LAW 8: Make Other People Come to You – Use Bait if Necessary

One of the most famous appli­ca­tions of this law was orches­trat­ed by Charles-Mau­rice de Tal­leyrand, a mas­ter of polit­i­cal intrigue, who care­ful­ly maneu­vered Napoleon Bona­parte into his own down­fall. Fol­low­ing Napoleon’s exile to Elba, Euro­pean lead­ers debat­ed his fate, know­ing that an assas­si­na­tion or per­ma­nent impris­on­ment might back­fire. While oth­ers were uncer­tain, Tal­leyrand calm­ly worked behind the scenes, pre­dict­ing that Napoleon’s relent­less ambi­tion would be his own undo­ing if giv­en just the right push.

In Feb­ru­ary 1815, Napoleon played direct­ly into Talleyrand’s hands by escap­ing Elba and attempt­ing to reclaim France. Instead of tak­ing a more cau­tious approach, he relied on his past charis­ma and mil­i­tary rep­u­ta­tion to ral­ly the army, which tem­porar­i­ly rein­stat­ed him to pow­er. How­ev­er, this auda­cious move only pro­vid­ed Euro­pean pow­ers with a clear jus­ti­fi­ca­tion to unite against him, ulti­mate­ly lead­ing to his crush­ing defeat at Water­loo and per­ma­nent exile to Saint Hele­na, far beyond any pos­si­ble return.

Talleyrand’s bril­liance lay in his abil­i­ty to manip­u­late Napoleon with­out direct con­fronta­tion, allow­ing his opponent’s own nature to lead him to dis­as­ter. Instead of aggres­sive­ly oppos­ing Napoleon, he facil­i­tat­ed con­di­tions where the for­mer emper­or would overex­tend him­self and exhaust his options. This approach demon­strates that true pow­er is not about brute force but about cal­cu­lat­ed maneu­ver­ing, ensur­ing adver­saries fall into sit­u­a­tions where they have no choice but to fight on dis­ad­van­ta­geous ter­rain.

Sim­i­lar strate­gies have been observed through­out his­to­ry, such as Japan’s mas­ter­ful use of decep­tion against the Russ­ian navy in the Rus­so-Japan­ese War of 1905. By con­trol­ling the bat­tle­field and dic­tat­ing ene­my move­ments, the Japan­ese exploit­ed Russia’s logis­ti­cal weak­ness­es and psy­cho­log­i­cal uncer­tain­ty, lead­ing to one of the most deci­sive naval defeats in his­to­ry. This tac­tic aligns with the broad­er prin­ci­ple of ensur­ing that oppo­nents engage under con­di­tions that max­i­mize their vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties.

In mod­ern busi­ness and pol­i­tics, this law applies when com­pa­nies or lead­ers set the terms of engage­ment in nego­ti­a­tions, forc­ing com­peti­tors or oppo­nents into a frame­work where they hold no real pow­er. Skilled nego­tia­tors use care­ful­ly struc­tured con­tracts, strate­gic pric­ing mod­els, or media nar­ra­tives to ensure rivals are react­ing rather than lead­ing. Those who dic­tate the rules of the game shape the out­come, mak­ing it cru­cial to cre­ate an envi­ron­ment where oth­ers feel com­pelled to move in pre­dictable and ulti­mate­ly self-defeat­ing ways.

Under­stand­ing how to bait an oppo­nent with­out appear­ing overt­ly aggres­sive is key to mas­ter­ing this law. By pre­sent­ing an oppor­tu­ni­ty that seems irre­sistible but ulti­mate­ly serves one’s long-term strat­e­gy, adver­saries become unwit­ting par­tic­i­pants in their own down­fall. Whether in war, busi­ness, or per­son­al rival­ries, the abil­i­ty to remain calm while guid­ing oth­ers into traps is one of the most effec­tive tools for main­tain­ing dom­i­nance.

Law 8 under­scores the impor­tance of emo­tion­al con­trol and fore­sight in pow­er dynam­ics. Instead of react­ing impul­sive­ly, those who exer­cise patience and strate­gic plan­ning can cre­ate sce­nar­ios where oppo­nents make cost­ly mis­takes of their own accord. The true essence of pow­er lies in shap­ing the bat­tle­field before the con­flict begins, ensur­ing that vic­to­ry is inevitable before the first move is even made.

Ulti­mate­ly, this law teach­es that influ­ence is not about direct con­fronta­tion but about con­trol over cir­cum­stances, lead­ing oth­ers into deci­sions that ben­e­fit one’s own posi­tion. By sub­tly direct­ing the actions of adver­saries, ensur­ing they act impul­sive­ly rather than strate­gi­cal­ly, one can main­tain long-term dom­i­nance with­out unnec­es­sary con­flict. Those who mas­ter this prin­ci­ple can manip­u­late events with­out appear­ing to do so, secur­ing pow­er with min­i­mal risk to them­selves.