Everyone wants to get ahead, to be on top and to be worshipped by the rest of the herd. We may think that getting ahead is through working your ass off only until you get burnt-out. This might be common sense but those people at the top are secretly laughing those people who are climbing the ladder to be where they are now.

There is a word called “Leverage.” When I first encountered it, it sounded like a Physics terminology word, I easily skipped it thinking that it’s very hard to understand.

Then that word keeps on haunting me, as it is evidently the most common tool behind a person in power.

Having leverage is:
Money working for you.
People serving you, and
The force is with you. (Star Wars fan)

It’s seems that everything is free, it seems that you’re getting what you want out of doing nothing.

Have you heard of Jujitsu? Jujitsu is concentrating and using the force of your enemy for his downfall.

How can you, a typical normal person be ahead of anyone else? We may not be there yet at the top but here are three baby steps for you in which you can start to apply today:

1.) Let them be ruined by their pride and ego.

We all have pride and ego. But I want you to know that these two is self-destructing. Ryan Holiday, in his book “Ego is the Enemy” has explained it very well. Pride and Ego feels good and everyone wants to feel good. I know it’s the one thing that’s very hard to let go, but I want you to see that Pride and Ego blurs-out our sense of reality.

Have you tried taking a roadtrip on a mountain full of fog? Only a fool will drive faster. No one wants to fall into their death. But that’s what pride and ego do to us, it will surely lead us to our death if we keep on holding into it and drive even faster aimlessly.

Let people who are full of pride keep on doing what they are doing. Since they have a wrong sense of reality, they live life blindly. One day they will wake up dead without knowing what had happened and you’re there in the top knowing what had caused their fall. Leverage on that.

2.) Let them spend their money and be broke.

We live in a world of materialism and consumerism. Everyone wants to be trendy and flashy. The only person who can stay with the trends are celebrities, because they earn out of doing it. Make sure that every attention you have will leverage on you, but if that attention is equivalent to just 20 likes and being forgotten again, it’s not worth it.

Do you have that annoying facebook friend who shows she has a perfect life? A friend who’s always eating out, travelling, and having the latest gadget? If they are doing it just for likes and attention then let them spend their money and be broke.

Let them skip investing, and you do the opposite. The next recession is your leverage.

Time will come that they are drowning in debt while you’re the only one who has cash, PHYSICAL CASH. By that time, people will admire you for having something because they have nothing.

3.) Let them take the fastlane.

“Get rich quick, pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing.” The herd is clinging into these scams. Are you one of them? I am sorry to say but their promises are empty, they are just really feeding up your greed and vanity for them to earn.

Human nature wants shortcuts. Good things in life does not happen overnight but that’s what Disney movies portrays to us.

This world is significantly stimulus-driven complicated environment. We all want to escape that fact.

We hate studying accounting and philosophy, it’s too complicated but we love hearing the promises of financial scams out of our greediness.

We hate hardwork and discipline but admit it because that’s human nature. After admitting it, let hardwork and discipline be your friend.

Let them watch Netflix.
Let them fight on their favorite sports team or Kpop idol.
Let them sip that expensive Starbucks coffee.
While they are doing it, you are building skills behind closed doors.

I want you to see the concept of instant gratification versus delayed gratification. There is an exchange of either play now and pay later or pay now then play later. It’s your choice.

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Elon Musk, they are there at the top because they give value. A person who keeps on wasting time can never add value to the community. Remember, there’s no article that Steve Jobs is a party goer in his 20’s, or Warren Buffet get hooked to a TV series during his time.

This does not apply only in money.

Let people get on tinder. Let your ex-lover enter into a rebound relationship. Let people use other people to make them feel good.

If you’re that person who relies to other people for pleasure then you’re easily saying to your self that you can’t rely to your own self to be happy. Machiavellians are self-made.

In a relationsip, you also carry their toxic troubles if you’re tied up with them. Remember, psychologically unhealthy people are expensive and emotionally draining. So if you’re stuck with someone who can give you short-term pleasures but a toxic mental energy in exchange, then the precious energy you have will just be spent on that toxic partner.

Personally, the greatest revenge that you can give is to let that person be tied up to another toxic person until they both rot.

Last point on this: When it comes to leveraging people, desperate people are the ones who are easy to manipulate.

4.) Let them take the power and authority.

There’s a danger in having power prematurely. It will just make the situation worst. When that time comes, stand as the savior.

Just take the example of Monarchs. They are kings by birth. Why is it that they have to undergo strict rules? It’s because they are not there for their skills but because of their bloodline. Courtiers are there to protect the kingdom and they do that by guiding the incompetent kings aged 10 years old.

It’s easier to be in power and authority if you’re competent enough. It’s destructive and shameful if you’re not.

5.) Let them be dumb.

Humans are lazy. They are lazy thinking. The people on top are not the smartest people, but they are the thinking people who implement it the first.

Today is the best time to learn and grow your thinking skills because everyone is just wasting their time on entertainment. A time will come that their only choice is to follow you because their knowledge bank is empty. They are so dumb to even came up with one question.

Remember the time when I first encountered the word leverage? Imagine the time that has been lost after realizing what does it really mean. Just because of deciding to be lazy learning.

These are just five. I have not explained it very well or convinced you hard enough, because I want to think on your own.
Machiavellianism is a skill of outsmarting and leveraging people, it’s not spoon-feeding.

If you can see the pattern, it’s all about “letting them”. It’s because there’s this absolute rule that bad actions have consequences on them while strategic ones have rewards. Sometimes a person is in the bottom out of his own wrong decisions. If all people are keep on taking wrong turns in life, there’s only be few making the right ones. Thus in the end, the promise of being on top.

Time is my friend. – MacEcriv