48 Laws of Power by Carlos

48 Laws of Power by Carlos - May 2017 Scholarship Essay

The book that has best influenced my life has been Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power, a book on 48 laws that will assist you on how to obtain, observe, & deflect power, because I have literally internalized the entire book to the point where it has reflected in my personality, it gave me the passionate desire to read and collect books, and it made me understand the dynamics of power in the modern world while teaching me and reflecting upon certain anecdotes that has occurred in history.
To begin with, 48 Laws of Power has been immensely impactful to my everyday life where at least one law has some tangible influence in my day-to-day decisions. For example, the fourth law in the book is “Always Say Less than Necessary”, in which I had remembered to abide by in a situation where my ego made me want to say something with the primary purpose to show off and display my arrogance but I ended being silent instead. If I had utter anything arrogant in that situation, I would have most likely ended up being punished to some extent, which exemplifies how my internalization of this book has vital importance and impact to my life.
In continuation, Robert Greene’s book has given me the fuel and desire to read more books similar or even vastly different to his book, which had developed my passion for reading books and the goal of becoming a voracious reader to expand my knowledge of subjects. After I read his book, my desire to collect books and read them grew substantially to the point where when I enter a bookstore, I feel like a kid in a candy or toy store. Illustrated by this example is my endearing passion for books and being knowledgeable in certain subjects in topics for pleasure and self-improvement; therefore, displaying how positively influential this book has been to me.
Furthermore, the dynamics of how power operates in this world is told in concise depth by this book because Robert Greene’s masterful skill of storytelling while learning and applying from historical anecdotes. In each law of his book, Greene attaches a certain historical figure or event to it and concisely elaborates on how the law reflects it and explains either how to avoid, imitate, or learn from. For instance, “Court Attention at all Cost” is the sixth law, in which it explains how all publicity is good publicity because Pablo Picasso would rather make a painting that is oddly different and distasteful, rather than being forgotten and fading into the background. This emphasizes how Greene uses historical anecdotes and creates an effective and beneficial lesson out of it to be able to apply it in modern day life; thus, teaching history will providing valuable lessons to improve our daily lives, which it accomplished in my life.
In finalization, the internalization of the entire book in my daily life, the creation of a desire to read literature and developing knowledge from it, and the teaching of valuable life lessons and historical events, are the reasons as to why 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene is the book that has best influenced my life.