4. Always Say Less Than Necessary
When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common and less in control you appear, and the more likely you are to say something stupid.
Once the words are out, you cannot take them back, so keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm: The momentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be outweighed by the price you pay later.
Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less.
Reversal: don’t be silent with your superiors, as it will throw them off. Furthermore, many smart people talk endlessly to make others believe you’re a fool is another technique.
5. So Much Depends On Reputation—Guard It With Your Life
Reputation is the cornerstone of power: through reputation alone, you can intimidate and win. You can use it to double your strength. It increases your presence and exaggerates your strengths without having to spend much energy. It can also create an aura around you that will instill respect, even fear.
Furthermore, your reputation can make your life a self-fulfilling prophecy. Because you did it, it’s good.
Protect your reputation. Once it slips, you are vulnerable and will be attacked on all sides.
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. Use subtler tactics, such as satire and ridicule, to weaken your opponent while making you out as a charming rogue.
Then stand aside and let the public make an opinion of their own.
There is no reversal of this law.
6. Court Attention at All Costs
Everything is judged by its appearance; if you can’t see it, it doesn’t exist.
Never let yourself be unseen. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, and more mysterious than the bland and timid masses.
Part 1: Surround your name with the scandalous and sensational.
Society craves larger-than-life figures, people who stand above the general mediocrity.
Draw attention to yourself by creating an unforgettable, even controversial image. Do what you can to shine more brightly than those around you. The type of attention you get doesn’t matter. Better to be slandered and attacked than ignored.
Part II: Create an air of mystery.
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. Mystery creates anticipation – everyone will be watching you to see what happens next. Use mystery to beguile, seduce, or frighten.
If your social position prevents you from completely wrapping your actions in mystery, you must at least learn to make yourself less obvious.
Reversal: adapt your tactics as you rise, and never use the same trick twice. Don’t appear too greedy for attention. Understand that there are times when you don’t want to attract attention, in the presence of a king or a queen, for example.
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, but it will also 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.
As you are working hard, there are people waiting to take advantage of your work. Don’t complain about this. Do what they do instead.
Reversal: to take credit, you must be in a high enough position of power.
8. Make Other People Come To You— Use Bait If Necessary
When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you than you go to him. Lure him with a shiny object—then attack. You hold the cards.
Don’t be the aggressive one going after people. Get people to react to your move, don’t react to theirs.
There is no point in chasing and going after others if you never feel in control.
Reversal: there are some situations when a fast attack enables you to use surprise to win.
9. Win Through Your Actions, Never Through Argument
You can’t win arguments. Even if you do, it will create resentment. So, don’t debate with people. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word.
Demonstrate, do not explicate.
If someone tells you to do something that you think is useless, do it, and show that it is indeed, useless.
When aiming for power, or trying to conserve it, always look for the indirect route. And choose your battles carefully. If it does not matter in the long run whether the other person agrees with you, then don’t bother. Save your energy and walk away.
Reversal: use verbal arguments to distract or save yourself after being caught in a lie. The more emotional and certain you appear, the less likely it seems that you are lying.
10. Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky
Despite beliefs, you can die from someone else’s misery – emotional states are as infectious as viruses.
You may feel you are helping someone but you are only precipitating your own disaster.
Humans are extremely susceptible to the moods, emotions, and even the ways of thinking of others.
People who are constantly unhappy have a lot of influence because their characters and emotions are so intense. They often present themselves as victims but their situation is in fact often self-inflicted.
They infect you before you realize it.
Understand this: In the game of power, the people you associate with are critical.
The only action you can take against bad influences is to avoid them at all costs.
Associate yourself with people with character traits you want to have yourself. Don’t associate with those who share your defects.
There is no reversal to this 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.
Don’t think 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.
If you are indispensable, you must become so.
Reversal: the problem with having people dependent on you is that you are often dependent on them. Another way to play with the rule is to drive out all competition so you’re left alone, like Rockefeller did with oil.
12. Use Selective Honesty And Generosity To Disarm Your Victim
One sincere and honest move will cover 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 people’s armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A gift – a Trojan horse – will serve the same purpose.
The essence of deception is distraction. Distracting the people you want to deceive gives you the time and space to do something they 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 tums them into children.
Reversal: when your reputation is that of a deceiver, no amount of honest deeds will be enough to disarm your victim.
13. When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to Their Mercy or Gratitude
When asking for help, don’t remind people of all the good that you have done for them, and don’t ask for pity. Offer them something in exchange.
Most people never succeed at this, because they are completely oblivious to the wants and desires of others. They assume that others are concerned with their problems – while nobody cares.
Use self-interest.
Once you show people how helping you will help them, they’ll be happy to do so. Train yourself to find out the needs and desires of others, get into their heads.
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.
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, be the spy yourself.
In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions.
If people don’t tell you everything, you can send a spy, a friendly face, that subsequently reports to you.
You can also invent lies to test people’s reactions.
Reversal: to protect yourself, spread disinformation.
15. Crush Your Enemy Totally
All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. More is lost from stopping halfway than through total annihilation. The enemy will recover and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.
Reversal: if your enemies are about to destroy themselves, let them be.
