Sustain War by War
Updated 2026-08-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Sustain War by War is the classical military principle of provisioning an army from enemy territory and captured materiel rather than from the home base, so the campaign funds its own continuation. Its core proposition, applied to business, is that each new venture should reach positive cash flow and finance the next expansion from its own earnings instead of external capital. The key qualifier is sustainability: the approach depends on the captured resource being renewable, and it carries reputational and dependency risks that external funding does not.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Self-funding test: require each new venture to cover its own costs before it expands further. - Profit recycling: reinvest the earnings from one position into the next rather than consuming them. - Dependency limit: cap reliance on outside capital so that growth is not contingent on continued funding.
Anchor fast decisions
Growth financed externally depends on the funder's continued willingness, which can disappear exactly when the venture needs it. Growth financed by internal profit makes each step conditional only on its own economics, so expansion is bounded by demonstrated viability rather than by optimism. The constraint is severe, but it removes the failure mode where a sound business dies for lack of a second round.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more
Source support: Explicit
- zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BB%A5%E6%88%B0%E9%A4%8A%E6%88%B0verified
PRIVATE NOTES · Only visible to you
SAVED Q&A
ENTRY Q&A · Private saving available
Ask with a clear boundary
thinkingmodels answers from published entry context only.
Your question is sent to thinkingmodels. The answer uses public entry context only.
RELATED MODELS