Thread by @ThyConsigliori

3 April 2020 - #MAGAAnalysis - #Coronavirus

#FriendsAndEnemies

Let's begin with the following assertion: Any definition of friendship that fails to reference a definition of enmity - enemyship, if you will? - will also fail to guide us through life intelligently.

2) To capture the significance of my assertion, please click on and expand the fourth image above, the Yin/Yang Cue Ball. Please picture it, if you can, as your actual cue ball playing pool. See it rolling on the lovely green felt. See how each side chases the other in motion.

3) The truth of the Yin/Yang, that things alternate in cycles is indisputable. Here's my most recent Basic Business Thinking podcast, on the topic of Booms and Busts, which are following by successive Booms and Busts!

soundcloud.com/theconsigliori…

4) Before we apply this to nations - which we rapidly will - let's just ask for a show of hands. How many of you have gone through a divorce? And how many of you saw your formerly greatest friend become your greatest enemy? Maybe not forever, but that's the point!

5) Friends become enemies. Enemies become friends. Even in a lifelong friendship cooperation and collaboration converts to competition and conflict. No relationship can be a lifelong relationship without this alternation. It's called testing the relationship. Love must be tested.

6) Our great @POTUS has informed us, #WuhaVirus, #ChinaVirus, yes, #Coronavirus, obviously comes from China. By early January of this year, that was my own assessment, reading only published news reports, with no other source of information. It came from China. Let's agree.

7) You have been hearing more and more about how we MUST reduce our dependency on China, and rightly so. You'll soon be hearing more and more about what idiots we ever were to trust them, and rightly so. But, we'll certainly go to the extreme, and that won't be right.

8) A point I've made repeatedly is that I do NOT judge Nixon and Kissinger for being Mao's stooges the way you'll soon be hearing everywhere. Biggest mistake we ever made, you'll hear. I'll disagree then as I do now. We'll discuss the Ancient Laws, soon, but glance at them now.

9) Yes, it was indeed Mao who reached out in 1970. But why? My current reading indicates it was because Mao rightly predicted the long, slow collapse of the USSR, and realized the time was right to "befriend" America. Do get this book! It's my source.

amazon.com/Stealth-War-Ch…

10) Follow out the laws, here. From 1929 forward, Mao played all sides and received great support from both USSR and us, the U.S., throughout his Civil War. Then, in 1949, he sided with Stalin against us. It was the right choice for that moment.

11) Make no mistake, Mao was as evil a leader as we've known. Hitler and Stalin have nothing on Mao for evil. But, I suspect he was smarter than both of them put together and an unbelievably genius strategist, leader, tactician, and writer. Yes, writer. Amazing.

12) There is NO practitioner in world history who has documented the use of Sun Tzu's Art of War the way Mao did. And get this, it comes through in the translation. This is an incredible book. One of a kind, in history.

amazon.com/Art-War-Mao-Ts…

13) So in 1949, Mao sided with USSR and did very well thank you for having done so. But, 21 years later, he saw the writing on the wall, better than any other leader in the world, and knew it was time to flip one friend out and switch over a former enemy into a friend. Brilliant.

14) As Gen Spalding teaches us, and Michael Pillsbury does too, Mao always knew - as have ALL his successors - that America could ONLY be China's friend while we shared the enemy of the USSR. The moment we defeated the USSR, China and the US would become enemies. Boom.

15) You will hear the term "friends of convenience," but it's a term I do not approve of. It wrongly assumes that there are eternal friendships, which are REAL friendships, and then the other kind don't stand up. This is false, idealistic thinking. It doesn't cut it in reality.

16) And that's why I do NOT judge Nixon and Kissinger harshly over this new friendship of theirs with China. On the other hand, I absolutely harshly judge HW Bush 41 for his corrupt relationship to China, failing to recognize the moment they became our enemy, again.

17) Quite the contrary, I judge them mutually brilliant. No, not in Mao's class, he's one of a kind. But up there, and absolutely competent to follow Mao's genius level decision. Mind you, again, I consider Mao evil. I am not a fan, but rather simply one who respects genius.

18) It's tempting to jump forward to @realDonaldTrump's genius, which, believe it or not, I deem at essentially an equal level to Mao's. They're obviously very different. Mao was an evil genius, Trump is not evil, but rather the greatest leader America has ever had in every way.

19) Before finishing this case of friendship converting into enmity in cycles, I have to state emphatically, that Trump knew all this, I am persuaded, all the way back when it happened with the ascension of HW Bush 41 to the Oval Office. He knew that China was our enemy, again.

20) Last thing here, I believe that Nixon and Kissinger do NOT get the credit they deserve for places us in the position to defeat the USSR in the Cold War, with the help of our little friend to their East and South. It worked. Other factors - Reagan etc. - too. But it worked.

21) Now we jump in our trusty time machine and leap forwards to the present. We are clearly at war with China. And, Trump started it. He wiped out their economy. More, he destroyed the most important of their mechanisms of theft as a pirate nation.

22) It is my great hope that this never becomes a shooting war, but I fear it likely will. It has to be stated, again emphatically, that if Coronavirus is, as I believe - and many others are now too - a biological warfare first strike, then the killing war has commenced.

23) By the way, biological warfare is anything but new. The Romans used plague riddled corpses, flung into enemy encampments, to destroy them with disease long, long ago. In our own history, we did indeed use smallpox infected blankets for the same reason. This is not new.

24) As I like to do though, let's assume you don't agree about us being under biological warfare attack. If you don't agree with me on this, that's okay. The reality remains mostly just the same. I believe Trump covers both possibilities by the term: "hidden enemy."

25) You really can believe me, though, if you go with the purposeful warfare reading, and the mounting evidence is absolutely available should you simply look around a bit. It really is in the daily briefings, and all over the news. I think we should agree about this one.

26) Again, though, even if China merely, and with no evil purpose, just blundered here, we are under a worse form of attack from the virus itself than anything we have seen in our lifetimes. We are under the worst siege that Fortress America has ever suffered.

27) And that finally brings me to the reason I've shared my two diagrams and the Ancient Laws, today. We need more than just a far more robust definition of friendship than most of use, we need to get our game on, and on now. We must decide, and we must decide rightly.

28) Now, please, let go of nations and history, and dive deeply with me into the reality of your own everyday life during this Coronavirus Siege. Who are your friends, both personal and family level friends? Who are your enemies?

29) Here's my simple definition. Your friends enhance your strengths and either weaken, or just cover you for your weaknesses. Friends strengthen strengths. Friends weaken weaknesses for each other. And sometimes, truly great friends convert your weaknesses into strengths, also!

30) Here's what we're now going to do in the rest of our conversation today. We're going to go very slowly. We're going to be very thorough. You may not be able to take all this in at once, it's going to be a lot. You'll likely need to read it over multiple times, over time.

31) We begin this part of our work focusing on the term: Perspective. You'll notice that the first diagram is composed with YOUR perspective as its focal point. This is the correct sequence. You must see yourself as you are first, and see your friend through your own eyes.

32) If you and I were working together as a team, I'd be looking at you right now with my head turned to the right, and my left eye squinting dramatically, with a highly skeptical look all over my face and posture. Who are YOU, I'd be asking?

32) Now stick tight. Do you relate to your friends, yes in general, more from a perspective of your own strengths - as a leader? Of, from your own weaknesses, as a follower? Now get this. I'm not squinting because I care. I adore followers and followership. Adore it! But...

33) What I have to discover, and rapidly, is these two things:

1) Are you going to be honest with me, or lie?

2) Are you self-aware, do you know the truth about yourself?

34) As we think about the world, we're always touting leadership, as if there could be leaders without followers. Hell, to know if you're a leader, or not, you have to show me your followers. Don't have any? You're not a leader. It's that simple.

35) With that in mind, let's walk through each quadrant. A true team, a real mission-qualified team seeks always to find its way into the upper right quadrant. Our strengths there must be different, but complimentary. Strength building strength, steel testing steel. A true team.

36) Yet another book you need in your library on this topic is Jocko Willink's first work. Get it now.

amazon.com/Extreme-Owners…

37) We could easily draw another set of diagrams focusing on conflict vs cooperation. I won't keep repeating this, but in each quadrant we can easily flip from teamwork to competition. When we both have the same strength, we may fall into competition, and not be a true team.

38) We also won't follow this trail, but competition is both inevitable and can be the best possible outcome. Thing is, when it gets to being the dominant factor, it's just time to break up the current team, and build another. The permutations go on and on.

39) Now move your eyes to the upper left quadrant. Here, your weaknesses rise to the top, and must be faced and embraced for what they are. And here is where you really need your friend. His strengths can, as we said above, either weaken or at least cover for your weaknesses.

40) It is critical that you NEVER think of yourself or any other person as being devoid of weaknesses. If you have no weaknesses, you need no compatriots of any form, other, perhaps, than those your serve. But what a brittle, sad, lonely life that would be.

41) Let's go back to Trump for a moment. He is often attacked for never admitting his weaknesses. Nothing could be more false. He does. Just never in public and that's a very good rule to follow. Don't publish your weaknesses! That just emboldens your enemies.

42) But your friends and followers need to know you know your weaknesses and do NOT lie about them. Remember my squinty left eye, from above? Don't lie to me about this, or I won't be able to help you. We do NOT have this conversation in public, of course.

43) Those of you with a bit of historical math may have noticed that I use Rene Descartes' quadrant structure called a Cartesian Coordinate System, when I build such diagrams. You can understand each quadrant as:

+ +
- +
- -
+ -

This informs a counter-clockwise path.

44) So, we now drop down to the lower left quadrant where we might call out, with somber joy, MISERY LOVES COMPANY! This may actually be one of the most stable and long-lasting bases of a friendship. Who doesn't love being allowed to whine? I know I sure do!

45) Be clear, there is not only NOTHING wrong with that, it can be simply wonderful. Sure, I know, we don't like to confess we love pity parties, but as long as we don't call them that, we all do love them, and massively so. It's okay, alight? Ah...but...

46) Necessary as shared empathy over pain and loss is, if we're on a mission-driven team, then this can ONLY be letting off steam, and NOT the real basis of the relationship. And leaders, mind, you are NOT leading in such moments. Relating, sure. Leading, ahem, not so much.

47) Reiterating, this quadrant simply does NOT lead to mission performance, and is, in fact, vastly more often the single most destructive factor a team can embrace all the way down to its culture and values and norms and everyday way of doing things.

48) Do NOT let me get started telling war stories of the teams that I've attempted and failed to serve due to this quadrant. If you notice a rise in my nervous tension here, well, you're a good reader. Whew...let's move...

49) The lower right quadrant is, in my opinion, and in the normal world, the most practical and native location where leadership sprouts and demonstrates its foundational basis. We lead from the front. We show up with strength, and we serve those who are weaker. It's natural.

50) Embracing the mandate to lead from the front, from strength in service to weakness, the truly great leader always seeks to raise the relationship's performance bar to the point where we arrive at the upper left, and ultimately the upper right quadrant. Can you see that flow?

51) You may want to take a bit of a break. Stretch your arms and legs as we're about to move over to our friend's perspective in our second diagram, where are friend is our leader and we are the followers, be we honored as such or not. This is profound.

52) Assuming you're back, let's return to the current moment in history. Fortress America under siege means, again, you're under siege, we all are. Allow me just one leadership example in current context. You're a parent, for example, and you have teenagers.

53) The first rule is, assuming you're married with children, unite with your spouse. The two of you must agree to whatever new rules and limitations must be imposed on your children. Any light of day separating you will be discovered and exploited. A more perfect union, please.

54) I won't give detailed specifics, as the permutations again explode. But, I will say, you must find your greatest strength as your children's leaders, right now. Their very lives, and your own, not to mention the grandparents' lives, depend upon it as never before. Got it?

55) We shift perspective now. We must consider our friends in their leadership function, and ourselves as followers. I LOVE to follow. I deem myself a far better follower, a far stronger follower, than I am a leader. That doesn't mean I don't lead, of course I do.

56) Consider my work. I am NOT The Don. I am The Consigliori. That is to say, yes, I serve my Dons - my clients - and I often provide leadership. But, my ultimate function is to aid my Dons, strengthening them, so that I may become their greatest follower. It is my mandate.

57) I have documented this process, from leadership service, through servant and ultimately into most honored follower, at my website. I urge you to check it out. There are free articles on both Leadership and Followership there.

TheConsigliori.com

58) We begin our counter-clockwise flow through our second diagram with your friend's strength being matched and complemented by your strengths. It is critical here that we discuss trust. You must trust your leader, to lead you rightly. For that, he must be both strong and good.

59) Ah, but in order to trust - and many will disagree with me here - I put forward that you must be able to judge, to judge well, and to have the confidence of your judgment. The only real way to do that, is through testing, and the testing couldn't be simpler in concept.

60) Believe it or not, we in the business world sometimes have very solid ways of looking at things, and the somewhat standard business term for this testing cycle is called: The Say/Do Factor. Does your leader do as he says he will do? How far apart are his words and actions?

61) I hope it's more than obvious that this testing does and MUST RIGHTLY cut BOTH ways. The wise leader MUST NEVER give his followers trust without solid, real, and deep testing. The strength of the leader's testing is perhaps the greatest imperative he must meet.

62) I wish I could assume that, as a follower, you know how to and will confidently employ the Say/Do test in giving your loyalty and endeavor to the guidance and missions your leader gives you. Alas, that would be simply wrong thinking on my part.

63) As I have observed and served, followers vastly more often than not either follow or resist, but they do NOT master the fine art of judgment. They do not know that their trust and followership is a sacred treasure that their leaders must earn. Therefore I challenge you.

64) Please consider that judgment IS called for, and that it is your life, your endeavor, your mind, your heart, and the missions you allow yourself to be sent out on must measure up against your greatest values and truest beliefs. In America, you're allowed to quit.

65) And I truly do NOT mean just your job. You're allowed to freely join and freely separate from any team or mission you find yourself on - with of course, the great exception of the military, or other life and death situations. A surgeon is not allowed to quit his surgery.

66) Again, I charge you, be bold. The decision is yours and yours alone.

67) With that covered, we move to the left, and here we find ourselves confronted by our leader's weaknesses, in the face of our own strengths. A bad leader suppresses this moment. A good leader embraces it. There is a tremendously famous leadership cancer in this quadrant.

68) It is called the Failure to Delegate. Let's turn back to the family, in the right now Siege of Fortress America. I'll proudly share what my wife @KateScopelliti is doing with her beloved Hello Fresh meal boxes. She is working with our granddaughter, teaching her to cook.

69) Imagine my delight. Our granddaughter is now not at school. She is home, as are all of our children. And, I walk out of my office and see the two of them, my beloveds, making up a dinner I couldn't match in a restaurant even if they were open.

70) Kate is rapidly empower our granddaughter's strengths to rise, in hopes that she will be an even better cook than Kate is. That's the vision. And that is what great delegation looks like. The teacher seeks to teach the student to rise far above any strength the teacher has.

71) But, what if the leader's weakness is also a blind spot, and one where the leader is defensive, or worse, aggressive? We return to the Say/Do factor and the question of trust. If you trust your leader, then you must be able to find the way to use your strength here.

72) So, if you're my leader, and in denial over your weaknesses, I must find my strength to show them to you in one way or another. Sometimes, I just have to cover for you until you're ready. Again, trust and judgment must inform that I'm not being stupid in doing so.

73) Here, as we drop down to lower left quadrant, I will insert a subliminal advertisement for my service. If both leader and follower are weak in a given area, you might want to consider hiring Pasquale to help. I'm very good at this.

74) Subliminal advertisement over, there is, only from the flipped perspective, the great opportunity to let down your hair and just be friends, as opposed to teammates or leader and follower here. We're all just humans, and none of us is universally strong or never weak.

75) The tough guy in me wants to tell you, yet again, that this is NOT a mission sector. But, it actually may be. That is, two weak people at each others' backs may well get done what cannot be imagined outside their special friendship. Weakness is often underrated.

76) Still, that's the exception that very literally proves the rule. Paired weakness is just not how we build a winning team. And such friendships are, or such places within a friendship is inherently to be distrusted. While misery loves company, it tends not to lead to victory.

77) Moving over to the lower right, when I attain to my greatest function as a follower, I show up with direct, clear knowledge of my weaknesses and equally direct, clear knowledge of my leader's strengths. I seek guidance and counsel from my leader, happily.

78) You can imagine, that when this first occurs in a new, but deepening relationship, it is very disconcerting to my clients. It breaks all their previously held, false beliefs about my near flawless strengths. I'm good, but I'm not that good. And my weaknesses, oh my...

79) As you might not find hard to believe, I am a very strong man, many of my strengths reaching up to what we might call Extraordinary-Class Category. Alas, so also do my many weaknesses. We won't dive in, but there is phenomenal tool I've used my entire life and you should too.

80) This lower right quadrant is the place for me, as a follower, to perform the constant stream of Failure Analyses by which my life and learning have always progressed. And, the greater the strength of my leader, the higher the quality of my analysis. Just ask Kate.

81) In this lower right quadrant, you also truly want to let your leader's light shine, and you want to shine the greatest spotlight on his (or in my case, her) great strengths in precisely the area where you are most weak. Yes, you'll get called a brown nose and a sycophant.

82) But, those doing so will simply be demonstrating their own insecurity and inability to follow with honor. Also, their overarching inability to execute solid judgment. Don't believe in their purely political, jealousy driven attacks. Just smile. Think Happy Buddha.

83) Tell you what. It's been a very long session today, already. I foolishly thought I'd cover the Four Ancient Laws too, in order to make the full circuit back into Fortress America's Current Siege condition, and yours and my role within this war.

84) You'll likely thank me for not doing so today. I'll try, but cannot promise, to complete that lesson in a Part 2, tomorrow. And who knows, it may be that after working on the Laws, we'll need a Part 3 for tying the circle and applying all this to right now.

85) At any rate, I will show up again when I can, and I will pull all this together. I believe that our friendships in this time of terrible war will be the truest form of strength with which we face the world, and by which means, we will come through as worthy Americans.