The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

The Court and Its Courtiers
Any type of court obviously revolves around the leader, the courtiers’
power depending on the relative closeness of their relationship with
this leader. Although leaders come in many varieties, one dynamic is
fairly universal: the courtiers (minus the cynical types, see below) will
tend to idealize those in power. They will see their leaders as smarter,
cleverer, more perfect than is the reality. This will make it easier for
them to justify their fawning behavior.
This dynamic is similar to what we all experienced in childhood: we
idealized our parents in order to feel more secure about the power they
had over us. It was too frightening to imagine our parents as weak or
incompetent. Dealing with authority figures in the court tends to
regress us to our childhood and the family dynamic. The way we
adapted to our parents’ power and the presence of our siblings will
play itself out again in adult form in the court. If we felt the deep need
to please our parents in every way in order to feel more secure, we will
become the pleaser type in the court. If we resented our siblings for the
parental attention they drew away from us, and tried to dominate these
siblings, we will be the envious type and resort to passive aggression.
We may want to monopolize the leaders’ attention as we once tried to
do with our mother or father.
And so we can say that courtiers tend to fall into certain types,
depending on deep patterns stemming from childhood. Some of these
types can become quite dangerous if they accumulate power within the
court, and they are usually adept at disguising their negative qualities
in order to rise from within. It is best to be able to identify them as
early as possible and take necessary defensive action. The following are
seven of the more common types you will find.
The Intriguer:
These individuals can be particularly difficult to
recognize. They seem intensely loyal to the boss and to the group. No
one works harder or is more ruthlessly efficient. But this is a mask they

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wear; behind the scenes they are continually intriguing to amass more
power. They generally have a disdain for the boss that they are careful
to conceal. They feel they could do the job better, and they yearn to
prove this. Perhaps they had competitive issues in childhood with the
father figure.
In the court of Richard Nixon, Alexander Haig (1924–2010)
epitomized this type. A graduate of West Point and a decorated war
hero in Vietnam, he was hired as one of several assistants to Henry
Kissinger, Nixon’s national security adviser. Kissinger’s own little court
was filled with men with brilliant academic backgrounds. Haig could
not compete on this level; he stayed away from policy arguments.
Instead, he so expertly tailored himself to the desires and needs of
Kissinger that he quickly rose from within. He organized Kissinger’s
desk, streamlined his schedule, and would do the lowliest task, even
helping his boss dress for an important evening. He silently suffered
Kissinger’s numerous and volcanic temper tantrums. But what
Kissinger did not realize was the depth of Haig’s ambitions and his
contempt for his boss. He was continually playing to the real boss in
the game, Nixon himself.
While Kissinger was out most evenings attending some party, Nixon
would see the light on in Haig’s office at all hours. Nixon, a workaholic
himself, could not help but admire this. Of course, Haig made sure he
worked evenings when Nixon was there and would notice him. Soon
Nixon was borrowing him for his own tasks. In 1973, as the Watergate
scandal blossomed, Nixon appointed Haig as his chief of staff. This
infuriated Kissinger—not only did he feel Haig had used him for his
own purposes, but he was now having to report to Haig as a superior.
To make matters worse, Haig had seen up close all of Kissinger’s
weaknesses and had a lot of dirt on him, and Kissinger was certain he
would be sharing this information with Nixon, who loved such gossip.
To colleagues Haig could be chummy and even disarming. But behind
the scenes he undercut almost everyone in his path, wiretapping their
phones, putting his name on their ideas and memos.
As the Watergate crisis deepened and Nixon fell into a depression,
Haig slowly took over operations, with a zeal that surprised and
disgusted many. For several months, he became the de facto president.
This pattern repeated throughout his career. As Ronald Reagan’s
secretary of state, after the assassination attempt on the president in
1981, Haig told reporters, “I am in control here.”

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In identifying this type, you must look behind the efficient and loyal
front and even the charm. Keep your eye instead on their maneuvers
and their impatience to rise from within. Look at their past record for
signs of intrigue. They are masters at making leaders, and others,
dependent on their efficiency as means of binding them and securing
their own position. Pay attention to that little extra zeal they display to
please the boss and make themselves useful. Realize that when they
are looking at you, they are thinking of how they can use you as a tool
or stepping-stone. Imagining themselves blessed with brilliance, they
have little compunction in doing whatever is necessary to advance
themselves. It is best to keep your distance and not become one of
their pawns, nor their enemy.