Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri did a really interesting deep dive into this book and its author in their podcast "If Books Could Kill". Recommended listenin

Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri did a really interesting deep dive into this book and its author in their podcast "If Books Could Kill". Recommended listening. TL;DR: It is theorized that the author (Robert Greene) studied classics and wanted to write a book about influential leaders throughout history, but the only way to get such a book green-lit by a publisher was to wrap the history around a "self-help for men" context, which naturally gravitates towards building empires and making more money. This is why, like many self-help books, the advice is dubious, but unlike almost all self-help books, the historical anecdotes are extremely correct.