ART OF WAR

You’ve definitely heard about this book, the first and the best of
all the strategies, the book that made leaders for more than
2500 years.
Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Niccolò
Machiavelli, even Alexander the Great himself was influenced
by this book.
Written by a man so feared, who made an entire army collapse
by just playing a flute, the father of strategy, Sun Tzu.
I’ve read this book more than 5 times, and as a person who has
read a fair amount of books on strategy and essentially
psychology, there were a lot of shocking things regarding this
book. In this video, we’ll cover everything from the content of
the book itself and at the end of the video, I share my tips on
how to read this book effectively. you can use my experience
and not make the mistakes I made which were super time-
consuming.

1. Rationality.
What I felt the need to talk about first, is the thing that I
absolutely love about Sun Tzu and I believe it was the reason
that made him so victorious and powerful, is his sense of
rationality.
He didn’t like waging war. As ironic as it may sound, he has
stated many times in the book that to shatter and destroy is not
so good.
In chapter 3 verse 2 he says: hence to fight and conquer in all
your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence
consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
He didn’t care about the glory that winning a brutal fight could
get him, he only cared about getting the job done with the
lowest causalities.
And it’s not just a matter of morality, he knew that ruining and
plundering would hurt both the land that he tried to conquer
and his reputation among the people of those lands. He would
also lose soldiers of his own.
Chapter 12, verse 18:
no ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his
own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of
pique.

As a leader, you should always put the interest of your company

or the people who trust you before your own emotions. Anger,
frustration, fear, glory, even pity. giving in to them costs us a lot.
And the powerful will choose victory and long-term effects over
just a mere moment of pride.
Chapter 8, verse 12:
there are five dangerous faults that may affect a general: 1.
Recklessness, which leads to destruction; 2. Cowardness, which
leads to capture; 3. A nasty temper, which can be provoked by
insults; 4. A delicacy of honor that is sensitive to shame; 5. Over
solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble.
Recklessness=haste, cowardness=fear, a nasty temper=anger, a
delicacy of honor=pride, over solicitude for his
men=attachment.
He is not suggesting that you shouldn’t feel those things, he is
saying that they shouldn’t affect your mentality and your
decisions. You as a general and a leader are responsible for
making decisions for others, and it’s best for everyone not to
act upon them..

2. The five heads

Sun Tzu was an avid advocate of knowing your circumstances
and believed that the first step that every general and leader
should take is to know every detail before planning anything. At
the very start of the book, he talks about the essential five
heads. The five factors that every general should know and be
aware of.
1. The moral law: people being loyal to their leader and their
cause regardless of any danger.
2. Heaven: Night and day, heat or cold, different seasons.
3. Earth: Distance and ground that you are fighting on.
4. The commander: Having Strictness, wisdom, and
benevolence.
5. The method and discipline: having ranking among officers,
knowing the expenditures and the maintenance cost.
And he says that if you truly know these 5 things you can always
forecast victory or defeat.
Chapter 1, verses 12 to 14:
therefore, in your deliberations, when seeking to determine
military conditions, let them be made the basis of a
comparison, in this wise:
1. Which of the two sovereigns is imbued with the moral
law?
2. Which of the two generals has the most ability?
 3. With whom lie the advantages derived from heaven and
earth?
4. On which side is discipline most rigorously enforced?
5. Which army is the stronger?
6. On which side are officers and men more highly trained?
7. In which army is there the greater constancy both in
reward and punishment?
By means of these seven considerations, I can forecast victory
or defeat.
When you hear the story of a nation or company’s downfall, it’s
mostly because of their leader being ignorant of one of these
five heads. Like 95 percent of the time. And it teaches us that
the core of strategy is knowing your card. What do you have to
play? Where and when are you playing? And how are you
gonna play?
I was watching Alex Hormozi, a great business guy, definitely
check him out, and he was saying that when a company is
struggling to grow, most of the time it’s because the founder or
the CEO is negligent of the constraints of the business. They
don’t track the necessary data, the KPIs, the LTV, the churn,
they don’t hire A players, they’re using a bad channel for getting
leads, they underestimate their competition, they don’t have
strictness to create a disciplined atmosphere.
And it’s not just about war or business, in everything that you’re
doing, if you want to have the best results, you have to know
the game you are playing. It doesn’t guarantee that you win,
you can avoid many losses by doing so.
The word “strategy” itself can be defined as: making the best
decision with the options and the situation you have, to reach
what you have in mind.
But now that we know our cards and the circumstances, how to
apply them?

3. The general
You know this book was designed for generals; it wasn’t
designed to tell us how many people or the type of weaponry
we need to win a war. those things are big components and are
essential, but a great army with the best weapons can still lose
with a bad general, and a small one can be victorious with a
good leader at the front. So, there is a high emphasis on the
person who is leading, you essentially, and you should know the
rules of leadership.
chapter 7, verse 28 to 36:
Now a soldier's spirit is keenest in the morning; by noonday, it
has begun to flag; and in the evening, his mind is bent only on
returning to camp.
A clever general, therefore, avoids an army when its spirit is
keen but attacks it when it is sluggish and inclined to return.
This is the art of studying moods.
Disciplined and calm, to await the appearance of disorder and
hubbub amongst the enemy: this is the art of retaining self-
possession.
To be near the goal while the enemy is still far from it, to wait
at ease while the enemy is toiling and struggling, to be well-fed
while the enemy is famished. this is the art of husbanding one's
strength.
To refrain from intercepting an enemy whose banners are in
perfect order, to refrain from attacking an army drawn up in a
calm and confident array. this is the art of studying
circumstances.
It is a military axiom not to advance uphill against the enemy,
nor to oppose him when he comes downhill.
Do not pursue an enemy who simulates flight; do not attack
soldiers whose temper is keen.
Do not swallow bait offered by the enemy. Do not interfere with
an army that is returning home.
When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press
a desperate foe too hard.
Such is the art of warfare.

what’s interesting is that most of these tactics and maneuvers

just come down to psychology and recognizing behavioral
patterns. And if you can see these patterns among both your
army and the enemy, you can use that leverage to predict what
the enemy wants to do, and get your army to do what you want
to do.
It’s interesting, leading essentially means getting others to listen
to you and do what you want. So, by observing behaviors and
the response to those behaviors, you can understand what
actions to take to make them want to be led by you, and then,
you can be a better leader.

Chapter 11, verses 22 to 24:

Carefully study the well-being of your men, and do not overtax
them. Concentrate your energy and hoard your strength. Keep
your army continually on the move, and devise unfathomable
plans.
 Throw your soldiers into positions whence there is no escape,
and they will prefer death to flight. If they will face death, there
is nothing they may not achieve. Officers and men alike will put
forth their uttermost strength.
Soldiers when in desperate straits lose the sense of fear. If
there is no place of refuge, they will stand firm. If they are in a
hostile country, they will show a stubborn front. If there is no
help for it, they will fight hard.
You see, some of these verses may sound amoral, not immoral,
amoral; but we have to take into account that he is literally
talking about war, where the stakes are life and death.
And I intentionally put this verse here to emphasize that in
serious situations where the stakes are high, acting according to
emotions is destructive. Sometimes you have to put 10 soldiers
in danger to protect a 10,000-man army. You care about those
10 people but if you don’t make that sacrifice, you’ve put your
whole army in danger, and the consequences will be much,
much bigger.
You see, this book is filled with tactics, and I can’t fit them all in
one video. If this video does well, I can make a more in-depth
video breaking down each chapter, so make sure to like and
subscribe for future videos.
Chapter 13, verses 2 to 4:
Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the
victory which is decided in a single day. This being so, to remain
in ignorance of the enemy's condition simply because one
grudges the outlay of a hundred ounces of silver in hours and
emoluments, is the height of inhumanity.
One who acts thus is no leader of men, no present help to his
sovereign, no master of victory.
Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to
strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of
ordinary men, is foreknowledge.
You know we’ve talked about how crucial it is to know yourself
in the second chapter of this video; but that only gets us
halfway through victory. The other half can be achieved by
knowing our opponent.
You can always have the upper hand when you have
information about your enemy’s plans. But how can we get that
information?

4. Spies
Sun Tzu had a strong opinion on how important information is,
especially outside information. He talks about it all throughout
his book and a large proportion of those tactics and
explanations are dedicated to the usage of spies.
Chapter 13, verses 7 to 13:
Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: (1) Local
spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies; (4) doomed spies;
(5) surviving spies.
When these five kinds of spies are all at work, none can
discover the secret system. This is called "divine manipulation
of the threads." It is the sovereign's most precious faculty.
Having local spies means employing the services of the
inhabitants of a district.
Having inward spies, making use of officials of the enemy.
Having converted spies, getting hold of the enemy's spies, and
using them for our own purposes.
Having doomed spies, doing certain things openly for purposes
of deception, and allowing spies to know of them and report
them to the enemy.
Surviving spies, finally, are those who bring back news from the
enemy's camp.
You know, I’ve read a lot of books that talk about deception and
using spies. But the interesting thing about his stratagem that
I’ve never encountered was him cherishing the enemies' spies.
He didn’t suggest killing them, like everyone else, instead, he
made them look like kings. He knew that if they turned to his
side, the converted spies, he could’ve had the most authentic
information with the best cover. That just shows us, again, how
important it is to not be influenced by emotions and make the
decision with the highest return.
Chapter 13, verse 25:
The end and aim of spying in all its five varieties is knowledge of
the enemy; and this knowledge can only be derived, in the first
instance, from the converted spy. Hence it is essential that the
converted spy be treated with the utmost liberality.

Again, some of the things in this book may sound amoral, but
this book wasn’t written to teach us morality; and even if you
wanna look at it from a moral perspective, it’s war; your
people's lives depend on these tactics and maneuvers. As he
mentioned, armies prepare for months, even years, for the
decision to be decided in a single day. So you better be prepare
as much as you can when that day comes.

5. Conclusion.
Okay, now that you’ve got a decent understanding of the book
let’s talk about whether it’s worth reading or not.
It absolutely is. and the main reason for that, in my opinion, is
it’s so short.
The first like 70 pages are introductions and a sort of biography
of the translator and Sun Tsu himself. The last 100 pages are
commentaries, explaining the context of the Chinese words and
history behind those saying.
I read it and I’m telling you; you don’t have to. It doesn’t
change your reading experience and it doesn’t provide any
further context that you have to know to understand the stuff in
the book.
The main part has 13 chapters, in only 64 pages, where half of
the pages are filled with Chinese text. So, you can absolutely
read it in 2, or 3 days. I personally tend to take my time when
reading valuable books to really understand everything. And for
64 pages, the return on your time and energy is so high. it
doesn’t have boring stories or unnecessary build-ups, just pure
value.