Power has had many interpretations and definitions throughout human history. Thousands of years ago it was raw human strength that was looked upon as a trait of leadership. As time went on, it become the skilled strategist and tactician that was deemed powerful. The Game is based around power. Since the original Game is defined as self-empowerment, you can find the very word power in that definition. This sounds great, but what is power? If we examine the dictionary definitions we get:
It can also be defined as: To inspire; spur; or sustain. And these don’t even begin to touch the many definitions of power. For 1 word to have well over 20 different definitions should be an indication of something. And what is this indicating? Power is not a linear thing – therefore it can't be simply defined. What do I mean? Power is subjective. It’s based entirely of one person’s position over another person; or a person’s position over themselves. And of course when we say something is subjective, it means it’s based off an individual’s Perspective – how they think and feel about it. Let’s say there are 2 men trapped in the wilderness. The 1st man is a Harvard graduate and a successful businessman. The 2nd man is a natural outdoors-man. Our Harvard graduate has spent the majority of his life attaining intellectual pursuits and he doesn’t know how to survive in the wild. Our outdoors-man has spent the majority of his life learning to hunt, fish, forage, trap, and basically survive in the wild. In this situation, who has power? The outdoors-man has the power here. Why? Because to know something gives you power over that thing and also power over those who have no knowledge of it. So while our outdoors-man can live, eat and find water just fine, the Harvard graduate on the other hand is more than likely doomed to get ill or possibly die; either the environment will get to him or he’ll pass of starvation or thirst. If our outdoors-man is a “good-guy”, he’ll probably help the Harvard man survive. But if he’s a “bad-guy”, he can let the Harvard man fend for himself, or even tell him to eat something poisonous. How would the Harvard man know if the outdoors-man is telling the truth or not? In this example, the outdoors-man holds a lot of power over the Harvard graduate, he knows something the Harvard graduate doesn't. If you reversed this situation and placed our outdoors-man in the executive corporate world, who would hold the power then? Our Harvard graduate would. Why? Because in this situation he has the knowledge of how to "survive" in this environment while our outdoors-man would be "out of place". Like I said earlier, this is subjective and also based around the environment you hold knowledge in. The key-word here is knowledge. Knowledge means to know something. Not guess, not theorize, but to actually know. If you don’t know then you really don’t have any knowledge because true knowledge is based on experience. You could study books and videos about how to play basketball for years. But if you never actually play, when you finally hit that court you’ll look foolish. You’d have a ton of information about basketball, but no practical application about how to play basketball. You could sit and watch the Food Network until your eyes bleed. But until you actually get in the kitchen to experiment and apply what you’ve learned, you don’t really know. You just have a lot of information. Knowledge is power. But only if you know how and when to use it! The Value of power is based on an individual’s Perspective and the environment they’re in. Sure there are more factors involved, but these are the roots of genuine power. While I Hustled in the streets I was taught that power was gained through respect and money. And respect was gained through fear; money was used to enforce that fear. In the streets that can be a form of power, but how much power does a street Hustler hold when they’re face-to-face with the law? Very little. Again, power is subjective not objective. For someone to hold power, other people have to agree to it. So, in the Game we speak about self-empowerment. Having the knowledge, wisdom and understanding to make yourself powerful in a particular environment. The root-word of empowerment is power. And if genuine power is to know, then to be self-empowered you have to know yourself. This may sound a little odd to some of you, but many people have a lot of information about themselves, but no real knowledge about themselves. They like to think of themselves as good, patience, helpful, team-players and other good qualities that society deems "acceptable". But this same person can have a bad experience one day and suddenly all these “good” qualities fly out the window. That’s not self-empowerment, that’s being fake. Why? Because what these people claim to be changes with the wind (on how they feel that day). And in the Game, we call these people “Squares”. Genuine power is to know, and genuine knowing comes from experience. And since power is subjective, if you know yourself and know your environment, you'll have more power in that area than others. You'll know what they don’t know. This alone gives you degrees of genuine power. It’s nothing that has to be begged for or forced onto people, it flows naturally because this is the natural order of things - when they accept that, you'll automatically possess genuine power. Just studying something isn’t enough, you have to use it and experience it so that you can begin to really know. How much genuine power do you hold in your life? Peep the Game in that. Until next time… Curious about the Game? Subscribe to the Uncommon Sense Adviser – Higher level Game to help take YOUR Game to the next level. Also receive news, discounts on future books and products along with early access. Join now by clicking [HERE].
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