Power is dangerous unless you have humility.

When power forgets where it came from

We've all seen what happens when someone gets a little authority and forgets where they came from. A manager who was promoted last year suddenly treats their old peers differently. A parent who grew frustrated with their teenager's mistakes forgets how confused they felt at that age. A person with expertise in one area speaks with absolute certainty about everything. The danger isn't the power itself—it's the intoxicating feeling that you've figured it out, that you're different from the people you're leading or influencing.

Humility is the corrective. It's the quiet voice asking "Could I be wrong about this?" or "What am I not seeing?" It keeps you honest about your own limits and your own potential to mess up. Without it, power inevitably corrupts how you treat others, because you start believing you deserve better treatment or that the rules that apply to everyone else somehow don't apply to you. History is full of cautionary tales, but so is the everyday workplace, friend group, and family dinner table.

The tricky part is that people with real power rarely feel powerless, so humility doesn't come naturally. It has to be chosen, deliberately, even when nobody's watching. That's where the actual strength lies.