It hurts to see many nice people struggle through life. Just like gravity doesn’t care who you are, the world doesn’t care how much money nice people make. The marketplace rewards value and it helps if that comes from a nice person.

If being nice is on one axis, having the power to make things happen is on the other axis. Being nice and having the power is the winning combination. Any other combination, a recipe for a short-term or a long-term failure.

Here is a Nice-Power matrix to consider

As you can see, if you have no power and you are not nice, you will be a “Clueless Loser” meaning, you don’t have a clue that you are losing or you know you are losing but have no clue why you are losing.

With pure power and no nicety, you will be an “Arrogant Loser” – meaning you may have a short-term win that will boost your arrogance even further until it leads to an eventual failure.

Being very nice but no power, you will be a “Charming Loser” – meaning people will love to be around you but won’t be willing to pay and engage you.

You need both – niceness and power. Only then you have an opportunity to “make it happen” in the short and long-term.