Duende51: The Tony Montana Principle

Before we start, we need to agree on something.

We are going to ignore to overt misogyny of Tony Montana and his immortal line "First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women".

In fact, we need to ignore the entire scene, except for Manny Ribera getting slapped.

But the concept behind Montana's lines has some truth. Montana is telling Ribera the secret to success.

It is more than the adage that you can eat an elephant one bite at a time. There is strategy behind Montana's breakdown. He has an end goal and understands the sequential progress of how to eat his elephant. Notice I said eat and not lick?

A simple way of thinking about it is that Montana wants to increase his gravitational pull on those around him. And the tried and true method of doing this is via money. The more you have, the more influence you get.

Montana wants to be powerful. He wants people to be attracted to his orbit, or he'll introduce you to his little friend.

Let's get sciencey for a minute. Gravity is actually a very weak force. We all have our own gravitation pull, but it is so small and inconsequential that we never experience it. This is because we are infinitesimally small on the grand scale gravity needs in order to work. That is why, except for flies, nothing stays within our orbit.

As Ribera would say, size matters. And with gravity, it really matters. An object must be large enough for gravity to win and thus can reshape the object. An object must be 400km in diameter to form a perfect spherical shape.

Saturn's moon Mimas, a part from being the prototype for Darth Vader's Death Star, is the smallest known object to be spherical, with a diameter of 396km.

Once an object succumbs to gravity and the material is pulled in on itself until it becomes spherical, it is known as hydrostatic equilibrium.

There is a moment when the gravitational pull becomes all-consuming. For Tony Montana, it is when his money has gained him enough power that he can get what he really wants, an American woman. This is his hydrostatic equilibrium.

Stephen Covey teaches a very similar principle with his Sphere of Influence idea.

Montana is essentially chastising Ribera for being reactive. Sticking your tongue out to women isn't going to work. Getting the girl is going to remain in his sphere of concern. Montana is being proactive, focusing on enlarging his sphere of influence.

I've been thinking about Tony Montana because in Duende50, I had become reactive. I was exhausted.

I have since returned from an epic road trip in Vincent Vango and feel energised and regretful. I now understand these newsletters are part of me gaining my hydrostatic equilibrium.

Who knows when my gravitation pull will become strong enough to reshape things around me, but the only way to find out is to keep writing?

This is the updated version of the Tony Montana Principle: First you write the words, then you get a newsletter, and then you get the audience.