Walking the Path to Victory: The Three Phases of the Sun Tzu Way

In trying to understand the Sun Tzu Way (TSTW), I like to use the metaphor of a path or journey. This is in keeping with the Chinese word for "the Way" (Tao), which translates to mean "road," "direction," or "path." TSTW is not simply a bunch of tools or techniques for solving the challenges you may face, but a continuous process of cultivating a sense of security, peace, and fulfillment (an) throughout one's life.

This process can be understood in three distinct phases, with each phase carrying the one before it, reiterating itself in a continuous cycle. These phases, each starting with the letter P, are

1. Purpose (yì). Understand what you are trying to do or achieve and why.​
2. Preparation (yú). Understand the dangers of pursuing your purpose.
3. Progress (jìn). Understand how to advance intact on the path.

Let's look at each phase in greater depth.

PURPOSE
"The Tao is commanding the people according to a higher, shared purpose. They can be given death or life, but they will not fear danger or betrayal."
- Sun Tzu

For Sun Tzu, war is the path (Tao) of survival or destruction for a nation. A nation can only really survive war if its people are united and in harmony with the intentions of the ruler. This is what allows soldiers to act with courage and trust, not fearing death.

To unite the people requires the ruler to develop and communicate a clear sense of purpose (what Sun Tzu calls yì) to the people - a compelling vision for the future. This purpose or vision is not simply about economic prosperity. Nor is it about developing a feeling of patriotism or nationalism.

Rather, this purpose is spiritual in nature, guiding people in developing an elevated and deep understanding of their place in the universe. Thus, for Sun Tzu, the ruler is not simply an administrator, but a spiritual guide.

As such, the first phase of following TSTW is developing a clear understanding of your purpose - what you want or were meant to do or achieve in life and why.

This is something you must think deeply about for your life. Cultivating peace and fulfillment in your life will be difficult, if not impossible, unless you have a clear sense of the direction (Tao) you want to go in life. You must ask yourself: What am I here to do? What am I trying to accomplish? What change am I trying to make? What do I want for myself and others? Why do I want this?

The clearer you are about this higher purpose, the clearer you understanding will be of how to manage the day-to-day situations, allowing you to better decisions that align with your overall sense of purpose.

PREPARATION
"Therefore, one who does not fully know the dangers of using the army cannot fully know the advantages of using the army."
- Sun Tzu

For Sun Tzu, developing and communicating a higher sense of purpose is only the first step. It may help establish harmony between the people and the ruler, allowing the ruler to command the people as a unified force against a powerful enemy, but that in itself is not enough.

War, by its very nature, is an economic affair. It sucks up valuable resources, including soldiers, weapons, time, money. The longer a war goes on, the more people will suffer and the weaker morale becomes.

For Sun Tzu, it is the general's responsibility to understand and evaluate the dangers of going to war and to prepare the army against these dangers. This responsibility is reflected in Sun Tzu's word for preparation, yú, which means "to worry" or "to anticipate." The role of the general is to worry about the dangers, to contemplate them, and to ready the army to deal with them.

This involves understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the army as well as the enemy and planning how the army will get the resources and capabilities it needs to defeat the enemy.

Similarly, the second phase of following TSTW - preparation - involves understanding the dangers involved in pursuing your purpose (yì). As I've written before, a core tenet of TSTW is that life is war. In a universe governed by chaos and competition, the universe will not simply stand aside so that you can achieve your life's purpose. It will provide obstacles to your path.

Your role, as general of your life, is to understand and evaluate these obstacles and prepare yourself in dealing with them. You must understand what your strengths and weaknesses are. You must understand what difficulties will likely arise if you take action to pursue your purpose. And you must develop a strategy that allows you to navigate these obstacles so that you can advance forward.

Ask yourself: What are the risks involved? What skills, resources, capabilities do I need to be successful? What do I need to know?

It is only by taking these precautions that you can take your sense of security (an) into your own hands, allowing you to cultivate it as long as you are on the path.

PROGRESS
"Therefore, [the army] is as swift as the wind; as gentle as a forest; as invasive and plundering as fire; as unshakeable as a mountain; as difficult to see as the shade; as stirring as a thunderclap."
- Sun Tzu

For Sun Tzu, preparation is what keeps the army protected, allowing it to conserve resources and build up a strong defensive position against the enemy. However, preparation is not enough to achieve a skillful victory over the enemy. To do that, the army must accumulate an overwhelming set of advantages that tip the balance of power in its favor. This set of advantages gives the army momentum (what Sun Tzu calls shih), which it can use to surprise and overwhelm the enemy.

For Sun Tzu, there are many ways the general can accumulate advantages over the enemy. These include building alliances with neighboring rulers; plundering the enemy's fields for food; capturing the enemy's soldiers, weapons, and equipment; taking control of territory the enemy has ignored; converting the enemy's soldiers, officers, officials, and even spies into his own spies; and luring the enemy with false baits (for example, misinformation) that take the enemy off his original course.

Using these advantages, the general effectively weakens the enemy's position, creating multiple avenues for attack. As a result, the winning army has such an overwhelming advantage that it is as if the enemy is already defeated. As Sun Tzu famously tell us, "the winning army first wins, and later seeks to do battle. The defeated army first battles, and later seeks to win."

Thus, for the third and final phase of following TSTW, our focus is on progress. Continual, unrelenting progress. Sun Tzu's term for progress is jìn, which means "to advance" or "to move forward." By continually accumulating advantages and eliminating obstacles in one's way, one continually moves forward on the path.

No advantage is too small. Every new connection you make, every relationship you strengthen, every client you acquire, every skill you develop - these all help you move forward in your path. Therefore, the quicker you can accumulate these advantages, the more momentum (shih) you can build, and the greater your chances of success. For this reason, speed (su) is an important factor - both for Sun Tzu's winning army and for you.

As a result, you want to continually ask yourself: What little advantages can I gain for myself right now? What opportunities can I jump on to help my situation? What obstacles can I remove from my path right away? What can I do immediately or in the near future to improve my situation? What can I be doing on a regular basis to gradually move forward?

The most important thing to remember is that progress is essentially about control, what Sun Tzu calls zhì. This refers to the ability to create positive outcomes and/or prevent negative ones.

What you are after is a greater sense of control in your situation. The more positive outcomes you can create in your life - e.g. wealth, love, health, joy - and the more negative outcomes you can prevent - e.g. poverty, resentment, anxiety, sickness, frailty, etc. - the calmer, more peaceful, more serene your life will be.

In other words, if you are not able to generate more positive outcomes in your life or prevent negative ones, then you are not progressing. So ask yourself: What am I able to do now that I wasn't before? Am I in a better position than I was before? Do I feel more in control of my situation?
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In short, the three phases here describe the path of the Sun Tzu Way. Living a life of an - of peace, serenity, calm, security - is essentially a result of clear purpose, obsessive preparation, and an unrelenting focus on increasing one's sense of control.

Walking this path may not be easy, but with a 2,500 year old battle-tested philosophy to guide you, you cannot go wrong.