Eight years ago, I sat in a small office with five of my employees. For three straight days, we worked late into the night. Whiteboards filled with ideas. Tables of numbers. Timelines mapped out to the last detail.
When we finished, we stepped back and looked at what we had built: a beautiful plan. It was polished, complete, and elegant. I remember holding that thick document in my hands and feeling proud. I thought: This is leadership. This is the future.
But if I could speak to myself then, I would say only one line:
“Jef, a plan without bold strategy is just a document, not a playbook.”
And six months later, I learned that the hard way. The elegant plan didn’t change much. Projects stalled. Customers weren’t moved. Competitors didn’t even notice us. We were busy, yes. But we weren’t winning.
That was my first real lesson: activity is not progress, and elegance is not impact.
Busy Feels Productive, Until It Doesn’t
At first, I was proud. That elegant plan looked like progress. Every department had its targets, every project had a timeline, and every number lined up neatly. For weeks after those three days, the office buzzed with a new kind of energy.
We held meetings with our shiny plan on the table. My team reported updates, and we ticked boxes one by one. Marketing had its campaign, operations had its schedules, HR had its training calendar. Each of us could point to something we were doing. We were busy.
And busy feels good. It feels like movement. It gives you the illusion that you are building momentum.
But here’s the part no one admits: after a while, the excitement faded. The meetings turned into rituals. Projects slowed down. Some initiatives stalled because we were waiting for “resources.” Others stayed half-finished because priorities shifted. A few things we did finish made no visible difference at all.
Worse, customers didn’t seem to notice any of it. We were checking items off our plan, but sales didn’t rise the way we expected. Competitors kept moving. Our elegant document — the one I once held with pride — started to feel heavier and heavier, like a burden instead of a breakthrough.
That’s when frustration set in. I asked myself:
- Why are we so busy but not seeing results?
- Why do we feel productive, but the needle isn’t moving?
- What’s the point of a plan if it doesn’t change how customers see us?
And slowly, painfully, I realized the truth:
A plan without bold strategy is just a document, not a playbook.
Because here’s what happens when you rely only on a plan:
- You stay inside the walls of what you control. You control budgets, schedules, and internal tasks. But you don’t control customers. You don’t control competitors. And those are the ones who decide whether you win.
- You confuse coherence with cosmetics. A well-formatted document with neat tables and aligned goals looks impressive. But without a unifying strategy, it’s just a collage of good intentions.
- You keep busy instead of competitive. You measure success by activity, not by whether the market chooses you. And the market doesn’t care about how elegant your plan looks.
That was the sting. The frustration of doing everything “right” on paper but seeing little change in reality. I remember the sinking feeling: We built a beautiful binder, but it didn’t help us win.
Eight years ago, I thought a plan was enough. Today, I know better.
What Bold Strategy Really Means
Eight years ago, if you had asked me what our “strategy” was, I would have opened that binder and proudly flipped through the pages. I would have shown you the marketing calendar, the budget forecasts, the hiring plan. I thought those things were strategy.
They weren’t.
A plan lists what you will do. A strategy explains how you will win. And that’s the distinction I had missed.
Winning requires more than activity. It requires choices — uncomfortable ones. A strategy is not a thick document. It is an integrative set of choices that place you on a playing field where you can win, and give you a way to be better than anyone else on that field.
Strategy deals with things you don’t fully control. Customers. Competitors. Market shifts. You can’t schedule those in a Gantt chart. You can’t reduce them to neat tables. And that’s why so many leaders hide inside plans. Plans are safe; strategies are risky.
But bold strategy asks different questions. It doesn’t ask, “What can we do with our budget this year?” It asks, “Why will customers choose us over someone else?” That question makes you uncomfortable — because the answer is never found in a tidy binder.
Think of Southwest Airlines. While the big U.S. carriers were busy planning routes and buying bigger planes, Southwest made a bold choice. They chose being the low-cost, convenient substitute for bus travel. That single decision guided everything else — point-to-point flights, one type of aircraft, fast turnarounds, no meals. It wasn’t just a plan. It was a coherent strategy for winning.
Or think of Jollibee. When McDonald’s came to the Philippines, many thought the fight was over. But Jollibee made a bold choice: they would taste like home. Filipino flavors, Filipino smiles, Filipino families. That wasn’t just product planning. It was a strategy that made customers choose them over an American giant. And it worked.
That’s the power of bold strategy. It is not about how elegant your plan looks inside the office. It is about how compelling your choices are in the marketplace.
Eight years ago, I didn’t know how to articulate that. Today, I can say it plainly:
A plan makes you busy. A strategy makes you chosen.
Playbook vs. Game Plan
Eight years ago, I believed I had a playbook. Three days of meetings, five employees, and a document thick enough to impress any consultant. But looking back now, I see the truth: I didn’t have a playbook. I didn’t even have a game plan. I just had a document.
Here’s the difference.
A playbook is alive. It’s the set of moves you run when the whistle blows. It tells you what to do in real time, in the middle of pressure. Coaches use playbooks to prepare their teams for the chaos of the game.
A game plan is even bigger. It decides which game you’re playing, how you’ll score points, and which plays you’ll never run. Without it, even the best playbook is useless.
And a document? That’s just paper. Elegant, tidy, and dead on arrival if there’s no bold strategy behind it.
Think about basketball. A barangay team can practice every night, running drills until their legs ache. They can be the busiest team in town. But come tournament day, if they have no plays, no strategy for beating stronger opponents, they lose. They weren’t playing to win; they were playing to practice.
Now think about the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s. They had drills too, sure. But what made them great wasn’t practice — it was Phil Jackson’s bold game plan: the Triangle Offense. It wasn’t just activity. It was a system of choices that made Michael Jordan and his teammates unstoppable.
That’s the lesson most entrepreneurs miss. They confuse documents for playbooks and playbooks for strategy. They think being busy equals being competitive.
But let me say it again:
A plan without bold strategy is just a document. A playbook without a game plan is just a routine. Only strategy turns activity into victory.
Eight years ago, I was proud of my binder. Today, I know better. The binder didn’t make us win. What makes you win is having the courage to decide the game you’ll play, the moves you’ll run, and the trade-offs you’ll accept — and then sticking to them.
The Four Bold Choices
Eight years ago, I thought a good plan was about covering all the bases: more projects, more targets, more activities. I didn’t realize that strategy isn’t about doing more. It’s about making bold choices that cut away the clutter and focus you on winning.
There are four choices every entrepreneur must face. They sound simple. They are not. They separate those who stay busy from those who build empires.
1. Where Will You Play?
This is the first bold choice. You cannot be everywhere. You cannot serve everyone. You must decide your playing field — and just as importantly, where you will not play.
Southwest Airlines made this choice clearly. They didn’t try to serve business travelers chasing luxury or international passengers flying long-haul. They chose short-haul, point-to-point routes that could compete directly with Greyhound buses. It was narrow — and that’s why it was powerful.
Cebu Pacific made a similar bold choice in the Philippines. Instead of mimicking PAL’s full-service model, they chose the budget travel segment. They decided: We will be the airline for everyday Filipinos, students, families, OFWs who want to fly cheap and often. They even embraced “no frills” — no free food, pay for extras, sometimes even standing-room jokes in ads. Many laughed at them. But Cebu Pacific understood where they would play: the market of cost-conscious travelers who simply wanted to get from point A to point B. That choice made them leaders.
If you don’t choose your playing field, the world will choose it for you.
2. How Will You Win?
Choosing the field is only the first step. The real question is: how will you win on that field?
Southwest’s theory was simple but bold: win by being the lowest-cost, most convenient airline for short-haul travelers. Every choice they made flowed from that.
Cebu Pacific’s “how to win” was clear too: price and accessibility. They embraced the budget model fully. Online bookings, tight turnarounds, seat sales that made flying cheaper than a bus. They weren’t trying to beat PAL on comfort. They chose to win on affordability and volume.
Eight years ago, I wasn’t asking this question. I was asking, “What can we do this year?” instead of “How will we win this game?” That one shift changes everything.
3. What Capabilities Will You Build?
Once you know where you’ll play and how you’ll win, you must decide what you’ll be world-class at. Not average. Not good. World-class.
Southwest built the capability of fast gate turnaround. Planes spent less time on the ground, more time in the air. That single capability reinforced their entire strategy.
Cebu Pacific built mastery in low-cost operations. They learned how to squeeze costs without killing the experience completely. They built strong marketing around their seat sales — turning promos into cultural events. Families planned vacations around them. That capability — making flying feel affordable and fun — became their weapon.
Eight years ago, my plan had plenty of projects but no commitment to building any single world-class capability. That’s why it stayed a document.
4. What Systems Will Support It?
Capabilities live or die by the systems that sustain them. These are the routines, incentives, and structures that make the strategy repeatable.
Southwest’s system was training everyone on the 737, cross-training crews, and building processes that kept costs low. Cebu Pacific’s system was built around budget discipline and marketing rhythm — regular seat sales, efficient staffing, lean operations.
Without systems, even good strategies collapse under daily chaos.
Eight years ago, I didn’t build systems. I built lists. And lists don’t win games.
That’s the difference.
Strategy isn’t about looking busy. It’s about making four bold choices and having the discipline to stick with them. The more focused the choices, the clearer the advantage.
A plan without bold choices is a document. A plan with bold choices becomes a game plan. And a game plan, when reinforced with capabilities and systems, is how you win.
From Paper to Bold Practice
After writing that elegant plan, I thought the work was done. We had the document, we had the tables, we had the schedules. I believed execution was just about discipline — follow the plan and results will follow.
I was wrong.
What I didn’t realize then is that strategy doesn’t live on paper. Strategy lives in practice. It lives in how you test assumptions, respond to reality, and adjust when the world doesn’t cooperate with your neat timelines.
Here’s a better way I wish I knew back then: ask the question, “What must be true for this strategy to work?”
This question changes everything.
For Cebu Pacific, what had to be true was simple but bold: Filipinos must be willing to sacrifice comfort for price. If families refused to trade hot meals and wide seats for cheap fares, their strategy would fail. So they tested it with seat sales — and the market proved them right.
For Southwest, what had to be true was that enough travelers would choose speed and low cost over luxury. If people wanted meals and lounges, their model would collapse. They tested it, and the market chose them.
Eight years ago, I never asked “what must be true.” I assumed. I believed my binder was enough. And when assumptions proved false, the plan had no way to adapt.
Bold strategy means you don’t just build a plan — you build probes. You run small, cheap, reversible experiments that test your assumptions before you bet the company.
- Want to launch a new product? Don’t build it fully. Test a landing page first.
- Want to expand to a new city? Pilot a short campaign, measure response, then decide.
- Want to shift your service model? Try it with ten customers before scaling to a thousand.
Plans avoid these uncomfortable questions. Strategies force them.
And here’s the shift that matters:
Busy leaders fall in love with documents. Bold leaders fall in love with testing.
Eight years ago, I was satisfied with activity. Today, I measure boldness by how quickly we test what must be true.
That’s how a plan becomes more than paper. That’s how you escape the frustration of “busy but stuck.” And that’s how bold strategies win.
From Paper to Bold Practice
Eight years ago, I thought the win was in the document. That if we just wrote everything down clearly, success would follow. But a plan on paper is still lifeless unless it’s backed by bold practice.
The real test of strategy isn’t how elegant it looks. It’s whether it works when customers, competitors, and markets push back. That’s why strategy must be tested against reality with a single question:
“What must be true for this to work?”
It sounds simple. It isn’t. Because this question forces you to face your assumptions.
Jollibee: A Taste of Home, Not a Copy of McDonald’s
When McDonald’s entered the Philippines, many believed local chains would collapse. How could a Filipino brand compete with the global giant?
But Jollibee didn’t try to out-McDonald McDonald’s. They asked: What must be true for Filipinos to choose us?
The answer: Filipinos must prefer food that tastes like home. Not imported, not generic — but distinctly Filipino.
And Jollibee bet everything on that truth. They created sweet-style spaghetti, Chickenjoy, and burgers that tasted like something made for the local palate. Families flocked to them not because they were cheaper or bigger, but because they were theirs.
That wasn’t just a plan. That was strategy — tested in the hearts of customers.
Mang Inasal: Not McDonald’s, Not Even Jollibee
Here’s another case. Mang Inasal didn’t try to be McDonald’s. They didn’t even try to be Jollibee. They asked a different question: What must be true for Filipinos to eat here every week?
The answer was genius in its simplicity: Filipinos love rice.
So they made unlimited rice their weapon. Add grilled chicken and a fast-casual dining style, and they carved a space that neither Jollibee nor McDonald’s owned.
Mang Inasal didn’t play on someone else’s field. They created their own. And soon, they were so successful that Jollibee bought them — because they had built a strategy too powerful to ignore.
Cebu Pacific: Making Flying Feel Possible
Cebu Pacific asked: What must be true for Filipinos to fly with us?
The answer: It must feel cheaper, easier, and even more fun than the bus.
That’s why they created “Piso Fare” seat sales. That’s why they cut frills. That’s why they turned low-cost flying into a national habit. They didn’t just run flights — they reshaped behavior.
Again, that’s not a plan. That’s a bold practice of strategy.
What Must Be True for You?
Eight years ago, I never asked this question. I only asked: What can we do this year?
But if you’re serious about bold strategy, you need to ask:
- What must be true about my customers for this strategy to work?
- What must be true about my competitors?
- What must be true about my team and my own discipline?
And then — test those truths. Not with million-peso bets, but with small, cheap, reversible probes.
Jollibee didn’t win overnight. Mang Inasal didn’t win by guessing. Cebu Pacific didn’t win by dreaming. They tested, refined, and proved their strategies in the real world.
That’s how paper becomes practice. That’s how documents become playbooks.
A plan without bold strategy is just a document. A strategy in bold practice is how you win.
From Busy to Bold
I thought being busy was the same as being successful. I thought the elegance of a plan was proof of leadership. I thought activity would eventually turn into progress.
I was wrong.
Busy plans fail because they stay inside the walls of what we control. They make us feel good, but they don’t make customers choose us. They keep us moving, but they don’t move the market.
Bold strategies win because they force hard choices. They face the uncomfortable truths about customers, competitors, and capabilities. They carve a space where you can win, not just participate.
The binder I once held proudly didn’t change the game. What changes the game are choices like Jollibee’s taste of home, Mang Inasal’s unlimited rice, Cebu Pacific’s Piso Fare. These are not elegant documents. They are bold strategies turned into practice.
So here’s what I would tell the version of me from eight years ago — and maybe what you need to hear today:
A plan without bold strategy is just a document. A strategy without bold practice is just a dream. But when bold strategy meets bold practice, you don’t just stay busy. You win.
Entrepreneurs who plan, play. Entrepreneurs with bold strategy, win.
