The art of war in life

And I do not mean war in the literal sense of course. Metaphorically, I am referring to the battles we fight throughout our lives every day.

A battle to get into a school, a battle to find a job, a battle to set up a job, and so on… If you read Sun Tzu’s book The Art of War, you will find that the principles and strategies he describes are essential, have a perfect application in everyday life. One of my favorite phrases from the book is:

A winner first wins and then seeks the battle. A loser, first fights and then seeks victory.

Winners and losers

This is perhaps the most important factor in differentiating between successful and unsuccessful people. I am talking about success in every aspect of life.

Some people have successful relationships, some do not. Some students always get good grades while most do not. Some are very good entrepreneurs while the majority are not. So the people who succeed in what they do, have succeeded before they do it! Commonly prepared first.

All excellent students know that they will write excellently before the competition starts. They would not even go out and write if they were not sure they could answer every question. Maybe when you were a student you considered them “plants”. You may have considered it a waste of time and still consider it.

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The point, however, is that it has nothing to do with reading… It is the mentality you acquire. The same is true in other cases.

A successful entrepreneur does not start a business unless he is as confident as possible that he will be a successful entrepreneur. He first does thorough research on all the issues surrounding the type of business. He knows exactly what to expect, what problems will arise, and how to solve them.

Failure scenarios in life

So most people start a business and then wait for it to succeed. That’s why most fail. How do you enter a market if you do not know the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors? How do you get started if you do not know what resources you need to compete? If you do not succeed, do not be surprised. This is exactly what the saying of Sun Tzu describes.

If you know the enemy and yourself, you do not need to be afraid of the result of even a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory you will suffer a defeat. If you do not know either of them, you will succumb to every battle.

Let’s say you go to a job interview. If you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses and know exactly what the company needs, you get both the job and the salary you want.

If you know yourself but not the company, you can get the job but not the salary you want. If you know nothing about yourself and nothing about the company, forget about work and salary obviously. Self-knowledge, however, is definitely half the victory!

So the secret of victory or success is the right preparation. As tedious, time-consuming, boring, or annoying as it is, it is an inevitable prerequisite. If it was easy everyone would do it. And if everyone did it would have no value. So it’s no secret. It’s the truth we refuse to face.