On Power Read online

  Think back to Jordan’s first rejection, when he failed to make the varsity basketball team and stood staring at that list in the locker room without his name on it. Hold that image in your mind, just like Jordan did. The next time you find yourself being blocked from achieving your dreams by something external, call up that image like Jordan did and use it as fuel. Commit to working harder and to getting even better. Never stop.

  If you take this to heart, you will be that much closer to power.

  STAN LEE

  THE CREATOR

  I learned early on that I’m not that different from most other people. So if I can come up with a character I think is exciting . . . I figure a lot of people maybe will have the same taste I do.

  —Stan Lee

  Stan Lee is a machine. He is best known for his work at Marvel Comics as the cocreator of legendary comic-book characters who now hold dominion over the global movie box office. He’s also that funny guy who makes a cameo in every Marvel film. Lee, like most other examples of powerful people in this book, had humble beginnings. But in his story, you will see a pattern that you should take to heart. The “Marvel Method” is not simply the way Lee crafted stories with his paneling and inking team. It is an unstoppable ethic that makes his work indistinguishable from his life.

  Born in the Bronx in 1922, Lee took on tons (and tons) of odd jobs as a young kid growing up, everything from delivering sandwiches for the pharmacy at Rockefeller Center, to selling New York Herald Tribune subscriptions door-to-door, to writing obituaries, to working as an usher at a Broadway theater. Another lesson to be learned: No job is beneath you, especially when you’re starting out.

  Young people today seem to grow up with a sense of entitlement and the idea that making someone’s coffee, fetching someone’s dry cleaning, or working at a drive-through is embarrassing. This attitude must be snuffed out. And the best way to do that is to cite the myriad heroes of today who were once the unpaid interns, errand boys, and coffee-makers of yesterday. You should approach every job you have with gratitude that anyone wants to pay you to do anything at all. Approaching even the crudest, most servile jobs with enthusiasm, and a drive to not only complete your tasks but to excel in them, is the only way to ascend the first crucial steps on your ladder to power. If Stan Lee did it, you have no right to feel “above it.” Get to work.

  Lee graduated early from high school, at the age of sixteen, and set out to become a serious writer. Stan Lee began as a pseudonym (his real name was Stanley Martin Lieber) that he would later adopt as his legal name. As I did, and as many other modern power players have done, Lee used his name to reinvent himself and to create a persona. You may want to consider doing the same, especially if your name is long or hard to pronounce. Remember, if you want people to grant you power, they’ll need to remember your name upon first hearing it. There is power in simplicity, and there is power in being memorable.

  In 1939, Lee’s uncle, Robbie Solomon, helped him get a job as an assistant at a company called Timely Comics, which would, much later, become Marvel. Yet another lesson here: Accepting help from those who can hold doors open for you is nothing to be ashamed of. You are in this to succeed, and that’s what networking is all about. If you know someone who knows someone, use that connection. In this first job for Timely Comics, Lee was initially assigned to menial tasks, like refilling ink for the artists and getting lunch and coffee. His proficiency in these tasks impressed people and eventually led to him being allowed to try his hand at filling in text, and ultimately, he was made an editor and began creating characters. The only way to make that leap like Lee did, from underling to editor, is with good old-fashioned hard labor and enthusiasm. People will notice you if you do your job, whatever job it may be, better than anyone else around you. If you are just starting out, strive to be the best at getting coffee, and make your dreams for the future known as you are doing it. Soon, you may ingratiate yourself with the right person, and that person may give you the opportunity to not get coffee anymore. This is the old model of climbing the ladder, and it still works.

  Lee left the company in 1942 to serve in the army, and once he returned, he had to do some work to reestablish himself. Remember: success is not a straight line. He struggled for a while and considered changing careers and giving up his dream. But eventually, with artist Jack Kirby, he created his first superhero team, the Fantastic Four. And from there he would go on to cocreate characters that are now known to almost everyone on the planet, nerd or not: the X-Men, the Avengers, including the Hulk, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Doctor Strange. He wrote these characters for a time, then graduated to full-time publisher at Marvel, passing the torch to other artists and storytellers who carry on his characters’ stories to this day, on the page and on screen.

  Lee is credited with creating the first African American superhero, Falcon, who appears in an issue of Captain America. He would go on to use his series, including Spider-Man, to tackle deeper human issues than his contemporaries had done, including the dangers of drug use, discrimination, and racism, and subsequently the rest of the industry followed suit, loosening censorship codes to allow for the discussion of darker real-world issues. The lesson here: If you want to make a tangible difference in the world, it is necessary to have the power to do so. In Lee’s case, that power meant having the megaphone to get these positive social messages out into the world, via the ascension and popularity of his characters.

  Marvel as a company got into financial trouble in the nineties and began selling its most popular characters to movie studios to make ends meet. The firm filed for bankruptcy in 1997, and it looked as if collapse was inevitable. However, at the turn of the millennium, Marvel began partnering with Twentieth Century Fox to produce a series of successful film franchises, including the X-Men and Spider-Man movies, which were smash hits. The strength of Marvel, and what allowed the company to emerge from bankruptcy and survive, was due to Lee’s original characters. Today, Marvel owns some of the most popular and lucrative film franchises in the world.

  Lee was awarded a National Medal of the Arts from Congress in 2008. Now, you suppose, comes the time when Lee can sit back and enjoy his secure legacy. Not likely. Lee still writes books, cocreates characters, produces TV shows, and makes a cameo in almost every single Marvel movie. He even makes regular appearances at comic conventions. In a 2014 interview he gave to the Chicago Tribune, he said, “I don’t have to do them, but I like being with the fans. I learn more from them than they learn from me.” It is safe to say that he will likely never retire while he can stand on two legs. He could rest. Most people in his position would. But he won’t—he doesn’t want to. At the age of ninety-four, there is still more to be done.

  There go all of your excuses: You’re tired. You’re getting too old for this. The true renaissance of Lee’s creations is, arguably, happening right now. It is my opinion that this would not be the case without his work ethic and the ethic of his successors who learned from him.

  Take note of this attitude: the goal of Lee’s work was not to earn enough to rest or retire. The goal of Lee’s work has always been to keep moving and to keep creating. Perpetual motion is the name of the game.

  WARREN BUFFETT

  THE SOOTHSAYER

  Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

  —Warren Buffett

  Not all powerful people are mean-spirited in the pursuit of their ambitions. There is a gray area between aggressive, victory-oriented behavior and malicious behavior, and the man who walks that line best, by my lights, is Warren Buffett. He is, by all accounts, a decent man with a high moral compass. He makes headlines for being one of the few mega-billionaires with a reputation for his absolutely fair, compassionate, and by-the-books business practices. Though he aggressively pursues his goals, he seems to do so without earning anyone’s particular ire. For Buffett, being an ethical operator is not just a principled decision; it is a pragmatic decision. Buffett has
said, “It’s easier to stay out of trouble than it is to get out of trouble.” And I agree. Even if you take my advice about being Machiavellian to heart, you will realize that breaking the law, screwing people over needlessly, lying, and cheating are not worth the risk to your own personal fortune and goals. Choosing to be honest, trustworthy, and charitable is not a moral decision. It is a pragmatic, calculated decision, because you want to be as safe as possible and to protect your interests. When people know that they can trust you, there’s power in that.

  Buffett was born in 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska. His father started his own investment company when Warren was just a child and worked diligently through the aftermath of the stock market crash. At the age of eight, Buffett picked up a book called One Thousand Ways to Make $1000, by F. C. Minaker. Inspired and hoping to increase his nickel-a-week allowance, he sold Coca-Cola, gum, and magazines door-to-door. From these humble but ambitious beginnings, Buffett would go on to become the only person to create a top-ten Fortune 500 company from the ground up.

  Entrepreneurship can provide spiritual moments in a young person’s life. This is how I feel about my experiences scrubbing fat off a butcher’s chopping block and delivering newspapers as a kid. These things changed me internally and have shaped who I am today. I imagine Buffett learned the same thing I learned: it feels good when nobody is there to tell you what to do. In other words, he liked being his own boss. Even in modest circumstances, if you are willing to put in the hours and be clever about what people around you need, you can have the power to be your own boss. Once again, so long as you do not consider a certain job “beneath you.” That sort of ego is your enemy, especially starting out.

  Warren’s father never cared much about money. He lived according to an inner scorecard and didn’t pay attention to what other people had. He would go on to run for Congress, and to win, but Warren felt displaced when his family relocated to Washington, D.C. His grades tanked and his good habits gave way to bad ones. He would bounce from the University of Pennsylvania to the University of Nebraska, and after failing to gain admittance to Harvard Business School, he ultimately ended up at Columbia, because Benjamin Graham, an economist and author he liked, taught there. It was at Columbia that Warren’s love for the stock market grew. He learned everything there was to know about the market and its value in economics.

  Warren began by purchasing stock in a small textile company. When prompted to sell the stock back to the company, the owner tried to give him a return that was just slightly off—by just a few cents, in fact. Normally, this would not be a big issue, but for some reason this upset Warren enough that he bought a majority share of the company’s stock, fired the owner, and took complete control of the textile business. Warren then used the name of this company to create his umbrella holding firm: Berkshire Hathaway. It was a strange move; however, it speaks to his honest principles: even a few cents off is still not honest business. This was the beginning of his legacy as someone who does things right or not at all.

  After years of acquiring controlling amounts of stock in various companies that he liked, Warren came to understand it was best that his corporation never interrupted the daily operations of the companies he controlled. He played the game as a chairman, not a helicopter parent, and this would prove an ingenious way of managing his relationships. Instead of going in and trying to do everything himself, he bought controlling stock in businesses he believed in, run by people he trusted.

  Warren Buffett’s actions spoke—and speak—louder than his words. In 1990, Salomon Brothers, a large brokerage company that had been submitting false bids to purchase more Treasury bonds, was caught red-handed. When the U.S. Treasury revoked its license, the firm was on the brink of having to declare bankruptcy. Warren, who had no knowledge of these dealings and had even written letters to the company warning against such behaviors, stood up and took the blame. And this was a time, not unlike today, when many CEOs preferred hiding behind curtains of secrecy. Buffett, on the other hand, knew that if the company sustained that loss, not only would the Berkshire stockholders take the hit, but also eight thousand jobs would be lost. At a board of directors meeting, he took the position of interim chairman and convinced the U.S. Treasury that practices such as these would never occur again under his jurisdiction. Read that again. He stood up, apologized for someone else’s mistake, and simply promised the government that it wouldn’t happen under his watch.

  This move demonstrates the power of a persona as a public brand, managed properly: Buffett’s name had become so synonymous with honesty, integrity, insurance, success, and good judgment that the Treasury eventually released its hold on the company’s license on his word. This sort of movie-magic moment seems mythical and impossible to obtain, but I’m telling you that you can do this too—if you never waver from your brand and what you stand for, and if you say what you mean and mean what you say. Life is like an ad campaign: the more consistently you stay on message, the more people you will convince. Did Warren have a hand in the wrongdoing? No. But he cared about the ultimate consequences of remaining silent. A man as handy with math as Warren Buffett knew that those eight thousand lost jobs would affect more than just those eight thousand lives; the cumulative result would effectively damage the market, ruining countless more lives. To take a personal blow like this and remain resilient is a source of real power and only bolsters his image as utterly trustworthy. This honesty is his brand, his personal “stock,” beyond his billions—and a major source of his power. People buy stock in Berkshire because they are buying Buffett himself—they want a piece of his brand that he protects so staunchly.

  Warren would go on to become the richest man in the world, year after year, until he was eventually surpassed by Bill Gates, with whom he developed a deep relationship and a friendly rivalry. So what do you do once you’ve achieved more money and power than arguably anyone else in the world? Well, Warren decided to pledge more than half of his fortune—$37 billion—to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the largest single donations to charity in history. To this day, his contributions (which add up to around $2 billion so far, with more pledged after his passing) have been used in countless ways to help fight disease and wealth inequality, to bolster public education programs, to develop new technologies . . . the list goes on.

  When I say that the end justifies the means, when I tell you to be ruthless in achieving your goals and to put on your oxygen mask first, this is why. Buffett is able to improve the lives of countless people, including but not limited to the people who work for the companies he owns, because he achieved power first.

  If you climb the mountain first, you can let down a ladder.

  FRANK UNDERWOOD

  THE MANIPULATOR

  Power is a lot like real estate. It’s all about location, location, location. The closer you are to the source, the higher your property value.

  —Frank Underwood

  Yes, I know, Frank Underwood is a fictional character, and we already mentioned him when we talked about Machiavelli. But hear me out. For those of you who haven’t watched House of Cards, Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey) is the fictional main character on the show, and he is a conniving politician who becomes president of the United States in the final season. Since a contemporary pop culture reference can sometimes be more effective than the obligatory classical references, please indulge me an analysis of one scene.

  In the opening scene of the very first episode of House of Cards, Underwood approaches a dog that’s just been involved in a hit-and-run with a car. As Frank looks up from the dying animal, he breaks the fourth wall (as he often does), and as the sounds fade away, he lets the audience in on a little secret: “There are two kinds of pain. The sort of pain that makes you strong or useless pain. The sort of pain that’s only suffering. I have no patience for useless things.” Then, with cool-headed deliberateness, Frank calmly places a hand around the dog’s neck and puts it out of its misery. He continues: “Moments like this re
quire someone who will act, who will do the unpleasant thing, the necessary thing.” The dog’s muffled whimpers cease. Frank looks down and, speaking to the deceased animal, says, “There. No more pain.”

  This scene vividly illustrates the Machiavellian argument, perhaps even more so than the historical references and stories we’ve explored up to this point. As I’ve stated before, Machiavellianism is not about good versus evil. So set aside questions like: Is it right to kill an innocent dog? Is it wrong to let it suffer? Machiavellianism is about the ends, the consequences of actions, and about the will to do what needs to be done. In his book The Psychopath Inside, which I read on recommendation from my son, neuroscientist Dr. James Fallon talks about how feeling empathy can help us become better people, but in moments of extreme stress, it can inhibit our ability to act promptly. Empathy requires us to pass decisions through the orbital cortex and the amygdala, which takes more time and slows down reaction speed. In times of crisis, this is not good for anyone. So call Frank Underwood a psychopath if you must, but according to Dr. Fallon, getting rid of psychopathic behavior entirely is not necessarily the answer, because cold, calculating people are the ones who get the job done. As he explained in a 2014 interview with the Huffington Post:

  In times of great biological stress, [psychopaths] save the species . . . If you take a look at the development of human cognition, the greatest explosion of brain size occurs during periods of great climate change . . . Once the environment changes drastically, what’s considered moral and normal changes . . . You need that person. When the asteroid hits, there’s nobody to take the ball and run with it . . . By opening up normative behaviors (and moral behavior is really just normative behavior; it’s the average behavior) psychopaths teach us how much our limbic system and our sense of morality compromise our efficiency.