Laws of Power

             NEVER OUTSHINE THE MASTER               JUDGEMENT                   Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please and impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite-inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power. KEY TO POWER Everyone has insecurities. When you show yourself in the world and display your talents, you naturally stir up all kinds of resentments, envy, and other manifestations of insecurity. This is to be expected. You cannot spend your life worrying about the petty feelings of others. With those above you, however, you must take a different approach: when it comes to power, outshining the master ...

  The feelings 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.          Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.                 THE PRINCE,    Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527.