LAW 28

### Chap­ter Sum­ma­ry

#### Law 28: Enter Action with Bold­ness

If uncer­tain about a course of action, it’s best not to pro­ceed, as hes­i­ta­tion and doubt can under­mine your efforts. Bold­ness, on the oth­er hand, com­mands respect and masks defi­cien­cies. Mis­takes made from audac­i­ty are eas­i­er to cor­rect and are often admired more than cau­tion is. This chap­ter draws on his­tor­i­cal anec­dotes and psy­cho­log­i­cal insights to under­line the pow­er of bold­ness in var­i­ous situations—from nego­ti­a­tion to seduc­tion, demon­strat­ing the sig­nif­i­cant impacts of audac­i­ty ver­sus timid­i­ty.

The nar­ra­tive begins with the tale of an adven­tur­er’s bold pur­suit in car­ry­ing an ele­phant of stone across a chal­leng­ing ter­rain, lead­ing to an unex­pect­ed tri­umph. This sto­ry high­lights the val­ue of bold­ness in under­tak­ing risks for sig­nif­i­cant rewards, con­trast­ing sharply with the cau­tion that leads only to missed oppor­tu­ni­ties.

The text then delves into a psy­cho­log­i­cal com­par­i­son of bold­ness and hes­i­ta­tion. Bold­ness elim­i­nates obsta­cles and invokes admi­ra­tion, while hes­i­ta­tion breeds doubt and fails to inspire. It dis­cuss­es the effec­tive­ness of audac­i­ty in hid­ing flaws, as demon­strat­ed in the suc­cess of con artists and nego­ti­a­tions where bold claims and actions can often lead to sur­pris­ing­ly favor­able out­comes. Notably, bold­ness tends to strike fear and estab­lish author­i­ty, cre­at­ing an aura of pow­er around the bold indi­vid­ual.

Sev­er­al his­tor­i­cal obser­vances exem­pli­fy the law: The scam of sell­ing the Eif­fel Tow­er high­lights the effec­tive­ness of bold lies; Ivan the Ter­ri­ble’s sud­den and deci­sive actions to secure pow­er demon­strate the intim­i­dat­ing pow­er of unex­pect­ed bold­ness; and the sto­ry of Pietro Aretino, who used audac­i­ty to ele­vate his sta­tus and influ­ence through dar­ing acts.

These exam­ples serve to illus­trate that bold­ness can sig­nif­i­cant­ly advance one’s inter­ests and influ­ence. The chap­ter advis­es cul­ti­vat­ing bold­ness as a crit­i­cal strat­e­gy for over­com­ing nat­ur­al timid­i­ty, empha­siz­ing that bold­ness can and should be devel­oped to com­mand pow­er, achieve ambi­tious goals, and leave a last­ing impact on one’s endeav­ors and inter­ac­tions with oth­ers.