the art of war by Sun zu so this book is
thousands of years old and it is a very
insightful book because it not only
tells you about the different strategies
and insightful ideas behind war and the
aspects directly related to war however
it contains within a lot of information
regarding on how to carry yourself in
life and how to overcome one of the
greatest obstacles that you have which
is your own ego and aspects of your mind
and your character that you're
essentially in battle with that keeps
you away from doing the things that you
know you have to do to produce the
results that you want it also helps you
with dealing with day-to-day life
dealing with people areas like business
and career so what I've done is I've
pulled some points out of the book and I
want to share with you my insights and
perspectives on this and we're going to
go through each point that I gathered
from the chapters it's 13 of them and
each chapter contains a different topic
and what it does is it explains you know
the contents within it there's a lot of
Proverbs and insightful information no
matter where you are in your life it's
worth reading this book because it's
very revealing it tells you about what
is happening to you from areas that
you're not aware of in life because one
of the important quotes on this book is
all warfare is fought on deception or is
based on deception and everyone is
trying to get your attention in this
world and essentially your attention is
really valuable advertisers pay a lot of
money to get your attention this can be
beneficial because they can offer to you
very valuable products and services but
it can also be disadvantageous if it
takes you away from your purpose or your
grand strategy what you're trying to
accomplish so if you understand the
aspects of war and the strategies and
the concepts of war then it will give
you a deeper multi-level understanding
of reality and yourself a lot of people
shy away from the subject of war and
I've never been one to do that because I
realized that just about any type of
information that is available is valid
in certain areas and we need to learn
understand from different sources even
if areas we don't necessarily agree with
there's a lot of different nuances and
understandings but the important thing
is we have to make peace with what we're
reading and who we are as a person and
one of the best ways to do that is to
study very polarizing subjects so if
you're not a kind of person that studies
war for example or you are opposed to
war that's actually worth reading the
war manuals because you'll gain a lot of
insights to yourself there's a saying
that goes what you resist persists so
the more you try to avoid studying
certain subjects like war the harder it
is for you to overcome the certain
aspects of yourself that the strategies
of war and the concepts covered within
this book can help you overcome so you
can reach an even higher level so I'm
going to start with the points the first
is all warfare is based on deception so
again I'm going to apply this to life in
general I'm not going to apply this to
war might make some references
but because the concepts and strategies
that are contained within this book are
applicable for day-to-day life so that's
we're going to talk about from that
perspective all warfare is based on
deception so to me it's essentially this
world we live in where everyone is
trying to take your attention away from
what you're doing and put it into their
space so advertising for example or
social media or different people are
trying to take your attention away not
necessarily from a sinister perspective
but because they believe they know
what's best for you and they're trying
to take you towards your direction now
this can be advantageous or
disadvantageous a lot of times with the
distractions we have nowadays in the
realm of work for example career in
business they're not very advantageous
and even though the other person will
tell you it's advantageous you in your
heart note it's not advantageous so what
you have to do is you have to put
processes and systems in place to
prevent your attention from going in a
different direction and part of that is
the understanding that all warfare is
based on deception so a lot of things
that you're attracted to are not
necessarily beneficial for you if you
see a very attractive person someone
that you're attracted to understand
something that that's only the surface
what you see there's probably a lot more
to them and a lot more aspects to who
they are that
she might not be beneficial for you okay
so this can be true and it can be false
also but you've got to look at where
you're being deceived from seeing
reality from seeing the truth and it's
usually the things that trigger our
fears and insecurities that pulls us
towards a negative direction or in a
direction that's not favorable to us
next attack him where he is unprepared
appear where you are not expected so
again when you look at software or
certain kinds of apps and Facebook and
things like that
they really understand this concept and
they're really trying to you can say
attack your mind and get you to go in a
different direction when you are
unprepared so the key is to set up
things in your environment to avoid
distraction to place yourself in
environments that motivate and encourage
a high level of focus from prevent and
preventing yourself from being around
people that essentially are looking to
exploit you in a way that's not
beneficial for you when you are
unprepared people are not going to
attack you where you're strong your mind
is not going to be penetrated where
you're strong it's always going to be in
your weak areas and it's going to appear
when you are not expecting it to appear
so the important thing to understand is
to look at all the different scenarios
and situations in your life where you
are unprepared and where you're not
expecting distractions and things that
will move you in a different direction
again based on deception and figure out
how you can remove those so you can
focus on what really matters to you if
your opponent is choleric temper seek to
irritate him pretend to be weak that he
may grow arrogant so again one of the
things that takes us away from what we
are trying to do is emotions people
target our emotions advertisers target
our emotions everything is designed to
target your emotions and one of the most
powerful emotions is anger and
irritation so if people are angering you
or irritating you take a step back and
understand that they may or may not be
aware of what they're doing but the
bottom line is that it's impacting you
so that what you have to do
is remove yourself from those situations
again pretend to be weak that he may
grow arrogant so another thing is that
on the offensive side you want to be
humble you want to be a kind of person
that is very you know pragmatic and
going about your day to day activities
because then what happens is that those
that are sinister and out to get you
they're going to grow arrogant they're
going to create a false sense of
identity that they're winning and so
forth and that's going to eventually
take them down now that's actually a
good thing because when somebody does
not get results based on reality and
they get results based on arrogance and
egotistical reasons then that's not
serving people and they need to go down
and one of the ways that you can
facilitate that in a way that doesn't
necessarily cause you to fight a battle
with them is to be humble hold out baits
to entice the enemy fiend disorder and
crush them again people are using bait
to try to Lou you in a different
direction now I'm not saying these
things to make the world seem like it's
a negative place that's not what I'm
saying the reality of these things do
exist and what we have to do is
proactively be responsible for
protecting ourselves or protecting our
attention in different areas that are
important to us and understand when
we're being baited by the enemy because
the bait is going to take you astray
it's going to lead you astray
next waging war in war then let your
objective be victory not lengthy
campaigns so this is applicable in a lot
of areas of life for example in business
one of the things that I see people do
in business is they create these lengthy
campaigns these lengthy business
objectives that take forever to
implement in projects that are very
complex and it prolongs the victory or
even if they get there they screw it up
because there's so much complexity to it
and they don't end up actually getting
the victory they end up losing so the
ideal scenario is quick campaigns that
are designed to victory one of the
quickest routes to the end result I
remember I was at an event and I heard
Daymond John speak who was the founder
of FUBU and he said he tries to be one
step away from the money
which essentially what that means is
that you know and he's an investor he's
looking for businesses that are quick
and efficient to produce the outcome
okay so you see the application here and
it's not about creating these lengthy
processes and lengthy steps to get to
the end result because that just adds
unnecessary complexity but for looking
for the quick end result through a short
and efficient campaign now this doesn't
mean get-rich-quick or something that is
essentially a trick that is not
sustainable there's a balance here but
it does mean that you can simplify the
process and it doesn't have to be as
lengthy as it should
next attack by stratagem thus we may
know there are five essentials for
victory he will win who knows when to
fight and when not to fight
so essentially what that means is
conserve your energy live to fight the
battles that are worth fighting don't
give your attention onto things that
when you win
they're just for egotistical reasons
they're not actually moving your
objective forward he will win who knows
how to handle both superior and inferior
forces so understand that some people
are superior and some are inferior you
need to be able to work with those
energies to move your strategy forward
again if you're focused on an objective
outcome that is based on strategy and
not based on egotistical reasons then
you're going to see the possibilities
and opportunities to work with these
different superior and inferior forces
when someone is superior to us we tend
to put on a certain persona we try to
impress them we end up doing things that
don't necessarily move our objective
forward when someone is inferior we try
to take advantage of them we try to be
the right one we try to be the lecturer
instead of the person that works with
them to move the objective forward he
will win whose Army is animated by the
same spirit throughout all its ranks so
when you're creating a team for example
if you're building a business everyone
needs to have that spirit anytime the
spirit is broken you've got a weak link
you have to be able to penetrate your
organization with that same spirit if
you can't penetrate the ranks and
there's hierarchy in it understand
something when it gets up to a certain
level and that spirit is not there
everyone who that poor
person has as far as responsibility if
that person is a leader anyone who is
responsible to them is not going to have
that same spirit because as it trickles
down when it gets to that level where
there's the inefficiency of thinking or
the lack of spirit everyone under that
person is going to have that lack of
spirit because the information which
comes in the top down is not going to be
translated in a way where it's uniform
and that becomes very weak it becomes
cancerous to the organization and it can
be resulting or it can result in taking
down the entire operation and so forth
he who will win he will win who prepared
himself waits to take the enemy
unprepared so you always have to be
prepared you always have to be on this
doesn't mean you can't relax but when
you relax make sure you do in an
environment where you cannot be
persuaded and attacked you can be
vulnerable but it's important to then
place yourself in situations where you
are prepared and where people can't take
your taken advantage of you and you're
able to read the signs you're able to
become very present and know when you're
getting pulled in a direction that is
not favorable for you and when you're
dealing with people and you have to move
the strategy forward and you have to
attack do it in a place where there is
less resistance essentially when they're
unprepared he will win who has military
capacity and is not interfered with by
the sovereign so next we move on to
tactical dispositions what the ancients
called a clever fighter is one who not
only wins but excels in winning with
ease hence his victories bring him
neither reputation for wisdom nor credit
for courage so if you are a very
skillful fighter and you're always win
or you're in the state of mind of
winning when you win it's not a big deal
it's just a way of life it's just what
happens from day to day that's how you
know that you are in the ranks of
someone great is when they're looking at
the victories as just another step
forward this doesn't mean that they are
not appreciative of it it just means
that they don't become arrogant and form
an identity around their victories when
you become arrogant and form an identity
or you fee
the ego around your victories that ego
becomes your weak area you're no longer
performing from the same place that got
you the victories and then when you face
higher challenges that ego is going to
hold you back you're going to need to
break it down
thus it is war that is that in war that
victorious strategist only seeks battle
after the victory has been won whereas
he who is destined to defeat first
fights and afterwards looks for victory
so this is about controlling your
emotions getting really present and
understanding that you need to look at
strategy and you got to see the end
result and you got to go down the
pathway that is statistically likely to
produce the result that you want if you
don't see the steps that lead to the
outcome you need to figure out how to
see the steps because if you don't see
the steps then you're essentially going
and fighting a battle when you don't
necessarily know the outcome now there's
going to be situations where the odds
are not in your favor and if you have
the opportunity to go in the direction
another direction where the odds are in
your favor and that can move your grand
strategy forward why wouldn't you pick
it so it's important to think like a
strategist and understanding strategy is
a massive subject it takes a lot of
experience a lot of studying to really
grasp the magnitude and it goes on
forever the study of becoming a better
strategist goes on forever it deploys
both in the moment thinking and being
present to the variables that are
contained within the moment as well as
long-range thinking so you can see the
domino effect the trickle effect the
pattern recognition the possible
scenarios that can occur in the position
that you're taking or in the environment
that you're going in and knowing how to
work with it when it shows up energy
sons who said the control of large
forces is the same principle as the
control of a few men it is merely a
question of dividing up their numbers so
what this means is that you've got to
create a system you've got to create a
process and that system in process will
allow it to scale to higher levels when
you're building a team the same
ideologies that you instill at a lower
level with a few people are instilled as
the organization grows and as the
organization grows there are people
there are processes and systems that are
put in place to infuse the new people
that are brought on board with the ways
of how it works and the spirit and as it
starts to increase the control is
maintained through hierarchy and
reporting and certain things in place
that when a decision needs to be
executed from the top down it flows
through the entire organization and
everybody executes in synergy now it's a
lot simpler than it sounds because
you're dealing with people and people
can be rational and overly emotional and
have their own agendas but you try to do
it the best you can ok so next in the
battle there are not more than two
methods of attack the direct and the
indirect yet these two combinations give
rise to an endless series of maneuvers
so think about in life when it's
important to be direct when dealing with
people and when it's important to be
indirect sometimes when you're dealing
with people you have to be direct
because they can handle it or they can
handle it in certain times or they
require it to feel your trustworthiness
but in other times it's important to be
indirect because by being indirect you
give them some space you help them
understand things in a level where they
figure it out on their own one of my
favorite sayings is let the thoughts you
are provoking come to them as if they
were their own that's done through
indirect methods through indirect
methods you're not being manipulative
but you're rather just being supportive
you're stepping back and understanding
that people are in different levels they
have fears they have insecurities they
have different agendas and goals and
certain priorities and so forth and you
got to be able to work with that in a
way that might require
being indirect energy might be likened
to bending of a crossbow decision to the
releasing of a trigger so energy is
essentially a lot of presents a lot of
awareness and a buildup a buildup of
focus and then you are able to look at
what you're trying to accomplish and
releasing that build-up of energy you
have to be able to feel it you can feel
the energy a lot of people nowadays are
not really becoming present to the
energy of their environment the energy
when it comes to dealing with people
it's almost become kind of a far-out
concept it really isn't
you can feel when somebody has good
energy charismatic energy negative
energy you can feel it and you can get
better at feeling it and within yourself
when you've got focused energy or
powerful present energy or energy that's
very positive or it's purposeful you can
allow that energy to build up so it
intensifies and then when it's time to
make your move you can release and
infuse that move with your energy emit
the turmoil and tumult a battle there
may be seeming disorder and yet no real
disorder at all amid confusion and chaos
your array may be without head or tail
yet it will be proof against defeat so
when you look at an environment a
marketplace life in general you'll tend
to notice chaos you will see disorder
things won't make sense understand
something that within that chaos there
is a process there is order your goal as
a strategist is to be able to see order
through the chaos not be pulled in
through the chaos I know people that
consider themselves to be strategists
but they're not able to hold composure
during tough situations or they might be
at a level where they are not able to be
a strategist so the way I look at it
different different levels require
different levels of strategic thinking
different kinds of chaotic environments
required different strategies someone
who's a grand strategist when a really
high level is able to maintain their
presence of mind and see the process in
the chaos and they're able to take what
they see and translate it into the
maneuvers that they get their team to do
this is something that is very apparent
in people that have a lot of experience
there is a concept of German military
term called finger spritzing befool
essentially what it means
it's fingertip field and essentially
it's the ability to feel the environment
that you're in and while you have a lot
of different strategies in your mind
while you have a lot of different
tactics based on the environment and
what you feel be able to deploy the
right strategy to move it forward to
move the objective forward this comes
through experience those that were
masterful war generals were said to have
possessed finger spits and go full so
what you need to realize is that you
need to train yourself so that when you
are in chaos you can maintain presence
of mind one of the best ways to do it is
to place yourself in chaotic situations
a lot of people try to avoid chaotic
situations but what you should do is
systematically and strategically and
intentionally place yourself in chaotic
situations so you could see the process
that exists within the chaos next weak
points and strong sons who said whoever
is first in the field and awaits the
coming of the enemy will be fresh for
the fight whoever is second in the field
has to hasten to battle will arrive and
has to hasten to battle will arrive
exhausted
therefore the clever combatant imposes
his will on the enemy but does not allow
the enemy's will to be imposed on him
you have to be prepared organized and
show up to your engagements and things
that you do with a vibe and an energy of
you controlling
the dynamics if you show up with a vibe
of not having control the dynamics and
the other person shows up with a
strategic clear thinking mind to control
the dynamics then you are at the mercy
of them because they will exploit your
weaknesses they will exploit the areas
that you're weak at now the key to this
is to schedule things is to pre-plan
things is to think long-range and look
at all the possible different scenarios
that could show up that could hinder
what you have to do or that could throw
you off and then plan accordingly you
have to be able to show up and prepare
for whatever it is the negotiation the
meeting the discussion the business the
whatever it is by preparing yourself for
that interaction by doing things prior
it could be like working out exercise
eating healthy a lot of different things
I don't know what the routine is for
different scenarios it's different
things but if you come prepared to play
then you're going to be more
advantageous than people that don't what
I find in the business world is that
people show up unprepared far more often
than they should and they go unprepared
not just because you know they might
have liked them the minutes or whatever
else the points the meeting but they're
unprepared emotionally they get an
argument with their spouse or boyfriend
and girlfriend they're having road rage
as are driving to the client meeting and
so forth there's a lot of different
scenarios that throw them off and that's
part of the preparation you have to be
prepared physically mentally emotionally
and spiritually when you show up to the
engagement an army may March great
distances without distress if it marches
through country where the enemy is not
to me this is all about not fighting the
battles that you don't need to fight if
you are able to go to a destination and
take a route that doesn't involve you
fighting the battle or unnecessary
friction why not take it
when you get there you're better
prepared you show up with the presence
of mind now there are some situations
like I said earlier where you want to
put yourself in chaotic situations but
it's not always advantageous to be in
those chaotic situations prior to a
interaction where you have to be your
freshest now sometimes it can mix you up
and get you out of your head and you
should do that but the key to this is
understanding that there are different
kinds of avenues or pathways to get to a
destination and if your enemy or enemy
in this scenario can also be yourself
because you can be triggered by certain
circumstances in the environment throws
you off when you get there you're just
going to end up using your mental
resources or whatever resources
inefficiently rouse him and learn the
principles of his or the principle of
his activity or inactivity force him to
reveal himself as to find out his
vulnerable spots so essentially in the
business world we're looking for
different exploits that exist in the
marketplace and in our competition so
that we can position ourselves at that
exploit and take that market share
penetrate through that exploit and
expansively take the market share over
time there's a lot of them that exists
we have to be able to deny our
competition of these exploits so these
vulnerable spots and we have to be able
to find what these vulnerable spots are
in the market place and with our
competition this requires again direct
and indirect methods I talked about this
earlier direct and indirect methods to
get the person to reveal now what's
interesting is on the internet we have
different tools and software and code
and stuff like that that is able to spy
on the competitor to be able to see what
their vulnerabilities are and so forth
but never underestimate the power of
social engineering the ability to
connect with people and get valuable
data out of them to further your
objective all men can see the tactics
whereby I conquer but what none can see
is
a strategy out of which victory is
evolved a lot of people are too tactical
in their orientation in life they look
at the few things that you do and they
conclude that by you doing those few
things that it produces a result they
will fail to see your grand strategy the
all the other things that happen in the
background and the why you do those
tactical things even if you win or lose
because sometimes it's okay to
strategically lose if it moves the
objective forward they don't see the
strategy and the reason why they don't
see the strategy is because they're not
strategic thinking a lot of people don't
necessarily like thinking from a
strategic standpoint because it actually
forces them to really work the brain to
really work the logical aspects the
ability to recognize patterns an
important aspect of human existence
they're not necessarily motivated to do
it you on the other hand need to become
motivated to do it you need to become
more strategic you can develop your
strategic thinking by looking at
different components analytical data so
forth and looking for the insights and
figuring out why things are why they are
based on what happened and what happens
if you try this other thing and what
direction do you go on looking at
optimization and things like that when
you develop strategic thinking you can
evolve your grand strategy you can
create strategies that other people
won't be able to understand because
their mind is closed off to only seeing
the tactics or not seeing the strategy
you do not repeat the tactics which have
gained you one victory but let your
methods be regulated by the infinite
variety of circumstances finger
spritzing good fool I talked about this
earlier most environments that you place
yourself in are going to be different
actually every environment that you
place yourself in that you fight battle
or whatever it is you're trying to do is
going to be different you have to be
able to train yourself to not be too
fixated on one methodology to get the
results diversify the moves that you
make so you can gain better
understanding and the different aspects
of what makes that environment the way
it is the components that make up the
whole and how the environment responds
to the different moves you make not just
the moves you make in a one-step way
but in a multi-dimensional way in a
sequential way in a way that combined
the different patterns of possibility
and you have to be able to do that so
when you achieve victory in one area try
to achieve victory in many different
areas even outside of the realm of your
craft so you can develop a more
multi-dimensional mind which thinks more
strategically that looks for more
opportunities for victory when you are
placed in certain scenarios water shapes
its course according to the nature of
the ground over which it flows the
soldier works out his victory in
relation to the foe from whom he is
facing therefore just as water retains
retains no shape so in warfare there's
no constant conditions again this goes
back to my previous point you have to
become like water as Bruce Lee said you
have to be able to flow with the
environment the different things to
happen you can't be pissed off or
offended that the environment didn't go
the way that you want instead you've got
a shape shift and go in a different
direction and you got to be able to do
it smoothly and quick and efficiently
and gracefully like water does and water
is a very powerful force because you
cannot block the building up of water
pressure over time it will break through
unless you've got a wall or a dam that's
strategically or not strategically but
more powerful to hold it in but if the
pressure builds up greater than that
then it's going to break through so now
the key to important aspect to
understand is that if you become like
water you essentially flow and what
you're flowing is against the variables
against the exploits against the
competition and what people are trying
to do to you and you're moving around it
you're moving above that you're moving
below it you're moving sometimes through
it as you move as a force and you're
okay with it you're not being offended
when things don't go your way you're
quickly collaborating or calibrating I
should say to the environment and it's
because of finger spritzing before we're
not fit to lead an army on the march
unless we are familiar with the face of
the country it's mountains and forests
its pitfalls and precipices its marshes
and swamps familiarizing yourself with
the terrain and your environment as much
as you can
is very important this doesn't
necessarily mean you overthink it and
you dedicate all your time to
familiarizing yourself before you take
action but instead it's worth developing
the ability to familiarize your self in
the environment by taking action because
there's way more dynamics at play
sometimes the environment responds to
certain actions that you take so what
happens is by doing that action you stir
up the environment and you see a certain
kind of response so by analyzing the
terrain and everything and then seeing
how everything responds based on
different kinds of actions you're able
to come up with different combinations
and permutations to deploy as far as
strategies towards your objective
outcome let your plans be dark and
impenetrable as night and when you move
fall like a thunderbolt so to put up
unnecessary resistance or to remove
unnecessary resistance work in the
backgrounds reveal very little of what
you're trying to do because that what
you're trying to reveal to somebody or
what you're revealing to somebody will
be used against you too by your
competition so when you work in the
background you're being humble you're
looking at your outcome and your focus
on the outcome and you're not interested
in what other people think of you or how
you look to others instead you do your
daily disciplines you do your work and
it's done in silence in quiet and it
moves forward what needs to move forward
to make the outcome possible and what
needs to be revealed is revealed so
think about that for a moment what you
reveal should be revealed for strategic
reasons either for reasons to recruit
more people into your objective or to
reveal certain kinds of stimulus to the
environment in which you you look at the
response you get and you adjust from
there or to create a form of deception
for your enemies who try to take you out
but the moves that don't need to be
revealed happen in silence those are the
ones that move everything forward
and as they move everything forward
essentially all the facade all that you
know surface level stub is looked at the
way it's supposed to be looked at and it
appears even to your competitors and
your enemies that you're not making any
progress but it turns out that
underground you're making a lot of
progress now a soldier's spirit is
keenest in the morning by noonday it has
began to flag and in the evening his
mind is bent only on returning to camp a
clever general therefore avoids an army
when its spirit is keen but attacks when
it's sluggish and inclined to return
this is the art of studying moods it's a
very self explanatory we've already
covered that variations in tactics there
are five dangerous faults which may
affect a general number one recklessness
which leads to destruction cowardice
which leads to capture a hasty temper
which can be provoked by insults a
delicacy of honor which is sensitive to
shame so these are applicable in
business when dealing with people
relationships and so forth how many
times do we act inappropriately or fail
to act as a result of this you can use
these as a checklist actually to
understand your actions or lack thereof
the art of war teaches us not to rely on
the likelihood of the enemy's not coming
but on our own readiness to receive him
not on the chance of his not attacking
but rather on the fact that we have made
our position unassailable so essentially
what this means is that you've always
got to be prepared you've always got to
be as efficient with what you do how you
work with your team you're learning
you're studying and essentially your
ability to think logically and
critically as well as being present to
the moment understanding the forces and
dynamics in play and essentially just
educating yourself through real life
taking and the results you get based on
the actions you take from the
environment and your competitors and so
forth and not leaving things up to
chance and not being slack on the areas
that you need to improve on if you see
weaknesses go to work and improve those
weaknesses improve them right away
prioritize and focus on the ones that
produce the greatest output or the ones
that have your greatest weaknesses that
can be exploited focus on those first
but make sure you address everything
with time and try to do it as fast as
you can because if you are ready you
don't have to get ready when the enemy
shows up when the enemy shows up they'll
see how strong you are and they'll turn
around and go away because a lot of
times they're looking to fight you where
you're weak if they know you can win on
the flip side I mention this earlier you
don't fight battles where you know
you're going to lose if they know that
they're going to lose they're not going
to fight you and thus your preparation
your discipline and everything will
prevent a lot of attacks that would have
possibly come to you how to result as a
result or as a result I should say of
all the preparation and proactiveness
that you've taken in everything you do
because I believe how you do one thing
is how you do everything the army on the
march if in training soldiers commands
are habitually enforced the army will be
well-disciplined if not its discipline
will be bad consistency with your people
is very important if you put a process
in place until you actually say the
process is going to end you have to be
consistent with it because if you're not
consistent with it they're not going to
have any respect for you they're going
to say that then this is a weak area
this person has a weak area and they
have probably way more weak areas and I
don't see that person as a leader a
leader goes for first and enforces
certain commands and habits and put
systems and processes in place to make
sure it's consistent as much as possible
the more there is consistently
consistency the more respect there is
but if there is slack the respect will
be lost and the army will follow suit
they'll think it's okay to not have
self-discipline
and the processes that they deploy don't
matter either for the people that they
deploy them to and it's going to be a
chain of chaos and not in the type of
chaos and I mentioned earlier that grows
you but a chaos that essentially will
bring your organization down if a
general shows confidence in his men but
always insists on his orders being
obeyed the gain will be mutual so again
having confidence in people is trusting
but that doesn't mean you don't have
reports and processes in place that
keeps your finger on the pulse so you
can understand what's going on and then
based on what's going on you make
decisions so your order is essentially
are being obeyed but they're not doing
in a way when it makes the person feel
restrained you have to believe in them
but you also have to understand that
there's human nature and you have to put
things in place to prevent the bad
behaviors terrain if fighting is sure to
result in victory then you must fight
even though the ruler forbid it if
fighting will not result in victory then
you must not fight even at the rulers
bidding so this is where you have to be
able to use your own judgment sometimes
you're going to have to break the rules
that's okay if the breaking of the rule
provides the victory then you should do
it and if the breaking of the rule has
no consequences then you should do it
now there's many nuances to this but
that's essentially what it's getting at
sometimes the strategists might deploy a
strategy out there and expect people to
follow it if a person is out in the
arena on the battlefield and they've
encountered a scenario which they feel
that most likely the person who gave the
orders of strategist couldn't see it and
they have to make a decision and they
know that by making the decision it goes
against the orders of the strategist but
however it creates a victory then they
should do it and the strategist should
be able to empower his people or her
people to be able to make decisions on
their own if those kind of regards do
show up regard your soldiers as your
children and they will follow you into
the deep
valleys look upon them as your own loved
sons and they will stand by you even
unto death so this is important to treat
people in your organization like a
family you have to be able to create
that in your organization and you have
to have a lot of respect for them and
compassion for them and you have to be
really interested in them doing better
than you have done and it's interesting
because by having this kind of view
where you want them to do their best
this it's paradoxical because they might
actually leave you but because you've
risen up so much that you care for their
well-being they probably won't leave you
because they recognize that you are a
inspirational source a person in their
life that actually really cares about
them and that's kind of rare in
organizations because a lot of people
who run organizations they don't want
people to leave because then you know
they'll put all these systems in place
to prevent people from leaving its
scarcity thinking essentially they just
want to keep people there and that
restrains them and they don't feel like
they're cared for the people in the
organization don't feel like they're
cared for and then what happens is they
do end up leaving and ends up becoming a
self-fulfilling prophecy however the
paradox of wanting the best for your
people even more so that if they leave
you you will still be happy for them
grows and builds the organization to
such a high level that they can't leave
you and if they do leave you they'll
figure out some partnership with you in
which both parties will win hence the
same if you know the enemy and know
yourself your victory will not stand in
doubt if you know heaven and you know
earth you may make your victory complete
this is again about knowing what battles
you should fight studying the components
of your enemy your competitors etc and
understanding where your strengths and
weaknesses are and focusing if you're
going to battle them on their weaknesses
with your strings understanding what
your weaknesses are and they're going to
essentially attack your weaknesses with
their strengths to put up defensive or
deceptive methods to deflect the
awareness on your weaknesses and put
that awareness on your strengths they
try to attack you with arrogance on your
strengths but meanwhile you're strong
there because you have essentially
smokescreen them to go in a different
direction
that is all the kind of things that's
important to understand prior to getting
into battle prior to going into the
environment now a lot of times you can't
get all that data but the objective is
to get as much of that data as possible
and if you need to fight a battle try to
put it more in your favor as possible
and that comes as a result by knowing
yourself your strengths your weaknesses
your people and so forth that go to
battle with you and that same of the
opponent the nine situations throw your
soldiers into positions where there is
no escape and they will prefer death to
flight if they face death there's
nothing they may not achieve officer
officers and men alike will put forth
their utmost strength this is called the
death round strategy and the death
ground strategy is something we can
actually do for ourselves we can take
ourselves from the comfort and luxury of
escaping out of the battle and actually
place ourselves where we have to make
out victorious we have to be victorious
or we end up perishing now you could do
this through accountability one of the
things that I like to do is if I don't
complete my list of tasks in my business
for example by the end of day that have
been outlined in the start of the day
then I have to donate a certain amount
of money to somebody a lot of different
things that you can do that essentially
causes you to feel the burn if you don't
if you're not able to achieve the
outcome and thus it'll motivate you and
force you to do it and you can be very
creative with this but we have to have
something like that if we find ourselves
constantly not hitting our objective
prohibit taking the taking of omens and
do away with superstitious doubts then
until death itself comes no comity need
be feared so one of the things that I
like to do is avoid any type of
superstitious doubts if something is
superstitious
is and it's going to help me think more
empowered and it's going to move me
forward then I'm going to accept it but
if something says that I can't do what
my grand strategy or my purpose in life
is to be I'm not going to believe it the
reason why I'm not going to do that is
because it distorts the mind it's
essentially a weakness when your brain
is injected or infiltrated with a doubt
or an idea that you can't achieve the
outcome that you want by somebody else
so the environment then what will happen
is that you're going to look for ways to
not get the outcome that you want so
it's good to make sure that you only
internalize the concepts that ensure you
victory while being aware of the things
that could hold you back or they could
stand in your way but not becoming
doubtful of yourself as a result of them
next by altering his arrangements and
changing his plans he keeps the enemy
without definite knowledge by shifting
his camp and taking securities roads he
prevents his enemy from anticipating his
purpose so essentially what this means
is that you have to be able to
constantly switch up the routine that
you have in place if you're in a very
competitive environment if you have a
lot of people that are trying to take
your position or if you have a lot of
people that are trying to take you out
not in a positive way then switching up
your things that you do your routines
your plans and everything like that will
mix up your enemy they won't be able to
figure you out and you might want to
deploy some smokescreen strategies so
that they think that they figured you
out from a certain place only to have
them be led astray and wasting their
time essentially while you're actually
making the moves that you need to make
this goes back to what I talked about
earlier where you have to be humble and
not look for validation and certain
kinds of approval from the environment
and so forth you're essentially looking
for objective data to help your strategy
move forward and as a result of that
you're going to have no need to one
impress
people and do things on in a environment
people can see in a conspicuous way
instead you're going to do it
underground where people can't see and
they're only going to know what you want
them to know about you or what they need
to know about you depending on what your
strategic outcome is but your real grand
strategy is done in silence and people
can never figure you out even if they
try their hardest they'll never be able
to figure it out because when you know
they're trying to figure you out you're
going to give them certain information
to lead them astray if the enemy leaves
a door open you must Rush in so again
when it comes to marketplace when it
comes to competition your job is to
exploit it and exploit it in a way
obviously that's ethical but exploit it
when it's open if you miss the
opportunity you might not get it again
every market or every competitor even
yourself
it's very unlikely that you're going to
be a hundred percent spot on with
everything you do like it's very
unlikely
so there are exploits there are weak
areas you have to train yourself to be
able to look for the exploits and the
weak areas train yourself to do that in
people and doesn't mean you actually act
on the exploits and the weak areas but
you study how to look for exploits in
weak areas and if you need to act on
them you do it if it's going to
essentially hold you back if that person
is trying to hold you back or if you
need to so you can move the position
forward again make sure that you're
being ethical when you do this because
there's repercussions in areas like
business and so forth so the key here is
understanding how to determine what an
exploit is and where a door is left open
and figure out how you can get in there
in many different areas of your life and
then knowing when to do it and when not
to do it next the attack of fire move
not unless you see an advantage use not
your troops unless there is something to
be gained fight not unless the position
is critical you have time you have
energy you have opportunity cost you
have resources and you have
be able to work with these if you don't
know how to work with them you're going
to exhaust yourself and you're not going
to achieve your grand strategy same
thing applies to business if you see an
advantage then you move forward if you
don't see an advantage why would you
move forward in that thing when there's
probably other things that you can do
that there is advantage try to focus on
things that have the advantage and then
require as minimum input that can
produce maximum output as possible again
I talked about this earlier in the
example when I brought up a Daymond John
said about opportunity one step away
from the money in the sense that you're
looking for opportunities that are not
like get-rich-quick
but essentially opportunities that are
arbitrage or that can easily be captured
from the environment and executed upon
instead of creating this complex process
and all these different things you got
to do just to eventually and inevitably
hit the same outcome of the same level
of profitability that you could have hit
had you had shifted your thinking more
into a different direction where you
move only on advantages okay and again
your troops and your people are valuable
resources you have to be able to move
towards an advantage as quick as
possible so you can get that outcome so
you can gather more resources so you can
build your troops further and then the
same applies to them you have to instill
that philosophy in them and a lot of
times fighting is not necessary you know
sons who talked about this even though
this book is about war essentially the
the ideal goal is to win the war without
any casualties or to win the war with
the fewest amount of casualties not just
you know brute force go at it this is
strategy strategy's not done that way so
you don't need to fight battles unless
it's absolutely critical because those
battles can be costly and you only fight
the battles if you know you're going to
win or the odds are in favor if you have
to fight a battle and the
odds are not in favor well then maybe
what you've done is you've not
preemptively and proactively figured out
all the dynamics at plate that got you
into that in a situation that could be
too late but that's why it's important
to start now and work with what you have
most likely we're not in a situation
where it's do-or-die and there's things
we can do to prevent ourselves from
being a situation where it's do-or-die
so the key is to focus on that right now
and place ourselves in as many
situations where it's advantageous but
also in situations that we don't find
ourselves in a critical need to fight
again if it isn't if it is to your
advantage make a move forward if it's
not stay where you are one of my
favorite sayings that I got when I was
24 years old from very successful
entrepreneur was I was around that age
very successful he said when in doubt do
nothing and I've been reflecting upon
that for many years when in doubt do
nothing and over the years I tend to
implement it more and more and the
reason why it took me so long to
internalize it is because when you hear
a very simple statement like that
oftentimes we overthink it and we add
more complexity to it and then we don't
end up doing it but then as you move up
to higher levels and you can handle a
higher level of complexity in you place
yourself in different environments and
you study these philosophies and you see
how they work in in the world and so
forth you realize that those very
simplistic truth are oftentimes the way
to go so when you're in doubt there's
probably some aspect of whatever it is
that you want to do that you're not
analyzing or figuring out or being aware
of that essentially if you execute on it
it's not going to result in a favorable
outcome so what I try to do is I try to
place myself in as many situations that
if I execute upon them there's no doubt
but if there is a doubt I don't execute
upon it because in any given moment of
time you can either go left or right
okay they're you right now listening to
this you can stop and do something else
or you could do something outside of
whatever else you were going to do is
only like you know few choices that you
can make but each of those choices have
a trickle effect of other choice
and so forth so there's no point in like
doubting something and sitting on that
doubt because it just burns the mental
resources instead it's better to be
analytical about it and think about what
the what the implications are and so
forth but just simply doubting something
and executing upon it when there are
things that you can execute upon that
have no doubt that are no-brainers that
will produce a result isn't it better to
do that use the spies knowledge of the
enemy's dispositions can be obtained
from other men hence the use of spies of
whom there are five classes local spies
having local spies means employing the
services of the inhabitants of a
district inward spies having inward
spies making use of officials of the
enemy converted spies having converted
spies getting hold of the enemy's spies
and using them for your own purpose
doomed spies having doomed spies doing
things openly for purposes of deception
and allowing our spies to note of them
and report them to the enemy surviving
spies surviving spies finally are those
who bring back news from the enemy's
camp so different kinds of spies and the
spies essentially is designed to help
you understand the enemy again know
yourself and know your enemy you have to
know yourself and you have to know who
you're up against
now there's also the enemy within
yourself and figure out some creative
ways to infiltrate the enemy within
yourself which is your own ego study
yourself and then study your external
world that's how you know yourself
that's how you know your external world
that's how you know the people because
just as we go back to the beginning of
the book all warfare is fought on
deception so that means most likely
you're being deceived by the people in
front of you and again it's not about
being paranoid but rather being
objective and focused and aware that
these dynamics exist and it's a way of
life and if you want to rise up to
higher levels of success or you want to
play in environments where there's high
amounts of competition under
stand that this stuff is being used
don't be in denial about it and then
figure out ways to work with it so you
can come out advantageous the enemy
spies who have come to spy on us must be
sought out tempted with bribes led away
and comfortably housed they will become
converted spies and available for our
own service so again know just as you
are deploying methodologies to research
your competition other people are doing
the same to you and there's many
different ways of working with the
people that they sent to you so that
they can give them misinformation or
give you information from your
competitors and so forth hope you
enjoyed this video this is a lot of
information contained within this book
and I'm not doing it any justice by just
sharing these high-level points as you
can see we've been discussing for about
an hour and we've only covered like a
handful of points here and essentially
this book is something that you need to
refer to as much as possible in
different stages of your life to give
you deeper level insights there's a lot
more of insights if you go and study
this book and again like I mentioned in
the beginning studying war might not be
in the top of the list for people but
however I think it should be because it
reveals an important aspect of human
nature war does exist the war exists you
know not just like traditional war what
we actually consider war but
competitiveness in business environments
career social environments etc and the
war in our own mind with our own ego and
things like that do exist so we have to
be able to study it understand it and
apply it and be aware of the different
aspects and refer to something like Sun
Tzu's Art of War
for insights and revelations for pieces
that we might not have figured out yet
because that's what this book is really
helpful for if you want to copy this
mind map it's in the bottom of this
video in the link in the description
thank you very much for watch this video
I hope you enjoyed it I'll talk to you
soon take care