7 Pillars of Strategic Thinking: Concentration of Force

[CSIMIAMI]

Hi.

I've watched this video several times already and have taken lots of notes. Before going in dry and applying all that knowledge I decided to solidify my theoretical understanding of every single principle (1.Strategic Intent, 2.Strategic Analysis, 3.Strategic Preparation, 4.Concentration of Force, 5.Detailed Execution, 6.Adaptability, 7.Study of the principles) and understand the whole process as one thing, too. 

So I decided to write a short essay where I break it down and take three goals for an imaginary person and follow them through each step: from setting up a strategic intent, through strategic analysis, to every other theoretical step. In the strategic intents I had set up I tried to be diverse, to really challenge my understanding in different situations - and this is where my problem is now:

Concentration of Force

One of the three strategic intents for my imaginary person is  to start boxing and win top 3 in a rookie tournament within the span of one year. Concentration of force says that the key to victory is to find the one decisive point, the weak point, and put all your pressure there until you break through. However, in the example of ending up in the top 3 you don't just have one enemy; it's not like saying: this one person is our enemy and his weak spot is his inability to properly cover his body after a few jabs to the face. You are going to face a multitude of opponents.
And now what? It seems wrong to explore the principle of concentration of force over and over again when what we want is something general, right? How would you apply the principle of Concentration of Force here? What is the general focus of force going to be, what is the one decisive point, the one weak spot -- the one basket you are going to put all your eggs in?

 

Thanks in advance for your considerations, and for helping me advance. 

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, CSIMIAMI said:

And now what? It seems wrong to explore the principle of concentration of force over and over again when what we want is something general, right? How would you apply the principle of Concentration of Force here? What is the general focus of force going to be, what is the one decisive point, the one weak spot -- the one basket you are going to put all your eggs in?

Seems to me like you're thinking about this too narrowly, too externally.

In the case of boxing your goal is not really to beat some opponent, your ultimate goal is to become a good boxer (let us say).

In which case, you start to strategize on that goal. How do you concentrate your limited time, energy, and resources to make yourself a good boxer over the next year? Perhaps you identify that your greatest undeveloped asset is stamina. You sense that you could outlast other boxers in the ring. But you'd need to train up your stamina to do it. And so that's where you decide to focus your energy. So you do lots of cardio training, etc.

Alternatively, you could determine that the best strategy would be to hire an exceptional boxing coach. So you spend your energy and resources looking for the best coach you can find, in the hope that he will give you that extra edge that you need to win.

When it comes to competition, you need to find some unique thing that will set you apart from everyone else. Maybe that means you train twice as long each day, or you develop amazing legwork, or you find an exceptional rare coach, or you do lots of visualization, or you learn to meditate in the ring, or you study lots of boxing videos to learn new moves, or you do yoga to raise your baseline level of consciousness, etc.

[CSIMIAMI]

Hey Leo, thank you for your reply!

On 8/23/2018 at 11:22 PM, Leo Gura said:

Seems to me like you're thinking about this too narrowly, too externally.
In the case of boxing your goal is not really to beat some opponent, your ultimate goal is to become a good boxer (let us say).

How do I know where to draw the line between what's external and what's internal? Does it always depend on the circumstances or are there any principles to look after?

I tried to involve a lot of my own experiences with competition, goal-setting, and strategic  thinking in my contemplation of your 7 principles to find the right parallels to draw -- you know, in order to arrive at some level of insight that makes things applicable across the board for myself. One of those was my yearly friendly competition against a good friend of mine who plays Age of Mythology with me for a couple hours every day for a week straight once a year  
I considered that and tried applying the principles you laid out. I was able to follow it through every step from intent to SWOT, to successful manifestation of that goal. But there it was an obvious external question:

What do I do better than him, what are my advantages over him and how can I make them shine? Where do I go wrong? What kind of pitfalls could I step into? And so on and so forth. The battlefield was external, and so was the enemy. 

I understand that, for example in self-development, the enemy often lies within -- but how do I effectively explore the route I am going to go: internal vs. external in my own thinking when trying to be strategic about my ways?

 

Thanks in advance to whomever has an answer for me!

[Leo Gura]

@CSIMIAMI There is no such line. Internal vs external is a conceptual duality.

Generally-speaking, competition is a bad strategy for life. Be a creator, not a competitor. All competitors eventually lose because there's always a bigger fish. In the time and energy you waste competing you could have created something beautiful and valuable.

I explain all this in the Life Purpose Course.

Competition is such a limiting paradigm. You are fighting a war which does not need to be fought. Which is the greatest strategic blunder.

[CSIMIAMI]

15 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

Generally-speaking, competition is a bad strategy for life. Be a creator, not a competitor. All competitors eventually lose because there's always a bigger fish. In the time and energy you waste competing you could have created something beautiful and valuable.

Yeah, I see that! That's a reoccurring theme in many fields. That message resonates with me.

Do you have any courses that focus on strategy like that? I mean that video of yours is definitely in my top 10 of all videos on youtube ever made, so much value man. I shared it with a bunch of friends, it was really solid work!

[Leo Gura]

4 minutes ago, CSIMIAMI said:

Do you have any courses that focus on strategy like that?

The LP Course is very strategic.

But it is not a course about strategic thinking per se.

It is the only course I have.

[Forestluv]

24 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

The LP Course is very strategic.

But it is not a course about strategic thinking per se.

It is the only course I have.

I'm curious if you have updated the course. It seems like you have had a lot of growth the past couple of years.

[CSIMIAMI]

@Leo Gura

10 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

The LP Course is very strategic.

But it is not a course about strategic thinking per se.

It is the only course I have.

I'm glad that it's only one. Smart, actually. I won't have to consider which one and this way I also know that this is your absolute work (so far). I'm digging the help. Look, you're being really insightful. I can't purchase anything as of now because I am doing voluntary work and barely get by (but that's just temporary), but if the quality is like that of the strategic thinking video, then I'm gonna smash the buy button on that. I'm also gonna buy the course you mentioned in that video, I've already found it via google. Also big thanks, it's really cool that you share your insights with me, it helps.

You're saying that the line between internal and external goals is illusory and misleading and that you are always creating something within yourself or working on yourself as an entity (myself, my business, my army, etc) regardless of where the goalpost rests -- but what about clearly external objectives? Like, say, you're an emperor and you want to annex enemy territory and your plan for that is to create unrest in the population via propaganda, create a revolution and then strike when they're the weakest. Those are all external objectives. It doesn't seem like self-development is central to those?

How do I act as a smart man in finding the general lines of principle when sitting down with my goal?
(e.g. when do I look at who I am, and when do I look at external objectives?)

And then there's a thing that has been haunting me that I more or less "figured out" for myself but still struggle with a bit: When doing a strategic analysis, how do I deal with lack of intel concerning the SWOT aspects (i.e. not knowing much about the subject yet), and how do I clearly and intelligently discern between points that should or shouldn't be part of my SWOT analysis?

Is the information that I need in order to assess the battlefield and the form of battle not part of my strategic reserves, i.e. part of the next step (strategic preparation)?

 

Thanks for all the time you take. I respect that.

Cheers!

Edited August 27, 2018 by CSIMIAMI
added a line

[Paul Newcomb]

Does anybody know the name of the strategy course Leo refers to from The Learning Company?