The 48 Laws Of Power

332
E LAW
39

negotiate«—-in.

fact

they

killedhis

messengers,

This

pushed

Alexander

over

the

edge.

Nowit

didnotmattertohim

how

long

the

siege

lastedor

how

large

an

army

it

needed;

he

hadthere-

sources,

andwoulddowhateverittookHeremountedhisassaultsosiren-

uously

thathe

capturedTyre

within

days,

burnedittothe

ground,

andsold

its

people

into

slavery.

You

canbaitthe

powerful

and

get

themtocommitanddivide

their

forcesasSunPin

did,

buttestthewatersfirst.

Find

the

gap

intheir

strength.

Ifthereisno

gap--ifthey

are

impossiblystrong——you

have

nothing

to

gain

and

everything

tolose

byprovoking

them.Choose

carefully

whom

you

bait,

and

never

stir

up

thesharks.

Finally

therearetimeswhenawe1l—timedburstof

anger

cando

you

good,

but

your

anger

mustbemanufacturedandunder

your

control.Then

you

candetermine

exactly

howandonwhomitwillfall.Neverstir

up

re

actionsthatwillwork

against

you

inthe

long

run.Anduse

your

thunder

bolts

rarely,

tomakethemthemore

intimidating

and

meaningful.

Whether

purposefullystaged

or

not,

if

your

outbursts

come

too

often,

they

will

lose

their

power.