LAW 9: The Power of Actions Over Words

Law 9 of The 48 Laws of Pow­er high­lights the supe­ri­or­i­ty of actions over words in influ­enc­ing oth­ers and secur­ing last­ing vic­to­ries. Engag­ing in debates or ver­bal con­fronta­tions often leads to resent­ment, even if one wins the argu­ment, as peo­ple rarely appre­ci­ate being proven wrong. Instead, demon­strat­ing one’s beliefs or skills through tan­gi­ble results not only silences oppo­si­tion but also estab­lish­es author­i­ty with­out unnec­es­sary con­flict.

A well-known his­tor­i­cal exam­ple illus­trat­ing this prin­ci­ple is the sto­ry of a vizier false­ly accused and sen­tenced to death. Instead of attempt­ing to plead his case with words, he spent his remain­ing days befriend­ing the sul­tan’s hunt­ing dogs, feed­ing and car­ing for them. When the time of exe­cu­tion arrived, the dogs, instead of attack­ing, pro­tect­ed him, forc­ing the sul­tan to recon­sid­er the ver­dict and ulti­mate­ly spare his life, prov­ing that actions often have more per­sua­sive pow­er than argu­ments.

Sim­i­lar­ly, the sto­ry of an engi­neer in a mil­i­tary set­ting high­lights the dan­gers of insist­ing on ver­bal per­sua­sion rather than demon­strat­ing com­pe­tence. When ordered to rein­force a for­ti­fi­ca­tion, he argued relent­less­ly that his orig­i­nal design was supe­ri­or instead of show­cas­ing its strength. His defi­ance led to his exe­cu­tion, rein­forc­ing the les­son that in many sit­u­a­tions, prov­ing one’s point through action is a far safer and more effec­tive strat­e­gy than engag­ing in fruit­less debates.

Michelan­gelo’s encounter with May­or Soderi­ni offers anoth­er com­pelling case of action tri­umph­ing over words. When Soderi­ni crit­i­cized the nose of Michelangelo’s stat­ue of David, Michelan­ge­lo pre­tend­ed to adjust it by secret­ly sprin­kling dust from his chis­el, with­out actu­al­ly alter­ing the sculp­ture. Upon see­ing the “change,” Soderi­ni was sat­is­fied, prov­ing that actions—sometimes even the illu­sion of action—can set­tle dis­putes more effec­tive­ly than log­i­cal argu­ments.

Anoth­er strik­ing exam­ple is the sto­ry of Ama­sis, an Egypt­ian ruler of hum­ble ori­gins who sought to gain the respect of the aris­toc­ra­cy. Instead of argu­ing for his legit­i­ma­cy, he per­formed a sym­bol­ic act by break­ing a gold­en foot basin, which was pre­vi­ous­ly used for wash­ing feet, and then repur­pos­ing it into a revered stat­ue. The trans­for­ma­tion demon­strat­ed that one’s ori­gins do not define their worth, influ­enc­ing pub­lic per­cep­tion more pow­er­ful­ly than any speech could.

This law applies to mod­ern con­texts as well, par­tic­u­lar­ly in busi­ness and lead­er­ship. Employ­ees who show results rather than debate their capa­bil­i­ties are more like­ly to gain recog­ni­tion, while lead­ers who take deci­sive action earn trust more than those who mere­ly make promis­es. In nego­ti­a­tions, allow­ing out­comes to speak for them­selves often car­ries more weight than lengthy dis­cus­sions, ensur­ing that one’s cred­i­bil­i­ty remains intact.

In psy­cho­log­i­cal terms, peo­ple tend to trust what they see more than what they hear, mak­ing vis­i­ble proof of com­pe­tence far more influ­en­tial than per­sua­sive rhetoric. This is why social proof, tes­ti­mo­ni­als, and demon­stra­tions are more effec­tive in con­vinc­ing audi­ences than sim­ple claims. The pow­er of action taps into this fun­da­men­tal aspect of human nature, mak­ing it a for­mi­da­ble tool in any sphere of influ­ence.

How­ev­er, the law acknowl­edges that in rare cas­es, argu­ments may serve a strate­gic pur­pose, such as in moments of decep­tion or dis­trac­tion. Skilled manip­u­la­tors may use words to divert atten­tion while exe­cut­ing their true inten­tions else­where. Yet, the over­ar­ch­ing prin­ci­ple remains that actions car­ry greater weight, and those who rely on results rather than rhetoric are more like­ly to achieve last­ing pow­er.

Ulti­mate­ly, Law 9 teach­es that pow­er is best secured through demon­stra­tion rather than ver­bal jus­ti­fi­ca­tion. Those who engage in end­less debates may feel momen­tary sat­is­fac­tion in prov­ing a point, but they often breed ani­mos­i­ty and resis­tance. In con­trast, those who act deci­sive­ly and let their achieve­ments speak for them gain influ­ence effort­less­ly, prov­ing that in the pur­suit of pow­er, what one does will always mat­ter more than what one says.