That may not sound like a lot if you’re the Charles Atlas type. But I had lifted weights for a couple of years and always struggled with that particular exercise -the sine qua non of aspiring middle linebackers. I got the bar off my chest once and ... well, that was it. My spotters hoisted it back up because I was, as Austin Powers would say, spent.

At the time, my conception of power was centered on the physical aspects of the term. Hey, it’s a guy thing. And don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I didn’t value intelligence -I was actually also working my way to honest-to-goodness Phi Beta Kappa status. But I valued strength and physique and, I’ll admit it, that swagger that the really cool athletes seemed to adopt so naturally.

If I bench-pressed 200 pounds today, it’d be nothing short of a miracle. Like if my son is ever trapped under our Explorer or one of those burning logs you see on old TV dramas. No doubt, I’d toss off the dead weight in a single, beautiful adrenaline burst that would make even the Incredible Hulk jealous. (But I’m not sure my son would want to bet on that.)

In any event, along with my physique, my perception of what it means to be powerful has changed many times over the years.

I’ve learned that power can be the God-given ability to rally people behind ideas and beliefs. I’ve seen this power in charismatic CEOs and technologists who have convinced employees that they are working on something that will change the world. Think Bill Gates, John Chambers, Andy Grove. I’ve felt it in talking with them. I believe! I believe!

Power is the ability to get venture capitalists and other moneyed folk to bankroll an idea, a vision, you. The ability to manipulate funds beyond my own limited imagining to create something new or to amass a collection of companies that reshapes the market. Think Bernie Ebbers, Jim Clark.

Power can be the ability to convince others that you can see the future -the future of technology, society, the stock markets. You can make a damn fine living telling others what they ought to be doing and, unless you are a stock analyst, people rarely check back to see whether you were right.

Power can be the sheer force of will. Of pushing yourself and others around you to work harder and smarter and simply outdo the competition. I work a lot, but I look like a piker compared to the hustlers out there looking for their first big break or trying to make the second or third one.

Perhaps you are already the Genghis Khan of the heartland, the Winston Churchill of the IT department, the Michael Milken of the networked world. Perhaps you just don’t have it in you to achieve such stature. But that doesn’t mean power isn’t within your reach. We all have the power to think clearly.

Sounds obvious, no? But it’s rare. This has become eminently clear to me in observing the gyrations of Wall Street in the past couple of months. Each day, the Nasdaq composite -the heart monitor of our tech world -has jumped up and down in frightening ways. And each night, the experts tell us why.

But that isn’t knowledge or insight, it’s color commentary -like Dennis Miller’s toss-off about how the Giants’ nickel defense compares to the Spartans’ last stand at Thermopylae. We listen to these experts and nod our heads, but they aren’t explaining anything, they are rationalizing, filling airtime with instant analysis of forces beyond their understanding and ours. They are looking backwards, not forward.

The same thing happens every day with the technologies and the market shifts that shape our businesses and professional lives. IP is the future. ASPs will change everything. Optical is the hottest thing going. Wireless is the next big wave.

But the people who are pushing these things -with rare exceptions -are jawing about what has already taken place or what they fervently hope will happen. They aren’t explaining what is really happening.
Why?

It’s too hard to do. We are pigeonholed and over-busy and few of us take the time to truly analyze anything, to study something and find out what it really means. Or to find the people who have analyzed things.

Recently, I treated Network World columnist Tom Nolle, president of technology assessment firm CIMI Corp., to a cheap dinner at Outback. In return for my largess, I got a view of the optical marketplace that shook up my pat notions and helped me better understand what’s likely to happen in the future. That’s because Tom, who can be quite the curmudgeon, has actually done his homework and can see the holes in the gold wrapping paper.

It has been my good fortune to cultivate sources like Nolle over the years and to help make them part of the Network World team. These are the people who remind me that I am not as "with it" as I’d like to think.

You can do the same thing. Find people who challenge the popular ideas and strategies -read what they write, listen to them speak. Find people who think unconventionally and you will find yourself thinking that way. Force yourself to ask some basic questions: How will you make money? How will your vendor make money? Where will the technology go if you push it to its limits?

It’s hard work, but it makes you powerful. It makes your decisions stand the test of time. It makes people listen to you -even if you can’t bench-press your own weight.

Gallant is editorial director of Network World.