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| Image: Portrait of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (photo by VCG Wilson/Corbis via Getty Images) |
Power: the ability to control.
Authority: the legitimate right to wield that control.
Glory: the honor earned through remarkable achievement.
I wrote those words on the day I graduated with my bachelor’s degree, a simple caption that, at the time, felt like poetry. Only later did I realize it was prophecy.
Back then, learning philosophy was like butter and bread for me. I remember reading Max Weber on power and authority, and seeing how legitimacy shapes society, while reflecting on how thinkers and writers from classical Greek philosophers exploring kleos to modern scholars have considered the pursuit of glory. Each concept - Power. Authority. Glory. - has been examined across time, yet for me, they became a personal compass, guiding how I would approach communication.
Not for leadership alone do I chase this path, but for the years I have spent stringing words together beginning with a passion for writing, from the benches of schools and universities to my current career as a journalist, alongside my work as a content creator in my own creative project. I never tire of putting my ideas into words.
Perhaps it is destiny, at least as I see it as a writer, because I hold the power to communicate, the authority to publish and the quiet glory earned through pages that draw people in and make them linger.
In Biographia Literaria (1817), Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote with surgical precision, reminding us that “there is reason assignable, not only for every word, but for the position of every word.” He understood that language itself is a form of power, at its core, is the art of influence shaped through perception.
That truth has shaped my journey.
I’ve come to see that communication isn’t merely about telling stories, it’s about shaping how people see those stories. Every script, headline and statement carries the quiet potential to alter thought, emotion, even collective belief. What we write doesn’t just inform; it defines the lens through which people view the world.
This is what scholars call soft power, a term introduced by political scientist Joseph Nye in the late 1980s, describing influence built not through force or authority, but through attraction, persuasion and trust. It is what I have come to understand as the influence of words. The ability to guide narratives, manage attention and build credibility without ever raising your voice. It’s persuasion, not pressure. Connection, not command.
And perhaps that’s where I’ve found my strength.
Because I’ve never seen words as decoration - I’ve always seen them as design. Every phrase has intention; every tone, consequence. I don’t simply speak. I listen, shape and translate emotion into meaning.
That awareness has given me something more than confidence. It’s given me clarity, the understanding that true power doesn’t come from commanding attention; it comes from earning it.
When I look back at that old caption - Power. Authority. Glory. - I see now that it wasn’t about ambition at all. It was a message to my future self, written before I even understood it:
To seek not just power, but purpose.
Not just authority, but authenticity.
Not just glory, but grace.
Because in the end, the most enduring form of influence isn’t control - it’s connection.
And that’s what words, at their best, have always given me.
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