Machiavelli's advice

One continuous theme that appears throughout The Prince is the emphasis on a ruler's virtu. Machiavelli mentions on page 75 that " She [Fortune] demonstrates her power where precautions have not been take to resist her..." and believes that fortune can be resisted through precautionary measures that rely on one's virtu, or strength. Furthermore, he makes a statement with a similar theme on page 18, which is "Nevertheless, he who relies least on luck has the best prospect of success." Moreover, a quote that goes along the line of saying that fortune favors the bold also appears on page 19, where it says "Without the first opportunity their strength [virtu] of purpose would never have been revealed. Without their strength of purpose, the opportunity they were offered would not have amounted to anything." This quote, and the theme that appears throughout the text clearly shows that fortune favors the bold, for it gives the wielder of strength, who will likely have boldness as one of their strong traits, a chance to realize his strength, but it is less likely that men with not so much virtu will be offered much chance.

Moreover, his idea that fortune favors the bold appears in various other parts of the text, such as on page 30, where he advises rulers to commit all the crimes he deems necessary at once, which reflects his idea that initiatives must be taken to consolidate his power rather than wait for opportunities. Another place is on page 53, where Machiavelli emphasizes the justification of using cruelty, which once again would not be an act a ruler would do if he didn't seize the initiative. It seems that his advice throughout the book carries the same theme and message as his last advice, which is that fortune favors the bold. However, is the advice itself a good one, apart from being coherent with his other messages?

The answer, in my opinion, seems to be a mixed one. In my view, struggle for power in political life is basically like a card game. One may take the initiative and seize the opportunity; he will attack his opponent vigorously and relentlessly when he sees a weakness in his opposition. Therefore, seizing the opportunity when it arises is vital in the world of political struggle, because if you can't catch that bus on the road to success, then you don't know when the next one will come. However, it is also important to be patient so that an opportunity arises where one can take initiative, and it would be suicidal to attempt to seize the opportunity when there is none. One famous historical example would be the Watergate scandal. Had the democrats allowed Nixon to get away with the sham, then they would have basically forfeited the chance to come out a victor; however, the democrats capitalized in Nixon's blunders and completely crushed him, shifting the balance of power. Another example would be when a politician makes a totally irrelevant remark, which is then used by opposing politicians to attack him. Without taking advantage of these opportunities that arise, one would not be able to rise to power in the political arena, where everyone is trying to do the same thing; seize the initiative and capitalize the opportunity.