Tao te Ching: 17

The best (rulers) are those whose existence is (merely)
known by the people.
The next best are those who are loved and praised.
The next are those who are feared.
And the next are those who are despised.
It is only when one does not have enough faith in others
that others will have no faith in him.
[The great rulers] value their words highly.
They accomplish their task; they complete their work.
Nevertheless their people say that they simply follow Nature (Tzu-jan).

Another passage about how to rule. Sometimes this is how to rule yourself, but this is about how to rule others. Who would you most rather have as your boss? As your president, king, or prime minister? Would you want someone who accomplished things and we simply knew that they were there? If so, it would mean that they spent their time doing their job without pomp and circumstance.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a leader who is loved and praised? Someone we support and proudly follow? Sure it would be, but what does that leader have to do to get us to do so? How much extra effort must they put in to be so visible and so popular?

A ruler feared still commands loyalty. There are consequences to not following his word and those consequences are terrifying enough to cause one to follow him. He is still a poor ruler though, and when the time comes that the consequence can be paid, his rule is at an end. Yet, a ruler who is despised is still a ruler to be obeyed. You could hate your boss and he could be cruel and selfish, but if he was often right and clever you might follow him anyway. Still, no one wants a leader like this.

This is a very self-explanatory chapter except for the difference between the ruler who rules with wu-wei and the one who is loved and praised. Popular leaders have to devote a lot of time and effort into staying popular, and that isn't the job that they have. It takes time and energy that is best spent elsewhere. That popular and well loved leader claims his actions and does things for the consequence they bring (popularity, love, fame, fortune) and not for the reasons that are good (that it must be done).

Tzu-jan is interesting here. It is literally "self evident" or "self so" but it really means to act naturally, or spontaneously, without untoward planning. Following nature is a way of acting in accordance with the sage.