Concerning the Collaborators of Influencers

CURRENT RANK: LOWLY SERF

To the Magnificent Social Machiavellian:

CHAPTER 22 - CONCERNING THE COLLABORATORS OF INFLUENCERS

The choice of collaborators is very important to an influencer, and they are good or not according to the discrimination of the influencer. The first opinion which one forms of an influencer, and of their capability, is by observing the people they collaborate with. When they are capable and loyal, the influencer may always be considered wise because they have known how to recognize the capable and to keep them loyal. But when they are otherwise, one cannot form a good opinion of the influencer, for the prime error which they made was in choosing them.

Everyone who knew Ed Sheeran as a top musical artist would consider him to be a very clever man in having his team on his staff. There are three classes of minds: one which understands by itself, another which appreciates what others understood, and a third which neither understands by itself nor through the explanation of others. The first is the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless. Therefore, it follows necessarily that, if Ed Sheeran was not in the first rank, he was certainly in the second. Whenever one has sufficient judgment to know good and bad when music is composed and performed, although he himself may not have the initiative, yet he can recognize the good and the bad in his staff. The one he can praise and the other correct. Thus the person cannot hope to deceive him, and is kept honest.

But to enable a social media influencer to form an opinion of his team, there is one test which never fails. When you see someone thinking more of his own content than of yours, and seeking inwardly his own clout in everything, such a person will never make a good collaborator. Nor will you ever be able to trust him, because he who has the channel of another in his hands ought never to think of himself. He should always think of his influencer and never pay any attention to matters in which the influencer is not concerned.

On the other hand, to keep his team honest, the influencer ought to reward them, honouring them, enriching them, doing them kindnesses, sharing the honours and concerns with them. At the same time let him see that they cannot stand alone, so that many honours may not make them desire more, many riches make them wish for more, and that many problems may make them afraid to take chances. When, therefore, collaborators and influencers towards collaborators, are thus disposed, they can trust each other. But when it is otherwise, the end will always be bad for either one or the other.

NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI II