“Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the greater number who are not good.” – Niccolo Machiavelli.
Like Janus, the double-faced Roman deity and guardian of all gates and doorways, you must be able to look in both directions at once, the better to handle danger from wherever it comes. Such is the face that you must create for yourself – one face continuously looking to the future and the other to the past.
Patience will protect you from making moronic blunders. Like mastering your emotions – patience is a skill, it does not come naturally.
The grass will grow again.
…life is short, opportunities are few, and you only have so much energy to draw on.
“Pick up a bee from kindness and learn the limitations of kindness” – Sufi proverb
Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and comptent.
Without enemies around us, we grow lazy. An enemy sharpens our wits, keeping us focussed and alert.
Always say less then 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 sphinx like. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.
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 reveal valuable information about them and their weaknesses.
Warhol rarely talked about his work; he let others do the interpreting. He claimed to have learned this technique from the master of enigma Marcel Duchamp, another twentieth century artist who realised early on that the less he said about his work, the more people talked about it.
…(we) judge people on their appearances, on what is most visible to the eyes – clothes, gestures, words, actions. In the social realm, appearances are the barometer of almost all our judgements, and you must never be misled in to believing otherwise. One false slip, one awkward or sudden change in your appearance, can prove disastrous.
As they say, your reputation inevitably precedes you, and if it inspires a lot of respect, a lot of your work is done for you before you arrive on the scene, or utter a single word.
In a world growing increasingly banal and familiar, what seems enigmatic instantly draws attention. Never make it clear what you are doing or what you are about to do. Do not show all your cards. An air of mystery heightens your presence…
People are enthralled by mystery; because it invites constant interpretation, they never tire of it. The mysterious cannot be grasped. And what cannot be seized and consumed creates power. (think of the fame of Mata Hari)
…the world has become so familiar and its inhabitants so predictable that what wraps itself in mystery will always draw the limelight to it and make us watch.
The mystery you create must seem a game, playful and unthreatening. Recognise when it goes too far, and pull back.
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
Learn to use the knowledge of the past and you will look like a genius, even when you are really just a 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 power – their 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 the past. As Bismark once said “Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit from others’ experience.”
“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.
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.
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 indirectly.
“Never argue. In society nothing must be discussed; give only results” – Bejamin Disraeli.
Infection: Avoid the unhappy and the unlucky. You can die from someone else’s misery – emotional states are as infectious as diseases. You may fee you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune upon themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.
“Many things are said to be infectious. Sleepiness 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, drunk-like spirit, with boredom, or even with weakness.” – Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings.
…humans are extremely susceptible to moods, emotions, and even the ways of thinking of those with whom around they spend their time. The incurably unhappy and unstable have a particularly strong infecting powers because their characters and emotions are so intense. They often present themselves as victims, making it difficult, at first, to see their miseries are self-inflicted. Before you realise the real nature of their problems you have been infected by them.
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 defects. 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.
People rarely act unless compelled to.
“Everything turns grey 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.” – Count Victor Lustig.
“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 by the nearest chance reference to anything which affects them personally, be it never so remote.” – Arthur Schopenhauer.
A key step in the process is to understand the other person’s psychology. Is he vain? Is he concerned about his reputation or social standing? Does he have any enemies that you could help him vanquish? Is he simply motivated by money and power?
They may act friendly for a while 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 totally…
Use absence to increase honour and respect. 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.
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 that 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 dead – an air of resurrection will cling to you are people will be relieved at your return.
There always comes a moment when those in power overstay there 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 in knowing when to retire. If it is done right, you regain the respect you had lost, and retain a part of your power.
You can never be to sure who you are dealing with. A man who is of little importance and means today can be a person of power tomorrow. We forget a lot in our lives, but we rarely forget an insult.
No one likes feeling stupider than the next person. The trick, then, is to make your victims feel smart – and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.
Concentrate on a single goal, a single task, and beat it in to submission.
“Prize intensity more than extensity. Perfection resides in quality, not quantity. Extent alone never rises above mediocrity, and it is the 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.
Avoid ostentation. It is never prudent to prattle on about yourself or call to much attention to yourself. The more you talk about your deeds, 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 effortless – people prefer not to 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 you so much work.
Alter your style and language according to the person you are dealing with. The pseudo-belief in equality – the idea that talking and acting the same way with everyone, no matter what their rank, makes you somehow a paragon of civilisation – is 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… Learn the art. This is also true for the great variety of cultures found in the modern court: Never assume that your criteria of behaviour and judgement are universal. Not only is an inability to adapt to another culture the height of barbarism, it puts you at a disadvantage.
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 and see yourself as others see you. 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.
Never risk being caught in your manoeuvres; never let people see your devices. If that happens you instantly pass in people’s perceptions from a courtier of great manners to a loathsome rogue. It is a delicate game you play; apply the utmost attention to covering your tracks and never let your master unmask you.
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 – your power will be enhanced and you will seem larger than life.
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. Everyone admires the bold; no one honours the timid.
Lions circle the hesitant prey. People have a sixth sense for the weakness of others. If, in a first encounter, you demonstrate your willingness to compromise, back down, and retreat, you bring out the lion even in people who are not necessarily bloodthirsty. Everything depends on perception, and once you are seen as the kind of person who quickly goes on the defensive, who is willing to negotiate and be amenable, you will be pushed around without mercy.
Audacity separates you from the herd. Boldness gives you presence and makes you seem larger than life. The timid fade in to the wallpaper, the bold draw attention and what draws attention draws power. We cannot keep our eyes of the audacious – we cannot wait to see their next bold move.
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 bold action are way out of proportion to reality, and in fact, the consequences fo timidity are worse. Your value is lowered and you create a self-fulfilling cycle of doubt and disaster.
Most men are ruled by the heart, not the 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.
The person that 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.
Plan in detail before you act – do 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 labours? Unhappy endings are much more common than happy endings – do not be swayed by the happy ending in your mind.
People’s need for validation and recognition, their 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, their intelligence. Once the fish are hooked, you can reel them in again and again, for years – you are filling a positive role, giving what they cannot get on their own. They may never suspect that you are turning them like a thumb-screw. And if they do they may not care, because you are making them feel better than themselves, and that it worth any price.
Timid souls often yearn to be their opposite – to be Napoleons. Yet they lack the inner strength. You, inessence, can become their Napoelon, pushing them in to bold actions that serve your needs while making them dependent on you. Remember: Look to the opposites and never take appearances at face value.
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.
“Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone. Let your integrity be your own standard of rectitude, and be more indebted to the severity of your own judgement 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.” – Bathasar Gracian (1601 – 1658).
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 radiation will infect the people around, 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.
The Crown. Place it upon your head and you assume a different pose – tranquil yet radiating assurance. Never show doubt, never lose your dignity beneath your crown, or it will not fit. It will seem to be destined for someone more worthy. Do not wait for a coronation; the greatest emperors crown themselves.
“Everybody should be royal after his own fashion. Let all you 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.
The idea behind the assumption of regal confidence is to set yourself apart from other people, but if you take this too far it will be your undoing.
Never seem to be in a hurry – hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually. 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.
“…it is a topsy-turvy way of behaving to take to heart cares which you ought to thrown 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.” – Baltasar Gracian.
If there is something that you want but you realise you cannot have, the worst thing you can do is draw attention to your disappointment by complaining about it.
“There is no kind of revenge like oblivion, for it is the entombment of the unworthy in the dust of their own nothingness.” - Baltasar Gracian.
Always find a symbol to represent your cause – the more emotional associations, the better.
“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 should overhear, you should imagine that you are listening to a dialogue of two fools in comedy” - Baltasar Gracian.
“If possible, no animosity should be felt for anyone…To speak angrily to a person, to show you hatred by what you say or by the way you look, is an unnecessary proceeding –dangerous, 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.” – Arthur Schopenhauer.
In the face of a hot-headed enemy, finally, an excellent response is no response. Follow the Talleyrand tactic: nothing is as infuriating as a man who keeps his cool while others are losing theirs.
Find the gap in their strength If there is no gap – if they are impossible strong – you have nothing to gain and everything to lose by provoking them. Choose carefully whom you bait, and never stir up the sharks.
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 tag – complicated feelings of obligation, compromises with quality, the insecurities those compromises bring, and on and on.
“There is a popular saying in Japan that goes: ‘Tada yori takai mono wa nai’. ‘Nothing is more costly than something that is given free of charge.’” – Michihiro Matsumoto, The Unspoken Way.
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 (Aretino) had become the most famous writer in Europe. Understand: Money may determine power relationship, but thise 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.
With the 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.
“Any harm you do to a man should be done is such a way that you need not fear his revenge”, writes Machiavelli. If you act to isolate an enemy make sure he lacks the means to repay the favour.
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 your base, your power will teeter, and at the slightest change of fortune those below you will gladly assist in your fall from grace
Never clumsily assume that the tactic that worked on one person will necessarily work on another. To find the key that will motivate them, first get them to open up. The more they talk, the more they reveal about their likes and dislikes – the handles and levers to move them with.
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.
“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 with realities.” – Niccolo Machiavelli.
Never appear too perfect. Appearing better than other 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.
The insidious envy can be deflected quite easily: Appear as one of them in style of values. Make alliances with those below you, and elevate them to positions of power and 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.
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 that we are in fact mediocre, or at least not as brilliant as we had thought. This disturbance in our self-image cannot last long without stirring up ugly emotions.
“Of all the disorders of the soul, envy is the only one no one confesses to.” – Plutarch (AD 46 – 120)
Understanding the foolishness of alienating those around him (Archbishop) de Retz did everything he could to downplay his merit and emphasise 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 emphasise how lucky you have been, to make your happiness seem attainable to other people and the need for envy less acute. But be careful not to affect a false modesty that people can easily see through. This will only make people more envious.
People cannot envy the power that they themselves have given a person who does not seem to desire it.
As Thoreau once said “Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay.”
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 overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies that 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 your reach it, stop.
Understand: In the realm of power, you must be guided by reason. To let a momentary thrill of emotional victory influence of 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. History is littered with the ruins of victorious empires and the corpses of leaders who could not learn to stop and consolidate their gains.
“The greatest danger occurs at the time of victory” – Napoleon Bonaparte.
“Princes and republics should content themselves with victory, for when they aim at more, they generally lose. … 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.
The need for formlessness becomes greater the older we get, as we grow more likely to become set in our ways and assume a rigid form.
…the granting of a favour 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 favour done indirectly and elegantly has ten times more power.
