Managing in the Gray

What Will Work in the World as It Is?

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rulers are too weak, too scrupulous, too inexperienced, or too

pure, their innocent pursuits of the good, however conceived,

will sooner or later be disrupted.”

16

This means that, when

you are working your way through a gray area issue, you have

to be able to answer this question: Do I have a plan that will

actually work or will I fail the people who are depending on

me and, at the same time, get my head handed to me?

Machiavelli wouldn’t mind if you and others ignored his

lessons, as long as you stayed in private life. But as soon as

you take on responsibility for the lives and fortunes of oth-

ers, you have to see and deal with the world as it is—a place

in which all sorts of things happen: good and ba ...