The 48 Laws of Power

by Robert Greene. Here they are, in my Credibility characterization borrowed from The Speed of Trust:

The Four Cores of Credibility:

Integrity

  • Law 4: Always Say Less than Necessary
  • Law 5: So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard It With Your Life
  • Law 10: Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky
  • Law 16: Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor
  • Law 21: Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker – Seem Dumber than Your Mark
  • Law 25: Re-create Yourself
  • Law 26: Keep Your Hands Clean
  • Law 27: Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following
  • Law 34: Be Royal in Your Own Fashion: Act like a King to be Treated like one
  • Law 37: Create Compelling Spectacles
  • Law 40: Despise the Free Lunch
  • Law 46: Never Appear Too Perfect

Intent

  • Law 1: Never Outshine the Master
  • Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions
  • Law 12: Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm Your Victim
  • Law 14: Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy
  • Law 17: Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability
  • Law 20: Do Not Commit to Anyone
  • Law 24: Play the Perfect Courtier
  • Law 30: Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless
  • Law 36: Disdain things you cannot have: Ignoring them is the Best Revenge
  • Law 38: Think as you like but Behave like others
  • Law 44: Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect
  • Law 45: Preach the Need for Change, but never Reform too much at once
  • Law 48: Assume Formlessness

Capabilities

  • Law 2: Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends, Learn How to Use Enemies
  • Law 6: Court Attention at All Cost
  • Law 8: Make Other People Come to You – Use Bait If Necessary
  • Law 11: Learn to Keep People Dependent on You
  • Law 13: When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest, Never to their Mercy or Gratitude
  • Law 18: Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself – Isolation is Dangerous
  • Law 19: Know Who You’re Dealing With – Do Not Offend the Wrong Person
  • Law 23: Concentrate Your Forces
  • Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness
  • Law 31: Control the Options: Get Others to play with the Cards you Deal
  • Law 32: Play to People’s Fantasies
  • Law 33: Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew
  • Law 35: Master the Art of Timing
  • Law 39: Stir Up Waters to Catch Fish
  • Law 43: Work on the Hearts and Minds of others

Results

  • Law 7: Get Others To Do The Work For You, but Always Take the Credit
  • Law 9: Win Through Your Actions, Never Through Argument
  • Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally
  • Law 22: Use the Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into Power
  • Law 29: Plan All the Way to the End
  • Law 41: Avoid Stepping Into A Great Man’s Shoes
  • Law 42: Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep will scatter.
  • Law 47: Do not go past the mark you aimed for: In Victory, Learn When to Stop
Could be better written but a great summary

Could be better written but a great summary

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