Chapter 3 — The World Behind the Curtain: How Power Really Works

Most people go through life believing the world is run by presidents, prime ministers, and the flags they salute. They imagine nations as independent tribes, each with its own destiny, each guided by the will of its people. It’s a comforting story. It’s also wrong.

The truth is simpler, stranger, and far more familiar than people realize.

The world works almost exactly like a business.

Not a small business. Not a local shop. A massive, sprawling, multinational corporation with departments, managers, rivalries, budgets, and a boardroom that most employees will never see.

And once you understand that, everything else begins to make sense.

1. The World as a Company

Imagine the world as a giant corporation.

Countries are departments.
Presidents and prime ministers are managers.
Citizens are employees.
Wars are reorganizations.
Treaties are contracts.
Sanctions are HR write-ups.
Revolutions are hostile takeovers.

And above all of it sits a network — not a single person, not a single family, not a single puppet master — but a network of individuals and institutions who understand the machine better than anyone else.

They don’t run the world like tyrants. They run it like promoters.

They don’t need to agree on everything. They only need to agree on one thing:

The show must go on.

Because when the show goes on, they make money.

2. Managers vs. Owners

Most people confuse managers with owners.

They think:

“Putin controls Russia.”
“Trump controls America.”
“Xi controls China.”

But these men are not owners. They are managers — powerful managers, yes, but still managers.

They operate inside a system they did not build, cannot fully control, and must constantly negotiate with.

If they perform well, they stay. If they become a liability, they get replaced. If they go rogue, the system pushes them out.

Not because one person at the top snaps their fingers — but because the network protects itself.

3. The Network at the Top

People imagine the “elite” as a single shadowy cabal. That’s childish.

The real structure is more like a cluster of rival promoters sharing the same building:

central bankers
sovereign wealth fund managers
tech monopolists
energy conglomerates
intelligence agencies
multinational CEOs
political dynasties
defense contractors

They don’t sit in a dark room plotting world domination. They sit in boardrooms, embassies, private jets, and conference halls — each pushing their own agenda, each protecting their own interests, each trying to keep the machine stable enough that the money keeps flowing.

They don’t need to be unified. They only need to be aligned on the basics.

And the basic rule is simple:

Never let the system collapse.

Collapse hurts everyone.

4. Why Wars Happen

From the ground, wars look emotional:

patriotism
revenge
ideology
tribal identity

But from the top, wars look like:

resource allocation
supply chain control
energy access
currency dominance
strategic positioning

Wars are not random explosions of hatred. They are reorganizations of the global company.

They look chaotic to the employees. They look necessary to the board.

5. The Circuit Board

The world is a circuit board.

Money flows through it. Power flows through it. Influence flows through it. Information flows through it.

Most people only see the lightbulb turning on. They never see the wiring behind the wall.

But if you learn to read the wiring:

you can predict outcomes
you can avoid danger
you can position yourself wisely
you can ride the current instead of fighting it

This is how people rise inside complex systems. Not by force. Not by rebellion. By understanding the machine better than the people around them.

6. Why Ordinary People Don’t See It

Because ordinary people live in the story layer, not the system layer.

The story layer is:

the news
the speeches
the slogans
the outrage
the tribal fights
the emotional narratives

It’s the kayfabe of geopolitics.

It keeps people entertained, distracted, and emotionally invested.

Meanwhile, the system layer — the wiring — keeps running quietly underneath.

7. Ambition in a World Like This

You don’t need to control the world. You don’t need to overthrow the network. You don’t need to become “the one at the top.”

You rise by becoming indispensable in your domain.

You rise by:

understanding incentives
reading personalities
predicting reactions
avoiding unnecessary enemies
creating value for others
thinking long-term
staying calm when others panic

You rise by doing exactly what the most effective leaders in any system do:

You learn the wiring. You respect the circuit. You position yourself where the current flows.

That’s ambition. That’s survival. That’s strategy.

And anyone can learn it — if they stop watching the show and start studying the circuit board behind it.