THE 48 LAWS OF POWER IN PRACTICE

The 3 most powerful laws and the 4 indispensible power principles.

JON WATERLOW ANDREA DOMENICHINI

Designed and typeset by

Jaime Kavanagh

Using Garamond 11 point for the main body and quotes, as
well as Dante
for various headings and Didot
for the dedications. Bodoni
Ornaments were used
for embellishment
and seperation.

© 2017, Jon Waterlow & Andrea Domenichini

Cover, Illustrations: Jaime Kavanagh

Publisher: tredition

ISBN

All rights reserved

INTRODUCTION

There’s a reason why you opened this book. You know there is, but the chances are you’re not entirely comfortable admitting to yourself what it is. It’s not because The 48 Laws of Power has sold millions of copies or that it’s the most-requested book in America’s prisons. It’s something much more personal than that.

The 48 Laws of Power touches more than a few sensitive spots in our psyches; it forces us to reevaluate our relationships, and to start asking difficult questions about how we’ve been told society works. Of course, for some people this is simply too disturbing and destabilising. But while they might prefer to remain peacefully asleep at the wheel of their lives, we can face those questions and make real, lasting changes.

Perhaps you want to become a modern Machiavelli. Perhaps you want to escape the daily grind and realise your true potential and your dreams. Or maybe you’re just tired of finding yourself the victim of other people’s games, tossed about by power-plays that you don’t realise are happening until it’s too late. Whatever your situation, there’s an abundance of knowledge, tactics, psychological insights and illuminating examples to guide you in The 48 Laws of Power.

But with 48 Laws to choose from and a strong possibility that any one of them might seem like a radical overhaul of your habits and thought processes, it can all seem overwhelming, impractical, or just outright impossible to put the Laws into practice. And so you put the book on the shelf and fall right back into the same old patterns. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

As Robert Greene has said in many interviews, you have to choose the right Law for the right occasion. A single-minded focus on Crushing Your Enemy Totally (Law 15) isn’t going to be much use if you’re trying to gradually gain influence with someone, and deciding to Use Absence To Increase Respect (Law 16) will be as useful as a chocolate teapot if no one knows who you are yet. Moreover, as Robert himself notes, if you tried to practise all the Laws all the time, you’d also just be ‘a horrible ugly person to be around’.

There are also contradictions between the Laws, as careful readers will have noticed. But, again, this is because we must choose and tailor the right Law for the right target and the right occasion: don’t take a knife to a gun fight, and don’t take a bazooka to a game of chess.

So where should we start? Which Laws should you put into practice first? And which are the most flexible and can therefore be used in almost any situation? So many questions! But help is at hand: this guide will help you take the all-important first steps on the road to Power and give you the tools you need to develop your own compass, unique to your particular life and circumstances.

And we’ve distilled this knowledge for you here, along with numerous, strategically-placed quotations from great minds past and present.

As well as reading and re-reading The 48 Laws of Power many times for our own personal development, we’ve spent years discussing, reflecting on, and testing each of the Laws in order to make our podcast series, Exploring The 48 Laws of Power. Andrea used the book to overcome his Autism and truly understand other people for the first time (and can now identify what makes them tick with laser-like precision). While getting his Ph.D in History, Jon used it to successfully navigate the court-like world of Oxford University and to find his way into secret archives in Russia. Along the way, we’ve also been able to discern the cardinal principles which underlie the Laws, which are just as (or even more) important to understand as the particular Laws you should put into practice first.

This book has two Parts. The first reveals the ‘3 Most Powerful Laws’: the ones which you must master first and on which all the others build. Part II, ‘The 4 Indispensable Power Principles’