Zhuge Liang
The plan at Longzhong
The first half is what not to touch
Records of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Shu, Biography of Zhuge Liang
A twenty-seven-year-old lays out a strategy that governs the next several decades. Its hardest work is done in the opening section.
What actually happened?
Asked for a plan after the third visit, he began not with what to attack but with what could not be. Cao Cao has a million men and holds the emperor: you cannot contend with him. Sun Quan has held the east for three generations, the ground is hard and the people attached: he can be an ally, not a target. Two of the three biggest pieces on the board are crossed off before anything is chosen. Only then the available ones, Jing and Yi, and the conditions: hold both, keep the alliance, put the government in order, and when there is a change, move by two roads.
The first half of a strategy is elimination
Rule out what cannot be beaten and what should not be touched, and what remains is the actual menu. Most strategy discussions skip the step and open with what we should do, which spreads the money across several fights that were never worth entering.
Before the annual goals, write the list of what we are not doing this year and get agreement on it. That list moves the budget more than the goals do.
Different relations for different stronger parties
Both are out of reach, and he treats them differently: one cannot be contended with, the other can be an ally but not a target. Filing everyone stronger than you under enemy is how a plan ends up isolated. Naming which one must be joined is what makes it stand.
Of the two giants in your industry, one has to be avoided head-on and the other may supply you or send you traffic. Treat both as rivals and the road narrows.
Write the trigger condition down
When there is a change in the empire is the whole plan's trigger. He never claims a date. He says that until the condition appears, everything being done is preparation. Writing the trigger down stops both mistakes: firing early, and not being ready when it fires.
When the rival's main product visibly stalls, we commit. Write that sentence down, and name the number that counts as stalling, or it becomes a mood on the day.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: you are setting the next direction and there are more options than resources.
Ask first: which of these can you plainly not win, and which of those should be joined rather than fought? Write both lists before the third one.
Where it goes wrong: listing only what you will do; or keeping the trigger condition in your head instead of writing it as something anyone can check.
Lines to keep
You cannot contend with him.
He can be made an ally. He cannot be taken.
When there is a change in the empire, move by two roads at once.
Same situation, other people are asking
Every option makes sense and I can't choose.They're all good ideas. That's exactly the problem.I'm climbing and it isn't the thing I wanted.What I want to do and what I should do are two different things.Too many paths · all 9 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.