Speaker 1: You've been told to be open, to share your truth,
Speaker 1: to speak from the heart, to be transparent, because honesty
Speaker 1: builds connection. But that's a lie, a lie told by
Speaker 1: people who benefit from your vulnerability, by manipulators who smile
Speaker 1: while they collect ammunition from your words, by the world,
Speaker 1: which rewards the illusion of authenticity, then punishes you the
Speaker 1: moment you reveal too much. Machiavelli knew better. The promise
Speaker 1: given was a necessity of the past. The word broken
Speaker 1: is a necessity of the present. He didn't teach connection,
Speaker 1: he taught control. And if you want to survive, not
Speaker 1: as a victim, but as a strategist, you must follow
Speaker 1: his darkest rules, starting with this, never reveal these seven
Speaker 1: things to anyone. Number one, never reveal your true intentions.
Speaker 1: People say, just be honest about what you want. But
Speaker 1: here's what Machiavelli would say. Everyone sees what you appear
Speaker 1: to be. Few experience what you really are. Because the
Speaker 1: moment they know your destination, they start placing obstacles, They
Speaker 1: start calculating how to use your ambition. They start testing
Speaker 1: whether you're a threat. They will project fear, they will
Speaker 1: build alliances, they will gossip and sabotage all before you've
Speaker 1: taken your first step. Your ambition threatens them, and your
Speaker 1: transparency feeds them. So conceal it. Let them guess, let
Speaker 1: them underestimate, let them believe your passive while you quietly
Speaker 1: build the empire they didn't see coming. You don't say
Speaker 1: I want to be promoted. You say I'm just here
Speaker 1: to learn. You don't say I'm not interested anymore. You
Speaker 1: say we'll see. You don't declare war. You make them
Speaker 1: think peace is permanent until it's too late. Because when
Speaker 1: your goals are invisible, your enemies don't know where to strike.
Speaker 1: Number two, never reveal your emotional weakness. They say, be real,
Speaker 1: be vulnerable. What they mean is show me where to stab.
Speaker 1: Every time you admit how much something hurts, how often
Speaker 1: you overthink, how lonely you are, how insecure you feel,
Speaker 1: they don't hear honesty, They hear opportunity. People collect your
Speaker 1: emotional wounds the same way an assassin collects poison, quietly, patiently, methodically,
Speaker 1: to use when it counts. They'll smile when you open up,
Speaker 1: they'll nod like they understand, But the moment the connection breaks,
Speaker 1: that's what they'll weaponize. They won't attack your strengths, they'll
Speaker 1: attack your confessions. Macchiavelli wasn't heartless. He was strategic. He
Speaker 1: understood that the appearance of vulnerability can be used, but
Speaker 1: true vulnerability must be protected at all costs. You want
Speaker 1: to cry, do it alone, You want to do it
Speaker 1: in silence. You want to scream, Swallow it because the
Speaker 1: more emotion you reveal, the more emotional leverage you hand over.
Speaker 1: Control your expression, even if you can't control your feeling.
Speaker 1: That's not deception, that's defense number three. Never reveal your
Speaker 1: real alliances. You think loyalty is obvious, that you should
Speaker 1: make it known who you trust, that people feel safer
Speaker 1: when you choose a side. But in a world ruled
Speaker 1: by power, loyalty is a liability and visibility is suicide.
Speaker 1: Machiavelli said, it is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Speaker 1: People who know your allies know how to corner you.
Speaker 1: They know who to pressure, who to threaten, who to corrupt.
Speaker 1: They'll use your connections to triangulate your behavior, to cut
Speaker 1: your influence, to poison your inner circle. That's how kingdoms fall,
Speaker 1: not from outside invasion, but from exposed alliances. Your real loyalty,
Speaker 1: keep it off stage in public. Be unpredictable, Be courteous
Speaker 1: to your rivals, Be skeptical of your friends. Be neutral
Speaker 1: with everyone. Let them wonder who you answer to, Let
Speaker 1: them guess who truly holds your ear. Let them waste
Speaker 1: time chasing rumors while you operate in shadow. In war,
Speaker 1: the greatest weapon is not strength, it's uncertainty. And there's
Speaker 1: no greater uncertainty than the man who smiles with everyone
Speaker 1: and reveals nothing. Number four. Never reveal what truly motivates you.
Speaker 1: They'll ask what drives you, what's your why, what gets
Speaker 1: you out of bed? And if you answer honestly, you
Speaker 1: just exposed your control panel. You said I want to
Speaker 1: prove myself. They hear you crave validation, and I can
Speaker 1: control you with silence. You said, I just want to
Speaker 1: feel loved. They hear you're emotionally hungry, and I can
Speaker 1: starve you into obedience. You said, I want to make
Speaker 1: my family proud. They hear you can be guilt tripped.
Speaker 1: You thought you were being deep, you thought you were bonding.
Speaker 1: But in the game of power, your motivation is not
Speaker 1: a story. It's a lever And once they know which
Speaker 1: lever moves you, they will pull it on their terms.
Speaker 1: Macchiavelli didn't admire noble intentions, he admired results. The ends
Speaker 1: justify the means, because people will manipulate your why to
Speaker 1: derail your how. They'll appeal to your heart to stop
Speaker 1: your progress. They'll offer you recognition just to distract you
Speaker 1: from legacy. They'll dangle false rewards to keep you playing
Speaker 1: their game instead of building your own. So what do
Speaker 1: you do? You give them surface motives. I'm just exploring,
Speaker 1: I'm curious, I'm figuring things out. Make your mission sound harmless,
Speaker 1: even forgettable. Meanwhile, behind closed doors, you're building something they'll
Speaker 1: only see once it's too late to stop your real motivation.
Speaker 1: Let them discover it from your results, not your mouth.
Speaker 1: Number five, never reveal what or who you despise. In
Speaker 1: a perfect world, being open about what offends or disgusts
Speaker 1: you would make people respect your values. But this isn't
Speaker 1: a perfect world. This is a world full of people
Speaker 1: who target your triggers. You say, I hate people who ghost,
Speaker 1: and now they'll ghost you just to watch you unravel.
Speaker 1: You say I can't stand being ignored. Now every silence
Speaker 1: becomes a calculated punishment. You say I hate being lied to,
Speaker 1: and now you'll be lied to with plausible deniability. Why
Speaker 1: Because the more you hate something, the more emotional power
Speaker 1: it holds over you. Machiavelli warned, a prince should learn
Speaker 1: to act as both beast and man, which means you
Speaker 1: must appear civil while internally you are untouchable. You don't flinch,
Speaker 1: you don't WinCE, you don't react. The moment someone knows
Speaker 1: what disgusts you, they'll test you, not all at once, subtly, slowly, surgically,
Speaker 1: to see if they can control you through disgust, to
Speaker 1: see if you're weak through hatred. So what do you do?
Speaker 1: You train for emotional neutrality, not to become passive, but
Speaker 1: to become unpredictable. Don't let them know which insults land.
Speaker 1: Don't let them know which people you fear. Don't let
Speaker 1: them know who gets under your skin. Pretend you've got
Speaker 1: no skin at all, because the moment they know who
Speaker 1: you hate, they can make you chase justice instead of power.
Speaker 1: Number six, Never reveal what you're willing to sacrifice. People
Speaker 1: think boundaries are respected by stating them clearly, but in power,
Speaker 1: the opposite is true. The more they know you won't
Speaker 1: wank walk away, the more they will push you to
Speaker 1: your edge and past it. You say I'd never leave
Speaker 1: this job. Now they underpay you and smile doing it.
Speaker 1: You say I'd never hurt them no matter what. Now
Speaker 1: they cheat on you emotionally, just under the radar. You say,
Speaker 1: this is the most important relationship in my life. Now
Speaker 1: they know they can slack off, show up late, half
Speaker 1: love you, and you'll still stay. Congratulations, you've declared yourself
Speaker 1: non threatening. Machiavelli taught rulers to always appear replaceable, but
Speaker 1: never be replaceable, and always let others believe they can
Speaker 1: be replaced even when they can't. This is how you
Speaker 1: flip the script. Instead of saying I'll never leave, you
Speaker 1: say I like it here for now. Instead of saying
Speaker 1: I'll do anything for this, you say I'll do what
Speaker 1: I must as long as it makes sense. This doesn't
Speaker 1: make you cold, It makes you calculating, because what you're
Speaker 1: willing to sacrifice is the final weapon in any negotiation,
Speaker 1: and when they know what that is, they won't ask
Speaker 1: for it directly. They'll just take everything around it until
Speaker 1: the sacrifice becomes inevitable, and you make it yourself. In
Speaker 1: this world, clarity can be a trap. People say, just
Speaker 1: be clear, say exactly what you want, speak openly. But
Speaker 1: Machiavelli would say, he who is the cause of another's
Speaker 1: greatness is himself undone translation, when you give them the
Speaker 1: full blueprint of your mind, you give them the power
Speaker 1: to destroy it. Number seven, Never reveal what you truly
Speaker 1: think of yourself. This is the most dangerous revelation of all.
Speaker 1: Not what you think of others, but what you believe
Speaker 1: about yourself, Because if they know your internal valuation, they'll
Speaker 1: know how to control your reality. Say you doubt yourself,
Speaker 1: even quietly, and they'll reinforce that doubt until it becomes permanent.
Speaker 1: Say you think you're not attractive, not talented, not worthy,
Speaker 1: and they'll reflect it back to you in subtle, cruel ways,
Speaker 1: jokes wrapped in smiles, back handed compliments, intentional neglect. They'll
Speaker 1: teach you to hate yourself, not through aggression, but through agreement.
Speaker 1: Even worse, if you say you think you're powerful, that
Speaker 1: you're worth more, that you're going places, they'll mark you
Speaker 1: for destruction. Because most people don't want to hear the
Speaker 1: quiet voice of someone rising. They want confessions. They want cracks.
Speaker 1: They want insecurity so they can feel safe in your presence.
Speaker 1: Machiavelli would have told you men are so simple and
Speaker 1: so obedient to present necessities that he who deceives will
Speaker 1: always find someone who will let himself be deceived. And
Speaker 1: your biggest deception letting people think they know what you
Speaker 1: really are are. So what should you do? Let them wonder,
Speaker 1: play the role they can digest, humble, curious, non threatening.
Speaker 1: Don't tell them you're building something massive. Let them mock
Speaker 1: you and feel comfortable, because comfort makes people lazy, and
Speaker 1: their laziness becomes your camouflage. You want to become unstoppable.
Speaker 1: Let them think you're stagnant. Let them laugh while you
Speaker 1: prepare the next move they'll never see coming. Now you
Speaker 1: know what not to reveal. But Machiavelli's genius wasn't just
Speaker 1: in concealment. It was in weaponizing silence. Silence is not emptiness,
Speaker 1: its tension. It makes people nervous, It makes people project,
Speaker 1: It makes people talk too much, revealing what you never
Speaker 1: had to ask. Your silence becomes a mirror. They fill
Speaker 1: in your blanks with their fears. They imagine you know
Speaker 1: more than you do. They assign meaning to every word
Speaker 1: you don't say, and that's where your power begins. Because
Speaker 1: as the one who speaks the least controls the emotional frame,
Speaker 1: the world is addicted to explanation. People feel guilty for
Speaker 1: being misunderstood. They overcorrect, they clarify, they vent post confess.
Speaker 1: But you, you are machiavellian. Now you've deleted the need
Speaker 1: to be understood because you understand the secret. Once they
Speaker 1: know how you work, they'll start working you. Silence is control,
Speaker 1: restraint is dominance, Mystery is protection. If they can't read you,
Speaker 1: they can't prepare for you, they can't trap you, they
Speaker 1: can't recruit others against you. Because when someone is fully known,
Speaker 1: they become navigable, predictable, controllable. But the person who reveals nothing,
Speaker 1: he becomes a myth. You don't have to be rich yet.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be powerful yet. You don't have
Speaker 1: to be the best in the room. But you do
Speaker 1: have to be hard to because unreadable people are unshakable.
Speaker 1: You don't know what they want, you don't know what
Speaker 1: they fear. You don't know what would break them because
Speaker 1: they never showed you. You walk into the room and
Speaker 1: people sit straighter, speak slower, second guess themselves. Not because
Speaker 1: you threatened anyone, but because you revealed nothing. This is
Speaker 1: what Machiavelli meant when he spoke of the appearance of
Speaker 1: virtue without the obligation to practice it. It's not about
Speaker 1: being fake, It's about being strategic. Because if you live
Speaker 1: in a world where people look for weakness, why would
Speaker 1: you ever broadcast yours now that you know what never
Speaker 1: to reveal. Here's how you operate in the real world,
Speaker 1: visible to all, known by none. Because Machiavelli's strategy wasn't isolation,
Speaker 1: it was infiltration. He didn't say hide in the shadows.
Speaker 1: He said, become the shadow inside the room. To win,
Speaker 1: you must move silently inside the system, learn the rules,
Speaker 1: smile in meetings, laugh at their jokes, gad when they
Speaker 1: share their plans, but reveal nothing real. You're not faking agreement,
Speaker 1: you're withholding allegiance. Here's how this plays out. They ask
Speaker 1: what do you think about this person? You say interesting,
Speaker 1: I haven't seen enough yet. They ask what's your next step?
Speaker 1: You say still figuring it out. They ask what are
Speaker 1: you really after? You say peace? Mostly give them dust,
Speaker 1: give them kegue, give them answers that sound like truth
Speaker 1: but contain no leverage. Why because power decays when it
Speaker 1: becomes predictable, and you are now unpredictable. By design. Power
Speaker 1: doesn't always look like dominance. Sometimes it's the quiet hand
Speaker 1: that adjusts a system without ever being seen doing it.
Speaker 1: Let others rage, Let others correct publicly, let others show
Speaker 1: their ego. You you correct in silence. If someone disrespects you,
Speaker 1: you don't argue, You don't react. You reposition, You remove access,
Speaker 1: You slow down responses, You redirect outcomes behind closed doors.
Speaker 1: That is the Machiavelli in correction. No explosion, just erosion.
Speaker 1: They won't even know you did it, but they'll feel
Speaker 1: the shift. They'll feel the coldness, they'll feel the weight
Speaker 1: of a power they can't explain, and it will haunt them.
Speaker 1: People think you must dominate every battle, but Machiavelli knew
Speaker 1: every visible battle costs something reputation, energy, time. So how
Speaker 1: do you win without noise? You outlast, you outthink, You
Speaker 1: plant doubt in your enemy's mind without ever touching them.
Speaker 1: Let's say someone challenges you, tries to discredit you, spreads rumor.
Speaker 1: You don't confront, you don't panic. You don't defend. You
Speaker 1: just tighten your circle. You stop sharing, you work quietly,
Speaker 1: and then one day they wake up and you've taken
Speaker 1: the seat they thought was theirs. You didn't fight, You
Speaker 1: replaced them with silence as your sword. Remember this, The
Speaker 1: person who must destroy others to rise is weak. The
Speaker 1: person who rises in silence becomes a legend because no
Speaker 1: one sees it coming, and what people don't see coming,
Speaker 1: they cannot stop. People always reveal themselves when they speak
Speaker 1: too much. That's why your words must do one of
Speaker 1: two things. Create an illusion, conceal an intention. Every sentence
Speaker 1: must serve the fog. You're not lying, you're distorting the lens.
Speaker 1: Someone asks, are you trying to lead this? You smile,
Speaker 1: I just want to contribute where I can. Someone says
Speaker 1: you're different lately. You nod, just focusing inward. These aren't lies,
Speaker 1: they're decoys. Because the more others try to interpret your language,
Speaker 1: the less energy they spend attacking your actions. You're not
Speaker 1: a ghost, you're not a wall. You're a mirror. And
Speaker 1: when people can't read you, they see themselves instead. That's
Speaker 1: why they fear you, and that's why they respect you,
Speaker 1: because you are now impossible to decode and dangerous to underestimate.
Speaker 1: Now that you've erased what weakens you, what do you
Speaker 1: replace it with? Nothing? Not more information, not a better
Speaker 1: version of your story, not a new narrative. You replace
Speaker 1: it with emptiness. Why because emptiness makes people fill in
Speaker 1: the blanks, and they always fill it with fear, desire,
Speaker 1: or admiration. The person who says nothing after betrayal terrifying
Speaker 1: because you don't know what they'll do next. The person
Speaker 1: who doesn't explain their an ambition unstoppable because they could
Speaker 1: be playing five levels deeper than you realize. The person
Speaker 1: who remains neutral in drama feared because they're not swayed
Speaker 1: by chaos, which means they're swayed by nothing. This is
Speaker 1: what Machiavelli mastered. Men judge generally more by the eye
Speaker 1: than by the hand. Everyone sees what you appear to be,
Speaker 1: few experience what you really are. He understood that perception
Speaker 1: is power, and perception is shaped not by what you reveal,
Speaker 1: but what you withhold. That's what makes rulers. Not charisma,
Speaker 1: not honesty, not likability, but the discipline to stay unreadable
Speaker 1: in a world addicted to disclosure. When people leave your life,
Speaker 1: you don't owe them closure. When people betray you, you
Speaker 1: don't owe them explanation. When people doubt you, you don't
Speaker 1: owe them evidence. Let your silence be the punishment. Let
Speaker 1: your distance be the answer. Let your glow up be
Speaker 1: the obituary. People who violate your boundaries should not be taught.
Speaker 1: They should be denied access. This is what Machiavelli would
Speaker 1: have wanted you to understand. Never let someone dissect your
Speaker 1: soul after they've proven they can't protect it. Now you
Speaker 1: walk differently. You no longer speak to be heard. You
Speaker 1: speak to direct. You no longer reveal what you feel.
Speaker 1: You reveal what's useful. You no longer justify your absence.
Speaker 1: Your absence is the message. People may not say it
Speaker 1: to your face, but they feel it in their chest.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they're thinking, but I know not
Speaker 1: to play with them. That's what silence buys you. That's
Speaker 1: what secrecy earns. That's what hiding your deepest truths creates.
Speaker 1: A psychological climate of fear and fascination. You are no
Speaker 1: longer a person they can casually define. You are now
Speaker 1: a presence they must adapt to. You don't need to
Speaker 1: be a manipulator. You don't need to be cold, You
Speaker 1: don't need to control others. You only need to control
Speaker 1: the access point. What people know, what people see, what
Speaker 1: people feel entitled to, And when you close the gates,
Speaker 1: the kingdom becomes yours again. Machiavelli's darkest rule wasn't about cruelty.
Speaker 1: It was about containment. He who conquers himself is greater
Speaker 1: than he who conquers a city. And now you've conquered
Speaker 1: the urge to explain, to vent, to be known by everyone,
Speaker 1: You've left behind the version of yourself that bled every
Speaker 1: time someone asked what's going on inside your head? Now
Speaker 1: they'll never know, because now you don't reveal. You observe,
Speaker 1: you move, you act, And when they finally understand what
Speaker 1: you are, it will be long after it's too late
Speaker 1: to stop you. Because the loud ones are seen, the
Speaker 1: reckless ones are feared, but the quiet ones, they are
Speaker 1: remembered as legends.