On Machiavelli : You are not Cesare Borgia

Machiavelli's The Prince is widely misquoted based on his famous question about love and fear, and which is better between the two. He states: "I come to the conclusion that, men loving according to their own will and fearing according to that of the prince, a wise prince should establish himself on that which is in his own control and not in that of others."

To be feared is in your control, but to be loved is in the control of others.

If this was the only point to be made, he would not have written the book. Machiavelli informs the thinking of everyone exercising power, from the front line supervisors at your local fast food franchise to your middle manager of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance at a mid-sized corporation. This text was not written for you. It was written for those who hold real deadly temporal power. Even those who hold such power are cautioned to avoid excess. Machiavelli recognises a complex web of relationships that must be respected even by a despot. The one-dimensional view leads to a deep misinterpretation. Even worse you may do something foolish under a false sense of "Machiavellian realism". You are not The Prince. Never mistake your managerial authority for real power. And here we are...