If You Want To Be Powerful
Since the time of the Stoics, people have aspired to command great armies. To accumulate great fortunes. To hold high office. To be famous. To be important. In short, humans have longed to (and continue to) chase power.
The irony of this ambition is how readily they pass over the power they already have. As Publius Syrus, a slave turned philosopher like Epictetus, would write: “Would you have a great empire? Rule over yourself!” Think of Seneca, who was willing to make so many compromises with Nero to be, “in the room where it happened.” Yes, he became consul…but was he actually more powerful than Epictetus, who did the work on his desires and ambitions and came to command himself? Who was freer? Who was greater?
It’s crazy. Our ambition for command over others — as Seneca noted with a shocking lack of self-awareness — ends up commanding us. To be powerful, we give up power over our schedule. To be rich, we sell all our time. To be famous and well-liked, we give up the love of our families. To win awards, we give up our autonomy, trading our preferences for those of the judges and gatekeepers who we wouldn’t trust with our children or our silver.
You could be powerful right now, in your own life, in your own mind…if you decided to seize what was already yours. If you stopped giving your power away.
