7.2

"The difficulty of armed struggle is in using the indirect to serve as the direct, using danger to serve as advantage. Thus, [the enemy's] path may be indirect, but entice him [to it] by means of advantage, and your last [soldiers] will issue forth as his first ones arrive. This is the knowledge of one who calculates the indirect and direct."
- Sun Tzu

In Sun Tzu's time, most generals, when deciding to contend for a specific advantage (e.g. a specific ground, an alliance, etc.), directed their army to take the quickest, most direct route, hoping to obtain the advantage before their enemies were able to.

For Sun Tzu, though, this is a mistake (for reasons he expounds in the next few passages). Rather what the general should do is make the indirect route seem like it is direct, to make danger seem like advantage. By doing this, he can entice his enemy into taking the indirect route towards danger, allowing his last troops to leave just as the enemy is arriving.

In other words, the skilled general doesn't simply compete with the enemy for some contested advantage; rather, he first lures his enemy away from the advantage (for example, by showing a weakness in his defense, an alluring opportunity to attack), and then mobilizes his troops to take the real advantage.

Such skill is not easy. It requires understanding how to calculate the direct and the indirect routes as well as the dangers and advantages so that one can effectively deceive the enemy. But, for Sun Tzu, learning this skill is essential to overcoming the dangers of armed struggle.

Such is the case in your own life. In your path to success, you will need to gain some sort of advantage - a scholarship, a job position, a relationship, a client, etc. Rather than competing with someone else for this advantage, it is much more important to lure this person away from the advantage. Send them down a longer, more circuitous path. Give them something that will take their attention.

You should never compete with someone else for the same advantage.