"Therefore, in warfare, what is precious is victory; what is not precious is a drawn-out [war]. Therefore, know the general of the army, for he is the manager of the people's fate, and the master of the nation's security."
- Sun Tzu For Sun Tzu, the general of the army plays a fundamental role in keeping the nation safe - in preserving the lives and future of its citizens. This is why it is important for the ruler (for whom The Art of War is written) to "know the general," that is, to make sure the general understands and adheres to the philosophy of feeding off the enemy. As you recall, Sun Tzu begins Book 2 discussing how everyone else is used to running the operations of war. This mode of operation leads to expensive victories. What the ruler must do is select a general who is focused on making victory profitable. This means achieving quick victories, stealing the enemy's resources, and not engaging in drawn-out affairs. This same principle applies to your own life. As I've written before, you are the general of your life. You are the manager of your fate and the master of your security. Your focus cannot simply be on trying to win, but on making sure winning puts you in a better position than you were before.
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"Mix the [enemy's] vehicles [with your own] and make use of them. Care for the [enemy's] soldiers and nourish them. This [strategy] is called 'winning over the enemy and increasing one's strength.'"
- Sun Tzu This line is a summation of Sun Tzu's main economic strategy: steal from the enemy and use his resources. Use his food, his weapons, even his soldiers, to help defeat the enemy. This has the dual effect of both increasing one's resources and depleting the enemy of resources, making winning more profitable for the army and making fighting more expensive for the enemy. In your own life, try to follow this maxim: use other people's resources whenever possible. Rely on other people's networks, time, effort, ideas, knowledge, arguments, money. Doing this will make winning cheaper and more profitable for you. "Thus, in vehicle battles, to gain ten [vehicles] to use according to this previous [principle], reward those who first capture them, and change their banners and flags."
- Sun Tzu The "previous principle" Sun Tzu is referring to here is the principle of greed mentioned in the previous line. Sun Tzu's advice here is to instill greed in soldiers by rewarding them if they are able to steal the enemy's supplies and weapons with the prospect of profit. The emphasis on greed here is very important. Anger aims to destroy, to injure, to kill. Sun Tzu's aim is not to destroy the enemy (as we'll see in Book 3), but to strengthen the nation. If soldiers are motivated by anger, then they will seek only to kill the enemy and destroy the supplies. However, if they are motivated by greed, by the potential for profit, then they will seek to steal and use what the enemy has. In your own life, reward can be a very strong motivator. These rewards can be as simple as an acknowledgement to yourself to bonuses to your employees to contest reward prizes. Even setting goals, however small, can help you to develop a feeling of accomplishment. Don't underestimate how important acknowledgement and appreciation is to the human spirit. We like to win, to know that we are progressing. This is a powerful motivator for taking action. "Therefore, it takes anger for one to kill the enemy; [but] it takes profit for one to take the enemy's advantages."
- Sun Tzu Here Sun Tzu is making a distinction between two powerful psychological forces: anger and greed. Anger is a destructive force. Its aim is always to maim the one who one feels is causing the anger. Greed, on the other hand, is not destructive, but parasitic. Its aim is to feed off of others, exploiting their advantages for one's own use. Sun Tzu's strategy entails being a parasite to the enemy. The goal of the army is not to kill the enemy, but to drain him - to steal his advantages. This has the effect of not only making winning profitable, but of making fighting more and more expensive for the enemy. In your own life, you must understand that you always have an enemy, whether or not that enemy is clear to you. This enemy could be a competing worker, a business competitor, a family member, an unfair social system, or even, and most importantly, yourself. Your goal must be not to attack these enemies with anger, but to drain these enemies of the advantages or power they have over you. You have to ask yourself: what resources or relationships my competing coworker has that gives them an edge over me? What customer base or unique positioning does my business competitor have? What strong tendencies does my family member have that allows them to get under my skin or complicate my life? What strong doubts or insecurities do I have that keep me from living the life I want? You must strive to steal these advantages, one by one. By doing this, you'll start to see positive changes that move you forward in the direction you wish to go. "Therefore, the wise general focuses on the enemy's food. One unit of the enemy's food is worth twenty units of our food. One picul of [the enemy's] fodder is worth twenty picul of our own."
- Sun Tzu Sun Tzu re-emphasizes a point that he mentioned in a previous line: the general must focus his strategy on stealing resources from the enemy. According to Sun Tzu's math, the army should regard the enemy's food as worth twenty times its own. This means that soldiers will value eating the enemy's food much more than eating their own. This is the philosophy you must take in your own life. A customer taken from your competitor is worth more than a customer you developed on your own. A dollar donated to your cause is worth more than a dollar you donate yourself. An opportunity your opponent gives you is worth more than any opportunity you try to create yourself. Ideas taken or inspired from others is worth more than any idea you try to develop yourself. Never simply rely on your own resources. Consider your resources are simply a savings - used only as a backup. You should always strive to acquire resources - money, ideas, relationships - from others. This is how you keep your fight sustainable. "The cost to hundreds of families - seven-tenths [of their wealth]. The cost to the government - including broken vehicles, lost horses, armor, helmets, arrows, cross-bows, halberds, protective shields, field cattle, large vehicles - six-tenths [of its wealth]."
- Sun Tzu Sun Tzu's point here is not simply that war is expensive, but that the expenses of funding one's own war can be prohibitive. If a nation funds its own war, thereby losing a majority of its wealth - what benefit did this have for the nation? Was the war really worth it? Can that expense be recouped? For Sun Tzu, this doesn't mean that a nation shouldn't go to war, but that the general needs to be strategic about how the war will be paid for. The general must be careful not to spend the nation's wealth, but to use the enemy's wealth as much as possible. In your own life, you must always ask yourself: how will this endeavor be paid for? How much of my own resources have to go into "funding" the endeavor? Is there a way I can fund it using someone else's resources? Asking yourself these kinds of question is how you reduce risk and create advantage. "The nation becomes impoverished when transporting to troops at far distances. If transporting far, then hundreds of families become impoverished. Those close to the army will sell [goods] at high prices. If they are selling high, then the wealth of hundreds of families becomes exhausted. If the wealth is exhausted, then military service quickly needs to be filled again. This force consumes the entire wealth, striking at the empty homes of those within [the country]."
- Sun Tzu Sun Tzu spends a lot of time discussing the repercussions of supplying the army at a long distance. The costs of this kind of war has huge consequences on the nation, depleting the nation of its wealth. In your own life, avoid moving into areas where you'll need a lot of resources to stay in the game. For Sun Tzu, you want quick victories. Use the resources readily available to you or that other people have. Don't spend too much of your own money, time, or resources. "A skilled military operation does not draft service twice or transport provisions three times. Choose domestic operations according to the enemy's provisions. In this way, the army's food may be enough. "
- Sun Tzu Sun Tzu's strategy when it comes to military operations is not to keep building a bigger force or to keep supplying the army with equipment or food. This will only lead to the army having to assume a bigger expense (and thus bigger risk) for fighting the enemy. Sun Tzu's strategy, then, is to steal from the enemy - to take the enemy's food, arms, and equipment. This is how you deal with the danger of expenses. Feed the army with the enemy's food, attack the enemy with the enemy's weapons. This reduces expenses for the army while making the enemy's operations more expensive. For your own endeavors, you always want to find a way to make winning inexpensive. This sometimes requires taking resources from other people while paying very little. For example, let's say you are trying to start a business. One strategy for developing your business could be to look at competitors in your market and start reading their customer reviews. Pay attention to pain points in those reviews, develop a business around that, and reach out to those customers to try out your product or service. This would be effectively "stealing" those customers away from your competitors. Another example could be an argument or debate. Instead of trying to build the perfect case or point, spending massive time on research, focus on your opponent's own points. Craft your argument based on his points, pointing out flaws or stirring doubt whenever possible. "Therefore, one who does not fully know the dangers of using the army cannot fully know the advantages of using the army."
- Sun Tzu This is a key insight from Sun Tzu. In our society, we tend to make a separation between "risk" and "rewards," "dangers" and "advantages." We tend to think that we reap rewards despite the risks we face. That the best we can do is focus on our goals, work hard, and accept that the inherent risks of whatever we are trying to accomplish. For Sun Tzu, the opposite is true. It is by confronting or avoiding the risks an army faces that it is able to gain advantages over the enemy. It is by thwarting potential alliances between the enemy and neighboring states that an army can stay secure. It is by placing one's defenses where the enemy cannot attack that one is able to build up a strong position against the enemy. It is by avoiding dangerous terrain and drawing the enemy towards it that the army is able to place the enemy into a disadvantageous situation. Thus, for Sun Tzu, in order to know the advantages of winning, the general must understand the dangers. It is through managing these risks that the general can understand how to win. In your own life, the same principle is true. Don't embrace risk. While it is true that there are risks in everything you do, from a strategic point of view, you don't have to accept them. Actively work to know what risks you face and focus your attention not on moving on despite the risks, but on directly managing these risks. The better you calculate and manage the risks, the better poised you are to achieve the success you want. "Therefore, in warfare one hears of 'clumsy yet swift,' but I have yet to see 'skillful yet drawn-out.' No nation has yet to benefit from a drawn-out war."
- Sun Tzu For Sun Tzu, speed is the essential factor in warfare. An army is forgiven for making mistakes as long as it can recover quickly, attack quickly, and end conflict quickly. But fighting a long, drawn-out war that lasts years - that, for Sun Tzu, is the height of ineptitude. In your own life, do not fear making mistakes, for at least when you make a quick mistake you can get quick feedback. What you should be worried about is making a decision where you do not know for a long time whether or not you have made a mistake - a big decision that could take months or years before you get any feedback. Rather, you want to make quick mistakes, and to commit as many small failures as possible. Do not make a huge commitment to something that's going to take a long time to maybe reap the benefits. |