Want to be more Machiavellian?

This guide distills the most powerful strategies into 13 practical steps.

We’ve helped thousands of men sharpen their strategic thinking, navigate power dynamics, and become more effective in business, dating, and life—all while remaining honorable men.

If you’re ready to upgrade your mindset and start winning more, let’s dive in.

1. Look For Leverage Over Others

Romance, love, and bonding follow patterns that can be understood and influenced.

They’re forms of interpersonal influence, reproducible with the right behavior and strategy.

The right behavior and strategy come natural to successful Machiavellians.
You, my budding Mach, must learn it.

🔎 Example: Mach Dating

Albeit a movie, it’s realistic of a Machiavellian approach to dating:

Him: (gains emotional leverage over her with sex, romance and Mach techniques. Then chills when she is hooked)

Also see:

• How to make her fall in love

1.2. Identify Needs & Emotional Buttons: It’s Your Leverage

Common emotional drivers:

• Emotional needs
  • Difficult past 🟰 Be their therapist / confidante
  • Longing for love 🟰 Give them romance

• Social struggles 🟰 Be their good friend

• Unfulfilled desires 🟰 Give them hope

• Resentment 🟰 Let them vent, validate their anger

🙋‍♂️Lucio’s Take: when gaining social power becomes addictive

Lucio:
Some men who get skilled at dating report being hooked on the ‘thrill of seduction’.

Part of the appeal is in gaining power.

It’s similar for socialization.
The thrill is in starting from zero, climbing up, and gaining status and social power.

Once you achieve it, your status is set and you can coast.
But it’s not as exciting anymore.

2. Look At Leadership As Ultimate Leverage

Cooperation made humans the dominant species; those who harnesses it becomes the ultimate masters

🛠️ Machiavellian Leadership Techniques

These can all be fair in win-win exchanges, but you still want to be careful:

• Mission frames, a cause worth dying for

• Self-sacrifice frame, rather than enjoying the perks

• Exaggerate the costs of leadership, so people remain subordinates
  ⛏️ Example: entrepreneurship’s costs

• ‘Us’ frames
  • Downplay the hierarchy to erase the costs of subordination

• Inflate external threats

• Narratives of disempowering forces
  • Powerful forces keeping you down
  • Cabals to rebel against
  • ‘We’re being wronged’

• Goliath VS David frames for ‘need for unity’

• Righteous frames, the ‘war of the good’

You can find these leitmotifs beyond many successful movements:

• Feminism 🟰 patriarchy oppresses us
• Communism 🟰 capitalists oppress us
• Musk / Space X 🟰 ensuring humanity’s survival

Learn more:

How to become a leader

See:

• Political manipulation
• Business manipulation

3. Look At Relationships As Exchanges

Largely, they are.

And always ask ‘What’s in it for me?’.

If the answer is ‘nothing’, nothing is your contribution.

Same goes for people.
People either give, or take—cut ties with the takers.

We believe here that a healthy “what’s in it for me” is not just good for you, but for the world.
It maintains humanity and effective, and drives the world forward.

3.2. Think About Return Maximization

Ie.:

Technical cofounders
❌ Power aware demands his full worth 👎🏼
✅ Naive 🟰 builds it for little equity 👍🏼

Watch exchange manipulation red flags

An example of ‘credit inflating’:

See more here:

• Overview on manipulation

Reminder: don’t turn into a taker, always prefer for win-win
A strategic mindset doesn’t mean taking and shortchanging others.
The best Machiavellians know that sustainable power and high-quality relationships come from offering real value.

5. Develop Baseline Cynicism

You can’t be effectively strategic if you’re naive.

Balanced cynicism is built on the knowledge that everyone pursues self-interest.
Work backward from their interests to uncover true motives

If they say differently, it’s a spin, lie, or self-lie.

Some articles to develop your cynicism:

• Business manipulation
• Machiavellian principles

And to keep your cynicism healthy, see:

• Enlightened cynicism

Exercise: Contemplate Machiavellian Beliefs

Some of them:

• There’s only 1 law of nature: power
  • It’s fair for those with power to do whatever they want
• Bad policies are often good politics
• The world isn’t fair. And neither it should be
• People only see what appears, and what appears to be true, is true
• You never hear the truth because information is about power -and controlling the narrative–
• People do the expedient, then lie to themselves- and you- that it’s ‘right’
• People get most upset about what’s out of their control. It’s easy virtue-signaling, without having to do sh*t

Not all of the above are necessarily and always true -that would be over-cynicism-.
And they’re also not necessarily commendable or advisable.
But they’re well worth keeping in mind.

6. Develop Machiavellian Thought Process

Some people take rules very seriously.
Some others don’t take them seriously enough, and end up in trouble.

Machiavellians instead are strategic about it.
To Machiavellians, rules by themselves mean nothing.

And this is their thought process around legality:

The Machiavellian decision process is based on utilitarian calculation of personal gains.

There is no preconceived notion that respecting the law is a good thing in itself.

Many Machiavellians see blind rule-following as limiting

And if you think this mindset gets you in trouble… I wouldn’t be so sure.
In this survey of 225 prisoners and 38 lawyers, it’s lawyers who scored higher in Machiavellianism, not prisoners.
But those Machiavellians were on the “right” side of the law.

7. Develop Strategic Thinking

🙋‍♂️Lucio’s Take: This is my #1 secret to achieving goals

Lucio:
I had achieved all my life goals by middle age, while also enjoying life.

Everything else that comes, is on top.

It’s a great place to be in.

My personal success comes down to 3 traits.
A strategic predisposition may be the most important.

What helps:

1. Start from your goal
2. Walk backwards
   • What you need
     • How can you get them
   • What stands in the way
     • How to maneuver around obstacles
   • Find shortcuts—think creatively
3. Risk / reward analysis for each possible approach
4. Think 2-3 moves ahead (second-order effects)
   • If I do A…
   • They may say B or C…
   • …I may do Z or Y
   • And then…
   • …
5. Mitigation
   • What will you do/say if caught

🔎 Mitigation example

A smart and honorable mitigation tactic is to own your tentative and come clean.
Then, ask if an exception is possible.

Very masculine and high power.

PU expands on this with advanced breakdowns and real-life applications.

8. Decide Based On Risk/Reward Calculation

Timid men stagnate.
Risk-takers rely on luck.
Machiavellians maximize odds.

🔎 Case Study: Risk-Reward Accountancy

In this YouTube video:

Robber: (enters guns drawn)
Employee: (draws his gun for risky shootout)

A Machiavellian wouldn’t have acted for negative risk/reward calculations:

• Little upside besides good feelings and a pat on the back
• Faces dead-ending downsides to
• Defend company property

The clerk is a hero and deserves more in life.
But even from an ethical point of view, the honorable Machiavellian knows that we need heroes alive to keep contributing with their win-win.

9. Talk & Act With Sub-Communication In Mind

Everyone can weigh words.

But higher communication effectiveness is at the sub-communication level.

10. Quit Higher Ideals: Be Ruthlessly Practical

Higher ideals are great, but can also be tools for manipulation.

10.2. Quit Loyalty – Switch to The Best Opportunity

Loyalty is the emotional manipulation tool of those who can’t offer any better

Mr too cynical but sometimes right

Let dogs be loyal. You demand returns on investment.

10.3. Quit Commitment – Embrace Strategic Plurality

Commitment is the reassuring illusion of the emotionally needy

Mr too cynical but sometimes right

Let the needy and fearful rely on illusionary, unenforceable social contracts.
You move free and unchained to conquer the world unencumbered.

🔎 Strategic Pluralism In Business

Mach 1: Regimes change are always tricky. You wanna stay neutral. Loyalists are always hung
Low Mach: What’s wrong with you. Aren’t you loyal to anyone?
Mach 2: (Picks a side at no risk for himself)

Of course he is loyal to someone.
He is loyal to himself.

In many situations, this is a fair stance.
It’s not written anywhere that you “owe” loyalty to a boss, group, or company that is already getting value with your work.

Keep Options & Pipeline Full

In “The Art of the Deal“, Trump asks for higher bids, and then reflects:

The truth is, I really don’t wanna sell the yard at any price (…) On the other hand, I don’t want to rule out anything.

👉🏼 Carefully choose your higher ideals, rather than shunning them all
Over-Machiavellians tend to be alienated and dissatisfied.
The smartest Machiavellians develop their own honor code, a mission to pursue, or some value to uphold. See effective spirituality and positive psychology.

11. Quit The ‘Real Me’ Nonsense: Be A Chameleon

Self-help gurus are obsessed with the ‘real me’ talk and ‘being genuine’.

First of all, the obsession with ‘being yourself’ is a cultural WEIRD phenomenon that only Westerners obsess with (Heinrich, 2020).

Second, to a Machiavellian, that’s puerile, naive, and self-handicapping.
When you tie ‘be true to yourself’ to your self-esteem, you don a self-defeating straitjacket that prevents you from adapting and winning.

Quit the weak ‘real me’ talk, and be a chameleon.

There is no ‘real you’.
There is only the ‘you’ who’s most likely to win -or lose-

The Power Moves

12. Rewire Your Brain With Meditation

Surprised to see meditation here?

Let’s quickly review how it helps with Machiavellianism.

1. Working memory: research shows Machiavellians have higher working memory capacity, making for superior strategizing. Meditation has been shown to improve working memory
2. Cool-effect: meditation can help you gain distance from your feelings, making you “cooler”.

The proof?

People trained in mindfulness act more like Machiavellians when tested in ultimatum games.
Normally, 3/4 of people reject “unfair offers” in ultimatum games, even when the “unfair offers” are still good for them (Guth et al., 1982).
Meditators instead accepted the “unfair” offer more than half of the times, just like a Machiavellian would (Kirk et al., 2011).

13. Look At Life As A Chessboard

Anything between you and your goal is to be used, or dispatched.

13.2. Be A Social Maneuverer

Social Machiavellians seek maximum power and influence with advanced social skills, confidence, and charm.

🙋‍♂️Lucio’s Take: positioning myself for natural & low-effort open

Lucio:
My target at a social gathering was talking with a guy.

If I joined their convo I’d be chasing and competing for her attention.

Instead, I talked to the girl beside me and made her laugh to show ‘preselection’.

Two minutes after my target went to the restroom, I moved to a table in between us, and the restroom.

I pretended to take a socializing break to check my phone, and struck a ‘cool pose’.
I put the phone away before she got close, and struck a convo with a chirpy ‘Hey’, how’s your evening going’.

I could see the guy nervously peering at us -but he should have exchanged contact sooner-.

🔎 Example: Machiavellian Power Moves

“Power moves” are the tactical level of power dynamics.

And while power moves are often dominant and ‘one-upping’, Machiavellian fluidity does what it takes to reach one’s goals

So a power move may also entice others to attack you, if that will help you achieve victory.

Football’s most legendary power move was about getting headbutted:

Machiavellian player: (provokes opponent into aggressive overreaction)

Materazzi was an average player.
Zidane was a legend, and he seemed on his way to become even more legendary.
With Materazzi’s victory, this is the tale of Machiavellian David VS powerful Goliath.

That’s the power of Machiavellianism.
Empowers the underdogs to win against all odds.

14. Use Machiavellian Applied Psychology

Psychology is only useful if properly applied.

Psychology reading lists with Malcolm Gladwell and books like Thinking Fast and Slow won’t improve your life effectiveness.

🔎 Marketing Example: Social Proof

Early in this website’s life, I contacted subscribers to re-process their subscription with this picture:

📝 Question:
Why a large screenshot instead of their failed payment only?

Because the list of transactions shows social proof from other buying customers:

This is applied psychology.

Take a known psychological principle, in this case, “social proof” (Cialdini, 1984), and find everyday applications to it.

Without social proof, collection rate would have been far lower.

As you can see, Machiavellian skills are money.

Now imagine the upshot to your life when you apply a hundred different principles, on a thousand different scenarios, over a whole lifetime.
It’s the difference between languishing at the bottom of society, or climbing upwards.

15. Grow Into “Honorable Machiavellianism” 🦅

Move beyond pure Machiavellianism to avoid known costs like alienation, poorer relationships, lack of intimacy, and life dissatisfaction.

At TPM we embrace calibration. Two quick rules based on ‘switching modes’:

• Use your Machiavellian mode for competitions, negative people, and when in ‘mission mode’
• Be honorable in quality longer-term relationships: pick good partners and friends, establish win-win

Also see:

• How to be an honorable man

Learn More

• Psychological manipulation
• Dark psychology

If you’ve found these principles useful, imagine what you can achieve with a structured, step-by-step system built on the best strategies from Machiavellian masters.

PU isn’t just about theory—it’s about practical, scientific, and tested techniques for real-world influence.

If you’re serious about maximizing your returns in life, it’s the next best move.

For a full transformation from good guy to effective life winner, get Power University