The Will to Power (Why Founders Can't Stop)

Note: The concept of "The Will to Power" (Der Wille zur Macht) has been historically abused. After Nietzsche’s mental collapse, his sister Elisabeth—a nationalist and anti-Semite—edited his unpublished notes to make this concept sound like a call for political tyranny and German military dominance. This article ignores the sister’s forgery. We return to Nietzsche’s original definition, where "Power" is not political control over others, but the biological drive for self-overcoming, growth, and the discharge of energy.

Why does the founder keep pushing? Why does the athlete keep training after winning the gold? Why do we feel restless even when we are safe, fed, and comfortable?

If you ask a hedonist, this behavior is insanity. If the goal of life is pleasure and comfort, these people are broken. But if you ask Friedrich Nietzsche, these people are the only ones who are truly alive.

In his late philosophy, Nietzsche proposed a terrifyingly simple hypothesis: Life is not a struggle for survival. Survival is a byproduct. Life is a struggle for expansion.

He called this drive The Will to Power. And understanding it is the only way to understand the relentless, often destructive drive of the Founder.

1. Beyond Survival: The Error of Darwin

To understand the Will to Power, we must first kill the "Will to Survive." In the 19th century, Charles Darwin and Arthur Schopenhauer convinced the world that the primary drive of all living things was Self-Preservation. Schopenhauer believed we are driven by a blind "Will to Live"—a desperate need to avoid death and seek safety.

Nietzsche looked at nature and disagreed. He saw that living things constantly risk their survival for something else.

• The stag risks his life fighting for dominance, not just food.
• The artist starves himself to complete his masterpiece.
• The entrepreneur risks bankruptcy to build something new.

If survival were the goal, the most successful organism would be a microbe or a sponge. These creatures have survived unchanged for millions of years by minimizing energy expenditure and avoiding complexity. Yet, evolution pushes toward complexity—toward the Lion, the Eagle, the Human. Why evolve into something more fragile and dangerous if safety is the goal?

Nietzsche wrote:

"Physiologists should think before putting down the instinct of self-preservation as the cardinal instinct of an organic being. A living thing seeks above all to discharge its strength—life itself is Will to Power; self-preservation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results."

The core drive is not to survive. The core drive is to become more.

2. The Physiology of "Number Go Up"

This explains the pathology of the high-growth Founder. Critics often label successful founders as "greedy." They assume the founder wants more money to buy more yachts. But if you talk to these founders, they rarely care about the yachts. They care about the Scoreboard.

For the "Master" type (in the Nietzschean sense), the feeling of happiness is not "contentment." Happiness is the feeling that power increases, that a resistance is overcome.

• Stasis = Pain. To sit on a beach and do nothing is torture for a Will to Power type. It feels like decay.
• Growth = Joy. The actual joy is not in having the billion dollars. The joy is in the climb to get it.

This is why "retirement" is often fatal for high performers. When you remove the resistance, you remove the ability to discharge strength. The Will to Power turns inward and begins to eat the host. The founder becomes neurotic, anxious, or self-destructive. The organism must expand. If it cannot expand outward (into the market), it will expand inward (into madness).

3. Entropy vs. The Will

We can look at this through the lens of physics. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the universe tends toward Entropy (disorder and equilibrium). Eventually, everything cools down, stops moving, and dies.

Life is the only anomaly. Life is a localized rebellion against entropy. Life organizes. Life builds structures. Life creates complexity out of chaos. The Will to Power is the energy of that rebellion.

• The Bureaucrat accepts entropy. He seeks equilibrium. He wants the inbox to be empty. He wants the day to be predictable. He wants "Work-Life Balance" (which is a code word for stasis).
• The Founder fights entropy. He introduces chaos (a new product) to create a higher order (a new market).

When a company stops growing, it doesn't just stay the same. It dies. Entropy takes over. Processes ossify, talent leaves, and the "Will" leaves the building. Nietzsche would argue that "Maintenance Mode" is a myth. You are either ascending, or you are declining. There is no plateau.

4. The Danger: Power Over Others vs. Power Over Self

Here is where the concept gets dangerous, and where bad leaders fail. Low-level leaders interpret Will to Power as domination. They think it means shouting at interns, acquiring competitors for ego, and building statues of themselves. This is what Nietzsche called "The Will to Power of the Weak." It is a fragile power that needs constant external validation.

The High-Level Leader understands that the ultimate Will to Power is Self-Overcoming (Selbstüberwindung).

The true Übermensch does not care about controlling you. He is too busy trying to surpass himself.

• Toxic Power: "I want to be the boss so I can tell you what to do." (External).
• True Power: "I want to build this company because I need to see if I am capable of building it." (Internal).

The greatest founders are often strangely humble about their competitors. They aren't fighting the competitor; they are fighting their own limits. The competitor is just a useful pacer in the race.

5. Sublimation: How to Channel the Drive

If you are a leader with a high Will to Power, you are a dangerous engine. If you do not channel this energy, it will destroy your team. You will micromanage, you will burn people out, and you will break things just to feel the snap.

Nietzsche’s solution is Sublimation (Sublimierung). This is the chemical process of turning a solid into a gas. Psychologically, it means refining a primal impulse into a creative one.

• Level 1 (Barbaric): Physical violence. Dominating others. (The Warlord).
• Level 2 (Social): Accumulating wealth. Status games. (The Tycoon).
• Level 3 (Creative): Art, Philosophy, Innovation. (The Creator).

The job of the "Chief Wise Officer" is to help the Founder sublimate. Do not tell the Founder to "slow down" (he can't). Tell him to aim higher.

• "Don't just crush the competitor (Level 2). Let's reinvent the entire industry so the competitor becomes irrelevant (Level 3)."
• "Don't just make more money (Level 2). Let's build a culture that becomes the gold standard for the next century (Level 3)."

You must give the Will to Power a target that is worthy of its energy.

6. Conclusion: The Gift-Giving Virtue

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche speaks of the "Gift-Giving Virtue." He describes the sun. The sun does not shine because it is "altruistic." The sun shines because it is so full of power that it must overflow. It gives its light away not out of charity, but out of abundance.

This is the ideal of the Nietzschean Leader. You do not build the company to "serve the community" (that is Slave Morality/Charity). You build the company because you are overflowing with vision and energy, and you need a vessel to pour it into. The community benefits, the employees get paid, and the customers get value, but these are the side effects of your radioactive abundance.

So, to the Founder who cannot stop: Do not apologize for your drive. The world needs your overflow. Just make sure you are shining on us, and not just burning us alive.