Think of it as Yoga for the brain, we are going to stretch a bit.
Control the High Ground: What Cats Know That Most CEOs Don’t
One thing you learn from cats is this: control the high ground. See first, decide first, and move before you are forced to move. Survival isn’t about size—it’s about awareness. — YNOT
The older I get, the more I realize that cats understand something many business owners never do. They understand the value of the high ground.
A cat doesn’t climb to the top of a shelf because it’s lazy or because it wants attention. It climbs because elevation gives it information. It can see threats coming, spot opportunities, identify exits, and react before anyone else.
Sun Tzu understood this thousands of years ago.
He wrote extensively about terrain and position. The commander who occupies the high ground gains vision, time, and initiative. The one stuck in the valley is forced to react to events instead of shaping them.
Business works exactly the same way.
Owning the high ground in business doesn’t mean having the biggest office or the most employees. It means putting yourself in a position where you can see things that others cannot.
The high ground in business is:
Knowing your financial numbers before everyone else.
Understanding your customers better than your competitors do.
Seeing changes in technology before they disrupt your industry.
Building systems that give you information faster.
Having cash reserves when everyone else is borrowing.
Developing relationships before you need them.
Learning new skills before the market demands them.
The business owner on the high ground sees the storm while it is still a cloud on the horizon. The business owner in the valley doesn’t know there is a storm until the rain starts pouring.
Most business failures don’t happen because people are stupid or lazy. They happen because people lose situational awareness. They stop looking out the window. They stop watching competitors. They stop talking to customers. They stop learning.
They surrender the high ground. In war, the side with better intelligence usually wins.
In business, the company with better information usually wins.
This is why great businesses invest in dashboards, reports, customer feedback, analytics, AI, and market research. They are not buying software.
They are buying elevation. They’re buying the ability to see farther.
They’re buying time. And time is often the difference between success and failure.
The funny thing is that a cat never gives up its perch voluntarily. It knows instinctively that once you surrender the high ground, you become reactive instead of proactive.
The same is true in life. If you wait until your sales decline to study your market, you’ve already lost altitude.
If you wait until AI changes your industry before learning it, you’ve already lost altitude.
If you wait until cash gets tight before understanding your finances, you’ve already lost altitude.
Get higher. Read more. Measure more. Observe more.
Build systems that let you see farther than everyone else.
Because the winner in business is rarely the strongest company or even the smartest company.
More often than not, it’s the company that saw what was coming while everyone else was still sitting comfortably in the valley.
The cat knows. Sun Tzu knew. The question is: do we?
Do You Know Your High Ground?
10 Questions Every Business Owner Should Ask
Sun Tzu taught that the commander who controls the high ground sees the battlefield more clearly than everyone else. In business, your “high ground” is the information, awareness, and positioning that allows you to make decisions before your competitors are forced to react.
Answer these questions honestly:
If your revenue dropped by 20% tomorrow, would you know exactly where to cut costs within one hour?
Can you name your five most profitable customers or products without looking it up?
Do you know the three biggest threats that could disrupt your business in the next two years?
Are you aware of what your top competitors are doing better than you right now?
If your largest customer disappeared today, do you already know how you would replace that revenue?
Can you see your key business metrics—sales, cash flow, leads, and expenses—in real time or within a few minutes?
Do you know which new technologies, especially AI, could either destroy your business model or make you significantly stronger?
If you had to step away from your business for a month, would your systems and people keep it running smoothly?
Do you spend time every week studying your market, customers, competitors, and industry trends?
Are you making decisions based on facts and intelligence, or mostly reacting to problems after they happen?
Scoring
9–10 Yes Answers:
You probably own the high ground. You can see farther than most and are positioned to act before others.
6–8 Yes Answers:
You have some elevation, but there are blind spots that could become dangerous.
3–5 Yes Answers:
You’re fighting from the valley. You may be reacting more than leading.
0–2 Yes Answers:
You’re walking through the battlefield in the fog. The next surprise could become an existential threat.
Final Thought
The high ground isn’t about having more money, more employees, or a bigger office.
The high ground is information.
The high ground is awareness.
The high ground is seeing what others don’t see until it’s too late.
