The 48 Laws Of Power

eral’sbeautiful
young

wife.Thishitthe

general

inthe

gut,

andwonhim

over.Mao

Tse—tungsimilarlyalwaysappealed

to

popular

emotions,

and

spoke

in

the

simplest

terms. Educated and well—rea.d

himself,

in his

speeches

heusedvisceral

metaphors,voicing

the

public’sdeepest

amdelies

and
encouraging

themtoventtheirfrustrationsin

publicmeetings.

Rather

than

arguing

the

practical

aspects

ofa.

particular

program,

hewouldde~

scribehowitwouldaffectthemonthemost
primitive,

down—to—earthlevel.

Donotbelievethatthis

approach

works

only

withtheilliterateandun-

sch0oled—it
worksononeandall.Allofusaremortalandfacethesame

dreadful

fate,

andallofussharethedesireforattachmentand

belonging.

Stir
up

theseemotionsand

youcaptivate

ourhearts.

Thebest

way

todothisiswithadramatic

jolt,

ofthekindthatChuko

Liang

createdwhenbefedandreleased

prisoners

who

expectedonly

the

worst
fromhim.

Shaking

themtothe

core,

hesoftenedtheirhearts.

Play

on

contrastslikethis:Push

people

to

despair,

then

give

themrelief.

If

they

ex~

pectpain

and

yougive

them

pleasure,you

win

their

hearts.

Creatingplea-

sureof
any
kind,
in

fact,

will

usually

bringyou

success,

aswill

allaying

fears

and

providing

or

promisingsecurity.

Symbolicgestures

areoften

enough

towin

sympathy

and

goodwill.

A

gesture

of

self—sacri.fice,

for

example--a

showthat

you

sufferasthose

around

you

do—willmake

people

identify

with

you,

evenif

yoursuffering

is

symbolic

orminorandtheirsisreal.When

you

entera

group,

makea

gesture

of

goodwill;

softenthe

groupup

fortheharsheractionsthatwillfol-

lowlater.

When

T.E.Lawrencewas

fighting

theTurksinthedesertsoftheMid-

dleEast

during

WorldWar

I,

hehadan

epiphany:

It

seemedto

himthat

Conventionalwarfarehadlostitsvalue.Theold-fashionedsoldierwaslost

intheenormousamiiesofthe

time,

inwhichhewasorderedaboutlikea

lifeless

pawn.

Lawrencewantedtoturnthisaround.For

him,

every

sol-

dier’smind

wasa

kingdom

hehadto

conquer.

A

committed,

psychologi-

cally

motivatedsoldierwould

fight

harder

andmore

creatively

than

a.

puppet.

Lawrence’s

perception

isstillmoretrueintheworld

today,

whereso

many

ofusfeel

alienated,

anonymous,

and

suspicious

of

authority,

allof

whichmakesovert

powerplays

andforceevenmore

counterproductive

and

dangerous.

Insteadof

manipulating

lifeless

pawns,

makethoseon

your

sideconvincedandexcited

by

thecause

you

haveenlistedthem

in;

this

willnot

only

make

your

workeasierbutitwillalso

giveyou

more

leeway

todeceive

themlateron.And

to

accomplish

this

you

need

todeal

with

their

individual

psychologies.

Never

clumsily

assumethatthetacticthat

workedonone

person

will

necessarily

workonanother.Tofindthe

key

thatwillmotivate

them,

first

get

themto

openup.

Themore

they

talk,

the

more

they

revealabouttheirlikesanddislikes--thehandlesandleversto

move

themwith.

The

quickestway

tosecure

people’s

mindsis

bydemonstrating,

as

simply

as

possible,

howanactionwillbenefitthem.Self—interestisthe

LAW 43

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