All the little, petty reasons why people win or fail—whether business, administration, love, or war—aren’t the actual reasons. Those are the excuses. We actually win and lose according to the foresight of greater players: high-rollers in power, visionaries, good and bad angels, and the God of everyone’s molecules.
“Big picture painters” rarely target those who see them, even their enemies. Call it a “professional courtesy”, but people who see a thing before it makes smoke on the horizon, who recognize the lowering sea before the tsunami breaks the horizon… their prize is the same as their price: survival.