Thanks to playing to his ruler’s ego, Galileo was named the official philosopher and mathematician of Cosimo II. In an act of cunning, Galileo said that the four moons represented Cosimo II and his three brothers, while Jupiter itself was comparable to Cosimo I, the four brothers’ father. When he discovered the four moons of Jupiter in 1610, he made sure to link his discovery to the enthronement of Cosimo II de’ Medici. So, you know how not to impress your boss, but how can you gain her favor? A better strategy is to always make the person in charge look smarter than everyone else, including you.įor example, the astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei desperately wanted funding for his research, and found an ingenious way to get it. Poor Fouquet was bound to live out his days in a prison cell. The next day, Fouquet was arrested by order of the king, who felt overshadowed and dubiously accused the minister of stealing to amass such extravagant wealth. To gain the king’s favor, Fouquet threw a lavish party at his extravagantly furnished chateau to show the king how well-connected and influential he was. A smart and loyal advisor, Fouquet became indispensable to his ruler, but this didn’t guarantee him the position of prime minister when the incumbent minister died. Take the relationship between King Louis XIV of France and Nicolas Fouquet, the king’s finance minister. After all, powerful people want to be the center of attention trying too hard to impress them can shift attention away from them and onto you, hurting their pride in the process.īut what’s even worse is acting superior to them, a move that could lead your boss to think of you as a threat to their position and, consequently, to let you go from the company.
Have you ever tried to impress your boss, only to fall flat on your face? Well, if you’ve ever failed to impress someone in a position of power, it could actually be the result of outshining them.
Robert Greene was once just like you, but decided to look deep into the history and machinations of power to learn all about how to gain it, use it and defend against abuse of it. Of course, if you’re a top-level business manager or politician, you already knew that.
The reality is, always trying to be fair can seriously hamper your success. Suddenly it became clear that fairness is for suckers and wimps! If you were raised by conscientious parents and believed everything they told you about honesty and fairness, chances are there was a steep learning curve ahead of you when lumped in with your new classmates. As a child, entering primary school can be a bit of a shock.