Power isn’t just you being able to call someone and tell him what to do. It’s also other people calling you and asking for your business or wanting to associate with you.
If you are a person who seems to possess a wide knowledge of the world, and awareness of trends, if you are the early-bird who catches sight of opportunities first, if you are the person who is capable of handling many different kinds of situations, then people will seek you out. They will invite you to vacation at their country homes, to meet their influential associates, to join their social clubs and their business syndicates. And when they do, all of these will enhance you image of power, and widen your power base so you can zoom ahead even more.
By mere association to you, people assume that your power will spill over on them. Even though ‘assuming’ can be dangerous, it is not in this case. True assumption is the ultimate placebo motivator.