Law 48 of 48
Assume Formlessness.
Remain adaptable and flexible in your approach, avoiding rigid adherence to fixed strategies or identities. By adopting a fluid and formless mindset, you can easily adapt to changing circumstances and exploit opportunities as they arise. Formlessness grants you the freedom to maneuver and the resilience to withstand adversity.
Independent commentary on a principle popularised in The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the authors or their publishers.
What it actually means
A fixed plan and a fixed reputation are both things other people can aim at. Staying adaptable is less about being mysterious than about refusing to let an old commitment decide a present choice. What you defend hardest is usually what costs you most.
Where you would have seen it
A small firm builds everything around one large client and one way of working. When the client leaves there is no other muscle in the business, and the months spent defending the old method are the months competitors use.
Try it today
Name one method you are defending out of habit rather than results. Try the alternative once this week and compare what happens.
Where this shows up
Law 48 tends to come up in these parts of life. Follow a path to read the other laws that belong with it:
Laws that go with it
If law 48 landed, these are the entries people usually read next — they cover overlapping ground: law 23, law 34, law 1.
Concentrate Your Forces.
Spread effort produces movement without result.
Leading PeopleComposureAt WorkLaw 34Act Like a King to Be Treated Like One.
People take their cue on how to treat you from how you treat yourself, and they settle on it quickly.
ComposureLeading PeopleLaw 1Never Outshine the Master.
Competence is rarely the problem; displaying it in front of someone whose position rests on being the capable one is.
At WorkLeading People