Summary

Robert Greene provides a guide for gaining power, influence, and control over others. Never outshine the master. Use selective honesty and generosity. Say less than necessary. Use selective honesty. Court attention at all costs: “what is unseen counts for nothing”. Create a sense of urgency and desperation. Keep people dependent on you. Use the wisdom of the past. Pose as a friend, work as a spy. Make your accomplishments seem effortless.

Key Takeaways

• Never outshine the master
• Use selective honesty and generosity
• Say less than necessary
  • Silence gives you an aura
  • Can talk more to appear more simple and trustworthy
• Use selective honesty
• Court attention at all costs: “What is unseen counts for nothing”
• Create a sense of urgency and desperation
• Keep people dependent on you
• Use the wisdom of the past
• Pose as a friend, work as a spy
• Make your accomplishments seem effortless

Notes

1: Never outshine the master

• Masters have the ability to cut you out
• Make your master shine even more

2: Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies

• Friendship, closeness breeds jealousy
• Enemies expect nothing in return
• “The key to power then is the ability to judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations”
• “Without enemies we grow lazy”

3: Conceal your intentions

• “Talk openly about your desires, just not your real ones”
• Use smoke screens, red herrings
• Be bland and blend in

4: Say less than necessary

• “The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish”
• Silence gives you an aura
• Creates the appearance of meaning and power
• Can talk more to appear more simple and trustworthy

5: Guard your reputation with your life

• Spread rumors about enemies
• Associate with others who have reputations
• “By not caring how you are perceived, you let others do this for you”

6: Court attention at all cost

• “What is unseen counts for nothing”
• Notoriety of any sort
• Attack people of power to attract attention
• Create an aura of mystery

7: Get others to do the work for you, but always get the credit

• “Never do yourself what others can do for you”
• Stand on the shoulders of giants: unapologetically adopt others’ work

8: Make other people come to you

• Use bait if necessary
• People are more vulnerable when they’re baited to come to you vs upon your request

9: Win through your actions, not argument

• Learn to prove your correctness indirectly
• Argument is an attack on the individual
• Argue only when caught in a lie

10: Avoid the unhappy and unlucky

• Don’t attempt to fix the broken

11: Keep others dependent on you

• Never teach people enough to replace you
• Seek weak leaders, make them dependent
• “Fear you can control, love never”

12: Use selective honesty and generosity

• Give before you take
• Get caught in the act of generosity
• Do this early to make a good first impression

13: Appeal to people’s self interest

• When asking for help, never to their mercy or gratitude
• Understand others’ need and wants

14: Post as a friend, work as a spy

• Research, probe your contemporaries
• Can seem charming and powerful
• Strategically provide false information

15: Crush your enemy totally

• Leave no basis for negotiation

16: Use absence to increase respect and honor

• Only after obtaining a certain level of power
• Create value through scarcity
• Know when to leave

17: Cultivate an air of unpredictability

• Keep others in suspended terror
• Don’t allow your known habits to become your downfall

18: Isolation is dangerous

• Keep your finger on the pulse
• Seek to constantly adapt

19: Do not offend the wrong person

• Know how to identify types of people
• 5 difficult types of people:
  • Arrogant and proud
  • Hopelessly insecure
  • Suspicious
  • Serpent with a long memory
  • Plain and unassuming
• Turn people down respectfully and politely
• Don’t openly insult someone

20: Do not commit to anyone

• Maintain your independence
• Dangle commitment to gain gifts, favors
• Avoid taking sides in a battle
• “By committing too quickly you lose your maneuverability”

21: Seem dumber than your mark

• Make your victims feel smarter than you are
• Results in letting their guard down

22: Use the surrender tactic

• Transform weakness into power
• Surrender gives you time to recover
• Disguises ambition, teaches self-control
• But don’t surrender too early

23: Concentrate your forces

• Focus your efforts on the most fruitful
• Don’t tie yourself so a single power though

24: Play the perfect courtier

• Avoid ostentation
• Flatter indirectly
• Arrange to be noticed
• Never be the bearer of bad news
• Don’t be too cordial with your superiors
• Be frugal in asking for favors
• Don’t be a cynic
• Fit the spirit of the times, match subjects
• Be a source of pleasure (exothermic)

25: Recreate yourself

• Be the master of your own image
• Engage in theater, drama
• Take pride in crafting your image, being an actor

26: Keep your hands clean

• Have a scapegoat ready
• Have someone to do your dirty work
• Use aggressive third parties

27: Create a cult-like following

• 5 rules to cult making:
  • Keep it vague and simple
  • Emphasize the visual, sensual over the intellectual
  • Borrow the forms of organized religion
  • Disguise your source of income
  • Set up an “us vs them” dynamic

28: Enter action with boldness

• Be certain and bold
• Boldness → fear → authority
• Find a Goliath to boldly attack
• Boldness + self-confidence akin to seduction

29: Plan all the way to the end

• “The ability to ignore immediate dangers and pleasures translates into power”

30: Make your accomplishments seem effortless

• Don’t reveal your tricks
• Appear effortless, spontaneous but actually plan strategically
• One never sees the source of the gods power revealed, only the effects
• What is understandable is not awe inspiring

31: Control the options

• Get others to play with the cards you deal
• Give the appearance of choice but stack the deck
• Occasionally best to sit back and observe strategy (spy)

32: Play to others’ fantasies

• Realize their stories and play off them
• Promise great and total change

33: Discover each man’s thumbscrew

• Find and utilize people’s weaknesses
• Notice, probe for subtle cues
• Greed, lust, recognition, insecurity, etc.

34: Be royal in your own fashion

• Shoulders back, chest high
• First impressions and the halo effect
• David and Goliath effect: Go after the highest person in the building

35: Master the art of timing

• Don’t be in a hurry, seem patient
• Make opponents strategically wait, hurry

36: Disdain things you cannot have

• Turn your back on what cannot hurt you in the long run
• Focus on your sphere of influence
• Ignore what offends you
• Never show contempt or anger

37: Create compelling spectacles

• Craft a brand for yourself
• Primacy of sight over other senses

38: Think as you like but behave like others

• Blend in except with others who appreciate your uniqueness
• Argument is never a winning strategy, rely on indirect approaches instead
• “Cultivate a familiarity with the common man”

39: Stir up waters to catch fish

• “Tantrums neither intimidate nor inspire loyalty, they only create doubts and uneasiness about your power”
• Play with others emotions to bring them to anger while you stay calm

40: Despise the free lunch

• Free is often either a trick or obligation
• Unexpected one-time gifts foster sense of obligation but does not spoil
• Bait deceptions with possibility of easy money

41: Avoid stepping into a great man’s shoes

• Create your own new world, necessity
• Father represents destructive power of the past
• Don’t be bound by precedence, inheritance

42: Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter

• “Let one person suffer so the rest can live in peace”
• Seek to isolate others from preferred context
• Aim for the leaders

43: Work on the hearts and minds of others

• Seduce others
• Put in terms of their personal interest, weaknesses

44: Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect

• Neutralizing effect: do what your opponents do - mocking and infuriating
• Shadow effect: spying
• Teacher effect: analyze and deeply reflect person’s persona

45: Preach the need for change, but never reform too much at once

• “Never underestimate the hidden conservatism of those around you”
• Deep change is nice in theory but not when it happens to you

46: Never appear too perfect

• Deflect envy, be more approachable
• Conceal wealth and power
• Envy is a hidden emotion with negative ramifications
• Power as self-sacrifice rather than source of pride and joy

47: In victory, learn when to stop

• Mistakes more often made carelessly at the end / easy part

48: Assume formlessness

• Never bet on stability
• Take nothing personally: never show any defensiveness
• Constantly adapt