The Real Question: From Power to Presence, From Self to Collective

There comes a moment, often subtle, often inconvenient, when you’re staring at an organisational chart, a power matrix, a hierarchy carved in lines and titles, and something shifts.

You realise: Everyone wants respect.
But not the kind that once came with titles or seating order or income brackets.
Not the kind that stood on a podium and looked down.
Not anymore.

The hunger now is for something more elusive:
A respect that feels like reverence.
A presence that isn’t bought but felt.
Not fear cloaked as obedience,
But something softer, something kinder.

And so, the question arises:

Do we want respect, or do we crave control?
Are we commanding reverence, or are we demanding submission?

Too often, what we label as leadership is a theatre of dominance,
Where voices are lowered to assert, not to listen.
Where tone becomes a weapon.
Where we build walls instead of bridges
Because we’ve confused power with being feared.

But what if we flipped the script?

What if power lived in how gently we could speak to a stranger?
How earnestly we could thank the cab driver,
How patiently we could listen to the intern,
How seamlessly we could flow from a conversation with a beggar to one with a CEO
Without changing the texture of our tone?

That’s not utopia. That’s presence.
That’s awareness.
That’s kindness.

And yes, kindness is radical.

Because to be kind is to lay down your armour.
To be kind is to reject the manipulation of status.
To be kind is to say,
“I will not play this game. I will not barter love for power.”

Dr. Emoto’s study on water reminds us,
Words change molecules.
Love makes water bloom.
Hate makes it disintegrate.
And if we’re 70% water,
Then our words are alchemy.

So the real question is:
Will you choose the alchemy of kindness or the illusion of dominance?
Will you fight to win alone, or will you rise so that all may rise?

Can you dissociate from all violence, of voice, of silence, of subtle dismissal,
And begin to see every outburst as a veiled plea for love?

Can you look at the collective not as a threat to your personal growth
But as the very vehicle that accelerates it?

Because when we stop obsessing over self,
When we move beyond our fears of not being seen,
Of not being recognised,
Of not being enough,
We unlock the one truth that sets us free:

There is no other.

You and I, we are one.
Just mediums of a larger plan,
Just instruments in a symphony far grander than our ego.

So speak gently.
Love abundantly.
Lead quietly.
Flow bravely.

Let your interactions become your prayer.
Let your kindness become your legacy.

The world doesn’t need more powerful people.
It needs present ones.

And that is the real question:
Will you still pursue power,
Or will you finally choose to just be?