Power: How to Get It, How to Use It

Welcome to my Power: How to Get It, How to Use It book summary!

This idea pops again: “‘Action makes more fortunes than caution,’ is a piece of advice worth remembering, whenever you are tempted to do nothing. The consequences of acting are always more interesting than those of failing to act..” (p. 123, bolded by me)

I’ve finished reading Power: How to Get It, How to Use It by Michael Korda. Total pages: 308

One-Sentence-Summary: Mostly defunct, 1970s NY Times bestseller, discusses the subtle game of power and politics in American office life, referencing car phones (power symbol) and desktop calculators (sign of weakness).

“The definition of power, in fact, is that more people inconvenience themselves on your behalf than those on whose behalf you would inconvenience yourself.” (p. 247)

booboo real-time book rating: ★★★☆☆ (percentage of books with this rating: 34%)

“Power is a means of protecting ourselves against the cruelty, indifference and ruthlessness of other men.” (p. 58)

The Peter Principle

Mentioned briefly in Chapter 4: The Power Spot, it says that an organization tends to be full of incompetent people becuase each worker is promoted until they are no longer qualified.

“..power over people one knows is always more satisfactory than power over large numbers of strangers.” (p. 49)

This book brings the concept of office politics to the next level. I didn’t succeed in the office. Ultimately, I was fired. I was blind to everything in this book. “..it is advisable to learn which are the important meetings to attend and to find a way of attending them by yourself..to know which of the two rival executives is more likely to win a power struggle..to know in whose power area your office is going to be.”

Korda talks about the minute details of where to sit in a meeting, depending on the room and whether the chair has armrests. He even goes so far as to say in Chapter 8: Women and Power, the longest in the book, that a woman who sat in the right chair during a meeting, shown more respect and received more questions due to that choice, and ultimately was promoted to vice president because of it, while the man who was due that seat in the same meeting, utlimately failed at the compnay. Hard to believe.

There is a secret strategy to where you stand and sit in a social or meeting setting. Where your office is located and what kind of furniture it has.

“Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.” – Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) (p. 251)

How to Ask for a Raise?

Don’t. Instead, convince the person above you that they deserve more. If they get a raise, everyone below them gets one, too.

The next time you meet a famous person, ask if they have constipation as aparently it’s common among the famous: “Odd as it may seem, constipation is often the price of power..” (p. 61) “..the use of laxitives seems to incease as power increases, and a good many of the powerful people I know not only suffer from constipation, but discuss it quite openly, as if it were proof of their success..” (p. 62)

Here’s a strategy to handle a known argument that’s coming your way: ask for three aspirin before the other party has a chance to say much.

This blog contains both my summary and review of the book Power: How to Get It, How to Use It.

How to Handle Gossip

Always listen. Never share commentary. Always pretend you already knew. This project’s power.

When asked if he wanted to own the company he was working for: “‘It’s not ownership that counts – it’s control.'” (p. 46)

“..a familiar problem of power: how to control people without making them subservient.” (p. 47)

Interesting point talking about Henry Ford II, for how powerful he was in terms of wealth and connections, he was not or could not be an autocrat. He still has to “operate within the confines of what amounts to a large, private bureaucracy.” (p. 49)

You are reading my book review and summary by Michael Korda. Be sure to check out my digital bookshelf for 100+ book summaries.

If an informal discussion or meeting is had, you want to position yourself behind the person giving the news/info. This way, it seems like you are in on whatever is being communicated.

The person to the right of the head of the table has power. The person to the left has none. That comes from ancient times when it was easier to stab the person to your left.

Did you know I’m an author? I wrote four books on real estate investing, travel, and language learning.

New Words!

insuperable (adj) – impossible to overcome or unbeatable (ie Brazilian jujitsu was insuperable in the early days of UFC)

egalitarian (adj) – all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities (ie Once you realize that the most egalitarian thing in the world – where one sits in church – is anything but egalitarian, you start to understand the world and human nature)

Thanks for visiting and thanks to Michael Korda for writing Power: How to Get It, How to Use It!

Date Started: Friday, October 3, 2025

Date Finished: Sunday, December 14, 2025 (72 days)