So much depends on reputation — guard it with your life: reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile,… Read More

Infection: avoid the unhappy and unlucky: you can die from someone else’s misery — emotional states are as infectious as diseases. You may feel you’re helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associated with the happy… Read More

Win through your actions, never through argument: any momentary triumph you may think you have been through argument is really a Pyrrhic victory: the resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and last longer than any momentary change of opinion. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through… Read More

Always Say Less Than Necessary: when you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less.… Read More

Conceal Your Intentions: keep people off balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, and envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your… Read More

Never outshine the Master: always make those above you feel comfortably superior. If you desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite — inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights… Read More

Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies: Be wary of friends — they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal friend, because he has more to prove. In… Read More