Think Like a Spy

Master the Art of Influence and Build Life-Changing Alliances

By: Julian Fisher

Narrated by: Julian Fisher

Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

'It's rare to find a book that is not only intensely personal but deeply practical. Julian Fisher has somehow pulled it off, in this fascinating and engaging guide to the art of influence. Think Like a Spy is a fantastic read, full of eye-opening espionage tradecraft as well as insightful tips on how to achieve your business goals. Highly recommended' - Henry Hemming, author of Four Shots in the Night

Discover the secret skills of influence and persuasion taught to intelligence officers and how to adapt them to win over personal and professional allies to your cause.

Every day, intelligence officers achieve the unimaginable. They persuade people to share classified secrets with them. To become traitors, in fact. And their targets do it willingly, despite the risk of imprisonment, torture and, even, execution. Spies achieve this thanks to their structured use of nine secret skills of espionage. In Think Like a Spy, you'll learn these techniques and how to adapt them for effective and ethical use in your own life.

A good spy is a people-person. She knows how to identify a potential agent, how to attract their attention and what to do to build an enduring relationship with them. From this base, she will coax out personal information to work out what makes her target tick. She will use that knowledge and her understanding of human psychology to her advantage while winning lasting commitment from her new ally.

All these skills can be mastered and turned to use in civilian life. The author realised that he used all of them in his own progress from the poorest postcode in Britain to Oxford University, into a blue-blooded stockbroking firm, and on to a thrilling and varied career in the security and intelligence worlds. Julian uses a wide variety of stories from this journey to illustrate how spy skills can be adapted to situations and challenges that we all face.

Everyone is capable of thinking like a spy and of using that thinking to transform their lives. This is your opportunity to learn how.

©2024 Julian Fisher (P)2024 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

If I was a young graduate looking to gain an advantage in the workplace, this is the first book I would turn to. Part memoir, part tutorial, Think Like A Spy is as close as readers are likely to get to the secrets of intelligence recruitment. A fascinating and instructive guide (Charles Cumming, bestselling author of BOX 88)

Think Like a Spy is an indispensable guide to influencing and persuading others. Fisher has walked the talk. In it, he shows you how to apply the secret techniques used by spies the world over, to achieve your goals in both your personal and professional life (Scott Walker, kidnap-for-ransom negotiator and Sunday Times bestselling author of Order Out of Chaos)

A veritable treasure trove of intelligence gems . . . an espionage tradecraft handbook from an authentic insider (Nigel West, intelligence historian)

Fisher deftly guides us into a secret world, then demythologises it, illuminating how the ordinary can achieve the extraordinary. The world's second-oldest profession, he reveals in this thrilling account of human behaviour, was not built on betrayal and blackmail, as Hollywood fantasists would have it, but the not-so-dark art of influence and alliance building. Fisher gives us the tools we need to achieve our goals and live a life of adventure and intrigue. Spies, he teaches, are made not Bourne (Tyler Maroney, author of The Modern Detective: How Corporate Intelligence Is Reshaping the World)

For anyone looking to grasp the art of persuasion, interpersonal skills and alliances, Fisher's book belongs in your back pocket. Peppered with case studies and personal anecdotes, Think Like a Spy is at once instructive, insightful and entertaining (I. S. Berry, author of The Peacock and the Sparrow)

A rare and insightful glimpse into the spy's box of tricks (James Wolff, author of The Man in the Corduroy Suit)

It is hard not to find this an endearing as well as a thought-provoking read (Jake Kerridge)