Machiavelli on why leaders who waver end up despised. From The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli, 1513.
To test his ideas, Machiavelli turned to Rome’s emperors, from Marcus Aurelius, who died in 180 AD, to Maximinus. Of the ten he lists, he counts only two who ended well.
Some were kind and some were cruel. Most, he notes, were killed by their own soldiers or people. He wanted to know why. His answer was two things: hatred and contempt.
In chapter 19 of The Prince (1513), Machiavelli wrote that leaders fall to hatred or to contempt. Contempt comes from seeming changeable, shallow or unable to decide. His example was the emperor Severus Alexander, a just man seen as soft and run by his mother, whose own soldiers killed him in 235.
Change your mind for a new fact, never for the loudest push. Practical advice: when you decide something, say why once, then hold to it unless the facts change.
Well established · checked against 5 sourcesMake one decision today, explain it once, and hold to it.
“I give in whenever people push back, and they’ve noticed. How do I make my decisions stick?”
Make the Decision Stick and the other 11 ideas of The Prince, a minute at a time.
Download on theApp StoreEvery idea is drawn from the public-domain text, and its names, dates and quotes are checked against the sources listed with it. The paintings are made for Counsel; they show the scene, not a historical record.
