Your Next Five Moves

Patrick Bet-David is an entrepreneur and investor. While growing up, his family escaped from war-torn Iraq and became refugees in Germany, before immigrating to the United States. Patrick joined the US Army on graduating from high school (with an impressive 1.8 GPA), and served in the 101st Airborne Division. He was honorably discharged at age twenty-one and went to work selling health club memberships for Bally Total Fitness. He joined Morgan Stanley Dean Witter the day before 9/11, and left a year later to run Transamerica Agency Network. Patrick then started his own financial services and life insurance firm, PHP Agency Inc., which has grown to more than 12,000 agents in 49 states. He also founded and hosts Valuetainment, a YouTube channel for entrepreneurs. Patrick Bet-David never obtained a college degree. His social content has generated more than a billion views.

To become a chess grandmaster, you have to develop the ability to look five moves ahead. In a similar vein, to excel in business, become a strategist and think at least five moves ahead all the time.

Specifically, to succeed in business, there are five future strategic moves you need to master:

Even if you don't play chess, you still need to learn how to act like a chess grandmaster. Always think five moves ahead in whatever you do.

Move #1 — Master knowing yourself. Knowing yourself is rarely talked about in business circles, but it's impossible to think ahead without self-awareness. Once you definitively decide who you want to be, which direction to take will become much more clear, as well as why it matters.

Move #2 — Master the ability to reason. How to process issues, and having a methodology for making decisions are important. No decision is ever black-and-white, and if you can learn to see all the shades of gray, that will help you move forward decisively, even in the face of uncertainty.

Move #3 — Master building the right team. To build the right team around you, it's vital that you get to understand others. If you help people find the best in themselves, you can build a team that will help you grow. Ask questions, challenge your people to understand themselves, and build trust in your team.

Move #4 — Master strategy to scale. Ideally, you want to spark exponential growth. Learn how to raise capital, invest in rapid growth, and create systems which will allow you to gain and maintain momentum. Tracking and constantly measuring the key parts of your business model is required.

Move #5 — Master making power plays. Everyone wants to beat the Goliath in your industry, and if you do that it will be great for your reputation and future operations. Learn how to control your narrative and leverage social media productively to frame your story. Always keep thinking five moves ahead.

1. Get into the habit of thinking five moves ahead in everything you do in business. Just working to try and do that will lift your game and lead to greater success.
2. In every industry, 80 percent of the players will be actors, and only 20 percent will be doers. The key to positioning yourself firmly in the doers camp is to be continually investing in learning and growth. Invest in yourself. Think five moves ahead.

Really liked Your Next Five Moves. I like the concept of needing to think five moves ahead. Patrick Bet-David gave a great example of this. He mentioned when Michael Jordan joined the Dream Team at the 1992 Olympics, winning a medal was just a by-product of Michael Jordan's plan. His real agenda was to check out the strengths and weaknesses of the other top players in the NBA. By playing on the Dream Team, Jordan then knew how to beat the other top players when he got back to the NBA the following year. Now that's thinking ahead.

Like Richard Branson, Patrick Bet-David never attended college, but had to learn about business as he went along. It was to his advantage, and he has been highly successful in the financial services industry. His suggestion that you have to learn the big five strategic moves and always be thinking a few moves ahead makes sense. Whether you play chess or not, acting like a chess grandmaster is a great way to operate. Great book.