The greater his wants the greater the turn of the screw... Many make ladders to attain their ends out of wants of others... The energy of desire promises more than the inertia of possession. The passion of desire increases with every increase of opposition. It is a subtle point to satisfy the desire and yet preserve the dependence.
Baltasar Gracián, 1647 (tr. Joseph Jacobs, 1892)
People are moved far more by what they want than by what they have, and this is simply how influence works: to move someone, address their real desire rather than your reasoning. Understanding what a person wants, and holding the thing that satisfies it, gives you leverage in any exchange. The maxim states the mechanism without softening it, and the danger is exactly there. There is a bright line between serving a genuine need at a fair price, which is honest trade and good persuasion, and farming someone's desperation, tightening the screw on a person whose want has become need, extracting more because they can bear less. The first is commerce and leadership. The second is exploitation, and it is what this danger-flagged maxim must never be read to endorse.
Practice
- To move someone, speak to their real want, not your logic; find what they actually desire and connect your proposal to it (maxim 26 finds the mainspring).
- Use the leverage of need to close honest deals and align interests, at a fair price both sides would accept in the open.
- ETHICAL LINE: serve a need, never farm a desperation. If your advantage comes from how badly the other person needs it rather than from what you fairly provide, you have crossed from trade into exploitation, and the reputation cost outlives the gain.
Use this when
- Use this to understand what actually moves people in negotiation and leadership; addressing the real want beats repeating your case.
- Use it defensively; notice when someone is tightening the screw on a want of yours, and step back from a deal built on your desperation rather than its merits.
Ignore this when
- Don't extract because you can; charging desperation what it cannot refuse is the exploitation this maxim is flagged to warn against, not to teach (the power directive: tactics flexible, values rock hard).
- Don't run this on people who trust you; leverage worked on an ally is a betrayal of the trust that made it possible.
A picture of it
The supplier learns that a small customer is desperate: a delayed shipment will cost that customer a much larger contract, and the screw is right there to be turned. He could triple the price and the customer would have to pay. He charges the fair price instead, delivers fast, and mentions nothing of the leverage he chose not to use. The customer never forgets it. For fifteen years afterward the supplier gets the first call and the benefit of every doubt, because the one time he could have farmed a desperation, he served a need instead. The restraint was worth more than the extraction ever could have been.
Move people by their wants, and serve the need at a fair price. Farming desperation wins the deal and loses the decade.