Guy Kawasaki has an interesting post today on how to change someone’ s mind through the power of persuasion. It got me thinking, are there varying levels of persuasion, and do some people have them by virtue by who they are?

Take Guy for example. He is an accomplished author, speaker, venture capitalist. One could argue that he is a very influential individual at least in the technology industry, right? I tend to think so, and because of that, I was compelled to read this post, even though he did not have to do anything out of the ordinary to get me to read it. That is some pretty powerful persuasion. I asked myself, would I have read this post if it was writing by someone that I did not follow? I am not sure, perhaps I would have, but it would have taken a very compelling stance to get me to click on any links within the post.

So then, is it safe to say that the less influential you are in your respective industry the harder you have to work on your power of persuasion? Or is it your power of persuasion that has made you so influential in your respective industry? I know that there are people out there that have perhaps gained their influence somewhat undeservedly, and have a following of people that would believe whatever they say. So do these individuals really have that much power of persuasion, or are the people that follow them so blinded by their enamor of said individual that they cannot see the truth? I do not know, but it is an interesting study nonetheless.

So how is my power of persuasion? Did you click on the link to Guy’s post?