Prometheus sat at his desk, writing notes on a piece of paper. It was late at night once again and his mind had begun to think of more principles within the criminal world. He scribbled away at the parchment, pausing only to sip from his drink of choice, a rum and coke. Late into the night he wrote down his ideas on paper and finally collapsed into bed when he had finished. When the morning came, Prometheus dressed himself and headed to the streets where the crowds liked to gather. Climbing onto an overturned box, he stared out at the crowd and began to speak as heads turned in his direction to listen.

“Hello all. Today, I would like to talk to you about power; more specifically, where it comes from. I know it has been said that power stems from money, fear, information, favors, reputation, muscle and many others forms, but what I want to know is how effective you all think these forms are in granting you the power that you seek. In my opinion, I do not believe there is a dominant form of power. And I will explain to you why.”

“Fear is great for ruling; it is better to be feared than to be loved. But how far will fear take you in the long road? Eventually those that do not have the power will reach a point where they no longer feel the need to be afraid, or they will decide that the need for action overrules the fear that they feel. While fear is a vital part of power, it is for those reasons that I do not believe that fear alone will grant you the power you seek.”

“Information is something that is desired by everyone; those who have it always have a demand by those who do not. While information is great to have, it cannot be used to rule with alone. There will come a time when you are no longer the only one who has the information and you will no longer be of as much value to those who needed you before. When this time comes, all the supposed power that you had comes crumbling down and leaves you as an expense. Information is an asset to have, but cannot be ruled with.”

“Favors… This is where things may become complicated for those hoping to achieve power in this manner. When you perform a favor for someone, they become in your debt. Regardless of if they choose to acknowledge this or not, they now owe you. This is a dangerous position to be in on both sides. While granting favors to others allows you the power to have favors returned, it also puts you in a position of asking too much from someone else. If someone decides that the favor you ask in return is too steep, then they will find a way to remove you and deal with the favor that way. Favors are an important part of friendship and alliances, but cannot be used to assume power.”

“Reputation is a dangerous concept. Reputation may help you achieve great things with little effort on your behalf, but it can also lead to your downfall. If a man’s reputation is that he will always complete something that he is told to, then that is great for that man. But the moment that he fails to complete something, his reputation is now tarnished and so is his source of power. Another outcome of reputation is that one becomes obsessed with theirs. If a man’s reputation is that he is invincible, the man may soon believe in it himself and allow it to cloud his judgement, creating enemies and threats that did not previously exist. A reputation is guaranteed, but attempting to use it for power is not a stable idea.”

“Muscle, or in our world, guns, are easy to lose and hard to gain. And yet behind every significant action there is a form of muscle. It is often used to force or influence the decisions of others, or to achieve steps that would otherwise be impossible. However, muscle alone cannot achieve great power. While yes it is true, those with the biggest muscles have the biggest strength, and by reaction also the biggest voice, it simply does not last. There will come a time when those who do not have power will mass enough muscle amongst themselves to threaten your power, and if all that you have is muscle to fall back on you will fall. While you may survive for a while, sometimes for ages, those who only have power based on muscle will eventually be overrun as the masses without power will seek to remove you. Muscle is absolutely necessary, but cannot be alone.”

“It is my belief that in order to achieve true power, one must excel in all of these categories. However, I do believe that there is an order of importance to them, and it is as follows; Muscle, Fear, Information, Favors and Reputation. I believe that in order to become a powerful leader, one must focus on these categories in this order. Muscle first, in order to achieve goals. Fear second, in order to intimidate those who would challenge your power. Information third, in order to have knowledge of the world and its inhabitants as well as to prove that you are more than a simple warlord. Favors, in order to coerce those who might doubt you to perceive you in a more favorable light and as a potential ally. And finally, Reputation. This should be your final concern, as it will come on its own through your actions and words.”

“These are my thoughts on power. And with these thoughts comes ideas as to why great leaders and tyrants alike have fallen in the past. Perhaps they did not focus on all areas of where their power came from, or perhaps they simple ran their course and a replacement was needed. Regardless of why they have left us, it is easy to agree that these men and women understood how to obtain power. If there is anyone in the crowd who does not agree with what I have said, or if you believe that there is a truly dominant form of power, or simply has other ideas on where power originates from, please feel free to share.”

Prometheus reached into his suit and opened his flask, taking a large swallow followed by a second. All of this talking had caused his throat to go dry. Placing the flask back inside of his jacket, he stared out at the crowd and wondered of their opinions on the speech.

"That sounds like Prometheus" JakeLuciano though to himself as he made his way through the crowd to hear the young speaker

You raise some interesting points, personally I think power encompasses everything you have mentioned, but to exert that power you need to have people who are prepared to help you exert that power, whether it be working hard to keep you in that position, following your orders and instructions or following you into battle, because without them, it does not matter how much power you have. 

JakeLuciano throws Prometheus a wink, keep up the good work young man.

Very well respected and very well said! Kudos.

Satan applauds Prometheus after the speech. He then kicks back and listens to the chatter among the crowd.

Prometheus bowed in the direction of the men and smiled.

Thank you my friends, thank you.

Prometheus then stared out into the sea of faces and awaited another's thoughts on the matter.

Very well said, indeed. I agree. Power requires all of those things in order to be maintained.

When judging another's power, one almost always asks the question, "What can that person do that I can't?".

If the answer is "many things", I'm personally inclined to acknowledge that power, and respect it.

I do also agree with Jake, though. Although power over masses requires only what you mentioned, Prometheus, I find it hard to imagine that any leader ever got where they are without loyal, trusted friends along the way in a time where those pieces of power were not yet able to fully come together.

I would also add that the possession of power is almost entirely useless to those without ambitions or goals that utilize it.

As an example, there have been plenty of leaders in the world, but most of us only recognize a few because of their attempts at and completions of accomplishments and goals. A person with power needs a vision, the vision needs to be shared among the many, and power needs to be fueled by your examples above.

That is a successful use of power.

Thank you for speaking your thoughts, Prometheus, they always inspire me to participate at our lovely streets.

Prometheus smiled at the woman and listened to her words.

"Thank you for your kind words Dahlia! And I couldn't agree more with what you said. Those without the ambition or goals to utilize their power have a wasted opportunity that does not come often. I have faith that those who are able to achieve power nowadays have large ambitions in order to improve things both for us and for themselves.

Prometheus nodded his head at the crowd and once again pulled out his flask to take a sip.

Prometheus, I must say, this was a wonderful speech to listen to.

First you get the money! Then you get the muthafuckin, power! After you get the fuckin' power, muthafuckas will respect you!

I'm not here to validate the entire quote, however I would like to highlight the beginning. In order to achieve power, you definitely need the money. Money buys you the HQ. Money buys you the protection. And in some ways, money will give you substantial gains in regards to the family's "muscle".  Fear, information, favors, reputation, etc. play very important parts when achieving power, but if you take money out of the equation, there is no power.