Competition, Combat & Planning

Future decisions ought to be based on proactive planning. Some leaders are just that. Others can plan but not really lead. Still others can “brainstorm” the innovative ideas of others and springboard to yet another level of planning or performance. What follows is an attempt on my part to impart some knowledge I have of how the universe works.

The first step:
The first stepping stone to success is to accurately assess your strengths - and your limitations. In your heart-of-hearts you recognize some of these faults or character flaws. It is hoped that your friends or allies can augment that personal assessment with insights of their own.

The second step:
Knowledge is the second stepping stone. Real power is the control of data or information. The more important the data, the more power you wield. Since no one can know everything about everything, it is necessary to develop a “trapline” of contacts whose skills and knowledge can augment your own. As time passes, this list of contacts will increase in number and value. Capable people will advance within their own companies or will accept more powerful positions in different companies. In either case these contacts will become ever more valuable to you. If specific technical information is what you seek, an appropriate subject-matter expert from the “trapline” can be very useful. If you need an introduction to a normally inaccessible person, contacts on your trapline ( and even their own contacts ) might make a meeting possible.

The third step:
The third stepping stone is to develop the ability to recognize “real” people. A real person is a true WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). Their self esteem is strong and they can communicate on a more personal level at all times than can others. You marry real people. Real people are the result of a combination of common sense, stable emotional relationships, mature role models, and maybe even the proper genes.

Many people who are educated, or religious, are not real people. Often religiosity comes from a need to feel a self esteem which is not present in that person. An oncologist once told me his biggest “whiners” during cancer treatment were ministers. Religion had always been their strength and their solace. Cancer is an unfair antagonist. God could not possible have condoned that “I” should suffer in this way! When I was a clinical psychologist, two of my patients were fundamentalist ministers. They would come to therapy, announcing to those in the waiting room that they had to discuss one of their “flock” with the “doc”. Their problem was that they were expected to be perfect in all ways. They weren’t, but they knew how difficult it was to toe the line of perfection. They did a lot of weeping in my presence.

A real person is like a general’s trusted adjutant; a surgeon’s faithful nurse; your children’s pediatrician when needed -- you get the point! You can begin to become a real person if you choose appropriate role models. Proper models for morality and honesty, ambition and work ethic, humility and helpfullness can be found if you look around you.

The really competent people appear to be bragging when they describe some of the things they have accomplished. A simple statement of fact can appear to be bragadoccio. Let what sounds like boasting pique your interest. It should not take long to learn the truth about a such a person. And what a find it would be for you, that is, knowing either way.