The first time I heard of “The Law of Success” was in year 2010. My mentor asked me to buy this book (Physical Copy!). I did, I read it about x10 and I’m still carrying it with me to this day!

At the end of this post, you can download your FREE ebook version of the original Law of Success in 16 lessons and there will be a link to the physical copy on Amazon.

Success in life depends upon happiness, and happiness is found in no other way than through SERVICE that is rendered in a spirit of love. –Napoleon Hill

Who is Napoleon Hill

One HUGE Thick Manual

In 1927, the book called “The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons” was written by Napoleon Hill. Most people had never heard of this book. Most people had never read this book. It never became popular because it’s two books in one HUGE thick manual.

At the turn of the century, Hill was hired by a man named Andrew Carnegie. If you don’t know who Andrew Carnegie is, he was (at one time) the richest man on planet Earth and the guy who owned U.S. Steel.

In 1901 Andrew Carnegie was convinced to sell his company to J.P. Morgan for $480M. The value of the transaction in contemporary funds varies between $14.5 billion, if calculated using the cost-of-living index, to as much as $336 billion if calculated as a percentage of GDP.

After the funds were distributed to the small group of private shareholders, Andrew Carnegie personally received around $230M (range between $7 billion to $160 billion, again, depending on how it’s calculated).

The Secrets To Wealth

Andrew Carnegie knew the secrets of creating wealth without working hard. He went to work at 9 in the morning and he left the office at 4 in the afternoon, Monday through Friday. He did not work Saturdays, Sundays or evenings.

He took off June, July and August, to go to Scotland and said, “Don’t bother me!”. This all happened during a time with no phones, iPads, emails or ways to communicate with his office everyday. He did this technique right from the beginning, (meaning he didn’t work like a maniac – 24/7), because he understood the real secret of making money was not working hard, it was using a different power. He understood this, and he became the richest man in the world.

Andrew Carnegie wrote that it was his belief you should spend the first third of life getting all the education you can. You should spend the second third making all the money you can, and the last third should be spent giving it away to worthwhile causes.

“It’s a shame that each new generation must find the way to success by trial and error when the principles are really clear-cut”.  -Andrew Carnegie

“Are You Out Of Your Mind?”

Other people at the time understood this power as well. Tomas Edison, Henry Ford, and virtually every millionaire. Andrew Carnegie decided that he wanted to share this secret with the world. He was the only millionaire in the “circle” that wanted to share it. Every other millionaire in the circle said, “Are you out of your mind? We are not sharing the secret! This is ours and we don’t want more competition.”

So Andrew Carnegie hired a young man named Napoleon Hill. He said, “I’m going teach you the secret and I’m going introduce you to the richest people on planet Earth. You’re going to observe them, question them and so forth. You are going to put together all the common denominators of success and compile them in a book!”

Hill wasn’t quite sure how he would manage it, he reaffirmed his commitment to take on the project and see it through to the end. It took Hill exactly 29 seconds to accept Carnegie’s proposal. Carnegie told Hill afterward that has it taken him more than a minute to make the decision, he would have cancelled the proposal.

20 Years For a Book

It took Napoleon over 20 years to put together the “Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons”. It was published, revealing for the first time in history, the secret to wealth.

Everybody went crazy in the millionaire circle. “They” forced it to be pulled off the market within 12 months. 10 years later in 1937, a “watered down” version came out called “Think and Grow Rich” (which some of you are familiar with!)

Think and Grow Rich is a good book, but all the secrets are taken out! That’s why when some people read it, the majority it doesn’t work for. For some people it does work, because they are accidentally using the “secret” that’s not in it.

There’s never been a book published since that reveals the “real secret” that was published in the original Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons.

The Original Manuscript

My mentor’s “education” in 1979 was in the form of an original manuscript of the Law of Success in 16 Lessons. He had flunked high school and never went to college. The book became his “college education”. He studied it, he read it (probably 100x), and he still travels everywhere with it! That’s how powerful it is! “Every time I read a page or chapter, I get something more out of it!” (The scanned copy of this first original manuscript is available in the bonus section at the end of this post)

Napoleon Hill did some speeches back in the 30s and there is a foundation called the Napoleon Hill foundation. At that time, the foundation archives were in Chicago in a locked basement requiring a key. The archives included the original writings of Napoleon Hill and many tape recordings. The recording sound quality was really poor, so they’ve never been published. (People would return it because they couldn’t hear it at all).

“Break In” To The Foundation Facility

My mentor told me he used to “break in” to this facility and listen to these recordings (with very poor sound quality!), transcribe them by hand and store them in a safe.

In one particular recording, Napoleon Hill was speaking to the members of Congress at a meeting in Washington, DC. At that time, this group was comprised of an outrageously prestigious group of “business men” (there weren’t many business opportunities for women back then). These were the captains of industry at the time (very powerful people).

In the recording, Napoleon Hill said to the group “When I learned the ‘secret’ from Andrew Carnegie and began sharing the principles, it frightened me at how fast and how powerfully it worked (keyword! he emphasized ‘frightened’). When people applied the simple principle, the money came so fast, and in such large quantities, it frightened me at the power of this secret.”

“It Was Too Simple”

But he also told the group, “I stopped being frightened, because almost no one used the secret because it was too simple!”.

Think about it, how many people actually apply what they learned in life?

These sixteen lessons are:

1. The Master Mind: Telepathy, ether, vibration, and how it all is the basis for how the world functions. A master mind is the alliance of two minds joining in a harmonious way. The power that is formed from two or more minds coming together is more powerful than one alone. This is strictly for minds who trust each other and are interested in the good success of all parties involved.
2. Your Definite Chief Aim: Do not underestimate the value of this due to its simplicity. You need to set an objective before you can achieve it. Not having a solid aim to focus on can not possibly get you to it. You have to know what you want so that you can start receiving it.
3. Self Confidence: Believe that you are worthy of success and that you can attain it. Without this simple understanding- truly understanding it- you will probably get nowhere with most of your goals. If you are not confident, then you cannot sell yourself in life.
4. The Habit of Saving: Stop trying to get a Cadillac if you feel more comfortable paying for a Ford. You are on the path to easily affording a Cadillac.
5. Initiative and Leadership: Addresses the importance of leadership skills (yes, they can be habituated and you don’t have to be a born leader). Here, Hill acknowledges the penalties of leadership. Leaders are not always spoken of sweetly. This should not deter you from becoming a leader. It is only “genius” that attracts the attention of critics. Nobody bothers slandering a person who isn’t somewhere near the upper rings of the ladder of success.
6. Imagination: Dream, and use your imagination to help lead you to the attainment of your goals. The making good decisions comes with use, and your intuition will always lead you toward your dream. Dreams and actions are closely related.
7. Enthusiasm: Compels you to act. Mix enthusiasm with your work- do something you are enthusiastic about- and you will not get tired nearly as quickly. Hill explains the things that can contribute to enthusiasm, one being to wear nice clothes. Basically, if you look like a million bucks, you’ll feel like a million bucks, and you will likely find yourself around a million bucks. The opposite is also true, and this is to be avoided. Feel good about your appearance, because it also affects the first impression of you on others who can be instrumental in your path to success.
8. Self Control: Auto suggestion is like reprogramming your subconscious mind to believe what you want it to believe- to replace your old beliefs with new ones that will serve you better. This takes self control. Have you ever tried to change a habit? It makes sense. When you take control over the thoughts you are thinking, then you can take control of your success. Make these thoughts the ones you want to believe, and see yourself the way you want to see yourself.
9. Habit Of Doing More Than Paid For: If you are going to whine about your work, then you are not going anywhere. Do the work you have in front of you, then ask what else you may do. By doing this, you make yourself valuable, and you will surely reach a point where you are being paid handsomely. Valuable employees are… valuable. This is also and especially true when you are working for yourself.
10. Pleasing Personality: Have one. Don’t point things out on people, don’t hang your head and say “I’m tired.” Mediocrity does not care if you are pleasant or not. Success does.
11. Accurate Thought: Sort “facts” from “information”, and use auto-suggestion in conjunction with focused thoughts.
12. Concentration: “Concentration is the act of focusing the mind upon a given desire until ways and means for its realization have been worked out and successfully put into operation” (p 438). That about covers it.
13. Cooperation: The implementing of cooperation between you and others who are going to help you get to your goal (the top of the ladder of success is never lonely, because you can’t help but bring others with you). Cooperation must also exist between your conscious and subconscious mind so that they may work harmoniously in your favor.
14. Failure: Yes! Fail, and be happy that it is bringing you one step closer to success. Failure is inevitable, and it is a great step towards the right direction. Replace “failure” with “temporary defeat”.
15. Tolerance: Don’t practice prejudice or racism. It is ignorance, and it is a barrier to success. Just see the best in people and situations, and focus only on your goal and the good for all.
16. The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you.” Also, “Think of others as you wish them to think of you.”

“Watered Down” Version

Think and Grow Rich 1937 table of contents:

1. Desire
2. Faith
3. Autosuggestion
4. Specialized Knowledge
5. Imagination
6. Organized Planning
7. Decision
8. Persistence
9. Power of the Master Mind
10. The Mystery of Sex Transmutation
11. The Subconscious Mind
12. The Brain
13. The Sixth Sense

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Bonus

As I mentioned previously in the post that my mentor got one of the first manuscripts of “Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons” back in the 70s.

Fortunately, the scanned copy of this manuscript is available now at UpMinded.

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I speak with incredible confidence and enthusiasm regarding the value of what you are about to discover here. In 2015, after almost 6 years of searching for the magic formula or the “secret” in life, I happened to discover some ancient wisdom, which if applied, will allow ordinary men and women to unlock from within themselves the incredible power that can bring them enormous success and wealth.

My first introduction to the wisdom in The Master Key System was in a self-development training. People were paying $1495 USD to get access to the wisdom from these ancient manuscripts. The fact that multiple people had access to the same information, and “claimed” to be doing things legally, actually raised my curiosity. 

I searched pretty deep, and finally found a rare book store on the Internet that had a copy. I paid my $100 for it. Now, the VERY SAME information that thousands of folks paid $495 to $1,495 to get access to, you can have it for a fraction of the price.  Of course, you can also go to your local bookstores, if any are available, has most likely risen significantly above the $100 that I paid. Now, for a limited time, you can have the complete original version of The Master Key System, on your desktop or mobile device in just moments.

Perhaps, most eye opening, is that the genesis of this program traces back over 100 years. The original writings, available only through referrals from one family to another, were a closely guarded best seller in Europe for decades or even a century ago! They were considered essential, secret ancient wisdom teachings, primarily, only the very wealthy – a tangible testament to the worth of the esoteric techniques disclosed.

The material was made up of a number of ancient teachings that held the missing element, in fact, the master keys, to accessing the greatest power, knowledge and riches. They captured the essence of ancient principles and universal truths that could unleash the force within those allowed to study them. Then, Charles F. Haanel captured the essence of these teachings into The Master Key System. If you are a student of human potential, you will find it interesting that almost every modern day self-development guru uses some elements of The Master Key System as the foundation for their teachings such as book, program, tapes, or seminars. When you discover the universal truths, you can’t re-write them. They remain constant throughout all of mankind.

Similar to Napoleon Hill, who considered the pioneer in the self-development field, Charles F. Haanel studied and researched these secrets and keys to mastering the Universe. He took his wisdom and put it together into a twenty-four volume educational correspondence course/program that became The Master Key System. He began to share these findings with some of the world’s wealthiest people sending them a new section of the course on a weekly basis. These wealthy people were very impressed with the wisdom that they begged Charles not to go public with The Master Key System. Charles still decided to publish the system in book format; however, he NEVER intended for it to be for the general public. Copies of Haanel’s original book are very rare today. 

How can these OLD WORLD teachings of the past centuries remain so relevant today? Because they go far beyond the walls of circumstance and time, and they reach deep into the heart of the creating of one’s quality of life. With The Master Key System, you will discover the unchanged, age-old, fundamental principles that govern our universe and make all the difference in the degree of success achieved – or forfeited.

Many of today’s wealthy and successful people explore the periphery of these principles, but only in The Master Key System self-education course/program will you find such laser-like precision in setting forth the profound principles and requirements for acquiring and sustaining wealth, health, and happiness – starting NOW. Actual review and questions and answers compliment this version of The Master Key System and bring the information current and relevant as we move through the 21st Century.

“You can not entertain weak, harmful, negative thoughts ten hours a day and expect to bring about beautiful, strong and harmonious conditions by ten minutes of strong, positive, creative thought.” 
― Charles F. Haanel, The Master Key System

Some people said that The Master Key System is the book that Bill Gates read before he left Harvard and start his own computer software company, which made him the wealthiest man in the world. I actually tried to verify this by corresponding directly with Mr. Gates, but of the three letters I wrote to him, never heard back.

The Master Key System holds the secret of a powerful system to success, which was used by the author, Charles F. Haanel to amass his own mega-fortune through the starting of his own business, which he built into one of the largest conglomerates of his time.

The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel was originally published back in 1912, sold over 200,000 copies before it was banned by the church and the controlling group in 1933 and was then lost in the public for over seventy years. It lays down the foundation and the principles of manifestation through the teachings of Law of Attraction, as Charles F. Haanel discovered them. You will learn how to develop and use the creative instrument of your mind—creating true abundance in your life and opening up to the limitless possibilities of the truly creative life.

Whether it was the secrets that Bill Gates found in this book enabled him to form Microsoft, creating his ultra success, we don’t know for certain, but what is clear is that the information found in this book is capable of producing amazing results. All we know is that the rare books stores which occasionally sell a copy have quadrupled their price in just the last 3 years alone. The demand is coming from somewhere… my guess is it’s the results it produces! You will simply have to do your own investigation into it’s secrets to see what the mystery is all about.

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How Would You Feel When You Own The Book That Was Once Owned ONLY By The 400 Wealthiest Family Around The World?

The Book of Wealth by Hubert Bancroft, is the historical wealth building bible that examines wealth creators and wealth building secrets!

The Book of Wealth was initially published in 1896 in a limited number of 400 sets. Bancroft distributed the book to the wealthiest people in the western world such as the Morgan’s, the Rothschild’s, the Rockefellers, the Vanderbilts, the Kennedy’s, the Carnegies, the Fricks, the Fords, and the list goes on.

That’s right, up until now, the only people who have ever owned The Book of Wealth, has been the Global Elite. It makes sense that the only way to gain access to this amazing book was to be born into one of these wealthy and privileged families.

In 1898, Hubert Howe Bancroft placed the following advertisement in the New York Times promoting his infamous 10 volume book.

The Book of Wealth

This book was originally sold at a cost of $2,500 per copy for the cygne noir edition. The second or fin de siecle edition cost $1,000 per copy. By today’s standards, The Book of Wealth would cost 25 times as much as it did back in the day! Adjusted for today’s inflation, this book would cost more than $63,600!

In fact The Book of Wealth can rarely be spotted at auctions, however when that does happen, the price is astronomical, and can even reach up to a million US dollars!

Perhaps the reason for its scarcity is the value of the knowledge it contains. Not only has it been used by the world’s richest individuals and families, but also by a number of the modern day motivational speakers and wealth creators.

The book created, and is the foundation, of the modern Wealth Attraction genre. Indeed leading motivational speakers such as Dr. Demartini have used The Book of Wealth as part of modern approaches to achievement, from the famous movie/book “The Secret” to other “The Law of Attraction” philosophies.

Hubert Bancroft who was a prolific American publisher and historian, set out to chronicle and analyze every significant example of financial success in recorded history, aided by an unprecedented research team. The result: “The Book of Wealth” – “[dealing] with all that is worth knowing concerning wealth, from the dawn of history to Joe Leiter’s wheat deal.”

Bancroft describes his monumental 10-volume set of books as “An Inquiry into the Nature and Distribution of the World’s Resources and Riches, and a History of the Origin and Influence of Property, its Possession, Accumulation and disposition in all Ages and among all Nations.”

Every notable example of wealth up to 1898 is sought out, examined and broken down to profound understandings – from pre-civilization, to history’s greats, to those alive in Bancroft’s time.

It analyzes common traits of wealth creation and the factors common to kings, countries, businessmen and companies who achieved a massive acquisition of wealth in their lifetimes and left lasting legacies behind.

At 10 volumes, The Book of Wealth is more substantial than any other Wealth Attraction media ever, with rigor and detail unmatched anywhere. Among gurus, it’s THE defining text on wealth attraction, and a well kept secret that only John DeMartini has referred to on occasion. Still, “The Book’s” ideas and approaches appear regularly (known to be watered down) in all modern Wealth Attraction. It is impossible to explain the influence, magnitude and rigor of this book, even today.

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The Book of Wealth

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This is the most amazing book ever written — it is a literal code to eternal wealth — I have seen the books and spent 6 hours non stop reading Volume 1 … I have never read anything quite like it — all the self education and self improvement books out there dont add up to anything compared to this book. It is 1000 times better than ‘Think and Grow Rich’. If I had the chance to buy this book — I would pay a small fortune for it. –Peter Schau

In 40+ years of bookselling, we have acquired some unusual items, but this may be the most unique. –Berry Hill

It will inspire, expand and assist you in taking your vision of wealth building to a new and more powerful level. –Dr. Demartini 

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If there is one book you need to carry with you, read and reread in different unit of time, I’d say that book would be “Principles” by one of the legendary investors/entrepreneurs: Ray Dalio.

In the book, Ray says “I’m passing along these principles because I am now at the stage in my life in which I want to help others be successful rather than to be more successful myself. Because these principles have helped me and others so much, I want to share them with you. It’s up to you to decide how valuable they really are and what, if anything, you want to do with them.”

I’d like to walk you through today, some ‘golden nuggets’ I picked up along the way, hope you find value and implement to your own life, that’s how we learn and master, and that’s my purpose here at Upminded!

Ray VS McNuggests

Many of you probably don’t know that Ray actually helped to put out McDonald’s new product – McNuggests in 1983. Around that time, McDonald’s had been planning this new product for a period of time but they were hesitant to bring it to the market because of their concern that chicken prices might rise and squeeze their profit margins. (Yeah! Chick price matters!) Chicken producers like Lane wouldn’t agree to sell to them at a fixed price because of the same concern.

Ray back in the days thought about this problem, he knew that in economic terms a chicken can be seen as a simple machine consisting of a chick plus it’s feed. The most volatile coast that the chicken producer needed to worry about was feed prices. Ray showed Lane how to use a mix of corn and soymeal futures to lock in coast so they could quote a fixed price to McDonald’s. Having greatly reduced its price risk, McDonald’s introduced the McNuggests in 1983. 

There is nothing more important than understanding how reality works and how to deal with it. The state of mind you bring to this process makes all the difference. 

“I have found it helpful to think of my life as if it were a game in which each problem I face is a puzzle I need to solve. By solving the puzzle, you get a gem in the form of a principle that helps me avoid the same sort of problem in the future.” -Ray Dalio

Collecting these ‘gems’ continually improves Ray’s decision making, so he is able to ascend to higher and higher levels. 

People who are super successful and progress driven deeply understand the “law of cause-effect” that governs our reality and develop principles for using them to get what they want. The opposite is also true: Idealists who are not well grounded in reality create problems, not progress.

Evolve or Die

Evolution is the greatest force in the universe; it is the only thing that is permanent and it drives everything. Everything from the smallest subatomic particle to the entire universe is evolving. While everything apparently dies or disappears in time, the truth is what it all just gets reconfigured in evolving forms. Remember that energy can’t be destroyed – it can be only be transformed. The force behind this is evolution. 

The evolutionary cycle is not just for people but for countries, companies, economies, for pretty much everything. And it is naturally self-correcting as a while, though not necessarily for its parts. For instance, if there is too much supply and waste in the market, prices will go down, companies will go out of business, and capacity will be reduced until the supply falls in line with the demand, at which time the cycle will start to move in the opposite direction. 

5-Step process to get what you desire

According to Ray, if you can do these five things well, you will certainly be successful in life:

1. Have clear goals.
2. Identify and don’t tolerate the problems that stand in the way of your achieving those goals. 
3. Accurately diagnose the problems to get at their root causes.
4. Design plans that will get you around them.
5. Do what’s necessary to push these designs through to results.

You have to pick a clear goal that will go will after. Your choice of goals will determine your direction. As you move toward in life, you will encounter problems and challenges. Some of those problems will bring you down against your own weaknesses. How you react to the pain that causes is totally up to you. If you want to achieve your goals, you must be calm and analytical so that you can accurately diagnose your issue, come up with a plan that will get you around them, and do what what’s necessary to push through to results. Then you will look at the new outcomes and go through the process over and over again. To evolve quickly, you will have to do this fast and continuously, setting your goals successively higher. 

How to Make Decisions Effectively 

Ray Dalio has spent his whole life studying how to make decisions effectively and has constantly looked for rules and systems that will improve the odds of being right and ending up with more of whatever it is that he is after. 

One of the most important things he’s come to understand is that most of the processes that go into everyday decision making are subconscious and more complex than is widely understood. To make good decisions, you have to recognize that:

1. The biggest threat to good decision making is harmful emotions
2. Decision making is a 2-step process (first learn then decide)

Learning must come before deciding. You brain stores different types of learning in your subconscious, your rote memory bank, and your habits. But no matter how you acquire your knowledge or where you store it, what’s most important is that what you know paints a true and rich picture of the realities that will affect your decision. That’s why it always pays to be radically open-minded and find information that you believe as you do your learning. Many people have trouble doing this emotionally and block the learning that could help them make better decisions. Remind yourself that it’s never harmful to at least hear na opposing point of view. 

80/20 Rule

Remember the 80/20 rule and know what the key 20% is. The 80/20 rule states that you get 80% of the value out of something from 20% of the information or effect. (It’s also true that you’re likely to exert 80% of your effect getting only 20% of value.) Understanding this rule saves you from getting bogged down in unnecessary detial once you’ve gotten most of the learning you need to make a good decision.

Technique: Synthesize the Situation Through Time

To see how the dots connect through time you must collect, analyze and sort different types of information, which isn’t easy. For example, let’s imagine a day in which eight outcomes occur. Some are good, some are bad. Let’s illustrate this day as shown, with each type of event represented by a letter and the quality of the outcome represented by its heights.

In order to see the day this way, you must categorize outcomes by type (signified by letter) and quality (the higher up the graph, the better), which will require synthesizing a by-and-large assessment of each. (To make the example more concrete, imagine you’re running an ice cream shop and the W’s represent sales, the X’s represent press and reviews, the Z’s represent staff engagement, etc) Keep in mind that our example is a relatively simple one: just 8 occurrences over one day. 

From the chart on the right, you can see that it was a great day for sales (because the W’s are at the top) and a bad day for customer experience (the X’s at the bottom). You might conjecture why – maybe a crowd generated sales but produced long lines.

People who are good at pulling out such patterns of events are rare and essential, but as with most abilities, synthesizing through time is only partially innate; even if you’re not good at it, you can get better through practice. You’ll increase your chances of succeeding at it if you follow the next principles. 

Final Thought

This book by Ray is a result of his encounters with reality over many years. Ray’s goal is to pass along these principles that worked well for him; what you do with them is totally up to you. Of course, we aren’t done with our struggles until we die. 

“I feel a certain sense of relief to have gotten these principles out to you, and a sense of contentment as I end this book and turn my attention to passing along my economic and investment principles.” -Ray Dalio

Think for yourself:

1. What do you want in life?
2. What is truth?
3. What are you going to do about it?

This masterpiece by Ray Dalio is worth reading and rereading in different unit of time, it’s packed with valuable information and technique to help you achieve your goals in life. You can purchase your copy at Amazon or get your Free Summary and Table of Life Principles below.

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The 48 Laws of Power (Amazon) is the first book by American author Robert Greene. The book is a bestseller, selling over 1.2 million copies in the United States, and is popular with prison inmates and celebrities.

Political leaders, celebrities and hip-hop stars are fans of the book and it’s easy to understand why. Drawing on 3,000 years of history, it provides the reader with a variety of strategies to achieve power status.

The book takes each “law” in turn and gives historical examples of those who follow the law and fail to follow the law. You’ll quickly see that the laws of power aren’t really laws – they’re more like principles that will help you in the art of gaining and exercising power.

If you’re looking for a book that provides guidance on how to achieve power in an ethical manner without compromising morals this is not it. It details with no shame how to achieve and hold on to power with overt ruthlessness or underhanded cunning.

The first paragraph of the preface describes the book perfectly;

“The feeling of having no power over people and events is generally unbearable to us – when we feel helpless we feel miserable. No one wants less power; everyone wants more. In the world today, however, it is dangerous to seem too power hungry, to be overt with your power moves. We have to seem fair and decent. So we need to be subtle – congenial yet cunning, democratic yet devious.”

Each law is a chapter so there are 48 of them. The book is quite big but each chapter is around five or six pages in length so they’re easily digestible.

The chapter structure is unique to any book I’ve read before. And each chapter follows the same formula.

• The law
• Transgression of the law and interpretation
• Observance of the law and interpretation
• Keys to power
• Reversal of the law – when it’s appropriate to do the opposite of what the law states

Included in each chapter are stories and anecdotes written in red ink which reinforce that particular chapter’s law. Something I’ve never seen in a book before.

The 48 Laws of Power List:

Law 1: Never Outshine The Master

Always make those above you feel comfortable in their sense of superiority. In your desire to please or impress them do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity. Make them appear more brilliant than they are – and you will attain the heights of power.

Law 2: Never Put Too Much Trust In Friends, Learn How To Use Enemies

Be wary of friends – they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.

Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions

Keep people off balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. Without a clue as to what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.

Law 4: Always Say Less Than Necessary

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you’re saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.

Law 5: So Much Depends On Reputation – Guard It With Your Life

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.

Law 6: Create An Air Of Mystery

Never make it too clear what you are doing or about to do. Do not show all your cards. Mystery and uncertainty create anticipation – everyone will want to know what comes next. Use mystery to beguile, seduce, even frighten

Law 7: Get Others To Do The Work For You, But Always Take The Credit

Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you.

Law 8: Make Other People Come To You – Use Bait If Necessary

When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with fabulous gains – then attack. You hold the cards

Law 9: Win Through Your Actions, Never Through Argument

Any momentary triumph you think you have gained through argument is really a Pyrrhic victory: the resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.

Law 10: Infection: Avoid The Unhappy And Unlucky

Law 11: Learn To Keep People Dependent On You

To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.

Law 12: Use Selective Honesty And Generosity To Disarm Your Victim

One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift – a Trojan horse – will serve the same purpose.

Law 13: When Asking For Help, Appeal To People’s Self-Interest, Never To Their Mercy Or Gratitude

If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.

Law 14: Pose As A friend, Work As A Spy

Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally

All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. (Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: the enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.

Law 16: Use Absence To Increase Respect And Honor

Too much circulation makes the price go down: the more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear. If you are already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked about, even more admired. You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.

Law 17: Keep Others In Suspense: Cultivate An Air Of Unpredictability

Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people’s actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: be deliberately unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off balance, and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves. Taken to an extreme, this strategy can intimidate and terrorize.

Law 18: Do Not Build Fortresses To Protect Yourself – Isolation Is Dangerous

The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere – everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from – it cuts you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. Better to circulate among people, find allies, mingle. You are shielded from your enemies by the crowd.

Law 19: Know Who You’re Dealing With – Do Not Offend The Wrong Person

There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then – never offend or deceive the wrong person.

Law 20: Do Not Commit To Anyone

It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others – playing people against one another, making them pursue you.

Law 21: Play A Sucker To Catch A Sucker – Seem Dumber Than Your Mark

No one likes feeling stupider than the next person. The trick, then, is to make your victims feel smart – and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.

Law 22: Use The Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness Into Power

When you are weaker, never fight for honor’s sake; choose surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you – surrender first. By turning the other cheek you infuriate and unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power.

Law 23: Concentrate Your Forces

Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another – intensity defeats extensity every time. When looking for sources of power to elevate you, find the one key patron, the fat cow who will give you milk for a long time to come.

Law24: Play The Perfect Courtier

The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity. He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the most oblique and graceful manner. Learn and apply the laws of courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise in the court.

Law 25: Re-Create Yourself

Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions – your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.

Law 26: Keep Your Hands Clean

You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds. Maintain such a spotless appearance by using others as unwitting pawns and screens to disguise your involvement.

Law 27: Play On People’s Need To Believe To Create A Cultlike Following

People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.

Law 28: Enter Action With Boldness

If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.

Law 29: Plan All The Way To The End

The ending is everything. Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others. By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you will know when to stop. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead.

Law 30: Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless

Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease. All the toil and practice that go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed. When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more. Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work – it only raises questions. Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you.

Law 31: Control The Options: Get Others To Play With The Cards You Deal

The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice: your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose. Force them to make choices between the lesser of two evils, both of which serve your purpose. Put them on the horns of a dilemma: they are gored wherever they turn.

Law 32: Play To People’s Fantasies

The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant. Never appeal to truth and reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes from disenchantment. Life is so harsh and distressing, that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in the desert: everyone flocks to them. There is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses.

Law 33: Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew

Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That weakness is usually an 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.

Law 34: Be Royal In Your Own Fashion: Act Like A King To Be Treated Like One

The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated: in the long run, appearing vulgar or common will make people disrespect you. For a king respects himself, and inspires the same sentiment in others. By acting regally and confident of your powers, you make yourself seem destined to wear a crown.

Law 35: Master The Art Of Timing

Never seem to be in a hurry – hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually. Become a detective of the right moment; sniff out the spirit of the times, the trends that will carry you to power. Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and to strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.

Law 36: Disdain Things You Cannot Have: Ignoring Them Is The Best Revenge

By acknowledging a petty problem you give it existence and credibility. The more attention you pay an enemy, the stronger you make him; and a small mistake is often made worse and more visible when you try to fix it. It is sometimes best to leave things alone. If there is something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem.

Law 37: Create Compelling Spectacles

Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of power – everyone responds to them. Stage spectacles for those around you, then, full of arresting visuals and radiant symbols that heighten your presence. Dazzled by appearances, no one will notice what you are really doing.

Law 38: Think As You Like But Behave Like Others

If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down upon them. They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.

Law 39: Stir Up Waters To Catch Fish

Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive. You must always stay calm and objective. But if you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decided advantage. Put your enemies off-balance: find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings.

Law 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 is no cutting corners with excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.

Law 41: Avoid Stepping Into A Great Man’s Shoes

What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making: establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father, disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in your own way.

Law 42: Strike The Shepherd And The Sheep Will Scatter

Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual – the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoner of good will. If you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them – they are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter.

Law 43: Work On The Hearts And Minds Of Others

Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others intowanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn. And the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.

Law 44: Disarm And Infuriate With The Mirror Effect

The mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception: when you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson. Few can resist the power of the Mirror Effect.

Law 45: Preach The Need For Change, But Never Reform Too Much At Once

Everyone understeands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.

Law 46: Never Appear Too Perfect

Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.

Law 47: Do Not Go Past The Mark You Aimed For; In Victory, Learn When To Stop

The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. Do not allow success to go to your head. There is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.

Law 48: Assume Formlessness

By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.

Here is the animated version of these 48 laws:

Final Thoughts

Whether you like it or not, people want power. It’s built into our DNA and it’s why some people work harder than others, take risks and, yes, manipulate other people to get it.

The 48 Laws of Power is a must-read. In fact, it’s more than that, it’s a book you should buy to keep and refer to on a regular basis. I usually buy physical copies because they everything is energy and physical copies remain their physical mass. That’s just a personal preference, if you like reading via Kindle, it’s totally fine.

Will I read it from end to end again? It depends. Will I refer to it during certain situations in life when I may need it? Absolutely.

It’s a historic reference book that allows you to understand what some of the world’s most prominent and powerful people did to achieve power and success. Invaluable to anyone who is navigating through this increasingly complex and status-driven world.

You can buy The 48 Laws of Power on Amazon here.

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