Saturday, January 24, 2009

The 48 Laws of Power





So I spent the last two days reading The 48 Laws of Power which is a collection of laws based on historical short tales or stories. These laws don’t take into account any sense of right or wrong. Instead, the laws focus on how one can increase their influence over any situation, regardless of the moral consequences of doing so.

In other words, this book focuses on how to gain power in any situation, regardless of whether it’s morally right or wrong, and it uses specific stories from history to illustrate these rules of power.

Here is a piece of the book that stood out for me personally.

Half of your power comes from what you do not do. What you do not allow yourself to get dragged into. For this skill you must learn to judge all things by what they cost you. As the famous Nietzsche wrote " The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it, but in what one pays for it - what it costs to us "

In the end life is short, opportunities are few and you have only so much energy to draw on.

Power is a social game to learn and master it you must develop the ability to study and understand people.

I found this to be a very interesting book for both my business and personal life I also enjoy studying people and there behaviors. I encourage each and everyone of you to read it especially if you are in an office setting. Use it to understand the behavior of others and those who are overly power hungry.

The way I was raised and my belief is that real power comes from earning respect.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

have you read "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu? .......

Unknown said...

Nick, I also am currently reading this book and find it fascinating. It's honestly a good read, but leaves me feeling a bit nasty as it plays against my sense of ethics and morality. Nevertheless, it does certainly shed some light on the tactics that some people use to manipulate those around them. This is particularly obvious to me when I look at politicians.

Anyway, thanks for the post!

Rick

Unknown said...

I read this years ago and loved it. It basically talks about how to wield power efficiently.

Thanks for helping revive awareness of this book!

Unknown said...

Excellent blogging Nick. Great Content!

Daniel Butts

cdauthor said...

hi, Nick... I've read the 48 Laws of Power, and you're right, it pays no attention to good/bad/right/wrong, just tells it like it is... which is the complaint from some readers, of course, they find it a little (or a lot) distasteful.

It's a fascinating book, though, a big one, and it's meticulously researched/written... some great hisotry to be learned in there, too...

Thanks for a solid post, and thanks for the Twitter follow!

best... -jef

www.deceptionsecrets.com