The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Law number 33: Discover Each Man's Thumbscrew
Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall.
That weakness is usually insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret
pleasure.
Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.
One of the most important things to realize about people is that they all have a weakness,
some part of their psychological armor that will not resist, that will bend to your will
if you find it and push on it.
Some people wear their weaknesses openly, others disguise them.
Those who disguise them are often the ones most effectively undone through that one chink
in their armor.
In 1615 the 30 year old bishop of Lucon, later known as Richelieu, turned to the throne of
15 year old King Louis XIII, and to the Queen Mother Marie de' Medicis, who sat beside Louis,
as the regent ruling France until her son reached his majority.
Everyone expected Richelieue to flatter the King, but instead he gave words of admiration
to the Queen, who loved to get attention from men.
Her lover Concino Concini, an Italian courtier was her favorite.
Therefore Richelieu treated him as if he were the King himself.
However Louis XIII was underestimated, in one blow he killed off his mothers lover,
Concini and imprisoned his associates.
Richelieu questioned his strategy, had he done the right thing?
He chose to stand beside the Queen, who was now a virtual prisoner, shut up in the Louvre.
He served as a liason between the Queen and the King.
For his loyalty the Queen made him Cardinal and plead to her son not to get rid off Richelieu
whom he despised.
Later on the King would take Richelieu's advice to the point of depending on him, just as
the Queen was depending on him.
He stopped serving the Queen and focused on his new authority of power.
The king had none other to trust and affairs of state came hard to him.
And so for the next 18 years, Richelieu, exploiting the king's weaknesses, governed and molded
France according to his own vision, unifying the country and making it a strong European
power for centuries to come.
Richelieu studied the persons who had the real power, found their biggest flaw, weakness
in their character and played on it wonderfully to make them depend on him.
Once the power had gone to another he would adapt his strategies accordingly.
In the office I see people doing this wrong all the time.
Your boss, your superior is above you in the hierarchy, altough nowadays instead of getting
banished or killed you're fired, your career is being damaged.
Managers are some of the most Machiavellian people out there and you're going to argue
with them about the tasks they give you?
Don't go that way.
You don't like authorities telling you what to do, welcome to the club, but if you're
going to stay there I really want you to consider doing all the work as good as you can, while
not overdoing it.
When your superior delegates more work to you, you do an outstanding job, chances are,
he'll take the praise for it, it's expected, do not get emotional, instead become the one
running the daily business, he's now dependent on you and every now and again you'll see
windows of opportunity to let your talents shine through and get ranked higher.
I found myself in such a position, I was working my ass off.
From the time I came into the building I sat down and didn't get up, I ate at my desk at
lunch, to keep up with the constantly growing to-do list and honestly I did a pretty good
job.
Now...
they did not appreciate my efforts, who would have thought, even though I was an intern.
It was really just a title, a sorry excuse to pay me absolute shit, but have me work
more than anybody else.
Not only was my co-worker a single 40-something woman who had completely lost her sanity,
by not being ****** for over a decade, she tried to manipulate me into doing work as
well, while I was already solving issues she had caused within the system.
I was pissed off, but I NEVER showed any anger on the outside.
I actually got complemented on my ability to always stay calm even in very hectic situations.
They just didn't notice how enraged I was on the inside several times.
Anyways, among other ways to defend myself I decided I was going to take 2 weeks off
right then and there.
It was my right to take that vacation and I got the approval.
Law no.
16.
Use Absence to increase respect and honor.
Now, when I came back I was treated so much differently, I finally felt appreciated and
even heard an occasional thank you.
What had happened was, they finally saw just how much I was investing in the daily business
and it crashed hard when I was gone.
My coworker couldn't get anything done, which raised the authorities awareness and she fell
pretty hard after that, but that's a sweet story for another time.
Look when I got into business, when I got my first office job, which is only 2 and a
half years ago, but mind you, I've been through some shit in my life, which has forced me
to become good at reading people, observing my environment so that that transformed wonderfully
into the office and I should also mention that at the very same time I got into this
mess, I was reading the 48 Laws of Power for the first time.
So I had references to what people were doing and I was shocked, I was shocked at the amount
of power and mind games that were going on.
It came out to be not only an internship on doing business, but on how to survive that
environment, if that makes sense.
I'm thinking about doing an extensive series where I would go through some pretty good
stories with you, because I got a lot of true, crazy shit to tell you.
You'll have modern-day references, we'll go through the laws and analyze what happened
with their help among other sources, why it worked or didn't work.
I also made some bad mistakes considering these laws and of course I'm also going to
talk about that.
I like to be honest and open with you, I won't be able to name any persons or companies,
as that would certainly get me into trouble, but other than that I don't censor myself.
That's important for me and I'm convinced those stories would give you valuable insight
on office politics and some of my background with the 48 Laws of Power.
What do you think?
Please, let me know.