Power is a weird thing. People spend decades clawing for it, building resumes, and amassing wealth, only to realize that the fragile threads of power are usually held together by nothing more than a few perceptions and a bit of luck. It’s not a solid brick wall. It’s a spiderweb. One gust of wind—a bad earnings call, a leaked memo, or a sudden shift in public sentiment—and the whole thing starts to unravel.
Think about the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. One day, they were a global titan with $600 billion in assets. The next? Gone. It wasn't just about the math; it was about the loss of trust. Once that single thread snapped, every other connection holding the firm together turned to dust.
The Illusion of Permanent Control
Most people think power is a permanent asset. Like a house you own. But honestly, it’s more like a subscription service you have to renew every single day. In the corporate world, this is painfully obvious. You see CEOs like Bob Iger returning to Disney because the threads his successor held were just too frayed to keep the ship upright.
Power comes from three main places:
- Formal authority (the title on your business card)
- Expertise (knowing things others don't)
- Relationships (who actually likes or owes you)
Formal authority is the weakest. It’s the easiest thread to snap. If you only lead because your title says "Manager," you don’t actually have power; you have a temporary permit to give orders. Real influence—the kind that survives a crisis—is built on the other two. But even those are delicate. Expert knowledge becomes obsolete. Relationships can sour over a single misunderstood email.
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The Psychology of "The Fall"
There is a concept in social psychology called the "hubris syndrome." It was popularized by David Owen and Jonathan Davidson. They argued that holding power for too long actually changes the brain. You lose empathy. You stop listening to warnings. You start believing that the fragile threads of power are actually iron chains.
That’s when the snapping starts.
When a leader stops believing they can fail, they stop checking the tension on those threads. Take the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. At its peak, the company was valued at $9 billion. She had the heavyweights—George Shultz, Henry Kissinger—on her board. These were some of the most powerful men in the world. But the power was built on a lie. When the Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou started pulling at one loose string in 2015, the entire multi-billion dollar tapestry fell apart in public view.
Why Modern Tech Makes Power More Brittle
It used to be that if you held power, you controlled the information. You owned the printing press or the TV station. Not anymore. Today, the fragile threads of power are exposed to 24/7 scrutiny.
Twitter (X), TikTok, and Substack have democratized the "pulling" of threads. A single whistleblower doesn't need a major news outlet to find an audience anymore. They just need an internet connection. This has created a massive shift in how business leaders and politicians have to operate. You can’t just hide the fraying parts of your influence; everyone can see the loose ends.
Look at the rapid rise and fall of "Blitzscaling" culture. For a decade, venture capital power was absolute. If you had the money, you had the power. But as interest rates rose in 2022 and 2023, that thread snapped for hundreds of startups. Suddenly, "growth at all costs" wasn't a power move; it was a liability.
The Cost of Complexity
The more complex a system is, the more points of failure it has. This is true in engineering, and it’s true in social hierarchies. A small, tightly-knit team has strong threads. A global conglomerate with 50,000 employees has millions of tiny, weak ones.
Managing the fragile threads of power in a massive organization is basically a full-time job of maintenance. You aren't really leading; you're a glorified repairman trying to make sure the links between departments don't dissolve into silos. If the marketing team isn't talking to the product team, that’s a thread gone. If the board is at odds with the CEO, that’s a structural cable snapping.
Real-World Fragility: The Case of Travis Kalanick
Uber is a great example. Travis Kalanick built an empire by breaking rules and exerting raw power. For a while, it worked. He seemed untouchable. But the threads he used to tie Uber together were made of aggression and a "bro-culture" that eventually became toxic.
When the Susan Fowler blog post dropped in 2017, it wasn't just a PR scandal. It was a direct hit to the core of his influence. Investors realized the brand was becoming radioactive. The very people who empowered his rise—the VCs and the board—were the ones who eventually cut the cord. It proves that even the most aggressive version of power is surprisingly brittle when the culture underneath it rots.
How to Strengthen Your Own Threads
So, if power is so fragile, how do you keep it? You don't do it by gripping tighter. That just makes the threads snap faster. You do it by diversifying.
- Build Social Capital, Not Just Title Power: People follow leaders they trust, not just bosses they fear. Trust is a much thicker thread than a contract.
- Stay Radically Transparent: The more secrets you have, the more "pullable" threads you leave hanging. If you're honest about the weaknesses in your position, people are less likely to yank on them.
- Listen to the "Low-Status" Signals: The first signs of power fraying usually don't come from the boardroom. They come from the front-line employees or the customers. If you're too high up to hear them, you're already in trouble.
- Practice Intellectual Humility: Acknowledge that you might be wrong. The most dangerous point for any person in power is the moment they think they've finally "arrived."
The fragile threads of power aren't something to be afraid of, but they are something to respect. Whether you're running a small business or a massive department, remember that your influence is a borrowed asset. It’s held in place by the consent of the people you lead and the reality of the value you provide.
Don't let the threads get too thin.
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Actionable Insights for the Modern Leader
To keep your influence from snapping, you need to move away from "command and control" and toward "connection and contribution." Start by auditing your current influence. Ask yourself: if my title was taken away tomorrow, would anyone still follow my lead? If the answer is no, your threads are dangerously thin.
Focus on building a "web" rather than a "chain." A chain is only as strong as its weakest link; if one breaks, the whole thing fails. A web is redundant. If one thread snaps, the rest of the structure holds the weight while you repair the damage. Invest in cross-departmental relationships and mentor those below you. Those people are the ones who will hold the threads steady when the wind starts blowing.
Stop looking for more power and start looking for more ways to be useful. In the end, the most durable power belongs to those who make themselves indispensable to the success of others. That’s a thread that doesn't break easily.