7 Laws To Gain Power in Society
There are lots of reasons that people get crushed or manipulated by others. It doesn’t matter whether you are a student or a businessman; you will be dealing with people trying to gain power or manipulate you. Here are 7 laws to gain power in society to avoid being manipulated or crushed by others.
1. Act Like a Dumb
Russian king Fredrick William handed over an essential task to his right hand Otto Von Bismarck. The task was to set a deal with Austria. The king ordered this. But the problem was that this deal benefited Prussia, but if Austrian people thought about it well, they could know that it would not benefit them.
It can cause loss. It was a challenging task to convince for this type of deal. So, he started thinking, how can he do this? He started getting information about the Austrian King.
He came to know about a particular thing. He came to know that the king was fond of playing cards. It was spread in his kingdom that the god had gifted him; he could catch the nature of the person who plays with him. The nature of that person, if he is intelligent or not.
When he learned about this, he came up with an idea. Instead of setting a deal with the king directly, he asked to arrange the game. He invited him to Quinze’s game. Austrian king Count Blome couldn’t reject that offer.
Because he also wanted to know about him. He wanted to know his nature. He knew that he was going to offer him a deal. So, he agreed to play the game easily. When the game started, Bismarck started playing badly.
He started talking more than necessary. And sometimes he started being nervous. And acted as dumb intentionally. And he lost the game. After seeing all this, the king thought Bismarck was unstable. And he is not intelligent enough to outsmart him. So, he signed the treaty without reading the agreements and conditions when he was about to sign the treaty.
And he was happy that he had defeated Bismarck yesterday. In the end, Prussia benefited greatly, and Austria was at a loss. Here, Bismarck acted as dumb for hours and made the king look so intelligent by losing the game. You would have come to know who was the real loser.
It’s an old story, but it applies today as well. You might have seen many creators and celebrities who act dumb intentionally and act to show themselves as dumb. Due to this, people talk a lot about them and troll them; for the short term, they look dumb, but in the long term, they get publicity.
They gain the opportunity to earn money, which many people don’t understand. Now, tell me who’s dumb. And this is a law of 48 Laws of Power book.
Which author tells:
sometimes you can seem dumber than your mark, and it’ll help you to win. He tells a lot of principles in this book, which, if you follow, you can attain a lot of power.
If you want people to respect you, these laws can greatly help you. Remember, to command power; you should be far from being kind.
Because as Buddha says, ‘be kind whenever possible, and it is always possible.
So be kind always. You can use it only to attain your big goals.
2. Make other people come to you
‘It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process, lure him with your incredible gains, then attack. Permanently hide your cards.
In 1890, the Japanese did an intelligent thing during the war between Japan and Russia.
They intentionally spread rumors in the market that the ‘Southern’ segment of Japan is weak. If Russia attacks Japan from there, they can control Japan easily. That trip will be long, but if they do this, they can easily defeat Japan.
When Russians come to know about it from different sources, they start the journey being egoistic. They leave to attack. When they cross half the journey, which is quite long, they get tired, and then another rumor starts spreading. The thing that is heard from them is that Japan has come to know that Russia is going to attack them, so they are sending their troops to kill Russians.
And as soon as they know about it, they start guarding their ships day and night. They stop sleeping and keep walking, and due to this, they get tired, and when they reach the ‘Southern’ segment, the Japanese army is prepared there to trounce them.
If Russia had followed its plans, it would have been hard for Japan to fight. But when they spread rumors and gave bait, Russians took it without thinking much. Due to this, they lose. Remember, you shouldn’t be greedy.
Nowadays, people will keep sending you baits, so, you have to keep your goals in mind. Or else people can easily manipulate you.
For example, there was a person named Daniel Drew, who, before entering the office of the stock exchange, used to wait in the passage, and used to throw the paper out of his pockets.
Due to this, office goers people used to see that paper, on which it was written that this stock is going to be high. People used to think of it as secret information. And if they invest in it, they can have more benefits.
But it doesn’t happen. As soon as they invest, that person sells their stocks and earns their profit. So, remember, don’t take others’ baits by greed. Focus on yourself and your goals. It’ll help you to become an influential person.
3. Appeal To Their Self-Interest
A war was about to happen between Crocryans and Corinthians, and it’ll be won by that person who got the support of Athenians because Athenians had a mighty army. It can trounce any one of them. So both of them went to Athenians for negotiations.
Corinthians started telling them how they’ll be benefited if they get help. They made Athenians count. That how did they helped Athenians some years ago. And now it’s time to pay back. It’s their responsibility to help them. And they talked a lot about self-interest.
Which Athenians didn’t see any benefit. But when Crocryans went to Athenians to talk, they talked about mutual interest. They talked about future relationships. They talked about Sparta, the enemy of Athenians. They told them that they’d help them to fight with Sparta. And they talked about a lot of similar things that benefited Athenians.
After listening to both, whom would Athenians have supported? Crocryans. It’s nice to listen to this. Just because I helped you, it’s your duty to help me. But in reality, people are extremely selfish. They do selfish things only.
So, when you negotiate with someone, talk about other’s interests, not yours.
4. Use Surrender Tactics
In 1477 B.C., Goujian, the king of China, wanted to defeat the king of Woon. But unfortunately, he defeated Goujian easily. After which he surrendered, and started working as an advisor. The king knew that Goujian can be beneficial for them. So, he didn’t kill him.
He offered the lowest of lowest work in his kingdom. Goujian worked hard in the kingdom for 3 years. While working, he used to get knowledge about the internal affairs of the kingdom. No one knew, he started preparing for revenge.
One day, when there were arguments between the public and the king, Goujian took benefit of this incident and attacked the Woon Kingdom through his troops.
There’s a famous quote, you can loose a battle but still win the war.
Goujian’s story is the epitome of this quote.
He surrendered in starting, due to which he lost the battle, but still, he didn’t accept failure. He thought in the long term, worked hard after the surrender, established trust among people, and then won that kingdom. So, you should think long-term. In short term, you may lose battles, remember, you’ll battle multiple times, but if you focus on the long term, you can win.
5. Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless
Do you know, during college time, for a while, I wanted to be a magician? I used to watch a lot of videos related to magic. I used to feel fascinated when seeing magic—that is how they do it. Then, I used to search on YouTube, for how to do the trick. And I used to get the answer too. Before getting the secret behind the tricks, it was fascinating for me. But as soon as I used to get the unknown, I used to think that it was very easy, anyone can do it.
After that, I tried this trick on many people, but as soon as I applied the trick to my friends, I failed. They got to know my secrets. So, that magic trick was not so successful, and they got to know magic secrets.
Then I understood, all the tricks they do seems easy after knowing secrets, but when we do it, we get to know that they have practiced a lot, due to which they do it so seamlessly, without revealing their trick. And this thing shows people power.
When people do a big work effortlessly, they find him interesting.
For example, there’s a difficult tea serving technique in Japan, where you have to put tea in cup in a particular way, which is quite difficult. But the experts do it well. There’s a person named Sun-No-Ri-Que, who’s an expert in this craft. He is quite famous because of it. He has contacts with rich family backgrounds. He has a friendship with the emperor too.
In fact, the emperor use to seek help related to difficult decisions. Why did he get so much power?
See, he was a hard-working person, but he used to show the emperor that he could do everything easily. So, he seemed a genius to the emperor. He seemed a fantastic person to the emperor, due to which he was respected by him. See, in order to be powerful, do a lot of hard work, and do the hard things so effortlessly, that the person in front gets impressed.
You might have seen that people do calisthenics, they hold the bar single handy and make a jump in the air. It seems so effortless but is difficult in actuality. But, they do it very seamlessly, they seem so powerful. You have to apply the same thing.
Become an expert in things, such that people find it seamless, when they do, they should realize, that the thing you were doing was amazing. Then, people will see you as powerful.
6. Learn To Keep People Dependent On You
Recently, Vivek Bindra Ji came to the Sandip Masheswari show, and he was solving entrepreneurial queries, there was a chess professor who started his journey in 2013, and this year, he opened his chess academy.
Through this, he was generating revenue worth 1 crore. But there was a problem, the problem was that anyone who used to join his academy as a team member, used to leave him in 1 or 2 years. Why?
As Vivek Bindra Ji says, there are two things. To be a big part of a small machine, or to be a small part of a big machine, he used to teach his members everything. After this, the members thought that they can do everything themselves. So, they left him and started doing things themselves.
On this, Vivek Bindra Ji says, most people do this mistake. They make people a big part of small machines. After which the whole machine is dependent on them. But you should do the opposite. It would help if you made people a small part of a big machine. Big corporations do the same, there are many talented people, whom the company always keeps with itself.
But companies get specific things done by them, due to which people remain a small part of big machines. He can be so good but dependent on machines for good output. This is the reason that despite being so talented, they remain a small part of a big machine and are not able to leave it, because they are dependent on that machine.
Similarly, you should follow this law too. You shouldn’t teach everything. If you are teaching and that person is talented, you can give him a partnership, but if you teach him everything, and expect that he’ll be with you forever, it can be difficult.
Because there’s a lack of trustworthy people in this world. So, you can follow this rule. Personally, I don’t believe in this law, but still, I know about the world, If you don’t get good people, must follow this law.
7. Use Absence To Increase Respect And Honor
In 18B.C. there was a person named Deioces, who wanted to rule Medea. He deeply wanted to rule Medea. But people didn’t like a monarchy. Because of the former cruel rulers. He made the lives of Medea difficult. So, they didn’t want a monarchy approach.
So, he started settling disputes between people. And established a perception, that he can solve any disputes. After which people use to get their matters solved by him. And he made sure that, he solve every dispute well, to run the city peacefully.
He did it for a long, after which he announced publicly, that he is quitting. He is tired, by solving others’ problems. He will not do anymore. As soon as he created this absence, People panicked. Their love for him was so immense that they accepted the monarchy approach.
This was the reason that for 43 years, he became the king. he lived a lifestyle like God. You might have noticed that celebrities are always late. They always say ‘I’ve to attend different events, or I have to go here or there. Sometimes, it’s not true. Still, why do people do this?
They know that if they keep themselves scarce, there will be high value. And if they are available every time, their value will start decreasing. And it’s true. So, you can use this law to gain value and respect. The author has shared many such laws in this book.