third time he would bow to Liang's superiority.

Over the following months Liang outwitted Menghuo again and

again, capturing him a third, a fourth, and a fifth time. On each

occasion Meng-huo's troops grew more dissatisfied. Liang had

treated mem with respect; they had lost their heart for fighting. But

every time Chuko Liang asked Menghuo to yield, the great king

would come up with another excuse: You tricked me, I lost through

bad luck, on and on. If you capture me again, he would promise, I

swear I will not betray you. And so Liang would let him go.

When he captured Menghuo for the sixth time, he asked the king

the same question again. “If you capture me a sevendi time,” die

king replied, “I shall give you my loyalty and never rebel again.” “Very

well,” said Liang. “But if I capture you again, I will not release you.”

Now Menghuo and his soldiers fled to a far corner of their

kingdom, the region of Wuge. Defeated so many times, Menghuo

had only one hope left: He would ask the help of King Wutugu of

Wuge, who had an immense and ferocious army. Wutugu's warriors

wore an armor of tightly woven vines soaked in oil, then dried to an

impenetrable hardness. Wifh Menghuo at his side, Wutugu marched

diis mighty army against Liang, and this time the great strategist

seemed frightened, leading his men in a hurried retreat. But he was

merely leading Wutugu into a trap: He cornered the king's men in a

narrow valley, then lit fires set all around them. When the fires

reached the soldiers Wutugu's whole army burst into flamethe oil in

their armor, of course, being highly flammable. All of them perished.

Liang had managed to separate Menghuo and his entourage

from the carnage in the valley, and the king found himself a captive

for the seventh time. After this slaughter Liang could not bear to face

his prisoner again. He sent a messenger to the captured king: “He

has commissioned me to release you. Mobilize another army against

him, if you can, and try once more to defeat him.” Sobbing, the king

fell to the ground, crawled to Liang on his hands and knees, and

prostrated himself at his feet. “Oh great minister,” cried Menghuo,

“yours is the majesty of Heaven. We men of the south will never

again offer resistance to your rule.” “Do you now yield” asked Liang.

“I, my sons, and my grandsons are deeply moved by Your Honor's

boundless, life-giving mercy. How could we not yield”

Liang honored Menghuo with a great banquet, reestablished him

on the throne, restored his conquered lands to his rule, then returned

north with his army, leaving no occupying force. Liang never came

backhe had no need to: Menghuo had become his most devoted and

unshakable ally.

Interpretation

Chuko Liang had two options: Try to defeat the barbarians in the

south with one crushing blow, or patiendy and slowly win them to his

side over time. Most people more powerful man their enemy grab the

first option and never consider die second, but the truly powerful

think far ahead: The

The men who have changed the universe have never gotten

there by working on leaders, but rather by moving the masses.

Working on leaders is the method of intrigue and only leads to

secondary results. Working on the masses, however, is the stroke of

genius that changes the face of the world.

Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821

This long and painful pursuit of Dariusfor in eleven days he

marched 33 hundred furlongsharassed his soldiers so that most of

them were ready to give it up, chiefly for want of water. While they

were in this distress, it happened that some Macedonians who had

fetched water in skins upon their mules from a river they had found

out came about noon to the place where Alexander was, and seeing

him almost choked with thirst, presently filled a helmet and offered it

him.... Then he took the helmet into his hands, and looking round

about, when he saw all those who were near him stretching their

heads out and looking earnestly after the drink, he returned it again

with thanks

without tasting a drop of it. “For,”said he, “if I alone should drink,

the rest will be out of heart.” The soldiers no sooner took notice of

his temperance and magnanimity upon this occasion, but they one

and all cried out to him to lead them forward boldly, and began

whipping on their horses. For whilst they had such a king they said

they defied both weariness and thirst, and looked upon themselves

to be little less than immortal.

the life of

alexander tiik great,

Plutarch,

c. a. n. 46-120

first option 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 edgeyou spend your energy

protecting what you have gained, growing paranoid and defensive.

The second option, though more difficult, not only brings you peace

of mind, it converts a potential enemy into a pillar of support.

In all your encounters, take a step backtake the time to calculate

and attune yourself to your targets' emotional makeup and

psychological weaknesses. Force will only strengthen their

resistance. With most people the heart is the key: They are like

children, ruled by their emotions. To soften them up, alternate

harshness with mercy. Play on their basic fears, and also their

lovesfreedom, family, etc. Once you break them down, you will have

a lifelong friend and fiercely loyal ally.

Governments saw men only in mass; but our men, being

irregulars, were not

formations, but individuals. . . . Our kingdoms lay in each man's

mind.

Seven Pillars ofWisdom, T. E. Lawrence, 1888-1935

KEYS TO POWER

In the game of power, you are surrounded by people who have

absolutely no reason to help you unless it is in their interest to do so.

And if you have nothing to offer their self-interest, you are likely to

make them hostile, for tfiey will see in you just one more competitor,

one more waster of their time. Those that overcome this prevailing

coldness are the ones who find the key that unlocks the stranger's

heart and mind, seducing him into their corner, if necessary softening

him up for a punch. But most people never learn this side of die

game. When they meet someone new, rather than stepping back

and probing to see what makes this person unique, they talk about

themselves, eager to impose their own willpower and prejudices.

They argue, boast, and make a show of their power. They may not

know it but they are secretly creating an enemy, a resister, because

there is no more infuriating feeling than having your individuality

ignored, your own psychology unacknowledged. It makes you feel

lifeless and resentful.

Remember: The key to persuasion is softening people up and

breaking them down, gently. Seduce them with a two-pronged

approach: Work on their emotions and play on their intellectual

weaknesses. Be alert to both what separates them from everyone

else (their individual psychology) and what they share with everyone

else (their basic emotional responses). Aim at the primary

emotionslove, hate, jealousy. Once you move their emotions you

have reduced their control, making them more vulnerable to

persuasion.

When Chuko Liang wanted to dissuade an important general of a

rival kingdom from entering into an alliance with Ts'ao Ts'ao, Liang's

dreaded enemy, he did not detail Ts'ao Ts'ao's cruelty, or attack him

on moral grounds. Instead Liang suggested that Ts'ao Ts'ao was

really after the gen-

eral's beautiful young wife. This hit die general in the gut, and

won him over. Mao Tse-tung similarly always appealed to popular

emotions, and spoke in the simplest terms. Educated and well-read

himself, in his speeches he used visceral metaphors, voicing the

public's deepest anxieties and encouraging diem to vent meir

frustrations in public meetings. Radier than arguing die practical

aspects of a particular program, he would describe how it would

affect them on die most primitive, down-to-earth level. Do not believe

diat diis approach works only with die illiterate and unschooledit

works on one and all. All of us are mortal and face the same dreadful

fate, and all of us share die desire for attachment and belonging. Stir

up these emotions and you captivate our hearts.

The best way to do this is with a dramatic jolt, of the kind that

Chuko Liang created when he fed and released prisoners who

expected only the worst from him. Shaking diem to the core, he

softened their hearts. Play on contrasts like this: Push people to

despair, dien give them relief. If diey expect pain and you give them

pleasure, you win meir hearts. Creating pleasure of any kind, in fact,

will usually bring you success, as will allaying fears and providing or

promising security.

Symbolic gestures are often enough to win sympadiy and

goodwill. A gesture of self-sacrifice, for examplea show that you

suffer as those around you dowill make people identify witii you,

even if your suffering is symbolic or minor and dieirs is real. When

you enter a group, make a gesture of goodwill; soften the group up

for the harsher actions that will follow later.

When T. E. Lawrence was fighting the Turks in die deserts of die

Middle East during World War I, he had an epiphany: It seemed to

him that conventional warfare had lost its value. The old-fashioned

soldier was lost in the enormous armies of the time, in which he was

ordered about like a lifeless pawn. Lawrence wanted to turn this

around. For him, every soldier's mind was a kingdom he had to

conquer. A committed, psychologically motivated soldier would fight

harder and more creatively than a puppet.

Lawrence's perception is still more true in die world today, where

so many of us feel alienated, anonymous, and suspicious of

authority, all of which makes overt power plays and force even more

counterproductive and dangerous. Instead of manipulating lifeless

pawns, make mose on your side convinced and excited by die cause

you have enlisted diem in; this will not only make your work easier

but it will also give you more leeway to deceive tilem later on. And to

accomplish diis you need to deal with tiieir individual psychologies.

Never clumsily assume that the tactic that worked on one person will

necessarily work on anodier. To find tile key diat will motivate diem,

first get tiiem to open up. The more they talk, die more they reveal

about their likes and dislikesdie handles and levers to move diem

widi.

The quickest way to secure people's minds is by demonstrating,

as simply as possible, how an action will benefit them. Self-interest is

the

strongest motive of all: A great cause may capture minds, but

once die first flush of excitement is over, interest will flagunless there

is something to be gained. Self-interest is the solider foundation. The

causes that work best use a noble veneer to cover a blatant appeal

to self-interest; the cause seduces but the self-interest secures the

deal.

The people who are best at appealing to people's minds are often

artists, intellectuals, and those of a more poetic nature. This is

because ideas are most easily communicated through metaphors

and imagery. It is always good policy, men, to have in your pocket at

least one artist or intellectual who can appeal concretely to people's

minds. Kings have always kept a stable of writers in meir barn:

Frederick the Great had his Voltaire (until tiiey quarreled and

separated), Napoleon won over Goethe. Conversely, Napoleon Ill's

alienation of writers such as Victor Hugo, whom he exiled from

France, contributed to his growing unpopularity and eventual

downfall. It is dangerous, then, to alienate those who have powers of

expression, and useful to pacify and exploit them.

Finally, learn to play the numbers game. The wider your support

base the stronger your power. Understanding that one alienated,

disaffected soul can spark a blaze of discontent, Louis XIV made

sure to endear himself to die lowest members of his staff. You too

must constantiy win over more allies on all levelsa time will inevitably

come when you will need diem.

Image: The Keyhole. People build walls to keep you out; never

force your way in you will find only more walls within walls. There are

doors in these walls, doors to the heart and mind, and they have tiny

keyholes. Peer through the keyhole, find the key that opens the door,

and you have access to their will with no ugly signs of forced entry.

Authority: The difficulties in the way of persuasion lie in my

knowing the heart of the persuaded in order thereby to fit my wording

into it. . . . For this reason, whoever attempts persuasion before the

throne, must carefully observe the sovereign's feelings of love and

hate, his secret wishes and fears, before he can conquer his heart.

(Han-fei-tzu, Chinese philosopher, third century B.C.)

REVERSAL

There is no possible reversal to this Law.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 44

DISARM AND INFURIATE WITH THE MIRROR EFFECT

JUDGMENT

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.

MIRROR EFFECTS: Preliminary Typology

Mirrors have the power to disturb us. Gazing at our reflection in

the mirror, we most often see what we want to seethe image of

ourselves with which we are most comfortable. We tend not to look

too closely, ignoring the wrinkles and blemishes. But if we do look

hard at the reflected image, we sometimes feel that we are seeing

ourselves as others see us, as a person among other people, an

object rather than a subject. That feeling makes us shudderwe see

ourselves, but from the outside, minus the thoughts, spirit, and soul

that fill our consciousness. We are a thing.

In using Mirror Effects we symbolically re-create this disturbing

power by mirroring the actions of other people, mimicking their

movements to unsettle and infuriate them. Made to feel mocked,

cloned, objectlike, an image without a soul, they get angry. Or do the

same thing slightly differ-endy and they might feel disarmedyou have

perfectly reflected their wishes and desires. This is the narcissistic

power of mirrors. In either case, the Mirror Effect unsettles your

targets, whether angering or entrancing them, and in mat instant you

have die power to manipulate or seduce them. The Effect contains

great power because it operates on the most primitive emotions.

There are four main Mirror Effects in the realm of power:

The Neutralizing Effect. In ancient Greek mythology, the Gorgon

Medusa had serpents for hair, protruding tongue, massive teeth, and

a face so ugly that anyone who gazed at her was turned into stone,

out of fright. But the hero Perseus managed to slay Medusa by

polishing his bronze shield into a mirror, men using the reflection in

the mirror to guide him as he crept up and cut off her head without

looking at her directly. If the shield in this instance was a mirror, the

mirror also was a kind of shield: Medusa could not see Perseus, she

saw only her own reflected actions, and behind this screen the hero

stole up and destroyed her.

This is me essence of the Neutralizing Effect: Do what your

enemies do, following their actions as best you can, and they cannot

see what you are up tothey are blinded by your mirror. Their strategy

for dealing with you depends on your reacting to them in a way

characteristic of you; neutralize it by playing a game of mimicry with

them. The tactic has a mocking, even infuriating effect. Most of us

remember the childhood experience of someone teasing us by

repeating our words exactiyafter a while, usually not long, we wanted

to punch diem in the face. Working more subdy as an adult, you can

still unsettie your opponents diis way; shielding your own strategy

widi the mirror, you lay invisible traps, or push your opponents into

the trap they planned for you.

This powerful technique has been used in military strategy since

the days of Sun-tzu; in our own time it often appears in political

campaigning. It is also useful for disguising those situations in which

you have no particular strategy yourself. This is the Warrior's Mirror.

A reverse version of the Neutralizing Effect is the Shadow: You

THE MERCHANT AND HIS ITilEND

A certain merchant once had a great desire to make a long

journey. Now in regard that he was not very wealthy, “It is requisite,”

said he to himself, “that before my departure 1 should leave some

part of my estate in the city, to the end that if I meet with ill luck in my

travels, I may have wherewithal to keep me at my return.” To this

purpose he delivered a great number of bars of iron, which were a

principal part of his wealth, in trust to one of his friends, desiring him

to keep them during his absence; and then, taking his leave, away

he went. Some time after, having had but ill luck in his travels, he

returned home; and the first thing he did was to go to his friend, and

demand his iron: but his friend, who owed several sums of money,

having sold the iron to pay his own debts, made him this answer: “

Truly, friend,” said he, “I put your iron into a room that was close

locked, imagining it would have been there as secure as my own

gold; but an accident has happened which no one could have

suspected, for there was a rat in the room which ate it all up.” The

merchant, pretending ignorance, replied, "It is a terrible misfortune to

me indeed; but I know of

old that rats love iron extremely; I have suffered by them many

times before in the same manner, and therefore can the better bear

my present affliction.“ This answer extremely pleased the friend, who

was glad to hear the merchant so well inclined to believe that a rat

had eaten his iron; and to remove all suspicions, desired him to dine

with him the next day. The merchant promised he would, but in the

meantime he met in the middle of the city one of his friend's children;

the child he carried home, and locked up in a room. The next day he

went to his friend, who seemed to be in great affliction, which he

asked him the cause of, as if he had been perfectly ignorant of what

had happened. ”O, my dear friend,“ answered the other, ”I beg you to

excuse me, if you do not see me so cheerful as otherwise I would

be; I have lost one of my children; I have had him cried by sound of

trumpet, but I know not what is become of him. “ ”Of“ replied the

merchant, ”1 am grieved to hear this; for yesterday in the evening, as

I parted from hence, I saw an owl in the air with a child in his claws;

but whether it were yours I cannot tell.“ ”Why, you most foolish and

absurd creature!,' replied the friend, "are you not ashamed to tell

such an egregious lie An owl, that weighs at

shadow your opponents' every move without their seeing you.

Use the Shadow to gather information that will neutralize their

strategy later on, when you will be able to thwart their every move.

The Shadow is effective because to follow the movements of others

is to gain valuable insights into their habits and routines. The

Shadow is the preeminent device for detectives and spies.

The Narcissus Effect. Gazing at an image in the waters of a

pond, the Greek youth Narcissus fell in love with it. And when he

found out that the image was his own reflection, and that he

therefore could not consummate his love, he despaired and drowned

himself. All of us have a similar problem: We are profoundly in love

with ourselves, but since this love excludes a love object outside

ourselves, it remains continuously unsatisfied and unfulfilled. The

Narcissus Effect plays on this universal narcissism: You look deep

into the souls of odier people; fathom their inmost desires, their

values, their tastes, their spirit; and you reflect it back to them,

making yourself into a kind of mirror image. Your ability to reflect

their psyche gives you great power over them; they may even feel a

tinge of love.

This is simply the ability to mimic another person not physically,

but psychologically, and it is immensely powerful because it plays

upon the unsatisfied self-love of a child. Normally, people bombard

us with their experiences, their tastes. They hardly ever make the

effort to see things through our eyes. This is annoying, but it also

creates great opportunity: If you can show you understand another

person by reflecting their inmost feelings, they will be entranced and

disarmed, all the more so because it happens so rarely. No one can

resist this feeling of being harmoniously reflected in the outside

world, even though you might well be manufacturing it for their

benefit, and for deceptive purposes of your own.

The Narcissus Effect works wonders in both social life and

business; it gives us both the Seducer's and the Courtier's Mirror.

The Moral Effect The power of verbal argument is extremely

limited, and often accomplishes the opposite of what is intended. As

Gracian remarks, “The truth is generally seen, rarely heard.” The

Moral Effect is a perfect way to demonstrate your ideas through

action. Quite simply, you teach others a lesson by giving them a

taste of their own medicine.

In 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 exacdy what they did to you. You make them feel that their

behavior has been unpleasant, as opposed to hearing you complain

and whine about it, which only gets their defenses up. And as they

feel the result of dieir actions mirrored back at them, they realize in

the profoundest sense how they hurt or punish others with their

unsocial behavior. You objectify the qualities you want them to feel

ashamed of and create a mirror in which they can gaze at their follies

and learn a lesson about themselves. This technique is often used

by educators, psychologists, and anyone who has to deal with un-

pleasant and unconscious behavior. This is the Teacher's Mirror.

Whether or not there is actually anydiing wrong witii the way people

have treated you, however, it can often be to your advantage to

reflect it back to them in a way that makes them feel guilty about it.

The Hallucinatory Effect Mirrors are tremendously deceptive, for

they create a sense that you are looking at the real world. Actually,

though, you are only staring at a piece of glass, which, as everyone

knows, cannot show the world exactly as it is: Everything in a mirror

is reversed. When Alice goes dirough the looking glass in Lewis

Carroll's book, she enters a world that is back-to-front, and more

than just visually.

The Hallucinatory Effect comes from creating a perfect copy of an

object, a place, a person. This copy acts as a kind of dummypeople

take it for the real thing, because it has the physical appearance of

the real thing. This is the preeminent technique of con artists, who

strategically mimic the real world to deceive you. It also has

applications in any arena that requires camouflage. This is the

Deceiver's Mirror.

OBSERVANCES OF MIRROR EFFECTS

Observance I

In February of 1815, the emperor Napoleon escaped from the

island of Elba, where he had been imprisoned by die allied forces of

Europe, and returned to Paris in a march that stirred the French

nation, rallying troops and citizens of all classes to his side and

chasing his successor, King Louis XVIII, off the throne. By March,

however, having reestablished himself in power, he had to face the

fact that France's situation had gravely changed. The country was

devastated, he had no allies among the other European nations, and

his most loyal and important ministers had deserted him or left the

country. Only one man remained from die old regimeJoseph Fouche,

his former minister of police.

Napoleon had relied on Fouche to do his dirty work throughout

his previous reign, but he had never been able to figure his minister

out. He kept a corps of agents to spy on all of his ministers, so that

he would always have an edge on them, but no one had gotten

anything on Fouche. If suspected of some misdeed, the minister

would not get angry or take the accusation personallyhe would

submit, nod, smile, and change colors chameleonlike, adapting to tiie

requirements of die moment. At first diis had seemed somewhat

pleasant and charming, but after a while it frustrated Napoleon, who

felt outdone by this slippery man. At one time or another he had fired

all of his most important ministers, including Talleyrand, but he never

touched Fouche. And so, in 1815, back in power and in need of help,

he felt he had no choice but to reappoint Fouche as his minister of

police.

Several weeks into his new reign, Napoleon's spies told him they

be-

most not above two or three pounds, can he carry a boy that

weighs above fifty“ ”Why, “ replied the merchant, ”do you make such

a wonder at that As if in a country where one rat can eat a hundred

tons ' weight of iron, it were such a wonder for an owl to carry a child

that weighs not over fifty pounds in all!" The friend, upon this, found

that the merchant was no such fool as he took him to be, begged his

pardon for the cheat which he designed to have put upon him,

restored him the value of his iron, and so had his son again. ,

India,

fourth century

When you have come to grips and are striving together with the

enemy, and you realize that you cannot advance, you “soak in” and

become one with the enemy. You can win by applying a suitable

technique while you are mutually entangled. ... You can win often

decisively with the advantage of knowing how to “soak ” into the

enemy, whereas, were you to draw apart, you would lose the chance

to win.

a book of five rings, Miyamoto Musashi, Japan, seventeenth

century

One day Mr. Fox decided to fork out And invite old Mrs. Stork out.

The dinner wasn 't elaborate Being habitually mean, He didn 't go in

for haute cuisine In fact it consisted of a shallow plate Of thin gruel.

Within a minute Our joker had lapped his plate clean; Meanwhile his

guest. fishing away with her beak, Got not a morsel in it. To pay him

back for this cruel Practical joke, the stork invited The fox to dinner

the following week. “I should be delighted,” He replied; “ When it

comes to friends I never stand upon pride. ” Punctually on the day he

ran To his hostess's house and at once began Praising everything:

“What taste! What chic! And the fooddone just to a turn!” Then sat

down with a hearty appetite (Foxes are always ready to eat) And

savored the delicious smell of meat. It was minced meat and

servedto serve him right! In a long-necked, narrow-mouthed urn. The

stork, easily stooping, Enjoyed her fill With her long bill; His snout,

though,

lieved Fouche was in secret contact with ministers of foreign

countries, including Metternich of Austria. Afraid that his most

valuable minister was betraying him to his enemies, Napoleon had to

find out the truth before it was too late. He could not confront Fouche

directlyin person the man was as slippery as an eel. He needed hard

proof.

This seemed to come in April, when the emperor's private police

cap tured a Viennese gentleman who had come to Paris to pass

information on to Fouche. Ordering the man brought before him,

Napoleon threatened to shoot him then and mere unless he

confessed; the man broke down and admitted he had given Fouche

a letter from Metternich, written in invisible ink, arranging for a secret

meeting of special agents in Basel. Napoleon accordingly ordered

one of his own agents to infiltrate this meeting. If Fouche was indeed

planning to betray him, he would finally be caught red-handed and

would hang.

Napoleon waited impatiently for the agent's return, but to his

bewilderment the agent showed up days later reporting that he had

heard nothing that would implicate Fouche in a conspiracy. In fact it

seemed that the other agents present suspected Fouche of double-

crossing them, as if he were working for Napoleon all along.

Napoleon did not believe this for an instantFouche had somehow

outwitted him again.

The following morning Fouche visited Napoleon, and remarked,

“By me way, sire, I never told you tiiat I had a letter from Metternich a

few days ago; my mind was so full of things of greater moment.

Besides, his emissary omitted to give me die powder needed to

make die writing legible. . . . Here at lengdi is the letter.” Sure that

Fouche was toying widi him, Napoleon exploded, “You are a traitor,

Fouche! I ought to have you hanged.” He continued to harangue

Fouche, but could not fire him without proof. Fouche only expressed

amazement at die emperor's words, but inwardly he smiled, for all

along he had been playing a mirroring game. Interpretation

Fouche had known for years that Napoleon kept on top of those

around him by spying on them day and night. The minister had

survived this game by having his own spies spy on Napoleon's

spies, dius neutralizing any action Napoleon might take against him.

In the case of die meeting in Basel, he even turned die tables:

Knowing about Napoleon's double agent, he set it up so that it would

appear as if Fouche were a loyal double agent too.

Fouche gained power and flourished in a period of great tumult

by mirroring those around him. During the French Revolution he was

a radical Jacobin; after die Terror he became a moderate republican;

and under Napoleon he became a committed imperialist whom

Napoleon ennobled and made die duke of Otranto. If Napoleon took

up the weapon of digging up dirt on people, Fouche made sure he

had die dirt on Napoleon, as well as on everyone else. This also

allowed him to predict die emperor's plans and desires, so that he

could echo his boss's sentiments before he had even uttered diem.

Shielding his actions witii a mirror strategy, Fouche could also plot

offensive moves widiout being caught in die act.

This is the power of mirroring those around you. First, you give

people

the feeling that you share their thoughts and goals. Second, if

they suspect you have ulterior motives, the mirror shields you from

them, preventing them from figuring out your strategy. Eventually this

will infuriate and unsettle them. By playing the double, you steal their

thunder, suck away dieir initiative, make them feel helpless. You also

gain die ability to choose when and how to unsettle themanother

avenue to power. And the mirror saves you mental energy: simply

echoing die moves of others gives you the space you need to

develop a strategy of your own.

Observance II

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 widi odiers,

he would sense dieir moods and tastes, then carefully tailor his

words and actions to mirror their inmost desires. He would seduce

diem with the idea that dieir values were superior to everyone else's,

and that his goal was to model himself on them or help them realize

dieir dreams. Few could resist his charm.

The first man to fall under his spell was die 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

fooledhe was not unaware of Alcibiades' otiier life. But diat 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.

The Adienians considered Alcibiades dieir greatest orator, for he

had an uncanny ability to tune in to his audience's aspirations, and

mirror their desires. He made his greatest speeches in support of die

invasion of Sicily, which he diought would bring great wealth to

Adiens and limidess glory to himself. The speeches gave expression

to young Adienians' thirst to conquer lands for themselves, rather

than living off die victories of their ancestors. But he also tailored his

words to reflect older men's nostalgia for die glory years when

Adiens led die Greeks against Persia, and dien went on to create an

empire. All Athens now dreamed of conquering Sicily; Alcibiades'

plan was approved, and he was made the expedition's commander.

While Alcibiades was leading die invasion of Sicily, however,

certain Adienians fabricated charges against him of profaning sacred

statues. He knew his enemies would have him executed if he

returned home, so at die last minute he deserted the Adienian fleet

and defected to Athens's bitter enemy, Sparta. The Spartans

welcomed this great man to their side, but diey knew his reputation

and were wary of him. Alcibiades loved luxury; die Spartans were a

warrior people who worshipped austerity, and they were afraid he

would corrupt their youth. But much to dieir relief, the Al-

being the wrong shape and size, He had to return to his den

Empty-bellied, tail dragging, ears drooping,

As red in the face as a fox who's been caught by a hen.

selected fables, Jean de La Fontaine, 1621-1695

When I wish to find out how wise, or how stupid, or how good, or

how wicked is any one, or what are his thoughts at the moment, I

fashion the expression of my face, as accurately as possible, in

accordance with the expression of his, and then wait to see what

thoughts or sentiments arise in my mind or heart, as if to match or

correspond with the expression.

Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849

Lorenzo [de' Medici] lost no opportunity of increasing the respect

which Pope Innocent now felt for him and of gaining his friendship, if

possible his affection. He took the trouble to discover the Pope's

tastes and indulged them accordingly. He sent him ... casks of his

favourite wine.... He sent him courteous, flattering letters in which he

assured him, when the Pope was ill, that he felt his sufferings as

though they were his own, in which he encouraged him with such

fortifying statements as “a Pope is what he wills to be, ” and in which,

as though incidentally, he included his views on the proper course of

papal policies. Innocent was gratified by Lorenzo's attentions and

convinced by his arguments.... So completely, indeed, did he come

to share his opinions that, as the disgruntled Ferrarese ambassador

put it, “the Pope sleeps with the eyes of the Magnificent Lorenzo. ”

the house

of medici:

its rise and fall,

Christopher Hibbert,

cibiades who arrived in Sparta was not at all what they expected:

He wore his hair untrimmed (as they did), took cold baths, ate coarse

bread and black broth, and wore simple domes. To the Spartans this

signified mat he had come to see their way of life as superior to the

Athenian; greater than they were, he had chosen to be a Spartan

rather than being born one, and should thus be honored above all

others. They fell under his spell and gave him great powers.

Unfortunately Alcibiades rarely knew how to rein in his charmhe

managed to seduce the king of Sparta's wife and make her

pregnant. When this became public he once more had to flee for his

life.

This time Alcibiades defected to Persia, where he suddenly went

from Spartan simplicity to embracing die lavish Persian lifestyle

down to the last detail. It was of course immensely flattering to the

Persians to see a Greek of Alcibiades' stature prefer their culture

over his own, and they showered him with honors, land, and power.

Once seduced by the mirror, they failed to notice that behind this

shield Alcibiades was playing a double game, se-credy helping the

Athenians in their war with Sparta and thus reingratiat-ing himself

with the city to which he desperately wanted to return, and which

welcomed him back with open arms in 408 B.C. Interpretation

Early in his political career, Alcibiades made a discovery that

changed his whole approach to power: He had a colorful and forceful

personality, but when he argued his ideas strongly with other people

he would win over a few while at the same time alienating many

more. The secret to gaining ascendancy over large numbers, he

came to believe, was not to impose his colors but to absorb the

colors of those around him, like a chameleon. Once people fell for

the trick, the deceptions he went on to practice would be invisible to

them.

Understand: Everyone is wrapped up in their own narcissistic

shell. When you try to impose your own ego on them, a wall goes up,

resistance is increased. By mirroring them, however, you seduce

them into a kind of narcissistic rapture: They are gazing at a double

of their own soul. This double is actually manufactured in its entirety

by you. Once you have used the mirror to seduce them, you have

great power over them.

It is worth noting, however, the dangers in the promiscuous use

of the mirror. In Alcibiades' presence people felt larger, as if their

egos had been doubled. But once he left, they felt empty and

diminished, and when they saw him mirroring completely different

people as totally as he had mirrored them, they felt not just

diminished but betrayed. Alcibiades' overuse of the Mirror Effect

made whole peoples feel used, so that he constandy had to flee from

one place to another. Indeed Alcibiades so angered the Spartans

that they finally had him murdered. He had gone too far. The

Seducer's Mirror must be used with caution and discrimination.

Observance III

In 1652 the recendy widowed Baroness Mancini moved her

family from

Rome to Paris, where she could count on the influence and

protection of

her brother Cardinal Mazarin, the French prime minister. Of the

baroness's five daughters, four dazzled the court with their beauty

and high spirits. These infamously charming nieces of Cardinal

Mazarin became known as the Mazarinettes, and soon found

themselves invited to all the most important court functions.

One daughter, Marie Mancini, did not share this good fortune, for

she lacked the beauty and grace of her sisterswho, along with her

mother and even Cardinal Mazarin, eventually came to dislike her,

for they felt she spoiled the family image. They tried to persuade her

to enter a convent, where she would be less of an embarrassment,

but she refused. Instead she applied herself to her studies, learning

Latin and Greek, perfecting her French, and practicing her musical

skills. On the rare occasions when the family would let her attend

court affairs, she trained herself to be an artful listener, sizing people

up for their weaknesses and hidden desires. And when she finally

met the future King Louis XIV, in 1657 (Louis was seventeen years

old, Marie eighteen), she decided that to spite her family and uncle,

she would find a way to make this young man fall in love with her.

This was a seemingly impossible task for such a plain-looking

girl, but Marie studied the future king closely. She noticed that her

sisters' frivolity did not please him, and she sensed that he loathed

the scheming and petty politicking that went on all around him. She

saw that he had a romantic na-turehe read adventure novels,

insisted on marching at the head of his armies, and had high ideals

and a passion for glory. The court did not feed these fantasies of his;

it was a banal, superficial world that bored him.

The key to Louis's heart, Marie saw, would be to construct a

mirror reflecting his fantasies and his youthful yearnings for glory and

romance. To begin with she immersed herself in the romantic novels,

poems, and plays that she knew the young king read voraciously.

When Louis began to engage her in conversation, to his delight she

would talk of the things that stirred his soulnot this fashion or that

piece of gossip, but rather courtly love, the deeds of great knights,

the nobility of past kings and heroes. She fed his thirst for glory by

creating an image of an august, superior king whom he could aspire

to become. She stirred his imagination.

As the future Sun King spent more and more time in Marie's

presence, it eventually became clear that he had fallen in love with

the least likely young woman of the court. To the horror of her sisters

and mother, he showered Marie Mancini with attention. He brought

her along on his military campaigns, and made a show of stationing

her where she could watch as he marched into battle. He even

promised Marie that he would marry her and make her queen.

Mazarin, however, would never allow the king to marry his niece,

a woman who could bring France no diplomatic or royal alliances.

Louis had to marry a princess of Spain or Austria. In 1658 Louis

succumbed to the pressure and agreed to break off the first romantic

involvement of his life. He did so with much regret, and at the end of

his life he acknowledged that he never loved anyone as much as

Marie Mancini.

Wittgenstein had an extraordinary gift for divining the thoughts of

the person with whom he was engaged in discussion. While the

other struggled to put his thought into words, Wittgenstein would

perceive what it was and state it for him. This power of his, which

sometimes seemed uncanny, was made possible, I am sure, by his

own prolonged and continuous researches.

LUDWIO WITTGENSTEIN: A MEMOIR,

Norman Malcolm. 1958

The doctor should be opaque to his patients, and like a mirror,

should show them nothing but what is shown to him.

Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939

Interpretation

Marie Mancini played the seducer's game to perfection. First, she

took a step back, to study her prey. Seduction often fails to get past

the first step because it is too aggressive; the first move must always

be a retreat. By studying the king from a distance Marie saw what

distinguished him from otiiershis high ideals, romantic nature, and

snobbish disdain for petty politics. Marie's next step was to make a

mirror for these hidden yearnings on Louis's part, letting him glimpse

what he himself could bea godlike king!

This mirror had several functions: Satisfying Louis's ego by giving

him a double to look at, it also focused on him so exclusively as to

give him the feeling that Marie existed for him alone. Surrounded by

a pack of scheming courtiers who only had their own self-interest at

heart, he could not fail to be touched by this devotional focus. Finally

Marie's mirror set up an ideal for him to live up to: the noble knight of

the medieval court. To a soul both romantic and ambitious, nothing

could be more intoxicating than to have someone hold up an

idealized reflection of him. In effect it was Marie Mancini who created

the image of die Sun Kingindeed Louis later admitted the enormous

part she had played in fashioning his radiant self-image.

This is the power of the Seducer's Mirror: By doubling the tastes

and ideals of the target, it shows your attention to his or her

psychology, an attention more charming than any aggressive pursuit.

Find out what sets the other person apart, then hold up the mirror

that will reflect it and bring it out of diem. Feed their fantasies of

power and greatness by reflecting their ideals, and they will

succumb.

Observance IV

In 1538, with the death of his mother, Helena, the eight-year-old

future czar Ivan IV (or Ivan the Terrible) of Russia became an

orphan. For the next five years he watched as the princely class, the

boyars, terrorized the country. Now and then, to mock the young

Ivan, they would make him wear a crown and scepter and place him

on the throne. When the little boy's feet dangled over the edge of the

chair, they would laugh and lift him off it, handing him from man to

man in the air, making him feel his helplessness compared to them.

When Ivan was thirteen, he boldly murdered the boyar leader and

ascended to the dirone. For the next few decades he struggled to

subdue the boyars' power, but they continued to defy him. By 1575

his efforts to transform Russia and defeat its enemies had exhausted

him. Meanwhile, his subjects were complaining bitterly about his

endless wars, his secret police, the unvanquished and oppressive

boyars. His own ministers began to question his moves. Finally he

had had enough. In 1564 he had temporarily abandoned the throne,

forcing his subjects to call him back to power. Now he took the

strategy a step further, and abdicated.

To take his place Ivan elevated a general of his, Simeon

Bekbulatovich,

to the throne. But although Simeon had recently converted to

Christianity, he was by birth a Tartar, and his enthronement was an

insult to Ivan's subjects, since Russians looked down on the Tartars

as inferiors and infidels. Yet Ivan ordered that all Russians, including

the boyars, pledge obedience to their new ruler. And while Simeon

moved into the Kremlin, Ivan lived in a humble house on Moscow's

outskirts, from which he would sometimes visit the palace, bow

before the throne, sit among the other boyars, and humbly petition

Simeon for favors.

Over time it became clear that Simeon was a kind of king's

double. He dressed like Ivan, and acted like Ivan, but he had no real

power, since no one would really obey him. The boyars at the court

who were old enough to remember taunting Ivan when he was a boy,

by placing him on the throne, saw the connection: They had made

Ivan feel like a weak pretender, so now he mirrored them by placing

a weak pretender of his own on the throne.

For two long years Ivan held the mirror of Simeon up to the

Russian people. The mirror said: Your whining and disobedience

have made me a czar widi no real power, so I will reflect back to you

a czar with no real power. You have treated me disrespectfully, so I

will do the same to you, making Russia the laughingstock of the

world. In 1577, in the name of the Russian people, the chastised

boyars once again begged Ivan to return to the throne, which he did.

He lived as czar until his death, in 1584, and the conspiracies,

complaining, and second-guessing disappeared along with Simeon.

Interpretation

In 1564, after threatening to abdicate, Ivan had been granted

absolute powers. But these powers had slowly been chipped away

as every sector of societythe boyars, the church, the governmentvied

for more control. Foreign wars had exhausted the country, internal

bickering had increased, and Ivan's attempts to respond had been

met widi scorn. Russia had turned into a kind of boisterous

classroom in which the pupils laughed openly at the teacher. If he

raised his voice or complained, he only met more resistance. He had

to teach them a lesson, give them a taste of meir own medicine.

Simeon Bekbulatovich was the mirror he used to do so.

After two years in which the throne had been an object of ridicule

and disgust, the Russian people learned their lesson. They wanted

their czar back, conceding to him all the dignity and respect that the

position should always have commanded. For the rest of his reign,

Russia and Ivan got along fine.

Understand: People are locked in their own experiences. When

you whine about some insensitivity on their part, they may seem to

understand, but inwardly they are untouched and even more

resistant. The goal of power is always to lower people's resistance to

you. For mis you need tricks, and one trick is to teach them a lesson.

Instead of haranguing people verbally, then, create a kind of

mirror of their behavior. In doing so you leave them two choices:

They can ignore

you, or they can start to think about themselves. And even if tfiey

ignore you, you will have planted a seed in their unconscious that will

eventually take root. When you mirror their behavior, incidentally, do

not be afraid to add a touch of caricature and exaggeration, as Ivan

did by entiironing a Tartarit is the little spice in die soup mat will open

dieir eyes and make diem see the ridiculousness in dieir own

actions.

Observance V

Dr. Milton H. Erickson, a pioneer in strategic psychodierapy,

would often educate his patients powerfully but indirectly by creating

a kind of mirror effect. Constructing an analogy to make patients see

the trutii on their own, he would bypass their resistance to change.

When Dr. Erickson treated married couples complaining of sexual

problems, for instance, he often found that psychotherapy's tradition

of direct confrontation and problem-airing only heightened the

spouses' resistance and sharpened their differences. Instead, he

would draw a husband and wife out on other topics, often banal

ones, trying to find an analogy for die sexual conflict.

In one couple's first session, the pair were discussing their eating

habits, especially at dinner. The wife preferred die leisurely

approacha drink before the meal, some appetizers, and then a small

main course, all at a slow, civilized pace. This frustrated the

husbandhe wanted to get dinner over quickly and to dig right into the

main course, the bigger the better. As the conversation continued,

the couple began to catch glimpses of an analogy to their problems

in bed. The moment they made tiiis connection, however, Dr.

Erickson would change the subject, carefully avoiding a discussion

of the real problem.

The couple diought Erickson was just getting to know them and

would deal widi the problem direcdy die next time he saw diem. But

at die end of diis first session, Dr. Erickson directed them to arrange

a dinner a few nights away tiiat would combine each person's desire:

The wife would get the slow meal, including time spent bonding, and

the husband would get the big dishes he wanted to eat. Widiout

realizing they were acting under the doctor's gende guidance, the

couple would walk into a mirror of their problem, and in the mirror

they would solve their problems themselves, ending die evening just

as the doctor had hopedby mirroring the improved dinner dynamics

in bed.

In dealing with more severe problems, such as die

schizophrenic's mirror fantasy world of his or her own construction,

Dr. Erickson would always try to enter the mirror and work within it.

He once treated a hospital inmate who believed he was Jesus

Christdraping sheets around his body, talking in vague parables, and

bombarding staff and patients widi endless Christian proselytizing.

No therapy or drugs seemed to work, until one day Dr. Erickson went

up to die young man and said, “I understand you have had

experience as a carpenter.” Being Christ, the patient had to say that

he had had such experience, and Erickson immediately put him to

work building bookcases and otiier useful items, allowing him to wear

his Jesus garb. Over the next weeks, as the patient worked on diese

projects,

his mind became less occupied with Jesus fantasies and more

focused on his labor. As the carpentry work took precedence, a

psychic shift took effect: The religious fantasies remained, but faded

comfortably into the background, allowing the man to function in

society. Interpretation

Communication depends on metaphors and symbols, which are

the basis of language itself. A metaphor is a kind of mirror to the

concrete and real, which it often expresses more clearly and deeply

than a literal description does. When you are dealing with the

intractable willpower of other people, direct communication often

only heightens their resistance.

This happens most clearly when you complain about people's

behavior, particularly in sensitive areas such as their lovemaking.

You will effect a far more lasting change if, like Dr. Erickson, you

construct an analogy, a symbolic mirror of the situation, and guide

the other through it. As Christ himself understood, talking in parables

is often the best way to teach a lesson, for it allows people to realize

the truth on tfieir own.

When dealing with people who are lost in the reflections of

fantasy worlds (including a host of people who do not live in mental

hospitals), never try to push them into reality by shattering their

mirrors. Instead, enter meir world and operate inside it, under their

rules, gently guiding them out of the hall of mirrors tiiey have

entered.

Observance VI

The great sixteenth-century Japanese tea master Takeno Sho-o

once passed by a house and noticed a young man watering flowers

near his front gate. Two things caught Sho-o's attentionfirst, the

graceful way the man performed his task; and, second, the

stunningly beautiful rose of Sharon blossoms that bloomed in the

garden. He stopped and introduced himself to the man, whose name

was Sen no Rikyu. Shoo wanted to stay, but he had a prior

engagement and had to hurry off. Before he left, however, Rikyu

invited him to take tea with him the following morning. Sho-o happily

accepted.

When Sho-o opened the garden gate the next day, he was

horrified to see that not a single flower remained. More than anything

else, he had come to see the rose of Sharon blossoms that he had

not had the time to appreciate the day before; now, disappointed, he

started to leave, but at the gate he stopped himself, and decided to

enter Sen no Rikyu's tea room. Immediately inside, he stopped in his

tracks and gazed in astonishment: Before him a vase hung from the

ceiling, and in the vase stood a single rose of Sharon blossom, the

most beautiful in the garden. Somehow Sen no Rikyu had read his

guest's thoughts, and, with this one eloquent gesture, had

demonstrated that this day guest and host would be in perfect

harmony.

Sen no Rikyu went on to become the most famous tea master of

all, and his trademark was this uncanny ability to harmonize himself

with his guests' tfioughts and to think one step ahead, enchanting

them by adapting to their taste.

One day Rikyu was invited to tea by Yamashina Hechigwan, an

ad-

mirer of the tea ceremony but also a man with a vivid sense of

humor. When Rikyu arrived at Hechigwan's home, he found the

garden gate shut, so he opened it to look for the host. On the other

side of the gate he saw that someone had first dug a ditch, then

carefully covered it over widi canvas and earth. Realizing that

Hechigwan had planned a practical joke, he obligingly walked right

into the ditch, muddying his clothes in the process.

Apparently horrified, Hechigwan came running out, and hurried

Rikyu to a bath mat for some inexplicable reason stood already

prepared. After bathing, Rikyu joined Hechigwan in the tea

ceremony, which both enjoyed immensely, sharing a laugh about the

accident. Later Sen no Rikyu explained to a friend that he had heard

about Hechigwan's practical joke beforehand, “But since it should

always be one's aim to conform to the wishes of one's host, I fell into

the hole knowingly and thus assured the success of the meeting. Tea

is by no means mere obsequiousness, but there is no tea where the

host and guest are not in harmony with one another.” Hechigwan's

vision of the dignified Sen no Rikyu at the bottom of a ditch had

pleased him endlessly, but Rikyu had gained a pleasure of his own in

complying with his host's wish and watching him amuse himself in

this way. Interpretation

Sen no Rikyu was no magician or seerhe watched those around

him acutely, plumbing the subde gestures that revealed a hidden

desire, then producing that desire's image. Although Sho-o never

spoke of being enchanted by the rose of Sharon blossoms, Rikyu

read it in his eyes. If mirroring a person's desires meant falling into a

ditch, so be it. Rikyu's power resided in his skillful use of the

Courtier's Mirror, which gave him the appearance of an unusual

ability to see into other people.

Learn to manipulate die Courtier's Mirror, for it will bring you great

power. Study people's eyes, follow their gesturessurer barometers of

pain and pleasure than any spoken word. Notice and remember the

detailsthe doming, the choice of friends, the daily habits, the tossed-

out remarks that reveal hidden and rarely indulged desires. Soak it

all in, find out what lies under the surface, then make yourself the

mirror of their unspoken selves. That is the key to this power: The

other person has not asked for your consideration, has not

mentioned his pleasure in the rose of Sharon, and when you reflect it

back to him his pleasure is heightened because it is unasked for.

Remember: The wordless communication, the indirect compliment,

contains the most power. No one can resist the enchantment of the

Courtier's Mirror.

Observance VII

Yellow Kid Weil, con artist extraordinaire, used the Deceiver's

Mirror in his most brilliant cons. Most audacious of all was his re-

creation of a bank in Muncie, Indiana. When Weil read one day that

the Merchants Bank in Muncie had moved, he saw an opportunity he

could not pass up.

Weil rented out the original Merchants building, which still

contained bank furniture, complete with teller windows. He bought

money bags,

stenciled a bank's invented name on them, filled them with steel

washers, and arrayed them impressively behind the teller windows,

along with bundles of boodlereal bills hiding newspaper cut to size.

For his bank's staff and customers Weil hired gamblers, bookies,

girls from local bawdy houses, and other assorted confederates. He

even had a local thug pose as a bank dick.

Claiming to be the broker for a certificate investment the bank

was offering, Weil would fish the waters and hook the proper wealthy

sucker. He would bring this man to the bank and ask to see the

president. An “officer” of the bank would tell them that they had to

wait, which only heightened the realism of the conone always has to

wait to see the bank president. And as they waited the bank would

bustle with banklike activity, as call girls and bookies in disguise

floated in and out, making deposits and withdrawals and tipping their

hats to the phony bank dick. Lulled by this perfect copy of reality, the

sucker would deposit $50,000 into the fake bank without a worry in

the world.

Over the years Weil did the same thing with a deserted yacht

club, an abandoned brokerage office, a relocated real estate office,

and a completely realistic gambling club. Interpretation

The mirroring of reality offers immense deceptive powers. The

right uniform, the perfect accent, the proper propsthe deception

cannot be deciphered because it is enmeshed in a simulation of

reality. People have an intense desire and need to believe, and their

first instinct is to trust a well-constructed facade, to mistake it for

reality. After all, we cannot go around doubting the reality of

everything we seethat would be too exhausting. We habitually

accept appearances, and this is a credulity you can use.

In this particular game it is the first moment that counts the most.

If your suckers' suspicions are not raised by their first glance at the

mirror's reflection, they will stay suppressed. Once they enter your

hall of mirrors, they will be unable to distinguish the real from the

fake, and it will become easier and easier to deceive them.

Remember: Study the world's surfaces and learn to mirror them in

your habits, your manner, your clothes. Like a carnivorous plant, to

unsuspecting insects you will look like all the other plants in the field.

Authority: The task of a military operation is to accord deceptively

with the intentions of the enemy . . . get to what they want first, subtly

anticipate them. Maintain discipline and adapt to the enemy. .. .

Thus, at first you are like a maiden, so the enemy opens his door;

then you are like a rabbit on the loose, so the enemy cannot keep

you out. (Sun-tzu, fourth century B.C.)

Image: The Shield of Perseus. It is polished into a reflecting

mirror. Medusa cannot see you, only her own hideousness reflected

back at her. Behind such a mirror you can deceive, mock, and

infuriate. With one blow you sever Medusa's unsuspecting head.

A WARNING: BEWARE OF MIRRORED SITUATIONS Mirrors

contain great power but also dangerous reefs, including the mirrored

situationa situation that seems to reflect or closely resemble a

previous one, mostly in style and surface appearance. You can often

back into such a situation without fully understanding it, while those

around you understand it quite well, and compare it and you to

whatever happened before. 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.

In 1864 the composer Richard Wagner moved to Munich at the

behest of Ludwig II, known variously as the Swan King or the Mad

King of Bavaria. Ludwig was Wagner's biggest fan and most

generous patron. The strength of his support turned Wagner's

headonce established in Munich under the king's protection, he

would be able to say and do whatever he wanted.

Wagner moved into a lavish house, which the king eventually

bought for him. This house was but a stone's throw from the former

home of Lola Montez, the notorious courtesan who had plunged

Ludwig IPs grandfather into a crisis that had forced him to abdicate.

Warned that he could be infected by this association, Wagner only

scoffed“I am no Lola Montez,” he said. Soon enough, however, the

citizens of Munich began to resent the favors and money showered

on Wagner, and dubbed him “the second Lola,” or “Lolotte.” He

unconsciously began to tread in Lola's footsteps spending money

extravagantly, meddling in matters beyond music, even dabbling in

politics and advising the king on cabinet appointments. Meanwhile

Ludwig's affection for Wagner seemed intense and undignified for a

king-just like his grandfather's love for Lola Montez.

Eventually Ludwig's ministers wrote him a letter: “Your Majesty

now stands at a fateful parting of the ways: you have to choose

between the love and respect of your faithful people and the

'friendship' of Richard Wagner.” In December of 1865, Ludwig

politely asked his friend to leave and never return. Wagner had

inadvertently placed himself in Lola Montez's reflection. Once there,

everything he did reminded the stolid Bavarians of that dread

woman, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Avoid such 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, and any situation beyond

your control is dangerous. Even 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

ever notice people associating you with some past event or person,

do everything you can to separate yourself from that memory and to

shatter the reflection.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 45

PREACH THE NEED

FOR CHANGE, BUT

NEVER REFORM

TOO MUCH AT ONCE

JUDGMENT

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.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

Sometime in die early 1520s, King Henry VIII of England decided

to divorce his wife, Catfierine of Aragon, because she had failed to

bear him a son, and because he had fallen in love with die young

and comely Anne Boleyn. The pope, Clement VII, opposed die

divorce, and threatened die king widi excommunication. The king's

most powerful minister, Cardinal Wolsey, also saw no need for

divorceand his halfhearted support of die 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 widi die past. He convinced die king mat by

severing ties widi Rome and making himself the head of a newly

formed English church, he could divorce Cadierine and marry Anne.

By 1531 Henry saw diis as die only solution. To reward Cromwell for

his simple but brilliant idea, he elevated diis son of a blacksmitii to

die post of royal councillor.

By 1534 Cromwell had been named die king's secretary, and as

me power behind die dirone he had become die most powerful man

in England. But for him die break widi Rome went beyond die

satisfaction of die king's carnal desires: He envisioned a new

Protestant order in England, wim die power of die Cadiolic Church

smashed and its vast wealdi in the hands of die king and die

government. In diat same year he initiated a complete survey of die

churches and monasteries of England. And as it turned out, die

treasures and moneys diat die churches had accumulated over me

centuries were far more tiian he had imagined; his spies and agents

came back widi astonishing figures.

To justify his schemes, Cromwell circulated stories about die

corruption in die English monasteries, dieir abuse of power, their

exploitation of die people tiiey supposedly served. Having won

Parhament's support for breaking up die monasteries, he began to

seize meir holdings and to put diem out of existence one by one. At

die same time, he began to impose Protestantism, introducing

reforms in religious ritual and punishing tiiose who stuck to

Cadiolicism, and who now were called heretics. Virtually overnight,

England was converted to a new official religion.

A terror fell on die country. Some people had suffered under die

Catiiolic Church, which before die reforms had been immensely

powerful, but most Britons had strong ties to Cadiolicism and to its

comforting rituals. They watched in horror as churches were

demolished, images of die Madonna and saints were broken in

pieces, stained-glass windows were smashed, and die churches'

treasures were confiscated. Widi monasteries diat had succored die

poor suddenly gone, the poor now flooded die streets. The growing

ranks of die beggar class were further swelled by former monks. On

top of all diis, Cromwell levied high taxes to pay for his ecclesiastical

reforms.

In 1535 powerful revolts in die North of England tiireatened to

topple Henry from his throne. By die following year he had

suppressed die rebellions, but he had also begun to see die costs of

Cromwell's reforms. The king himself had never wanted to go diis

farhe had only wanted a di-

WHKRK CHRISTMAS CAME FROM Celebrating the turn of the

year is an ancient custom. The Romans celebrated the Saturnalia,

the festival of Saturn, god of the harvest, between December 17 and

23. It was the most cheerful festival of the year. All work and

commerce stopped, and the streets were filled with crowds and a

carnival atmosphere. Slaves were temporarily freed, and the houses

were decorated with laurel branches. People visited one another,

bringing gifts of wax candles and little clay figurines.

Long before the birth of Christ, the Jews celebrated an eight-day

Festival of Lights [at the same season], and it is believed that the

Germanic peoples held a great festival not only at midsummer but

also at the winter solstice, when they celebrated the rebirth of the

sun and honored the great fertility gods Wotan and Freyja, Donar

(Thor) and Freyr. Even after the Emperor Constantine (a.d. 306-337)

declared Christianity to be Rome's official imperial religion, the

evocation of light and fertility as an important component of pre-

Christian midwinter celebrations could not be entirely suppressed. In

the year 274 the Roman Emperor Aure-lian (a.d. 214-275) had

established an official

cult of the sun-god Mithras, declaring his birthday, December 25,

a national holiday. The cult of Mithras, the Aryan god of light, had

spread from Persia through Asia Minor to Greece, Rome, and as far

as the Germanic lands and Britain. Numerous ruins of his shrines

still testify to the high regard in which this god was held, especially

by the Roman legions, as a bringer of fertility, peace, and victory. So

it was a clever move when, in the year a.d. 354, the Christian church

under Pope Liberius (352-366) co-opted the birthday of Mithras and

declared December 25 to be the birthday of Jesus Christ.

NEUEZURCHER ZEITUNG,

Anne-Susanne

RlSCHKE,

December 25, 1983

vorce. It was now Cromwell's turn to watch uneasily as die king

began slowly to undo his reforms, reinstating Catiiolic sacraments

and odier rituals that Cromwell had oudawed.

Sensing his fall from grace, in 1540 Cromwell decided to regain

Henry's favor with one throw of the dice: He would find the king a

new wife. Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, had died a few years

before, and he had been pining for a new young queen. It was

Cromwell who found him one: Anne of Cleves, a German princess

and, most important to Cromwell, a Protestant. On Cromwell's

commission, the painter Holbein produced a flattering portrait of

Anne; when Henry saw it, he fell in love, and agreed to marry her.

Cromwell seemed back in favor.

Unfortunately, however, Holbein's painting was highly idealized,

and when die king finally met die princess she did not please him in

die least. His anger against Cromwellfirst for the ill-conceived

reforms, now for saddling him widi an unattractive and Protestant

wifecould no longer be contained. In June of mat year, Cromwell was

arrested, charged as a Protestant extremist and a heretic, and sent

to die Tower. Six weeks later, before a large and enthusiastic crowd,

the public executioner cut off his head.

Interpretation

Thomas Cromwell had a simple idea: He would break up die

power and wealdi of the Church and lay die foundation for

Protestantism in England. And he would do tfiis in a mercilessly short

time. He knew his speedy reforms would cause pain and

resentment, but he tiiought diese feelings would fade in a few years.

More important, by identifying himself with change, he would

become die leader of die new order, making die king dependent on

him. But mere was a problem in his strategy: Like a billiard ball hit

too hard against the cushion, his reforms had reactions and caroms

he did not envision and could not control.

The man who initiates strong reforms often becomes the

scapegoat for any kind of dissatisfaction. And eventually me reaction

to his reforms may consume him, for change is upsetting to the

human animal, even when it is for die good. Because die world is

and always has been full of insecurity and mreat, we latch on to

familiar faces and create habits and rituals to make the world more

comfortable. Change can be pleasant and even sometimes desirable

in the abstract, but too much of it creates an anxiety that will stir and

boil beneatii die surface and dien eventually erupt.

Never underestimate die hidden conservatism of those around

you. It is powerful and entrenched. Never let die seductive charm of

an idea cloud your reason: Just as you cannot make people see the

world your way, you cannot wrench diem into die future with painful

changes. They will rebel. If reform is necessary, anticipate die

reaction against it and find ways to disguise the change and sweeten

die poison.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

As a young Communist in the 1920s, Mao Tse-tung understood

better dian

any of his colleagues die incredible odds against a Communist

victory in

China. With their small numbers, limited funds, lack of military

experience, and small arsenal of weapons, the Party had no hope of

success unless it won over China's immense peasant population.

But who in the world was more conservative, more rooted in

tradition, than the Chinese peasantry The oldest civilization on the

planet had a history that would never loosen its power, no matter

how violent the revolution. The ideas of Confucius remained as alive

in the 1920s as they had been in the sixdi century B.C., when the

philosopher was alive. Despite the oppressions of the current

system, would the peasantry ever give up the deep-rooted values of

die past for the great unknown of Communism

The solution, as Mao saw it, involved a simple deception: Cloak

the revolution in the clothing of the past, making it comforting and

legitimate in people's eyes. One of Mao's favorite books was the

very popular medieval Chinese novel The Water Margin, which

recounts the exploits of a Chinese Robin Hood and his robber band

as they struggle against a corrupt and evil monarch. In China in

Mao's time, family ties dominated over any other kind, for the

Confucian hierarchy of father and oldest son remained firmly in

place; but The Water Margin preached a superior value die fraternal

ties of the band of robbers, the nobility of the cause that unites

people beyond blood. The novel had great emotional resonance for

Chinese people, who love to root for the underdog. Time and again,

then, Mao would present his revolutionary army as an extension of

the robber band in The Water Margin, likening his struggle to the

timeless conflict between the oppressed peasantry and an evil

emperor. He made the past seem to envelop and legitimize the

Communist cause; the peasantry could feel comfortable witii and

even support a group with such roots in the past.

Even once the Party came to power, Mao continued to associate

it with the past. He presented himself to the masses not as a

Chinese Lenin but as a modern Chuko Liang, the real-life third-

century strategist who figures prominently in the popular historical

novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Liang was more man a

great generalhe was a poet, a philosopher, and a figure of stern

moral rectitude. So Mao represented himself as a poet-warrior like

Liang, a man who mixed strategy with philosophy and preached a

new ethics. He made himself appear like a hero from the great

Chinese tradition of warrior statesmen.

Soon, everything in Mao's speeches and writings had a reference

to an earlier period in Chinese history. He recalled, for example, the

great Emperor Ch'in, who had unified the country in the third century

B.C. Ch'in had burned the works of Confucius, consolidated and

completed the building of the Great Wall, and given his name to

China. Like Ch'in, Mao also had brought the country together, and

had sought bold reforms against an oppressive past. Ch'in had

traditionally been seen as a violent dictator whose reign was short;

the brilliance of Mao's strategy was to turn this around,

simultaneously reinterpreting Ch'in, justifying his rule in die eyes of

present-day Chinese, and using him to justify the violence of the new

order that Mao himself was creating.

After the failed Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s, a power

struggle

emerged in die Communist Party in which Mao's main foe was

Lin Rao, once a close friend of his. To make clear to die masses die

difference between his philosophy and Lin's, Mao once again

exploited die past: He cast his opponent as representing Confucius,

a philosopher Lin in fact would constantiy quote. And Confucius

signified die conservatism of die past. Mao associated himself, on

die odier hand, widi die ancient philosophical movement known as

Legalism, exemplified by die writings of Han-fei-tzu. The Legalists

disdained Confucian ediics; tiiey believed in die need for violence to

create a new order. They worshiped power. To give himself weight in

die struggle, Mao unleashed a nationwide propaganda campaign

against Confucius, using die issues of Confucianism versus

Legalism to whip die young into a kind of frenzied revolt against die

older generation. This grand context enveloped a ratiier banal power

struggle, and Mao once again won over die masses and triumphed

over his enemies.

Interpretation

No people had a more profound attachment to die past tiian die

Chinese. In die face of tiiis enormous obstacle to reform, Mao's

strategy was simple: Instead of struggling against die past, he turned

it to his advantage, associating his radical Communists witii die

romantic figures of Chinese history. Weaving the story of die War of

die Three Kingdoms into die struggle between die United States, die

Soviet Union, and China, he cast himself as Chuko Liang. As die

emperors had, he welcomed die cultiike adoration of the masses,

understanding tiiat die Chinese could not function witiiout some kind

of father figure to admire. And after he made a terrible blunder widi

die Great Leap Forward, trying to force modernization on die country

and failing miserably, he never repeated his mistake: From men on,

radical change had to be cloaked in die comfortable clotiies of die

past.

The lesson is simple: The past is powerful. What has happened

before seems greater; habit and history give any act weight. Use tiiis

to your advantage. When you destroy die familiar you create a void

or vacuum; people fear die chaos tiiat will flood in to fill it. You must

avoid stirring up such fears at all cost. Borrow the weight and

legitimacy from die past, however remote, to create a comforting and

familiar presence. This will give your actions romantic associations,

add to your presence, and cloak die nature of die changes you are

attempting.

It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry

out,

nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle,

than to initiate a new order of things.

Niccolb Machiavelli, 1469-1527

KEYS TO POWER

Human psychology contains many dualities, one of diem being

tiiat even while people understand die need for change, knowing

how important it is for institutions and individuals to be occasionally

renewed, tiiey are also ir-

ritated and upset by changes that affect diem personally. They

know diat change is necessary, and that novelty provides relief from

boredom, but deep inside they cling to the past. Change in die

abstract, or superficial change, tiiey desire, but a change that upsets

core habits and routines is deeply disturbing to diem.

No revolution has gone widiout a powerful later reaction against

it, for in the long run die void it creates proves too unsettling to die

human animal, who unconsciously associates such voids witii deatii

and chaos. The opportunity for change and renewal seduces people

to the side of die revolution, but once dieir enthusiasm fades, which it

will, tiiey are left witii a certain emptiness. Yearning for die past, diey

create an opening for it to creep back in.

For Machiavelli, die prophet who preaches and brings change

can only survive by taking up arms: When die masses inevitably

yearn for the past, he must be ready to use force. But me armed

prophet cannot last long unless he quickly creates a new set of

values and rituals to replace die old ones, and to soodie die anxieties

of diose who dread change. It is far easier, and less bloody, to play a

kind of con game. Preach change as much as you like, and even

enact your reforms, but give diem die comforting appearance of

older events and traditions.

Reigning from A.D. 8 to A.D. 23, die Chinese emperor Wang

Mang emerged from a period of great historical turbulence in which

die people yearned for order, an order represented for diem by

Confucius. Some two hundred years earlier, however, Emperor Ch'in

had ordered die writings of Confucius burned. A few years later,

word had spread diat certain texts had miraculously survived, hidden

under die scholar's house. These texts may not have been genuine,

but they gave Wang his opportunity: He first confiscated diem, dien

had his scribes insert passages into them diat seemed to support me

changes he had been imposing on die country. When he released

the texts, it seemed diat Confucius sanctioned Wang's reforms, and

die people felt comforted and accepted diem more easily.

Understand: The fact diat die past is dead and buried gives you

die freedom to reinterpret it. To support your cause, tinker with die

facts. The past is a text in which you can safely insert your own lines.

A simple gesture like using an old title, or keeping die same

number for a group, will tie you to die past and support you with die

autiiority of history. As Machiavelli himself observed, die Romans

used tiiis device when tiiey transformed dieir monarchy into a

republic. They may have installed two consuls in place of die king,

but since die king had been served by twelve lictors, they retained

die same number to serve under the consuls. The king had

personally performed an annual sacrifice, in a great spectacle that

stirred die public; die republic retained diis practice, only transferring

it to a special “chief of die ceremony, whom tiiey called die King of

die sacrifice.” These and similar gestures satisfied die people and

kept diem from clamoring for the monarchy's return.

Anodier strategy to disguise change is to make a loud and public

display of support for the values of die past. Seem to be a zealot for

tradition

and few will notice how unconventional you really are.

Renaissance Florence had a centuries-old republic, and was

suspicious of anyone who flouted its traditions. Cosimo de' Medici

made a show of enthusiastic support for the republic, while in reality

he worked to bring the city under the control of his wealthy family. In

form, die Medicis retained the appearance of a republic; in

substance, they rendered it powerless. They quietly enacted a

radical change, while appearing to safeguard tradition.

Science claims a search for truth that would seem to protect it

from conservatism and the irrationality of habit: It is a culture of

innovation. Yet when Charles Darwin published his ideas of

evolution, he faced fiercer opposition from his fellow scientists than

from religious authorities. His theories challenged too many fixed

ideas. Jonas Salk ran into the same wall with his radical innovations

in immunology, as did Max Planck with his revolutionizing of physics.

Planck later wrote of the scientific opposition he faced, “A new

scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and

making them see the light, but rather because its opponents

eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar witii it.”

The answer to this innate conservatism is to play die courtier's

game. Galileo did this at the beginning of his scientific career; he

later became more confrontational, and paid for it. So pay lip service

to tradition. Identify the elements in your revolution that can be made

to seem to build on the past. Say the right things, make a show of

conformity, and meanwhile let your theories do their radical work.

Play with appearances and respect past protocol. This is true in

every arenascience being no exception.

Finally, powerful people pay attention to the Zeitgeist. If tiieir

reform is too far ahead of its time, few will understand it, and it will

stir up anxiety and be hopelessly misinterpreted. The changes you

make must seem less innovative than they are. England did

eventually become a Protestant nation, as Cromwell wished, but it

took over a century of gradual evolution.

Watch the Zeitgeist. 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. During a period of stagnation, on the other hand,

play the card of reform and revolutionbut 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 die inevitable reaction against it by playing with

appearances and building on die past.

Authority: He who desires or attempts to reform the government

of a state, and wishes to have it accepted, must at least retain the

semblance of the old forms; so that it may seem to the people that

there has been no change in the institutions, even though in fact they

are entirely different from the old ones. For the great majority of

mankind are satisfied with appearances, as though they were

realities. (Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527)

Image: The Cat.

Creature of habit, it loves the

warmth of the familiar. Upset its

routines, disrupt its space, and it will

grow unmanageable and psychotic.

Placate it by supporting its rituals. If

change is necessary, deceive the cat by

keeping the smell of the past alive;

place objects familiar to it in

strategic locations.

REVERSAL

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. When Napoleon came to power, the

French Revolution was fresh in everyone's minds. If the court that he

established had borne any resemblance to the lavish court of Louis

XVI and Marie-Antoinette, his courtiers would have spent all their

time worrying about their own necks. Instead, Napoleon established

a court remarkable for its sobriety and lack of ostentation. It was the

court of a man who valued work and military virtues. This new form

seemed appropriate and reassuring.

In other words, pay attention to the times. But understand: If you

make a bold change from the past, you must avoid at all costs the

appearance of a void or vacuum, or you will create terror. Even an

ugly recent history will seem preferable to an empty space. Fill diat

space immediately with new rituals and forms. Soothing and growing

familiar, these will secure your position among the masses.

Finally, the arts, fashion, and technology would seem to be areas

in which power would come from creating a radical rupture with the

past and appearing cutting edge. Indeed, such a strategy can bring

great power, but it has many dangers. It is inevitable that your

innovations will be outdone by someone else. You have little

controlsomeone younger and fresher moves in a sudden new

direction, making your bold innovation of yesterday seem tiresome

and tame today. You are forever playing catch-up; your power is

tenuous and short-lived. You want a power built on something more

solid. Using the past, tinkering with tradition, playing with convention

to subvert it will give your creations something more than a

momentary appeal. Periods of dizzying change disguise the fact that

a yearning for the past will inevitably creep back in. In the end, using

the past for your own purposes will bring you more power than trying

to cut it out completelya futile and self-destructive endeavor.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 46

NEVER APPEAR TOO PERFECT

JUDGMENT

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.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

Joe Orton met Kenneth HaJliwell at the Royal Academy of

Dramatic Arts, London, in 1953, where bodi had enrolled as acting

students. They soon became lovers and moved in together. Halliwell,

twenty-five at the time, was seven years older than Orton, and

seemed the more confident of the two; but neither had much talent

as actors, and after graduating, having settled down together in a

dank London apartment, they decided to give up acting and

collaborate as writers instead. Halliwell's inheritance was enough to

keep them from having to find work for a few years, and in the

beginning, he was also the driving force behind the stories and

novels they wrote; he would dictate to Orton, who would type the

manuscripts, occasionally interjecting his own lines and ideas. Their

first efforts attracted some interest from literary agents, but it

sputtered. The promise they had shown was leading nowhere.

Eventually the inheritance money ran out, and the pair had to

look for work. Their collaborations were less enthusiastic and less

frequent. The future looked bleak.

In 1957 Orton began to write on his own, but it wasn't until five

years later, when the lovers were jailed for six montfis for defacing

dozens of library books, that he began to find his voice (perhaps not

by chance: This was the first time he and HaJliwell had been

separated in nine years). He came out of prison determined to

express his contempt for English society in uie form of theatrical

farces. He and Halliwell moved back in together, but now the roles

were reversed: Orton did the writing while Halliwell put in comments

and ideas.

In 1964 Joe Orton completed his first full-length play, Entertaining

Mr. Sloane. The play made it to London's West End, where it

received brilliant reviews: A great new writer had emerged from

nowhere. Now success followed s access, at a dizzying pace. In

1966 Orton had a hit with his play Loot, and his popularity soared.

Soon commissions came in from all sides, including from the

Beatles, who paid Orton handsomely to write them a film script.

Everything was pointing upwards, everything except Orton's

relationship with Kenneth Halliwell. The pair still lived togedier, but as

Orton grew successful, HaJliwell began to deteriorate. Watching his

lover become the center of attention, he suffered die humiliation of

becoming a kind of personal assistant to the playwright, his role in

what had once been a collaboration growing smaller and smaller. In

the 1950s he had supported Orton with his inheritance; now Orton

supported him. At a party or among friends, people would naturally

gravitate towards Ortonhe was charming, and his mood was almost

always buoyant. Unlike the handsome Orton, Halliwell was bald and

awkward; his defensiveness made people want to avoid him.

With Orton's success the couple's problems only worsened.

Halliwell's moods made their life together impossible. Orton claimed

to want to leave him, and had numerous affairs, but would always

end up returning to his

A greedy man and an envious man met a king. The king said to

them, “One of you may ask something of me and 1 will give it to him,

provided I give twice as much to the other.” The envious person did

not want to ask first for he was envious of his companion who would

receive twice as much, and the greedy man did not want to ask first

since he wanted everything that was to be had. Finally the greedy

one pressed the envious one to be the first to make the request. So

the envious person asked the king to pluck out one of his eyes.

Jewish parable, the seven deadly sins, Solomon Schimmel, 1992

An admirer who feels that he cannot be happy by surrendering

himself elects to become envious of that which he admires. So he

speaks another languagethe thing which he really admires is called a

stupid, insipid and queer sort of thing. Admiration is happy self-

surrender; envy is unhappy self-assertion.

SqIren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855

It takes great talent and

skill to conceal one's

talent and skill.

La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680

KNVYTOUMKNTS ACI.Al'HOS

The goddess Minerva made her way to the house of Envy, a

house filthy with dark and noisome slime. It is hidden away in the

depths of the valleys, where the sun never penetrates, where no

wind blows through; a gloomy dwelling, permeated by numbing chill,

ever fireless, ever shrouded in thick darkness. When Minerva

reached this spot she stopped in front of the house ... and struck the

doors with the tip of her spear, and at the blow they flew open and

revealed Envy within, busy at a meal of snake's flesh, the food on

which she nourished her wickedness. At the sight, Minerva turned

her eyes away. But the other rose heavily from the ground, leaving

the half-eaten corpses, and came out with dragging steps. When she

saw the goddess in all the brilliance of her beauty, in her flashing

armor, she groaned.... Envy's face was sickly pale, her whole body

lean and wasted, and

old friend and lover. He tried to help Halliwell launch a career as

an artist, even arranging for a gallery to show his work, but the show

was a flop, and this only heightened HalliwelPs sense of inferiority. In

May of 1967, the pair went on a brief holiday together in Tangier,

Morocco. During the trip, Orton wrote in his diary, “We sat talking of

how happy we felt. And how it couldn't, surely, last. We'd have to pay

for it. Or we'd be struck down from afar by disaster because we

were, perhaps, too happy. To be young, good-looking, healthy,

famous, comparatively rich and happy is surely going against

nature.”

Halliwell outwardly seemed as happy as Orton. Inwardly, though,

he was seething. And two months later, in the early morning of

August 10, 1967, just days after helping Orton put the finishing

touches to the wicked fa' ce What the Butler Saw (undoubtedly his

masterpiece), Kenneth Halliwell bludgeoned Joe Orton to death with

repeated blows of a hammer to the head. He then took twenty-one

sleeping pills and died himself, leaving behind a note that read, “If

you read Orton's diary all will be explained.”

Interpretation

Kenneth Halliwell had tried to cast his deterioration as mental

illness, but what Joe Orton's diaries revealed to him was the truth: It

was envy, pure and simple, that lay at the heart of his sickness. The

diaries, which Halliwell read on the sly, recounted the couple's days

as equals and their struggle for recognition. After Orton found

success, the diaries began to describe HalliwelPs brooding, his rude

comments at parties, his growing sense of inferiority. All of this Orton

narrated with a distance that bordered on contempt.

The diaries made clear Halliwell's bitterness over Orton's

success. Eventually the only thing that would have satisfied him

would have been for Orton to have a failure of his own, an

unsuccessful play perhaps, so that they could have commiserated in

their failure, as they had done years before. When the opposite

happenedas Orton grew only more successful and popularHalliwell

did the only thing that would make them equals again: He made

them equals in death. With Orton's murder, he became almost as

famous as his friendposthumously.

Joe Orton only partly understood his lover's deterioration. His

attempt to help Halliwell launch a career in art registered for what it

was: charity and guilt. Orton basically had two possible solutions to

the problem. He could have downplayed his own success, displaying

some faults, deflecting Halliwell's envy; or, once he realized the

nature of the problem, he could have fled as if Halliwell were a viper,

as in fact he wasa viper of envy. Once envy eats away at someone,

everything you do only makes it grow, and day by day it festers

inside him. Eventually he will attack.

Only a minority can succeed at the game of life, and that minority

inevitably arouses the envy of those around them. Once success

happens your way, however, the people to fear the most are those in

your own circle, the friends and acquaintances you have left behind.

Feelings of inferi-

ority gnaw at them; the thought of your success only heightens

their feelings of stagnation. Envy, which the philosopher Kierkegaard

calls “unhappy admiration,” takes hold. You may not see it but you

will feel it somedayunless, that is, you learn strategies of deflection,

little sacrifices to the gods of success. Either dampen your brilliance

occasionally, purposefully revealing a defect, weakness, or anxiety,

or attributing your success to luck; or simply find yourself new

friends. Never underestimate the power of envy.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

The merchant class and the craft guilds to which medieval

Florence owed its prosperity had created a republic that protected

them from oppression by the nobility. Since high office could only be

held for a few months, no one could gain lasting dominance, and

although this meant that the political factions struggled constantly for

control, the system kept out tyrants and petty dictators. The Medici

family lived for several centuries under this system without making

much of a mark. They had modest origins as apothecaries, and were

typical middle-class citizens. Not until the late fourteenth century,

when Giovanni de' Medici made a modest fortune in banking, did

they emerge as a force to be reckoned with.

Upon Giovanni's death, his son Cosimo took over the family

business, and quickly demonstrated his talent for it. The business

prospered under his control and the Medicis emerged as one of the

preeminent banking families of Europe. But they had a rival in

Florence: Despite the city's republican system, one family, the

Albizzis, had managed over the years to monopolize control of the

government, forging alliances that allowed them to constantiy fill

important offices with their own men. Cosimo did not fight this, and in

fact gave the Albizzis his tacit support. At the same time, while the

Albizzis were beginning to flaunt their power, Cosimo made a point

of staying in the background.

Eventually, however, the Medici wealth could not be ignored, and

in 1433, feeling threatened by the family, the Albizzis used their

government muscle to have Cosimo arrested on charges of

conspiring to overthrow the republic. Some in the Albizzi faction

wanted Cosimo executed, others feared this would spark a civil war.

In the end they exiled him from Florence. Cosimo did not fight the

sentence; he left quietly. Sometimes, he knew, it is wiser to bide

one's time and keep a low profile.

Over the next year, the Albizzis began to stir up fears that they

were setting up a dictatorship. Meanwhile, Cosimo, using his wealth

to advantage, continued to exert influence on Florentine affairs, even

from exile. A civil war broke out in the city, and in September of 1434

the Albizzis were toppled from power and sent into exile. Cosimo

immediately returned to Florence, his position restored. But he saw

that he now faced a delicate situation: If he seemed ambitious, as

the Albizzis had, he would stir up opposition and envy that would

ultimately threaten his business. If he stayed on

she squinted horribly; her teeth were discolored and decayed, her

poisonous breast of a greenish hue, and her tongue dripped venom.

Only the sight of suffering could bring a smile to her lips. She never

knew the comfort of sleep, but was kept constantly awake by care

and anxiety, looked with dismay on men's good fortune, and grew

thin at the sight. Gnawing at others, and being gnawed, she was

herself her own torment. Minerva, in spite of her loathing, yet

addressed her briefly: “Instill your poison into one of Cecrop 's

daughters her name is Aglauros. This is what I require of you.”

Without another word she pushed against the ground with her spear,

left the earth, and soared upwards. From the corner of her eye the

other watched the goddess out of sight, muttering and angry that

Minerva \s plan should be successful. Then she took her staff, all

encircled with thorny briars, wrapped herself in dark clouds, and set

forth. Wherever she went she trampled down the flowery fields,

withered up the grass, seared the treeto'ps, and with her breath

tainted the peoples, their cities and their homes, until at length she

came to Athens, the home of wit and wealth, peaceful and

prosperous. She could scarcely refrain from weeping when she saw

no cause for tears.

Then entering the chamber of Cecrop 's daughter, she carried out

Minerva's orders. She touched the girl's breast with a hand dipped in

malice, filled her heart with spiky thorns, and breathing in a black

and evil poison dispersed it through her very bones, instilling the

venom deep in her heart. That the reason for her distress might not

be far to seek, she set before Aglauros' eyes a vision of her sister, of

that sister's fortunate marriage [with the god Mercury I, and of the

god in all his handsomeness; and she exaggerated the glory of it all.

So Aglauros was tormented by such thoughts, and the jealous anger

she concealed ate into her heart. Day and night she sighed,

unceasingly wretched, and in her utter misery wasted away in a slow

decline, as when ice is melted by the fitful sun. The fire that was

kindled within her at the thought of her sister's luck and good fortune

was like the burning of weeds which do not burst into flames, but are

none the less consumed by smoldering fire.

metamorphosrs, Ovid, 43 b.c.-c. a.d. 18

the sidelines, on die other hand, he would leave an opening for

another faction to rise up as die Albizzis had, and to punish the

Medicis for their success.

Cosimo solved me problem in two ways: He secretiy used his

wealth to buy influence among key citizens, and he placed his own

allies, all cleverly enlisted from the middle classes to disguise their

allegiance to him, in top government positions. Those who

complained of his growing political clout were taxed into submission,

or dieir properties were bought out from under them by Cosimo's

banker allies. The republic survived in name only. Cosimo held the

strings.

While he worked behind the scenes to gain control, however,

publicly Cosimo presented anomer picture. When he walked through

the streets of Florence, he dressed modestly, was attended by no

more dian one servant, and bowed deferentially to magistrates and

elder citizens. He rode a mule instead of a horse. He never spoke

out on matters of public import, even though he controlled Florence's

foreign affairs for over thirty years. He gave money to charities and

maintained his ties to Florence's merchant class. He financed all

kinds of public buildings that fed die Florentines' pride in dieir city.

When he built a palace for himself and his family in nearby Fiesole,

he turned down the ornate designs that Brunelleschi had drawn up

for him and instead chose a modest structure designed by

Michelozzo, a man of humble Florentine origins. The palace was a

symbol of Cosimo's strategyall simplicity on the outside, all elegance

and opulence within.

Cosimo finally died in 1464, after ruling for thirty years. The

citizens of Florence wanted to build him a great tomb, and to

celebrate his memory with elaborate funeral ceremonies, but on his

deathbed he had asked to be buried without “any pomp or

demonstration.” Some sixty years later, Machiavelli hailed Cosimo as

the wisest of all princes, “for he knew how extraordinary things that

are seen and appear every hour make men much more envied than

those that are done in deed and are covered over with decency.”

Interpretation

A close friend of Cosimo's, the bookseller Vespasiano da Bisticci,

once wrote of him, “And whenever he wished to achieve something,

he saw to it, in order to escape envy as much as possible, that the

initiative appeared to come from others, and not from him.” One of

Cosimo's favorite expressions was, “Envy is a weed that should not

be watered.” Understanding the power envy has in a democratic

environment, Cosimo avoided die appearance of greatness. This

does not mean tiiat greatness should be suffocated, or that only the

mediocre should survive; only tiiat a game of appearances must be

played. The insidious envy of the masses can actually be deflected

quite easily: Appear as one of them in style and values. Make

alliances with those below you, and elevate them to positions of

power to secure their support in times of need. Never flaunt your

wealth, and carefully conceal

the degree to which it has bought influence. Make a display of

deferring to others, as if they were more powerful than you. Cosimo

de' Medici perfected this game; he was a consummate con artist of

appearances. No one could gauge the extent of his powerhis modest

exterior hid the truth.

Never be so foolish as to believe that you are stirring up

admiration by flaunting the qualities that raise you above others. By

making others aware of their inferior position, you are only stirring up

“unhappy admiration,” or envy, which will gnaw away at them until

they undermine you in ways you cannot foresee. The fool dares the

gods of envy by flaunting his victories. The master of power

understands that die appearance of superiority over others is

inconsequential next to the reality of it.

Of all the disorders of the soul, envy is the only one no one

confesses to.

Plutarch, c. A.D. 46-120

KEYS TO POWER

The human animal has a hard time dealing with feelings of

inferiority. In the face of superior skill, talent, or power, we are often

disturbed and ill at ease; this is because most of us have an inflated

sense of ourselves, and when we meet people who surpass us they

make it clear to us mat we are in fact mediocre, or at least not as

brilliant as we had thought. This disturbance in our self-image cannot

last long wimout stirring up ugly emotions. At first we feel envy: If

only we had die quality or skill of the superior person, we would be

happy. But envy brings us neither comfort nor any closer to equality.

Nor can we admit to feeling it, for it is frowned upon socially to show

envy is to admit to feeling inferior. To close friends, we may confess

our secret unrealized desires, but we will never confess to feeling

envy. So it goes underground. We disguise it in many ways, like

finding grounds to criticize the person who makes us feel it: He may

be smarter tiian I am, we say, but he has no morals or conscience.

Or he may have more power, but that's because he cheats. If we do

not slander him, perhaps we praise him excessivelyanother of envy's

disguises.

There are several strategies for dealing widi the insidious,

destructive emotion of envy. First, accept the fact diat there will be

people who will surpass you in some way, and also tile fact that you

may envy them. But make that feeling a way of pushing yourself to

equal or surpass them someday. Let envy turn inward and it poisons

the soul; expel it outward and it can move you to greater heights.

Second, understand that as you gain power, those below you will

feel envious of you. They may not show it but it is inevitable. Do not

naively accept the facade they show youread between the lines of

their criticisms, their little sarcastic remarks, the signs of

backstabbing, the excessive praise that is preparing you for a fall,

the resentful look in the eye. Half the problem with envy comes when

we do not recognize it until it is too late.

Finally, expect tiiat when people envy you they will work against

you

The envious hides as carefully as the secret, lustful sinner and

becomes the endless inventor of tricks and stratagems to hide and

mask himself Thus he is able to pretend to ignore the superiority of

others which eats up his heart, as if he did not see them, nor hear

them, nor were aware of them, nor had ever heard of them. lie is a

master simulator. On the other hand he tries with all his power to

connive and thus prevent any form of superiority from appearing in

any situation. And if they do, he casts on them obscurity,

hypercriticism, sarcasm and calumny like the toad that spits poison

from its hole. On the other hand he will raise endlessly insignificant

men, mediocre people, and even the inferior in the same type of

activities.

Arthur

Schopenhauer,

1788-1860

For not many men, the proverb says, can love a friend who

fortune prospers without feeling envy; and about the envious brain,

cold poison clings and doubles all the pain life brings him. His own

woundings he must nurse, and feels another's gladness like a curse.

Aeschylus, c. 525-456 B.C.

JOSKI'II AM) IIIS C.O.VI'

Now Israel loved

Joseph more than all

his children, because he

was the son of his old

age; and he made him a

coat of many colors....

And his brothers

envied him.... And

when they saw him afar

off they conspired

against him to slay

him. And now they said

to one another,

"Behold, this dreamer

cometh. Come now

therefore, and let us

slay him, and cast him

into some pit, and we

shall say, some evil

beast hath devoured

him; and we shall see

what will become of his

dreams. "

old testament, genesis 37:3-20

[When Pope Julius first saw Michelangelo's

design for his tomb] it

pleased him so much

that he at once sent him

to Carrara to quarry

the necessary marbles,

instructing Alamanno

Salviati, of Florence, to

pay him a thousand

ducats for this purpose.

Michelangelo stayed in

these mountains more than eight months with

two workmen and his horse, and without any

other provision except food.... Enough

marbles quarried and chosen, he took them to

the sea-coast, and left

insidiously. They will put obstacles in your path that you will not

foresee, or that you cannot trace to their source. It is hard to defend

yourself against this kind of attack. And by the time you realize that

envy is at the root of a person's feelings about you, it is often too

late: Your excuses, your false humility, your defensive actions, only

exacerbate the problem. Since it is far easier to avoid creating envy

in the first place than to get rid of it once it is there, you should

strategize to forestall it before it grows. It is often your own actions

that stir up envy, your own unawareness. By becoming conscious of

those actions and qualities that create envy, you can take the teeth

out of it before it nibbles you to death.

Kierkegaard believed that there are types of people who create

envy, and are as guilty when it arises as those who feel it. The most

obvious type we all know: The moment something good happens to

them, whetiier by luck or design, they crow about it. In fact they get

pleasure out of making people feel inferior. This type is obvious and

beyond hope. There are others, however, who stir up envy in more

subtle and unconscious ways, and are partly to blame for their

troubles. Envy is often a problem, for example, for people with great

natural talent.

Sir Walter Raleigh was one of the most brilliant men at the court

of Queen Elizabeth of England. He had skills as a scientist, wrote

poetry still recognized as among the most beautiful writing of the

time, was a proven leader of men, an enterprising entrepreneur, a

great sea captain, and on top of all this was a handsome, dashing

courtier who charmed his way into becoming one of the queen's

favorites. Wherever he went, however, people blocked his path.

Eventually he suffered a terrific fall from grace, leading even to

prison and finally the executioner's axe.

Raleigh could not understand the stubborn opposition he faced

from the other courtiers. He did not see that he had not only made

no attempt to disguise the degree of his skills and qualities, he had

imposed them on one and all, making a show of his versatility,

thinking it impressed people and won him friends. In fact it made him

silent enemies, people who felt inferior to him and did all they could

to ruin him the moment he tripped up or made the slightest mistake.

In the end, the reason he was executed was treason, but envy will

use any cover it finds to mask its destructiveness.

The envy elicited by Sir Walter Raleigh is the worst kind: It was

inspired by his natural talent and grace, which he felt was best

displayed in its full flower. Money others can attain; power as well.

But superior intelligence, good looks, charmthese are qualities no

one can acquire. The naturally perfect have to work the most to

disguise their brilliance, displaying a defect or two to deflect envy

before it takes root. It is a common and naive mistake to think you

are charming people with your natural talents when in fact they are

coming to hate you.

A great danger in the realm of power is the sudden improvement

in fortunean unexpected promotion, a victory or success mat seems

to come out of nowhere. This is sure to stir up envy among your

former peers.

When Archbishop de Retz was promoted to the rank of cardinal,

in 1651, he knew full well that many of his former colleagues envied

him.

Understanding die foolishness of alienating those below him, de

Retz did everything he could to downplay his merit and emphasize

the role of luck in his success. To put people at ease, he acted

humbly and deferentially, as if nothing had changed. (In reality, of

course, he now had much more power than before.) He wrote that

these wise policies “produced a good effect, by lessening the envy

which was conceived against me, which is the greatest of all

secrets.” Follow de Retz's example. Subtly emphasize how lucky you

have been, to make your happiness seem more attainable to other

people, and die need for envy less acute. But be careful not to affect

a false modesty diat people can easily see through. This will only

make mem more envious. The act has to be good; your humility, and

your openness to those you have left behind, have to seem genuine.

Any hint of insincerity will only make your new status more

oppressive. Remember: Despite your elevated position, it will do you

no good to alienate your former peers. Power requires a wide and

solid support base, which envy can silendy destroy.

Political power of any kind creates envy, and one of the best

ways to deflect it before it takes root is to seem unambitious. When

Ivan the Terrible died, Boris Godunov knew he was the only one on

the scene who could lead Russia. But if he sought the position

eagerly, he would stir up envy and suspicion among the boyars, so

he refused die crown, not once but several times. He made people

insist mat he take die throne. George Washington used the same

strategy to great effect, first in refusing to keep the position of

Commander in Chief of the American army, second in resisting the

presidency. In both cases he made himself more popular than ever.

People cannot envy the power that tiiey themselves have given a

person who does not seem to desire it.

According to me Elizabeman statesman and writer Sir Francis

Bacon, the wisest policy of the powerful is to create a kind of pity for

themselves, as if their responsibilities were a burden and a sacrifice.

How can one envy a man who has taken on a heavy load for the

public interest Disguise your power as a kind of self-sacrifice rather

than a source of happiness and you make it seem less enviable.

Emphasize your troubles and you turn a potential danger (envy) into

a source of moral support (pity). A similar ploy is to hint that your

good fortune will benefit those around you. To do this you may need

to open your purse strings, like Cimon, a wealdiy general in ancient

Athens who gave lavishly in all kinds of ways to prevent people from

resenting the influence he had bought in Atiienian politics. He paid a

high price to deflect dieir envy, but in the end it saved him from

ostracism and banishment from the city.

The painter J. M. W. Turner devised another way of giving to

deflect the envy of his fellow artists, which he recognized as his

greatest obstacle to his success. Noticing diat his incomparable color

skills made them afraid to hang their paintings next to his in

exhibitions, he realized that their fear would turn to envy, and would

eventually make it harder for him to find galleries to show in. On

occasion, dien, Turner is known to have temporarily dampened the

colors in his paintings with soot to earn him the goodwill of his

colleagues.

one of his men to have them embarked. He himself returned to

Rome.

... The quantity of marbles was immense, so that, spread over the

piazza, they were the admiration of all and a joy to the pope, who

heaped immeasurable favors upon Michelangelo; and when he

began to work upon them again and again went to see him at his

house, and talked to him about the tomb and other things as with his

own brother. And in order that he might more easily go to him, the

pope ordered that a drawbridge should be thrown across from the

Corri-dore to the rooms of Michelangelo, by which he might visit him

in private.

These many and frequent favors were the cause (as often is the

case at court) of much envy, and, after the envy, of endless

persecution, since Bramante, the architect, who was loved by the

pope, made him change his mind as to the monument by telling him,

as is said by the vulgar, that it is unlucky to build one's tomb in one's

lifetime, and other tales. Fear as well as envy stimulated Bramante,

for the judgment of Michelangelo had exposed many of his errors....

Now because he had no doubt that Michelangelo knew these errors

of his, he always sought to remove him from Rome, or, at least, to

deprive him of the

favor of the pope, and of the glory and usefulness that he might

have acquired by his industry. He succeeded in the matter of the

tomb. There is no doubt that if Michelangelo had been allowed to

finish it, according to his first design, having so large afield in which

to show his worth, no other artist, however celebrated (be it said

without envy) could have wrested from him the high place he would

have held.

Did ever anybody seriously confess to envy Something there is in

it universally felt to be more shameful than even felonious crime. And

not only does everybody disown it, but the better sort are inclined to

incredulity when it is in earnest imputed to an intelligent man. But

since lodgment is in the heart not the brain, no degree of intellect

supplies a guarantee against it.

billy budd,

Herman Melville,

1819-1891

To deflect envy, Gracian recommends that the powerful display a

weakness, a minor social indiscretion, a harmless vice. Give those

who envy you someming to feed on, distracting them from your more

important sins. Remember: It is the reality that matters. You may

have to play games with appearances, but in the end you will have

what counts: true power. In some Arab countries, a man will avoid

arousing envy by doing as Cosimo de Medici did by showing his

wealth only on the inside of his house. Apply this wisdom to your

own character.

Beware of some of envy's disguises. Excessive praise is an

almost sure sign that die person praising you envies you; they are

either setting you up for a fallit will be impossible for you to live up to

their praiseor they are sharpening their blades behind your back. At

the same time, those who are hypercritical of you, or who slander

you publicly, probably envy you as well. Recognize their behavior as

disguised envy and you keep out of the trap of mutual mud-slinging,

or of taking their criticisms to heart. Win your revenge by ignoring

tiieir measly presence.

Do not try to help or do favors for those who envy you; they will

think you are condescending to them. Joe Orton's attempt to help

Halliwell find a gallery for his work only intensified his lover's feelings

of inferiority and envy. Once envy reveals itself for what it is, the only

solution is often to flee the presence of the enviers, leaving them to

stew in a hell of their own creation.

Finally, be aware that some environments are more conducive to

envy than others. The effects of envy are more serious among

colleagues and peers, where there is a veneer of equality. Envy is

also destructive in democratic environments where overt displays of

power are looked down upon. Be extrasensitive in such

environments. The filmmaker Ingmar Bergman was hounded by

Swedish tax authorities because he stood out in a country where

standing out from the crowd is frowned on. It is almost impossible to

avoid envy in such cases, and there is little you can do but accept it

graciously and take none of it personally. As Thoreau once said,

“Envy is die tax which all distinction must pay.”

Image: A Garden of Weeds. You may not feed them but they

spread as you water the garden. You may not see how, but they take

over, tall and ugly, preventing anything beautiful from flourishing.

Before it is too late, do not water indiscriminately. Destroy the weeds

of envy by giving them

nothing to feed on.

Authority: Upon occasion, reveal a harmless defect in your

character. For the envious accuse the most perfect of sinning by

having no sins. They become an Argus, all eyes for finding fault with

excellenceit is their only consolation. Do not let envy burst with its

own venomaffect some lapse in valor or intellect, so as to disarm it

beforehand. You thus wave your red cape before the Horns of Envy,

in order to save your immortality. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

REVERSAL

The reason for being careful with the envious is that they are so

indirect, and will find innumerable ways to undermine you. But

treading carefully around them will often only make their envy worse.

They sense that you are being cautious, and it registers as yet

another sign of your superiority. That is why you must act before

envy takes root.

Once envy is there, however, whether through your fault or not, it

is sometimes best to affect the opposite approach: Display the

utmost disdain for those who envy you. Instead of hiding your

perfection, make it obvious. Make every new triumph an opportunity

to make the envious squirm. Your good fortune and power become

their living hell. If you attain a position of unimpeachable power, their

envy will have no effect on you, and you will have the best revenge

of all: They are trapped in envy while you are free in your power.

This is how Michelangelo triumphed over die venomous architect

Bramante, who turned Pope Julius against Michelangelo's design for

his tomb. Bramante envied Michelangelo's godlike skills, and to this

one triumphthe aborted tomb projecthe thought to add another, by

pushing the pope to commission Michelangelo to paint the murals in

the Sistine Chapel. The project would take years, during which

Michelangelo would accomplish no more of his brilliant sculptures.

Furthermore, Bramante considered Michelangelo not nearly as

skilled in painting as in sculpture. The chapel would spoil his image

as the perfect artist.

Michelangelo saw the trap and wanted to turn down the

commission, but he could not refuse the pope, so he accepted it

without complaint. Then, however, he used Bramante's envy to spur

him to greater heights, making the Sistine Chapel his most perfect

work of all. Every time Bramante heard of it or saw it, he felt more

oppressed by his own envydie sweetest and most lasting revenge

you can exact on die envious.

Know how to triumph over envy and malice. Here contempt,

although prudent, counts, indeed, for little; magnanimity is better. A

good word concerning one who speaks evil of you cannot be praised

too highly: there is no revenge more heroic than that brought about

by those merits and attainments which frustrate and torment the

envious. Every stroke of good fortune is a further twist of the rope

round the neck of the ill-disposed and the heaven of the envied is

hell for the envious. To convert your good fortune into poison for your

enemies is held to be the most severe punishment you can inflict on

them. The envious man dies not only once but as many times as the

person he envies lives to hear the voice of praise; the eternity of the

latter's fame is the measure of the former's punishment: the one is

immortal in his glory, the latter in his misery. The trumpet of fame

which sounds immortality for the one heralds death for the other,

who is sentenced to be choked to death on his own envy.

Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658

48 Laws of Power

LAW 47

DO NOT GO PAST THE MARK YOU AIMED FOR;

IN VICTORY, LEARN WHEN TO STOP

JUDGMENT

The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In

the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfi-dence 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.

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

In 559 B.C., a young man named Cyrus gathered an immense

army from die scattered tribes of Persia and marched against his

grandfadier Astyages, king of the Medes. He defeated Astyages with

ease, had himself crowned king of Medea and Persia, and began to

forge the Persian Empire. Victory followed victory in quick

succession. Cyrus defeated Croesus, ruler of Lydia, then conquered

the Ionian islands and odier smaller kingdoms; he marched on

Babylon and crushed it. Now he was known as Cyrus the Great,

King of the World.

After capturing the riches of Babylon, Cyrus set his sights on the

east, on the half-barbaric tribes of the Massagetai, a vast realm on

the Caspian Sea. A fierce warrior race led by Queen Tomyris, the

Massagetai lacked the riches of Babylon, but Cyrus decided to

attack them anyway, believing himself superhuman and incapable of

defeat. The Massagetai would fall easily to his vast armies, making

his empire immense.

In 529 B.C., then, Cyrus marched to the wide river Araxes,

gateway to the kingdom of the Massagetai. As he set up camp on

die western bank, he received a message from Queen Tomyris:

“King of the Medes,” she told him, “I advise you to abandon this

enterprise, for you cannot know if in the end it will do you any good.

Rule your own people, and try to bear the sight of me ruling mine.

But of course you will refuse my advice, as the last diing you wish for

is to live in peace.” Tomyris, confident of her army's strength and not

wishing to delay the inevitable batde, offered to withdraw die troops

on her side of the river, allowing Cyrus to cross its waters safely and

fight her army on the eastern side, if diat was his desire.

Cyrus agreed, but instead of engaging the enemy directly he

decided to play a trick. The Massagetai knew few luxuries. Once

Cyrus had crossed the river and made his camp on the eastern side,

he set the table for an elaborate banquet, full of meat, delicacies,

and strong wine. Then he left his weakest troops in the camp and

withdrew die rest of the army to the river. A large Massagetai

detachment soon attacked the camp and killed all of the Persian

soldiers in a fierce batde. Then, overwhelmed by die fabulous feast

that had been left behind, they ate and drank to dieir hearts' content.

Later, inevitably, they fell asleep. The Persian army returned to the

camp that night, killing many of die sleeping soldiers and capturing

die rest. Among the prisoners was dieir general, a youth named

Spargapises, son of Queen Tomyris.

When die queen learned what had happened, she sent a

message to Cyrus, chiding him for using tricks to defeat her army.

“Now listen to me,” she wrote, “and I will advise you for your own

good: Give me back my son and leave my country with your forces

intact, and be content with your triumph over a third part of the

Massagetai. If you refuse, I swear by the sun our master to give you

more blood dian you can drink, for all your gluttony.” Cyrus scoffed at

her: He would not release her son. He would crush these barbarians.

The queen's son, seeing he would not be released, could not

stand the

Till-. V.MMM.OHIOl'S COCKI'.KKI.

Two cockerels fought on a dungheap. One cockerel was the

stronger: he vanquished the other and drove him from the dungheap.

All the hens gathered around the cockerel, and began to laud him.

The cockerel wanted his strength and glory to be known in the next

yard. He flew on lop of the barn, flapped his wings, and crowed in a

loud voice: “Look at me, all of you. I am a victorious cockerel. No

other cockerel in the world has such strength as I.” The cockerel had

not finished, when an eagle killed him, seized him in his claws, and

carried him to his nest.

TABLES,

Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910

In all your cross-examinations .... most important of all, let me

repeal the injunction to be ever on the alert for a good place to stop.

Nothing can be more important than to cU)se your examination with

a triumph. So many lawyers succeed in catching a witness in a

serious contradiction; but, not satisfied with this, go on asking

questions, and taper off their examination until the effect upon the

jury of their former advantage is lost altogether.

the art 0^ cross-examination, Francis L.Wfi.lman, 1913

We read of many instances of this kind; for the general who by

his valor has conquered a state for his master, and won great glory

for himself by his victory over the enemy, and has loaded his soldiers

with rich booty, acquires necessarily with his own soldiers, as well as

with those of the enemy and with the subjects of the prince, so high

a reputation, that his very victory may become distasteful, and a

cause for apprehension to his prince. For as the

humiliation, and so he killed himself. The news of her son's death

overwhelmed Tomyris. She gathered all the forces that she could

muster in her kingdom, and whipping them into a vengeful frenzy,

engaged Cyrus's troops in a violent and bloody battle. Finally, the

Massagetai prevailed. In their anger they decimated the Persian

army, killing Cyrus himself.

After the battle, Tomyris and her soldiers searched the battlefield

for Cyrus's corpse. When she found it she cut off his head and

shoved it into a wineskin full of human blood, crying out, “Though I

have conquered you and live, yet you have ruined me by

treacherously taking my son. See nowI fulfill my tiireat: You have

your fill of blood.” After Cyrus's death, the Persian Empire quickly

unraveled. One act of arrogance undid all of Cyrus's good work.

Interpretation

There is nothing more intoxicating man victory, and nothing more

dangerous.

Cyrus had built his great empire on the ruins of a previous one. A

hundred years earlier, the powerful Assyrian Empire had been totally

destroyed, its once splendid capital of Nineveh but ruins in the sand.

The Assyrians had suffered this fate because they had pushed too

far, destroying one city-state after another until mey lost sight of the

purposes of their victories, and also of the costs. They overextended

themselves and made many enemies who were finally able to band

together and destroy them.

Cyrus ignored the lesson of Assyria. He paid no heed to the

warnings of oracles and advisers. He did not worry about offending a

queen. His many victories had gone to his head, clouding his reason.

Instead of consolidating his already vast empire, he pushed forward.

Instead of recognizing each situation as different, he thought each

new war would bring the same result as the one before as long as he

used the methods he knew: ruthless force and cunning.

Understand: In the realm of power, you must be guided by

reason. To let a momentary thrill or an emotional victory influence or

guide your moves will prove fatal. When you attain success, step

back. Be cautious. When you gain victory, understand the part

played by the particular circumstances of a situation, and never

simply repeat the same actions again and again. History is littered

with the ruins of victorious empires and die corpses of leaders who

could not learn to stop and consolidate their gains.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

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 die source of her power was usually

her physical beauty, for most royal mistresses mat fall was inevitable

and unpleasant.

King Louis XV of France began to keep official mistresses in the

early days of his reign, each woman's good fortune rarely lasting

more than a few years. But men came Madame de Pompadour, who,

when she was a middle-class child of nine named Jeanne Poisson,

had been told by a fortune-teller that she would someday be the

king's favorite. This seemed an absurd dream, since die royal

mistress almost always came from the aristocracy. Jeanne

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 havemusic, dancing, acting, horseback riding

and she excelled in every one of them. As a young woman, she

married a man of the lower nobility, which gave her an entree to the

best salons in Paris. Word quickly spread of her beauty, talent,

charm, and intelligence.

Jeanne 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 herself as a girl: to capture the heart of

the king. Her husband had a chateau in a forest where the king

would often go hunting, and she began to spend a lot of time there.

Studying his movements like a hawk, she would make sure he would

“happen” to come upon her while she was out walking in her most

alluring dress, or riding in her splendid coach. The king began to

take note of her, making her gifts of die game he caught in the hunt.

In 1744 Louis's current mistress, the Duchesse de Chateauroux,

died. Jeanne went on the offensive. She placed herself everywhere

he would be: at masked balls at Versailles, at the opera, wherever

their paths would cross, and wherever she could display her many

talents: dancing, singing, riding, coquetry. The king finally

succumbed to her charms, and in a ceremony at Versailles in

September of 1745, diis twenty-four-year-old daughter of a middle-

class banking agent was officially inaugurated as the king's mistress.

She was given her own room in the palace, a room the king could

enter at any time via a hidden stairway and back door. And because

some of the courtiers were angry that he had chosen a woman of

low origins, he made her a marquise. From now on she would be

known as Madame de Pompadour.

The king was a man whom die slightest feeling of boredom would

oppress out of proportion. Madame de Pompadour knew that

keeping him under her spell meant keeping him amused. To that end

she put on constant theatrical productions at Versailles, in which she

starred. She organized elaborate hunting parties, masked balls, and

whatever else it would take to keep him diverted 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 diem in a totally novel way for a king's mistress: with

extreme politeness. Snobs who resented her for her low birth she

won over with charm and grace. Most unusual of all, she befriended

die queen, and insisted mat Louis XV pay more attention to his wife,

and treat her more kindly. Even the royal family begrudgingly gave

her their support. To

nature of men is ambitious as well as suspicious, and puts no

limits to one's good fortune, it is not impossible that the suspicion

that may suddenly be aroused in the mind of the prince by the victory

of the general may have been aggravated by some haughty

expressions or insolent acts on his part; so that the prince will

naturally be made to think of securing himself against the ambition of

his general. And to do this, the means that suggest themselves to

him are either to have the general killed, or to deprive him of that

reputation which he has acquired with the prince's army and the

people, by using every means to prove that the general's victory was

not due to his skill and courage, but to chance and the cowardice of

the enemy, or to the sagacity of the other captains who were with

him in that action.

NiccolO Machiavelli, 1469-1527

A man who was famous as a tree climber was guiding someone

in climbing a tall tree. He ordered the man to cut the top branches,

and, during this time, when the man seemed to be in great danger,

the expert said nothing. Only when the man was coming down and

had reached the height of the eaves did the expert call out, “Be

careful! Watch your step coming down!” I asked him, “Why did you

say that At that height he could jump the rest of the way if he chose.

” “That's the point, ” said the expert. “As long as the man was up at a

dizzy height and the branches were threatening to break, he himself

was so afraid I said nothing. Mistakes are always made when people

get to the easy places. ” This man belonged to the lowest class, but

his words were in perfect accord with the precepts of the sages. In

football too, they say that after you have kicked out of a difficult place

and you think the next one will be easier you are sure to miss the

ball.

essays in idleness,

Kenko,

Japan,

fourteenthcentury

crown her glory, die king made her a duchess. Her sway was felt

even in politics: Indeed she became the untided minister of foreign

affairs.

In 1751, when Madame de Pompadour was at the height of her

power, she experienced her worst crisis. Physically weakened by die

responsibilities of her position, she found it increasingly difficult to

meet die king's demands in bed. This was usually the point at which

die mistress would meet her end, struggling to maintain her position

as her beauty faded. But Madame de Pompadour had a strategy:

She encouraged the king to set up a kind of brothel, Pare aux Cerfs,

on the grounds of Versailles. There die middle-aged king could have

liaisons widi die most beautiful young girls in the realm.

Madame de Pompadour knew tiiat her charm and her political

acumen had made her indispensable to the king. What did she have

to fear from a sixteen-year-old who had none of her power and

presence What did it matter if she lost her position in the bedroom,

as long as she remained the most powerful woman in France To

secure tiiat position she became still closer friends with the queen,

with whom she started attending church. Although her enemies at

the court conspired to have her toppled from her official position as

king's mistress, die king kept her on, for he needed her calming

effect. It was only when her part in the disastrous Seven Years' War

drew much criticism on her that she slowly wididrew from public

affairs.

Madame de Pompadour's healdi had always been delicate, and

she died at the age of forty-three, in 1764. Her reign as mistress had

lasted an unprecedented twenty years. “She was regretted by all,”

wrote the Due de Croy, “for she was kindly and helpful to everyone

who approached her.”

Interpretation

Aware of die temporariness of her power, die king's mistress

would often go into a kind of frenzy after capturing die king: She

would try to accumulate as much money as possible to protect her

after her inevitable fall. And to extend her reign as long as possible,

she would be rutiiless widi her enemies in the court. Her situation, in

odier words, seemed to demand from her a greed and vindictiveness

diat would often be her undoing. Madame de Pompadour succeeded

where all others had failed because she never pressed her good

fortune. Instead of bullying die courtiers from her powerful position

as die king's mistress, she tried to win their support. She never

revealed die slightest hint of greed or arrogance. When she could no

longer perform her physical duties as mistress, she did not fret at the

tiiought of someone replacing her in bed. She simply applied some

strategyshe encouraged the king to take young lovers, knowing that

the younger and prettier they were, the less of a direat they posed,

since diey could not compare to her in charm and sophistication and

would soon bore die monarch.

Success plays strange tricks on die mind. It makes you feel

invulnerable, while also making you more hostile and emotional

when people chal-

lenge your power. It makes you less able to adapt to

circumstance. You come to believe your character is more

responsible for your success than your strategizing and planning.

Like Madame de Pompadour, you need to realize that your moment

of triumph is also a moment when you have to rely on cunning and

strategy all the more, consolidating your power base, recognizing the

role of luck and circumstance in your success, and remaining vigilant

against changes in your good fortune. It is the moment of victory

when you need to play the courtier's game and pay more attention

dian ever to the laws of power.

The greatest danger occurs at the moment of victory. Napoleon

Bonaparte, 1769-1821

KEYS TO POWER

Power has its own rhythms and patterns. Those who succeed at

the game are the ones who control the patterns and vary them at

will, keeping people off balance while they set the tempo. The

essence of strategy is controlling what comes next, and the elation of

victory can upset your ability to control what comes next in two ways.

First, you owe your success to a pattern that you are apt to try to

repeat. You will try to keep moving in the same direction without

stopping to see whether this is still die direction that is best for you.

Second, success tends to go to your head and make you emotional.

Feeling invulnerable, you make aggressive moves diat ultimately

undo die victory you have gained.

The lesson is simple: The powerful vary dieir rhythms and

patterns, change course, adapt to circumstance, and learn to

improvise. Radier than letting their dancing feet impel them forward,

they step back and look where they are going. It is as if dieir

bloodstream bore a kind of antidote to the intoxication of victory,

letting them control their emotions and come to a kind of mental halt

when they have attained success. They steady tiiem-selves, give

themselves the space to reflect on what has happened, examine the

role of circumstance and luck in tiieir success. As they say in riding

school, you have to be able to control yourself before you can control

the horse.

Luck and circumstance always play a role in power. This is

inevitable, and actually makes die game more interesting. But

despite what you may think, good luck is more dangerous tiian bad

luck. Bad luck teaches valuable lessons about patience, timing, and

the need to be prepared for the worst; good luck deludes you into die

opposite lesson, making you mink your brillliance will carry you

dirough. Your fortune will inevitably turn, and when it does you will be

completely unprepared.

According to Machiavelli, this is what undid Cesare Borgia. He

had many triumphs, was actually a clever strategist, but had the bad

luck to have good luck: He had a pope for a fatiier. Then, when he

had bad luck for realhis father's deamhe was unprepared for it, and

the many ene-

mies he had made devoured him. The good luck diat elevates

you or seals your success brings the moment for you to open your

eyes: The wheel of fortune will hurtle you down as easily as up. If

you prepare for the fall, it is less likely to ruin you when it happens.

People who have a run of success can catch a kind of fever, and

even when they themselves try to stay calm, the people below diem

often pressure diem to go past their mark and into dangerous

waters. You have to have a strategy for dealing with these people.

Simply preaching moderation will make you look weak and small-

minded; seeming to fail to follow up on a victory can lessen your

power.

When the Athenian general and statesman Pericles led a series

of naval campaigns around the Black Sea in 436 B.C., his easy

triumphs en-flamed die Adienians' desire for more. They dreamed of

conquering Egypt, overrunning Persia, sailing for Sicily. On the one

hand Pericles reined in these dangerous emotions by warning of the

perils of hubris. On the other hand he fed them by fighting small

battles that he knew he could win, creating the appearance that he

was preserving the momentum of success. The skill with which

Pericles played this game is revealed by what happened when he

died: The demagogues took over, pushed Adiens into invading Sicily,

and in one rash move destroyed an empire.

The rhydim of power often requires an alternation of force and

cunning. Too much force creates a counterreaction; too much

cunning, no matter how cunning it is, becomes predictable. Working

on behalf of his master, die shogun Oda Nobunaga, the great

sixteenth-century Japanese general (and future emperor) Hideyoshi

once engineered a stunning victory over the army of the formidable

General Yoshimoto. The shogun wanted to go further, to take on and

crush yet another powerful enemy, but Hideyoshi reminded him of

the old Japanese saying: “When you have won a victory, tighten the

strings of your helmet.” For Hideyoshi this was die moment for the

shogun to switch from force to cunning and indirection, setting his

enemies against one another through a series of deceptive alliances.

In diis way he would avoid stirring up needless opposition by

appearing overly aggressive. When you are victorious, tiien, lie low,

and lull the enemy into inaction. These changes of rhydim are

immensely powerful.

People who go past the mark are often motivated by a desire to

please a master by proving their dedication. But an excess of effort

exposes you to die risk of making the master suspicious of you. On

several occasions, generals under Philip of Macedon were disgraced

and demoted immediately after leading dieir troops to a great victory;

one more such victory, Philip thought, and the man might become a

rival instead of an underling. When you serve a master, it is often

wise to measure your victories carefully, letting him get die glory and

never making him uneasy. It is also wise to establish a pattern of

strict obedience to earn his trust. In the fourth century B.C., a captain

under die notoriously severe Chinese general Wu Ch'i charged

ahead before a batde had begun and came back with several

enemy heads. He tiiought he had shown his fiery enthusiasm, but

Wu Ch'i was unimpressed. “A talented officer,” die general said with

a sigh as he ordered the man beheaded, “but a disobedient one.”

Another moment when a small success can spoil the chances for

a larger one may come if a master or superior grants you a favor: It

is a dangerous mistake to ask for more. You will seem

insecureperhaps you feel you did not deserve this favor, and have to

grab as much as you can when you have the chance, which may not

come again. The proper response is to accept the favor graciously

and withdraw. Any subsequent favors you should earn without

having to ask for them.

Finally, the moment when you stop has great dramatic import.

What comes last sticks in the mind as a kind of exclamation point.

There is no better time to stop and walk away than after a victory.

Keep going and you risk lessening the effect, even ending up

defeated. As lawyers say of cross-examination, “Always stop with a

victory.”

Image: Icarus Falling from the Sky. His father Daedalus fashions

wings of wax that allow the two men to fly out of the labyrinth and

escape the Minotaur. Elated by the triumphant escape and the

feeling of flight, Icarus soars higher and higher, until the sun melts

the wings and he hurtles to his death.

Authority: Princes and republics should content themselves with

victory, for when they aim at more, they generally lose. The use of

insulting language toward an enemy arises from the insolence of

victory, or from the false hope of victory, which latter misleads men

as often in their actions as in their words; for when this false hope

takes possession of the mind, it makes men go beyond the mark,

and causes them to sacrifice a certain good for an uncertain better.

(Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527)

REVERSAL

As Machiavelli says, either destroy a man or leave him alone

entirely. Inflicting half punishment or mild injury will only create an

enemy whose bitterness will grow with time, and who will take

revenge. When you beat an enemy, then, make your victory

complete. Crush him into nonexistence. In the moment of victory,

you do not restrain yourself from crushing the enemy you have

defeated, but rather from needlessly advancing against others. Be

merciless with your enemy, but do not create new enemies by

overreaching.

There are some who become more cautious than ever after a

victory, which they see as just giving them more possessions to

worry about and protect. Your caution after victory should never

make you hesitate, or lose momentum, but rather act as a safeguard

against rash action. On the other hand, momentum as a

phenomenon is gready overrated. You create your own successes,

and if they follow one upon the otiier, it is your own doing. Belief in

momentum will only make you emotional, less prone to act

strategically, and more apt to repeat the same memods. Leave

momentum for those who have nothing better to rely upon.

48 Laws of Power

LAW 48

ASSUME FORMLESSNESS

JUDGMENT

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.

In martial arts, it is important that strategy he unfathomable, that

form he concealed, and that movements he unexpected, so that

preparedness against than he impossible. What enables a good

general to win without fail is always having unfathomable wisdom

and a modus operandi that leaves no tracks. Only the formless

cannot be affected. Sages hide in unfath-omability, so their feelings

cannot he observed; they operate in formlessness, so their lines

cannot be crossed.

China,

“What crime have I committed that I should be thus mutilated by

my own master ” pensively exclaimed Jowlcr, a young mastiff.

“Here's a pretty condition for a dog of my pretentions! How can I

show my face among my friends'/ Oh! king of beasts, or rather their

tyrant, who would dare to treat you thus ” His complaints were not

unfounded, for that very morning, his master, despite the piercing

shrieks of our young friend, had

TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW

By the eighth century B.C., the city-states of Greece had grown

so large and prosperous that they had run out of land to support dieir

expanding populations. So they turned to the sea, establishing

colonies in Asia Minor, Sicily, the Italian peninsula, even Africa. The

city-state of Sparta, however, was landlocked and surrounded by

mountains. Lacking access to the Mediterranean, the Spartans never

became a seafaring people; instead they turned on the cities around

diem, and, in a series of brutal, violent conflicts lasting more than a

hundred years, managed to conquer an immense area diat would

provide enough land for dieir citizens. This solution to dieir problem,

however, brought a new, more formidable one: How could diey

maintain and police dieir conquered territories The subordinate

peoples diey ruled now outnumbered diem ten to one. Surely Uiis

horde would take a horrible revenge on diem.

Sparta's solution was to create a society dedicated to die art of

war. Spartans would be tougher, stronger, and fiercer dian dieir

neighbors. This was die only way diey could ensure dieir stability and

survival.

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; diey were allotted only one outer garment to wear for an

entire year. They studied none of die arts; indeed, the Spartans

banned music, and permitted only slaves to practice die crafts diat

were necessary to sustain diem. The only skills die Spartans taught

were diose of warfare. Children seen as weaklings were left to die in

a cavern in die mountains. No system of money or trading was

allowed in Sparta; acquired wealtii, diey believed, would sow

selfishness and dissension, weakening dieir warrior discipline. The

only way a Spartan could earn a living was tiirough agriculture,

mosdy on state-owned lands, which slaves, called helots, would

work for him.

The Spartans' single-mindedness allowed tiiem to forge die most

powerful infantry in the world. They marched in perfect order and

fought widi incomparable bravery. Their tight-knit phalanxes could

vanquish an army ten times dieir size, as diey proved in defeating

die Persians at Thermopylae. A Spartan column on die march would

strike terror in die enemy; it seemed to have no weaknesses. Yet

although die Spartans proved tiiem-selves mighty warriors, tiiey had

no interest in creating an empire. They only wanted to keep what

diey had already conquered and to defend it against invaders.

Decades would pass witiiout a single change in the system diat had

succeeded so well in preserving Sparta's status quo.

At die same time tiiat die Spartans were evolving dieir warlike

culture, anotiier city-state was rising to equal prominence: Atiiens.

Unlike Sparta, Adiens had taken to die sea, not so much to create

colonies as for purposes of trade. The Adienians became great

merchants; dieir currency, me famous “owl coins,” spread mroughout

die Mediterranean. Unlike die rigid Spartans, die Adienians

responded to every problem with consummate creativity, adapting to

die occasion and creating new social forms and new

arts at an incredible pace. Their society was in constant flux. And

as their power grew, they came to pose a threat to the defense-

minded Spartans.

In 431 B.C., the war that had been brewing between Athens and

Sparta for so long finally erupted. It lasted twenty-seven years, but

after many twists of fortune, the Spartan war machine finally

emerged victorious. The Spartans now commanded an empire, and

this time uiey could not stay in their shell. If they gave up what they

had gained, the beaten Athenians would regroup and rise against

them, and the long war would have been fought for naught.

After the war, Athenian money poured into Sparta. The Spartans

had been trained in warfare, not politics or economics; because they

were so unaccustomed to it, wealth and its accompanying ways of

life seduced and overwhelmed them. Spartan governors were sent to

rule what had been Athenian lands; far from home, they succumbed

to the worst forms of corruption. Sparta had defeated Athens, but the

fluid Athenian way of life was slowly breaking down its discipline and

loosening its rigid order. And Athens, meanwhile, was adapting to

losing its empire, managing to thrive as a cultural and economic

center.

Confused by a change in its status quo, Sparta grew weaker and

weaker. Some thirty years after defeating Athens, it lost an important

batde with the city-state of Thebes. Almost overnight, this once

mighty nation collapsed, never to recover.

Interpretation

In the evolution of species, protective armor has almost always

spelled disaster. Although there are a few exceptions, the shell most

often becomes a dead end for the animal encased in it; it slows the

creature down, making it hard for it to forage for food and making it a

target for fast-moving predators. Animals that take to the sea or sky,

and that move swiftly and unpredictably, are infinitely more powerful

and secure.

In facing a serious problemcontrolling superior numbersSparta

reacted like an animal that develops a shell to protect itself from the

environment. But like a turtle, the Spartans sacrificed mobility for

safety. They managed to preserve stability for three hundred years,

but at what cost They had no culture beyond warfare, no arts to

relieve the tension, a constant anxiety about the status quo. While

their neighbors took to the sea, learning to adapt to a world of

constant motion, the Spartans entombed themselves in their own

system. Victory would mean new lands to govern, which tfiey did not

want; defeat would mean the end of their military machine, which

they did not want, either. Only stasis allowed them to survive. But

nothing in the world can remain stable forever, and the shell or

system you evolve for your protection will someday prove your

undoing.

In the case of Sparta, it was not the armies of Athens that

defeated it, but the Athenian money. Money flows everywhere it has

the opportunity to go; it cannot be controlled, or made to fit a

prescribed pattern. It is inherently chaotic. And in the long run,

money made Athens the conqueror,

barbarously cut off his long pendent ears. Jowler expected

nothing less than to give up the ghost. As he advanced in years, he

perceived that he gained more than he had lost by his mutilation; for,

being naturally inclined to fight with others, he would often have

returned home with this part disfigured in a hundred places. A

quarrelsome dog always has his ears lacerated. The less we leave

others to lay hold of the better. When one has but one point to

defend, it should be protected for fear of accident. Take for example

Master Jowler, who, being armed with a spiked collar, and having

about as much ear as a bird, a wolf would be puzzled to know where

to tackle him.

FABLES,

Jean de La Fontaine, 1621-1695

One seductive and ultimately always fatal path has been the

development of protective armor. An organism can protect itself by

concealment, by swiftness in flight, by effective counterattack, by

uniting for attack and defense with other individuals of its species

and also by encasing itself within bony plates and spines.... Almost

always the experiment of armor failed. Creatures adopting it tended

to become unwieldy. They had to move relatively slowly. Hence they

were forced to live mainly on vegetable food; and thus in general

they were at a disadvantage as compared with foes living on more

rapidly “profitable ” animal food: The repeated failure of protective

armor shows that, even at a somewhat low evolutionary level, mind

triumphed over mere matter. It is this sort of triumph which has been

supremely exemplified in Man.

SCIENTIFIC THEORY AND RELIGION,

E. W. Barnes, 1933

by infiltrating the Spartan system and corroding its protective

armor. In the battle between the two systems, Adiens was fluid and

creative enough to take new forms, while Sparta could grow only

more rigid until it cracked.

This is the way the world works, whether for animals, cultures, or

individuals. In the face of the world's harshness and danger,

organisms of any kind develop protectiona coat of armor, a rigid

system, a comforting ritual. For the short term it may work, but for

the long term it spells disaster. People weighed down by a system

and inflexible ways of doing things cannot move fast, cannot sense

or adapt to change. They lumber around more and more slowly until

they go the way of the brontosaurus. Learn to move fast and adapt

or you will be eaten.

The best way to avoid diis fate is to assume formlessness. No

predator alive can attack what it cannot see.

OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW

When World War II ended and the Japanese, who had invaded

China in 1937, had finally been thrown out, the Chinese Nationalists,

lead by Chiang Kai-shek, decided the time had come to annihilate

the Chinese Communists, their hated rivals, once and for all. They

had almost succeeded in 1935, forcing the Communists into the

Long March, the grueling retreat mat had gready diminished their

numbers. Although the Communists had recovered somewhat during

the war against Japan, it would not be difficult to defeat them now.

They controlled only isolated areas in the countryside, had

unsophisticated weaponry, lacked any military experience or training

beyond mountain fighting, and controlled no important parts of

China, except areas of Manchuria, which they had managed to take

after die Japanese retreat. Chiang decided to commit his best forces

in Manchuria. He would take over its major cities and from those

bases would spread through this northern industrial region, sweeping

the Communists away. Once Manchuria had fallen the Communists

would collapse.

In 1945 and '46 the plan worked perfectly: The Nationalists easily

took the major Manchurian cities. Puzzlingly, though, in the face of

this critical campaign, the Communist strategy made no sense.

When the Nationalists began their push, the Communists dispersed

to Manchuria's most out-of-the-way corners. Their small units

harassed the Nationalist armies, ambushing them here, retreating

unexpectedly tiiere, but tiiese dispersed units never linked up,

making them hard to attack. They would seize a town only to give it

up a few weeks later. Forming neither rear guards nor vanguards,

they moved like mercury, never staying in one place, elusive and

formless.

The Nationalists ascribed this to two things: cowardice in die face

of superior forces and inexperience in strategy. Mao Tse-tung, die

Communist leader, was more a poet and philosopher than a general,

whereas Chiang had studied warfare in die West and was a follower

of die German military writer Carl von Clausewitz, among others.

Yet a pattern did eventually emerge in Mao's attacks. After the

Nationalists had taken the cities, leaving the Communists to occupy

what was generally considered Manchuria's useless space, the

Communists started using that large space to surround the cities. If

Chiang sent an army from one city to reinforce anotiier, die

Communists would encircle the rescuing army. Chiang's forces were

slowly broken into smaller and smaller units, isolated from one

another, their lines of supply and communication cut. The

Nationalists still had superior firepower, but if diey could not move,

what good was it

A kind of terror overcame the Nationalist soldiers. Commanders

comfortably remote from the front lines might laugh at Mao, but the

soldiers had fought the Communists in die mountains, and had come

to fear their elusiveness. Now these soldiers sat in their cities and

watched as their fast-moving enemies, as fluid as water, poured in

on them from all sides. There seemed to be millions of them. The

Communists also encircled the soldiers' spirits, bombarding diem

with propaganda to lower their morale and pressure them to desert.

The Nationalists began to surrender in their minds. Their

encircled and isolated cities started collapsing even before being

directly attacked; one after another fell in quick succession. In

November of 1948, the Nationalists surrendered Manchuria to the

Communistsa humiliating blow to the technically superior Nationalist

army, and one that proved decisive in the war. By the following year

the Communists controlled all of China.

Interpretation

The two board games that best approximate tile strategies of war

are chess and the Asian game of go. In chess the board is small. In

comparison to go, the attack comes relatively quickly, forcing a

decisive batde. It rarely pays to withdraw, or to sacrifice your pieces,

which must be concentrated at key areas. Go is much less formal. It

is played on a large grid, with 361 intersectionsnearly six times as

many positions as in chess. Black and white stones (one color for

each side) are placed on the board's intersections, one at a time,

wherever you like. Once all your stones (52 for each side) are on the

board, the object is to isolate die stones of your opponent by

encircling diem.

A game of gocalled wei-chi in Chinacan last up to three hundred

moves. The strategy is more subtie and fluid than chess, developing

slowly; the more complex the pattern your stones initially create on

die board, the harder it is for your opponent to understand your

strategy. Fighting to control a particular area is not worth the trouble:

You have to think in larger terms, to be prepared to sacrifice an area

in order eventually to dominate the board. What you are after is not

an entrenched position but mobility. With mobility you can isolate the

opponent in small areas and men encircle them. The aim is not to kill

off the opponent's pieces directiy, as in chess, but to induce a kind of

paralysis and collapse. Chess is linear, position oriented, and

aggressive; go is nonlinear and fluid. Aggression is indi-

The sage neither seeks to follow the ways of the ancients nor

establishes any fixed standard for all times but examines the things

of his age and then prepares to deal with them. There was in Sung a

man, who tilled a field in which there stood the trunk of a tree. Once

a hare, while running fast, rushed against the trunk, broke its neck,

and died. Thereupon the man cast his plough aside and watched

that tree, hoping that he would get another hare. Yet he never caught

another hare and was himself ridiculed by the people of Sung. Now

supposing somebody wanted to govern the people of the present

age with the policies of the early kings, he would be doing exactly

the same thing as that man who watched the tree.

Han-fei-tzu, Chinese philosopher, third century b.c.

General Rommel surpassed Patton as a creative intellect....

Rommel shunned military formalism. He made no fixed plans beyond

those intended for the initial clash; thereafter, he tailored his tactics

to meet specific situations as they arose. He was a lightning-fast

decisionmaker, physically maintaining a pace that matched his active

mentality. In a forbidding sea of sand, he operated in a free

environment. Once Rommel ruptured the British lines in Africa, he

had the whole northern part of the continent opened to him.

Comparatively free from the hamstringing authority of Berlin,

disregarding orders even from Hitler himself on occasion, Rommel

implemented one successful operation after another until he had

most of North Africa under his control and Cairo trembling at his feet.

THE ART OF WINNING WARS,

James Mrazek, 1968

rect until the end of the game, when the winner can surround the

opponent's stones at an accelerated pace.

Chinese military strategists have been influenced by go for

centuries. Its proverbs have been applied to war time and again;

Mao Tse-tung was an addict of wei-chi, and its precepts were

ingrained in his strategies. A key wei-chi concept, for example, is to

use the size of the board to your advantage, spreading out in every

direction so mat your opponent cannot fadiom your movements in a

simple linear way.

“Every Chinese,” Mao once wrote, “should consciously throw

himself into this war of a jigsaw pattern” against the Nationalists.

Place your men in a jigsaw pattern in go, and your opponent loses

himself trying to figure out what you are up to. Either he wastes time

pursuing you or, like Chiang Kai-shek, he assumes you are

incompetent and fails to protect himself. And if he concentrates on

single areas, as Western strategy advises, he becomes a sitting

duck for encirclement. In die wei-chi way of war, you encircle the

enemy's brain, using mind games, propaganda, and irritation tactics

to confuse and dishearten. This was the strategy of the

Communistsan apparent formlessness mat disoriented and terrified

their enemy.

Where chess is linear and direct, the ancient game of go is closer

to the kind of strategy that will prove relevant in a world where

battles are fought indirectiy, in vast, loosely connected areas. Its

strategies are abstract and multidimensional, inhabiting a plane

beyond time and space: die strategist's mind. In this fluid form of

warfare, you value movement over position. Your speed and mobility

make it impossible to predict your moves; unable to understand you,

your enemy can form no strategy to defeat you. Instead of fixing on

particular spots, diis indirect form of warfare spreads out, just as you

can use the large and disconnected nature of die real world to your

advantage. Be like a vapor. Do not give your opponents anything

solid to attack; watch as diey exhaust themselves pursuing you,

trying to cope with your elusiveness. Only formlessness allows you

to truly surprise your enemiesby die time they figure out where you

are and what you are up to, it is too late.

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, 1893-1976

KEYS TO POWER

The human animal is distinguished by its constant creation of

forms. Rarely expressing its emotions directiy, it gives them form

through language, or dirough socially acceptable rituals. We cannot

communicate our emotions widiout a form.

The forms that we create, however, change constantiyin fashion,

style, in all those human phenomena representing the mood of

the moment. We are constantly altering the forms we have inherited

from previous generations, and these changes are signs of life and

vitality. Indeed, the tilings that don't change, the forms that rigidify,

come to look to us like death, and we destroy them. The young show

this most clearly: Uncomfortable with the forms that society imposes

upon them, having no set identity, they play with their own

characters, trying on a variety of masks and poses to express

themselves. This is the vitality that drives the motor of form, creating

constant changes in style.

The powerful are often people who in their youth have shown

immense creativity in expressing something new through a new

form. Society grants them power because it hungers for and rewards

this sort of newness. The problem comes later, when they often grow

conservative and possessive. They no longer dream of creating new

forms; their identities are set, their habits congeal, and their rigidity

makes them easy targets. Everyone knows their next move. Instead

of demanding respect they elicit boredom: Get off the stage! we say,

let someone else, someone younger, entertain us. When locked in

the past, the powerful look comicalthey are overripe fruit, waiting to

fall from the tree.

Power can only thrive if it is flexible in its forms. To be formless is

not to be amorphous; everything has a formit is impossible to avoid.

The formlessness of power is more like that of water, or mercury,

taking the form of whatever is around it. Changing constantly, it is

never predictable. The powerful are constantly creating form, and

their power comes from the rapidity with which they can change.

Their formlessness is in the eye of the enemy who cannot see what

they are up to and so has nothing solid to attack. This is the premier

pose of power: ungraspable, as elusive and swift as the god

Mercury, who could take any form he pleased and used this ability to

wreak havoc on Mount Olympus.

Human creations evolve toward abstraction, toward being more

mental and less material. This evolution is clear in art, which, in this

century, made the great discovery of abstraction and conceptualism;

it can also be seen in politics, which over time have become less

overtly violent, more complicated, indirect and cerebral. Warfare and

strategy too have followed this pattern. Strategy began in the

manipulation of armies on land, positioning them in ordered

formations; on land, strategy is relatively two dimensional, and

controlled by topography. But all the great powers have eventually

taken to the sea, for commerce and colonization. And to protect their

trading lanes they have had to learn how to fight at sea. Maritime

warfare requires tremendous creativity and abstract thinking, since

the lines are constantly shifting. Naval captains distinguish

themselves by their ability to adapt to the literal fluidity of the terrain

and to confuse the enemy with an abstract, hard-to-anticipate form.

They are operating in a third dimension: the mind.

Back on land, guerrilla warfare too demonstrates this evolution

toward abstraction. T. E. Lawrence was perhaps the first modern

strategist to de-

CHAHACTKH

To carry out the instinctual inhibition demanded by the modern

world and to be able to cope with the energy stasis which results

from this inhibition, the ego has to undergo a change. The ego, i.e.,

that part of the person that is exposed to danger, becomes rigid, as

we say, when it is continually subjected to the same or similar

conflicts between need and a fear-inducing outer world. It acquires in

this process a chronic, automatically functioning mode of reaction,

i.e., its “character. ” ft is as if the affective personality armored itself,

as if the hard shell it develops were intended to deflect and weaken

the blows of the outer world as-well as the clamoring of the inner

needs. This armoring makes the person less sensitive to unpleasure,

but also restricts his libidinal and aggressive motility and thus

reduces his capacity for achievement and pleasure. We say the ego

has become less flexible and more rigid, and that the ability to

regulate the energy economy depends on the extent of the armoring.

Wiihelm Reich, 1897-1957

velop the theory behind this kind of warfare, and to put it into

practice. His ideas influenced Mao, who found in his writings an

uncanny Western equivalent to wei-chi. Lawrence was working with

Arabs fighting for tiieir territory against the Turks. His idea was to

make the Arabs blend into die vast desert, never providing a target,

never collecting together in one place. As the Turks scrambled to

fight this vaporous army, diey spread themselves thin, wasting

energy in moving from place to place. They had the superior

firepower but die Arabs kept the initiative by playing cat and mouse,

giving die Turks nothing to hold on to, destroying their morale. “Most

wars were wars of contact.... Ours should be a war of detachment,”

Lawrence wrote. “We were to contain the enemy by die silent tiireat

of a vast unknown desert, not disclosing ourselves till we attacked.”

This is the ultimate form of strategy. The war of engagement has

become far too dangerous and cosdy; indirection and elusiveness

yield far better results at a much lower cost. The main cost, in fact, is

mentalthe dunking it takes to align your forces in scattered patterns,

and to undermine the minds and psychology of your opponents. And

nothing will infuriate and disorient them more tiian formlessness. In a

world where wars of detachment are the order of die day,

formlessness is crucial.

The first psychological requirement of formlessness is to train

yourself to take nothing personally. Never show any defensiveness.

When you act defensive, you show your emotions, revealing a clear

form. Your opponents will realize they have hit a nerve, an Achilles'

heel. And diey will hit it again and again. So train yourself to take

nothing personally. Never let anyone get your back up. Be like a

slippery ball tilat cannot be held: Let no one know what gets to you,

or where your weaknesses he. Make your face a formless mask and

you will infuriate and disorient your scheming colleagues and

opponents.

One man who used diis technique was Baron James Rothschild.

A German Jew in Paris, in a culture decidedly unfriendly to

foreigners, Rothschild never took any attack on him personally or

showed he had been hurt in any way. He furthermore adapted

himself to the political climate, whatever it wasthe stiffly formal

Restoration monarchy of Louis XVIII, die bourgeois reign of Louis-

Philippe, die democratic revolution of 1848, tiie upstart Louis-

Napoleon crowned emperor in 1852. Rotiischild accepted them one

and all, and blended in. He could afford to appear hypocritical or

opportunistic because he was valued for his money, not his politics;

his money was die currency of power. While he adapted and thrived,

outwardly never showing a form, all die otiier great families tilat had

begun die century immensely wealthy were ruined in the period's

complicated shifts and turns of fortune. Attaching tiiemselves to the

past, they revealed their embrace of a form.

Throughout history, the formless style of ruling has been most

adeptiy practiced by die queen who reigns alone. A queen is in a

radically different position from a king; because she is a woman, her

subjects and courtiers are likely to doubt her ability to rule, her

strengdi of character. If she favors

one side in some ideological struggle, she is said to be acting out

of emotional attachment. Yet if she represses her emotions and

plays die authoritarian, in the male fashion, she arouses worse

criticism still. Either by nature or by experience, then, queens tend to

adopt a flexible style of governing that in die end often proves more

powerful than the more direct, male form.

Two female leaders exemplifying die formless style of rule are

Queen Elizabeth of England and Empress Catherine the Great of

Russia. In die violent wars between Catholics and Protestants,

Elizabeth steered a middle course. She avoided alliances that would

commit her to one side, and that over time would harm the country.

She managed to keep her country at peace until it was strong

enough for war. Her reign was one of the most glorious in history

because of her incredible capacity to adapt and her flexible ideology.

CaUierine die Great too evolved an improvisatory style of

governing. After she deposed her husband, Emperor Peter II, taking

sole control of Russia in 1762, no one thought she would survive.

But she had no preconceived ideas, no philosophy or theory to

dictate her policies. Although a foreigner (she came from Germany),

she understood Russia's moods, and how it was changing over the

years. “One must govern in such a way that one's people think they

themselves want to do what one commands them to do,” she said,

and to do this she had to be always a step ahead of their desires and

to adapt to their resistance. By never forcing die issue, she reformed

Russia in a strikingly short period of time.

This feminine, formless style of ruling may have emerged as a

way of prospering under difficult circumstances, but it has proved

immensely seductive to those who have served under it. Being fluid,

it is relatively easy for its subjects to obey, for they feel less coerced,

less bent to their ruler's ideology. It also opens up options where an

adherence to a doctrine closes them off. Without committing to one

side, it allows the ruler to play one enemy off anodier. Rigid rulers

may seem strong, but with time their inflexibility wears on the nerves,

and their subjects find ways to push them from the stage. Flexible,

formless rulers will be much criticized, but they will endure, and

people will eventually come to identify witii them, since diey are as

tiieir subjects arechanging widi die wind, open to circumstance.

Despite upsets and delays, die permeable style of power

generally triumphs in the end, just as Athens eventually won victory

over Sparta tiirough its money and its culture. When you find yourself

in conflict with someone stronger and more rigid, allow diem a

momentary victory. Seem to bow to tiieir superiority. Then, by being

formless and adaptable, slowly insinuate yourself into their soul. This

way you will catch them off guard, for rigid people are always ready

to ward off direct blows but are helpless against the subde and

insinuating. To succeed at such a strategy you must play die

chameleonconform on die surface, while breaking down your enemy

from the inside.

For centuries the Japanese would accept foreigners graciously,

and appeared susceptible to foreign cultures and influences. Joao

Rodriguez, a Portuguese priest who arrived in Japan in 1577 and

lived there for many years, wrote, “I am flabbergasted by the

Japanese willingness to try and accept everything Portuguese.” He

saw Japanese in die streets wearing Portuguese clothing, with

rosary beads at their necks and crosses at their hips. This might

seem like a weak, mutable culture, but Japan's adaptability actually

protected the country from having an alien culture imposed by

military invasion. It seduced the Portuguese and other Westerners

into believing the Japanese were yielding to a superior culture when

actually the foreign culture's ways were merely a fashion to be

donned and doffed. Under the surface, Japanese culture thrived.

Had the Japanese been rigid about foreign influences and tried to

fight them off, they might have suffered the injuries that the West

inflicted on China. That is the power of formlessnessit gives the

aggressor nothing to react against, nothing to hit.

In evolution, largeness is often the first step toward extinction.

What is immense and bloated has no mobility, but must constantly

feed itself. The unintelligent are often seduced into believing that

size connotes power, die bigger the better.

In 483 B.C., King Xerxes of Persia invaded Greece, believing he

could conquer the country in one easy campaign. After all, he had

the largest army ever assembled for one invasionthe historian

Herodotus estimated it at over more than five million. The Persians

planned to build a bridge across the Hellespont to overrun Greece

from the land, while tiieir equally immense navy would pin the Greek

ships in harbor, preventing their forces from escaping to sea. The

plan seemed sure, yet as Xerxes prepared the invasion, his adviser

Artabanus warned his master of grave misgivings: “The two

mightiest powers in the world are against you,” he said. Xerxes

laughedwhat powers could match his gigantic army “I will tell you

what they are,” answered Artabanus. “The land and the sea.” There

were no safe harbors large enough to receive Xerxes' fleet. And die

more land die Persians conquered, and die longer their supply lines

stretched, the more ruinous the cost of feeding tiiis immense army

would prove.

Thinking his adviser a coward, Xerxes proceeded with the

invasion. Yet as Artabanus predicted, bad weadier at sea decimated

the Persian fleet, which was too large to take shelter in any harbor.

On land, meanwhile, the Persian army destroyed everything in its

path, which only made it impossible to feed, since the destruction

included crops and stores of food. It was also an easy and slow-

moving target. The Greeks practiced all kinds of deceptive

maneuvers to disorient the Persians. Xerxes' eventual defeat at the

hands of die Greek allies was an immense disaster. The story is

emblematic of all Uiose who sacrifice mobility for size: The flexible

and fleet of foot will almost always win, for they have more strategic

options. The more gigantic the enemy, the easier it is to induce

collapse.

The need for formlessness becomes greater the older we get, as

we grow more likely to become set in our ways and assume too rigid

a form.

We become predictable, always the first sign of decrepitude. And

predictability makes us appear comical. Although ridicule and disdain

might seem mild forms of attack, they are actually potent weapons,

and will eventually erode a foundation of power. An enemy who does

not respect you will grow bold, and boldness makes even the

smallest animal dangerous.

The late-eighteenth-century court of France, as exemplified by

Marie-Antoinette, had become so hopelessly tied to a rigid formality

that the average Frenchman thought it a silly relic. This depreciation

of a centuries-old institution was the first sign of a terminal disease,

for it represented a symbolic loosening of the people's ties to

monarchy. As the situation worsened, Marie-Antoinette and King

Louis XVI grew only more rigid in their adherence to the pastand

quickened their path to the guillotine. King Charles I of England

reacted similarly to the tide of democratic change brewing in England

in the 1630s: He disbanded Parliament, and his court rituals grew

increasingly formal and distant. He wanted to return to an older style

of ruling, with adherence to all kinds of petty protocol. His rigidity

only heightened the desire for change. Soon, of course, he was

swept up in a devastating civil war, and eventually he lost his head to

the executioner's axe.

As you get older, you must rely even less on the past. Be vigilant

lest the form your character has taken makes you seem a relic. It is

not a matter of mimicking the fashions of youththat is equally worthy

of laughter. Rather your mind must constantly adapt to each

circumstance, even the inevitable change that the time has come to

move over and let those of younger age prepare for their

ascendancy. Rigidity will only make you look uncannily like a

cadaver.

Never forget, though, that formlessness is a strategic pose. It

gives you room to create tactical surprises; as your enemies struggle

to guess your next move, they reveal their own strategy, putting them

at a decided disadvantage. It keeps the initiative on your side,

putting your enemies in the position of never acting, constantly

reacting. It foils their spying and intelligence. Remember:

Formlessness is a tool. Never confuse it with a go-with-the-flow

style, or with a religious resignation to the twists of fortune. You use

formlessness, not because it creates inner harmony and peace, but

because it will increase your power.

Finally, learning to adapt to each new circumstance means

seeing events through your own eyes, and often ignoring the advice

that people constantly peddle your way. It means that ultimately you

must throw out the laws that others preach, and the books they write

to tell you what to do, and the sage advice of the elder. “The laws

that govern circumstances are abolished by new circumstances,”

Napoleon wrote, which means diat it is up to you to gauge each new

situation. Rely too much on other people's ideas and you end up

taking a form not of your own making. Too much respect for other

people's wisdom will make you depreciate your own. Be brutal with

the past, especially your own, and have no respect for the

philosophies that are foisted on you from outside.

Image: Mercury. The winged messenger,

god of commerce, patron saint of thieves, gamblers, and all those

who deceive through

swiftness. The day Mercury was born he invented die lyre; by that

evening he had stolen the cattle of Apollo. He would scour the world,

assuming

whatever form he desired. Like the liquid metal

named after him, he embodies the elusive, the ungraspablethe

power of formlessness.

Authority: Therefore the consummation of forming an army is to

arrive at formlessness. Victory in war is not repetitious, but adapts its

form endlessly. ... A military force has no constant formation, water

has no constant shape: The ability to gain victory by changing and

adapting according to the opponent is called genius. (Sun-tzu, fourth

century B.C.)

REVERSAL

Using space to disperse and create an abstract pattern should

not mean forsaking the concentration of your power when it is

valuable to you. Formlessness makes your enemies hunt all over for

you, scattering their own forces, mental as well as physical. When

you finally engage them, though, hit them with a powerful,

concentrated blow. That is how Mao succeeded against the

Nationalists: He broke their forces into small, isolated units, which he

then could easily overwhelm with a strong attack. The law of

concentration prevailed.

When you play with formlessness, keep on top of the process,

and keep your long-term strategy in mind. When you assume a form

and go on the attack, use concentration, speed, and power. As Mao

said, “ When we fight you, we make sure you can't get away.”

48 Laws of Power

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