As children, we start our lives with great exuberance, expecting and demanding everything from the world. This generally carries over into our first forays into society, as we begin our careers.
But as we grow older the rebuffs and failures we experience set up boundaries that only get firmer with time. Coming to expect less from the world, we accept limitations that are really self-imposed. We start to bow and scrape and apologize for even the simplest of requests.
The solution to such a shrinking of horizons is to deliberately force ourselves in the opposite direction—to downplay the failures and ignore the limitations, to make ourselves demand and expect as much as the child. To accomplish this, we must use a particular strategy upon ourselves. Call it the Strategy of the Crown.
The Strategy of the Crown is based on a simple chain of cause and effect:
If we believe we are destined for great things, our belief will radiate outward, just as a crown creates an aura around a king.
This outward radiance will infect the people around us, who will think we must have reasons to feel so confident. People who wear crowns seem to feel no inner sense of the limits to what they can ask for or what they can accomplish. This too radiates outward. Limits and boundaries disappear.
Use the Strategy of the Crown and you will be surprised how often it bears fruit. Take as an example those happy children who ask for whatever they want, and get it. Their high expectations are their charm.
Adults enjoy granting their wishes—just as Isabella enjoyed granting the wishes of Columbus. Throughout history, people of undistinguished birth—the Theodoras of Byzantium, the Columbuses, the Beethovens, the Disraelis—have managed to work the Strategy of the Crown, believing so firmly in their own greatness that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The trick is simple: Be overcome by your self-belief.
Even while you know you are practicing a kind of deception on yourself, act like a king. You are likely to be treated as one. The crown may separate you from other people, but it is up to you to make that separation real: You have to act differently, demonstrating your distance from those around you.
One way to emphasize your difference is to always act with dignity, no matter the circumstance.
Louis-Philippe gave no sense of being different from other people—he was the banker king. And the moment his subjects threatened him, he caved in. Everyone sensed this and pounced. Lacking regal dignity and firmness of purpose, Louis-Philippe seemed an impostor, and the crown was easily toppled from his head.
Regal bearing should not be confused with arrogance. Arrogance may seem the king’s entitlement, but in fact it betrays insecurity. It is the very opposite of a royal demeanor.
Robert Greene
Category: Robert Greene 48 Laws of Power
Law 24 – Play the Perfect Courtier
The successful courtier had to walk a tightrope, pleasing but not pleasing too much, obeying but somehow distinguishing himself from the other courtiers, while also never distinguishing himself so far as to make the ruler insecure.
Great courtiers throughout history have mastered the science of manipulating people. They make the king feel more kingly; they make everyone else fear their power.
They are magicians of appearance, knowing that most things at court are judged by how they seem.
Great courtiers are gracious and polite; their aggression is veiled and indirect.
Masters of the word, they never say more than necessary, getting the most out of a compliment or hidden insult.
They are magnets of pleasure—people want to be around them because they know how to please, yet they neither fawn nor humiliate themselves.
Great courtiers become the king’s favorites, enjoying the benefits of that position. They often end up more powerful than the ruler, for they are wizards in the accumulation of influence.
Robert Greene