Career checkmate!

Seasoned chess players know that "checkmate" is not a move but a program. That is, the checkmate program begins the minute the game begins. Depending on how the game evolves, the odds of your checkmating your opponent vs his chechmating you, will shift back and forth.

Strategy, then, is simply a matter of carefully calculating those odds, and making the right moves at the right time.

Bruce Pandolfini wrote a marvelous book titled Every Move Must Have a Purpose, which applies the principles of successful chess playing to business and life. Sample advice from the master:

"Be aggressive, but don't take unnecessary chances. Answer all threats with a counterthreat. When exchanging, always get at least as much as you give up."