"the unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities from rising to the upper rungs of the political ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements."

What is your ambition here in this world? Is it solely to trade enough drugs so you have an ample never ending stash to use for your own nefarious needs? Is it solely to gain one up manship on a fellow mob member? To kill someone who has grieved your family name in a past life? To sit pretty and just help the family along? Or like most is it to become the ruler and Godfather of your own city. To tread the boards of the greats to become a legend in your own right and to have the masses jump to your every command or whim?

Most things in this world are achievable by a great deal of hard work and a lot; I hate to admit it, luck. However there is one thing that all of us must break through that first time, the glass ceiling.

When your bloodline first appears on these shores this ceiling seems an infinitesimal distance away, all you can do is scurry around and do your best for your crew leader, learn the ropes and hope that you will obtain his interest and blessing enough for you to be given a role in your family. A few months pass, if you are lucky you will have survived long enough to reach the higher echelons of rank, Boss, Consig even Don. It is at this point you truly begin to notice the presence of the glass ceiling.

Up to this point it has been a simple life. You do your crimes every few minutes, you haul drugs across the cities and you do your part for your family but ambition and the next level is in sight. The question is how do you grab the next step of leadership and a family of your own.

This cannot be achieved solely by carrying out the mechanics given to us by the Gods, there is now politics to consider, networking and greasing the palms and minds of those currently in power. If you refuse to consider these all you can hope for is that glass ceiling won't bruise the top of your head to much because just sitting pretty does not earn you the right to lead.

How do you propose to smash through the glass ceiling and grasp power of your very own?

The glass ceiling might be very difficult to break from below but it only takes a slight stroke to smash it from above. This is why those walking on top of it should be very careful about every step they take. This is why the easiest way to get through the glass ceiling is to wait for somebody to fall down from the top, breaking it on his way down.

But this barrier only affects people willing to go straight up. And there are so many other directions in which you can go. Numerous other rewarding activities which benefit your family and your city. You say that for most of us becoming the ruler is an ultimate goal. I know there are many gangsters out there, for whom trying to excel in other areas is what brings them satisfaction.

Of course, I've met a lot of people in these streets who dream about power and pulling the strings. I've seen some of them succeed and a lot of them fail. Success requires a lot of hard work and luck, as you said, but patience is even more important. And the lack of it is the cause for the majority of failures. Or falures.

Several weeks ago I made this speech here in our streets, never really envisaging how soon I would break through the aforementioned 'glass ceiling'.

I can remember contemplating PerpetuumMobiles fine response and thinking to myself, "surely the hardest part is breaking through for that first time."

How wrong I was. Granted, becoming and obtaining the level of trust and respect required here to get that all important first auth requires enormous amounts of work and enterprise. The last couple of days however have proven to me that it is indeed maintaining the level of command and respect once you are there that requires the most effort.

I thought I would share with you all my experiences over these last few days, giving those who aspire to where I am currently some food for thought. Firstly when sitting as a hand under the wing of an established crew leader you look up and think to yourself: "That is easy, nothing more than what I am doing now". What has never translated to me, all the times I have been a hand, is the added level of pressure and scrutiny you are under.

It seems relentless, but satisfying and somewhat euphoric at the same time. You become the family, for those of lower rank or those just arriving on these shores rest assured if your crew leader feels as if they are some distant untouchable near demi god, they are constantly looking over you. Nothing is more important to the family head than his family. Blood they say is thicker than water. When your blood becomes contaminated with a virus you suffer and feel pain, no matter if there was nothing you could have done about it. It is still something which does not sit right. Not only feeling it yourself but feeling it for your family.

Below the glass ceiling you were safe, your family head looking over you. Above it there is nothing to protect you but yourself, and if you do smash through it from above it is not only yourself that falls but your family with you.

A final word of advice for those of you still aspiring to become bold.

I hope you are not afraid of heights!

Wise words EvilClown, very wise indeed.

As someone who has suffered a major betrayal during my current stint in bold, I would whole heartedly agree with everything you've just said, with one small exception - We do have someone looking over us, looking out for us, just as we are for our family - our Godfather(s).

Life as a leader is never easy. It can be fun, it can be rewarding and it can be damn right entertaining, but easy it never is. With that in mind, we must remember that reaching the position of leader is not the end of your journey, its only a half way point. We need only look at someone such as Roman to realise that. A man that has been on the top for a long time but works as hard now as the day he first got there.

Everything you spoke of that we go through, our Godfathers go through 10 fold. So there you have it folks. All that aspire to be in the shoes of someone like Roman, ask yourself this, can you handle those shoes? Can you?

My ambition in this life is to support my crew leader Kimble, and to support my Godfather Roman. When I joined Chicago, my sole purpose was to work hard, make cash, and assist Kimble as he set back up. Its my hope that hard work and dedication will help him achieve his goals.

My goals are to make enuff money to buy a casino one day and hopefully land a DFP one of these days.  They are so freaking illusive.  I would also like to assit Jade and Roman and hopefully one day make my way up the ladder so i can make a name for myself.  

My ambitions are limited, I am here to make myself, my boss and my Godfather stacks and stacks of cash. I have little to no interest in starting up my own family as I do not believe I am suitable for this kind of role. My patience is somewhat slim and I am not sure I would be able to handle the pressure of leading my own family. Networking and politics are not my strong points, but at least I understand my own capabilities. I am just happy to serve the fine city of Las Vegas.

There are certain situations that would of course change my views, for example... (God forbid it) if you (my boss) was cut down in an unfortunate accident and they other leaders of Las Vegas were not around to deal with the aftermath, I would happily buy out one of the local businesses and turn it into my own HQ as a temporary shelter, but it would be purely to house members of our own family until someone more suitable could be found to take my place. Then with my own boss dead and the vast majority of our family saved, I would probably go the same way as my boss and take my own life as my loyalty to you is undying and without you as the head of the family I wouldn't want to carry on this life.

So in conclusion, I am very happy to remain under the glass ceiling unless a situation warrants me to break through it, although this would only be temporary and I would happily fix the broken glass and take my position underneath it again.