Now that I’m using Reading Refresh to keep myself up to date on books I’ve read in the past, I thought I’d share some of them as they came back up. Today is Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War“. This book is also available as a free flashcard deck on Ripple Recall.
I’ve always found The Art of War to be an interesting book. It has some excellent lessons it, but I struggle to use many of them as they essentially show you “how to destroy your enemy”. Our approach has always been to enjoy friendly rivalries with other agencies, rather than looking to beat them. This approach has served everyone well, and I have no intention of changing that. Here is some of that sound advice from the book that I choose not to follow:
- “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
- “Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”
- “All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.”
Those are good pieces of advice for war, but business doesn’t need to be war. That said, there are certainly pieces of the book that resonate strongly with me, like this line:
“Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.”
I also like the idea of burning your boats; if you’re going to dive in with an approach, go all in. If you have an easy way to back out, you’ll often take it.
“An army that comes back is one that has burned its boats and bridges to make fast its will”
For those that have read the book, I’m curious what you took away from it. Were there solid lessons in here that you’ve made use of in your business? Leave a comment and share below.
If you’ve not read the book it’s quite short (you can read it in roughly an hour) and you grab it on Amazon here. If you want to memorize some of the lessons from the book you can do so at Ripple Recall, or you can watch this short video for a bit more about what’s in the book:
