I have given this an extensive thought. Not so much inserting myself in a circle of powerful men; but "How to attain power". its related to what you're asking in some ways. You need one thing and if you acquire it, you're already 80% done and that's being able to see the whole picture, the whole board, all of the players. Their weakness, strengths, opportunities and potential threats/risks. At the beginning of this journey few years ago I started to play chess and the more I played I realized how important and how easy games where knowing every piece's location and its strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. In real life its the same thing if you can somehow see the full picture of a given situation whether you're running for an office or sabotaging an enemy, its quiet easy and no wonder espionage is a massive indicator of the power of an entity. Play chess if you don't already, it accelerates your deduction and foresight skills and you'll notice its benefits in as little as a month or so. One of the greatest things I have learned in my life time, is to be non reactive no matter the amount of pressure I'm under, always looking for ways to flip the script and capitalize on it. In chess you learn, you can make great, game winning moves when under attack and the opponent threatens one or more of your pieces; instead of reacting to protect those pieces, you look for a move that's more powerful, a move that threatens a higher value piece or even better, a move that can checkmate the king.
There are 2 ways to see the full picture, either born into power. Your father is well connected and the whole family is established high within the society's hierarchy. The higher your position in the society's hierarchy they easier information flows to you and the easier it is to build a network of spies, so you always know everything about everyone in society. The other way, is to start from scratch. 5-10 people call yourself private military/NGO/whatever for cover but you're running an espionage agency. You learn the hard way by falling and getting up, pissing off the wrong people; this way its quick; within a couple of years you should know who has the real power. Obviously this is dangerous. You could easily lose your life, but if you will not put your life on the line, then maybe this isn't for you. You continue to build a massive data base for when your time comes to ascend.