Every Sunday, I publish a business-related blog through our Campbell Academy Business Assets, and the latest one is here. While I was compiling this little piece of writing, I thought, well, it must be for the business channel because of the term strategy, but of course, strategy isn't for business; it's for everyone.
To learn about the principles of how to strategically plan something, either consciously or by accident, is one of the most extraordinary gifts. It's similar in taking the view that we must teach our children financial literacy, and we must teach our children philosophy, and I think the third pillar of this is strategy.
Of course, it's difficult, certainly on the face of it, to teach strategy to a 5-year-old, but it isn't that hard, neither is it hard to teach them philosophy, and neither is it hard to teach them financial literacy.
It's been a long time since I had a 5-year-old child (13 years), and as a 41-year-old, I was less well developed in thinking these things than I am as a fifty-four-year-old. So perhaps if I'm ever lucky enough to have grandchildren, they'll get a greater benefit in this than my children ever did.
But here it goes.
The essence of strategy is the ability to say no; it's the ability to focus on the thing that you decided was most important, but before that, it's the ability to decide what is most important, to see a vision of where you want to go, and then to go.
This is very easy to write down, very easy to put into words, very easy to make into a schematic diagram, much, much, much more difficult to apply in practise.
One of the reasons it is so difficult to apply is that the external fire hose noise is so difficult when we are drinking from it, but it's impossible to think of anything other than what is immediately in front of you.
The other thing that happens in strategy to disrupt it is money.
Our relationship to money is massively interlinked with everything related to strategy, and so the narrative around ‘we deserve this’ usually gets in the way of building something which lasts for the longer term. It seems more and more difficult to build something for 100 years now than it was 300 years ago. People had a totally different mindset then about what legacy and strategy, stewardship and responsibility were, but this is in fact what strategy is.
And so, as an example, let me tell you this.
Let's say you had the opportunity to buy a house, and you had to choose between two different houses. One of which could be a generational home for different members of your family, and one which was more modern, but definitely less generational, likely to fall down in 30 years, but brilliant now.
Which one would you choose?
Choosing the one which needs the work done now, but which has stood the test of time over 200 years, is the one which was the best choice by a mile for the generations that are to come. Making sure that it is fit for purpose for you now and has the ability to be fit for purpose later, and also taking the time and making the investment now on things which will not break and will not fall down and fall apart.
That is strategy.
Buying a cheaper, newer house, which gives you money left over to buy a fancy car and have a holiday, that's a different type of strategy.
Strategy is legacy.
Strategy is stewardship.
Strategy is understanding that there are generations of people who put you here, and all you get to do is look after this and leave it better than you found it.
If you see a strategy like that, if you detach a strategy from money. It's very easy to build something that lasts, something worthwhile, something to be proud of, and something which gives you contentment and satisfaction.
And wasn't that what we were all looking for all along, anyway?
Blog Post Number - 4458
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