When I was brand-new to this business owner life, I found those lists of books that "Every Entrepreneur Must Read!" I'm talking about the likes of: Think and Grow Rich, Corporate Magick: Mystical Tools for Business Success, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and all that lousy literature (though, being bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I didn't know this stuff was absolute pants at the time).

I decided I'd work through them one by one, like a good student, and mostly I'd read the first few chapters, think "Nahhhh, not really for me," and move on to the next one. (Most of those lists remained unread. And I'm more than okay with that.)

The 48 Laws of Power was on every single list, and I kept walking past it. Then one day a podcast was on in the background, and the guest, an actor and singer, said she goes back to her copy whenever she needs to reset how she thinks about the way the industry treats her. A bible, of sorts. Sooooo… Okay, now I was curious.

You'll probably have heard the hype. It's banned in some prisons. Apparently, all the celebs, CEOs, politicians and athletes are household names and doing brilliantly in their lives and careers because of it. Supposedly, if you read it, you'll have everything you need to take over the world. So I picked it up, and two chapters in, I thought, "This book CANNOT be serious."

I went online and read the summary of every law to check I wasn't being unfair.

I wasn't. It's a manual for winning by manipulating and hurting people. Crush your enemy totally. Keep others in suspended terror.

How dare this author publish a book like this and tell the world this is how power is done? And to top it off, everyone freakin' loves it??? It's his seminal work, the book everybody should own, and I'm sat there thinking, what in the Joffrey Baratheon is happening here? Am I the only person who sees that this book is diabolical? Like… this can't be real life?

Straight up, it's a play-by-play on how to be a dick. I called it dic(k)tator power at the time, and I stand by that. And these 48 Laws actually work, because humans respond to whatever makes them feel something, even if that feeling is fear or anger.

Think about everyone who's had power over you.

Teachers. Bosses. Law enforcement. Local government. The "Manager" when you're making a point of NOT being difficult as you try to return the pair of jeans you optimistically purchased a size too small. Even parents. All of them authority figures. All of them in positions where they're trusted to lead and make decisions for your greater good, and, by extension, society. What bothered me about my experience with most of them was how they used that authority: through fear and intimidation, and gaslighting, and passive aggression, and by making you feel small. So many people are living under that kind of power right now. WHY???

Then to top it off, the good humans among us who should be in these positions of authority look at that version of power and think, "If my only route to success runs through The 48 Laws of Power, I don't want it." And I get that. But the seat they walk away from never stays empty. There's a dick waiting in the wings, rubbing their hands together, muttering, "I can't wait."

So I wrote the antidote.

At first, in jest, I corrected every law the way it should be, wrote fifty-one of them (forty-eight wasn't enough, apparently), and never published a single one. But somewhere in all that correcting, it turned out most of it was already in how I led and coached. And once I'd connected those dots, I then realised why the people I knew who did things the right way were getting sidelined, while the chump next to them, the one who'd clearly read the book, got the attention and the opportunities and the promotions and the world at their feet. Absolute madness.

Then, very recently, my brain backflipped slightly.

I still hate this book. Point blank. It's still vile.

But I don't hate it because it's wrong. I hate it because it's right.

Because that's how power operates out in the open right now. Look at who's holding the attention of the biggest audiences in the world. Look at the manosphere, and the websites promising to turn you into a "high-value male" by teaching you how to manipulate women, or an "overnight millionaire business boss" by teaching you how to manipulate the world at large. Greene didn't invent any of this, he just wrote it down. The 48 Laws of Power is closer to a mirror than a manual. And now my mission is to make it obsolete.

Incidentally, when I went searching for the other version (like how you obtain power and use it in a way you'd be truly proud of), I found close to nothing. That was the call to arms, and it's why Project Power Player exists.

I don't want the book banned. I don't believe in censorship.

What I want is an option for people who're ready for power and willing to use it for positive progression. And I want that option to be as well known as Greene's, so the people who walked away from his version have a real choice. So those with expertise and decency in business, politics, tech, media, healthcare, finance and education have the opportunity to advance these fields and industries the right way. The honest way. Give them a way to make their position strong enough that the people around them hand over the authority, and the power they're primed to hold finds them, stays with them, and is used properly.

For those who already opted out due to Robert Greene's publication, I don't think it's too late to bring them back. I don't think it's too late to change things.

My copy of that book is buried somewhere on my Kindle. Which is a good thing because even looking at the cover makes me baulk. Maybe one day I'll pull it out and keep reading as I try to understand how we got it all so wrong. We'll see.

Right now there's more pressing work to do. Nah mean?