Strategist or tactician: what kind of investor are you? Part 1

In one of our articles, we have already written about what important psychological qualities an investor should have.

Today we are starting a new interesting and important topic: who are you – a tactician or a strategist? This difference is important in both life and investment. As a result, your success and the speed of achieving the goal depends on how you act.

First, let’s understand the definitions:

A strategist is a person who makes plans to achieve a goal, while answering the question “what?” What exactly needs to be done to achieve the Goal. The word “Purpose” is not in vain written with a capital letter. The goal in the life of a strategist plays a major role, the goal is well recognized, and the search for the path to it is less conscious. The path to the Goal, actions in the process of achieving can change, the focus is always only the Goal. All current actions of the strategist are ranked in terms of how they bring the strategist closer to the Goal. If there are several goals, then a certain hierarchy of goals is built in the mind of the strategist. And when a strategist has no Goal in life, he feels useless, disoriented, it seems to him that something is missing in life.

A tactician is a person whose first place is Actions, concrete steps. His life motto is “we will solve problems as they arise.” He makes decisions based on the current state of affairs, without thinking about the prospects. He can easily change the target, but reacts jealously when criticized his tactical actions. The main tactic in life is the path, it is well understood, and the goal is seen with difficulty or is absent altogether. Unlike a strategist, a tactician does not evaluate his path from the point of view of “getting closer” to the goal, but rather “inscribes” the goal into his path. Or does NOT fit. He rarely sets long-term or global goals – why make plans, we’ll live and see.

As you can see, the difference between these approaches to life is enormous. However, it cannot be said that only one approach is correct. And in that and in another case, there are both advantages and disadvantages.

An example of a difference in thinking: You need to get to the other side of a river. The tactician will think about HOW to get to the other side: where to get the boat, how much it costs, who will drive the boat, and so on. The strategist will think from the goal: you need to get to the other side. This can be done by boat, or across a bridge, or ford, or call for help by helicopter, and so on. In the first variant, the range of possible solutions to the problem is deliberately narrowed, and tasks come to the fore. In the second case, we see a broader approach to achieving the goal, a conscious expansion of the options for achieving it.

In simple terms, the actions of the strategist are NOT logical, the strategist acts on the principle “worse now, but better later.” It is more logical in the proverb “a bird is better in hand than a pie in the sky” – and this is about tacticians. The principle of immediate benefit in the form of a “titmouse” in their eyes is more valuable than a “crane”, which is somewhere in the sky and it is not known whether there will be at all. The person is faced with the choice of “benefit without risk now” or “double risk with benefit in the future.” And, perhaps, a person would take this double risk if the benefit was “guaranteed”, but it is only “assumed.” Why stress about an unknown future and build strategies when there is tangible benefit right ahead of the gases? And that stops most people.

In order to determine your type of thinking, just remember a few situations in life and what choice you made. It is this choice that shows what is more valuable to you.

Let us repeat that there is nothing wrong with either type of thinking, they are simply different, each is geared towards solving a certain type of problem and is infinitely good at it. And the more you know about yourself, the easier it will be for you to proceed. You will be able to understand what to focus on and how to use your strengths to get the most out of any situation.

Continuation in the next article on the official website of Amir Capital!