Book: The Prince

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I propose that the best self help books don't fall in that genre at all. I have no authority on the subject as I haven't read too many real self improvement books. This is probably due to the fact that it's impossible to stand under the "Self Help" sign at Barnes & Noble looking at books without feeling like you're sending a message to the world that you have personal problems. I love The Alchemist and that is a novel filled with bits of wisdom. The Prince is not a novel but it is infinitely quotable.

I read this during Christmas break over the din of 12 kids, ages 0-8, rampaging through my parents-in-law's house. Machiavelli writes what is essentially a manual for careful and calculated rule while dispersing principle after principle of wisdom, which seems crafted as much for everyday life as for political and military leadership. It is definitely one to be read again and again with plenty of highlights and personal notes.  It provided inspiration to me as a parent, in my career, in spirituality, among other ways. If you are concerned that your annual resolution processes not taking hold or you need to be more strategic in accomplishing what you want, take the few hours it takes to read and see if your framework shifts for the better.

Machiavelli gets blamed for all malevolent plottings and heartless strategy geared towards gaining and holding power over others. Manipulation is an important tool of any prince, his universal term for a leader. He shares the key to this framework when he speaks of Fortune, his universal term for fate. He says

"It is not unknown to me how many men have had, and still have, the opinion that the affairs of the world are in such wise governed by fortune and by God that men with their wisdom cannot direct them and that no one can even help them; and because of this they would have us believe that it is not necessary to labour much in affairs, but to let chance govern them. This opinion has been more credited in our times because of the great changes in affairs which have been seen, and may still be seen, every day, beyond all human conjecture. Sometimes pondering over this, I am in some degree inclined to their opinion. Nevertheless, not to extinguish our free will, I hold it to be true that Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct the other half, or perhaps a little less."

And therefore:

"The Prince who relies entirely on fortune is lost when it changes."

While he doesn't deny that power and control is a goal of leadership, Machiavelli's tone is more neutral, providing tools to help you accomplish whatever it is you want, be it for good or for evil. He admits that good leaders at times use evil tactics, but he never goes so far as to espouse outright evil. He really is more of an observer of shifts of power, of the successful and the unsuccessful, and shares his findings with the rest of us. He's not without an agenda, which revolves around movements in his contemporary Italy, but that doesn't taint the carefully distilled principles of leadership and power he lays out continually and simply.

View all my reviews