The 48 Laws Of Power

itwasthesecretofhissuccessonthebattlefield.Buthis
willpower

andhis

mindwere

equally

modeledonthisnotion.

Single-mindedness

of

purpose,

totalconcentrationonthe

goal,

andtheuseofthese

qualifiesagainstpeo

ple

less

focused,

people

ina

stateofdistraction—suchanarrowwillfindits

mark
every

timeandoverwhelmthe

enemy.

Casanovaattributedhissuccessinlifetohis

ability

toconcentrateona

single

goal

and

push

atituntilit

yielded.

Itwashis

ability

to

give

himself

over

completely

tothewomenhe

desired

thatmadehim

so

intensely

se-

ducfive.
Fortheweeksormonthsthat
oneofthesewomen
livedin
his

orbit,

he

thought

ofnooneelse.Whenhewas

imprisoned

inthetreacher-

ous“leads”ofthe

doge’spalace

in

Venice,

a

prison

fromwhichnoonehad

ever

escaped,

heconcentratedhismindonthe

singlegoal

of

escape,day

after

day.

A

change

of

cells,

whichmeantthatmonthsof

digging

hadall

beenfor

naught,

didnot

discourage

him;

he

persisted

and

eventually

es-

caped.

“I

have

always

believed,”

helater

wrote,

“thatwhen

a

man

gets

it

intohisheadtodo

something,

andwhenhe

exclusivelyoccupies

himselfin

that

design,

hemust

succeed,

whateverthediliiculties.Thatmanwillbe-

comeGrandVizieror

Pope.”

ConcentrateC 1 a

singlegoal,

a

single

task,

andbeatitintosubmission.

Intheworldof

poweryou

will

constantly

need

help

fromother

people,

usually

thosemore

powerful

than

you.

Thefoolflitsfromone

person

toan-

other,

believing

thathewillsurvive

byspreading

himselfout.Itisacorol-

lary

ofthelawof

concentration,however,

that

much

energy

is

saved,

and

more

power

is

attained,

byaffixingyourself

toa

single,appropriate

source

of

power.

ThescientistNikolaTesla.minedhimself

bybelieving

thathe

somehowmaintainedhis

independenceby

not

having

toservea

single

master.Heeventurneddown P.

Morgan,

whoofferedhimarichcon-

tract.Inthe

end,

Tesla’s

“independence”

meantthathecould

depend

on

no

singlepatron,

butwas

alwayshaving

to

toadyup

to

a

dozenofthem.

Laterinhislifeherealizedhismistake.

Allthe

great

Renaissance

painters

andwriterswrestledwiththis

prob-

lem,

none more so than the

sixteenth-century

writer Pietro Aretino.

Throughout

hislifeAretinosufferedthe

indignities

of

having

to

please

this

prince

andthat.At

last,

he

hadhad

enough,

and

decidedtowooCharles

V,

promising

the

emperor

theservicesofhis

powerful

pen.

He

finally

dis-

coveredthefreedomthatcamefrom attachmenttoa

single

source of

power.Michelangelo

foundthisfreedomwith

PopeJulius

II,

Galileowith

theMedicis.Inthe

end,

the

singiepatronappreciatesyourloyalty

andbe-

comes

dependent

on

your

services;

inthe

long

runthemasterservesthe

slave.

Finally,power

itself

always

existsinconcentratedforms.In

anyorga-

nizationitisinevitableforasmall

youp

toholdthe

strings.

Andoftenitis

notthosewiththetitles.Inthe

game

of

power,only

thefoolllailsabout

without

fixing

his

target.

You

mustfind

out

who

controls

the

operations,

who

isthe

realdirector

behindthe

scenes.

As

Richelieudiscovered

at

the

beginning

ofhisrisetothe

top

oftheFrench

political

scene

during

the

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