Anggriawan Sugianto

Many people think The 48 Laws of Power is only for ruthless people who want to control others. But at its core, the book is about how people behave. Power dynamics exist in every company, client meeting, family, and friendship. If you do not understand them, other people may make important decisions for you.

You do not need to use dirty tricks to learn from this book. You can use the laws as a shield. They can help you recognize office politics, protect your time, and stay focused on what matters. Real power is not about controlling other people. It is about controlling your own actions.

Be reliable, steady, and quietly strong.

To make the book more practical, I grouped all 48 laws into four simple pillars: Master Yourself, Manage Your Reputation, Work with People, and Use Smart Strategy. Below is a practical checklist with one key point from the book, one tip for personal life, and one tip for professional life.

Pillar 1: Self-Mastery and Executive Demeanor

This pillar is about self-control, confidence, discipline, and flexibility.

Law 4: Always Say Less Than Necessary

• Key Point: Speaking too much can weaken your position and reveal more than you intend.
• Personal: Pause for three seconds during an argument and listen before you respond, so you do not say something you later regret.
• Professional: Make your point clearly, then stop speaking and let the other side explain its needs and concerns.

Law 10: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky

• Key Point: A person’s negative behavior and poor choices can spread to the people around them.
• Personal: Limit your time with people who complain constantly and leave you feeling tired or negative.
• Professional: Be careful with clients, partners, or employees who always blame others and never take responsibility.

Law 25: Re-create Yourself

• Key Point: You can deliberately shape your identity instead of allowing other people or your past to define you.
• Personal: Do not let your past identity limit you; you can start a new hobby, sport, or lifestyle at any age.
• Professional: Upgrade your professional identity as your company grows, moving from technical executor to strategic advisor.

Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness

• Key Point: Hesitation often creates doubt, while confident action can make an idea appear stronger.
• Personal: Commit fully to important goals, such as training for an ultramarathon, instead of making a half-hearted attempt.
• Professional: Present your pricing and recommendations with confidence, and do not offer discounts before the client asks.

Law 34: Be Royal in Your Own Fashion

• Key Point: People often treat you according to the standards and level of respect you show toward yourself.
• Personal: Protect your sleep, health, and recovery because people learn how to treat you from the standards you set for yourself.
• Professional: Set clear boundaries, such as declining meetings without an agenda and pricing your work according to its value.

Law 38: Think as You Like but Behave Like Others

• Key Point: You may think independently, but openly rejecting social norms can create unnecessary resistance.
• Personal: Follow your own habits, such as waking early to run, without judging people who choose a different lifestyle.
• Professional: Respect a client’s formal culture while keeping your own team fast, practical, and flexible.

Law 46: Never Appear Too Perfect

• Key Point: Appearing perfect can create envy and distance, while appropriate vulnerability can make you more relatable.
• Personal: Share honest struggles with trusted friends because people connect more easily with reality than with a perfect image.
• Professional: Share useful lessons from past mistakes to show clients that your experience comes from real work.

Law 47: In Victory, Learn When to Stop

• Key Point: Continuing to push after achieving your goal can turn success into a new problem.
• Personal: Know when to end a hard workout, a late night, or an argument before it causes unnecessary fatigue.
• Professional: Close the deal once your important goals are met instead of risking the agreement for a small extra advantage.

Law 48: Assume Formlessness

• Key Point: The strongest position is often the ability to adapt instead of following one rigid plan.
• Personal: Stay flexible when life changes your plans; if bad weather cancels your run, choose another form of training.
• Professional: Keep your company adaptable so you can change your services when markets, technology, or client needs change.

TL;DR: If your brand depends on marketplaces, paid media, and algorithmic recommendations to reach customers, you may not own your growth. You are renting access to an audience, and the rent is rising.

Digital sovereignty is the strategic ability to control your customer identity, data architecture, and brand experience without becoming dependent on any single platform.

In the age of AI marketplaces, this is no longer a technology preference. It is a profitability imperative.

This essay was originally published on the Suitmedia website.

The Hidden Cost of “Growth”

Many enterprise brands appear to be growing rapidly.

Marketplace revenue is rising. Social commerce is producing record sales. Marketing dashboards are filled with impressive reach, impressions, and conversion numbers.

But beneath the surface, the economics may be deteriorating.

The brand is not necessarily building a stronger business. It may simply be paying more to access the same customers through increasingly expensive intermediaries.

This is the logic of “renting an audience.”

You do not own the relationship. You rent access to it from:

• Marketplaces
• Social platforms
• Advertising networks
• Search engines
• Recommendation algorithms
• Emerging AI assistants and shopping agents

As long as the rent remains low, the model appears efficient.

But platforms rarely remain cheap. Commission rates increase. Advertising becomes more competitive. Organic reach declines. Algorithms change without notice.

The result is a business that grows in revenue while weakening in control.

The AI Marketplace Will Intensify the Problem

Generative AI is changing the discovery layer of commerce.

Consumers increasingly expect AI assistants to compare products, interpret preferences, recommend alternatives, and summarize the best options, all without visiting ten different websites.

The traditional journey looked something like this:

1. A customer searches for a product.
2. The customer visits a brand website or marketplace.
3. The customer compares options.
4. The customer makes a purchase.

The emerging journey is different:

1. A customer describes a need to an AI assistant.
2. The AI synthesizes the market.
3. The AI recommends a shortlist.
4. The transaction happens through an integrated interface.

The brand website may never be visited.

The brand story may never be read.

The customer relationship may never be established.

In this environment, a brand risks becoming invisible infrastructure: a product supplier operating behind the AI interface.

The AI layer owns the conversation. The platform owns the transaction. The brand absorbs the operational complexity while receiving an increasingly commoditized share of the value.

Around one in the morning on the second night of BTR Ultra, I realized I was surrounded by spectators.

One stood quietly by the ditch. Another leaned against a fence post a few yards ahead.

I gave them a polite nod.

They didn’t nod back.

When my headlamp beam cut through the darkness, the spectator on the left turned out to be an overgrown banana plant. The figure by the fence was an abandoned plastic chair. A little farther up, two marshals waiting to cheer me on became a parked motorcycle and a rusted road sign. After more than twenty-eight hours of black volcanic dust, mud, and climbing, my sleep-starved brain had decided reality was too lonely and invented a crowd.

I took a short power nap on a wooden bench at Alengkong. When I opened my eyes, the imaginary fans were gone.

The rest of the mountain, however, was still waiting.

BTR Ultra 2026

I started at 6:00 PM on Friday with a color-coded spreadsheet promising a neat 27-hour finish by Saturday night. Instead, I crossed the timing mat at approximately 3:12 AM on Sunday, in 33 hours, 12 minutes, and 25 seconds.

Between Friday’s sunset and Sunday’s dawn lay three volcanic peaks, an underfueled climb, a tropical downpour, one reckless downhill, knees that went on strike, and a humbling lesson in resilience. This is how it unfolded, segment by segment.

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The Plan: 27 Hours, If All Went Well

Before the race, I was a master of theoretical endurance.

I had mapped out all 106 kilometers and 7,200 meters of elevation gain with executive precision. The spreadsheet had target paces, heart-rate zones, hydration schedules, and an aid-station fueling matrix. For daytime running, I swore by the golden rule: find something salty, something sugary, and something icy cold.

I even left a strict note for my future self: Do not touch the soy milk until after the finish line.

Spreadsheets are comforting. They give you the illusion of control. Sitting at home with fresh legs, it’s easy to believe that when the trail turns to volcanic scree or knee-deep mud, you’ll simply stick to Section 4, Column B.

The volcanoes of Bali, as it turned out, had other plans.

Start to Culali: Summiting Mount Batur in the Dark

The race began at 6:00 PM on Friday as twilight faded over Kintamani.

The opening 10 kilometers offered no gentle warm-up. They sent us straight up to the summit crater of Mount Batur. We climbed through the dark, headlamps forming a snaking ribbon of light across black sand and jagged volcanic rock, before descending the crater rim toward Culali.

My strategy was disciplined patience: stay in Zone 2, ignore the eager runners flying past on fresh legs, and sip my isotonic mix at a steady cadence. At Culali, I grabbed a wedge of watermelon and a banana. Light, clean, controlled.

Standing on Batur’s windy rim with the whole race ahead was breathtaking. But an ultra doesn’t reward early bravado. One volcano in the first two hours meant very little when two more giants were waiting in the dark.

Culali to Tanjakan Cinta: A Little Room to Run

From Culali, the trail smoothed out and let my legs settle into a natural, rolling stride.

I reached Tanjakan Cinta in 3 hours and 9 minutes, roughly thirty minutes ahead of schedule. The night air had turned crisp. At the aid station, steam rose over the comforting sounds of a generator and the smell of boiled potatoes and warm green bean soup. I dipped the potatoes in rock salt, drank the soup, and felt quietly confident.

My legs felt responsive. My gut was happy. The plan was holding.

Being ahead of schedule at an early checkpoint is intoxicating. Experience whispers a caution: when you think you’re beating the trail, it may just mean the mountain hasn’t started asking much of you yet.