LAW 35

**Law 35: Mas­ter the Art of Tim­ing**

**Judg­ment:** One should nev­er rush; impa­tience can imply a lack of con­trol. Present your­self as patient, capa­ble of wait­ing for the right moment to act. Under­stand the cur­rent trends and spir­it of the times, know­ing when to hold back and when to take deci­sive action.

**Nar­ra­tive 1: Ser­to­rius’s Approach:** Ser­to­rius, grow­ing in strength, faced a lack of dis­ci­pline among his new bar­bar­ian recruits. To instill obe­di­ence, he allowed them to con­front the ene­my pre­ma­ture­ly, hop­ing they’d learn from a minor defeat. The strat­e­gy worked, and Ser­to­rius rein­forced the val­ue of patience and strat­e­gy over brute force with a vivid demon­stra­tion involv­ing hors­es.

**Nar­ra­tive 2: Joseph Fouché’s Rise to Pow­er:** Fouché, ini­tial­ly a teacher, cap­i­tal­ized on the French Rev­o­lu­tion to ascend polit­i­cal­ly, con­stant­ly adapt­ing to the shift­ing polit­i­cal land­scape. He show­cased excep­tion­al tim­ing by switch­ing alle­giances pru­dent­ly, align­ing with the rad­i­cals or mod­er­ates as nec­es­sary, and even­tu­al­ly secur­ing a posi­tion of pow­er regard­less of the pre­vail­ing regime. Fouché’s adapt­abil­i­ty and strate­gic patience allowed him to thrive in tur­bu­lent times, demon­strat­ing the pow­er of align­ing with the pre­vail­ing winds while being ready to change direc­tion when the cur­rents shift.

**Inter­pre­ta­tion:** Fouché’s suc­cess stems from his mas­tery in under­stand­ing and adapt­ing to the spir­it of the times, show­cas­ing the impor­tance of fore­sight, patience, and rec­og­niz­ing the right moment to act. It’s essen­tial to work with the times, antic­i­pate changes, and not miss the oppor­tu­ni­ties these changes bring.

**Keys to Pow­er:** Time man­age­ment involves con­trol­ling emo­tion­al respons­es to allow for a more strate­gic approach to action. There are three types of time to mas­ter:
— **Long Time:** Man­age it defen­sive­ly, wait­ing for oppor­tu­ni­ties with patience.
— **Forced Time:** Dis­rupt your oppo­nents’ tim­ing to gain advan­tage.
— **End Time:** When the moment to act arrives, do so with deci­sive­ness and speed.

Under­stand­ing and manip­u­lat­ing these aspects can great­ly increase one’s pow­er and influ­ence, illus­trat­ing the essence of mas­ter­ing the art of tim­ing.