Lessons from chess for our business

 

"What is going on here!" he screams while shuffling in all directions one step at a time, overweight and a pain in the neck.

The two knights bow, "Your Majesty, those guys in black on the other side of the river are out to get us!"

"Well, do something about it and quickly!" he barks and settles back into the throne with his double distilled gin.

She peers through the curtain and listens to it all, Her Majesty and our beloved queen. As a beautiful bottle blond and some forty years the king's junior, Lara was a ballerina when she caught the King's eye. Her predecessor then mysteriously fell off the wagon when it crossed the river and was washed downstream and never heard of again. Now Lara is stuck with the old twit ...

Lara can move quickly and in all directions. She is the star and the whole kingdom loves her.

"Let me ask The Right Reverends, they will know." she thinks and wanders over to the cathedral, knocks on the door and there they are, our Bishops donned in long white cloaks and known for their ability to crisscross over the kingdom.

"Your Majesty! How can we help?"

"I really do not know what to do. Those terrible lot on the other side of the river, all dressed in black, will attack us. Our king just sits on his throne and does nothing."

"Let us help you," says the bishop on the left, "first is to get our two guys on their horses out to frighten them and get them running. They can even jump over the heads of the others and this just what we need."

"Yes, I agree," says the bishop on the right, "then get rid of those stupid pawns. If we need to sacrifice ours in return for one of theirs, do it and we clear our world of rubbish."

"You are so wise," Lara says, "Let us make this plan perfect and I will lead the attack!"

Lara orders the pawns to step forward one with one behind covering their backs. Then she screams, "Forwaaard march!"

The Knights jump on their saddles and leap over the heads of the stupid pawns quickly over the river and into enemies' territory. Some silence and then the black donned king commands, "Attack!"

His knights, pawns and bishops came in full force, each doing his own thing clearly not thinking what he or she are doing and fell into every trap Lara sets for then. One by one they die in a pool of blood with a sword in their hearts.

Then worst happened! Their ugly fat queen, that witch called Natuschka, flies forward on top of her broomstick and screams at Lara, "I will kill you!"

Just to find her head chopped off by Bishop Left and Knight Right.

"Come guys now it is your turn," Lara says, looking at the foundations of our empire, our Castles. They can move up and down or left to right if needed. Both of them join Lara and trap the Black King on his throne before he could even make any move! They then chop off his legs and after much screaming his arms and finally his ugly head with the long grey beard.

Fifty shades of grey destroyed!

With the enemy terrain conquered, the old white dressed king sleepily sips at another large glass of gin while in the meantime Lara and Broska, our knight on the right side, disappear deep into the wild unforgiving bush of the enemy territory losing every bit of shame they might still have!

******

Far, very far from there, Abdullah bows before His Majesty the Shāh. "Abdullah, I am proud of you! You are a star in our Kingdom as you gave us chess. The greatest game ever!"

The Shāh takes a deep breath, "I discussed the matter with the wizards and we all agree to reward you greatly. Gold, bags of silver, the choice is yours. How much will it be and what do you prefer?"

Abdullah remains silent, clears his throat and bows to the Shāh, "Your majesty, now let us keep it simple, I want only one small wheat grain on this block in the corner. Then we make it two in the next one, then four, then eight until all sixty-four blocks are covered ..."

The Shāh laughed, "Is that all? No gold or silver? Well, I will ask the wizards to calculate and it will be paid to you long before the next moon!"

The wizards took many days to make their sums ... the moon went full and dark again. They were shocked at the result nobody could argue with: 20,000,000,000,000,000,000 wheat grains. That is about 1,200,000,000,000 metric tons in our language and some 1,600 times the world's annual production now in the twenty-first century!

Lessons when getting your business off the ground:

1 Cherish those with the deep pocket

Like the old king, there are shareholders, funders, lenders and venture capitalists helping you on the way. They can be difficult and demanding, "Of all I did for you, now this!" or, "I pay, I say!" The worst is when they command the golden rule, "He who owns the gold makes the rules!" Be kind to them as you need them. Be friendly despite how it might seem, they are also human. Respect them.

2 Have a great leader

Who is your Lara? Help her all the way yet subtly showing her the correct way if needed.

3 Make a quick move

Confuse the competition by making quick moves. Jump over things, surprise them, saddle your horse.

4 What may happen

Think ahead, the good the bad and the ugly, what may happen and how to react to it, all built into the plan.

5 Balance it all

Keep your bishops, knights, castles and even your pawns focused on the great outcome while also addressing finance, marketing, human resources ...

6 Get rid of the crap

Those pawns messing your life. Stuff on the desk, inboxes full of rubbish and worst, emotional baggage. Spend an hour a day, throw away, delete, apologize and forgive.

7 You must make a move

Postponing is the worst thing to do. Plan properly, take all relevant things into account, then move!

8 Think before you move, think before you move ... think before you move

Spend lots of time early in the morning, look back, look forward, reconsider, adapt and move!

9 One step at a time

Forget about "disruption" and all that nonsense, take it one step at a time, today better than yesterday en finally look back at the sixty-four steps that took you through the stars!

An afterthought

Using stories to enlighten the readers while telling them business principles in a compelling way the best way to do.

Business fables have a major role to play in our communication with our clients and collaborators. Lara is our greatest hero!

More on communication, creativity and storytelling here.

Acknowledgements

• Johan Strydom, the worst chess opponent. He utters a few words and if doing so it is mostly, "Checkmate!"
• Miems Kemp doing these lessons in real life successfully over and over and on top of it, produces the most beautiful chess sets.
• Susan Williams, Lelani Maree and Gert Scholtz fostering the principles of the business fable.
• Gerrit Cloete for whom it is all about doing it better, move by move.
• Marnus Broodryk with his brilliant book, "90 Rules for Entrepreneurs."
• Daniel Strauss who is always there when needed, sharing wisdom as few other.
• The header picture from Siliguri Times.
• The bit about rewarding the founder of chess is from articles in Wikipedia. Many versions of it and our story builds on it.
• The Wizard of Id – created by Brant Parker and Johnny Hart