Law 35 of The 48 Laws of Pow­er is built on the premise that tim­ing is a cru­cial ele­ment in gain­ing and main­tain­ing pow­er. Greene empha­sizes how you must mas­ter the art of tim­ing, con­trol­ling not just your own actions, but also your reac­tions to the ever-chang­ing cir­cum­stances around you. Impa­tience, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the realms of strat­e­gy and deci­sion-mak­ing, can sig­nal weak­ness and a lack of con­trol. In con­trast, those who can demon­strate patience are able to main­tain pow­er, wait for the right oppor­tu­ni­ty, and make their move when the time is ripe. This prin­ci­ple is about rec­og­niz­ing that tim­ing is not just about speed, but strate­gic control—knowing when to act and when to hold back, enabling you to man­age sit­u­a­tions effec­tive­ly while con­serv­ing resources and ener­gy.

The sto­ry of Ser­to­rius, a Roman gen­er­al, is one of the ear­li­est exam­ples in his­to­ry where strate­gic patience was used to manip­u­late sit­u­a­tions to his advan­tage. Ser­to­rius, upon grow­ing in pow­er, was faced with an army of bar­bar­ian recruits who lacked dis­ci­pline. Instead of imme­di­ate­ly quelling their impa­tience and reck­less behav­ior through force, Ser­to­rius allowed them to engage in ear­ly skir­mish­es, know­ing that a minor defeat would teach them valu­able lessons in humil­i­ty and the need for prepa­ra­tion. Through this cal­cu­lat­ed move, he instilled in his recruits the impor­tance of patience and the wis­dom of strate­gic plan­ning. The demon­stra­tion involv­ing the two horses—one large and pow­er­ful, the oth­er small but persistent—symbolized how per­sis­tent, cal­cu­lat­ed action would always over­come brute force and show the val­ue of slow, steady progress. This sto­ry encap­su­lates the essence of Law 35: wait­ing for the right moment to act, using patience as a method of strength­en­ing and solid­i­fy­ing con­trol.

Anoth­er vivid exam­ple of strate­gic patience is seen in the rise of Joseph Fouché dur­ing the French Rev­o­lu­tion. Orig­i­nal­ly a teacher, Fouché cap­i­tal­ized on the polit­i­cal insta­bil­i­ty of the time to build a rep­u­ta­tion, but he did not rush into mak­ing hasty deci­sions that could have exposed him to dan­ger. He care­ful­ly watched the shift­ing polit­i­cal tides, align­ing him­self with whichev­er fac­tion held the most pow­er, shift­ing alle­giances at the right time to ensure his polit­i­cal sur­vival. When the rev­o­lu­tion began to turn in favor of the mod­er­ates, Fouché deft­ly posi­tioned him­self with them, main­tain­ing his role despite the dras­tic shifts in pow­er dynam­ics. His abil­i­ty to adapt his strat­e­gy to the chang­ing polit­i­cal cli­mate, nev­er act­ing too ear­ly or too late, exem­pli­fies the prin­ci­ple of tim­ing that Greene advo­cates. Fouché’s sto­ry shows how under­stand­ing the times and act­ing at the right moment can help a per­son rise above oth­ers, espe­cial­ly when their rivals are too eager or too quick to make deci­sions that turn out to be pre­ma­ture or mis­placed.

The essence of Law 35 lies in the abil­i­ty to assess sit­u­a­tions with­out emo­tion­al bias and then deter­mine the best course of action, be it patience, action, or inac­tion. Greene argues that emo­tions such as anger and frus­tra­tion often cloud judg­ment, caus­ing peo­ple to act impul­sive­ly and out of sync with the sit­u­a­tion at hand. The law encour­ages indi­vid­u­als to under­stand the dynam­ics of time, rec­og­niz­ing that every­thing fol­lows a nat­ur­al rhythm, and there are moments for retreat, moments for wait­ing, and moments to strike deci­sive­ly. Patience, in this regard, is not mere pas­siv­i­ty but a pow­er­ful strate­gic tool that allows you to con­trol the flow of events while your oppo­nents wear them­selves down. Those who act too soon risk los­ing their advan­tages, while those who act too late may miss their oppor­tu­ni­ty alto­geth­er. Under­stand­ing the tim­ing of events and choos­ing when to make a move is the key to main­tain­ing the ini­tia­tive and ensur­ing that your actions are cal­cu­lat­ed and effec­tive.

Greene fur­ther breaks down the types of time that one must man­age to mas­ter tim­ing effec­tive­ly. “Long Time” refers to peri­ods where it is nec­es­sary to hold back, wait­ing for the right moment to make your move. This requires defen­sive patience, allow­ing the sit­u­a­tion to unfold nat­u­ral­ly with­out try­ing to force a res­o­lu­tion pre­ma­ture­ly. “Forced Time” refers to sit­u­a­tions where you have to dis­rupt an adversary’s rhythm, forc­ing them to act pre­ma­ture­ly or under unfa­vor­able cir­cum­stances, giv­ing you the upper hand. Final­ly, “End Time” is the moment when the win­dow for action has arrived, and one must act swift­ly and deci­sive­ly, ensur­ing that the oppor­tu­ni­ty is seized before it slips away. Mas­tery of these types of time allows a per­son to exert influ­ence by tim­ing their respons­es and actions to fit the exact moment when they will have the great­est impact.

His­tor­i­cal lead­ers, such as Napoleon Bona­parte, exem­pli­fied the mas­tery of tim­ing in both mil­i­tary and polit­i­cal spheres. Napoleon under­stood that mil­i­tary vic­to­ries were often not just about over­whelm­ing force but about know­ing when to attack, when to wait, and when to retreat. The abil­i­ty to sense tim­ing in mil­i­tary and diplo­mat­ic nego­ti­a­tions allowed him to achieve unprece­dent­ed suc­cess­es. Sim­i­lar­ly, in mod­ern busi­ness, lead­ers like Steve Jobs used strate­gic patience, hold­ing back new prod­uct launch­es and inno­va­tions until the mar­ket was ready for them. They knew that per­fect tim­ing can lead to suc­cess and long-term influ­ence, as it max­i­mizes the effect of each deci­sion.

Ulti­mate­ly, Law 35 reveals that time is one of the most crit­i­cal resources at one’s dis­pos­al. Those who con­trol time, whether through patience, strate­gic wait­ing, or deci­sive action, hold the pow­er. Rather than rush­ing into deci­sions, one should care­ful­ly observe, plan, and act only when the moment is right. This law teach­es that the essence of pow­er lies in rec­og­niz­ing when to act and when to wait, using tim­ing as a tool for gain­ing con­trol and influ­ence in any sit­u­a­tion.