On Power
Welcome to People vs Algorithms #82.
I look for patterns in media, business and culture. My POV is informed by 30 years of leadership in media and advertising businesses.
Sometimes it’s nice to read in the browser.
Shifting Tides in the Media Business with Axios’s Sara Fischer
PvA podcast out now.
"The world itself is the will to power - and nothing else! And you yourself are the will to power - and nothing else!" - Friedrich Nietzsche
Our world is only getting less predictable. It’s just a matter of time until change impacts you directly. Which is reason to consider the advice I am about to offer.
Seems to me, a sensible hedge against living with more uncertainty would be to: a) find serenity in our chaotic reality, b) do more to fortify your personal position.
I suggest you do both. But let’s focus on the second point. This is about your personal POWER.
After speaking to a friend about a life change, the POWER thing lurked in the back of my mind. I thought it would be fun to share some thoughts on the topic. Just to be clear, I do not aspire to be a “personal advice” newsletter person. But we don’t talk about POWER enough IMO, at least not in the context of career management. Let’s see where this goes.
Occurs to me, if there was a single piece of life advice to offer a young person it would NOT be “follow your passion” or “work your ass off” or "dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” Do those things. But, above all else, I would advise them to “maximize their POWER.” My spiel would go something like this:
You have zero POWER in the beginning…
Unless you are smart, you might not have it later…
This leaves you vulnerable…
You will feel this more profoundly as time goes on…
It’s a shitty feeling…
You are especially vulnerable when you think you have POWER but you don’t…
POWER comes in soft and hard forms...
Both are useful…
Sadly, POWER is often an illusion…
The good news is…
There are many ways to grow personal POWER…
It helps to be rich…
But normal people can have it too…
Start working on it now.
If you are in media or advertising, which many of you are, life changes are nearer than you may have hoped or expected. In fact, they are staring at you right now: you the young and dispensable, you the middle and rationalizable, you the old and expensive.
I’ve seen too many people who have spent a life working hard only to find their choices dramatically limited because they have not been strategic about growing their personal POWER. You don’t need to be Machiavellian. You do need to be more prepared.
I too have felt this vulnerability. Which is why I feel comfortable dispensing advice. My path was super fortunate. I’ve spent many years leading companies, managing hundreds and hundreds of people, overseeing ten-digit P&Ls. Sadly, almost always as a renter, not an owner. This status creates a false sense of security. Yes, the protections are better the more senior the are, but the vulnerabilities exist nonetheless. The higher you climb, and so on.
For clarity, this advice is not about the abuse of POWER, POWER for POWER’s sake or POWER over others (note: this is sometimes useful and gratifying). All of these are oft trodden paths by the POWERFUL but they surely come with negative consequences in the afterlife. Misuse of POWER is also a reliable way to lose all the good stuff and karma you have worked diligently to accumulate.
POWER should be seen as a means to an end — the ability to meaningfully shape one's life trajectory, to have agency, optionality, to assert one's dignity and values, and / or enable more equitable value capture.
Now, the most straight forward POWER advice might just be to GET RICH, MARRY RICH, LIVE MODESTLY, or OPT OUT OF THE GAME. These are pragmatic paths to consider. I would like to offer a couple of additional thoughts.
Let’s start by closing our eyes and reflecting on those people whose POWER position you admire or, perhaps, envy. These can be personal or public role models. Here are a few to help you visualize:
Mahatma Gandhi built POWER through personal moral courage and conviction in the idea of non-violent, non-cooperation. This inspired millions to others to do the same.
Mark Zuckerberg has enviable POWER, not just because of his insane wealth but his total voting control over the company he founded.
Steve Jobs also found POWER as a successful and wealthy entrepreneur, but his real POWER came from vision, high standards, and rejection of convention. His personal POWER was rooted in a seemingly unwavering self-belief and the reality distortion field that emanated from it.
Oprah achieved POWER through her extraordinary ability to connect with and inspire people.
Warren Buffett found his POWER gradually through a disciplined long-term value investing approach, his unassuming demeanor and, obviously, reliable results.
Andrew Huberman found POWER with a very popular pop-neuroscience podcast. A negative profile in New York Mag, centered mostly on his active personal life, could have ended things, but professional independence makes Andrew far more resilient that a 9 to 5 media personality. My bet is Huberman soldiers on with the support of a loyal audience.
Connect the dots as you will. Come up with your own examples. Now that we’ve consider those standouts, I would offer the following practical POWER concepts to consider:
Owners and Controllers
We used to think of business founders as the domain of a rarefied entrepreneurial class. You either had it or you didn’t. This is nonsense. The owner pool is much bigger that we thought, particularly when define it broadly as independent control of a revenue stream and the means of making it flow. At some point in your career, especially now that company loyalty no longer really exists, you may need to become an owner. The asset is you. Ownership is ultimate POWER.
Start preparing for this eventuality. A side hustle is a good way to begin. They are much more acceptable than they used to be.
Related, a wise friend made a comment that resonated the other day. He lives a nice life on account of owning things. His comment was one of privilege but the point resonated. It went something like, “I don’t care if I own the majority or not, but I do care if I am in control. What is the point of doing this if I have to take orders from idiots? My freedom is way, way more important than money.” Worth considering.
Full Stackers
We live in a self service age. It’s never been easier to start a company, birth a brand, build a thing, make media, grow a community, sell a service. Full Stackers are well suited to this world. The term comes from the technical world, describing engineers with expertise spanning the entire "stack" or components required to develop and deploy a complete software application.
Full Stack applies equally outside of technical realms to the open minded people unafraid to use tools and learn new things to “get shit done.” They are the revolutionaries.
Full Stackers can design a logo and author the strategy on which it is based. Full Stackers can run a meeting, analyze data and create a pivot table in Excel. Full Stack executives make their own decks and schedule their own meetings.
I am working with a good Full Stack Banker right now. He does strategy and makes decks. He negotiates. He books a million meetings. He also constructs wicked Excel financial models and changes them in real time when we are on the phone. Watching it is exhilarating.
There is POWER in being Full Stack.
Frugal and Resourceful
Related to the above. Always figure out how to do more with less. It is a pathway to POWER.
Product People
Not everybody can make the product, but the closer you are to it, and the more you enable its creation, quality, efficacy, enjoyment in some shape or form, the more POWER you have. I have always thought that the number one requirement for most CEO’s and senior execs is deep product knowledge and passion for it.
Deep Experts and the Irreplaceables
You are a generalist? Be careful. You better be super duper expert at generalizing or you have zero POWER. I hate to sound all ToNy RobBinS or something but everybody is a Venn diagram. Your unique source of POWER sits where one thing you are good at intersects another thing you are great at, assuming that intersection is valuable to someone. You must always sharpen your very own personal Venn diagram.
The good news is the world is your fucking oyster now. Vast repositories of knowledge are sitting inside of your laptop. Seriously, right now you can emerge as your local AI expert by like using AI a bunch, reading a meaningful amount about it, watching some solid YouTube and then just saying, “Hi my name is Troy and I am an expert and the intersection of media and AI.” Experts always have POWER. This is not an elusive goal. You are an expert at something. You are always emerging.
Nice and Networked
I have been working on this one. Which qualifies me to push it on you. Pick the important qualities from this list: empathetic, good listener, collaborative, funny, modest, light, patient, supportive, inspiring. Get good at some of these and you don’t have to be that smart or that expert to summon more POWER. People will like working with you and will not like the idea of you not being around. Plenty of mean people have POWER. Nice and smart people are wonderfully POWERFUL.
When you combine these good qualities with a concerted effort to develop a robust personal network, you will develop more resilient POWER.
POWER is cool. Especially in its purest form as divine human agency. I want it for the people in my life who feel vulnerable in its absence. I want it for you. I want it for myself…/ Troy