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Law1: Never outshine the master
Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not gotoo far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite: inspire 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 friends; they 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 noclue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelopthem 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 sphinx-like. 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 reputation; guard 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 thecrowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attentionby 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 you; use bait if necessary
When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with fabulous gains; then attack. You holdthe cards.
Law 9: Win through your actions, never through argument
Any momentary victory 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 misery; emotional 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 drawmisfortune 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 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 peopleto 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 yourself: Isolation is dangerous
A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from. It 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 are dealing with; Do no 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 out-maneouver 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 others; playing people against one another, making them pursueyou.
Law 22: Use the surrender tactic: transform weaknesses 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 you; surrender 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 their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another. Intensity 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 25: 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 actions. Your 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 27: Play on people?s need to believe ? to create a cult-like following
People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, 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.
Law 28: 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 work. It only raises questions.
Law 33: Discover each man?s thumbscrew
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 can make yourself seem destined to wear a crown.
Law 35: Master the art of timing
Never seem to be in a hurry. Hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself and over time. ?Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually. 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 are 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 youcan make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decided advantage. Put your enemiesoff-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
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
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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
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.
Law 47: Do not go past the mark, you aimed for
- 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. ?Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.
Law 48: Assume Formlessness
- The best way to protect yourself is to become as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed.
