The average person, unlike a monarch, doesn’t deal with the setting, enforcing and modifying of laws. The average person operates within, adapts to, and shapes societal and organisational norms. But they don’t make the laws.
We may have seen the death of monarch-like authority, but there are still individuals with great power, influence and wealth. People who exercise a large measure of control over small dominions.
The world is split into people with power, and those without it.
The people with power, influence and wealth can, to a limited degree, shape the world around them. Those wishing to shape the world but who don’t have these things are left with two choices:
- Gain power, influence and wealth themselves. It’s not as difficult as you think. The world is not zero sum. You don’t have to take it from those sitting atop the structures of power. But you do have to tread carefully to ensure you don’t upset the accepted balance and get shut down on the come up.
- Leverage the power, influence and wealth of others. This is most clearly demonstrated by a line from Umberto Eco’s Baudolino. “Quod principi plaquit legis habet vigorem: that which pleases the prince has the strength of law.”
One of these strategies entails less risk than the other. But it also offers far less reward. Which you choose depends on what you want.
Do you want power, influence and wealth for the sake of it? Just to feel good? To soothe your ego? Or do you seek those things so you can shape your reality into something akin to how you think your life or the world should look?
Answer these questions. Because knowing why you want something is often the first step in the process of figuring out how to get it.
Swell & Cut 