26. Power tends to corrupt,
and absolute power
corrupts absolutely.
John Acton
27. It is said that power corrupts, but
actually it's more true that power
attracts the corruptible. The sane are
usually attracted by other things than
power.
-- David Brin, Science Fiction Author
I have super powers
<transition>
And no I'm not delusional
Spider-Man
Batman
The Hulk
Superman
There was a survey recently asking people what super power they would like to have.
I didn't have to read the study to discover that the top three were:
Flight
Invisibility
The ability to read minds
Me? I prefer to have the powers of...
Multiple Man.
He can create 40 duplicates of himself.
The means not only can he be two places at once. He can be 41 places at once.
As a parent of two kids and a consultant who sells his own services, that would be really handy.
But..
Those aren’t the powers I’m talking about.
Spider-Man may be able to climb walls, but that's not his most important power.
Peter Parker is an orphan raised by his Uncle Ben and Aunt May.
His uncle always told him that with great power comes great responsibility.
Peter didn't take Uncle Ben seriously.
One day after Peter gained his spider powers, he let a criminal get away from the police because he didn't think it was his problem.
Later that same criminal killed his Uncle Ben. His second father.
Now he tries every day to live up to his uncle's memory.
Very often he wants to hang up the webs but every time he puts them back on just because he might be able to save one life.
<transition>
As inconvenient as being Spider-Man is, it's Peter's sense of responsibility that keeps him going.
Batman gets into many...
Interesting situations.
At the end of the day, it's not his detective skills or necessarily his gadgets or martial arts that makes him special.
It his ability to prepare for any situation.
There is a meme within geek culture of who would win between Batman and every other super hero.
The answer is always inevitably that Batman would win given a chance to prepare.
He has even beaten Superman in a fight.
How?
Batman's true power is that he lives by the Boy Scouts' motto.
Batman cheats.
Cheating isn't always breaking the rules.
Some times cheating is knowing the rules to the point where you you know all of the short cuts.
Sometimes cheating is finding the route no one else thinks to check
<Toastmasters comment?>
I like this part of his power.
(I've considered changing this slide out as it only has relevance for folks my age give or take 10 years)
For anyone wondering, the graphic is from another Internet meme.
When I was in school, there was a video game called Contra.
If you entered the code you see here: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start, you'd have unlimited lives. It's a cheat code.
As Picasso taught us: Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.
The Hulk has his strength but his real power is in his rage.
Some times we need our rage in order to initiate change in our lives.
We need our inner Hulk to come out.
Some times you have to lose all of your sense of cool in order to get the job done.
If it weren't for a little rage and destruction, I wouldn't have left the CPA firm I used to work for and I wouldn't own my own company and enjoy the freedom I have today.
It takes a little destruction before construction can happen.
The Revolutionary War
And The Civil Rights movement were both a result of people letting their Inner Hulk out.
Superman
As Lord Acton said, Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
or as I often prefer to think...
Superman really represents this idiom more than Lord Acton.
Superman can juggle planets. He can fly into the Sun and he spends his days saving the world and getting kittens out of trees.
While he could rule the world, he fights to protect the freedom others.
Superman's real power is his incorruptibility.
Find your super powers, nurture them so that you can be invincible.
You don't have to go it alone nor should you.
Build your super team.
Build your network.
Find those who have super powers and talents that you don't have.
One of the issues with being Multiple Man, is that all of the members of your team only have your strengths and they all have your weaknesses.
You have to find those whose powers complement your own and strengths offset your weaknesses.