OPORD 101

PREFACE

In the 21st century, life has become fast paced, global and highly competitive. As everything including TVs is getting SMARTER, never before have individuals world over, been so challenged to wise up and forge identities and craft the necessary armory to take on all kinds of challenges and adversity by developing superior ways of thinking and behavior. Whether in business, personal or career life, many have come to realize and appreciate the old truth, THAT LIFE IS WAR, survival is FOR THE FITTEST, and that wars are fought and WON BY SOLDIERS. Ergo, like in any war, it is serious whether you win or lose, fail or succeed, conquer or are vanquished, so before you proceed any further with this book, you must answer the all-important question of life, ARE YOU SERIOUS?

This book, perhaps the product of subliminal megalomania and unchecked youthful bravado is an attempt to decipher the planning factors that determine success for any military operation and to bring out the applicability of the planning strategy to any and all life situations. The basic proposition upon which the book is based is quite simple, that is, there are universal imperatives in operational planning for the conduct of warfare which if applied to other life endeavors 'Can' guarantee success. An Operations Order, often abbreviated OPORD is a planning format meant to assist subordinate units and their commanders with the conduct of military operations. It is formatted to organize an operation into Five (05) easily understood paragraphs. In this book, I will analyze each of these paragraphs sequentially and relate them to how they can be used to overcome other life challenges.

As the reader will soon notice, on occasion, the book draws from my personal experiences and makes reference to different historical battles for illustrative purposes. Further, not all sections of the book could be salvaged from the blight of military jargon though I tried my very best to achieve this. All in all, the style of writing in the book is both civilian and military so as to make it more readable whilst retaining some character of the militant nature of the subject matter.

I must mention, beforehand, that I myself are not a melancholy and that this book is not a manifesto for despots nor does it in any way glorify war or violent conflict. Thus, War (Battle)-in the sense that the word is used in this book-is not concerned with armed fighting between groups or the application of violence, but rather with conscious, intelligent and sophisticated competitive behaviour in a contest-winning sense. Furthermore, 'winning' in this sense does not have a strictly competitive 'Zero-sum' interpretation; it is not winning relative to another's loss but rather relative to one's own personal goals and value system. I hope that the insights contained in this book will help people take control of their lives, help others, and live life to its fullest potential as Commanders of their own destinies.

..............................................

V Simukonda (Captain)

The book will be released end of March 2019 but you can get sneak previews by following on twitter @vsimukonda1