1) don't outshine the master make those above you feel comfortably superior. in your desire to please and impress them, don't go too far in displaying your talents or you may achieve the opposite result you intended. you may inspire fear and insecurity. make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power. translation: be a toady and a yes man to your betters. this reads like an introduction course to renfields from a vampire. he uses the most fawning, disgusting examples to illustrate his points. the cautionary tale is Nicolas fouquet, louie the 14ths finance minister. he explains how he threw too big of a party and that upset the monarch, who felt upstaged. history says fouquet was another hedonistic thief. this guy asserts he just stole the bosses thunder and was punished for it. the reinforcement of the "law" is galileo. who flattered the medici's into a court appointment because he was tired of being a starving artist. sounds like modern academia is reading this book. manipulating science to their own ends for personal power and gain. I don't want to think this way about galileo. but...….its quite possibly true. this guy not only applauds it, but holds it up as an example of desireable behavior. I really, really detest this author. he goes on to explain that using your developed or God-given talents inspires insecurity in others. with those beneath you, don't worry about it. but tread carefully around your betters. they'll pretend to like you, but will tear you down at the first opportunity. he says don't fool yourself into thinking that the world has changed since the days of feudalism. there are kings and queens among us and you shouldn't shine too brightly around them or they'll cut you down. his example is the 16th century prince astorre Manfredi. who's city was taken by Cesare Borgia. Borgia allowed him to stay in power, unmolested to keep the population peaceful. a few weeks later he arrested him on charges of conspiracy, locked him up, murdered him, and tossed him in the river. his crime was, reportedly, simply outshining Borgia by being himself. he didn't know his role, and got killed for it. another example of this is Japanese. in the 16th century an artist had a statue of himself made wearing sandals. this was a sign of nobility. the emperor was going to execute him for it, but he opted to kill himself. at the end he states this is exempted when your "master" is spiraling. go ahead and outshine him. if you play it right you can replace him. my perspective and rebuttal: we are subservient only to god. if you are outshone in goodness, stand aside and let that person do all the good they can in the world. help them if you can. be humble and gracious. do your very best, all the time. if your "betters" don't like it and persecute you, shine even brighter. yes people have been killed for this, but they are also heroes whos voices echo throughout history as an inspiration to those who reject tyrants.