This book is referred to as “a mega cult” by some and being one of the most requested and read by prisoners brings about an element of curiosity to what is the content. It might seems the message passed by the author is of complete opposite to the definition of love at first. The author of 48 laws of power Robert Greene clearly portrays how the selfish-minded individuals gain power and use it to manipulate fellow human beings.
But I think the importance of reading this book and gaining knowledge from it is not to learn how to gain power through the number of ways and maintaining the power using certain strategies listed in the book. On the other hand, we should understand why these rules work and be aware of these as that might be used upon us.
Some of the laws listed by Robert Greene are as follows:
1. Never outshine the master. Always ensure to make your superior feel superior no matter the brilliance of your ideas or the new best strategies you can put on the table. It will make them feel less secure and more inferior. It’s always good to bring in new ideas but also remember it’s more important to put your boss in the front hence support your boss and provide an alternative.
2. Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies. Very close friends are the ones that have more chances of taking the good from you by betraying you simply because you let them get too close to the point of noting all your weaknesses. Majority of Kings who succeeded the throne used their allies to gain power and more control on the kingdom.
3. Conceal your intentions. The quieter you become, the more you learn and use it to your benefit. Plan all your actions well and execute them in the dark. Drag your enemies down the wrong path, envelop them with enough smoke and by the time they realise it, it will be too late and you will be miles ahead of them. Keep your plans with you and never share even a bit.
4. Get others to do the work for you. Not all the big scientists made their world known inventions on their own but instead employ other tens to even hundreds of people to work for them then take the credit and history have their name all over its face. Take more people with you, exhaust their ideas and buy them, expand what you get and the whole world will scream your name. That’s one of the foundation stones of billionaires and businessmen.
5. Use absence to increase respect and honor. The more you revolve around people, the more they get used to you and reduce respect they have for you. Absence is one of the most powerful weapons celebrities use especially big musicians. The time they take underwater increases the urge and the more their fans crave for something from them and the sooner they release a hit, it becomes a record breaking seller. You must learn when to leave a group. It will make you most talked and definitely increase value.
6. Do not build fortresses to protect yourself; Isolation is dangerous. No one is safe out there alone. This world much more dangerous when you are alone than when you are shielded by the crowd. Mingle with your allies, interact with your friends, gain new ideas within a group and you are guaranteed from losing valuable information. The stand-alone target is always an easy target compared to a target in an audience.
7. Concentrate your forces. The least important thing that pulls you down is most valuable asset that will double your value. In anything that you thrive in, concentrate on the one thing that pulls you down and major on it. A farmer who picks a particular small piece of land, plough properly and supply all the necessary requirements until it’s enough will get more produce and become wealthier than that farmer who takes a whole huge farm and fails to provide enough nutrients for the plants.
8. Re-create yourself. Never allow the society to make an identity for you, instead, forge your own identity, create your new self and be the master of it. Recreate your new self who never bores the society, but instead build a character that is acceptable, powerful and skilled. Your value increases or reduces by the kind of personality you build in you and all in all, there is the society closely studying and ready to judge you.
9. Plan all the way to the end. Guide the fortune and help determine the future by thinking far beyond. Craft your steps carefully from the beginning, every little step matters and can determine your success. The ending is one more important step because it determines whether you are going to keep or lose everything you worked on so don’t rush in creating your path.
10. Master the art of timing. Nothing is more important than knowing what to do when. Learn to stand back when the time is not right and strike when it’s ripe. Practice the act of patience always.
Overall it doesn’t seem this book teaches about being honest or working together as a team and lifting one another. But if we can see through the manipulators’ strategies, we could pick love over dread, helping over harming, empowering others over controlling and misusing them. I feel we can't completely settle this world or completely be the change or be the light in a universe of honesty invisibility without uncovering these falsehoods and misleading and getting them out for what they are. Love is everything.
