We recently wrote about Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power, with Machiavellian tips on how to conceal your intentions, manipulate people and destroy your competition. 

To learn about what inspired his book, we caught up with Greene over the phone, who shared with us why most people are ignorant of the dark side of human nature.

What inspired the book? 
Working in Hollywood, I was disturbed by the fact that people were operating by these laws, using psychological gamesmanship. It's like a dirty little secret. Power seemed to be this incredible taboo. Sex is no longer. People have used these hardcore tactics. I've read a lot of history, and the same types of maneuvers used back then are used now. Technology doesn't really alter human nature. 

People are using and violating the laws in a dramatic fashion. I wanted to show people that what you might be encountering today in New York is what you might have encountered in China, Ethiopia, centuries ago.

This is a huge book based on tons of history. What was your process? 
I often tell people that in business, organization is 95 percent of success. I was extremely motivated to make the book a success. I didn't have a feeling that anyone was going to steal the idea. I am a great believer in sharing things, in the openness on the Internet. I want it to be distributed. I have this philosophy that if your idea really works, you're the only person who can do it. It was always going to be a reflection of my uniqueness or weirdness.

What great thinkers did you draw from? 
Machiavelli was the principal one. He wrote about power in an extremely realistic manner. He was my model and had the biggest influence on the book. I also looked to Carl von Clausewitz and Baltasar Gracián y Morales, and other philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche. 

What's the biggest thing you learned while writing this book?
It was a tremendous therapeutic release for me, some of it painful. I was the victim of some of these laws, by people who I thought were very manipulative. The problem we have in our culture is that things are softened. Just look at self-help books. Then people are blindsided. We are not aware of these things going on. If my book was wrong or inaccurate, it wouldn't have reverberated with the public. Ninety-eight percent of emails are from people who say I opened their eyes to reality.

How do you use the laws in your everyday life? 
About a third of the laws deal with sketchy manipulative behavior; I would never do that "sharky" stuff. They don't apply to the circumstances that I'm in. But it's interesting knowing that a company like Microsoft or Google eventually will have to adapt that mentality of "crushing the enemy totally." 

How did you get to advising American Apparel CEO Dov Charney on the laws of power? 
I'm now on the Board of Directors at American Apparel. Prior to being on the board, Dov was a big fan of the book. He'd call me and contact me with various issues and problems. Because of that he [recommended me to] the board.

Lately the requests [for consulting] are piling up — from people in academia, in sports, executives. All of it really deals with political people problems — this person I don't know how to deal with, I hired the wrong person, I have a boss person I can't understand. It's all dealing with psychology. In business people are very well-educated when it comes to numbers, but nobody is out there explaining political issues and complex management. 

Are you religious? What is your view of the overall human condition? 
I'm Jewish but I don't have a hardcore spiritual practice. I'm not hardcore Atheist; I'm sort of how Einstein was: He wasn't a believer in the Jewish God. I'm intrigued by the sense that there's something there.

I think it would be good for people to be honest about human nature and about life and how people operate in the world. We have too many myths that make it very complicated for us. Something like envy, which is a chapter in the 48 Laws, is a fact. All of us feel it. Some feel it in a way that makes us dangerous. 

I want to make people more realistic about the human animal and how we behave sometimes. We are still primates. We are not descended from angels. 

So human nature is neither basically good nor basically bad? 
I don't want to reduce things to black and white. All of us have tendencies to be passive aggressive. All of us have dark sides. That was a sub-theme in the 48 Laws. I had this idea that we're entering a world where power used to be more barbaric or direct, and it's slowly become more indirect, gentle, disguised. A form of power and manipulation such as seduction is extremely [pervasive].

When I was writing the Art of Seduction, I didn't see [the concept] as just sexual, but something to do with marketing and politics. The ultimate form of indirect power is seduction. 

What sort of research did you do for the Art of Seduction? 
I ended up reading biographies of the greatest seducers — Cleopatra, Casanova, Duke Ellington. I also read about JFK. A writer described him as an incredible seducer of the American public. I had to read all of these biographies and find the patterns. 

People who can be somewhat charming in the work environment are always going to be effective. You can go too far and depend only on charm; and people who don't have real substance behind it eventually get in trouble. I would hesitate to say being seductive is the only thing you need in life. Women are generally better at social skills, which is a distinct advantage they have in the business world. People think it's all about numbers, but it's just not. 

Now read Robert Greene's 48 Laws Of Power > 

Please follow War Room on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

There's still a debate over whether people are born with innate talents, or if genius is learned through intense practice.

In his new book, "Mastery," Robert Greene argues that humans are hardwired to succeed and overcome, and with discipline and a number of concrete steps, anybody has the potential to become great.

He looks through the biographies of historical greats, interviews contemporary masters, and draws from years of psychology research to distill steps anyone can follow to become a master in their own right.

Thanks to Mr. Greene for permission to excerpt his book 

STEP 1: FIND YOUR LIFE'S TASK

Many people have an intense feeling about what they're best at. Too often, they're driven away from it by other people. The first step is to trust yourself, and aim your career path at what's unique about you.

Leonardo Da Vinci didn't come into his own as an artist alone, but when he followed his childhood curiosity about everything, he became an advisor and expert in everything from architecture to anatomy for his patrons. 

Source: Robert Greene's "Mastery"

Rather than compete in a crowded field, find a niche where you can dominate.

Legendary neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran was at once a restless and dissatisfied Professor of Psychology. What was supposed to be a calling felt like a job. When he began the study of phantom limbs and anomalous brain disorders, he found questions about the brain and consciousness that fascinate him to this day. 

Find your perfect niche, and stand out. 

Source: Robert Greene's "Mastery"

Rebel against the wrong path, and use that anger as motivation.

Mozart was a child prodigy on the piano. At a very young age, his domineering father toured Europe with him. When he discovered a talent for unique composition, his father suppressed it. It wasn't until he rejected his father entirely that he became a master.

We are often attracted to the wrong things, whether it be money, fame, or approval. 

Source: Robert Greene's "Mastery"

Please follow War Room on Twitter and Facebook.

Robert Greene is the bestselling author of The 48 Laws Of Power, The 50th Law (with 50 Cent), The Art Of Seduction, and most recently, Mastery.

He recently took to Reddit to answer readers' questions on the site's "Ask Me Anything" section. 

The questions touched on some eclectic topics, from the strategic legacy of Karl Rove, to whether sociopaths could misinterpret the more ruthless pieces of advice in his books.  

We've picked out some of the best nuggets from the session. Questions have been edited for length and clarity.

What is your opinion of Karl Rove as a strategist?

How important is college today?

What was working with 50 Cent like?

Please follow War Room on Twitter and Facebook.

Robert Greene’s infamous rulebook advocating ruthless cunning in the workplace is revered by rappers and movie moguls alike. So why is the modern-day Machiavelli such a pussy-cat himself?

One would be forgiven for thinking that Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power, the international bestseller on how to shin up the greasy pole, must be an arrogant megalomaniac living behind security gates in one of Los Angeles’s smartest neighbourhoods. So I am surprised to be greeted by an affable bespectacled man, wearing slightly crumpled clothes, at the door of his Spanish-style bungalow off a busy street in Los Feliz, a bohemian area on LA’s west side.

“Everyone assumes I practise all of my own laws but I don’t. I think anybody who did would be a horrible ugly person to be around,” laughs Greene, who has just written a new book called Mastery, a sort of self-help book on how to fulfil your own intrinsic potential. Key is identifying one’s life’s passion, then undertaking an apprenticeship and finding a mentor to guide you. Greene uses historical ‘masters’ such as Charles Darwin and Mozart as examples, as well as modern ones like the architect Santiago Calatrava.

Although inspiring overall, some aspects are discouraging. The level of dedication Greene advocates – 10,000 hours of apprenticeship for example – is impossible for most people. Greene nods: “There are so many distractions now – I’m really concerned that people in the future won’t know how to build a bridge or create a political movement. There’s a sense of entitlement, an attitude of ‘If my phone isn’t fast enough, screw Apple’.”

For every master, I say, there must be thousands more who aim high and fail. “I don’t mean to intimidate people with my examples,” says Greene, sipping a cup of tea. “There are levels of mastery. Plumbers can be masters, the guy who did my patio is a master, some people are masters at raising really great children.”

His first book is likely to remain his most influential. The 48 Laws of Power has sold 1.2 million copies in the United States alone. And it’s not only business students who have become devotees. The “bible for atheists”, as Dov Charney, the founder and CEO of American Apparel, has described it, has been embraced by rappers, movie moguls, captains of industry and criminals alike. It remains one of the most requested books in prison libraries.

Not that its adherents all admit to using its sometimes dubious principles – such as Law 15: Crush your enemy totally. Those who do, swear by it. Fidel Castro has reportedly read it, the famed Hollywood producer Brian Grazer has personally sought out Greene’s advice, as has Charney, who says of Greene, “I call him Jesus”. Charmingly, Charney also furnishes every employee he fires with their own copy.

Power was followed by The Art of Seduction, a manual on how to make the masses adore you – and snare a mate. His next, The 33 Strategies of War, taught readers to apply battleground thinking to everyday life, from “Create a threatening presence” to “Destroy from within”.

Sitting in his comfortable living room stuffed full of books and record albums, Greene is quite intense and jittery, watching everything I do like a hawk: “Wow, your handwriting is very interesting,” he says, as I make some notes. I ask him if he’s analysing me. “Yes, but I’ll probably analyse you more after you’ve gone. I’m quite intuitive at smelling out the bad, the snakes. But I don’t think you’re a snake.”

Phew – I wouldn’t like to get on the wrong side of a man whose other unnerving laws include “Keep others in suspended terror” (Law 17) and “Pose as a friend, work as a spy” (Law 14). No wonder The New Yorker described Greene’s original book as a manual on “how to be a creep”. I ask him if he minds such comments: “Not really,” he chuckles. “My favourite one was a magazine headline that called it ‘Chicken soup for the soulless’. It’s not a manual on how to be as creepy as possible, it’s a book about what’s going on in the real world.”

But does he ever worry that he is making the world a worse place? Greene looks affronted. “That’s a cat’s paw,” he says, referring to my question. “It would make me feel terrible if I thought that. Evil or manipulative people don’t need a book, they just do it anyway. There are some borderline cases where maybe somebody got inspired [to do something bad]. But the emails and letters I get are so effusive, most people tell me ‘You saved my life, thank you’. At the moment I’m helping a university professor who got fired for very ugly political reasons. Also the wife of a very well-known NBA player contacted me recently – she feels she’s lost the limelight and wanted my help thinking about her own career.”

When pressed, it appears that Greene takes most of his laws with a healthy pinch of salt. “When I say ‘Crush your enemy’, I don’t literally mean it.”

So what does he mean? “I’m talking about the way large companies deal with each other, for example in technology it’s a dog-eat-dog environment. These laws are not for Joe Schmo who’s got a colleague he doesn’t like.”

The younger son of Jewish parents, Greene grew up in West Los Angeles – his father sold cleaning supplies and Greene went to local state schools and then took a degree in classical studies. “I had a thing for words and for Ancient Greece, maybe almost bordering on mental illness. I always knew I wanted to be a writer but then the real world hit me in the face after I graduated college, I had to make a living.”

Now 53, he estimates he had 80 different jobs – from construction worker to screenwriter to hotel receptionist – before he was able to devote himself to writing. He used to experience The Laws of Power from the receiving end and admits to becoming resentful of those in power. “I would ‘outshine the master’ [Law 1: Never outshine the master] and suffer grievously for it. Or I would work for a director and write whole bits of dialogue but my name would never be there.” (Law 7: Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit.)

As a Hollywood bystander, he saw manipulation everywhere he looked. “One director wrote a screenplay and wanted to direct it as well as produce it himself but the finance people wouldn’t let him, they didn’t think he was up to the job. So he went out and hired a director who he knew was going to fail and he had to come in and rescue the project. Incidents like that opened my eyes.”

He has no psychological training. “You don’t need to study psychology, studying something sometimes make you less able. I’m just very good at going deep into someone.”

The turning point came in Venice in 1995 when he met a book packager called Joost Elffers who asked Greene if he had any ideas for books. “I came up with this idea of a book on power and he got very excited.”

When the rap world embraced his book, Greene’s star rapidly rose. Music industry heavyweights started adopting its principles and passed it on to the artists. As Kanye West later rapped: “The only book I ever read I could have wrote: 48 Laws of Power.” 50 Cent, the hardcore rapper who began drug dealing at the age of 12, was so impressed that he asked to meet Greene. They ended up working collaboratively on the 50th Law, an urban take on The 48 Laws of Power. “I like hanging out with Fiddy,” says Greene, using 50’s nickname. “We have a lot in common.” Apart from dealing drugs? “No, I dealt drugs for a while,” says Greene. “Just kidding. I consumed drugs, I didn’t deal them. Fiddy is a disciplined, hardworking solid person who even my mother liked. Busta [Rhymes, another rapper fan of Greene’s who has used the laws to deal with difficult movie directors] is a little scarier than Fiddy.”

Greene has admitted to practising techniques from The Art of Seduction on his girlfriend Anna Biller, a film-maker, who drifts in and out of the room throughout the interview. A pretty dark-haired woman, she is dressed eccentrically in a black dress, red leggings, and Mary Jane shoes with her hair in two girlish plaits.

They have been together for 16 years but he had his work cut out trying to persuade her to go out with him. First, he says, he managed to get himself invited to a party at her house. Once there, “I looked at the albums on her shelf and invited her to an opera that I knew would impress her. But I still didn’t manage to seal the deal.” So he pressured her into going to his 37th birthday party. “I had all these women friends who were stunningly beautiful and I invited them too so that she would think I was desired by them.”

As Biller passes through, I ask her how Greene inveigled her into attending his birthday. “That was dark,” says Biller. “I’d gotten bored talking to him and I’d forgotten to call him back.” “I bored you?” asks Greene. “You just didn’t seem that interested, you were playing it too cool. Then I ran into him a couple of weeks later.” Was that accidental, I ask Greene? “Probably not,” he admits sheepishly.

“And he was angry with me. He made me feel I’d behaved terribly and that I had bad social skills and that I had to go to his birthday to prove I wasn’t just a total nasty loser. So I went and there were all these beautiful, smart girls. And Robert! And I actually did have the feeling that he had designed for me to have: ‘Wow, he likes me?’” How long did it take her to realise it was a set-up? “I never realised,” she laughs. “I was just very dense. I still don’t quite believe it.” And are such manipulations still evident in their everyday life? “Oh God, constantly,” says Biller, who is like a tap that cannot be turned off. “Sometimes I put my foot down because he’s so manipulative.”

“Oh come on,” says Greene, sounding a bit fed up now. “Are you really serious?” “You’re pretty manipulative,” says Biller. “But that’s not a bad thing. I used to get bored with men very quickly. The fact that I’m still here is because he’s so clever at keeping a step ahead of me all the time.”

“You’re confusing me with Brutus,” says Greene, referring to their cat. Biller eventually relents: “The thing about Robert is that underneath it all he’s such a nice guy.” “Underneath the a--hole veneer he’s a nice guy,” quips Greene. “OK, that was a good closing: ‘In victory know when to stop’,” he adds, citing a version of Law 47.

What makes Greene good company is this sense of humour. When I ask if he can name anyone who has solicited his help over the years, he says: “I can’t name names. Although there was this guy called David Cameron...” He adds that if Cameron really did ask his advice he would have a few tips. “He reminds me of Romney, pretending to be one of the people: a triangulating compassionate deceptive slippery sort; you can’t seize them. Isn’t Cameron the poshest of the posh? Franklin Roosevelt came from a very wealthy background too but he genuinely felt empathy for the working class. That works. But when you fake it, it doesn’t. That [piece of advice] comes from The Art of Seduction. I think I would give David Cameron The Art of Seduction.”

As for Barack Obama, Greene thinks he would benefit from reading Mastery, which emphasises the importance of a rigorous apprenticeship in whatever trade you’ve chosen. “You’re not born a brilliant political figure. I think Obama is a brilliant campaigner and has mastered social media and grassroots organisation. What he’s weak at is the hard nuts and bolts of political manoeuvring, dealing with Congress and the ugly side of politics.”

Compared with The 48 Laws of Power, his latest book isn’t nearly so… “Evil?” interjects Greene with a chuckle. Well, yes. It contains a few dubious recommendations – such as figuratively “knifing” your mentor, once you’ve extracted everything useful from them. But the overall tone of the book is far less immoral. Has he lost his bite? “I suppose it’s possible that I’m softening but I don’t like to think that. In 48 Laws I was channelling some anger. It was a catharsis. Maybe I’ve just moved on.”

‘Mastery’, by Robert Greene (Profile, £14.99), is available to pre-order from Telegraph Books at £12.99 + £1.35 p&p. Call 0844 871 1516 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk

This article also appeared in SEVEN magazine, free with the Sunday Telegraph. Follow us on Twitter@TelegraphSeven

Please follow War Room on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

Some people are born brilliant, lucky, or both. The rest of us have to work a little harder.

In his latest best-seller, "Mastery," author Robert Greene analyzes great figures from history, interviews contemporary leaders, and draws from years of psychology research to distill steps anyone can follow to become a master.

His other books discuss the strategies of power, seduction, war, and 50 Cent.

With permission from the author, we've highlighted some tips for mastering your destiny.

STEP 1: FIND YOUR LIFE'S TASK

Many people have an intense feeling about what they do best. Too often, they're driven away from it by other people. The first step is to trust yourself and aim your career path at what's unique about you.

Leonardo Da Vinci didn't come into his own as an artist alone, but when he followed his childhood curiosity about everything, he became an advisor and expert in subjects from architecture to anatomy. 

Source: Robert Greene's "Mastery"

Rather than compete in a crowded field, find a niche where you can dominate.

Legendary neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran was once a restless and dissatisfied professor of Psychology. What was supposed to be a calling felt like a job. When he began the study of phantom limbs and anomalous brain disorders, he found questions about the brain and consciousness that fascinate him to this day. 

Find your perfect niche, and stand out. 

Source: Robert Greene's "Mastery"

Rebel against the wrong path, and use that anger as motivation.

Mozart was a child prodigy on the piano. At a very young age, his domineering father toured Europe with him. When he discovered a talent for unique composition, his father suppressed it. It wasn't until he rejected his father entirely that he became a master.

We are often attracted to the wrong things, whether it be money, fame, or approval. 

Source: Robert Greene's "Mastery"

What does it take to become a master at your craft? Is genius innate, or can it be learned?

In his book, "Mastery," Robert Greene draws from the latest research, interviews modern masters, and examines the lives of former greats like Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, and Mozart to discover what it takes to achieve excellence. 

He argues that success is within anyone's reach, if they have discipline, patience, and follow a number of important steps.

With permission from Greene, we've excerpted the following tips for mastering anything from his book.

1. Find your life's task.

Many people have an intense feeling about what they're best at. Too often, they're driven away from it by other people. The first step is to trust yourself and aim your career path at what's unique about you.

Leonardo da Vinci didn't come into his own as an artist alone, but when he followed his childhood curiosity about everything, he became an advisor and expert in subjects from architecture to anatomy for his patrons. 

Source: Robert Greene's "Mastery"

2. Rather than compete in a crowded field, find a niche where you can dominate.

Legendary neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran was at once a restless and dissatisfied professor of psychology. What was supposed to be a calling felt like a job. When he began the study of phantom limbs and anomalous brain disorders, he found questions about the brain and consciousness that fascinate him to this day. 

Find your perfect niche, and stand out. 

Source: Robert Greene's "Mastery"

3. Rebel against the wrong path, and use that anger as motivation.

Mozart was a child prodigy on the piano. At a very young age, his domineering father toured Europe with him. When he discovered a talent for unique composition, his father suppressed it. It wasn't until he rejected his father entirely that he became a master.

We are often attracted to the wrong things, whether it be money, fame, or approval. 

Source: Robert Greene's "Mastery"

Seduction, persuading a person to yield to your advances, isn't used only in the pursuit of a love interest. Influencing others is how we get jobs and promotions, win negotiations, sell products, and gain notoriety.

In "The Art of Seduction," popular author Robert Greene explores the ruthless tactics of some of history's greatest seducers, from Cleopatra to Casanova.

We've summarized Greene's 24 rules of seduction below, adapting them to situations you may run into in your career:

1. Choose the right victim.

Your target may be a hiring manager, a potential client, or a boss in a position to promote you. He or she should be someone "for whom you can fill a void," Greene says. Don't try to get the most out of those who are too eager to please you, because they are usually looking to get something in return; instead, find those who give subtle hints, like shyness in your presence, that they are open to your influence.

2. Create a false sense of security — approach indirectly.

If you want to network with an influential executive or potential client, for example, you risk forcing them to raise their guard if you approach them and immediately ask for something. Before making a proposal, reach out to them via a third party, or develop a neutral or friendly relationship before making it about business.

3. Send mixed signals.

Once you've got someone hooked, give yourself an air of mystery to keep that person's interest. When meeting someone with a professional network that you want to access, for example, try making yourself appear intellectual and sophisticated but throw in a sarcastic comment or two that adds depth to your character.

4. Appear to be an object of desire.

In the same way that millions of people lust over the most popular celebrities, clients and customers will be drawn to the hottest companies and executives. Don't make a fool of yourself, but don't be humble when you're trying to win someone over. Show off your most important connections and successes.

5. Create a need — stir anxiety and discontent.

People cannot be seduced if they're content. Sell yourself by illustrating ways in which the other party is lacking in some respect and then reveal how you can make up for that deficiency. Perhaps you illustrate for a business the many ways in which it is wasting its money, and then how a few changes could transform the company.

6. Master the art of insinuation.

If you're too straightforward with people you're trying to influence, you may scare them away or even turn them against you. The best way to get people to work in your favor, Greene says, is by subtly dropping hints over time without revealing your true intentions. That way you can make your target think he or she is acting on his or her own initiative.

7. Enter their spirit.

If you're trying to change someone's mind and bring that person to your side, first play by his or her rules. If you want to do something like using a meeting to get a client to invest in your company further, begin by becoming a mirror, behaving as he or she behaves, and that person will open up to you.

8. Create temptation.

Determine what your target's weakness is, and play to it. Find an ideal that this person is trying to realize "and hint that you can lead them to it," Greene writes.

9. Keep them in suspense.

The moment people think they know what to expect from you is when your hold over them is broken. Keep their interest in you with the occasional surprise.

10. Use the power of words.

If you are giving a presentation, for example, goad the audience onto your side by telling them what they want to hear. Make your argument convincing by making it enjoyable.

11. Pay attention to detail.

Entice your target by making painstaking decisions look effortless. For a job interview, pay attention to every detail of how your present yourself, down to your smartphone case in the event that you use it in their presence. Follow up with a formalized thank-you note to complete the image you're trying to sell.

12. Poeticise your presence.

You will not win people over if you are a nagging constant in their lives. Associate yourself with enjoyable experiences so that your target misses you when you're gone. To use the hiring example, make sure each interaction shines, but don't overdo it by following up your thank-you note with another email or phone call the next day.

13. Disarm through strategic weakness and vulnerability.

Rather than overpower your target, set aside your ego and communicate how the other side is in a dominant position, even if it isn't exactly true. You will not rise through the corporate hierarchy by appearing arrogant to your superiors.

14. Confuse desire and reality — the perfect illusion.

"Remember: people want to believe in the extraordinary," Greene writes. Make whatever you're trying to sell, whether an idea or an actual product, sound dramatic yet rooted in reality.

15. Isolate the victim.

People are most vulnerable when they are shut off from everything around them. When you are applying to a job, write and speak as if that job is the only one you ever wanted to apply for; when pitching your services, make your client feel as if he or she is the only one who matters.

16. Prove yourself.

If your target begins to become insecure and pulls back from you, demonstrate your value by going out of your way to help him or her in some way.

17. Effect a regression.

No matter what relationship you are trying to strike, whether with a boss, employer, client, or anyone else, your target will have had similar relationships that worked well for him or her. Figure out what this person liked most about these previous experiences with your predecessor and do things to evoke memories of them.

18. Stir up the transgressive and taboo.

Even the most clean-cut people have a curiosity of the forbidden. You do not need to be doing anything wrong to make the other side feel as if he or she is working in a nebulous area — that can mean something as simple as hinting that a deal you are offering someone is so great that it is unprecedented and needs to be kept secret.

19. Use spiritual lures.

You run the risk of cheapening your words if they all lead to a singular goal, whether that be getting a job or selling a product. Supplement them with moral ideals that make your aim seem more important than it is. For instance, you could connect the prospect of a job with a company as the logical next step in your professional journey, or align your company's mission with a higher purpose.

20. Mix pleasure with pain.

In a business situation, this means that you should avoid being overly polite with your target, which can have the unintended consequence of making you seem insincere and insecure. Mix complimentary language with blunt, straightforward insight.

21. Give them space.

When the other side is on your side but has become used to you, re-create interest by taking a step back and having him or her chase you. If you have been going for a promotion and get a job offer from a competitor, for example, bring it to your boss as if you are strongly considering leaving, even if you are not interested.

22. Use physical lures.

Keep your target focused on you by making yourself as attractive as possible, dressing nicely, smiling, and speaking with confidence.

23. Master the art of the bold move.

When your target has demonstrated that he or she is definitely interested in you, make a final offensive move, stating your intended goal. End with a natural, bold finish, rather than awkwardly or timidly avoiding what you really want. State outright how you would be a great fit for the company to which you're applying; tell your client that he or she needs your services to beat the competition. 

24. Beware of the aftereffects.

Once you have succeeded in your seduction, employ variations of the above tactics to certain degrees to keep the other side from taking you for granted and making you disposable.

SEE ALSO: 33 War Strategies That Will Help You Win In Business

Join the conversation about this story »

Napoleon Bonaparte created an empire stretching across Europe from 1804 to 1814. Before his exile, return, and then ultimate defeat in 1815, Napoleon was a brilliant general who understood the dynamics of leading a large group to victory.

"The moral is to the physical as three is to one," Napoleon once said.

"He meant that his troops' fighting spirit was crucial in the outcome of the battle. With motivated soldiers he could beat an army three times the size of his own," writes Robert Greene in his book "The 33 Strategies of War."

Greene highlights specific ways some of the world's greatest generals, from Napoleon to Alexander the Great, managed their troops. You can use these same tactics to boost the morale of your employees and maximize their productivity:

Unite people around a cause.

Give your team something to fight for. "The cause can be anything you wish, but you should represent it as progressive: It fits the times, it is on the side of the future, so it is destined to succeed," Greene writes. Remind your employees that they are part of a company competing with others in a marketplace, and inspire them to beat their competitors.

When Oliver Cromwell was made a Parliamentarian colonel in the English Civil War in 1643, he began recruiting soldiers who were inexperienced but shared his fervor for the Puritan religion. United around a holy cause, singing psalms as they entered battle, Cromwell's army of commoners outperformed his previous cavalry of trained soldiers by a wide margin. In 1645, they defeated the Royalist forces and brought an end to the first stage of the war.

Keep them busy.

When soldiers are on the defensive, waiting to react to the next strike, their spirits are lower and they become complacent or anxious. A similar thing happens to a company that is not moving an initiative forward.

Napoleon was named commander of the French forces fighting the Austrians in Italy in April 1796, and he wasn't welcomed by his troops. They found him too short, too young, and too inexperienced to be a leader, and they were already losing hope in fighting for the ideals of the French Revolution. After a few weeks of being unable to motivate them, Napoleon decided to propel them into action. He brought them to a bridge he knew he could easily win, and rode to the front of his men. He gave them a rousing speech and then propelled them forward to a relatively effortless victory. After that day, Greene writes, Napoleon had his men's full attention.

Keep them satisfied.

You do not need to spoil your workers, but you need to meet their basic needs. Otherwise, says Greene, they'll react to feeling exploited by behaving selfishly and drifting away. You may lose your best employees to the competition if you focus solely on your company's goals and not on their happiness.

Napoleon knew that many of his troops were homesick and weary. It's why he made it a practice to get to know individual soldiers, sharing personal stories, writes Greene. He often saved his promotions of soldiers for moments of low morale, since they communicated to his troops that he cared and was paying attention to individual sacrifices.

Lead from the front.

The enthusiasm of even the most motivated workers will wane, and so you need to let them know that you're right there beside them.

"In moments of panic, fatigue, or disorganization, or when something out of the ordinary has to be demanded from them, the personal example of the commander works wonders," wrote German field marshal Erwin Rommel, whose war tactics earned him the respect of his enemies U.S. Gen. George S. Patton and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Appeal to their emotions.

The best generals have a sense of drama, Greene says. Lower your employees' defenses with a story or a joke, and then approach them more directly with their task.

The great general Hannibal of Carthage knew how to make a passionate speech that would ignite his men before a battle with the ancient Romans. But he also knew these speeches would hit that much harder if his men were relaxed in their downtime. Hannibal entertained his men with gladiator battles and his jokes could get all of his soldiers laughing, Greene writes.

Balance punishment and reward.

"Make your soldiers compete to please you. Make them struggle to see less harshness and more kindness," Greene writes. This doesn't mean that in the workplace you need to reprimand employees who don't meet your expectations, but excessive kindness regardless of performance will make your team take you for granted.

During the "Spring and Autumn" period of ancient China, the lord of Qi promoted Sima Rangju to general to defend his region from the armies of Jin and Yan. When two of the lord's men disrespected Rangju in the field, Rangju executed one and killed the attendants of the other. His men were terrified. The general, however, also proved to have a compassionate side, sharing food and supplies equally among his troops and caring for the injured and weak. His men saw that he would reward those who followed him and punish those who did not, and they went on to defeat Jin and Yan.

Build a group myth.

"Soldiers who have fought alongside one another through many campaigns forge a kind of group myth based on their past victories," Greene says. "Success alone will help bring the group together. Create symbols and slogans that fit the myth. Your soldiers will want to belong."

When General George Washington searched for a place to encamp his troops during the harsh winter of 1777-1778, he settled for Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Washington and his men endured months of extreme cold, very little to eat, and the spread of disease. By the end of February 1778, 2,500 of his troops had died. Those that survived, however, felt that they proved to themselves that nothing would stop them from winning the war against the British. In May, the troops celebrated the announcement of the crucial alliance with the French and pushed forward, more determined than ever.

Correction: A previous version stated the incorrect year in which Napoleon was made commander of the French forces in Italy and misspelled Rommel's name.

SEE ALSO: 7 Timeless Lessons From 'Philosopher King' Marcus Aurelius

Join the conversation about this story »

You may not realize it, but every day you enter the office you step into a minefield of personal politics at a company facing fierce competitors.

In Robert Greene's "The 33 Strategies of War," the renowned author analyzes the tactics of history's greatest military leaders and presents their strategies in a way that professionals can use. These time-tested techniques can prove useful if you're a professional looking to rise up the corporate ladder, a manager looking to get the best from your team, or an entrepreneur looking to break into an industry.

We've summarized Greene's 33 war strategies below:

Self-Directed Warfare

Before you can defeat your enemy, you need to gain control over yourself.

1. Declare war on your enemies.

On the path to success, many people will hide their true intentions and pretend to be on your side. Determine who and what you stand against or compete with and use them to motivate you.

2. Do not fight the last war.

Learn from failures, but do not let them weigh you down; cherish your victories, but do not let them make you complacent.

3. Amidst the turmoil of events, do not lose your presence of mind.

Unexpected challenges and setbacks will tempt you to respond with anger or anxiety, which will only create more difficulties for yourself. Learn to refrain from imposing your emotions onto reality and see things objectively so that you can react with a calm mind.

4. Create a sense of urgency and desperation.

Even if you are optimistic, aspirational, and self-confident, you will never become successful if you do not have something compelling you to action. Create deadlines for concrete goals to push yourself forward.

Organizational (Team) Warfare

Your best ideas will never amount to anything if you cannot lead a team to help make them a reality.

5. Avoid the snares of groupthink.

Your team will not follow you if you make your collective mission centered on yourself, but it is also dangerous to give in to chaotic collective decision making. Warrant respect by enforcing your commands, but also reward your team for their victories.

6. Segment your forces.

Avoid micromanaging, which can frustrate your team members and slow everyone down. Instead, create independent groups that can accomplish tasks on their own.

7. Transform your war into a crusade.

The way to keep people motivated is to align their personal interests with those of the group. Determine a worthy cause that everyone will want to fight for.

Defensive Warfare

It is important to know which battles are worth fighting, and which ones are worth avoiding or retreating from. Then you will be ready for any necessary counterattack once your enemy has exhausted itself.

8. Pick your battles carefully.

You will not always have the time, energy, or resources to take your competition head on. It's necessary to keep the long term in mind.

9. Turn the tables.

Sometimes it is best to let your opponents make the first move. Wait for them to make a poor decision out of impatience and then move in to bring them down.

10. Create a threatening presence.

Keep opponents from engaging you directly by avoiding as many battles as possible, but being impressive in the battles you do fight.

11. Trade space for time.

If an aggressor attacks you in a fit of rashness, it may be best to refuse to fight, even if they cause damage. This refusal will infuriate them and cause them to make mistakes.

Offensive Warfare

There are other times when, after careful planning, it is best to surprise and overwhelm your enemy.

12. Lose battles but win the war.

People will inevitably get the best of you at times. Keep a cool head and stay focused on large, long-term goals and let your opponents enjoy small victories.

13. Know your enemy.

Pay less attention to the entire team of your competition and instead study its leader. Avoid projecting your beliefs onto that person, instead observing how he or she thinks and behaves.

14. Overwhelm resistance with speed and suddenness.

Take the time to prepare a thorough offensive, and then catch your opponent off guard. Strike again before they have a chance to react.

15. Control the dynamic.

The best way to manipulate your opponents' emotions is to define the nature of your relationship. If they are especially arrogant, give them the impression that they are the one in control.

16. Hit them where it hurts.

Every successful person or entity has a source of power, whether it's money, popularity, or a winning strategy. Find a way to undermine your opponents' livelihood and strike them with all you've got.

17. Defeat them in detail.

When someone or something imposing is taken as a whole, fear and uncertainty can set in. Instead, break down your challenger or challenge into smaller, more easily defeated parts.

18. Expose and attack your opponent's soft flank.

Distract your competition's attention by attacking them from the front, and then take them on where they're weakest.

19. Envelop the enemy.

When you are ready to take down an opponent, keep pressure on them from all sides so that they are forced to focus their attention on you as they grow increasingly worried.

20. Maneuver them into weakness.

Create a dilemma for your enemy, in which the only way they can respond to your move is with a decision that will hurt them in some way.

21. Negotiate while advancing.

Never forget that in a negotiation, the other side is trying to take as much as possible from you that they could not get from direct confrontation. Before and during negotiations, keep your agenda moving forward so that your opponent plays on your terms.

22. Know how to end things.

When you engage in battle, you are putting your reputation at stake. Never put yourself in a situation that you cannot remove yourself from, and when victorious, don't belittle your opponent to the point that you create a bitter enemy that could strike back in the future.

Unconventional (Dirty) Warfare

You will need to use unorthodox strategies to take down a formidable foe. You may even resort to slippery and devious tactics to gain the upper hand.

23. Weave a seamless blend of fact and fiction.

Create a trap for your opponents by playing to their expectations, causing them to lower their guard as they fool themselves.

24. Take the line of least expectation.

Doing something extraordinary against an enemy will only have an effect if they took you to be unassuming and ordinary.

25. Occupy the moral high ground.

You can weaken your opponents' support base by making them appear sinister, even if they are not. Tie your goals to worthy causes so that the public will want to further your agenda.

26. Deny them targets.

Keep the competition from engaging you with all their might by staying innovative and unpredictable, which will keep them afraid and frustrated.

27. Seem to work for the interests of others while furthering your own.

Develop a network of alliances in which you treat your allies well, but slyly keep them in a subordinate position.

28. Give your rivals enough rope to hang themselves.

When you are dealing with someone who you know is quietly scheming to destroy you, refrain from attacking them. Rather, share with them just enough information that plants a seed of doubt and insecurity and watch them self-destruct.

29. Take small bites.

If you reveal the totality of your grand ambitions, people will come to resent you. Rise through the corporate hierarchy or business world steadily but without fanfare.

30. Penetrate their minds.

If you want to influence people, it is best to avoid being preachy or overly personal, and instead saying things in a way that gets people to reach your conclusion on their own.

31. Destroy from within.

If you are going up against an opponent that you would never be able to defeat by engaging directly, it may be worth befriending them as a first move. Then recruit their power players to your side, or find ways to sow dissent.

32. Dominate while seeming to submit.

You will not be able to get people to do their best work for you through aggression. Smile and be pleasant as you get them to do your bidding.

33. Sow uncertainty and panic through acts of terror.

The best way to approach a battle with a giant opponent is to dramatize a move in such a way that it terrifies the opposition, convincing them that you are much stronger than you actually are.

SEE ALSO: 7 Management Strategies From Some Of History's Greatest Generals

Join the conversation about this story »

For almost 20 years, author Robert Greene has been studying what it means to be powerful.

His books "The 48 Laws of Power,""The Art of Seduction,""The 33 Strategies of War,""The 50th Law," and "Mastery" all explore how some of history's most famous — and infamous — figures managed to exert control over others and make their desires reality.

They're written like hyper-rational, Machiavellian guides to becoming successful, with the implication that while you may not become the next Napoleon, you could make your way up the corporate hierarchy using some of Bonaparte's favorite philosophies.

We asked Greene for his definition of "power." He said:

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection. Power works best when it is indirect — never coercing people; instead, getting them to voluntarily align with your interests.

Ultimately, Greene describes power as having influence, over your environment and the people around you.

SEE ALSO: We Went To A Master Networker's Party With Bill Nye And Regina Spektor — And It Was Unlike Anything Else

Join the conversation about this story »

What is power? And how do you acquire it?

Robert Greene, author of "The 48 Laws of Power," has some insight.

Power is "the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you,"Greene tells Business Insider. "It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection."

Greene gave us permission to republish his 48 laws power, which he developed from analyzing some of history's most powerful people.

This is an update of an article originally written by Aimee Groth.

Never outshine the master.

"Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite — inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power."

Never put too much trust in friends; learn how to use enemies.

"Be wary of friends — they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them."

Conceal your intentions.

"Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late."

To acquire power, it's important to first understand it.

Robert Greene, author of "The 48 Laws of Power," has some insight.

Power is "the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you," Greene tells Business Insider. "It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection."

We've collected some of Greene's best tips on how you exert influence over others in the graphic below.

SEE ALSO: 22 entrepreneurs share the advice that made them successful

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Gen. Stanley McChrystal on how Uber operates just like a special forces unit

Multi-platinum rapper Curtis Jackson, better known as 50 Cent, has established a reputation as one of the savviest business people in the music industry.

It's why many were surprised when he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July. It came on the heels of a lawsuit requiring him to pay $5 million in damages.

In May, Forbes estimated his net worth at $155 million, but his lawyer said in court last week that his worth is $4.4 million.

50 Cent told Larry King on Monday that filing for bankruptcy was "strategic.""It's a move that was necessary for me to make at this point so I didn't allow myself to create that big red and white bulls-eye on my back, where I become the person that people consistently come to," he said.

To learn more about the musician's business philosophy, we took a look at the 2009 book "The 50th Law," a collaboration between 50 Cent and popular author Robert Greene, who wrote "The 48 Laws of Power." In it, Greene calls the rapper a "hip-hop Napoleon" and breaks down the fundamental elements of his Machiavellian worldview.

Here's a summary of 50 Cent's key business principles discussed in the book.

See things for what they truly are.

50 Cent grew up in a rough neighborhood in Queens, New York, and became an orphan at age 8 after his mom was murdered. He started selling crack cocaine on street corners when he was 12. One day, he says, he was talking with an older drug dealer who went by the name Truth.

Truth taught him, Greene writes, to not complain about his difficult circumstances and that, "in fact, the hard life of the streets is a blessing if you know what you're doing." 50 Cent says he learned that the increased risk of danger forces a hustler to focus intently on what's happening around him and when others are lying to him, in addition to being aware of his own limitations.

After he was arrested at age 16 and sent to a boot-camp prison for nine months, he says he realized that the life he was living would never satisfy his ambition to make a name for himself, and he decided that he was going to find a mentor and enter the music industry.

Years later, after his 2003 debut album "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" made him a celebrity, he tells Greene, he used Truth's advice to see past the doting of sycophants or manipulative deals from record executives. He realized that especially with the rise of music piracy, his albums weren't going to get him the wealth he desired. It's why he entered into deals like the one with Vitamin Water for substantial chunks of money, using his music as a "tool" to further his cultural influence.

Rely on yourself.

When 50 Cent came back from the boot-camp prison as a teenager, he got a job bagging drugs for a dealer, he says.

At the end of the first day, he tells Greene, he was convinced his ego wouldn't fit into the role, and he secretly made a deal with the other baggers: They would each take a very small portion of drugs from each batch and set them aside for 50 Cent, who would split up his bagger's salary among them and rely on the drugs to make his own cash. He was back working for himself within a week.

"After that, he swore to himself he'd never work for another person ever again," Greene writes. "He'd rather die."

It's why, 50 Cent tells Greene, as soon as he became famous he set to work developing his own record label with the intention of one day making it independent of his record label Interscope.

Find an advantageous opportunity in a negative situation.

50 Cent landed a deal with Columbia Records and was scheduled to release what was supposed to be his major-label debut, "Power of the Dollar," in 2000. A few weeks before its release date, an assassin shot 50 Cent nine times and left him for dead. The rapper narrowly survived but Columbia dropped him, afraid of the dangers present in his life. Other labels stayed far away.

Greene says 50 Cent at this point used "hood alchemy" to turn "sh— into sugar."

After he finally recovered enough to make it out of bed, 50 Cent says he decided to lay low for a few months to produce music that was heavier than any of the rap on the radio. And though labels avoided him because they were afraid of his attempted assassination, he released a song to the streets that embraced it, challenging those who tried to kill him. The mixtape he made in this time blew up in the underground and attracted the attention of Eminem, who quickly signed him and made him a star.

Never stop moving.

As a kid in the late 1980s, 50 Cent says he observed how an old drug lord used his son Jermaine as his puppet after he was released from prison. Greene writes that Jermaine inherited his father's cockiness and went into the street with the intention of making deals with local gangs and dealers to only sell his drugs and to give him a cut of the profit. The brashness that made his dad a success in the underworld didn't work in the contemporary one. Jermaine was murdered.

50 Cent says he identified with Jermaine's drive but knew he had to be more fluid to survive. Instead of trying to have control over one large area, 50 Cent "started experimenting with four or five hustles at the same time; inevitably one of the angles would work and pay for all the others," Greene writes. He also gave the people he worked with freedom, as long as they delivered.

He realized later that he had learned the basics of investing and managing people in a more high-stakes setting than any MBA was used to.

Selectively use aggression to assert yourself.

After he decided as a teenager that music would be his ticket out of the hood, 50 Cent was still confronted with the challenge of making enough money to produce some records and get a label's attention. Even after he began working for himself again after his stint in prison, he says he struggled to acquire customers because every dealer had a street corner they absolutely refused to share.

50 Cent says he decided to meet with a notorious Brooklyn gang he befriended in prison and ask them to do him a favor. He had them head up to Queens and rob all of the dealers in 50 Cent's neighborhood, including himself. The gang secretly gave 50 Cent his things back, as well as some of the drugs they stole, but 50 Cent pretended to share in the shock of the dealers in south Queens. The dealers started carrying guns for protection, and to avoid getting sent to jail, they avoided lingering on street corners all day.

This opened up an opportunity to acquire customers, and he says he built clientele by giving extra portions for free. By the time the others realized what 50 Cent pulled, Greene writes, he was already long gone.

Greene says that as a celebrity, any time 50 Cent appears aggressive in public it's a strategic act, usually to bring attention to himself by feuding with another rapper, like he did with Ja Rule in the early 2000s.

Think of your audience before making a decision.

A veteran dealer named Dre once told 50 Cent that "there are two kinds of hustlers in this world — those who stay on the outside and those who move to the inside," Greene writes. "The outside types never bother to learn anything about their customers." It was common for dealers to be afraid of or disgusted by drug fiends, meaning their interactions were strictly transactional.

Dre recommended 50 Cent use the "tester" method, Greene explains, where a dealer gives an addict a free sample of a certain batch and asks on the spot what they think of it. If they like it, they'll tell their friends and come back for more. A network effect kicks in. And if they don't, the dealer learns what to do differently.

50 Cent tells Greene he began using this same approach to music with the rise of social networks and commenting online. He would post a rough cut of a song and see how fans reacted. Depending on the reaction, he would make adjustments or release the song as an official single. He even did this for rival rappers' songs to see what his fans were into.

Be patient and play the long game.

Growing up, 50 Cent says he saw that the hopelessness of the hood made its people value fast money acquired through crime. But those who devoted themselves to crime either ended up dead or burned out by 25. It's why he decided as a kid that he would hustle to gradually save up money to enter the music business by 20 and then use a music career to launch a business career. He treated hustling like a job.

When his 2003 album launched him to super-stardom, he noticed that many rappers reacted to their new-found millions the same way hustlers would after a big score, spending it as fast as possible. He tells Greene that instead of partying regularly, he spent long hours working on his music and business ventures, always with the intention of moving closer and closer to a multi-faceted business empire.

Set no limits on your ambition.

Greene writes that 50 Cent's mother Sabrina, a drug dealer, did whatever she could to make money to one day move them out of the hood. After she was killed, 50 Cent realized her goal was now his alone, and he would fantasize about having a successful career and seeing the world.

After he was dropped from Columbia in 2000 after the attempt on his life, 50 Cent says he gathered his crew at his grandparents' house, where he lived. He told them that despite what just happened, he was going to make an impact in the mainstream even bigger than what he would have if the attack never happened. He would help them achieve their goals — whether that was going to college, becoming a rapper, or pursuing another path. He only asked that they remain loyal to him and protect him during the dangerous period in which he planned his escape from his old life.

Around 2007, 50 Cent tells Greene, he began planning the next iteration of his life. The gangsta rapper known as 50 Cent couldn't last forever. Instead, he started to develop his persona as a business mogul who didn't need to stare menacingly and pose with guns to be respected. As he told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, he intends to eventually become a billionaire. If he doesn't, he says, "I'll be extremely disappointed and feel like I haven't done what I was supposed to do."

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump's core business philosophy from his bestselling 1987 book 'The Art of the Deal'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 50 Cent testifies his lifestyle is an illusion

Seduction, persuading a person to yield to your advances, isn't used only in the pursuit of a love interest. Influencing others is how we get jobs and promotions, win negotiations, sell products, and gain notoriety.

In "The Art of Seduction," popular author Robert Greene explores the ruthless tactics of some of history's greatest seducers, from Cleopatra to Casanova.

We've summarized Greene's 24 rules of seduction below.

SEE ALSO: 14 habits of the most likable people

1. Choose the right victim.

Your target should be someone "for whom you can fill a void," Greene says. Don't try to get the most out of those who are too eager to please you, because they are usually looking to get something in return; instead, find those who give subtle hints, like shyness in your presence, that they are open to your influence.

2. Create a false sense of security — approach indirectly.

If you want to initiate a relationship with someone who would be of value to you, you risk forcing them to raise their guard if you approach them and immediately ask for something. Before making a proposal, reach out to them via a third party, or develop a neutral or friendly relationship before making it about business.

3. Send mixed signals.

Once you've got someone hooked, give yourself an air of mystery to keep that person's interest. Don't reveal too much about your background or your intentions.

NOW WATCH: 'Shark Tank' investor reveals Mark Cuban's strategy on the show and the real drama behind the scenes

Seduction, persuading a person to yield to your advances, isn't used only in the pursuit of a love interest. Influencing others is how we get jobs and promotions, win negotiations, sell products, and gain notoriety.

In "The Art of Seduction," popular author Robert Greene explores the ruthless tactics of some of history's greatest seducers, from Cleopatra to Casanova.

We've summarized Greene's 24 rules of seduction below.

SEE ALSO: 14 habits of the most likable people

1. Choose the right victim.

Your target should be someone "for whom you can fill a void," Greene says. Don't try to get the most out of those who are too eager to please you, because they are usually looking to get something in return; instead, find those who give subtle hints, like shyness in your presence, that they are open to your influence.

2. Create a false sense of security — approach indirectly.

If you want to initiate a relationship with someone who would be of value to you, you risk forcing them to raise their guard if you approach them and immediately ask for something. Before making a proposal, reach out to them via a third party, or develop a neutral or friendly relationship before making it about business.

3. Send mixed signals.

Once you've got someone hooked, give yourself an air of mystery to keep that person's interest. Don't reveal too much about your background or your intentions.

NOW WATCH: 'Shark Tank' investor reveals Mark Cuban's strategy on the show and the real drama behind the scenes

Seduction, the act of persuading a person to yield to your advances, isn't used only in the pursuit of a love interest. Influencing others is how we get jobs and promotions, win negotiations, sell products, and gain notoriety.

In "The Art of Seduction," bestselling author Robert Greene explores the ruthless tactics of some of history's greatest seducers, from Cleopatra to Casanova.

Here are Greene's 24 rules of seduction below, which you can use to manipulate those with even the strongest wills.

SEE ALSO: The 15 worst mistakes you can make in your 20s

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Navy SEALs explain how your ego can destroy everything

Ten years ago, when Robert Greene learned the story of Christine Chubbuck— a 1970s TV reporter in Sarasota, Florida, who was the first person to commit suicide on live television — two things instantly came to him: "How do you make a film about someone who kills themselves?" and "I need to see the footage."

With the most mundane moments of our lives now captured and immediately put online for the world to see, Greene was shocked to find that not only was no footage of the Chubbuck suicide online (supposedly Paddy Chayefsky was inspired to write the Howard Beale character in "Network" based on Chubbuck's suicide), but there was no video of the reporter period.

"She went on television to commit suicide so people would see it, and that has been lost," Greene told Business Insider. "There's such pathetic irony to that."

As the years passed and Greene began making movies that walked the line between nonfiction and fiction — like 2012's "Fake It So Real," which looks at the independent professional-wrestling circuit, and 2014's "Actress," an intimate study of character actress Brandy Burre ("The Wire") — Greene couldn't escape the Chubbuck story.

With Chubbuck essentially a pre-internet folk story — as years had passed since Greene learned of the suicide and the footage of the suicide still hadn't surfaced — he decided to start the Chubbuck project, but with a unique angle.

"I never wanted to make a straightforward story," Greene said. "The title of the movie actually became the full idea."

"Kate Plays Christine," which premiered Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival amid much conversation about it, is a part documentary, part fictionalized narrative that explores Chubbuck through actress Kate Lyn Sheil ("House of Cards"), who plays Chubbuck in scripted scenes depicting key moments leading up to her death while also chronicling Sheil's journey in Sarasota by talking to people who knew Chubbuck.

Greene captures the similarities between the women — Chubbuck's frustrations about not being taken seriously as a journalist in a male-dominated industry; Sheil's concerns about being pigeonholed into one type of character — while also delving into Sheil's struggles to truthfully represent Chubbuck in the scripted scenes with little to no source material. (Sheil is actually not the only actress to play Chubbuck in a Sundance movie; Rebecca Hall plays her in the film "Christine.")

"Kate is the film," Greene said. "Kate is someone I'm friends with but also someone I find very interesting to watch on-screen because I don't know where things come from, and as a documentary filmmaker, I'm fascinated by that."

Sheil acknowledges, however, that her performance is not without some dramatics for the camera.

"It's simultaneously genuine and completely fabricated," Sheil told Business Insider of her performance in the film. "It's me knowing what Robert was trying to do, being frustrated by that, but playing it up."

For example, in one scene, Sheil tries to do one of the scripted scenes but stops and tells Greene it's not working. When one of her costars gives her encouragement, Sheil lashes out at her. Asked how real that scene was, Sheil acknowledged she would never talk to another actor that way in real life.

But that aspect of performing for the camera was something Greene wanted to explore in the film, since many documentaries are not as authentically "real" as we may think.

"If you have a camera, you have a performance — that's just a fact," Greene said. "Most documentaries are so eager to hide that because authenticity is this gift to the audience: 'I didn't make this up.' But it's a film — it's not reality. One of the things we're trying to do in the film is to take that as a starting point, not an endpoint."

And then there was the ending of the movie. Did the filmmakers want to reenact a suicide? What of substance would it give the audience?

Greene and Sheil said they didn't come up with the film's ending until the night before they shot it.

"I didn't want to pull the trigger, but flying down to Florida, the plan was to reenact the suicide," Sheil said.

Going back and forth with ideas, the two, along with cinematographer Sean Price Williams, finally landed on an ending they all agreed on (the ending was filmed on the 41st anniversary of Chubbuck's suicide), which was greatly influenced by a discovery they made in the reporting for the movie.

"The ending to me is everything I care about in movies," Greene said. "The way it came about was a very documentary way. We have a scene and we've talked to people, and now it's an absolute collision of fiction and nonfiction."

A melodrama wrapped in an investigative documentary, "Kate Plays Christine" is a unique story that explores depression, female stereotypes, and privacy in a time when all-access is the norm.

It's a movie that will leave you with more questions than answers, and Greene wouldn't have it any other way.

"The point of the movie is this is what it takes to tell this story," he said. "So when the audience is asking, 'Is it real?' — 'Is Kate deciding to do that, or did Robert tell her to do that?' — we're inviting those thoughts because most films don't invite those thoughts, and it's fruitful because I think that is the nature of the Christine Chubbuck story."

SEE ALSO: These A-list celebrities are blowing off the Oscars this year — here's why

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The top illegally downloaded movies of 2015

What is power? And how do you acquire it?

Robert Greene, author of "The 48 Laws of Power," has some insight.

Power is "the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you,"Greene tells Business Insider. "It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection."

Greene gave us permission to republish his 48 laws power, which he developed from analyzing some of history's most powerful people.

This is an update of an article originally written by Aimee Groth.

Never outshine the master.

"Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite — inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power."

Never put too much trust in friends; learn how to use enemies.

"Be wary of friends — they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them."

Conceal your intentions.

"Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late."

What is power? And how do you acquire it?

Robert Greene, author of "The 48 Laws of Power," has some insight.

Power is "the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you,"Greene tells Business Insider. "It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection."

Greene gave us permission to republish his 48 laws power, which he developed from analyzing some of history's most powerful people.

This is an update of an article originally written by Aimee Groth.

Never outshine the master.

"Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite — inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power."

Never put too much trust in friends; learn how to use enemies.

"Be wary of friends — they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them."

Conceal your intentions.

"Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late."

Ten years ago, when Robert Greene learned the story of Christine Chubbuck— a 1970s TV reporter in Sarasota, Florida, who was the first person to commit suicide on live television — two things instantly came to him: "How do you make a film about someone who kills themselves?" and "I need to see the footage."

With the most mundane moments of our lives now able to be captured and immediately put online for the world to see, Greene was shocked to find that not only was no footage of the Chubbuck suicide online, but there was no video of the reporter period.

"She went on television to commit suicide so people would see it, and that has been lost," Greene told Business Insider. "There's such pathetic irony to that."

Greene began making movies that walked the line between nonfiction and fiction — like 2012's "Fake It So Real," which looks at the independent professional-wrestling circuit, and 2014's "Actress," an intimate study of character actress Brandy Burre ("The Wire").

But as the years passed, Greene couldn't escape the Chubbuck story.

With Chubbuck essentially a pre-internet folk story — the footage of it still hadn't surfaced — he decided to start the Chubbuck project, but with a unique angle.

"I never wanted to make a straightforward story," Greene said. "The title of the movie actually became the full idea."

"Kate Plays Christine," which opens in select theaters Tuesday and premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival amid much conversation, is a part documentary, part fictionalized narrative that explores Chubbuck through actress Kate Lyn Sheil ("House of Cards,""The Girlfriend Experience").

Sheil plays Chubbuck in scripted scenes depicting key moments leading up to her death while also chronicling Sheil's journey in Sarasota by talking to people who knew Chubbuck.

Greene captures the similarities between the women — Chubbuck's frustrations about not being taken seriously as a journalist in a male-dominated industry; Sheil's concerns about being pigeonholed into one type of character — while also delving into Sheil's struggles to truthfully represent Chubbuck in the scripted scenes with little to no source material. (Sheil is actually not the only actress to play Chubbuck in a Sundance movie; Rebecca Hall plays her in "Christine," which opens in theaters in October.)

"Kate is the film," Greene said. "Kate is someone I'm friends with but also someone I find very interesting to watch on screen because I don't know where things come from, and as a documentary filmmaker, I'm fascinated by that."

Sheil acknowledges, however, that her performance is not without some dramatics for the camera.

"It's simultaneously genuine and completely fabricated," Sheil told Business Insider. "It's me knowing what Robert was trying to do, being frustrated by that, but playing it up."

For example, in one scene, Sheil tries to do one of the scripted scenes but stops and tells Greene it's not working. When one of her costars gives her encouragement, Sheil lashes out at her. When asked how real that scene was, Sheil said she would never talk to another actor that way in real life.

But that aspect of performing for the camera was something Greene wanted to explore in the film, since many documentaries are not as authentic as we may think.

"If you have a camera, you have a performance — that's just a fact," Greene said. "Most documentaries are so eager to hide that because authenticity is this gift to the audience: 'I didn't make this up.' But it's a film — it's not reality. One of the things we're trying to do in the film is to take that as a starting point, not an endpoint."

And then there was the ending of the movie. Did the filmmakers want to reenact a suicide? What of substance would it give the audience?

Greene and Sheil said they didn't come up with the film's ending until the night before they shot it.

"I didn't want to pull the trigger, but flying down to Florida, the plan was to reenact the suicide," Sheil said.

Going back and forth with ideas, the two along with cinematographer Sean Price Williams finally landed on an ending they agreed on (it was filmed on the 41st anniversary of Chubbuck's death), which was greatly influenced by a discovery they made in the reporting for the movie.

"The ending, to me, is everything I care about in movies," Greene said. "The way it came about was a very documentary way. We have a scene and we've talked to people, and now it's an absolute collision of fiction and nonfiction."

A melodrama wrapped in an investigative documentary, "Kate Plays Christine" is a unique story that explores depression, female stereotypes, and privacy in a time when all-access is the norm.

It's a movie that will leave you with more questions than answers, and Greene wouldn't have it any other way.

"The point of the movie is this is what it takes to tell this story," he said. "So when the audience is asking, 'Is it real?' — 'Is Kate deciding to do that, or did Robert tell her to do that?' — we're inviting those thoughts because most films don't invite those thoughts, and it's fruitful because I think that is the nature of the Christine Chubbuck story."

SEE ALSO: 100 movies on Netflix that everyone needs to watch in their lifetime

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: I waited in line for 9 hours to see 'Hamilton' — here's what it was like