Master the Laws of Power

over the years I must have had thousands of interviews in which I've discussed the 48 Laws of Power all the different angles about power itself all the different laws and how to apply them and what will be most effective and what will be the stupidest moves you could possibly make [Music] here is what I think are the greatest bits and moments in all of these thousands of interviews that I've done over the years law number one was always like the most important one to me never outshine the master because it was the first law I had personally violated that law on several occasions and it caused me a lot of misery and pain in my life so I had a job in the film businesses and television show and I was a researcher on it and I was the best researcher there by far you got success by how many stories you found and what got actually filmed I had like a 60 rate or something like that wow I knew I was the best and then I got fired because you're outshining the master well at the time I thought she hated my guts so I pissed somebody off I said the wrong thing and I could I was capable of sometimes doing that because I could have an attitude and I was blaming other people Etc but then you know it sort of started Dawning on me and then later when I wrote the book it was very clear to me that I had inadvertently made her think that I was felt greater than she was that I was after her job other people were really praising me and not praising her so much I was getting too much attention and it happened another time a second time I wasn't controlling myself and so that law had a lot meant a lot to me because it was very painful what I was writing about in that law number two in the 48 Laws of Power I was warning you against a common thing which is you have a business and you're looking for a partner right or you're looking to hire someone your first instinct is I want to hire a friend I want to hire that person who's likable who likes me who I've had a relationship with that's a terrible mistake you want to hire the best person for the job friends have all kinds of emotional entanglements it'll come out in the course of the of of the relationship of the business they'll feel Envy they'll they'll sabotage you it's a nightmare and it's a huge history behind it that's what that law is about it's not about not having friends how stupid would I be to say that friends are an incredibly important role always say less than necessary law number four and it's the fact that by talking too much in a meeting or in any kind of situation you make people inadvertently smell weakness on you a lot of um communication between humans is non-verbal sure we feel we sense something from you and it communicates and we have an impression and people who talk a lot generally give an impression of they don't know how to control themselves whereas people who kind of say a little bit less you know who kind of speak in riddles almost who say um yeah that's great I'll think about it or whatever it gives off an impression of power as if they know more than they actually do but there is one law that he's the master of he's probably the greatest genius that ever lived at this one law he's an absolute Master at court attention at all costs he sucks up the media attention he's absolutely brilliant at it every day there's some new outrage when somebody in this Administration is about you'll see this every single time is about to get hauled into the Mueller investigation and indicted he does some outrageous thing in the Middle East story or with NATO or with Merkel to draw attention away it's unbelievable but it's because we live in a culture that is so easily manipul Twitter that we're so fall for this kind of thing their two laws one of them is make others come to you and the second law is use absence to create honor and respect and the idea is if you're always going after the other person if you're always the pursuer ETC they start to take you for granted right you're always the one calling and texting you're in their face constantly thinking that that's the way to make them love you you're also creating that there's they take you for granted they think you're so familiar they have you Wrapped Around Your Finger a little bit and unconsciously they lose a bit of respect they may not say it but it'll come out in their behavior and over time you know the the spell of Love Will kind of diminish so you want to step back you want to create some distance some absence and you want to make them come to you instead of you going to them if you make them take a move towards you then the game is reversed the dynamic is reversed now the power is a little bit more on your side I call them infecting types there are people that are naturally going to infect you with their drama with their [ __ ] with their just all the stuff that's going on in your life and I have in there the example of Lola Montez this is very beautiful woman who seduced king of Bavaria and literally destroyed him single-handedly and the reason that these types you're drawn to them is they're very dramatic they're very charismatic they have a lot of problems but they may give you the impression that they're a victim you know oh I have such an unfortunate life this this man was terrible to me my parents were awful blah blah blah they have a lot of energy a lot of Drive they're very charismatic and like a a Whirlpool like quicksand they draw you into their life and that you just go down with them because you're not aware of the fact that really it isn't other people to blame it's themselves that's right they at their core have an emptiness they have great needs that can never be met there's something wrong deep down inside and in a chapter I say it's not worth trying to figure out why Lola Montez is the way she is just get away from them the only solution when you have an infecting someone who's infectious quarantine get away from them go far away don't get involved one of the laws is I think the most important basically make people dependent on you so you want you don't want to appeal to people's love to the fact that they like you you want to appeal to the fact that they need you because if they love you love is a very tenuous emotion in fact it doesn't work very well in the work situation it causes all kinds of problems they'll get rid of you tomorrow even though they like you but if they need you it's like pulling out all of these roots of a plant to get rid of you it's going to cause all kinds of damage all over the place they need you and they can't get rid of you so you need to make sure that your position in a company in life in general you're the only person who can do that that was written because I see it all the time in business and it it bothered me that no one really recognizes this so for instance with Microsoft is dealing with Netscape their strategy is to get to wipe Netscape off the planet not leave one shred of that company left they're going to dominate the the internet and so they totally where is Netscape now you look at Google they say don't be evil and what's their strategy to get rid of every conceivable competitor or buy them out it's the dynamic in business Napoleon had this idea if I appear every day at the theater in Paris people don't respect me oh he's the you know the king is the Emperor it's there okay but if I only show up at the theater once a month it becomes an event people start talking about me and thinking about me so use apps and sometimes because we have this wrong impression that presence being constantly present is what makes somebody kind of fall in love and and and and want us but actually it's a step of absence that creates that so if in in like a love situation if you don't return the phone call right away or the text and a day goes by they start to think about you they start to wonder about themselves and in that process of thinking about you they start fantasizing and wondering and and you know that's the powerful position that you have if you use absence yeah there are circumstances that you can't control if you're in business there's a lot that you can't control if you write a book you have no control over how people read it and what kind of success you're going to have you have no control over the economy at large over global factors in your industry if you go crazy trying to getting all emotional about all of these things you're going to lose your hair you're going to get cancer and you're going to die oftentimes failure mistakes problems are actually the best thing that can happen to you that instead of getting reactive and going God damn it why did I what's wrong there and getting all stiff and rigid just bend with it and say this happened for a reason it's teaching me a lesson I made a mistake I need to learn from this I've had this happen to me when I was writing Mastery written four of the six chapters but I was very late in delivering it to my publisher and they came to me and they said Robert if you don't finish Mastery it two months we're canceling the project okay oh my god I've been working on this for three years I put my blood and everything I got into it but I can't finish it in two months it's the two most important chapters it's all this complicated research forget it then I calm down after two days hyperventilating and I said I have no choice I got a band with this I got to do it and it ended up being the best thing that could happen to me because those two months were the greatest two months of my life I worked so hard and ideas were coming to me in my sleep as I'm showering bending with the problems like that ends up being the best thing you can do the law of power that I've kind of live by ver you know consciously and inadvertently which is interaction with boldness so most people are just too timid in life they're afraid of failure they're afraid of making mistakes I never try anything I never have to put up with criticism I never have to put up with people scrutinizing me so most people end up being too shy too timid in life and you've got to get over that and you've got to learn how to be bold with your ideas and with your actions so I try to make each one of my books kind of a statement and impress people with like a strong idea and not be afraid of criticism and not being afraid of controversy so boldness has gotten me through life and I think it's critically important in this day and age in the 48 Laws of Power I have a chapter about think like a king to be treated like a king and I talk about Christopher Columbus is sort of the icon of that he's somebody who came from a very mediocre background and he simply believed however that he was royalty that he was born destined to create something great and it became a self-fulfilling prophecy which is the truth with a lot of very powerful people and the 50th law of a book about fearlessness is very much about how your attitude carries over into you create your own faith through your own through your attitude and Mastery certainly has that element to it the one thing about the book is I'm trying to tell you that there are no shortcuts there's no drug you can take there's no little formula you have to put in the hours you have to develop yourself you have to develop discipline and work habits the kinds of things that you cultivate in your 20s and they become the kind of habits that a foundation for future power so you can't get by just on a positive attitude but it's extremely important I call it the mirror effect so if you kind of mirror people in their body language or the way you listen to them right it almost is like it almost hypnotizes people and because we're all narcissists which is something I type it up once again in my new book we all have that narcissistic side to ourselves when another person is reflecting back to us the same kind of looks the same body language the same values the same ideas it's incredibly seductive we fall under their spell right and the opposite has the opposite effect so these are things it's not just you know some people don't like this because they say God I have to be an actor I have to be something I'm not I have to be artificial but acting is actually kind of an exciting thing to learn it's like it's like a skill like any other skill and being able to perform out in public is actually a liberating thing I have a law in the 48 Laws of Power called Never appear too perfect and the danger in the world today is the number one danger is Envy we live in a time of social media Etc where it's massive Envy where we know what everybody else is doing in life and we don't like to admit that we're envious so we attack people passive aggressively we subvert them we try and throw obstacles in the way we criticize them when in fact we Envy them and the strategy there is to learn how to deflect Envy so if you're Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk you have to have some humor you have to have some self-deprecating humor you have to take the criticism that comes and kind of laugh at it and go along with it so that you don't appear all stiff and rigid and defensive you know I did a lot of research for this book and uh the theme would repeat itself over and over and over and over again throughout history of the ruler the country the Empire that became drunk on its own success and didn't know when to stop it's almost inhuman to know when to stop and sometimes success is the worst thing that can happen to you because you you don't you suddenly lose a sense of of what it is that actually happened that led to your success sometimes it's luck sometimes it's something that you did but you're not really aware of what you did and you only think of your success and you get drunk on it and you go and you keep doing more and more and more and and you it ends up in a disaster and so there's an expression the Japanese have it but it's in all cultures the moment you have success or Victory that's the time to step back calm down reassess where you are and in fact consolidate and not go ahead because you're you're headed towards a disaster otherwise [Music] the most important law in the 48 Laws of Power is law number 48 assume formlessness and the idea is disregard all 47 laws disregard the wisdom in this book and just be formless and just conform to the circumstances of your life the advice in a book is generally too literal it's too much these kind of laws whereas life is fluid life is chaotic the same circumstances never repeat themselves so never outshine the master maybe tomorrow it's okay to outshine the master right you know make other people come to you maybe at some point it's good for you to go to other people just throw this entire book out and be formless and don't listen to other people's advice listen to yourself and be as fluid as water right as uh Bruce Lee Be formless Like Water right and formlessness is a very powerful strategy in Warfare and in life because if people never know exactly who you are or what you're up to they can't take action against you it's sort of the ultimate form of power that kind of fluidity and flexibility is what gives you power and being rigid and dogmatic and saying I've got to follow this lot every single day of my life it's what's going to Doom you so fluidity and formlessness is the ultimate form of power in life so law 48 to me is the most important one

Channel: Robert Greene

Views: 122,738

Keywords: robert greene books, robert greene, podcasts, podcast, the 48 laws of power, the 48 laws of power by robert greene, power, powerful, self help, self help books, learn, learning, youtube, nonfiction, viral, never outshine the master, master, laws, laws of power

Id: 6r-e9BJtusk

Length: 16min 34sec (994 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2023