MACHIAVELLI 4 EVERYBODY

A modern Machiavelli offers advice to the contemporary business world.

“If you are to have any hope of succeeding,” says the Machiavellian narrator of Darr’s nonfiction debut, “you need my crash course in realpolitik.” In ideological opposition to leadership advice that encourages people to be kind, generous, and honest, this Machiavelli is “here to tell you that if you blindly follow those precepts, you’ll never last long enough to accomplish anything—good or bad.” The narrator lays out four foundational leadership rules, the first being “People are Selfish” (quoting the actual Machiavelli about the human spirit being “insatiable, arrogant, crafty, and…above all else malignant”). The second rule asserts that there are only five ways to resolve conflicts: through violence, trickery, lawsuits, negotiating an agreement, or fleeing. Rule 3 asserts that “The stronger the bonds are that you share with others, the harder you should try to reach a mutual accommodation.” The final rule is the converse: The weaker your ties are with someone, the more likely it is that “trickery, force, law, or even exit will come into play instead of agreement.” This imagined version of Machiavelli knows perfectly well that his most famous book, The Prince, is a famously slippery work, and that his integrity has been questioned ever since he wrote it. “Maybe I really am the scoundrel that so many people make me out to be,” he concedes. “A few of my contemporaries certainly thought so, and over the intervening centuries, many have agreed.” The ruthless practical advice on offer about conniving for personal gain will give aspiring CEOs some food for thought, but the book’s strongest point is also its biggest surprise—its historical literacy. When this Machiavelli reflects on Cesare Borgia, the man he had in mind when he wrote The Prince, for instance, he reflects, “I was both dazzled and repelled by Cesare, a man of almost inhuman confidence and courage, whom I also describe as cruel, vengeful, murderous, secretive, and a world-class liar.” While the book has some cutthroat advice, it’s also a delightful meditation on Machiavelli himself.

A terrifically inviting business book narrated by a wonderfully snarky modern-day Machiavelli.