My Judgment
Coercion creates a reaction that will
eventually work against you. You must seduce others with wanting 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 weakness.
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.
Free
Sublet Law of Power
In the game of power, you are surrounded by
people who have absolutely no reason to help you unless it is in their interest
to do so. And if you have nothing to offer their self-interest, you are likely
to make them hostile, for they will see in you just one more competitor, one
more waster of their time. Those that overcome this prevailing coldness are the
ones who find the free power sublet that unlocks the stranger’s heart and mind,
seducing him into their corner, if necessary softening him up for a punch. But
most people never learnt this side of the game. When they meet someone to see
what makes this person unique, they own willpower and prejudices. They may not
know it but they are secretly creating an infuriating feeling than having your
individuality ignored, your own psychology unacknowledged.
Remember: This free power sublet is to
persuasion is softening people up and breaking them down, gently. Seduce them
with a two-pronged approach: work on their emotions and play on their
intellectual weakness. Be alert to both what separate them from everyone else
(their individual psychology) and what they share with everyone else (their
basic emotional responses). Aim at the primary emotions – love, hate, jealousy.
Once you move their emotions you have reduced their control, making them more
vulnerable to persuasion.
According to history, when T.E. Lawrence
was fighting the Turks in the deserts of the Middle East during World War I, he
had an epiphany: it seemed to him that conventional warfare had lost its value.
The old-fashioned soldier was lost in the enormous armies of the time, in which
he was ordered about lie a lifeless pawn. Lawrence wanted to turn this around.
For him, every soldier’s mind was a kingdom he had to conquer. A committed,
psychologically motivated soldier would fight harder and more creatively than a
puppet.
Lawrence’s perception is still truer in the
world today, where so many of us feel alienated, anonymous, and suspicious of
authority, all of which makes overt power plays and force even more
counter-productive and dangerous. Instead of manipulating lifeless pawns, make
those on your side convinced and excited by the cause you have enlisted them
in. and to accomplish this you need to deal with their individual psychologies.
Never clumsily assume will necessarily work on another.
The quickest way to secure people’s minds
is by demonstrating, as simply as possible, how an action will benefit them.
Self-interest is the strongest motive of all: a great cause may capture minds,
but once the first flush of excitement is over, interest will flag unless there
is something to be gained. Self-interest is the soldier foundation.
The people who are best at appealing to
people’s minds are often artists, intellectuals, and those of a more poetic
nature. This is because ideas are most easily communicated through metaphors
and imagery. It is always good policy, then, to have in your pocket at least
one artist or intellectual who can appeal concretely to people’s minds.
Finally, learn to play the numbers game.
The wider your support base the stronger your power. You too must constantly
win over more allies on all levels – a time will inevitably come when you will
them
My image structure: People
build walls to keep you out; never force your way in – you will find only more
walls within walls. There are doors in these walls, doors to the heart and
mind, and they have tiny keyholes. Peer through the keyhole, find the key that
opens the door and you have access to their wall with no ugly signs of forced
entry.
The Authority: The difficulties in the way
persuasion lie in my knowing the heart of the persuaded in order thereby to fit
my wording into it… for this reason, whoever attempts persuasion before the
throne must carefully observe the sovereign’s feelings of love and hate, his
secret wishes and fears, before he can conquer his heart.


0 Comments