"One who does not know the mountains and forests, gorges and defiles, swamps and wetlands cannot advance the army."
- Sun Tzu

The common advice, if you want to start a business or venture, is to start with what you’re passionate about and find a market that is also passionate about it.

It’s not a bad strategy, but I think an even better strategy is not to force the issue. Instead, start with the terrain.

Don’t find something you can do well at. Find something – a field, a niche, a market, a topic – you can study. Something you can spend hours learning about. Don’t think about business ideas, just study the terrain. Study its cool parts and study its problems.

Participate in discussions, give some pointers, teach people who know less than you. Allow yourself to fall in love with the terrain, to care for it.

Over time, because you care, you’ll start to see little gaps to be filled, gaps only you can fill. You’ll start to see how to win on the terrain. It takes time, but with that time, you’ll be gaining a much better picture of how you can actually contribute.

​Whatever enterprise you come up with, it won’t be based on “what you’re good at.” Rather, it’ll be based on problems you really care about. And because you care, it’ll be much more likely to help.

"Just as water does not have constant shape, the army does not have constant force. Therefore, one who is able to follow the enemy’s changes and create victory is considered divine."
- Sun Tzu

As humans, we are pretty conservative in nature. We don’t like changing our opinions or beliefs. We don’t like trying new things. We don’t like adopting other people’s viewpoints.

We just like our little thoughts, opinions, interests. They make the world less challenging, more predictable, more comfortable.

But the truth is, life doesn’t conform to your thoughts or opinions. Life is full of contrasting, even opposing viewpoints and interests. It’s full of people who don’t think the same as you do, but who nonetheless affect how you and others live.

Hold on to your cherished beliefs, opinions, thoughts, and you’ll find yourself constantly frustrated and disappointed.

The only way to escape this frustration and disappointment is to adopt a more open, fluid thinking. You let go of your cherished beliefs. Not only do you not expect people to have your way of thinking, but you’re even open to seeing things through other people’s eyes. You adapt.

The result: not only will you be less frustrated and disappointed with life, but you’ll start to see something strange happening. You’ll find more opportunities will cross your path because you’re more open to them – you’re not closed off to the possibilities.

You’ll also be more creative: things you didn’t think would be interesting will start giving you inspiration.

​In a world so dynamic, so globalized, and so competitive, this kind of power is priceless.

"Therefore, it is said one may know how to win, but cannot necessarily do it."
– Sun Tzu

One of the most brilliant insights from Sun Tzu is that victory can be known, but not created. It can’t be forced. The only thing you can do to win is to take advantage of openings in your enemy’s situation. And that requires patience.

Of course, you can create solutions, but solutions aren’t the same as opportunities. Clean, renewable energy, for example, is a great, proven solution to our environmental and economic problems. But at the time Obama campaigned and came into office, it wasn’t a great opportunity. Too many people were (and still are) invested in oil. They weren’t ready to transition to something else.

In life, this is the same way. You may be certain, with your knowledge and expertise, that you have the solution to people’s problems. You have the solution that would make everything better at work. You have the solution for your wife to change that situation she’s frustrated with at work.

But you’ll often find that people aren’t ready to listen. They are too invested in their lifestyle and habits to want to make the transition.

The key is to be patient and gradually strengthen your knowledge and skills. If your solution is good, if it can help, and if you keep updating it to fit with the times, then there will come a time when an opportunity will pop up.

And because you are ready where others aren’t, you’ll be able to take advantage of it. You just have to wait.

Lately, I’ve been reading a very insightful book called The Golden Key to Strategy by Gary Gagliardi, a popular translator of The Art of War .

In one part of the book, he has a powerful analogy for understanding how progress in life works. I’ll let him explain it:

"Progress is like climbing a ladder. As you move from one rung to the next, you rely on your current position to secure the next…If you need both hands and both feet to hold on to your existing position, you must stay where you were. You must have a free hand or foot to move up the ladder."

Move if you have a free hand, a “surplus of resources.” If you don’t have a surplus, you can’t move – at least not securely.

Many people will take huge gambles in order to gain rewards. They’ll spend a lot of money before knowing if their idea will pan out. They’ll buy new office space before they have a real business set up. They’ll use their clout with family and friends to try to sell them a product they have no idea if they’ll care about. They’ll spend months writing a book or album that they have no idea other people will read or listen to.

Instead, you should be asking yourself: What resources (time, money, skills, contacts, prospective customers) do I have, and are these resources enough to move forward?

If you don’t have enough, then you need to gain them first before making any big moves.
For example, if you’re trying to sell your book, try to get enough people who will buy your book to make writing the book satisfying for you. Then you should write the book.

If you want to open up an office space, try to get enough clients at the price you like that will justify you getting an office space. Then you should get that office.

Which takes us to a very simple point about making moves: Don’t rely on resources that you “hope” will come. Rather, rely on your ability to secure the resources you need and maximize them to move forward.

Sure, it doesn’t feel as thrilling as taking a huge leap into the unknown, but in the end, it’s not the thrill you’re after. It’s progress.

"Heaven is dark and light, cold and hot, and the seasonal system. Ground is far and near, difficult and easy, open and narrow, and dangerous and safe."
- Sun Tzu

Sun Tzu talks about two factors that affect whether you’ll be successful: Heaven and Ground.

We can think of Heaven as the overall climate or timing of a situation. When Barack Obama first ran for President, he was relatively unknown and inexperienced.

But he judged the timing – Heaven – to be on his side. After 8 years of Bush, America wanted a change, and that’s precisely what he represented. The result: he defeated John McCain pretty soundly in the 2008 elections.

Ground, on the other hand, has to do with positioning – how well you are protected against losing. How secure is your position? In 1973, when Richard Nixon resigned from office, Henry Kissinger avoided getting replaced by the next administration because he had entrenched himself in so many different important areas of the department that replacing him would have been too chaotic. He had secured his position there.

As a general rule: because Heaven being on your side is out of your control, your primary focus should be on gaining Ground. Of course, you should focus on Heaven to see if there are any easy opportunities for attack, but your first objective should be to secure whatever position you have.

For example, let’s say you are trying to get a promotion at work. Instead of simply waiting for an opportunity where it’d be good to ask, your best bet is to secure your position there. Become indispensable. Learn new skills that no one else has.

This takes time, but once you have leverage, you’ll be able to ask for more and securely get it.

Of course, if the opportunity arises, you may be able to get away with it, but I wouldn’t count on it.

"What enables the enlightened rulers and good generals to conquer the enemy at every move and achieve extraordinary success is foreknowledge."
- Sun Tzu

We are taught today that success is a matter of willpower – of persistence, of grit, of continuing when failing.

For Sun Tzu, however, the most critical factor in your success is the quality of your information. The more you know about the area you’re trying to win in, the more aware you are of the opportunities – the strengths to avoid, the weaknesses to exploit, the options for mobility.

Want to land that new job? Research the company! Find out who their distributors and competitors are, their unique advantage, markets they are trying to break into.

Want to date that girl? Find out what her interests are. What does she like to do for fun? Which countries has she traveled to? What TV shows does she like?

Want to start a business? Find out as much as you can about your customers. What quality of product do they want? What inside jokes do they use? What’s going to make them talk about your new product?

Want to invest in a company? Find out as much as you can from their financial statements, their management, their competitive advantage.

Intelligence marks the critical difference between playing to compete and playing to win. You can be confident, persistent, charming all you want, but those qualities just help you to compete.

​To win, you need to know where, when, and how to make moves. That requires intelligence.

“In this way, the skilled warrior stands on undefeated ground, and does not miss the enemy's defeat. Therefore, the winning army first wins, and later seeks to do battle. The defeated army first battles, and later seeks to win.”
– Sun Tzu

This is one of the most important quotes from Sun Tzu that I can recommend. So many times, we think only about competing. About taking action, about starting, about moving forward.

But probably one of the most important questions you can ask yourself before starting an endeavor is: What are the conditions that would lead to success? 

For example, let’s say you are a singer-songwriter and you want to create a popular, high-selling album.

You could start by just writing songs and building an album from there. But that is just taking action. It doesn’t at all guarantee that you’ll have a popular, high-selling album.

Instead, you have to ask yourself: “What conditions will lead to a successful album?”

One condition is an audience – a large group of people who would be interested in buying what you have to sell. Another condition is promotion, in particular, word of mouth. Another condition is a place – a store, a website – to sell your album.

As a strategy, then, one thing you can do is to start by building an audience. You can start creating little videos of songs you can sing to get people interested.

Then, as you start building an audience, you can start writing little songs of your own. See which songs get the most interest, use feedback to improve the songs, and then put an improved version of that song on the album.

Next, find a place where you can sell your album, preferably somewhere that makes sampling and buying the album easy and gives you a good royalty.

Lastly, develop a promotional strategy. With your audience, think about what concept or idea will make your audience not only be interested in buying your album, but in sharing it with other people.

Once you have these conditions in place, then you can start developing the album, getting album artwork, doing press releases, booking shows, and more heavily promoting the album.

This is, of course, an overly simplified strategy, but hopefully the point is clear: find out what conditions need to be in your favor in order to win, and then seek to obtain those conditions first. Then you can take direct action towards winning.

"The life of man upon earth is a warfare.”
– Job 7:1

​This quote is an important reminder that what we are struggling against in life is life itself. Sun Tzu calls this Heaven.

Heaven is those forces and events in life that cloud our thinking, provoke us to act rashly or fearfully, and deceive us into thinking that the good and the bad we get out of life happens to us, and not something we make ourselves.

Heaven is the sudden illness that strikes a loved one, unexpectedly. Heaven is the stock market crashing, retirement funds being wiped out, housing prices dropping, unemployment rising.

Heaven is your car breaking down, the roof leaking, the hurricane coming, the heater not working, the pandemic spreading.

Heaven can also be the “good” boons we receive. It’s that lottery win, that sudden boost in viewers for your channel, that great date you went on. That $20 bill you find on the ground, that compliment you received, the praise you got in the press.

All those things function to deceive you – to make you think that you are lucky or unlucky, to make you think you have to keep the luck up or accept your fate. To push you to extreme thinking – that you either have all the control or none of it.

Sun Tzu teaches us that the only way to clear your mind of the deceptions of Heaven is to focus on the reality of the Ground. The Ground never deceives you. It always tells you the truth. (This is the real meaning of the phrase “to be grounded.”)

The Ground tells you what options you have. It tells you what pathways are available to you. It tells you what space you do have control over, even if it’s only a little. It tells you what work you can still contribute and how you can still make the best of a bad situation. It also tells you what dangers may lie ahead – what to avoid and what to prepare for.

​The point here is simple: stop worrying about the forces of Heaven and focus instead on the reality of the Ground. Focus on what is possible, on what you can do, what’s available for you. Not on what has happened.