The Most Powerful People

This week Forbes Magazine announced it's list of the 67 most powerful people in the world.. here are their ten most powerful:

1. Barack Obama: 48, President of the United States of America
2. Hu Jintao: 66, President of the People's Republic of China
3. Vladimir Putin: 57, Prime Minister of Russia
4. Ben S. Bernanke: 55, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve
5. Sergey Brin and Larry Page: 36, Founders of Google
6. Carlos Slim Helu: 66, Chief executive of Telmex in Mexico
7. Rupert Murdoch: 78, Chairman of News Corp
8. Michael T. Duke: 59, President, CEO and Director of Wal-Mart
9. Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud: 85, King of Saudi Arabia
10. William Gates III: 54, Co-Chair Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

A few things that I found interesting about the top ten:

• Half of the folks worked in the private sector and half in a government position.. maybe power comes in those two flavors;
• All of the folks are men - Angela Merkel (55 year old Chancellor of Germany) came in at #15.. less than 10% of the 67 listed were women;
• The average age of the top ten is 60.4 years.. interesting.. tomorrow I will be 60.5 years old.. I am starting to feel so powerful;
• Numbers five and ten on the list includes two people.. sometimes power can only be had when it is shared;
• Six of the ten listed live in the United States.

I also like this quote from the Forbes article that accompanies the list:

I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.
-Napoleon Bonaparte

I do wonder if anyone on the list doesn't love power? Can anyone have this kind of power and not like it? I think that most on this list probably have a healthy respect for the power that they wield. What do you think?