Why didn’t Zhuge Liang start his own business?

When reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I think many friends probably have had a question: why did Zhuge Liang have to “wait and support a wise ruler,” instead of becoming the lord himself? With his intelligence and talent, why didn’t he start his own venture, but instead had to make his ideals come true by assisting Liu Bei?

Maybe in your own company, you’ve also seen this kind of situation: someone with extraordinary ability might hold an executive position at a company, yet you wonder why he doesn’t go start his own business. Or maybe you’ve noticed that when such a person does venture out to start a business, the final outcome isn’t good—then you’d be puzzled. Didn’t he used to be great in the company? Why does it seem like his decisions are all wrong now?

Lord and strategist, boss and executive—these are completely different roles. Doing well in one role doesn’t necessarily mean you can do well in another, because the abilities and charisma they require are completely different.

Let’s use a simple example. During the period when Liu Bei was held by Sun Quan, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were ready to stir up trouble, almost like a revolution, until the day they died. Throughout that time, Zhuge Liang never fully brought those two under his control. Even Wei Yan was the same—he was only so-so in Zhuge Liang’s view. But these people, including later generals like Huang Zhong, all ultimately listened to Liu Bei’s orders and were willing to die for him. Don’t you find that strange?

Zhuge Liang was smart—that was because Liu Bei’s platform gave him opportunities to perform and showcase his talents. Even if you’re the top-tier “star,” first someone has to set up a stage for you to sing on. Zhuge Liang doesn’t have the ability to build the stage himself, so he had to choose a good stage.

Just like some executives: you see that their ability is strong, but that’s because someone else has already built the company’s other frameworks. He only needs to handle his own “one mu and three fen” of responsibility, and then he “seems” especially impressive. If nobody cooperates with him and nobody provides him resources, can he still be that impressive? Not necessarily—it might even end up looking clumsy, because his brain bandwidth could be taken up by other things, and many goals that could have been achieved might fail, simply because there were some bottlenecks no one helped him get past.

The same is true for Zhang Liang. He was a top-tier strategist—so why did Zhang Liang assist Liu Bang instead of starting his own business? Very few people know that this guy actually started a business himself, but he couldn’t make it work. In the end, he joined Liu Bang. Then why was Liu Bang able to make it work? Like Liu Bei, he was generous, had wide connections, was willing to give money and land and status, and was willing to take risks—and he fought after losing again and again. Back then, when people needed to be recruited, people like Xiao He and Cao Can had more opportunity. But they feared that if it failed, they might face the risk of being executed along with their entire family by the Qin. No one was willing to take it. Only that Liu Bang—who ate on credit and didn’t pay—was willing to take it. So the boss was him. That’s it.

Starting a business is the same way. If you can’t pull it off, the losses are enormous. “See you on the roof”—who will come? Whoever comes will be the boss, not whoever is the smartest.

When employees always have options, they don’t stick with one “master” forever—they go do the job with someone else. If back then Cao Cao had defeated Liu Bei, then as long as Zhuge Liang wanted to live, he could still have lived. He would also have been able to showcase his talents in Cao’s camp. But Liu Bei would definitely meet the same fate as Lü Bu—he would die—because in this chess game, only the lord has no way out.

Becoming the lord doesn’t necessarily mean you’re more capable. They just have the resource conditions to be the lord—along with certain personality traits—and compared with others, they’re only willing to shoulder greater risk. #GT二季度销毁257万枚