
Never do yourself what others can do for you. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Law 7: Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious, than the bland and timid masses. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Everything is judged by its appearance what is unseen counts for nothing. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win once you slip, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Law 5: So much depends on reputation – guard it with your life. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. Be wary of friends – they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy.
48 LAWS OF POWER SUMMARY HOW TO
Law 2: Never put too much trust in friends learn how to use enemies.

Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power. In your 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. Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. To attempt to recap a story supporting each one would result in a massively unwieldy article, so this book summary is a verbatim quotation of the author’s laws and summaries thereof. The only solution I could find to concisely give you the core of the book was to list only a summary of the meaning of each law. The author finishes each law by expounding on the “keys of power,” or the details about how to apply the law in practice, and cautioning us with the “reversal”, or how the particular law may not apply in all situations. After each law, a slightly expanded summary of the meaning is included, followed by a historical incident that illustrates transgression of the law, then another historical anecdote about an observance of the law. In terms of format, the book is eminently readable. He labels as disingenuous anyone who claims that we do what we do for reasons other than power, and illustrates how people who try to “opt out” of the game of power by championing honesty, equality, or naivety are actually leveraging a time-honored law of power themselves. The author views everything through the lens of power, which results in a distinctly uncomfortable degree of honesty about why humans do what they do. (50 Cent liked the book so much he went on to co-author the sequel.) The 48 Laws of Power has enjoyed similar popularity in diverse walks of life, from Wall Street to Hollywood to D.C.

Part Prince, part Art of War, Robert Greene’s best seller boasts the unique distinction of being quoted by such management luminaries as Jay Z, UGK, Kanye West, and Drake, and even featured in tattoos sported by the likes of Calvin Harris and DJ Premier. In direct contrast to the compassion-oriented management books that dominate today’s business bestseller lists is The 48 Laws of Power, a Machiavellian treatise for the modern age.
