"A sovereign should never launch an army out of anger, a leader should never start a war out of wrath."
- Sun Tzu
Insight: Showing emotion and anger are signs of weakness - you must be able to control yourself to manage other things.
Principle: Master your emotional responses.
Insight: Your enemies wish you ill.
Insight: Some enemies can be best to convert to an ally, others should be crushed totally.
Principle: "Crush the enemy".
Principle: Analyse your enemy and past patterns.
Insight: One of Sun Tzu's important tactics - the false front - making the enemy believe that you are weaker than is the case.
Insight: The appearance of weakness can bring out an opponent's aggressive side, making them drop all strategy.
Principle: Don't take appearances for reality.
"When opponents are unwilling to fight with you, it is because they think it is contrary to their interests, or because you have misled them into thinking so."
- Sun Tzu
Principle: Build a reputation: fighting you is not worth it.
Principle: Make your reputation credible with a few brutal or impressive acts.
Insight: Sun Tzu teaches that in any strategy the idea is to be positioned in order to unleash the force of the strategy quickly.
Insight: Strategy is not a series of steps to follow toward a goal.
Principle: Do not follow any "expert" that claims to have a formula for success and power.
Insight: Sun Tzu believed that doing something extraordinary only was effective if the setup was ordinary - if it had the element of surprise.
Principle: Make your opponent comfortable with a regular pattern of moves, then hit them with force from an entirely new angle.
Principle: Make it hard to guess what you'll do next.
"So to win a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the highest excellence; the highest excellence is to subdue the enemy’s army without fighting at all."
- Sun Tzu
Principle: Create disorder by breaking people's ability to understand you.
"To remain disciplined and calm while waiting for disorder to appear amongst the enemy is the art of self-possession."
- Sun Tzu
Insight: Retreating shows strength, not weakness.
Insight: Retreating is something that must be done every now and then to detach yourself from outside influences.
Insight: Sun Tzu talked about the importance of having options, full of potential force rather than positions of strength and power, that may be limited.
Principle: Always aim to increase options for power and mobility.
"Thus one’s victories in battle cannot be repeated—they take their form in response to inexhaustibly changing circumstances."
- Sun Tzu
Principle: Do not place too much weight on past experiences.
"The consummation of forming an army is to arrive at formlessness. Victory in war is not repetitious, but adapts its form endlessly... A military force has no constant formation, water has no constant shape: The ability to gain victory by changing and adapting according to the opponent is called genius."
- Sun Tzu
Insight: Nothing is certain. No law or strategy is fixed. Everything changes.
Principle: Be fluid and formless, like water - do not bet on stability or lasting order.
Insight: Sun Tzu talked about a "death ground" - a place from which an army has no escape route. Without an option for retreat, an army fights with double or triple the spirit because death is viscerally present.
Principle: Put yourself in a place where there is no escape route.
"The best general is the one who never fights"
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Insight: When saying "no" if someone refuses to respect it, it may be best to firstly stand your ground and underscore the "no", before resorting to a plan B.
Insight: Repeat your No, often if necessary. Failing that, remind the other party the consequences of not respecting your No. If this does not work, then deploy a Plan B.
"build a golden bridge for your opponent to retreat across."
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Insight: The advice from Sun Tzu can be reframed more positively: build a golden bridge for others to advance across toward a positive solution.
Insight: If you put yourself in the other's shoes, it may be initially difficult for the other to say Yes to a proposal - the gap may be too wide.
Principle: Look for steps towards a positive solution that might bring both sides together.
"When you surround an enemy, leave an outlet free."
- Sun Tzu
Insight: Sun Tzu advised to leave your enemy an escape route, to prevent them from committing to fight to the death with increased spirit and desperation.
Insight: We can build commitment by denying ourselves the opportunity to retreat.
"It is the unemotional, reserved, calm, detached warrior who wins, not the hothead seeking vengeance and not the ambitious seeker of fortune."
- Sun Tzu
Insight: Leaders should appear calm and unhurried.
Insight: Being stressed and overworked should not be treated as a badge of honour, or a sign of commitment.
Insight: In The Art of War, Sun Tzu talks about the importance of self-evaluating, through the eyes of your opposition.
Principle: Ask: "What is the one thing I most hope my competition doesn't do?".
Principle: Ask: "If I were the competition, what is the number one thing I would do to attack our organisation?".
"To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill."
- Sun Tzu
Principle: Don't waste your energy at trying to get better at fighting the pull for attention, instead cultivate the skill of putting you mind in a place where you don't have to fight.
Insight: We cannot win the fight against things designed to grab attention.
Insight: Sun Tzu advises us to look for opportunities to apply the minimum amount of force that results in the maximum impact.
Insight: We should aim to succeed at what Sun Tzu called the "supreme art of war" - subdue the enemy without fighting.
Insight: The Art of War by Sun Tzu is about strategy, not tactics. Although the book is old it is still relevant because strategy never goes out of style.
Insight: Sun Tzu said that it is best to win without fighting - to position yourself such that your enemies have lost before the fight has even begun.
"The more opportunities I seize, the more opportunities multiply before me."
- Sun Tzu
Insight: The more personal improvement projects you invest in, even if they don't go completely right, more opportunities will come your way.
"Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be defeated."
- Sun Tzu
Insight: Reliable information can help combat potential dangers.
"To subdue the enemy without a fight is the supreme excellence."
- Sun Tzu
Insight: Military action should be the last resort, after peaceful means have been exhausted.
Insight: In the Art of War, Sun Tzu warns that providing a team a task that it cannot possibly do is called "crippling the army".
Insight: For sales team, moving the goalposts may just be de-motivating.
"All warfare is based on deception. If your enemy is superior evade him. If angry irritate him. If equally matched, fight, and if not, re-evaluate"
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Insight: For startups, it is important to find an edge against entrenched competitors.
Key Insights & Principles
Strategy
It is important to analyse and find weaknesses in competitors.
Showing emotion and anger is a sign of weakness - you must be able to control yourself to manage other things.
We can build commitment by denying ourselves the opportunity to retreat.
Most of the time your enemies wish you ill.
The appearance of weakness can elicit an emotional, non-strategic response from your enemies.
Strategy is about having options at the ready for different scenarios.
Choosing to retreat shows strength, not weakness.
Retreating must be done now and then to detach from outside influences.
Nothing is certain. No law or strategy is fixed. Everything changes.
In organisations and business, moving the goalposts can just be demotivating.
Leave your enemies an escape route.
Put yourself in positions where there is no escape route.
Build a bridge for your opposition to advance toward a positive solution.
Master your emotional responses.
If you cannot convert your opponents crush them totally.
Make your enemies believe you weaker than you are.
Don't take appearances for reality.
Build a reputation - that going against you is not worth it, or that your response may be unpredictable.
Make it hard for opponents to guess what you will do next.
Aim to increase options for power and mobility.
Do not place too much weight on past experiences.
Be fluid and formless, like water - do not bet on stability or lasting order.
