LAW 19
KNOW WHO YOU’RE DEALING WITH—DO NOT OFFEND THE
WRONG PERSON
JUDGMENT
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 of fend or deceive the wrong
person.
OPPONENTS, SUCKERS, AND VICTIMS: Preliminary
Typology In your rise to power you will come across many breeds of
opponent, sucker, and victim. The highest form of the art of power
is the ability to distinguish the wolves from the lambs, the foxes
from the hares, the hawks from the vultures. If you make this
distinction well, you will succeed without needing to coerce anyone
too much. But if you deal blindly with whomever crosses your path,
you will have a life of constant sorrow, if you even live that
long. Being able to recognize types of people, and to act
accordingly, is critical. The following are the five most dangerous
and difficult types of mark in the jungle, as identified by
artists—con and otherwise—of the past.
When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword: Do
not recite poetry to one who is not a poet.
FROM A CH’AN BUDDHIST CLASSIC, QUOTED IN THUNDER
IN THE SKY, TRANSLATED BY THOMAS CLEARY, 1993
The Arrogant and Proud Man. Although he may
initially disguise it, this man’s touchy pride makes him very
dangerous. Any perceived slight will lead to a vengeance of
overwhelming violence. You may say to yourself, “But I only said
such-and-such at a party, where everyone was drunk....” It does not
matter. There is no sanity behind his overreaction, so do not waste
time trying to figure him out. If at any point in your dealings
with a person you sense an oversensitive and overactive pride,
flee. Whatever you are hoping for from him isn’t worth it.
THE REVENCE OF LOPE. DE AGI IRRE
[Lope de] Aguirre’s character is amply
illustrated in an anecdote from the chronicle of Garcilaso de la
Vega, who related that in 1548 Aguirre was a member of a platoon of
soldiers escorting Indian slaves from the mines at Potosi [Bolivia]
to a royal treasury depot. The Indians were illegally burdened with
great quantities of silver, and a local official arrested Aguirre,
sentencing him to receive two hundred lashes in lieu of a fine for
oppressing the Indians. “The soldier Aguirre, having received a
notification of the sentence, besought the alcalde that, instead of
flogging him, he would put him to death, for that he was a
gentleman by birth.... All this had no effect on the alcalde, who
ordered the executioner to bring a beast, and execute the sentence.
The executioner came to the prison, and put Aguirre on the
heast.... The beast was driven on, and he received the
lashes....”
When freed, Aguirre announced his intention of
killing the official who had sentenced him, the alcalde Esquivel.
Esquivel’s term of office expired and he fled to Lima. three
hundred twenty leagues away, bitt within fifteen days Aguirre had
tracked him there. The frightened judge journeyed to Quito, a trip
of four hundred leagues, and in twenty days Aguirre arrived. “When
Esquivel heard of his presence, ” according to Garcilaso,
“he made another journey of five hundred leagues to Cuzco; but in a
few days Aguirre also arrived, having travelled on foot and without
shoes, saying that a whipped man has no business to ride a horse,
or to go where he would be seen by others. In this way, Aguirre
followed his judge for three years, and four months.” Wearying of
the pursuit, Esquivel remained at Cuzco, a city so sternly
governed that he felt he would be safe from Aguirre. He took a
house near the cathedral and never ventured outdoors without
a sword and a dagger. “However, on a certain Monday, at
noon, Aguirre entered his house, and having walked all over it, and
having traversed a corridor, a saloon, a chamber, and an inner
chamber where the judge kept his books, he at last found him
asleep over one of his books, and stabbed him to death. The
murderer then went out, but when he came to the door of the house,
he found that he had forgotten his hat, and had the temerity to
return and fetch it, and then walked down the street.”
THE GOLDEN DREAM: SEEKERS OF EL DORADO, WALKER
CHAPMAN, 1967
The Hopelessly Insecure Man. This man is
related to the proud and arrogant type, but is less violent and
harder to spot. His ego is fragile, his sense of self insecure, and
if he feels himself deceived or attacked, the hurt will simmer. He
will attack you in bites that will take forever to get big enough
for you to notice. If you find you have deceived or harmed such a
man, disappear for a long time. Do not stay around him or he will
nibble you to death.
Mr. Suspicion. Another variant on the
breeds above, this is a future Joe Stalin. He sees what he wants to
see—usually the worst—in other people, and imagines that everyone
is after him. Mr. Suspicion is in fact the least dangerous of the
three: Genuinely unbalanced, he is easy to deceive, just as Stalin
himself was constantly deceived. Play on his suspicious nature to
get him to turn against other people. But if you do become the
target of his suspicions, watch out.
The Serpent with a Long Memory. If hurt or
deceived, this man will show no anger on the surface; he will
calculate and wait. Then, when he is in a position to turn the
tables, he will exact a revenge marked by a cold-blooded
shrewdness. Recognize this man by his calculation and cunning in
the different areas of his life. He is usually cold and
unaffectionate. Be doubly careful of this snake, and if you have
somehow injured him, either crush him completely or get him out of
your sight.
The Plain, Unassuming, and Often Unintelligent
Man. Ah, your ears prick up when you find such a tempting
victim. But this man is a lot harder to deceive than you imagine.
Falling for a ruse often takes intelligence and imagination—a sense
of the possible rewards. The blunt man will not take the bait
because he does not recognize it. He is that unaware. The danger
with this man is not that he will harm you or seek revenge, but
merely that he will waste your time, energy, resources, and even
your sanity in trying to deceive him. Have a test ready for a
mark—a joke, a story. If his reaction is utterly literal, this is
the type you are dealing with. Continue at your own risk.
TRANSGRESSIONS OF THE LAW
Transgression I
In the early part of the thirteenth century,
Muhammad, the shah of Khwarezm, managed after many wars to forge a
huge empire, extending west to present-day Turkey and south to
Afghanistan. The empire’s center was the great Asian capital of
Samarkand. The shah had a powerful, well-trained army, and could
mobilize 200,000 warriors within days.
In 1219 Muhammad received an embassy from a new
tribal leader to the east, Genghis Khan. The embassy included all
sorts of gifts to the great Muhammad, representing the finest goods
from Khan’s small but growing Mongol empire. Genghis Khan wanted to
reopen the Silk Route to Europe, and offered to share it with
Muhammad, while promising peace between the two empires.
Muhammad did not know this upstart from the east,
who, it seemed to him, was extremely arrogant to try to talk as an
equal to one so clearly his superior. He ignored Khan’s offer. Khan
tried again: This time he sent a caravan of a hundred camels filled
with the rarest articles he had plundered from China. Before the
caravan reached Muhammad, however, Inalchik, the governor of a
region bordering on Samarkand, seized it for himself, and executed
its leaders.
Genghis Khan was sure that this was a mistake—that
Inalchik had acted without Muhammad’s approval. He sent yet another
mission to Muhammad, reiterating his offer and asking that the
governor be punished. This time Muhammad himself had one of the
ambassadors beheaded, and sent the other two back with shaved
heads—a horrifying insult in the Mongol code of honor. Khan sent a
message to the shah: “You have chosen war. What will happen will
happen, and what it is to be we know not; only God knows.”
Mobilizing his forces, in 1220 he attacked Inalchik’s province,
where he seized the capital, captured the governor, and ordered him
executed by having molten silver poured into his eyes and
ears.
Over the next year, Khan led a series of
guerrilla-like campaigns against the shah’s much larger army. His
method was totally novel for the time—his soldiers could move very
fast on horseback, and had mastered the art of firing with bow and
arrow while mounted. The speed and flexibility of his forces
allowed him to deceive Muhammad as to his intentions and the
directions of his movements. Eventually he managed first to
surround Samarkand, then to seize it. Muhammad fled, and a year
later died, his vast empire broken and destroyed. Genghis Khan was
sole master of Samarkand, the Silk Route, and most of northern
Asia.
Interpretation
Never assume that the person you are dealing with
is weaker or less important than you are. Some men are slow to take
offense, which may make you misjudge the thickness of their skin,
and fail to worry about insulting them. But should you offend their
honor and their pride, they will overwhelm you with a violence that
seems sudden and extreme given their slowness to anger. If you want
to turn people down, it is best to do so politely and respectfully,
even if you feel their request is impudent or their offer
ridiculous. Never reject them with an insult until you know them
better; you may be dealing with a Genghis Khan.
THE CROW AND THE SHEEP
A troublesome Crow seated herself on the back
of a Sheep. The Sheep, much against his will, carried her backward
and forward for a long time, and at last said, “If you had treated
a dog in this way, you would have had your deserts from his sharp
teeth.”To this the Crow replied, “I despise the weak, and yield to
the strong. I know whom I may bully, and whom I must flatter; and
thus I hope to prolong my life to a good old age.
FABLES, AESOP, SIXTH CENTURY B.C.
Transgression II
In the late 1910s some of the best swindlers in
America formed a con-artist ring based in Denver, Colorado. In the
winter months they would spread across the southern states, plying
their trade. In 1920 Joe Furey, a leader of the ring, was working
his way through Texas, making hundreds of thousands of dollars with
classic con games. In Fort Worth, he met a sucker named J. Frank
Norfleet, a cattleman who owned a large ranch. Norfleet fell for
the con. Convinced of the riches to come, he emptied his bank
account of $45,000 and handed it over to Furey and his
confederates. A few days later they gave him his “millions,” which
turned out to be a few good dollars wrapped around a packet of
newspaper clippings.
Furey and his men had worked such cons a hundred
times before, and the sucker was usually so embarrassed by his
gullibility that he quietly learned his lesson and accepted the
loss. But Norfleet was not like other suckers. He went to the
police, who told him there was little they could do. “Then I’ll go
after those people myself,” Norfleet told the detectives. “I’ll get
them, too, if it takes the rest of my life.” His wife took over the
ranch as Norfleet scoured the country, looking for others who had
been fleeced in the same game. One such sucker came forward, and
the two men identified one of the con artists in San Francisco, and
managed to get him locked up. The man committed suicide rather than
face a long term in prison.
Norfleet kept going. He tracked down another of the
con artists in Montana, roped him like a calf, and dragged him
through the muddy streets to the town jail. He traveled not only
across the country but to England, Canada, and Mexico in search of
Joe Furey, and also of Furey’s right-hand man, W. B. Spencer.
Finding Spencer in Montreal, Norfleet chased him through the
streets. Spencer escaped but the rancher stayed on his trail and
caught up with him in Salt Lake City. Preferring the mercy of the
law to Norfleet’s wrath, Spencer turned himself in.
Norfleet found Furey in Jacksonville, Florida, and
personally hauled him off to face justice in Texas. But he wouldn’t
stop there: He continued on to Denver, determined to break up the
entire ring. Spending not only large sums of money but another year
of his life in the pursuit, he managed to put all of the con ring’s
leaders behind bars. Even some he didn’t catch had grown so
terrified of him that they too turned themselves in.
After five years of hunting, Norfleet had
single-handedly destroyed the country’s largest confederation of
con artists. The effort bankrupted him and ruined his marriage, but
he died a satisfied man.
Interpretation
Most men accept the humiliation of being conned
with a sense of resignation. They learn their lesson, recognizing
that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and that they have
usually been brought down by their own greed for easy money. Some,
however, refuse to take their medicine. Instead of reflecting on
their own gullibility and avarice, they see themselves as totally
innocent victims.
Men like this may seem to be crusaders for justice
and honesty, but they are actually immoderately insecure. Being
fooled, being conned, has activated their self-doubt, and they are
desperate to repair the damage. Were the mortgage on Norfleet’s
ranch, the collapse of his marriage, and the years of borrowing
money and living in cheap hotels worth his revenge over his
embarrassment at being fleeced? To the Norfleets of the world,
overcoming their embarrassment is worth any price.
All people have insecurities, and often the best
way to deceive a sucker is to play upon his insecurities. But in
the realm of power, everything is a question of degree, and the
person who is decidedly more insecure than the average mortal
presents great dangers. Be warned: If you practice deception or
trickery of any sort, study your mark well. Some people’s
insecurity and ego fragility cannot tolerate the slightest offense.
To see if you are dealing with such a type, test them first—make,
say, a mild joke at their expense. A confident person will laugh;
an overly insecure one will react as if personally insulted. If you
suspect you are dealing with this type, find another victim.
Transgression III
In the fifth century B.C., Ch‘ung-erh, the prince
of Ch’in (in present-day China), had been forced into exile. He
lived modestly—even, sometimes, in poverty—waiting for the time
when he could return home and resume his princely life. Once he was
passing through the state of Cheng, where the ruler, not knowing
who he was, treated him rudely. The ruler’s minister, Shu Chan, saw
this and said, “This man is a worthy prince. May Your Highness
treat him with great courtesy and thereby place him under an
obligation!” But the ruler, able to see only the prince’s lowly
station, ignored this advice and insulted the prince again. Shu
Chan again warned his master, saying, “If Your Highness cannot
treat Ch’ung-erh with courtesy, you should put him to death, to
avoid calamity in the future.” The ruler only scoffed.
Years later, the prince was finally able to return
home, his circumstances greatly changed. He did not forget who had
been kind to him, and who had been insolent, during his years of
poverty. Least of all did he forget his treatment at the hands of
the ruler of Cheng. At his first opportunity he assembled a vast
army and marched on Cheng, taking eight cities, destroying the
kingdom, and sending the ruler into an exile of his own.
Interpretation
You can never be sure who you are dealing with. A
man who is of little importance and means today can be a person of
power tomorrow. We forget a lot in our lives, but we rarely forget
an insult.
How was the ruler of Cheng to know that Prince
Ch’ung-erh was an ambitious, calculating, cunning type, a serpent
with a long memory? There was really no way for him to know, you
may say—but since there was no way, it would have been better not
to tempt the fates by finding out. There is nothing to be gained by
insulting a person unnecessarily. Swallow the impulse to offend,
even if the other person seems weak. The satisfaction is meager
compared to the danger that someday he or she will be in a position
to hurt you.
Transgression IV
The year of 1920 had been a particularly bad one
for American art dealers. Big buyers—the robber-baron generation of
the previous century—were getting to an age where they were dying
off like flies, and no new millionaires had emerged to take their
place. Things were so bad that a number of the major dealers
decided to pool their resources, an unheard-of event, since art
dealers usually get along like cats and dogs.
Joseph Duveen, art dealer to the richest tycoons of
America, was suffering more than the others that year, so he
decided to go along with this alliance. The group now consisted of
the five biggest dealers in the country. Looking around for a new
client, they decided that their last best hope was Henry Ford, then
the wealthiest man in America. Ford had yet to venture into the art
market, and he was such a big target that it made sense for them to
work together.
The dealers decided to assemble a list, “The 100
Greatest Paintings in the World” (all of which they happened to
have in stock), and to offer the lot of them to Ford. With one
purchase he could make himself the world’s greatest collector. The
consortium worked for weeks to produce a magnificent object: a
three-volume set of books containing beautiful reproductions of the
paintings, as well as scholarly texts accompanying each picture.
Next they made a personal visit to Ford at his home in Dearborn,
Michigan. There they were surprised by the simplicity of his house:
Mr. Ford was obviously an extremely unaffected man.
Ford received them in his study. Looking through
the book, he expressed astonishment and delight. The excited
dealers began imagining the millions of dollars that would shortly
flow into their coffers. Finally, however, Ford looked up from the
book and said, “Gentlemen, beautiful books like these, with
beautiful colored pictures like these, must cost an awful lot!”
“But Mr. Ford!” exclaimed Duveen, “we don’t expect you to buy these
books. We got them up especially for you, to show you the pictures.
These books are a present to you.” Ford seemed puzzled.
“Gentlemen,” he said, “it is extremely nice of you, but I really
don’t see how I can accept a beautiful, expensive present like this
from strangers.” Duveen explained to Ford that the reproductions in
the books showed paintings they had hoped to sell to him. Ford
finally understood. “But gentlemen,” he exclaimed, “what would I
want with the original pictures when the ones right here in these
books are so beautiful?”
Interpretation
Joseph Duveen prided himself on studying his
victims and clients in advance, figuring out their weaknesses and
the peculiarities of their tastes before he ever met them. He was
driven by desperation to drop this tactic just once, in his assault
on Henry Ford. It took him months to recover from his misjudgment,
both mentally and monetarily. Ford was the unassuming plain-man
type who just isn’t worth the bother. He was the incarnation of
those literal-minded folk who do not possess enough imagination to
be deceived. From then on, Duveen saved his energies for the
Mellons and Mor gans of the world—men crafty enough for him to
entrap in his snares.
KEYS TO POWER
The ability to measure people and to know who
you’re dealing with is the most important skill of all in gathering
and conserving power. Without it you are blind: Not only will you
offend the wrong people, you will choose the wrong types to work
on, and will think you are flattering people when you are actually
insulting them. Before embarking on any move, take the measure of
your mark or potential opponent. Otherwise you will waste time and
make mistakes. Study people’s weaknesses, the chinks in their
armor, their areas of both pride and insecurity. Know their ins and
outs before you even decide whether or not to deal with them.
Two final words of caution: First, in judging and
measuring your opponent, never rely on your instincts. You will
make the greatest mistakes of all if you rely on such inexact
indicators. Nothing can substitute for gathering concrete
knowledge. Study and spy on your opponent for however long it
takes; this will pay off in the long run.
Second, never trust appearances. Anyone with a
serpent’s heart can use a show of kindness to cloak it; a person
who is blustery on the outside is often really a coward. Learn to
see through appearances and their contradictions. Never trust the
version that people give of themselves—it is utterly
unreliable.
Image: The Hunter. He does not lay the same trap
for a wolf as for a fox. He does not set bait where no one will
take it. He knows his prey thoroughly, its habits and hideaways,
and hunts accordingly.
Authority: Be convinced, that there are no persons
so insignificant and inconsiderable, but may, some time or other,
have it in their power to be of use to you; which they certainly
will not, if you have once shown them contempt. Wrongs are often
forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it for ever.
(Lord Chesterfield, 1694-1773)
REVERSAL
What possible good can come from ignorance about
other people? Learn to tell the lions from the lambs or pay the
price. Obey this law to its fullest extent; it has no reversal—do
not bother looking for one.