Introducing Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy in 1469. One of the most important things in his life was politics and a love for writing. His most famous piece of work was a book called The Prince, written in 1513. His purpose for writing this was to give advice to a ruler on how to stay in power, and to also persuade them that there were no certain morals they had to follow in order to be a good leader. By this, he meant that it was acceptable to use violence and other tactics if it meant you would gain success.
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Machiavelli had many good ideas that could also be used today. If you read his statement, “It is not essential that a Prince have all good qualities, but it is most essential that he should seem to have them,” it still proves to be applicable on how to maintain power and be an effective leader. This is because appearance is one of the most important aspects of modern day life. A modern day example of a leader who did not have every trait a leader is expected to have, but appeared to have them, is Al Gore. He is a huge global warming educational advocate, when he himself is not really that climate friendly. He made a powerful movie to persuade the public to buy climate friendly products, when he drives an Escalade SUV. He may seem like he is against global warming, but is actually helping contribute to it. People will usually only listen to a leader if they appear intelligent, so the way you portray yourself will affect how successful of a leader you may actually be. Although it is important to have good qualities such as communication, if the people you surround yourself with believe that you have the quality they will be more apt to follow your commands.
Another one of Machiavelli’s quotes, “Before all else, be armed,” is not good advice for leaders today. Although it is important to have weapons and guns to protect yourself, it is not the only thing you should focus on. An example of a group that was successful with their actions was the terrorists that bombed the Twin Towers on 911. You may be thinking that they used weapons to gain success, but this is not necessarily true. They used their knowledge that there would be a huge impact on the United States if there were to be a horrific accident in one of its most populous cities, and decided to attack for this affect. This is showing that if you mentally prepare yourself for a situation, and then follow through with your plan it can be far more successful than if you just prepare yourself with weapons. There are plenty of other ways you can acquire success.
If Pizarro were to take advice from Machiavelli, I think it definitely would have been about the following quote. As Machiavelli stated, “Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage,” you can see how this directly relates to what Pizarro did. When Pizarro first faced the Inca’s he saw the situation as an obstacle because he had far less men. When he really thought about what he should do, he found an opportunity to turn the situation to his advantage by using his knowledge of successful tactics used in the past. This is exactly what he ended up doing, and he eventually overthrew the Incan society solely because he knew how to turn a situation in his favor.
