The routes Greene gives to a relationship of dependence.
Robert Greene's framework, from 48 Laws of Power, pp. 136 to 145.
Possess an irreplaceable skill
Develop a talent or creative skill so distinctive that your master can find another servant but never another you.
Fake it if you must
If you are not actually indispensable, give the appearance of specialised knowledge.
Entrench yourself widely
Get involved in so many departments that removing you unravels interdependencies.
Hold secrets
Seal your fate with theirs by knowing what they would not want broadcast.
Accept fear over love
Let them depend on you out of fear of the consequences of losing you, since you can control that.
From chapter: LAW 11, pp. 136–145
Make yourself needed so your master cannot do without you. The condottieri who won battles were killed because they were replaceable, whereas Bismarck allied himself with weak kings and made them depend on him until he set state policy. Louis XI spared his astrologer, and Pope Julius II begged Michelangelo to stay, because each was irreplaceable. Dependence can be intensive, resting on one irreplaceable skill, or extensive, spread across many departments as Kissinger's was, and secret intelligence is a third route. Dependence breeds fear rather than love, which Greene says is easier to control. The reversal is that monopoly isolates you and stirs up enemies.
