Video summary
In this discussion, Robert Greene emphasizes that reputation serves as the cornerstone of power, functioning independently from one's actual actions or reality. He illustrates how a strong reputation allows an individual to intimidate opponents and secure victories before a battle even begins, noting that once such a reputation slips, vulnerability is immediate and attacks come from all sides. Drawing parallels between games like chess, poker, and sports, Greene argues that while chance plays a role in outcomes—such as the cards dealt in poker—the psychological element of bluffing and reading opponents' tells often determines success. He posits that life operates similarly to these strategic games where metrics or objective data are less relevant than one's ability to play optics, manage appearances, and utilize psychological gambits to rise to positions of power, such as becoming a CEO. Greene shares his experience as a nightclub promoter to demonstrate how reputation functions on both an individual and corporate level. He observed that regardless of the specific theme or decoration of a venue, the core product remained consistent: people getting drunk in a room listening to music. By consistently delivering high-quality parties, he built a brand reputation that attracted more crowds exponentially over time. However, he warns against letting others define one's character, as this cedes control and allows enemies to derate achievements by labeling individuals with negative traits like "liar" or "phony." He stresses the permanence of credibility, noting there is no return policy on it; once damaged, particularly through careless social media posts from years ago that resurface later in life, it can be nearly impossible to regain. The conversation highlights the critical importance of consistency and having a core identity to prevent appearing weak or distrustful. Greene explains that while people may forgive shifts in opinion if there is a logical explanation for the change, constantly flipping between conservative and liberal views without substance makes one look "weasy" and soulless. He advises against allowing others to fill the vacuum left by an undefined self-image, as this enables adversaries to poke holes in one's standing effectively like popping a balloon. By maintaining a consistent persona that people can easily grasp—whether being known for humor or strength—one avoids looking opportunistic and retains control over how they are perceived in the social world. Throughout the dialogue, Greene references specific examples of reputation management failures, such as a British MP who faced severe backlash years after posting an offensive tweet about Estonians on Twitter around 2009, illustrating that digital footprints can haunt careers indefinitely. He also touches upon figures like Joe Rogan and various political personalities who may trade long-term credibility for short-term financial gain or popularity swings, suggesting they would likely give up all their wealth to restore their standing in the "cool kids club." The overarching conclusion is that mastering psychology involves understanding these nebulous rules of power, where reputation acts as a force multiplier when growing but becomes an exponential liability if it begins to decline. The episode concludes with Greene reinforcing the idea that one must never let others define them, especially given how much depends on maintaining integrity in public perception. He notes that even successful authors and podcasters sometimes sacrifice their credibility for money or fleeting trends, a strategy he views as ultimately unsound because reputation is multiplicative rather than subtractive when managed correctly. The discussion underscores that while life offers no guarantees like baseball batting averages, the strategic application of psychological principles regarding how one appears to others remains essential for navigating power dynamics and avoiding ruinous attacks on character.
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so much depends on reputation reputation
is the Cornerstone of power through
reputation alone you can intimidate and
win once it slips however you are
vulnerable and will be attacked on all
sides never let others Define it for
you you know so when I wrote the 48 Laws
of Power I tried
to I have somebody through my whole life
loves playing games I don't mean that in
the abstract sense I mean literally like
chess back Gam
Sports poker
whatever and um I like the cleanness of
a game it's like you do this and you can
win ET but there's also a psychological
element in it so particularly when
you're playing poker and you're bluffing
and you're and I was always fascinated
by this it's a game of chance you don't
really know what cards you're going to
get but that fellow over there he's been
bluffing he Bluff before I'm sure he did
he's going to do it again right so the
psychology starts entering into the
picture in a game of chance it's not
game there's skill certainly skill
involved but a lot of it's
chance and because he bluffed before and
he's got that look in his eye could be a
woman don't mean to generalize all right
I'm G to fold okay so you don't realize
that so much of the game of power has
nothing to do with data and you being
better person at something a lot of it
is pure psychology and intimidating
people and winning before you even enter
into a battle so if you have a
reputation you carry it with you and the
reputation doesn't have to be
real
personally I don't know how valid this
is I have this reputation now of being
this Mackie valyant characters you know
and so if Robert's 5 minutes late for a
meeting it means he's playing a game
even though it was probably just the
traffic but my reputation now kind of
put people a little bit on their heels
you know where it's not necessarily true
about me but it kind of goes ahead of me
and it makes it influences proceeding
yeah and so it's a extra form of power
so the idea you have to the overall
arching idea to pull us out of the
specific is power is pure
psychology pure psychology
and what I mean by that is um the CEO of
a company he doesn't get there based on
it's not like baseball whereas balls and
Star Soccer I'm sorry you probably don't
even know I'm a ranger I'm a Texas
Rangers Fan I'll have you oh okay all
right well it's not like baseball where
balls you know you hit you have a good
batting average or Ops all right you're
you're you're going to get in the lineup
they're going to bat you in in the
cleanup spot okay um
life isn't like that so the way somebody
Rises to the CEO and I know because I
was on the board of directors of a
publicly traded company it's not about
metrics it's not about things that
they've actually done it's about
psychology right people rise to
positions of power because they know how
to play the game and they know how to
play the game psychology they know how
to appear they know how to play the
Optics they know how to intimidate they
know how to say less than necessary they
know all the psychological little
gambits and that's why I wrote the 48
Laws of Power it's kind of like this is
The Game of Life the game of power the
rules are are a little bit nebulous but
here's how you play you play by
mastering these little psychological
bids one of them is your
reputation I'm fascinated by reputation
and credibility especially given what I
do now but my previous life I was a club
promoter I ran you were a what club
promoter I ran nightclubs a very long
time clip
promoter but what do we call that here
Club it would still be it would just be
a promoter it's called Uh
so marketing for nightclubs essentially
the guy stood on the front door with the
guest list and the bands for VIP and all
of the hot girls names and then after a
while we owned a group of guys that did
that and then we owned a group of guys
that owned a and you start to build up
this company W and
um in
that every single nightclub that you've
ever been to is the same thing it's
people getting drunk in a room to music
it'll never be anything else you can
dress this one up pink and give out
inflable flamingos on the door or this
one's really cheap or this one's on a
wedding's day and it's sort of naughty
that you shouldn't be going out on a
wedding's day dress it up however you
want it's people getting drunk in a room
to music that's all it's ever going to
be and what I realized from doing that
was the power of reputation this isn't
the reputation of a person it's the
reputation of a brand but if your
company is known for always putting on
good parties then you get to benefit
from that and and what happens is when
you have a reputation for good putting
on good parties people come more people
come you better yep correct so this is
the this sort of odd and this is the the
really important Point uh never let
others Define it for you uh and uh when
you are vulnerable you'll be attacked on
all sides because as it's going up it it
does it precedes you it continues to do
work for you exponentially growing and
growing but when you're starting to go
down even your best work will sometimes
be derated to be worse than it is so you
have done something that is good but
because of your reputation you're a liar
you're a phony you're a grifter you're a
shill you're a fake that's right yeah it
credibility is the one thing that you
should never sell because you cannot buy
it back there is no return policy on
your credibility and and people are so
getting back to the word stupid I
mean they post things on social
media with when they're young not
realizing that 5 years later when
they're trying to get a job at a law
firm they're like you know sure they're
doing incredibly ridiculous things on
Instagram and that part of their
reputation everything you do is
reflected through the social world right
nothing is in
isolation people are continually judging
you so you have to be aware you have to
think before you post you have to think
how are people going to take this if I
say this stupid rude thing that comes
right out of me because I don't control
my my my tongue it's going to ruin my
one fault step will ruin your reputation
there's a British MP who is receiving on
the receiving end of a tweet from
2009 which has come back around I think
I read about this that you like get
these Estonian retards out of my house
right
now so I don't mean to laugh about that
it's terrible estonians are very smart
people get these Estonian retards out of
my house right now or I want these
whatever and uh she's had to do this
gring apology oh God but I mean you know
when was Twitter when did Twitter start
probably 2008 or so this is you know is
early this is the equivalent of the big
bang you know this is the whatever it is
microwave cos cosmic background of
tweets and
um yeah the I I just love that I really
I really think that the reputation Point
can't be overstated and you know I've
got to see in this industry as well both
whether it's authors podcasters YouTube
there are some people who have
traded reputation and credibility for uh
money or for short-term trades that
didn't make sense and they've not ended
up coming off in one form or another
they've tried to cash it in like give me
an example you mean like going to
Spotify and uh no no not to not name
names no not that um interestingly with
with Joe's move to Spotify that was
something that he got an an awful lot of
credibility for and that's one of the
interesting things had it have been with
a different platform that didn't carry
as much uh weight gravitas they have
their own reputation it becomes
multiplicative as opposed to sort of
subtractive yeah I know of course like
uh getting a Nike sponsorship is cool
hoay for you that's not you selling out
but getting a sponsorship with some
brand that everybody thinks is really
like lame that is selling out you're
obviously only doing it for the cash um
but you know there's a ton of guys that
have held political positions or have
swayed With the Wind just blown with the
whatever it goes this way whenever it
goes that way and the interesting thing
is even if they've made a ton of money
from it even if it's been advantageous
in one domain I actually think that if
you gave them the opportunity they would
give all of it back and some to be able
to regain their reputation I think they
would give anything they could to be
back in the cool kids club and there's
no return policy on credibility well the
other thing about reputation credibility
is it has to be
consistent so um you have to like it's
like a brand you you're you're known for
something you're known for being strong
you're known for being self-confident
you're known for being Mack of ellian or
whatever it is funny or light yeah and
there's a certain kind of you know shape
to it and if you're like all over the
map and you're going over here your
reputation is about that it's about this
it looks weak it makes it look like
because we want to we want to feel like
people judge on appearances they don't
judge on the reality of who you are they
don't know who I am or who you are they
judge in what they see and what they how
we appear and if those appearance they
want to have something consistent that
they can grab on to they want to say
something simple that guy is funny and
that's who he is you know this guy is
that they want a very simple formula and
if you can't be consistent if you're all
over the place
if you're changing your ideas you're
Conservative then you're liberal blah
blah and you're trying to to tack with
each wind to get power yeah you'll get
some power that way but it'll make you
look weasy it'll make you look
distrustful and people won't like that
and your reputation will be one of
somebody who has no soul who has no core
so reputation also has to have a
consistency a core to it a soul that
binds it all together especially if it
seems like it's being done for a
contrived reason you know I think people
are fine with people changing their mind
as long as show me you're working
explain to me how you got from that
position to this one don't do it beyond
the sort of Tolerance level that we all
have this is a little bit too much I've
updated I used to be Pro this now I'm
anti that
um yeah I I really do think an awful lot
about the value of of reputation and
um in another way it's very never let
anybody else toine it for you um you
know allowing that sort of vacuum to to
seep in loses you your power over your
reputation and it allows other people to
derate it on the other hand if you're
very mauian person poke holes in the in
your enemy's reputation and you will
destroy them bring up things that are
inconsistent with their reputation and
you will have ruin be like a popping a
balloon it'll just go like that you know
and I talk about how in that chapter how
PT barn and played that game to ruin
other people's reputation and make
people wonder is he really like that I
guess not because I just saw this fact
that contradicts it so I'm giving you
some very evil mellan advice out there
if you have enemies and other news this
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will love the full length conversation
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