Probably the most misunderstood thing in the world is the nature of power and how you know you have it, and others recognize that you do. This came to my mind for several reasons, most notably the discussion on the Steve Bannon Warroom podcast recently where it was revealed that 30% of all registered voters want to see the 2020 election overturned. From my perspective, I feel the United States moved in a new and healthy direction during the last week of October 2021. Not through our political system, that is a disaster, but I feel that the right people see what’s going on and that Democrats are ruining their brand forever by what they are doing now. When I heard that 30% number, it caught my attention because I understand power I have and want to share with people. It is, after all, one of the big themes in my recent book, The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business, who really has power and what can be done with it. Most everyone gets their understanding of power wrong. It’s not their fault; it’s just the way we teach ourselves. Much of the world has sought to mask that misunderstanding by making power a process and not an intellectual attribute, leaving many wholly lost about the nature of power. It’s not in Democracy, the opinions of the masses that power is acquired, which is the current strategy of globalists, Big Tech, political parties, communist countries, every villain you can think of. They seek to gain power by a recognized title, saying that Dr. Fauci is powerful because he’s at the front of the NIH and is the highest-paid government employee in America. But in reality, he’s just a sniveling lier who could be crushed about as quickly as we might swat a fly. In Dr. Fauci’s case, the power is an accepted system, whereas the real power comes from other measures.
I often use the example in my book of The Lonely Stranger, who steps into a saloon in the Wild West and moves through a room full of desperate people, prostitutes, gamblers, cutthroats, swindlers, rustlers, robbers, and dealmakers. The music stops when they enter and step to the bar for a drink with their back to the room. All the power in the world is in this lonely stranger because the room’s contents are moved to action by the new presence. Some are thinking about how they might kill the stranger and take all he has. Others wonder if there is some secret knowledge the stranger has that might enrich the lives of those so desperate. Perhaps a friendship would be profitable. Prostitutes might hope for an easy new customer. Everyone looks at the stranger and wonders who they are and what benefit they might be to the desperate. It’s a classic western theme that was developed in American culture and is unique in the world. The power, of course, is entirely in the hands of the lonely stranger at the bar, making the room guess how the stranger’s life might benefit them. Either through crime, friendship, lust, or even intoxication. Power is when others are moved to action by some instigator. Understanding that and then manipulating those around the room to your objectives is how good strategy is evoked and utilized correctly.
Most people in the world want to step into a saloon-like that and be liked by the participants. In so doing, instantly, all their power is given to the mob, and they lose any leadership prospect. Leadership is not understood even by those who naturally possess it. Leadership is in knowing how to use power to move the masses to the desired effect. A good leader can make the people in the saloon do anything they want, and it doesn’t matter if it’s 100 people or 1 billion people. The saloon can be as big as you want it to be; people always behave the same for the same reasons no matter what culture we are dealing with. The leverage always goes to the lonely, unknown stranger alone at the bar with their back to the room until they give away that power by showing a desire for friendship. Once that weakness is revealed, then the lonely stranger becomes another member of some peer group. They may influence that peer group, but not the rest of the room. As a great CEO, Trump came into the presidency understanding this trait of leadership. That’s how the MAGA movement happened and how Trump was even able to control the flow of the media. They may have hated him, but he had power over them, just like those who wanted to kill the lonely stranger plotted and schemed in the corners behind layers of cigar smoke in how to end the stranger’s life. So long as the stranger understands what’s going on, he can make it work to his advantage.
But it’s a lonely realization, leadership. And we are taught as little kids, and throughout our lives, that friendship is the most important thing. So we walk into these rooms full of people and seek friendship, not the naturally associated power with our independence. We all have tremendous power until we give it away under some assumption of winning the hearts of our attempted murders or the schemes of the whores, and gamblers with friendship. If we just stayed at the bar with our back to the room, letting the various elements simmer on their thoughts, we would maintain power over all of them. In such a way, one person can influence through leadership many hundreds of people. Or perhaps thousands. That is why it was significant to hear that 30% of all people supported turning over the election. That is way more people than are needed to change society. A considerable revolution could occur with influential leaders under 5%, which is essentially how the Democrats have made this current power play. They are playing by the wrong rules and have made several fatal mistakes, and those mistakes are blowing up in their faces as I write this. President Trump has maintained that 30% during his entire presidency and before and after because those people make up the lonely, stranger aspect of the saloon inhabitants. And they haven’t turned to the room for friendship but have remained with their back to it, cooly sipping on their drinks and watching all the desperate faces from under the brim of their hat in a mirror hanging behind the bar to show the room and its cutthroats in all its glory. And that’s more than we need to win the war and the world, which I find very encouraging. When you understand leadership and how it works, you can then know that the modern political methods of acquiring power, whether Facebook, Twitter, or the Deep State, are all wrong because they seek friendship as their means of manipulation and the schemes of Democracy. But that’s not how power works, and they are learning all too late that everything they have built their life around has been false, and they will fail as sure as you are reading this, which has presented them with a crisis many of them were never prepared for, and it’s to our benefit to exploit.
Rich Hoffman
The Gunfighter's Guide: 