LAW 1 OF THE 48 LAWS OF POWER BY ROBERT GREENE

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.

After reading this amazing book and having a deeper understanding of what this 1st law truly means through practical life experience, i realize that, the worse thing that can ever happen to someone is outshining ones master.

Baltasar Gracián said

Being defeated is hateful, and besting one’s boss is either foolish or fatal. Most people do not mind being surpassed in good fortune, character, or temperament, but no one, especially not a sovereign, likes to be surpassed in intelligence.”

Never outshine your master……

I know many of us are asking ourselves who is a master or directly who is my master? A master according to me could be anyone you consider above you, someone you look up too, someone you know, you definitely want to learn so many things from. This could either be your parents, your elder siblings, your teachers, your senior colleagues/boss at your place of work. etc Remember age is not a factor here.

The worst mistake anyone could ever do is outshining the master. I am fully aware everyone has insecurities. When you expose yourself in the world and display your natural talents and gifts, you naturally stir up all kinds of resentment, envy, and other manifestations of insecurity especially from people superior or people who think they are better than you are. This is to be expected. You cannot spend your life worrying about the petty feelings of others or those above you, however, you must take a different approach and remember to always stay humble and extremely true to yourself having in mind that, outshining the master is perhaps the worst mistake of all.

I understand almost everyone, including myself, wants to seem more brilliant than we rightly deserve. And we don’t like people to remind us of our fallibility but you can certainly grow deeper in the things we will like to achieve in life by not revealing our superior potentials because once your mentor notices them, they will hold back to your own disadvantage.

BE WISE

STAY HUMBLE

KEEP LEARNING FROM THOSE ABOVE YOU

REMEMBER TO ALWAYS MAKE YOUR MASTER SUPERIOR TO YOU.

KRB