One of the perverse parts of human nature is that we always desire what we don’t have. We look on the other side of the fence—the grass is always greener, the neighbor has a better car, their children are better behaved. We’re always desiring what other people have. We think what we don’t have is better. That’s the nature of desire. When we actually attain something, it’s not such a great feeling. The importance of desire is to always be pursuing something, something outside of ourselves. We want what is unfamiliar, what is exotic, what we’ve never had in our lives before. We want what is transgressive, what is the taboo, what other people don’t have, what is new or fresh. You have to create that object of desire—in whatever you’re creating in life. You have to give people the feeling that there’s something a little bit taboo and transgressive about it, which was what I did with
The 48 Laws of Power
. When you pick up that book, you feel like you’re doing something a little bit dirty and nasty. You want to create the feeling that what you are offering is not something familiar.
Daily Law: When a person or an object is familiar, we have a bit of disdain. But when it’s distant and alluring and mysterious and something out there that we don’t have—that sparks our desire. That’s the key to any sort of marketing or soft sell.
Robert Greene in conversation at Live Talks Los Angeles, February 11, 2019