Now here is the thing about this book; it's mean, it's ruthless but it's all true.At the very first pages I was like 'this writer right here teaches us to lie, and to manipulate people'. when I continued reading I found out that some of the laws he's talking about are already implemented around us by people we know.Some skills are born with us, some are learned. this book is an eye opening to what goes around us and how people with certain skills get what they want.The book usually uses the term...

If you do not keep an open mind about the contents of this book, it will come across as selfish, brutal and downright ruthless. But all said and done it is very pragmatic a book. In here I found 48 ways of looking at what the author thought are principles that made and kept people in power. Peel away the historic significances and the anecdotes and these are things you see around you : in corporate boardrooms, news networks and the political circus all carry these lessons through them. Robert Gr...

✘ Law 1: Never outshine the master.✔ Law 1: Stay humble and respect your mentors. ✘ Law 2: Never put too much trust in friends, learn to use enemies.✔ Law 2: Don’t use people. Understand we all make mistakes, and set up your life so that the actions of your friends or enemies does not make or break you. ✘ Law 3: Conceal your intentions.✔ Law 3: Keep your intentions pure and for the good of the world. You will radiate more power than being shady. ✘ Law 4: Always say less than necessary.✔ Law 4: S...

This is the first time I've read the 48 Laws -- in condensed form or otherwise. When the main book was on the bestseller list, I opened it up expecting a bunch of nice, typical self-help laws. What I got slapped in the face with was a harsh dose of reality. These laws are not "nice," but they do guide you in how to really gain power in life. I look forward to reading the larger work now.

Alright folks, here we goFirstly, obligatory shout-out to Fight Mediocrity for convincing me that this would be a worthy time investment. To put things straight, I am not much into self-help books. However, this one packs a punch. It ain't the conventional "be kind and people will love you" babble. It's more along the lines of "people are a******s and here is how to deal with their b******". As Fight Mediocrity claims, this is the essential counterpart to Carnegie's book, yet to read that but I

Even though this book is quite ruthless and straight to the point, there’s many important lessons to be learnt and it’s quite eye-opening. I’d recommend this book if you’re seeking a position of power in life. Also, being the concise version, it was a lot easier to digest the information.

Pretty sure Donald Trump lives by this book.

It is concerning how many of my students have read this book.

Manipulation 101: The sociopath's guide to success:Inarguably the most devious and cunning book I've come across. Its pretty much like being in the mind of Yago while he schemes and cackles evilly. While there are some good points in there, it's just so dark and machiavellian. It's only focused on ways you can manipulate for own self interest. If you want power, there's no pious act you do to feel good, nothing else correlates with it so be an unfeeling robot. For example:Rule 16: The more you a...

I don't normally read concise editions, but this was very good. Good enough that I'd like to buy the full edition for more elaborate examples from the past.I think the book is very well-thought-out, and the approach is, at times, unarguable. There are some minor contradictions in the advice, some of it is quite callous and borderline sociopathic/perverse (though shows why so many leaders, especially in business, can exhibit sociopathic tendencies without any seeming repercussions), but overall t...

I wish someone had warned me about most of it early in life, it would have saved me so much time and energy lost on dominance-seeking people, and would have helped me escape the boredom of such interactions.

I bought this book back in high school, but couldn't understand most of the things at that time. I couldn't think of any "enemy" whom I would want to "crush", so I gave up reading it after a few chapters. Since now I have entered an environment, where I need to deal with a lot of competition and thrive to get myself noticed, I started reading this book again. On completing the 195 pages of this book, I was really grateful that I didn't try to understand it back in my teenage, lest treachery wou...

My personal favorite (and most shocking) rules:2- never put too much trust in friends3- conceal your intentions4- always say less than necessary10- infection: avoid the unhappy and unlucky21- play a sucker to catch a sucker 30- make your accomplishments seem effortless 44- disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect46- never appear too perfect48- ASSUME FORMLESSNESS

this was a really great book .it did not stir one fact and go with it .it truly teaches you powerful laws which you can use in day to day life . definitely going to read again

i liked the idea of this book and how it delivered the rules of power in an amoral point of view, which gives you the raw "rules" that you can use in your own way, which some people might see as extreme or psycho, but i personally enjoyed it.it is one out of the ordinary book, you will find harsh truths in it and it can really make you a more powerful person.the main reason i am giving it this rating is because i felt it was a bit too concise, the only regret i have is not reading the standard v...

Some who have read this might say the author is ruthless, selfish, brutal and has no friends. I beg to differ. He simply put into words what most of us fear or hate the most, the truth. He never sugarcoated anything, hence the harshness. I am not a sucker for anecdotes, but I like how he enforced his ideas with them. While most of them are easy to grasp, some takes a re-read or two to correlate with the law spoken of. Again, it must have been the dyslexic in me.Two things, though: One, as brilli...

No scandal will ever stick to you if you follow these Machiavellian rules. In the power world, you’re just acting like a winner. If someone else gets stepped on, they are obviously a loser. These guys play by a completely different set of rules. You don’t need to be objectively good or decent. Just be obsessed with discipline and repetition: embody these rules, project them, repeat them. If you stay focussed, very little can touch you. This is entirely amoral. They would say it’s just being smar...

Recommended reading atleast once in your lifetime.

This book does not have to be construed as a means to cruel and heartless power any more than Sun Tzu's The Art of War should be viewed as such. Are some power tactics manipulative? Yes. Does getting to the top sometimes involve taking an opportunity away from someone else? Yes. Is power necessarily a bad thing? No. Often, yes. Though this is not necessarily the case. Greene outlines a number of the aspects of power, giving concrete and interesting examples from history. For those that say they

Great book with all thoughts organized, easy to read and follow. It's a cynical book if taken straight to the heart, I don't think power should be that plotted although we can't deny many leaders follow 75% of the laws in the book. If read in a way to understand the people around you and the laws they follow in their reign then it will give you more authority and power to deal with them. But power is sometimes more situation-based on the moment you're in. We already know a lot of this informatio...