THE PRINCIPLE OF THE BOARD

What if you spent your entire life trying to win a game you never consciously chose to play?

We are all on some kind of board.

We make decisions, occupy positions, build relationships, accumulate resources, face losses, pursue goals, and follow rules-many of them without ever realizing that they exist.

But few people stop to examine the game before making their next move.

In The Principle of the Board, Diego Carrijo explores the invisible forces that shape our choices, careers, businesses, relationships, ambitions, and ideas of success, power, and freedom.

Through the story of a man who arrives in a city and discovers a mysterious board at the center of a square, the reader is taken on a journey that begins with a deceptively simple question:

What does it mean to win?

Along the way, familiar ideas take on new meanings.

Position is not simply where you are, but what you can do from where you stand.

Movement is not necessarily progress.

A resource is not automatically an advantage.

Every choice creates a cost-and often closes doors that we do not realize we are closing.

Sometimes moving forward is the right decision. Sometimes stepping back protects what matters. Sometimes the most strategic move is the one you deliberately choose not to make.

The book also explores trust, dependence, power, leadership, invisible debts, persistence, loss, and the difficult moment when we realize that continuing to play may cost more than leaving.

Because power is not only the ability to act.

It is also the ability to refuse.

And freedom is not simply having more options. It is building a position in which your future does not depend entirely on a single person, resource, opportunity, or circumstance.

But the deepest question comes later.

What if you become very good at playing the game-and eventually realize it was never the game you wanted?

The Principle of the Board is not a manual for winning at all costs. It is an invitation to see the board more clearly, understand the rules that shape your choices, recognize the pieces you actually have, and build a position from which your next decision can still be your own.

For entrepreneurs, professionals, leaders, creators, and anyone navigating difficult choices, this book offers a different way to think about strategy and life.

Not only:

"How can I win?"

But:

"What am I trying to win?"

"What will it cost?"

"What choices will remain afterward?"

And, perhaps most importantly:

"Did I choose this game?"

Because the strongest position is not necessarily the one with the most pieces.

It may be the one from which the future is still open.