Time for flip-the-script Friday:
Today I have an ancient story for you. I know, you’re thrilled.
In an attempt to bring your eyes back from their trip to the back of your skull just now, let me preframe this ancient story by saying it could 1) save your life and 2) make you lots of money.
More modestly, maybe this story can simply teach you an important thing about influence.
The hero of our ancient story is a man named Eumenes, a Greek, who started out as a secretary in Alexander’s army.
Eumenes had secretarial ability but he also had strategic ability. He became a successful general in his own right, and invented lots of clever strategems to win battles against much bigger and more experienced armies.
Following Alexander’s death, Eumenes was brought in to keep order in a region of Alexander’s vast empire. The satraps of that region — the Macedonian and Persian governors — all hated each other, constantly bickered, and fought regularly.
The only thing they could agree on was that they hated their new Greek chaperone even more, and wanted him dead.
Now perk up your ears, because here’s an example of Eumenes’s strategic brilliance:
Eumenes knew that he would soon be dead by poison or dagger, unless he somehow dealt with the hatred of the satraps he was brought in to control. So he did the opposite to protect his life from what most people might do.
Instead of trying to win the favor of the satraps who hated him, he pretended to be in need of money. And he borrowed large sums of money from the satraps whom he suspected of being most ready to have him assassinated.
In this way, says the Greek historian Plutarch, Eumenes “secured the safety of his person by taking other men’s money, an object which most people are glad to attain by giving their own.”
Result:
Some time later, an assassination plot indeed formed against Eumenes’s person. But the plot was independently betrayed to Eumenes by two satraps, both of whom were afraid of losing the large sums of money they had lent to him.
So the next time your life is in danger or you are about to be brought down by political intrigue, think of Eumenes. Flip the script, and you might not only survive but thrive.
The end. Except…
As you might know, flipping the script is one of the chapters I am planning in my new 10 Commandments book, tentatively titled, “10 Commandments of Hypnotists, Pick Up Artists, Comedians, Copywriters, Con Men, Door-To-Door Salesmen, Professional Negotiators, Storytellers, Spirit Mediums, and Stage Magicians.”
But since I’m currently doubling down on my health newsletter, that book is on hold.
The only thing I can therefore offer you today is my first 10 Commandments book, 10 Commandments of A-list Copywriters.
Here’s one Amazon review to get you curious:
“A quick, easy read with great quotes, a bunch of other books it guides you to read, and evergreen information based on psychology and proven results. It’s got a soft but classy pitch for the author’s newsletter leveraging a bunch of the commandments right there in your face. He practices what he preaches.”
If you’d like to get this quick and rather affordable book now: