Posts Tagged → the godfather
Is human nature disgusting?
@mparks says 48 Laws of Power = YUCK
Can’t say that i haven’t heard that reaction before. People tend to assume that any interest in human nature, strategy or power, is nefarious in some way. But these same people complain about the way that politicians manipulate and the media ‘controls’ us. They identify the symptoms, but are unwilling to understand the problem.
Some people like watching the magic trick. So do i. But i also like to understand how the trick was done. Not necessarily because i want to perform the trick, but because i’m curious.
Anyhow, so long as the Godfather is still voted the No.1 film of all-time, i don’t believe that people aren’t interested in the concepts of strategy and power. They are. They just don’t want to delve too deeply into the mind of a Don. Or a Pope. Or a President-Elect. It could shatter some of their dearly held illusions.
Keeping a still hand: part one
credit: Rabinito
Rudyard Kipling advised us to ‘stay calm and keep your head, while all around are losing theirs‘. If you can heed those words, you possess an advantage. If you ‘lose it’, you lose it. If however, you face adversity and stress with calmness and decisive action, you are taking the shortest and most reliable route to your success.
A brilliant example of the effects of losing your head to fear and nervousness, involves a guy who attempted to assassinate the South Korean president.
“The assassin stands up, and he shoots himself in the leg. That’s how it starts. He’s nervous out of his mind. Then he shoots at the president and misses. Instead he hits the president’s wife in the head. Kills the wife. The bodyguard gets up and shoots back. He misses. He hits an eight-year-old boy. It was a screw-up on all sides. Everything went wrong.” – Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear
In three-point-five seconds, two men – both military trained – missed their goals, due to being overcome by the stress of the circumstance. Although it can be excused and argued away, neither man met their objective. When it came to the crunch, neither man was calm enough.
In contrast, let me refer to one of my favourite moments in film fiction. It is the moment in which Michael Corleone begins to evolve into the Godfather. It isn’t at the end of the film when Clemenza embraces him. It isn’t when he shoots Sollozzo and McClusky in the restaurant. It isn’t even as late as when McClusky punches him in the face, disfiguring his jaw, and darkening his demeanour. It is when he is still a ‘civilian’, in the moments immediately after he has bluffed a car full of would-be-assassins – as he’s lighting a cigarette for Enzo – and silently realises that his hand is not shaking. From that moment, his power begins to grow.
Similarly, in public speaking, asking the girl for her number, or sinking a jump-shot at the buzzer, being calm and focused in the present is an advantage over the alternatives. Because whether you are bluffing or not, when you decide to go all-in, the only reason you should suggest weakness is because you intend to.
Methods for doing that will be in part two. Check back soon.