The Radical Essence of Power

I'm going to stray away from using Robert Greene's laws and write a post based on my own thoughts on power. For different people, power comes in different shapes and forms and it can be solid and visible, or fluid and hard to detect, yet the properties are nearly always the same.  This is going to be a long read, I can't sleep since I drank coffee at 1am, but I'll try and keep it interesting, as always.

For example, a professional fighter uses his physical strength and stamina as his main power source, the essence of his power comes from the hours of training and physical exertion to overcome his opponent who is working hard on the same thing.  The winner is decided when these two powers clash and only one man is left standing.

Similarly, in chess, the essence of power comes from the mind, and the player who can foresee many moves ahead and anticipate his opponents strategies will become the victor.  If you think about it, power comes in many shapes and forms, but we have the choice on how we manipulate it to benefit us.

In each era, power is leveraged through different means, and is constantly evolving each and every day, many times unnoticed by most of the general population.  Since 10% of the people have 90% of the power in this world, you might be asking yourself, how can I be one of the 10% and not part of the manipulated masses?  This is a question that will yield a different answer depending on each person.

The first advice I have to give is: Play to your strengths, but don't neglect your weaknesses.

We all have natural strengths and weaknesses, that is the beauty of the essence of power.  Some people may seem overpowered and unnaturally powerful, and that is because they have mastered many of the laws of power and play to their strengths while guarding their weaknesses carefully.


Our weaknesses are what leave us vulnerable to attack, and we have all heard of the Greek hero, Achilles, who met his downfall when an arrow struck him in his only vulnerable spot, his heel.  We all have our own Achilles heel, and it is important to protect it with all our might and never let your enemies realize what it is.

There are a few ways to go about this, and will also be discussed further in future posts.


First of all, make yourself seem larger than life, always enter actions with boldness, and not with timidity.  People are honoured in every generation, every culture, for being bold, brave, and keeping their head up high even when faced with defeat.  Your weaknesses will be masked if you create a smokescreen for your enemies and plant fake weaknesses which if they try and attack, you can readily counter.

Secondly, always remember that the essence of power means that you have to be constantly scanning and adapting to your environment, since nothing is permanent, and change is everywhere.  By doing this, you are guarding yourself for a potential ambush by your enemies, and even if this may sound a bit outdated, it is still extremely relevant in our world today.

It may seem like we are at an age where power is more insignificant, and we can get by with the ideals of a new and softer generation, but often times this is not the case.  We are now in an information age where the ones who will succeed are the ones who can adapt and leverage information at the fastest speeds possible.

Imagine, half a century ago, stock markets were purely based on trader's actions and the flow of information was slow, often inaccurate, and plagued with corruption.  Now, stocks can be bought and sold with a click of a button anywhere around the world on your mobile phone, and prices can be checked instantly through access to the internet which holds an insurmountable amount of information.

The reason why I describe the essence of power as "radical" is because it is signifies change.  A radical idea is something that is different from the norms of society and is usually regarded as dangerous or evil.  Think about it, nearly everything that we do nowadays would seem radical to people from the past, and even more so as you go back deeper and deeper.

Those who can grasp this essence will instantly be more intuitive to the changes around the world and be able to act accordingly to their own skill sets and further increase their chances for success in their quest for power.  Radical ideas now will soon become a normal part of society, and we are seeing signs of this in movies, books, fashion, and more.

Anyways, thanks for reading this post, its nearly 5am now, and I'm going to try heading to sleep now.

Thanks for all the great comments yet again, always glad to hear positive feedback and also criticisms.