I used to be a “Business Head.” I managed P&Ls at Ola and debated burn rates with MBAs. None of it prepared me for the morning I realized a ₹48 lakh contract would bankrupt me because the payment terms were 60 days, and I had 200 guards to pay in 48 hours.
Robert Greene’s Books’s Laws of Power aren’t philosophy. For a founder, they are survival manuals. Here is how five of those laws survived contact with my reality.
Mastery is Forged in the 11 AM Payroll
Senior startup roles teach you growth and cost reduction. They do not teach you the “Payroll Panic.” My father spent 30 years moving across logistics and construction. I thought he was chasing trends. After his sudden demise in 2019, I realized he was studying the only thing that matters: the operational drag that kills profitability.
Mastery isn’t a title; it’s the three-year scar of making payroll by 11 AM on the 1st of every month without exception. It’s knowing that TDS refunds take 18 months and that “talent” is just the efficiency of a workman who survived the clumsy years.
The Lesson: Stop waiting for “founder intuition.” It doesn’t exist. There is only the unglamorous work of chasing payments and calculating working capital.
The Power of the Professional Exit
In 2022, a warehouse client demanded we replace our security unit over a 5% “documentation gap.” They were the type of client that manufactured problems when bored. My manager wanted to fight. I chose absence.
We executed a clean, silent exit. No arguments. Nine months later, the phone rang. Three vendors had failed. One couldn’t handle compliance; another had 40% absenteeism.
I didn’t negotiate from need. I negotiated from their failure to replace us.
- 30% service fee increase.
- Hard SLA definitions (no more “interpretations”).
- Direct escalation (no more manufactured email trails).
The Lesson: If a customer drains you, withdraw. Let them feel the void. When they return, you aren’t a vendor; you’re the only solution.
Fear is a System Builder
I used to vent to my field staff when clients were “unreasonable.” My Ops Head finally called me out: “You’re siding with the client. It’s not fair.”
He was right. My frustration was actually a mask for fear—fear that I didn’t know how to price for “difficult” clients. I channeled that anger into the True Cost Framework. Now, when a client asks for extras, I don’t get angry. I provide data: “X and Y are covered. Z costs an additional ₹12,000.” Clear boundaries backed by math have replaced emotional venting.
The Lesson: When an emotion “leaks” in your business, it’s a sign of a missing system. Stop reacting. Start building.
The ₹8,000 “Relationship Tax”
At one manufacturing plant, we hit a wall of 5 complaint emails daily. Minor issues: unpressed uniforms, logbook signatures. I tried “over-communicating.” It failed.
A week later, we found the pressure point: the on-site Security Officer was receiving ₹8,000/month from the previous vendor. He was manufacturing failures to force a bribe.
I ran the numbers. The contract still yielded a 20% ROI even with an extra ₹8,000 monthly expense. I didn’t escalate to his boss. I didn’t “prove” we were right. That’s blind strength. Strategic weakness meant appearing compliant. We paid the “toll” indirectly during a conversation over drinks. The complaints stopped overnight.
The Lesson: I didn’t create the client’s corrupt culture, but I have to navigate it. If the “tax” clears your ROI threshold, pay it and move on. Don’t let ego kill a profitable contract.
Embrace Your Enemies, Question Your Friends
An employee I trusted for seven years engineered his exit perfectly. He fabricated a trail of service failures, quit quietly, and started his own firm with our largest client two months later.
The betrayal worked because he had outsized, unverified power. I now maintain a “Healthy Skepticism” protocol:
- No single person controls a client relationship.
- Every issue resolution must be documented in writing.
- Tenure earns nothing; only consistent, verifiable behavior does.
The Practice, Not the Theory
You can read Greene in a library, or you can learn it on the 1st of the month when the bank balance is low. I recommend the latter. It sticks better.