How does power work?

A person in a specific position has been given certain power elements to operate with, for greater
good.
What do you mean by power elements?
It is essentially an over-riding factor. It prevails as necessary.
Now, a lot of times, people in power operate out of their self-interest. It can be for the people who
are a part of their social-circle or themselves. The reason they do favours for those people is because
they went into the corresponding position of power with their support. Those people may have
worked for their campaigns etc.
All of these people are acting in their self-interest. They have access to the person in power, they
enjoy proximity to power.

Power of one individual can be over-ridden by someone higher above. Or if their interests can be
fulfilled by paying them a bribe. If you get into trouble with people in power, pay them money or
find someone higher above. The war-way, though not recommended, is to find someone who holds
opposing self-interests as compared to the attacking guy and pay them for a retaliation.

The way to avoid any trouble is: Always maintain higher standards of compliances and services
offered to your customer. A disappointed customer may want to leverage power to achieve his self-
interest. People in power may want to achieve their interest via getting higher standards of service:
Give them that.

So far, we have been discussing about the power that prevails among politicians and Government
Workers. What keeps them in check is journalism. They too are corrupt. Nothing new. They will work
for the people who are jealous of you to find information about Non-compliances in your
organization. Why? They will black-mail you to get money. Use of power to promote self-interest.

Key Pointer: Keep everyone happy. Maintain high standards of service. Anticipate what the problems
may be and eradicate them as per the situation. Give higher standards of service to those who
demand it. Why? You may not know who is behind them. The next day you may get a call from an
MLA putting pressure on you.
Always fulfil compliances. Your competitors are jealous of your business success. They may not be
actively searching for non-compliances on your part, but won’t wait if they finding damning evidence
against you. What will they use? Journalism or Proximity to power or using law.
Never disrespect a Neta. They will come at you. Never disrespect a Journalist. They will come at you.

The Role of Law: Non-compliances beget law-suits and inspections. Beware. A disappointed
customer can resort to law basis severity. Will exert power too for self-interest.

How to handle your fuck-ups?

Fuck-ups may happen even if you maintain high standards due to reasons beyond your control. Pay
money to journalists to maintain a balanced reporting on you. Pay money to government workers to
contain any ill-intentioned actions. Maintain solid relationships with netas. Never take one side: if
you are BJP-‘labelled’ and influential, Congress will attack you when they feel the time is right.

Another way to handle fuck-ups is by building Proximity to Power. I suggest Ethical exploitation of
Power. If somebody is trying to harm you unethically, use power in retaliation.
I suggest not to use Power until absolutely necessary. Because once used, Power may wage a war.
Why? Because you may not know who’s behind them.
When you try to use Power, firstly evaluate what the retaliation Potential is. Foolish to wage a war
you know you are going to lose. Maintain contacts at both sides of the aisle.

Sometimes people lie too to show their power. Why? Because power can do harm and others are
scared of it. They will tell you to be careful of who’s behind them. If anyone tells you that, they are
scared of you. You know why? Because they are also guessing what your true retaliation potential is.
I am thinking of building power right now and I know I am naive. It will feel cool to say, ‘Aap Prahar
karo, hamari taraf se dugana prahar hoga.’ But I hope it doesn’t come to this.

If you are a fragile business-person with low-profits, nobody cares about you. If you are a business-
success, people will take note of your popularity. They will come to you asking for donations:
politicians, religious organizations too are powerful: by proximity to power. My philosophy is: never
refuse paying money. Negotiate if it is too high an amount according to the situation. Pay them
something, so that they don’t have a grudge. You are playing a long-game. They may not be in power
right now, it will depend on their level of corruptness when they come in power, if you have weak
retaliation potential, they will ride all over you.
A politician who feels disrespected by you will bring you down when he notices a non-compliance.
He’ll get his money then, that too, a lot.

Maintain contacts on either side to contain risks of the future in control. Don’t go for MLA’s; go for
ministers. That will provide highest retaliation potential. You can get access to them if you are a
successful businessman. How? Journalists. Give them ads. Get them to setup appointments in
return. One journalist will tend to support one party only. Find out the corresponding information.

The World of Power is an ugly one. It doesn’t work on ethics, but self-interests. I was initially of the
opinion of not paying any money. Maintaining objective ground. My father told me it doesn’t work
in real life. You can maintain an ethical ground by not demanding money, but pay money to
safeguard your future as and when necessary.
P. S. : Government work doesn’t happen until you pay a bribe. You can’t be an efficient business-
person if you don’t pay bribes. Roam around if you want to. Again, it depends on your own Proximity
to Power. Any mediocrely powerful person’s interests can be over-ridden by saying ‘Tumko pata
nahi hai tum kisse baat kar rahe ho’.