The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Law number five ...
So Much Depends on Reputation - Guard it With Your Life
Reputation is the cornerstone of power. In the social realm,
appearances are the barometer of almost all our judgments.
Your reputation will protect you in the dangerous game of appearances,
distracting the probing eyes of others from knowing what you're really like,
and giving you a degree of control over how the world judges you
a powerful position to be in. Why is Reputation Important?
A strong reputation increases your presence and exaggerates your
strengths without you having to spend much energy.
It can also create an aura around you that will instill respect,
even fear. In the fighting in the North African desert during World War II,
the German general Erwin Rommel had a reputation for cunning and
deceptive maneuvering that struck terror into everyone who faced him.
Even when his forces were depleted and the British tanks outnumbered his by five to
one,
entire cities would be evacuated at the news of his approach.
As they say, your reputation inevitably precedes you,
and if it inspires respect, a lot of your work is done for you before you arrive
on the scene,
or utter a single word. During China’s War of the Three Kingdoms
A.D.207-265, General Liang was able to fool his rival Sima Yi simply
by letting his track record for being an undefeated leader in battle do the work
for him.
Liang’s troops were far outnumbered by Sima Yi’s, yet he devised a clever last
resort plan.
Liang donned a Taoist robe and played the lute upon the wall of the
city he was defending.
His soldiers opened the gates and hid. When Sima Yi’s troops advanced upon the
unguarded city,
Yi recognized his opponent sitting alone upon the wall.
Fearing a trap, Sima Yi called his soldiers to retreat.
How To Build A Reputation? In the beginning, you must work to establish a
reputation for one outstanding quality,
whether generosity or honesty or cunning. This quality sets you apart and gets
other people to talk about you.
You then make your reputation known to as many people as possible,
and watch as it spreads like wildfire. Do this subtly, though;
take care to build slowly, and with a firm foundation.
Reputation is a treasure to be carefully collected and
hoarded. Especially when you are first establishing it, you must protect it
strictly,
anticipating all attacks on it. Make your reputation simple and base
it on one sterling quality. This single quality—efficiency, say, or seductiveness
becomes a kind of calling card that announces your presence and places
others under a spell. A reputation for honesty will allow you to practice all
manner of deception.
Casanova used his reputation as a great seducer to pave the way for his future
conquests;
women who had heard of his powers became immensely curious, and wanted to discover
for themselves
what had made him so romantically successful. We'll cover 4 Ways to
Safe-Guard And Grow Your Reputation
Never appear desperate in your self-defense against the slander of
others
Do not let yourself get angry or defensive at the slanderous comments of
your enemies,
it reveals insecurity, not confidence in your reputation.
Take the high road instead, and never appear desperate in your self-defense.
Number two ... Sow doubt and spread rumors about your rival
An attack on another man's reputation is a potent weapon, particularly when you
have less power than he does.
He has much more to lose in such a battle, and your own thus-far-small reputation
gives him a small target when he tries to return your fire.
P.T. Barnum used such campaigns to great effect in his early career.
But this tactic must be practiced with skill; you must not seem to engage in
petty vengeance.
If you do not break your enemy's reputation cleverly, you will
inadvertently ruin your own.
Even if they deny it, people will still be wondering why they are so defensive.
Barnum used this tactics to ruin his competition's Peale's reputation by sowing
doubts about Peale's
museum stability and solvency. Doubt is a powerful weapon:
Once you let it out of the bag with insidious rumors, your opponents are in a
horrible
dilemma. On the one hand they can deny the rumors, even prove that you have
slandered them.
But a layer of suspicion will remain: Why are they defending themselves so
desperately?
Maybe the rumor has some truth to it? If, on the other hand, they take the high road
and ignore you, the doubts, unrequited, will be even stronger.
If done correctly, the sowing of rumors can so infuriate and unsettle
your rivals that in defending themselves
they will make numerous mistakes. This is the perfect weapon for those who have no
reputation
of their own to work from. Number three ... If you go too far in attacking another’s
reputation, it draws more attention to your wrongfulness than to the
person you are slandering. Thomas Edison, considered the inventor who
harnessed electricity,
believed that a workable system would have to be based on direct current
(DC). When the Serbian scientist Nikola Tesla appeared to have succeeded in
creating a system based on alternating current
(AC), Edison was furious. He determined to ruin Tesla's reputation, by making the
public believe that the AC system
was inherently unsafe, and Tesla irresponsible in promoting it.
To this end he captured all kinds of household pets and electrocuted them to
death with an AC current.
When this wasn't enough, in 1890 he got New York State prison authorities
to organize the world's first execution by electrocution,
using an AC current. But Edison's electrocution experiments had all been
with small creatures;
the charge was too weak, and the man was only half
killed. In perhaps the country's crudest state-authorized
execution, the procedure had to be repeated. It was an awful spectacle.
Although, in the long run, it is Edison's name that has survived,
at the time his campaign damaged his own reputation more than Tesla's.
He backed off. The lesson is simple—never go too far in attacks like these,
for that will draw more attention to your own wrongfulness than to the person
you're slandering.
Number four ... Use humor or gentle mockery at your rival’s expense
When your own reputation is solid, use subtler tactics, such as satire and
ridicule,
to weaken your opponent while making you out as a charming rogue. The mighty
lion toys with the mouse that crosses his path
—any other reaction would mar his fearsome reputation.
Once Barnum did have a reputation of his own, he used the fake hypnotism
demonstration: He ridiculed his rival Peale's reputation.
He was extremely successful. Once you have a solid base of respect, ridiculing
your opponent puts him on the defensive and draws more attention to you,
enhancing your own reputation. Outright slander and insult are too strong at
this point; they are ugly, and may hurt you more than help you.
But gentle humor and mockery suggest that you have a strong enough sense of
your own worth
to enjoy a good laugh at your rival's expense. A humorous front can make you out
as a harmless entertainer while poking holes in the reputation of your rival.
How To Improve A Bad Reputation? Perhaps you have already stained your reputation, so
that you are prevented from establishing a new one.
In such cases it is wise to associate with someone whose image counteracts
your own,
using their good name to whitewash and elevate yours.
It is hard, for example, to erase a reputation for dishonesty by yourself;
but a paragon of honesty can help. When P. T. Barnum wanted to clean up a
reputation for promoting vulgar entertainment,
he brought the singer Jenny Lind over from Europe. She had a stellar, high-class
reputation, and the American tour Barnum sponsored for her greatly enhanced his
own image
greatly enhanced his own image. Similarly the great robber barons of
nineteenth-century America were long
unable to rid themselves of a reputation for cruelty and mean-spirit.
Only when they began collecting art, so that the names of Morgan and Frick
became permanently associated with those of da Vinci and Rembrandt,
were they able to soften their unpleasant image. If you've found this video recourseful,
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