Law # 28: Enter action with boldness.

If you are unsure or have doubts with your execution, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect executions. Timidity is dangerous. Better to enter with boldness. Everyone admires the bold. No one honors the timid. Hesitations put obstacles in your path. Boldness eliminates them. Practice the art of audacity. Psychological effects of boldness and timidity: The bolder the lie, the better. Lions circle the hesitant prey. Everything depends on perception. Boldness strikes fear. Fear creates authority. The bold move makes you larger and appears more powerful than you are. You establish a precedent. Going halfway with half a heart digs a deeper grave. Hesitation creates a gap. Boldness obliterates them. People prefer to be around the bold because their self-confidence affects us. If boldness is not natural, so is timidity. Your value is lowered if you are timid. Boldness is used at the right moment, not all the time. Learn to control and utilize at will.

Law # 29: Plan all the way to the end.

Never begin anything until you have contemplated what will be the end of it. The ending is everything. By planning till the end, you will not be overwhelmed by the circumstances, and you will know when to stop. Most men are ruled by the heart, not the head. When meeting with an obstacle, they improvised. But improvisation only gets you as far as the next crisis. Substitute thinking several steps ahead and plan until the end. What good is it to have all the best dreams in the world, only for others to reap the benefits and glory? Unhappy endings are much more common than happy ones. Do not get swayed by the happy ending ones. Your conclusions must be crystal clear. Have a clear objective and a far-reaching plan. You will see the future is uncertain and you will be open to adaptation. There are very few men and the early exceptions who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment. Look to the end no matter what it is you are considering.

Law # 30: Make your accomplishment seem effortless.

Your actions must seem effortless and with ease. Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work. It only raises your questions. Teach no one your tricks or it can be used against you. Keep the extent of your abilities unknown. For ‘guesses’ allow more veneration. Conceal the efforts behind your work. Nature does not reveal its tricks. As a person of power, you must research and practice endlessly before appearing in public. Never expose your sweat and labor behind your poise. Keep your efforts and tricks to yourself and you seem to have the grace and ease of a god. One never sees the source of a god’s power. One only sees the effects.

Law # 31: Control the options.

Get others to play with the cards you deal with. The best deceptions are those that you allow others to make a choice. Your victims feel they are in control but actually your puppets. Give people options that come out of your favor. Force them to make a choice between the lesser of two evils, both of which serves your purpose. There is a saying that if you can get the bird to walk into the cage on its own, it will sing that much more happily. In controlling the options: color the choices, alter the playing field.

Law # 32: Play to people’s fantasies.

The truth is often avoided because it is either ugly or unpleasant. Never appeal to the reality unless you are prepared to the anger to disenchantment. People who can manufacture romance is like an oasis to the desert. Everyone flocks to them. There is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses. Never be distracted by people’s glamorous portrait of themselves and their lives. Search and dig for what really imprisons them. Once you find that, you have a magical key of power on your hands.

Law # 33: Discover each mans’ thumbscrew.

Everyone has a weakness. Turn that thumb-screw into your advantage. Finding the thumbscrew: a. Pay attention to gestures and unconscious body signals. A search for people’s weakness. Train your eye for details. Find people’ idols. b. Find the helpless child. c. Look for contrast. d. Find the weak link. e. Fill the void. Here are the main voids to fill: Insecurity – the need for social validation, Unhappiness – look for roots of the unhappiness. f. Feed on uncontrollable emotions. People’s need for validation and recognition, the need to feel important, is the best kind of weakness to exploit. It is universal. Exploiting it is so very easy. Find ways to make people better about their taste, their intelligence, their social standing. Once you can turn them in like a thumbscrew.

Law # 34: Be royal in your own fashion.

Act like a king to be treated like one. Integrity is your standard. Never lose your self-respect. The way you carry yourself affects how you are treated. Confidence is usually shown by the nobility themselves. Powerful aristocracy feels no need to prove or assert themselves. Being noble, knew that they always deserve more and ask for it. It is within your power to set your own price. If you ask for little, lower your head, people will assume this reflects your character. It is only how you present yourself. Buoyancy, confidence. The feeling that you were born to wear a crown. Be overcome by your self-belief. Act differently. Demonstrating difference to those around you. One way to act is to act with dignity, no matter the circumstances. In front of all kinds of abuse, even bulgar, maintain your dignified pose, as if completely unaffected. This will elevate you while making the bulgar abusers even uglier. This is the mask to assume under difficult circumstances. It is as if, nothing can affect you and you have all the time in the world to respond. This is an extremely powerful pose. Projecting a royal demeanor outwardly: First, the Columbus Strategy. Always make a bold demand. Set your price high and do not waver. Second, in a dignified way, go after the highest person in the building. This will immediately put you in the same plane as the chief executive you are attacking. This creates a David and Goliath strategy. By choosing a great opponent, you create the appearance of greatness. Third, give a gift to those above you. This is the strategy of those who have a patron. You’re essentially saying that the two of you are equal. If you take this too far, it will be a reversal. Never make a mistake of thinking you elevate yourself by humiliating people. Or don’t loom too high above the ground, or an aristocratic pose as it could be dangerous.

Law # 35: Master the art of timing.

Never seem to hurry, as if you lack control of time. Always seem patient. As if everything will come to you anyway. Learn to stand back when time is not ripe. And to strike fiercely when the time has achieved fruition. Space we can recover, time never. Sometimes not acting in the face of danger is the best move. You wait and slow down. As time passes, it will eventually present opportunities you had not to imagine. Waiting involves controlling not only your emotions but also your colleagues. The success that is built slowly and surely is the one that lasts. Make people wait, as long as they don’t know what you’re up to. Perseverance is more effective than brute strength. Master them little by little. The steady continuous effort is irresistible. This is the way time captures and subdues the greatest power on earth.

Law # 36: Disdain things you cannot have.

Ignoring them is the best revenge. The more attention you pay an enemy, the stronger you make him. A small mistake is often made worse and visible when you try to fix it. It is sometimes best to leave things alone. If there’s something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem. You choose to let things bother you. Consider trivial things unworthy of your interest. Your pride is not involved. Learn to play the card of disdain. If there’s something you cannot have, a more powerful tactic is to act like it didn’t interest you in the first place. Do not over apologize. Contempt and disdain are powerful responses. Never show that something has affected you. Or that you are offended. That only shows you acknowledge the problem. Contempt is a dish that is best served cold and without affectation. Keep an eye on the enemy only privately.

Law # 37: Create compelling spectacles.

Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create an aura of power. Everyone responds to them. Dazzle by appearances and no one will notice what you’re really doing. Words put you on the defensive. If you have to explain yourself, your power is already in question. The image, on the other hand, imposes as a given. It discourages question. Communicates instantly. Words stir up arguments and divisions. Images bring people together. They are quintessential instruments of power. The truth is generally seen and rarely heard. There is no possible reversal for this law.

Law # 38: Think as you like, but behave like others.

If you flaunt 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 by making them feel inferior. Blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only to tolerant friends who will for sure appreciate your uniqueness. When you go into society, leave behind your own ideas and values. Put on a mask most appropriate on a group which you find yourself. People will swallow the bait of believing you share the same ideas. Let them know exactly what you stand for. Of course, you have values. The values you share with them. Think with a few and speak with the many. Disagreement is regarded as offensive because it is condemnation with the views of others. Truth is for the few. Error is as usual as it is vulgar. Retire into the sanctuary of your silence. He lives well, who conceals himself well.

Law # 39: Stir up water to catch fish.

Anger and emotion are counterproductive. You must stay calm and objective. But if you can make your enemy emotional while you stay calm, you gain a decided advantage. When the waters are still, your opponents have the time and space to plot actions that they will initiate and control. So stir the waters. Force the fish to the surface. Get them to act before they are ready. Steal the initiative. The best way to do this is to play on uncontrollable emotions: pride and anger, vanity, love, hate. Once the waters are stirred up, the little fish cannot help but rise to the bait. The angrier they become, the less control they have. A sovereign should never launch an army out of anger. A leader should never start a war out of wrath. Choose carefully who you bait and never stir up the shark. It is only the cold-blooded animals whose bites are poisonous.

Law # 40: Despise the free lunch.

What is offered for free is dangerous? It 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 often wise to pay the full price. There are no cutting corners with excellence. Generosity is a sign and magnet of power. The powerful understands that money is psychologically charged.

Types that represent the opposite pole to the powerful: Learn to recognize them, avoid their poisonous natures, and use their inflexibility to your advantage. a. The Greedy Fish – only sees balance sheets. They are the con artists bread and butter. They are easy to deceive for they spend so much time with numbers, and not with people that they become blind with psychology, including their own. b. The Bargain Demon. c. The Sadists

Law # 41: Avoid stepping into a great man’s shoes.

What happens first always comes more original than what happens after. If you succeed a great man or a famous parent, you will have to double your achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow. Or stuck in the past, not of your own making. Establish your own name by changing course. Slay the overbearing father. Disparage his legacy. And gain power by shining in your own way. One way to escape the shadow of the past is to belittle it. Demonstrate a style and symbolism that sets you apart.

Law # 42: Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.

Trouble can often be traced to a single, strong individual. The stir, the arrogant underling. Do not wait for the troubles they create to multiple. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter. When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. Do not waste your time lashing out on all directions, on what seems to be a many-headed enemy. Find the one head that matters. The person with willpower, or smarts, or most important of all- charisma. Whatever it costs you, lure this person away. For once he is absent, his powers will lose an effect. His isolation can be physical. Banishment, or absence from the court. Political, narrowing his base of support. Or psychological, alienating him from the group through slander and insinuation. Cancer begins at a single cell. Exercise it, before it spreads beyond cure. Powerful people never waste time. The reason you strike at the shepherd is that you disheartened the sheep, without any measure.

Law # 43: Work on the hearts and minds of others.

Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others to wanting to move in your direction. The person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn. The way to seduce others is to operate their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions. Playing on to what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you. To soften them up, alternate harshness with mercy. Play on their basic fears, and also their loves – freedom, families, etc. Stir up these emotions and you stir up our hearts. Create dramatic jolts, and shake them to their core. Push people to despair and give them relief. Learn to play the numbers game. The wider your support base, the stronger your power. Persuasion is more effective than force.

Law # 44: Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect.

The mirror is a perfect tool for deception. When you mirror your enemies exactly as they do, they cannot exactly figure out your strategy. The mirror effect mocks and humiliates them. Making them react. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you give them the illusion that you share their values. The mirror effect unsettles your target.

There are 4 main mirror effects in the realm of power:

1. The Neutralizing Effect – Do what your enemies do. Following their actions as best as you can and they cannot see what you’re up to. They’re blinded by their mirror. Neutralize it by playing a game of mimicry with them. You shadow your opponents, a preeminent device by detectives and spies.
2. The Narcissistic Effect – The narcissist hardly ever make an effort to see things through our eyes. It is annoying but it also creates an opportunity. If you can show another person by reflecting their inward feelings, the narcissist will be entranced and charmed. You might be manufacturing it for their benefit and for deceptive purposes of your own.
3. The Moral Effect – The power of verbal argument is extremely limited. It often accomplishes the opposite of what is intended. The truth is generally seen, rarely heard. This is the perfect way to demonstrate your ideas through your actions. Quite simply, you teach others the lesson by giving them the taste of their own medicine. In the moral effect, you mirror what other people have done to you. And makes them realize you are doing to them exactly what they did to you. Making them feel what they have done to you was unpleasant, as oppose to you complaining and whine about it which only makes their defenses up. This technique is often used by educators and psychologists. This is the teachers’ mirror.
4. The Hallucinatory Effect – This is the deceivers’ mirror. As Christ Himself understood, talking in parables is often the best way to teach a lesson, for it allows people to realize the truth on their own. Beware of mirrored situations.

Law # 45: Preach the need for change but never reform too much at once.

Everyone understands the need for change on 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, make a show of respecting on the old way of doing things. Change is necessary, make it a gentle improvement of the past. Too much of change creates anxiety. Never underestimate the conservatism of those around you. The past is powerful. What happened before seems greater. Use this to your advantage. When you destroy the familiar, you create a vacuum. People will fear the chaos that will flood in. You must avoid stirring up such fears at all cost. Create a comforting, familiar presence. Cloak the change you are attempting. Another strategy to disguise change is to make a loud and public display of support for the values of the past. Seem to be a zealot of tradition and few will notice how unconventional you really are. Play with appearances and respect past protocol. Those who finish the revolution are rarely the ones who start it.

Law # 46: Never appear too perfect.

Appearing better than others is always dangerous. But most dangerous of all is appearing 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. Only a minority can succeed in the game of life. And that minority inevitably arouses the envy of those around them. The people who you fear the most are in your circle, the family and friends and acquaintances you’ve left behind. Feelings of inferiority gnaw at them. The thoughts of your success only heighten their feelings of stagnation. Envy, which is unhappy admiration, takes hold. Learn strategies of deflection. Either dampen your brilliance occasionally. Purposely revealing a defect or weaknesses, and anxiety. Or attributing your success to luck. Or simply finding new friends. Never underestimate the power of envy. Envy is a weed that should not be watered. Never flaunt your wealth. The fool dares the gods of envy by flaunting his victories. The master of power understands that the superiority over others is inconsequential next to the reality of it. Of all diseases of the soul, envy is the only one no one confesses into. The naturally perfect are the ones who have to work the most to deflect their talents. Envy is the tax, that all distinctions must pay. It takes talent and skill to conceal one’s talent and skill.

Law # 47: Do not go pass the mark you aim for: In Victory learn when to stop.

The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you aim for. And by going too far, you’ll make more enemies than you defeat. There is no substitute for strategy in careful planning. Set and goal and when you reach it, stop. One act of arrogance can undo all your good work. There is nothing more intoxicating than victory and nothing more dangerous. Understand, in the rule of power, you must be guided with reason, not emotion. When you gain success, step back. Be cautious. Never simply repeat the same actions again and again. The greatest danger occurs at the moment of victory. Mistakes are always made when people get to the easiest places.

Law # 48: Assume formlessness..

By taking a shape, by a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain. And no law is fixed. Be as fluid and formless as water. Never bet on stability and order. Everything changes. Learn to move fast and adapt or you will be eaten. The two board games that best approximate the strategies of war are chess and the Asian game of go. Be like a vapor. Only formlessness allows you to truly surprise your enemies. By the time they figure out where you are, it is too late. People are constantly distinguishable by forms. The powerful are constantly creating forms. The enemies cannot see anything solid to attack. It is ungraspable. The first psychological requirement of formlessness is to take nothing personally. Never be defensive. When you act defensive, you show your emotions revealing your clear form. Your opponents will realize that they had hit a nerve, an Achilles’ heel. And they will hit it again and again. So train yourself to not take anything personally. Let no one know what gets to you. Be vigilant. See events through your own eyes. Throw out the laws others preach. Keep your long term strategy on the mind. Use concentration, speed, and power.