Be the Energy You Want to Drain from Other People

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar

Let’s talk about energy, that mysterious invisible force modern motivational culture believes can solve everything from career stagnation to awkward office meetings.

You’ve probably heard the advice before:

“Be the energy you want to attract.”

Which sounds lovely, poetic, and slightly confusing — like something written on a candle in a yoga studio that also sells overpriced herbal tea.

But today we’re going to upgrade that philosophy to something far more honest.

Be the energy you want to drain from other people.

Because if you observe modern workplace dynamics carefully, you’ll notice something fascinating: the most successful people are often not the most skilled, the smartest, or even the hardest working.

No.

They are simply the most energetically unavoidable.

They enter a room with unstoppable enthusiasm, speaking confidently about projects, visions, synergies, and other words that sound impressive but rarely mean anything specific.

These people are not powered by competence.

They are powered by vibes.

High-powered vibes.

The kind that make quieter coworkers slowly retreat into the background while nodding politely and wondering how this person became the unofficial leader of the meeting.

Energy, in this context, works like gravity. If your personality is strong enough, people start orbiting around it — often because they’re too tired to argue.

You’ve met these individuals.

They are the ones who say things like:

“Let’s circle back on that.”

“Let’s think outside the box.”

“Let’s leverage our core strengths.”

No one knows what these phrases mean, but they sound productive enough that meetings continue indefinitely.

Meanwhile, the quiet person in the corner who actually understands the problem is busy explaining the solution to their coffee.

Motivational culture calls this leadership presence.

What it really means is projecting so much confident energy that people assume you must know something they don’t.

This technique requires surprisingly little preparation.

Step one: speak with confidence.

Step two: gesture vaguely at a whiteboard.

Step three: repeat the phrase “big picture” several times.

Congratulations.

You are now an energy generator.

Of course, there’s a small side effect.

Your enthusiasm must be powered by something — and that something is usually the patience and mental stamina of everyone around you.

You drain a little focus here, a little attention there, until eventually you’ve built an entire career on borrowed momentum.

It’s a remarkable system.

Hustle culture celebrates this behavior endlessly. The loudest person in the room becomes the most “passionate.” The most persistent idea becomes the most “visionary.”

And the quiet, competent person doing the actual work becomes… well… quiet.

Still, energy does matter.

Not the artificial kind fueled by buzzwords and corporate optimism, but the real kind — curiosity, persistence, and genuine enthusiasm for solving problems.

Unfortunately, those qualities are harder to package into inspirational Instagram captions.

So instead we get motivational slogans encouraging everyone to radiate energy at all times.

Be positive.

Be driven.

Be unstoppable.

Or at the very least, be loud enough that people assume you’re important.

Because in the modern workplace, energy is contagious.

And if you can’t generate it yourself, you can always borrow it from the nearest exhausted coworker.