The Five Factors: Understanding Sun Tzu's Science of Success

For Sun Tzu, there are five factors that affect an army’s ability to achieve victory. The idea is for the general to evaluate his army’s strengths and weaknesses in these five factors and compare them to the enemy. Knowing these factors, the general can determine who is more likely to win and what strategy needs to be implemented to turn the odds in his favor.
 
These factors can also be applied to your life - whether at home, in your relationships, in business, in investing, etc. - to help you determine whether you have control over that aspect of your life. 
 
These five factors are

1. The Way (Tao)
2. Heaven (Tian)
3. Ground (Di)
4. Leader (Jiang)
5. Methods (Fa)

 
We are going to take a deeper look into each factor and how they apply to your own life.
 
The Way (Tao)
For Sun Tzu, the Way is what unites the people together with the ruler. It allows everyone to be focused against adversity. It’s what motivates people and allows them to face danger without fear.

For you, the Way defines your personal philosophy - your aspirations, values, and overall sense of purpose.

Heaven (Tian)
Heaven includes all those forces that you cannot control and that change over time, but affect your situation. For Sun Tzu, Heaven affects an army’s ability to relate to its environment - i.e. the Ground - and thus make effective decisions. Specifically, it affects the following capabilities:

1. The ability of an army to see its environment clearly 
2. The ability of an army to balance its need for heat balancing resources (e.g. fire for warmth, water or fans for coolness)
3. The ability of an army to conserve and use resources

For Sun Tzu, the major factor that affects an army’s relation to its ground is time - time of day, month, and year. Timing, therefore, is the key skill to develop in relation to Heaven. 

In your own situation, Heaven translates to events that occur in your life that affect your emotional state. Specifically, it affects the following capabilities

• Your ability to see your situation clearly (clarity)
• Your ability to maintain a calm, balanced state (calmness)
• Your ability to procure and conserve available resources on your own (confidence)

Like the army, the key factor here is time, particularly your internal psychological cycles. Thus, timing is an important skill. You must understand when your thinking is most clear or unclear; when your emotions tend to be balanced or out of balance; when it is okay for you to rely on others or when you have to just rely on yourself.

Ground (Di)
Ground refers to the quality of options for advancing your position and getting to where you want to be. In any situation you face, there are usually a number of pathways you can take. Your role is to choose the pathway with the best set of qualities. This set of qualities is the Ground. 

For Sun Tzu, there are four qualities that define the Ground, which follow the acronym ODDS:

1. Openness - how much space you have to advance
2. Difficulty - how difficult it will be to advance
3. Distance - how far you have to go to advance (i.e. how long it will take)
4. Safety - how dangerous it’ll be to advance

For Sun Tzu, you want to compare your options and choose the option that

• gives you more and/or better options in the future
• is the easiest to achieve
• allows you to advance the quickest
• offers the least amount of danger.

For Sun Tzu, choosing the right option is a logical calculation, which is why Heaven is such an important factor to consider. The forces of Heaven - events in our life - tend to inhibit our ability to think rationally and make logical evaluations of our options.

Leader (Jiang)
Because Heaven affects our relation to the Ground, a general needs certain qualities, or virtues, that will allow him to gain and maintain relative control over the Ground. For Sun Tzu, these virtues are

1. Wisdom. A general needs to have the knowledge, skills, and experience to evaluate the options accurately.
2. Credibility. A general needs to gain the trust of his troops. He needs a strong reputation for keeping his word.
3. Compassion. The general's primary goal is to ensure the nation is safe and secure. He must be compassionate towards the people, not striving to advance his own fame or wealth. In addition, the general needs to care for his troops as if they were his own children. He needs to have their best interests at heart. In addition, his primary goal is to provide for the security of the nation.
4. Courage. A general needs to be able to make tough decisions based on the options in front of him.
5. Discipline. A general needs to hold his troops accountable and needs to stay focused on his mission.

For Sun Tzu, these virtues are crucial in a general to manage his troops’ emotional states so that they do not have trouble focusing on the mission and option ahead.

For you, these qualities translate in the following ways:

1. You need the skills and knowledge to evaluate your options.
2. You need clear ways to validate your abilities. Tests, certifications, past accomplishments, etc., all serve to help you validate that you have the ability to improve your situation.
3. You need to be kind to yourself. Eliminate the negative self-talk (“I am an idiot,” “I am a coward,” “I never do anything right,” etc.).
4. You need to develop bravery in your decision making and commitment to following your Way, no matter the cost.
5. You need the discipline to stick to your decisions and maintain accountability.

The function of a leader is twofold:

1. To guard against the forces of Heaven, which pull us away from our philosophy and prevent us from evaluating the Ground rationally.
2. To evaluate the Ground to see which options will move us forward.

Methods (Fa)
For Sun Tzu, methods make up the organization and operations of an army, including its chain of command, logistics, and the control of expenses. It is how the army would function in the absence of a leader.

Because the leader cannot be around all the time to tell everyone what to do, the army needs a structure that will allow it to operate and produce results without needing constant orders.

For you, methods make up the rules, habits, systems, and tactics you will rely on to produce the results you want - in good and bad times. The point of the inner leader is to keep your mind intact despite the forces of Heaven. The point of methods is to let your inner leader focus on this task while you, as a person, can still produce results.

It is similar to an executive in an office: if the executive is busy making sure everything is operational, she won’t have the time to focus on the important activity of making sure everyone is united and on the same page as well as evaluating the Ground.
~
In short, remember these five principles:

1. Cultivate the Way. Deepen your understanding of and commitment to your purpose.
2. Study Heaven. Understand your cycles and the cycles of those around you.
3. Evaluate the Ground. Know your options and search for opportunities to grow and advance your place in your journey.
4. Demonstrate leadership. Strive to be kind, disciplined, trustworthy, rational, and brave in your interactions with others and with yourself. 
5. Use the appropriate methods. Develop systems, practices, habits, and principles to help you achieve your aspirations and to guide your journey.