The 48 Laws Of Power

lam and

prestigious.

Butwhenthe

city

officialshired asecond

man,

Lorenzo
Ghibem‘,
toworkwith
B1-unelleschi,
the
great

artistbroodedinse~

cret.HeknewthatGhibertihad
gotten

the

jobthrough

his

connections,

andthathewoulddononeoftheworkand
get

halfthecredit.Atacritical

momentofthe
construction,then,

Brunelleschi

suddenlydeveloped

a

mys-

teriousillness.Hehadto
stop
work,

but

pointed

outto

city

officials

that

they

had

hired

Ghiberti,

whoshouldhavebeenable

tocontinuethework

onhisown.SoonitbecameclearthatGhibertiwasuselessandtheofiicials

came

begging

toBrunelleschi.He

ignoredthem,insisting

thatGhiberti

shouldfinishthe

project,

until

finallythey

realizedthe

problem:They

fired

Ghiberti.

By

some

miracle,

Bnmelleschirecoveredwithin

days.

Hedidnothave

tothrow

a

tantrumormake

a

foolof

himself;

he

simplypracticed

theartof

“making

otherscometo

you.”

Ifononeoccasion

you

makeita

point

of

dignity

thatothersmust

cometo

you

and

you

succeed,

they

willcontinuetodosoevenafter

you

stoptrying.

Image:

The

Honcyed

Bear

Trap.

The bear hunter

doesnotchasehis

prey;

abear

thatknows

it

ishuntedis

nearly

impossible

tocatchandisfero-

Ciuus ifcornered.

Instead,

the

hunter

lays traps

baited with

honey.

He

does

not

exhaust

himself

and risk his life in

pursuit.

He

baits,

thenwaits.

Authority:

Good warriors make others

cometo

them,

anddonot

go

to

others.This

isthe

principle

of

emptiness

and fullness

ofothersandself.When

you

induce

oppo-

nentstocome to

you,

then theirforce is

always empty;

as

long

as

you

do not

go

tothem.

your

force

is

always

full.Attack

ingemptiness

withfullnessislike

throwing

stones on

eggs. (Zhang

Yu.

eleventh

century

commentatoron TheArt

0/’

W11}

LAW 8 67