What Happen to A General who Misreads The Map?

Once I told my lecturer that I had a surveyor position in my new company, it's really a suitable position for whom had been graduated from soil science department like me. He responded "Oh that's good, you're gonna know whole parts of plantation zone, you're gonna know it more than others"

Then he added "that's the first step to be a leader, somebody has to recognize the territory very well, so that he can set up strategies"

It knocked the thoughts inside my head, I never thought that way before. I always think that becoming a surveyor will always grow my skill, I can learn more and more, knowing things around as it's main function. But actually there is more than that, it is the main part of setting up strategies through the map.

And then I imagine about the ancient war, how they work to find the best strategy, then I arrive on a conclusion that a leader must be the one who knows totally about the territory, to find the best way to attack or which part to defend, to know where the enemy's position, what they have, their probability and etc. 

Now I know to become a surveyor/mapper not only to draw map on a paper, but to decide where the things should go.