Book Review: 48 Laws of Power
| Title: | 48 Laws of Power |
|---|---|
| Author: | Robert Greene |
| Published: | 1998 |
| My rating: |   |
Our world runs on power. It is powered by emotions, our insecurities, our greed and envy, and our goals and aspirations. It can be challenging to navigate this world, especially in business, work and politics.
Power is neither good nor bad. It is up to the people, up to us, how we use it. And the book 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene, originally published in 1998, gives insights on principles people use to empower themselves.
It is one of the most extensive books about amassing power, and as such banned in several US prisons.
These “laws” are explained in historical examples (most of the book are these examples actually), each story commented and analysed for you to understand it properly.
These are just isolated stories, not supported by any research. Whole book are just observations, often contradicting, based on examples from practice and demonstrated on mentioned historical stories.
Good or evil?
As we said, power is neither good or bad, and nor is this book. It always depends on how you use it.
I think a better way to look at it is as lessons on how our world works. How people in business, work and politics behave. Or even how people wage wars, enslave others to cults, or run a gang in a prison.
I have seen people reject this book saying that it is not their style of entrepreneurship or personal philosophy to manipulate the people, considering the book unethical, a book for psychopaths.
But they fail to realise this book is also a tool to deal with non-cooperative people.
It is not only about how people can use power for their personal gain, to achieve their goals, but also to protect themselves from conflict or from manipulation by others.
Would you rather play on emotion and ego a bit, or would you keep giving in to that employee or team member that is constantly unwilling to change, waiting and hoping it will get better?
I do understand their thinking and reason, be the change you want to see in the world, believe in the best in people and all that, but the question you need to ask yourself is, will others play by the same rules?
It might work in a small, closed controlled environment where all parties are fully self-aware, in control of their emotions, always objective, without personal agenda and openly agreed to rules of the group.
But I am yet to see such an environment, such a company or group, that would be able to work this way. Either something so objective, so transparent and so fair, or people so self-awareness and so self-control.
Where nobody wants to be in control or people don’t envy each other salaries, bonuses, promotions, amount of work, favours; people’s ego not getting hurt etc.
Most people are not on such a level, not even on their best day, let alone in some stressful moment.
Then you have their personalities. Some people are resistant to change, some are too blunt, some are slower in adaptation etc., and you need to approach them differently, with different tactics.
It would be naive to expect the “high road” will yield the same results as being more tactical about your approach and interactions. We live in the real world, not utopia, and the real world is run by power and emotions.
Hard truth is that most of the people don’t really care about you, they care only about what they can get from you. How you can be useful.
Ask yourself, do you want to get things done? How badly do you want to achieve your goals? Are you willing to sacrifice your dreams by taking the passive road and allowing others to get to theirs instead of you?
Those people I would ask - you never lied to anybody? You never tried to charm anybody? You never prepared for an interview? You never did anything extra to show that you are hard working?
Listen, I get it. Many of the “laws” are primarily manipulative or vindictive. But there are also principles on how to avoid conflict, or in reverse how to protect yourself from people who want to manipulate you.
Lessons to share
Here are three such principles I really like, tools to make your life easier without compromising your moral compass:
Law 5: So Much Depends on Reputation - Guard It with Your Life
Reputation takes life to build but can be lost in a second. Reputation precedes you. It can open doors and create opportunities; it can create respect and eliminate doubts. It sets expectations.
But make your reputation simple. One thing you will be known for. It will be your calling card. Hard worker. Expert. Problem solver. The Wolf. (Pulp Fiction fans know).
Law 11: Learn to Keep People Dependent on You
Become irreplaceable. Become a critical part of the operation to protect yourself from being laid off. Get better and faster. Get more skills. Make sure you can’t be easily replaced by somebody cheaper, younger, naiver.
Law 40: Despise the Free Lunch
There is no such thing as a free lunch. People will hold it over you, they will expect something in return. They will want to get something from you. Your knowledge for cheap, paying for lunch instead of your consultancy rate.
Would I recommend this book?
It is a heavy reading. Literally, this book has 480 pages and the audiobook version has almost 24 hours. It is a long read.
And it is not a one-off book. Not something you just finish and be done with it. It is something you would go back to, re-read chapters, read another chapter, reference back to when dealing with some challenge in life.
It was an interesting read and I liked it also because I had my own experience with these principles, me using them or people using them on me. It is worth reading for anybody with ambition or who wants to understand our world.
But if you would rather just read the “laws” of power, without all the historical references, I have summarised them in this post, with my notes and my personal stories and examples of these principles in action.
Is this book a keeper?
If you have a hardback copy, I would keep it. I think it is an interesting book you can come back to and always learn a bit more. Scroll through, read one more chapter.
Or to look for help when you need to deal with difficult people, especially if you are running a business or working in a corporate environment and you want to progress and move forward as fast as you can.
But if you have an audiobook version, I wouldn’t bother. You are not going to re-listen to 24 hours of history lectures. Instead write down some notes to each law and keep it for future reference, like you would the physical book.
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