Falling star

There is a saying that you should be nice to people on your way up because you will get to meet them on your way down. I wonder if the people that made it on the list below, which include Alinghi owner Ernesto Bertarelli at #11, failed to live by this virture.

The 100 Least Powerful People Under 100

“Ashes to ashes , dust to dust”…The Book of Common Prayer

“Remember Caesar, thou art mortal” – William Shakespeare

The media creates and distributes hundreds of lists of the most powerful, the richest, and the most visible people in the world, along with the most important, highest paid, and best performing CEOs, most influential political figures and most famous celebrities. Recently those lists have included chronicles of top women executives, most promising executives under 40, and the wealthiest athletes.

Many companies and people on these most powerful and most respected lists don’t stay there for long. Toyota was on almost all the corporate best and most valuable brand lists. Just three years ago, Bank of America CEO, Ken Lewis, was one of the most admired financial executives in the world.

Many of the people who hold important titles and appear in the press regularly are not powerful at all. These people often have very little influence themselves. The organizations that they work for are often ineffectual as well. The world is filled with figureheads and frauds.

24/7 Wall St. looked across the worlds of celebrity, wealth, fame, corporate power, national and international politics, and religion to find a number of people who are much less important than they seem to be. This list is the result of the research about the large population of pretenders and the universe of people who hold the offices, run the companies, and walk the red carpets, but have little if any control over anything in particular.

To qualify for this 24/7 Wall St. list, a person had to be well known, at least in his or her own field or country, had to be under 100 years of age, and percieved to hold a position of power or influence well beyond the reality of his station.

Click here for the 24/7 Wall St. 2010 list of the “100 Least Powerful People Under 100 Years Old”