Everybody’s Making Deals
Everybody’s making deals.
Politicians make them.
Diplomats dress them up and call them peace.
The guy on the street selling cars makes them with a smile and a coffee in his hand.
Life isn’t run on truth alone —
it runs on negotiation.
On leverage.
On timing.
Deals are about getting the most you can get.
They’re not about what’s equal.
They’re not about what’s fair.
They’re about pressure.
How low can I go?
Or the other way around —
how far can I push before you walk?
Some deals are written down.
Most aren’t.
You’re always trading something:
time for money,
comfort for security,
silence for belonging,
honesty for access.
People like to pretend deals are moral.
They aren’t.
They’re practical.
The words change —
“compromise,” “mutual benefit,” “win-win” —
but the math underneath doesn’t.
Someone always needs it more.
Someone always has more room to move.
And that’s where power lives.
Power isn’t volume.
It isn’t position.
It isn’t the biggest title in the room.
Power is who can walk away.
Authority, though —
authority is different.
Authority is borrowed power.
It comes from uniforms.
From titles.
From systems people agree not to question.
Authority works only as long as people believe in it.
That’s why authority needs rules.
And paperwork.
And reminders.
Power doesn’t.
Power doesn’t explain itself.
It doesn’t repeat instructions.
It doesn’t need compliance —
it creates gravity.
Authority tells you what you must do.
Power lets you decide what you’re willing to do.
That’s why authority panics when it’s questioned.
And power barely notices.
The mistake people make
is confusing obedience for respect.
Obedience is cheap.
It’s fear dressed up as order.
Respect only comes when the deal is honest —
when both sides know exactly
what’s being exchanged
and what happens if one of them walks.
The moment you start believing authority is power
is the moment you stop seeing
who’s actually holding leverage.
And that’s how people end up following rules
that were never meant to protect them —
only to keep the deal tilted
in someone else’s favor.