The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Law number 40: Despise the Free Lunch
What is offered for free is dangerous—it usually involves either a trick or a hidden
obligation.
What has worth is worth paying for.
By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit.
It is also often wise to pay the full price—there are no cutting corners with excellence.
Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for
power.
Being open and flexible with money also teaches the value of strategic generosity, a variation
on the old trick of "giving when you are about to take."
By giving the appropriate gift, you put the recipient under obligation.
Generosity softens people up—to be deceived.
By gaining a reputation for liberality, you win people's admiration while distracting
them from your power plays.
By strategically spreading your wealth, you charm the others, creating pleasure and making
valuable allies.
Louis XIV had an eagle eye for the strategic power of money.
When he came to the throne, the powerful nobility had recently proven a thorn in the monarchy's
side, and seethed with rebelliousness.
So he impoverished these aristocrats by making them spend enormous sums on maintaining their
positions in the court.
Making them dependent on royal largesse for their livelihood, he had them in his claws.
Next Louis brought the nobles to their knees with strategic genorosity.
Whenever he noticed a stubborn courtier whose influence he needed to gain, or whose troublemaking
he needed to squelch, he would use his vast wealth to soften the soil.
First he would ignore his victim, making the man anxious.
Then the man would suddenly find that his son had been given a well-paid post, or that
funds had been spent liberally in his home region, or that he had been given a painting
he had long coveted.
Presents would flow from Louis's hands.
Finally, weeks or months later, Louis would ask for the favor he had needed all along.
A man who had once vowed to do anything to stop the king would have made him rebellious;
this was far more insidious.
Facing hardened earth in which nothing could take root, Louis loosened the soil before
he planted his seeds.
Louis understood that there is a deep-rooted emotional element in our attitude on money,
an element going back to childhood.
When we are children, all kinds of complicated feelings about our parents center around gifts;
we see the giving of a gift as a sign of love and approval.
And that emotional element never goes away.
The recipients of gifts, financial or otherwise, are suddenly as vulnerable as children, especially
if the gift comes from someone in authority.
5 Simple Lessons 1.
Friends who offer favors without asking for payment will later want something far dearer
than the money you would have paid them.
· The bargain has hidden problems, both material and psychological.
Learn to pay and to pay well.
2.
Bait your deceptions with the possibility of easy money.
· People are essentially lazy, and want wealth to fall in their lap rather than to work for
it.
3.
For a small sum, sell them advice on how to make millions
· That small sum will become a fortune when multiplied by thousands of suckers.
4.
Lure people in with the prospect of easy money and you have the room to work still more deceptions
on them.
· Greed is powerful enough to blind your victims to anything.
And lastly, 5.
Greed does not pay.
(If you're greedy, you will end up like Ebeneezer Scrooge) Be generous instead and receive the
love back that you gave out to the world.
You give ahundred gifts more, athousand gifts more, it does not matter, you will receive
more than enough gifts back.
Merry Christmas and thanks for watching.)