The 48 Laws Of Power

In

essence,

Daizenmadehimselfthe

cat’s-paw,

thetooltotakethe

chestnutsoutofthefire.
He
musthavefelt
some
pain

in

losing

the

vase,

but

he

gained

not

only

the

painting

but,

more

important,

the

power

ofthe

courtier.Thecourtieruseshis

gloved

handtosoften

any

blows

against

him,

disguise

his

scars,

andmaketheactofrescuemore

elegant

andclean.

By

helping

others,

thecourtier

eventuallyhelps

himself.Daizen’s

example

provides

the

paradigm

for

every

favordone

betweenfriendsand

peers:

never

imposeyour

favors.Search

out

ways

tomake

yourself

the

cat’s—paw,

indirectly

extricating

your

friendsfromdistresswithout

imposingyourself

or

making

themfeel

obligated

to

you.

Oneshouldnotbe

too

stmightfnrward.

Goandsee

thefzmesz.

The

straight

treesarecut

down,

thecrookedonesare

leftstanding.

Kuulilya,

Indian

fzhiloroplmg

third

century

Ii.(1'.

KEYSTOPOWER

Asaleader
youmayimagine

that

constant

diligence,

andthe

appearance

of

working

harderthan

anyone

else,

signifypower.

Actually,though,

they

havethe

opposite

effect:

Theyimply

weakness.

Why

are

youworking

so

hard?

Perhapsyou

are

incompetent,

andhaveto

put

inextraeffort

just

to

keepup;perhapsyou

are

one

ofthose

people

who

doesnot

knowhow

to

delegate,

andhastomeddlein

everything.

The

trulypowerful,

ontheother

hand,

seemnevertobeina

hurry

oroverburdened.Whileotherswork

their

fingers

tothe

bone,

they

taketheirleisure.

They

knowhowtofindthe

rightpeople

to

put

intheeffortwhile

they

savetheir

energy

and

keep

their

handsout

ofthefire.

Similarly,youmay

believe

that

bytaking

onthe

dirty

work

yourself,involvingyourselfdirectly

in

unpleasant

actions,

you

im-

pose

your

power

andinstillfear.Infact

you

make

yourself

look

ugly,

and

abusiveof

yourhighposition. Trulypowerfulpeoplekeep

theirhands

clean.

Onlygoodthings

surround

them,

andthe

only

announcements

they

makeare

of

glorious

achievements.

Youwilloftenfindit

necessary,

of

course,

to

expendenergy,

ortoef

factanevilbut

necessary

action.But

you

mustnever

appear

tobethisac-

tion’s

agent.

Find3.

cat’s—paw.Develop

theartsof

finding,using,

and,

in

time,

getting

ridofthese

people

whentheir

cat’s-paw

role

hasbeen

ful-

filled.

Ontheeveofan

important

river

battle,

the

great

third—century

Chi

nese

strategist

Chuko

Liang

foundhimself

falsely

accusedof

secretly

work

ing

fortheotherside.As

proof

ofhis

loyalty,

hiscommanderorderedhim

to

produce

100,000

arrowsforthe

army

withinthree

days,

orbe

put

to

death.Instead

of

trying

tomanufacture

the

arrows,

an

impossible

task,

Liang

took

a

dozenboatsand hadbundlesofstrawlashedtotheirsides.In

thelate

afternoon,

whenmist

always

blanketedthe

river,

hefloatedthe

boatstowardthe

enemycamp.Fearing

a

trap

fromthe

wily

Chuko

Liang,

the

enemy

didnotattackthe

barely

visibleboatswithboatsoftheir

own,

your

rclalinm

collapsed

tum‘,

fell

at

my

feet

whenImmziunwl

yourcaptivity.

"

Aswonasthesewurtls

were

xlmken

the

merclumtivbird

mllapx::(l

and

fell

to

thebottom

of

the

urge.

“Thenews

aflzis

kirxxv

man'3(loathhaskilled

him,

run.

”

/huught

the

merchant.

Sorrowful!)

he

pickedup

thebird

and

put

itonHlze

wirzduw.\ill.Alonce

thebirdruvwcdmm’

flew

to 41

nextrby

mac.

“Now

you

know.

"

1/24:

birdmul,“(hmwhat

youI/laugh:

was

rlimse

(orwasin

factgood

news

for

VIM’.Amihow

the

rrmmlge,

the

suggc.sIioIzof

howIn

behtzvcineI!’dt’!’to

fret’

m_yseIfi

wasrmnsmzzml

tome

throughyou,my

captur.

"And

heflaw

mmy,free

atlast.

m1_|=s<>r"m1«_

DFRVISHEES.

l|)l{lIiSSH/\u,1967

LAW 26 211