The definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.
Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum.
Some laws teach the need for prudence-“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”, others teach the value of confidence-“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”, and many recommend absolute self-preservation-“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”).
Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.
The 48 Laws of Power Video Summary
Fight Mediocrity
Key Takeaways
Law #1: Never Outshine the Master Make those above you feel superior. Display your competence, but make sure you know what you’re threshold is. If you show your talents too much, it’ll make them insecure. You want to make them appear more brilliant than they are.
Law #9: Win Through Your Actions, Never Through Argument You never win through argument. The resentment will last long and it’s more powerful to agree with actions. Demonstrate, do not explain.
Law #10: Infection! Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky emotional states are as infectious as diseases The unhappy and unlucky draw misfortune on themselves and will draw it on you. Instead of hanging around with negative people, that will bring you down, associate with people that will bring out the best in you.
Law #13: When asking For help, appeal to people’s self-interest. Never to their mercy or gratitude Do not remind people of past ways you’ve helped them out. Find something that will benefit them and highlight the point you’re making.
Law #16: Use absence to increase respect and honor Create value through scarcity. Too much circulation makes the price go down. If you’re already established a group of friends, temporarily withdraw and increase respect and honor.
Law #30: Make your accomplishments seem effortless make your success and results seem natural. When it seems effortless, people start to glorify you. Conceal and teach no one your clever tricks and never let people know how hard you work.
Law 31: Control the options: get others to play with the cards you deal a lot of people will give you two options and they’ll hope you pick the one that they want. A more sophisticated person will make it so that no matter what you choose, he or she will win. People love thinking that they have the power to choose. The best deceptions seem to give the other person a choice. Make it so no matter what they choose, you win.
Law #32: Play to people’s fantasies people will believe the most ridiculous fantasies over the truth. Why? The truth sucks. There’s great power in tapping into people’s fantasies.
Law #34: Be royal in your own fashion: act like a king to be treated like one The way you carry yourself will determine how people treat you. Appearing tasteless or trashy will make people disrespect you. Respect yourself and inspire he same in other. By acting confident, people will treat you as King.
Law #38: Think as you like, but behave like others Blend in with others. By displaying unfamiliar ways, people will only think you want attention and punish you for making them feel inferior.
Law #45: Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once people are creatures of habit. They love talking about change, and fantasizing about it, but actually when it comes time to change, no one wants to change and the process is extremely slow. When new to power show you respect the old ways, and make change feel like a gradual improvement on the past.
Law #46: Never appear too perfect people hate it when you seem like you’re better than them. It’s ok to show small defects.
