“Hushai said to Avshalom,
‘The advice Achitofel has
given this time is not good.'”
-2 Samuel 17:7
Yesterday, I ended my post with the following quiz question:
Why would Absalom question Achitofel’s brilliant advice?
Achitofel was revered for his infallible cunning in matters of war.
Well, here’s your answer.
And it all has to do with pride and ego.
The bottom line was that Achitofel was trying to promote himself, and Absalom knew it.
See, Achitofel didn’t wanna just devise the plan to hunt David down and kill him.
He also wanted to be the implementer of it.
That meant he would personally hand-pick the troops and lead them into battle.
Up until now, Achitofel had only served as an advisor.
He was never the leader.
And not a military general.
If Achitofel was allowed to personally form and lead the army into battle, the public would’ve viewed him as the second in command over all Israel.
So while his advice was solid and benefited Absalom, it would’ve benefited him a helluva lot more.
However, there was one small problem with Achitofel’s proposal.
Absalom had already selected his top general.
And he had no intention of giving that position to Achitofel, no matter how brilliant he was.
That’s why Hushai’s plan was music to Absalom’s ears.
It minimized Achitofel’s participation and put him at the center of public perception.
Hushai didn’t hold back in making fun of Achitofel’s plan.
He flat-out said Achitofel’s plan was terrible.
He reminded Absalom that his dad, David, was no ordinary dude.
David was a strong, battle-tested warrior.
And Ittai’s men?
Those homies were tough, trained, and ready to fight.
They weren’t gonna freak out just because 12,000 soldiers showed up.
Hell no.
If Absalom attacked, he’d be walking straight into the equivalent of the last scene of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon.
Or it’d be like facing a mama bear whose cubs had just been stolen, as Hushai colorfully put it.
Alrighty, as we did yesterday, I wanna finish up with a quiz question before transitioning over to the takeaway.
So here’s the thing.
Hushai’s plan appealed to Absalom’s ego.
But it was doomed to fail.
Why?
What do you think its weaknesses were?
Lemme know in the comments.
We’ll get into the logistics of this the next time we meet.
Onward.
So what takeaway can we extract from all this?
Simple.
Don’t let your ego blind you to the weaknesses of a proposal being handed over to you, as Absalom was blinded.
Achitofel’s plan was brilliant and would’ve no doubt succeeded.
Yet Absalom didn’t want anyone stealing any thunder from him.
So he shut it down and went with Hushai’s plan.
And I guess another takeaway is if you wanna persuade someone, stroke their ego.
Because when one’s emotions are being tickled in pleasurable ways, they lose the ability to think straight.
This is also why sales copy can be so deadly effective.
Because it appeals to your ego and hijacks the emotional part of your brain.
Alrighty, that does it for today.
Leave a Reply