Speaking is a skill that pretty much everyone on the planet needs. That is why it is so important to learn how to read and write as a child because without those skills, you do not have the ability to communicate. Especially in the modern day of the internet, you must be able to read, write, and speak intelligently in order to communicate effectively. Also, being able to communicate in as few words as possible is a valuable skill, especially since people do not have a very long attention span; you only have a few seconds to grab someone’s attention. Being concise and short with your speech will aid and even add a sense of mystery to you, and that will facilitate you in the accumulation of power. This accumulation of power is important in this context because it is a way how to impress people.
This sense of mystery is important when you are attempting to impress people with your words. People who can be rather vague or open-ended in their speech tend to seem more intelligent and stoic. By saying less than necessary, you give people the impression that you are in control of your speech and that you are not a common person. Doing this also makes you less likely to say something foolish since you are saying less to begin with.
Failure to control one’s words
An example of someone who spoke more than necessary is Coriolanus, a roman general who is known for his valor in the siege of Corioli. After his ascension to legend due to his military achievements, he went into the realm of politics. He initially did well, until he began to speak to the public. He allegedly gave long winded speeches in which he came across as arrogant and insulting to the common people. As a result of his insults and constant bragging of how brave and excellent he was, the people did not vote for him.
Coriolanus had come home from the war a hero, but his personality did not compare to the legend the people thought him to be, leaving the people disappointed. People like heroes, and when you finally meet your hero and they don’t live up to your expectations, it can be crushing. This is why the saying “Never meet your heroes” is a thing.
So, what exactly did Coriolanus do wrong? When he spoke to the people, he would give long speeches that were mostly about how great he was. He proved that he could not control his words. People can deal with an arrogant leader, but they cannot deal with an uncontrollable one. A leader who cannot control his words cannot control his behavior either. That can turn out to be a deadly combination for any set of constituents.
Ultimate control
King Louis XIV, however, was known to be taciturn and concise. His presence was so powerful that his nobles would voraciously discuss topics before even talking to him about it. They would debate until they came up with as few coherent and concise arguments as possible. So much thought was put into the arguments that even the exact words to be used to explain the proposal to the king were debated. Once this was decided, the nobles who were the best at displaying each side of the argument went to the king on their own. When asked by the nobles about his thoughts on their proposals, the king would give a short “I shall see” and that was it. The nobles would not find out the king’s thoughts until they saw the manifestation of his actions from their advice.
By saying as few words as possible, none of the nobles knew exactly where the king stood on a topic, therefore, they could not attempt to deceive him. He would rarely discuss state matters in public and he would provide only the basic information necessary to his nobles and ministers. This element of mystery with the king solidified his power among the elite and induced a sense of fear among his advisors. This fear of the advisors is the fear of seeming foolish to the king if they did not provide the best, most concise, and coherent council possible.
Keys on How to Impress
The power in the vagueness is the mystery. We saw this with King Louis XIV. By not explaining his thoughts to his ministers as well as giving answers that didn’t reveal anything, such as his “I shall see” responses, he let his thoughts be a mystery to his advisors. This way his advisors did not attempt to twist their words or only tell him things that they thought he wanted to hear because they honestly did not know what he wanted to hear in the first place. Therefore, Louis made himself immune to that form of deception.
Another advantage to being vague and open-ended in a way that uses as few words as possible is people will make up their own meaning. This can be helpful if you are trying to persuade people because people tend to hear what they want to hear. This is important because you cannot write your legend alone. Other people will write your legend for you based off of their interpretations of your actions and vague speech. Essentially, you are creating the appearance of power or meaning when you say less than necessary because other people will need to fill in that gap in meaning.
Also think about your reason for speaking less than necessary. It is to impress people. That is the lessons of our historical examples. Coriolanus failed to impress the Roman people because he spoke too much and said too many foolish and arrogant things. King Louis XIV on the other hand followed this concept, and as a result he impressed his people, ministers, and nobles.
And to not Impress?
So, sounding like a stoic with your speech appearing to be full of meaning isn’t always a plus. When you speak in such a vague way that people need to fill in the gap of meaning to understand you it is a double-edged sword. Sometimes they will fill in this gap of meaning with something that is not advantageous for you in some way, and this can lead to misunderstandings and huge problems in the future.
One of the advantages of saying less than necessary is that you do not have as many opportunities to say something foolish, but what if it is advantageous for you to be foolish. There are some situations in which being the jester can be helpful in the game of power. It is definitely better than being completely silent because if you are too silent, people will start to think you are secretive and suspicious. This causes them to distrust you, and this is rarely positive.
Conclusions
Inspiration for this post came from Robert Greene’s fourth law of power. If you haven’t already read his book, I would highly recommend it. It definitely makes you think about things (especially politicians) in a different way. The whole point of these posts is to invoke discussion and thought. There are sound arguments for and against this law depending on the situation. That is one thing I have noticed in life, there is no real black and white answer, just varying shades of gray. Those shades depend on the situation and the perspective of the person making the decision.
To your wealth and future,
James Forsythe
For more personal development and philosophy
https://jamesdforsythe.com/category/personaldevelopment/
More Laws of Power: also a way how to impress
https://jamesdforsythe.com/smoke-screens/
https://jamesdforsythe.com/decoys-a-way-to-conceal-your-intentions/
https://jamesdforsythe.com/friends-and-enemies-the-second-law-of-power/
https://jamesdforsythe.com/outshining-the-master-could-be-good-or-bad/
