Wow. Where to start? I really didn’t know what I was getting into with this book. I found it in my Kindle library (probably bought it as a daily deal at some point) and I vaguely remembered a couple bloggers I follow have mentioned it. The premise seemed interesting (sounded to me like a lot of interesting examples of historical leadership), so I dove in. After reading one chapter, I had to go research this book more because I couldn’t figure out what I was reading.
After a quick consult with Wikipedia, I learned the book is popular with “prison inmates and celebrities” and some further research revealed how controversial the book is due to the themes of seduction, manipulation, and war (the book has been banned in some US prisons as a supposed security measure). With that context, I realize this is definitely not the usual book I would read, but my (morbid) curiosity was sparked and I like reading different points of view.
But this point of view was scary. The author describes the world as a battlefield, and we all need to manipulate and deceive each other in our quest for power. The author and I clearly have very different definitions of power – power to me is gained through trust and respect, not destruction and cruelty. My mouth dropped open almost every time I started reading about a new law and I would have to take a couple breaths to calm down. Here are some of the gems that really made my blood pressure rise:
“Our good name and reputation depend more on what we conceal than what we reveal. Everyone makes mistakes, but those who are truly clever manage to hide them, and to make sure someone else is blamed. A convenient scapegoat should always be kept around for such moments.” (Law 26 – Keep Your Hands Clean)
“If you find yourself in a lowly position that offers little opportunity for you to draw attention, an effective trick is to attack the most visible, most famous, most powerful person you can find.” (Law 6 - Court Attention at All Cost)
“Friends will say that they love your poetry, adore your music, envy your taste in clothes – maybe they mean it, often they do not.” (Law 2 - Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends, Learn How To Use Enemies)
“Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.” (Law 11 – Learn To Keep People Dependent on You)
Law 7 – Get Others To Do the Work For You, But Always Take the Credit…no further commentary needed on this one.
It’s also worth mentioning the multiple references to obeying your “master” throughout the book – you should protect your master's ego at all costs by only doing what’s asked of you and acting dumber than you are if necessary. All of this is terrible leadership (and life!) advice. I noticed that a lot of the “laws” are contrary to currently accepted advice on being a good leader…and a good citizen. The book was published in 1998, and admittedly I was still in high school at that time and living in a bubble under my parents’ roof, but the world hasn’t changed that much, right?? I know we’ve made advances in social equality and inclusion since then (although there’s still a long way to go), but I don’t really think this was sound counsel 20+ years ago either.
The concepts weren’t actually all bad. There are some messages in the book, like actions speak louder than words and don’t be unnecessarily cruel to people, but the whole thing is just framed as life is a war and the ultimate goal is to manipulate everyone around you. For example, in Law 14 – Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy (after a while, you can’t help but laugh at the titles of the laws!), the main example is that a big-time art dealer wanted Andrew Mellon’s business in the early 1900s. The art dealer did a lot of research on what Mellon liked and found a way to get in front of Mellon to show him his expertise and that he understood Mellon’s tastes. Mellon was impressed, hired the guy, and ended up with an art collection he loved. And the art dealer guy got the commission that he was looking for. To me, this sounds like taking an interest in someone and creating mutual value – good business advice for anyone trying to sell something. But the book made this into some elaborate spy game where the art dealer was just trying to manipulate the unsuspecting millionaire for his own personal gain.
Although I’m sure I’m completely undermining my “power” by saying this, I like to try to find the good in everything. As a result, I resigned myself to stop hate-reading the book around the fifth chapter and just accept it for what it is. I wasn’t going to agree with most of the author’s views, but each law was “supported” by an interesting story about a historical figure. Most of the examples were of egotistical men (with a few women sprinkled in) trying to manipulate and deceive each other, but there were a lot of interesting stories from ancient China and the Roman Empire, and I came away from the book with a list of some people and places I want to learn more about (preferably from less belligerent books!).
But then I got to Law 27 – Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following. You shouldn’t let gullibility go to waste and, in order to form your own cult, you just need to “simply follow the five steps of cultmaking that our charlatan ancestors perfected over the years.” I had to call it and officially mark this book as DNF, I can’t do another 200+ pages of this. This book is so confusing to me and I began to wonder if there was some joke I wasn’t getting, because the author can’t be serious. In one last ditch effort to understand, I found a 2012 article from The Guardian with Robert Greene’s thoughts on his book. He said, “I believe I described a reality that no other book tried to describe. I went to an extreme for literary purposes because I felt all the self-help books out there were so gooey and Pollyanna-ish and nauseating.” I appreciate that perspective and this book is definitely like no other I've read, but I guess Mr. Greene and I just experience different realities and his extreme is a little too extreme for me.
If you see life as a giant war that needs to be won, this is the book for you. But please don’t read it. The concepts in this book won’t give you the “power” you’re looking for in this world. There are a lot more productive books out there to guide you on how to become more influential and respected.