You’ve probably heard the saying that “no plan survives contact with the enemy.” That’s an idea that is not only for generals but for all of us.
If the plan is a complex attack that comes from the east because the strategy is to disrupt the enemy supply line, but the moment you launch that eastern attack it is blocked and the weather turns bad, you’re not married to that exact plan when you understand the wider strategy of disrupting enemy supply lines. You simply adapt and keep pressing forward with a new or modified plan.
Who cares what color paint and which exact brushes Van Gogh used? The moment you or I try painting, our initial plan of making a masterpiece of completely derailed.
Instead of focusing on the exact formula that Van Gogh used, we should focus on learning his principles. How to paint light and shadow, how to work with perspective, proportion, and colors.
If we know the principles of painting well, we can adapt and create our own masterpiece.
Seldom does the formula of others else apply to us. But principles always apply.