Law #39 - Deepstash
How To Be Effortlessly Charismatic

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How To Be Effortlessly Charismatic

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Law #39

Stir up water to catch fish

  • To show your frustration is to show that you have lost your power to shape events; it is the helpless action of the child who resorts to a hysterical fit to get his way
  • Tantrums neither intimidate nor inspire loyalty
  • We have to realize that nothing in the social realm, and in the game of power, is personal
  • 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

6.04K

3.94K reads

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Law #21

Play a sucker to catch a sucker. Seem dumber than your mark

  • The feeling that someone else is more intelligent than we are is almost intolerable
  • We usually try to justify it in different ways: “He only has book knowledge, whereas I have real knowledge.” “Her parents paid for her...

6.15K

6.52K reads

Law #32

Play to people's fantasies

  • People rarely believe that their problems arise from their own misdeeds and stupidity
  • Change is slow and gradual. It requires hard work, a bit of luck, a fair amount of self-sacrifice, and a lot of patience.
  • Truth is cold, sober fact, not so c...

6.06K

4.75K reads

Law #35

Master the art of timing

  • steady continuous effort is irresistible, for this is the way in which Time captures and subdues the greatest powers on earth
  • Without patience as your sword and shield, your timing will fail and you will inevitably find yourself a loser

6.06K

4.72K reads

Law #48

Assume formlessness

  • Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed
  • Learn to move fast and adapt or you will be eaten.
  • Formlessness is a tool. Never confuse it with a go-with-the-flow style, or with a religious resignation to the twists of fortune

6.04K

4.48K reads

Law #5 – So Much Depends on Reputation, Guard it with Your Life

  • You must work to establish a reputation for one outstanding quality, whether generosity or honesty or cunning
  • If your reputation is stained, it is wise to associate with someone whose image is counteract with your own

6.63K

24.1K reads

Law #15

Crush your enemy totally

  • Those who seek to achieve things should show no mercy
  • In your struggle for power you will stir up rivalries and create enemies. There will be people you cannot win over, who will remain your enemies no matter what. But whatever wound you inflicted on th...

6.22K

8.85K reads

Law #42

Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter

  • Do not waste your time lashing out in all directions at what seems to be a many-headed enemy. Find the one head that matters
  • Stirrers thrive by hiding in the group, disguising their actions among the reactions of others. Render the...

6.03K

4.02K reads

Law #24

Play the perfect courtier

  • Never seem to be working too hard. Your talent must appear to flow naturally, with an ease that makes people take you for a genius rather than a workaholic
  • Most important: Do not ask for favors on another person's behalf, least of all a friend's

6.21K

6.24K reads

Law #12

Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim

  • Give before you take
  • A gift brings out the child in us, instantly lowering our defenses
  • Selective kindness will often break down even the most stubborn foe: Aiming right for the heart, it corrodes the will to fi...

6.28K

12K reads

Law #27

Play on people need to believe to create a cult like following

  • Always in a rush to believe in something, we will manufacture saints and faiths out of nothing

6.07K

6.49K reads

Law #18

Do not build fortress to protect yourself, isolation is dangerous

  • Because humans are social creatures by nature, power depends on social interaction and circulation. To make yourself powerful you must place yourself at the center of things

6.26K

8.62K reads

Law #8

Law #8

Make other come to you use bait if neccessary

  • The essence of power is the ability to keep the initiative, to get others to react to your moves, to keep your opponent and those around you on the defensive
  • You yourself must learn to master your emotions, and never to be influence...

6.44K

17K reads

Law #16

Use absence to increase respect and honor

  • Familiarity in this existence makes all things tame
  • Absence diminishes minor passions and inflames great ones, as the wind douses a candle and fans afire

But

  • The need to withdraw only comes after you have establi...

6.25K

9.21K reads

Law #40

Despise the free lunch

  • By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit
  • Powerful people judge everything by what it costs, not just in money but in time, dignity, and peace of mind

6.05K

4.54K reads

Law #20

Do not commit to anyone

  • Desire is like a virus: If we see that someone is desired by other people, we tend to find this person desirable too
  • Alcibiades tactic: Put yourself in the middle between competing powers. Lure one side with the promise of your help; the other side, alwa...

6.21K

7.32K reads

Law #2 – Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies

Law #2 – Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies

  • Friends are easily aroused to envy
  • Without enemies around us, we grow lazy. An enemy at our heels sharpens our wits, keeping us focused and alert. It is sometimes better
  • Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because

7.16K

34.8K reads

Law #22

Use the surrender tactic: turn weakness into power

  • Surrender conceals great power: Lulling the enemy into complacency, it gives you time to recoup, time to undermine, time for revenge
  • You have to remember that you only appear to surrender, like the animal that plays dead to sav...

6.11K

6.98K reads

Law #46

Never appear too perfect

  • Only a minority can succeed at the game of life, and that minority inevitably arouses the envy of those around them
  • Once success happens your way, the people to fear the most are...

6.04K

3.77K reads

Law #25

Recreate yourself

  • The world wants to assign you a role in life. And once you accept that role, you are doomed
  • Adopt the plasticity of the actor, who can mold his or her face to the emotion required.

6.16K

6.36K reads

Law #14

Pose as a friend, work as a spy

  • If you have reason to suspect that a person is telling you a lie, look as though you believed every word he said. This will give him courage to go on; he will become more vehement in his assertions, and in the end betray himself. Again, if you perceive t...

6.26K

9.34K reads

Law #31

Control the options: get others to play with the cards you deal

  • unlimited options would actually paralyze us and cloud our ability to choose. Our limited range of choices comforts us
  • Push them to “choose” what you want them to do by appearing to advocate the opposite.

6.07K

5.15K reads

Law #3 – Conceal your Intentions

Law #3 – Conceal your Intentions

  • By telling your plan and being honest about it makes you predictable
  • Bland facial expression is the simplest smoke screen to hide your thoughts
  • Another effective smoke screen is the pattern, the establishment of a series of actions that seduce the victim i...

6.84K

28K reads

Law #10

Infection: avoid the unhappy and unlucky

  • Recognize the fortunate so that you may choose their company, and the unfortunate so that you may avoid them
  • Those misfortunates among us who were brought down by circumstances beyond their control deserve all the help and sympathy we ca...

6.5K

14.4K reads

Law #29

Plan all the way to the end

  • Most men are ruled by the heart, not the head. Their plans are vague, and when they meet obstacles they improvise
  • But improvisation will only bring you as far as the next crisis, and is never a substitute for thinking several steps ahead and planning...

6.14K

5K reads

Law #4 – Always Say Less Than Necessary

  • The more you say, the more common you appear
  • "Human tongue is a beast that few can master"
  • Once the words are out, you cannot take them back. Keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm: The momentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be o...

7.27K

25.8K reads

Law #6 – Court Attention at all Costs

  • At the beginning of your rise to the top, then, spend all your energy on attracting attention. Most important: The quality of the attention is irrelevant
  • Court controversy, even scandal. It is better to be attacked, even slandered, than ignored
  • BUT Never a...

6.57K

21.5K reads

Law #26

Keep your hands clean

  • By apologizing you open up all sorts of doubts about your competence, your intentions, any other mistakes you may not have confessed
  • Power depends on appearances, and those in power must seem never to make mistakes
  • All men make mistakes, but the wi...

6.14K

5.98K reads

Law #45

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

  • Because the world is and always has been full of insecurity and threat, we latch on to familiar faces and create habits and rituals to make the world more comfortable
  • Just as you cannot make people see the world your ...

6.01K

3.71K reads

Law #23

Concentrate your forces

  • Beware of dissipating your powers; strive constantly to concentrate them
  • Prize intensity more than extensity. Perfection resides in quality, not quantity

6.1K

7.38K reads

Law #30

Make your accomplishments seem effortless

  • Keep your effort and your tricks to yourself and you seem to have the grace and ease of a god
  • What is understandable is not awe-inspiring, we tell ourselves we could do as well if we had the money and time

6.13K

5.2K reads

Law #41

Avoid stepping into a great man's shoes

  • Power depends on appearing larger than other people, and when you are lost in the shadow of the father, the king, the great predecessor, you cannot possibly project such a presence
  • If you have the kind of intelligence and instinct that wi...

6K

3.79K reads

Law #38

Think as you like but behave like others

  • Disagreement is regarded as offensive because it is a condemnation of the views of others
  • there is no point in making a display of your dangerous ideas if diey only bring you suffering and persecution

6.03K

4.48K reads

Law #19

Know who you're dealing with. Do not offend the wrong person

  • Never assume that the person you are dealing with is weaker or less important than you are
  • We forget a lot in our lives, but we rarely forget an insult
  • Swallow the impulse to offend, even if the other person s...

6.24K

7.39K reads

My takes from this book

  • In pursuit of power, you must change who you are
  • Mediocrity doesn't attract power
  • Patience is key
  • Control your emotions
  • Be aware of your actions

6.1K

5.2K reads

Law #1 – Never Outshine the Master

Law #1 – Never Outshine the Master

A master who cannot bestow on you the gifts of his experience may direct rancor and ill will at you instead.

6.8K

55.8K reads

Law #17

Keep others in suspended terror: cultivate an air of unpredictability

  • A person of power instills a kind of fear by deliberately unsettling those around him to keep the initiative on his side
  • Scrambling your patterns on a day-to-day basis will cause a stir around you and stimula...

6.18K

7.84K reads

Law #43

Work on the hearts and minds of others

  • it is so infuriating to meet with a person who makes no effort to seduce you or attempt to persuade you, even if only for the purpose of deception
  • The men who have changed the universe have never gotten there by working on leaders, but rat...

6.03K

3.72K reads

Law #13

When asking for help, appeal to people's self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude

  • If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds
  • Every person you deal with is like another culture, an alien land with a past th...

6.29K

10.4K reads

Law #34

Law #34

Be royal in your own fashion: act like a king to be treated like one

  • Never lose your self-respect, nor be too familiar with yourself when you are alone
  • It is within your power to set your own price. How you carry yourself reflects what you think of yourself
  • Never make t...

6.1K

4.66K reads

Law #11

Learn to keep people dependant on you

  • Such is the fate of those who do not make others dependent on them. Sooner or later someone come along who can do the job as well as them; someone younger, fresher, less expensive, less threatening
  • Be the only one who can do what you do, an...

6.36K

12.3K reads

Law #37

Create compelling spectacles

  • Find an image or symbol from the past that will neatly fit your situation, and put it on your shoulders like a cape. It will make you seem larger than life
  • Visual is the sense we most depend on and trust

6.02K

4.44K reads

Law #36

Disdain things you cannot have: ignoring them is the best revenge

  • You choose to let things bother you. You can just as easily choose not to notice the irritating offender, to consider the matter trivial and unworthy of your interest
  • By acknowledging other people, even if only t...

6.1K

4.51K reads

Law #47

Do not go past the mark you aim for, In victory learn when to stop

  • In the realm of power, you must be guided by reason. To let a momentary thrill or an emotional victory influence or guide your moves will prove fatal
  • Mistakes are always made when people get to the easy places

6.03K

3.76K reads

Law #9

Win through your actions, never through argument

  • Each man believes that he is right, and words will rarely convince him otherwise
  • Demonstrate, do not explicate

6.69K

19.2K reads

Law #44

Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect

  • Do what your enemies do, following their actions as best you can, and they cannot see what you are up to, they are blinded by your mirror
  • The secret to gaining ascendancy over large numbers, he came to believe, was not to impose his c...

6.01K

3.85K reads

Law #7 – Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit

  • Kissinger played the game expertly: He took credit for the work of those below him while graciously giving credit for his own labors to those above
  • Never do yourself what others can do for you

6.46K

20.1K reads

Law #28

Enter action with boldness

  • Hesitation puts obstacles in your path, boldness eliminates them
  • If boldness is not natural, neither is timidity. It is an acquired habit, picked up out of a desire to avoid conflict. If timidity has taken hold of you, then, root it out. Your fears of...

6.17K

5.29K reads

Law #33

Discover each man's thumbscrew

  • If you sense that a man has a need to be loved, openly flatter him
  • People who thump their chests are often big cowards, you will often find people's weaknesses in the opposite of the qualities they reveal to you
  • All you have to do is find ...

6.07K

4.59K reads

CURATED FROM

CURATED BY

ianpuang

Welcome, I post what i read Everything I post is in the book, I'll quote it if it's my own opinion

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Law 34: Act in the way you want to be treated. Be regal and authoritative.

Law 35: Master the art of timing. Strike only at the right hour.

Law 36: Feign disinterest and ignore what you can’t have.

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