Money and power are the main reasons why people strive to succeed. In this competitive world, people strive so hard to gain respect and are willing to do everything to be heard. People who are already in positions hold the power to change things and the greater their power is the mightier they get. It becomes automatic that if a person leads a group or an organization, they have the authority to mandate their followers and abide by what their suggestions and plans are. This is the reason why chosen leaders of a country should be responsible for using their power for the good of many and not just their interests. Politics is not the only place to gather power but it is where the strongest and most influential power can be found.
Here is a list of the top five people who are known to be the most powerful people in the world.
1. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud
He succeeded as King of Saudi Arabia in August 2005 when King Fahd, his half-brother died. Abdullah is one of the descendants of the founder of modern Saudi Arabia Ibn Saud. His first taste of politics was when he became Mayor of Mecca in 1961. Before he became king, he was the commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard. Almost like his father who had 16 wives, the 8th who is Abdullah’s mother, he also has 13 wives and fathered 35 children. Most of his wives come from a prominent family in the Middle East and belongs from important clans and tribes.
For the past four years, he has been tagged as the most influential Muslim. Last year, he became the only Arab who was included in the World’s Most Powerful People and remained in the list up to now.
2.Vladimir Putin
Nobody has served as a Russian leader longer than Putin. He first served as Russia’s Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and became president from 2000 up to 2008. He again served as the Prime minister from 2008 until 2012 and then went back as president since May 7 of 2012. In the year 2008, the constitution of Russia prevented Putin to run for the presidential elections. The winning president Dmitry Medvedev appointed him instead as Prime Minister. Credit was given to Putin as he stabilized politics and ended Russia’s economic “crisis in the 1990s.
A lot of people attested to Putin’s effective leadership which enhanced Russia’s economy by 72% during the straight-eight years of his service. Russia changed enormously under Putin’s leadership including military and police. The success in Russia’s stand as an energy superpower was because of his energy policy.
3. Angela Merkel
Rarely do we see women in power but the same place where the great and defiant woman Margaret Thatcher came from, another woman emerged. The first woman ever to hold office as Chancellor of Germany and the Christian Democratic Union. She has been the leader of CDU since 2000. She has held several important positions before that and played a vital role in German politics. Merkel was the second woman who led G8 next to Margaret Thatcher.
The European economy has also depended so much from Merkel and has been known to be “the decider” in managing the financial crisis. Known to be “the de facto leader of the European Union”, she is the highest-ranked woman in the world, something no other female personality has ever achieved.
4. Bill Gates
Among all the people here in this list, Gates is the only one who does not have anything to do with politics. Estimated to have a gross worth of $67 billion, William Henry Bill Gates III is the co-founder of the world’s largest personal computer software, Microsoft. Gates never loses a rank in the worlds’ wealthiest list from 1995 until now. Anti-Gates criticizes his way of dealing with a business which they called anti-competitive although it has never stopped him from gathering more millions for himself.
Lately though, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he has been aiding various programs and charitable institutions. They have donated millions of dollars for scientific research and other kinds of developments too.
5. Barrack Obama
Being the president of the most powerful country in the world makes the current president the most powerful person there is. Obama holds the record as the first black American who became the president of the United States of America. His sudden rise to fame began in 2004 when he started is a campaign to be Illinois representative in the US Senate. Three years after he won, he aimed for the presidential seat and won against Hilary Clinton in gathering nomination from Democratic Party primaries.
In 2009, Barrack Obama won against John McCain and was re-elected president in November 2012, winning over Republican Mitt Romney. One of the controversial topics supported by Obama is same-sex marriage which was approved under his term in 2013.
Money and power are two huge factors that define a person’s influence. Although it should not be the basis why people should be respected, appreciated, and valued, this is the greatest contributing factor in a way people see other individuals. It is so rare to see people who want to belong in the background instead of being the one giving instructions. These powerful people on the list though are aware of their responsibilities as well as the people who rely on them. There is nothing in this world more frustrating for a country than to have a leader who only has an interest in himself. The people would suffer if the leadership falls in the wrong hands. Fortunately, the people who belong to the list are individuals who used their power for the good of the people who rely on them.