The Best Strategy

Life teaches all of us a lot of lessons. We've heard it expressed in a million different ways. "With age comes wisdom" is only one. My big brother told me once that he disagreed with that statement. He said, instead: "With age comes experience".

He did a splendid job in supporting his position by mentioning several older people he knew, that were no where near any position that could be described as one that contained any degree of "wisdom".

Fifty five years ago, as I reported for my first day in boarding school as a 7th grader, I began to learn the ways of a little kid thrust into an environment that contained 109 students between the 5th and 9th grades. Some of them actually shaved. I didn't even own a razor at the time and one guy in the 9th grade, actually had hair on his chest. It was a fearsome sight to see him in the gym. He looked like a bear. His name was Falici and he was from Chicago.

I became a pro at it and it was a good thing because I eventually spent 4 years in two different boarding schools in Arkansas and Oklahoma. I learned and I excelled. I knew enough about the rules to insure that I never got caught.

One of the rules was: "Never throw the first punch". I learned very early on that it was far better to run to fight another day than to accept a fight on my enemies ground. That was an easy one to learn and it always served me well.

It appeared that I violated that rule when I was a senior in high school. Despite the fact that I was suspended from school for 3 days for fighting, despite the fact that I threw the first punch, the real aggression had taken place days before the fight and I simply waited for the perfect opportunity to beat the hell out of the trouble maker before I took my shot. It just happened to be in the parking lot at Byrd High School. Despite the embarrassment, the suspension took place one day before my 18th birthday, the legal age to drink in Louisiana. We partied hard and I went back to the "Never throw the first punch rule".

I walked away from a fight during my college years. It was due to the fact that my nose had been broken in a bar room brawl and I was still wearing the God awful nose brace and 16' of surgical packing that came after the surgery to fix all the damage. My room mate eventually beat the shit out of the guy that tried to hit me in the nose and in my eyes, all was well.

Later on, I found myself flying Nighthawk Gunships in Vietnam. We used the Huey helicopter back then and it was an excellent night time gun platform. It was always dark and very difficult to see the enemy in the dead of night, especially on moonless, cloud filled nights. They could hear us but had a tough time seeing us. When they took the first shot and we saw the muzzle flashes and the tracers searching the night sky for us, that's when we started shooting. The NVA should have live by the rule, "Never take the first shot".

When we invaded Cambodia, all of that was in broad daylight. There were only two occasions where I shot first but it was an unusual situation and I really didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

As time went on and I began my professional life, I learned another rule. Maybe we should call it Rule #2. "Don't start no shit and there won't be no shit".

A competitor of mine obtained a distribution agreement with a mounted bearing company named Koyo, that I was also representing. He cut the price and I lost a customer in Texas. Koyo also made un-mounted bearings so I bought those as well, cut the price and took one of his customers away. I didn't take the first shot during that lesson but he damn sure felt my shot when I took it. Another lesson learned.

The same lessons apply in one's personal life. Once some one offends you, as far as I am concerned, it's open season, fair game and no rules apply.

So, if anyone asks : "Did you hear what Butler did"? One might consider asking a very simply question. "Why did he do that, he never, ever, ever takes the first shot".