When you’re on top, protecting and controlling what gives you an advantage feels like common sense.
Disney built an empire on public-domain stories, then fought to extend copyright once Mickey was worth billions. Medieval guilds guarded the knowledge that kept outsiders from competing. Twitter tightened access to its open API after its ecosystem became valuable.
But when you’re the one trying to catch up, openness and access look like the fairer and more principled way to run things.
The Timeless Power Play is Showing Up Big Time in AI Right Now
Recently, Mark Zuckerberg published a 6,500-word essay arguing that advanced AI should belong to everyone, not be controlled by a handful of powerful labs. Meta paired the argument with a new open-source AI model, Muse Glimmer.
It’s an important argument, and Zuckerberg may believe every word of it.
Here’s What Makes the Example Interesting.
Meta is behind, and has made aggressive investments to catch AI leaders OpenAI and Anthropic, including roughly $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in Scale AI.
Last month, Meta also began offering access to its more powerful Muse Spark model. And Zuckerberg says Meta plans to release the weights for Muse Spark 1.2 as well. Same company. Same week. Is this principle, competitive strategy, or the messy reality of both at once?
The Tricky Part: There’s Always a “Good” Reason for Control
The door almost never closes for a bad reason. It closes for a defensible one, argued sincerely by people who believe themselves.
Like when Facebook tightened access once its platform became indispensable. They cited privacy reasons; understandable after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and maybe not the only driver.
Why is Hypocrisy a Slippery Slope
No executive calls a meeting and says, “Great news, everyone. We’ve become powerful enough to abandon our principles.” Which is why hypocrisy is harder to spot in ourselves than in somebody else.
A principle like believing in open source models can be both sincere and convenient. Zuckerberg may be right that open AI is better. Anthropic may also be right that keeping powerful models closed is safer.
So the question isn’t whether a principle benefits you.
It’s whether you still live the principle when it doesn’t. The tell? Watch what happens when the incentives change.
What Are Your Principles Really Telling You?
The real test of a value is whether you keep it when it’s no longer convenient.
If you’re facing a leadership challenge where your values and incentives collide, Book a Catalyst Call with Moshe
to talk it through and gain a fresh perspective.
The “Convenience Test” Instant Thought Experiment
Imagine your organization two years from now as the market leader. You dominate your category. Competitors need something you control.
Now take one of the principles you talk about today when you’re not the dominant player; openness, collaboration, transparency, competition, employee freedom, whatever it is.
Would you still commit to it and practice it?
Mirror: Two Questions to Ask Yourself
1. Which of your stated values has actually cost you something?
2. Which one might quietly disappear if you became the clear winner?
Door Into Action: 3 Amare Leadership Steps to Test What You Actually Believe
1. Run the convenience test. Take the value or principle you state most often and identify one decision from the past year when keeping it cost you something real. If you can’t find one, look for a decision this week where you can practice it, when it isn’t convenient.
2. Reverse your position. At your next leadership meeting, ask: “Would we still support this policy if we were number one in our market?” Don’t debate the answer immediately. Notice what the question reveals.
3. Watch principles through changing circumstances. When evaluating a leader, partner, vendor, or company, don’t pay too much attention to what they say when a principle helps them. Look at what they do when keeping it becomes expensive.
Amare Team Talk
Bring one question to your next team meeting:
“Which of our values would be hardest to keep if we became number one in our market?”
Let the conversation go wherever it goes.
The Real Test Comes After You Win
It’s easy to love openness when you need someone else to open the door.
The revealing moment comes when you’re the one holding the key.
Power doesn’t necessarily change what you believe. Sometimes it simply reveals which beliefs were principles and which were strategies.
The work for great leaders is to conscious enough to notice the difference before your principles mysteriously develop an exception clause.
Anyone can defend a value while it serves them. The real test of a value is whether you still choose it whether you’re winning or losing.
Big Amare,
–Moshe
Today’s Amare Wave Wednesday Quote
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
— Robert G. Ingersoll, American orator and lawyer, speaking about Abraham Lincoln, January 1883
Click here and read more Amare Wave Wednesday newsletters on related topics:
How to Make Decisions Based on Your Committed Principles – Especially When You’re Busy, Stressed, or Scared
4 Ways to Be an Aligned Leader and Why It Really Matters
Your Most Powerful Leadership Tool is The Personal Example You Set: 7 Steps to Get It Right & Maximize Your Organization’s Success
Embracing Openness and Love in Leadership: CEO Alan Mulally’s Path to “Working Together” Success
Are You Here for the World? How to Stay On Purpose in Challenging Times
