While reading for the second or third time, the paragraph “CONCERNING THE PERSONAL STAFF OF PRINCES” made me think.
How come I read over and over about “how to hire”, the need for a strong staff, when Machiavelli wrote about it 500 years ago. Is it that we ignore and need a constant reminder, or is it that human nature has basically not changed and we need the reminder.
Machiavelli wrote :
The choice of staff is very important to a prince, and they are good or not according to the discrimination of the prince. The first opinion which one forms of a prince, and of his capability, is by observing the people he has around him. When they are capable and faithful, he may always be considered wise because he has known how to recognize the capable and to keep them faithful. But when they are otherwise, one cannot form a good opinion of him, for the prime error which he made was in choosing them.