GET OTHERS TO DO THE
WORK F OR YOU, BUT
ALWAYS TAKE THE CREDIT
JUDGMENT
Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people
to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance
save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a
godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your
helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered.
Never do yourself what others can do for you.
TRANSGRESSION AND OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
In 1883 a young Serbian scientist named Nikola Tesla was working for the
European division of the Continental Edison Company. He was a brilliant
inventor, and Charles Batchelor, a plant manager and a personal friend of
Thomas Edison, persuaded him he should seek his fortune in America, giving hirn a letter of introduction to Edison hirnself. So began a life of woe
and tribulation that lasted until Tesla's death.
When Tesla met Edison in New York, the famous inventor hired him
on the spot. Tesla worked eighteen-hour days, finding ways to improve the
primitive Edison dynamos. Finally he offered to redesign them completely.
To Edison this seemed a monumental task that could last years without
paying off, but he told Tesla, "There's fifty thousand dollars in it for you-if
you can do it." Tesla labored day and night on the project and after only a
year he produced a greatly improved version of the dynamo, complete
with automatie controls. He went to Edison to break the good news and receive his $50,000. Edison was pleased with the improvement, for which he
and his company would take credit, but when it came to the issue of the
money he told the young Serb, "Tesla, you don't understand our American
humor!," and offered a small raise instead.
Tesla's obsession was to create an altemating-current system (AC) of
electricity. Edison believed in the direct-current system (DC), and not only
refused to support Tesla's research but later did all he could to sabotage
him. Tesla tumed to the great Pittsburgh magnate George Westinghouse,
who had started his own electricity company. Westinghouse completely
funded Tesla's research and offered hirn a generous royalty agreement on
future profits. The AC system Tesla developed is still the standard todaybut after patents were filed in his name, other scientists came forward to
take credit for the invention, claiming that they had laid the groundwork
for hirn. His name was lost in the shuffle, and the public came to associate
the invention with Westinghouse hirnself.
A year later, Westinghouse was caught in a takeover bid from
J. Pierpont Morgan, who made hirn rescind the generous royalty contract
he had signed with Tesla. Westinghouse explained to the scientist that his
company would not survive if it had to pay hirn his full royalties; he persuaded Tesla to accept a buyout of his patents for $216,000-a large sum,
no doubt, but far less than the $12 million they were worth at the time. The
financiers had divested Tesla of the riches, the patents, and essentially the
credit for the greatest invention of his career.
The name of Guglielmo Marconi is forever linked with the invention
of radio. But few know that in producing his invention-he broadcast a signal across the English Channel in 1899-Marconi made use of a patent
Tesla had filed in 1897, and that his work depended on Tesla's research.
Once again Tesla received no money and no credit. Tesla invented an induction motor as well as the AC power system, and he is the real "father of
radio." Yet none of these discoveries bear his name. As an old man, he
lived in poverty.
THE TORTOISE. THE
ELEPIIA \iT. A"'D TIIE
HIPPOPOTA \1 I S
One day the tortoise
met the elephant, who
trumpeted, "Out of my
way, you weaklingI might step on you!"
The tortoise was not
afraid and stayed
where he was, so the
elephant stepped on
him, but could not
crush him. "Da not
boast, Mr. Elephant, I
am as strang as you
are!" said the tortoise,
but the elephant just
laughed. So the tortoise
asked him to come
to his hill the next
morning.
The next day, before
sunrise, the tortoise ran
down the hili to the
river, where he met the
hippopotamus, who
was just on his way
back into the water
after his nocturnal
feeding. "Mr Hippo!
Shall we have a tug·olwar? I bet I'm as
strang as you are!"
said the tortoise. The
hippopotamus laughed
at this ridiculous idea,
but agreed. The tortoise
produced a lang rope
and told the hippo to
hold it in his mouth
until the tortoise
shouted "Hey!"
Then the tortoise ran
back up the hili where
he found the elephant,
who was getting impa·
tient. He gave the
elephant the other end
ofthe rope and said,
"When I say 'Hey!'
pull, and you '11 see
which of us is the
strongest." Then he ran
halfway back down the
LAW 7 57
hili, 10 a place where he
('ouldn 'I he seen, ami
ShO/lled, "Hey!" The
elephant and Ihe
hippopotamus pulled
and pulled, hul neirher
{'()/lId hudge Ihe
olher�lhey were oI
eq/lal strengllz. They
hoth agreed thaI Ihe
{orloise was os slrong
as Ihey were.
Never do wh al olhers
can do for you. The lorloise leI olhers do Ihe
work for him while he
goI Ihe erettil.
ZAIREAN rABU·
To he sure, iI the hunler
relies on Ihe securily of
Ihe ('arriage, IIlilizes Ihe
legs of Ihe six horses,
ami makes Wang Liang
hold Iheir reins, Ihen he
will nol lire himself
and will find il easy 10
overlake swill animals.
N()lV supposing he
discarded Ihe advanlage o/Ihe carriage,
gave up Ihe IIseflll legs
of Ihe 11Orse.\' and the
skill of Wang Liang,
and alighled 10 run
afier Ihe animal,I'
, then
even lllOUgh his legs
were as quick w·; Lou
Chi's, he wOllld nol he
in lime to overlake rhe
animals. In fact, if'good
hor.\'(,,\' alld strong
carriages arc laken info
use, Ihen mere hondnU!fl and !Julldwolnen
will be good enough 10
calch rhe animals.
H A)\;-f<EI-TZL,
CHIN ESr, PI-I ILOSOPHLR,
TI!lR!) CENTl l RY H.C,
58 LAW 7
In 1917, during his later impoverished years, Tesla was told he was to
receive the Edison Medal of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
He tumed the medal down. "You propose, " he said, "to honor me with a
medal which I could pin upon my coat and strut for a vain hOUf before the
members of your Institute. You would decorate my body and continue to
let starve, for failure to supply recognition, my mind and its creative products, which have supplied the foundation upon which the major portion of
your Institute exists."
Interpretation
Many harbor the illusion that science, dealing with facts as it does, is beyond the petty rivalries that trouble the rest of the world. Nikola Tesla was
one of those. He believed science had nothing to do with politics, and
claimed not to care for farne and riches, As he grew older, though, this ruined his scientific work. Not associated with any particular discovery, he
could attract no investors to his many ideas. While he pondered great inventions for the future, others stole the patents he had already developed
and got the glory for themselves.
He wanted to do everything on his own, but merely exhausted and impoverished hirnself in the process.
Edison was Tesla's polar opposite. He wasn't actually much of a scientific thinker or inventor; he once said that he had no need to be a mathematician because he could always hire one. That was Edison's main
method. He was really a businessman and publicist, spotting the trends and
the opportunities that were out there, then hiring the best in the field to do
the work for him. If he had to he would steal from his competitors. Yet his
name is much better known than Tesla's, and is associated with more inventions.
The lesson is twofold: First, the credit for an invention or creation is as
important, if not more important, than the invention itself. You must seeUfe
the credit for YOUfseif and keep others from stealing it away, or from piggybacking on YOUf hard work. To accomplish this you must always be vigilant
and ruthless, keeping YOUf creation quiet until you can be SUfe there are no
vultures circling overhead. Second, leam to take advantage of other people's work to further YOUf own cause. Time is precious and life is short. If
you try to do it all on YOUf own, you run yourself ragged, waste energy, and
bum yourself out. It is far better to conserve your forces, pounce on the
work others have done, and find a way to make it YOUf own.
Everybody steals in commerce and industry.
I've stolen a lot myself.
But I know how to steal.
Thomas Edison, 1 84 7-1 931
KEYS TO POWER
The world of power has the dynamics of the jungle: There are those who
live by hunting and killing, and there are also vast numbers of creatures
(hyenas, vultures) who live off the hunting of others. These latter, less
imaginative types are often incapable of doing the work that is essential for
the creation of power. They understand early on, though, that if they wait
long enough, they can always find another animal to do the work for them.
Do not be naive: At this very moment, while you are slaving away on some
project, there are vultures cirding above trying to figure out a way to survive and even thrive off your creativity. It is useless to complain about this,
or to wear yourself ragged with bittemess, as Tesla did. Better to protect
yourself and join the game. Once you have established a power base, become a vulture yourself, and save yourself a lot of time and energy.
Of the two poles of this game, one can be illustrated by the example of
the explorer Vasco Nliiiez de Balboa. Balboa had an obsession-the discovery of EI Dorado, a legendary city of vast riches.
Early in the sixteenth century, after countless hardships and brushes
with death, he found evidence of a great and wealthy empire to the south
of Mexico, in present-day Peru. By conquering this empire, the Incan, and
seizing its gold, he would make hirnself the next Cortes. The problem was
that even as he made this discovery, word of it spread among hundreds of
other conquistadors. He did not understand that half the game was keeping
it quiet, and carefully watching those around hirn. A few years after he discovered the location of the Incan empire, a soldier in his own army, Francisco Pizarro, helped to get hirn beheaded for treason. Pizarro went on to
take what Balboa had spent so many years trying to find.
The other pole is that of the artist Peter Paul Rubens, who, late in his
career, found hirnself deluged with requests for paintings. He created a system: In his large studio he employed dozens of outstanding painters, one
specializing in robes, another in backgrounds, and so on. He created a vast
production line in which a large number of canvases would be worked on
at the same time. When an important dient visited the studio, Rubens
would shoo his hired painters out for the day. While the dient watched
from a balcony, Rubens would work at an incredible pace, with unbelievable energy. The dient would leave in awe of this prodigious man, who
could paint so many masterpieces in so short a time.
This is the essence of the Law: Leam to get others to do the work for
you while you take the credit, and you appear to be of godlike strength and
power. If you think it important to do all the work yourself, you will never
get far, and you will suffer the fate of the Balboas and Teslas of the world.
Find people with the skills and creativity you lack. Either hire them, while
putting your own name on top of theirs, or find a way to take their work
and make it your own. Their creativity thus becomes yours, and you seem
a genius to the world.
There is another application of this law that does not require the parasitic use of your contemporaries' labor: Use the past, a vast storehouse of
1 1 1 1· 11 1 . 1 ''' ) 111 \
A hen wllO had !osl her
sighl, und wo" a('elf.\'
(ol}u!d f() scratching up
Ihe carlh in sellrch oI
fl)(!d, 1I1riwI/gh blind,
.l'Ii!! eol1linlled (()
s('rurch lIH'llY 111os1 (liligenl!V. Ur whal l/se "'lIS
it t() {he indusfrious
!()(!!� Another sllllrpsighlcd 1/('11 wlw spllred
her leI/der f,'ci l/"" er
lIIoved fi-o/ll her side,
11m! mjoved, wilhol/I
scralching, Ihe fi-lIil oI
Ihe olher's !abor. For 1I.'
oflen os Ihe Nil/d !zen
sera Ich cd 1If! 1I !JlIr!evcorn, her ",alehfili
cOlnjJanioll dcvoured
il.
FABL�S,
GOTTI IOLD L �'S<';II\'( i,
1 729- 1 7H I
LAW 7 59
60 LAW 7
knowledge and wisdom. Isaac Newton called this "standing on the shoulders of giants." He meant that in making his discoveries he had built on the
achievements of others. A great part of his aura of genius, he knew, was attributable to his shrewd ability to make the most of the insights of ancient,
medieval, and Renaissance scientists. Shakespeare borrowed plots, characterizations, and even dialogue from Plutarch, among other writers, for he
knew that nobody surpassed Plutarch in the writing of subtle psychology
and witty quotes. How many later writers have in their turn borrowed
from-plagiarized--Shakespeare?
We all know how few of today's politicians write their own speeches.
Their own words would not win them a single vote; their eloquence and
wit, whatever there is of it, they owe to a speech writer. Other people
do the work, they take the credit. The upside of this is that it is a kind
of power that is available to everyone. Leam to use the knowledge of the
past and you will look like a genius, even when you are really just a dever
borrower.
Writers who have delved into human nature, ancient masters of strategy, historians of human stupidity and folly, kings and queens who have
leamed the hard way how to handle the burdens of power-their knowledge is gathering dust, waiting for you to come and stand on their shoulders. Their wit can be your wit, their skill can be your skill, and they will
never come around to tell people how unoriginal you really are. You can
slog through life, making endless mistakes, wasting time and energy trying
to do things from your own experience. Or you can use the armies of the
past. As Bismarck once said, "Fools say that they leam by experience. I
prefer to profit by others' experience."
