My buddy Jed just sent me two awesome quotes by “some professor.” I don’t actually care much about where they originated; both are fundamentally true.
Number one:
Power is the opportunity to build, to create, to nudge history in a different direction. There are few satisfactions to match it for those who care about such things. But it is not happiness. Those who seek happiness will not acquire power and would not use it well if they did acquire it.
Number two:
It is interesting that when we use power ourselves, we see it as a good force and wish we had more. When others use it against us, particularly when it is used to thwart our goals or ambitions, we see it is–as an evil. A more sophisticated and realistic view would see it for what it is–an important social process that if often required to get things accomplished in interdependent systems.
Take that, power.
