Ruthless Advice: Lessons from Machiavelli’s The Prince in a Nutshell

This pamphlet is a short summary of the leadership lessons from Machiavelli’s The Prince that I wrote as a quick reference for a story. I thought that game masters, authors, strategy gamers and others might find it useful too. There are two sections: the Short Version, which summarizes the book’s lessons by subject, and the Long Version, which provides the lessons by chapter from the original. 

Ruthless Advice is: brief, written in plain English and a more modern style, and organized into overall themes in the short version, to make it easier to read, understand, and use. The long version keeps the original chapter titles, so I kept references to princes, nobles, barons, and so on for consistency. 

Ruthless Advice is not: 

…scholarly. I haven’t spoken to or researched the writings of any historians, professors, or experts. 

…comprehensive. In the short version, I didn’t include Machiavelli’s historical examples, or his rallying cry to liberate Italy, since I didn’t need them for my notes. I used what I thought captured the essence of the point without going too deep. 

If you’ve never read The Prince, I highly recommend that you do! Especially if you like history and have a vivid imagination. The book’s richly written insights put you into the shoes of leaders of Machiavelli’s era. 

In the meantime, all you future masters of the world, read on!