Sun Tzu was a military strategist, Chinese general, a philosopher and a writer. He lived in the Eastern Zhou period. He is credited as the author of The Art of War. His work has affected both western and east Asian philosophy. His work focus was on alternatives to battle and keeping of alliances.
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
No matter what kind of work or field you are into if you do not apply your strategy and tactics together for the execution of the plan. You will eventually fail. If your strategy is strong but lacks tactics, you will have slow growth and take more than enough time to achieve the target. Also, if you only focus on tactics without a strategy, that will be like mastering your methods but not applying them through a planned strategy, which will make you lose.
Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.
A good warrior should know about his weakness and strength as well as the weaknesses and strengths of the enemy. Then no matter which war you fight, you will have the victory.
The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.
Whenever you are against your opponent. You will always have to defend yourself and your team, no matter how strong or powerful you are. Safety always lies in your hand. There should be no compromise against your security and defence mechanism. But to win against enemy defence is not only the thing, but you will also have to wait for the perfect time and wait till the enemy make any mistake or till you find any loophole in the enemy. And whenever you find that loophole just exploit it and win over them.
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
Victorious warriors are the warriors who are so determined and prepared for victory even before going to the war. They understand the nature of the enemy and plan their attacks according to the nature of the enemy. Whereas the warriors who are not determined and do not prepare well. They will eventually lose even after being powerful among the squad. They are not determined to win because the only thing they have is power. So, they are already defeated before going to the war.
The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.
The Good and experienced warriors prepare for war so well enough even after 100 % sure of their victory. Because they know 100% is not always enough. So, they try to eliminate every possible chance of their defeat. They try for more than 100 % and give their all for the victory. And even after preparing so well, they do not fall into the trap of over-confidence. All they do is just to wait for the right opportunity when an enemy makes any mistakes, and they grab that opportunity to put the enemy to defeat.
Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.
Darkness here must mean hidden and out of light.... i.e., your plans should not be told to everyone, keep it a secret...and like the suddenness of a thunderbolt show them what your plans were...after you achieved it.
Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
To become the supreme or the world's best one should know how to put their enemy on their knees without giving them a fight......from my opinion just like how China has weakened the backbone of the world's biggest economies these days without any war but just by finding loopholes and taking advantage of them!
He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
Fighting and conquer over enemies in all our battles is not always supreme excellence. As you know, in wars, we are gifted with scars. When there is war, there are casualties and deaths even if you win? A supreme leader always wants his people to be safe and no casualties in war. So, he should use his supreme excellency by exploiting enemies' weakest point and creating rumour and among enemies' squad and letting them fight within watch the drama as you win.
If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near.
Fighting always is not a wise choice. A true warrior is the one who knows when to fight and when not to. Fighting without a solid reason is a fool's choice. A true warrior avoids war if he can. And a Fool warrior is ready for war always.
There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.
The best thing you can do in a war without fighting is scaring the enemy and make them feel anxious and nervous. Make them feel the heat of your presence and power. Make them believe you have your eyes on them, and you are always watching over their action. War never brings happiness and joy, and it has never benefited any country. War always comes with scars, pain, deaths, and sorrows. E.g., you can see Iran was a beautiful country their people were at peace. But when the war happened, everything got destroyed, and now it is a live example of how bad war is. a country should always avoid war as much as they can.
Victory usually goes to the army who has better trained officers and men.
Victory always comes in your hand when you have a strong army of trained and determined men. Victory always comes from the team who are ready to give their 200%. An untrained warrior always crates chaos and provides the benefit of their carelessness to the enemy.
In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.
In the middle of chaos, there can be a lot of drama, failures, pain. But the only thing to remember is with lotus also arises in the mud, a place where there are dirt and filthy things and feels like a chaotic place. However, Lotus still finds a way and blossom itself up making its way through and making the surroundings look beautiful. So, without losing hope, we should always try to grab available opportunities and turn them into our success.
So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.
Whenever in the war. One should always try to hunt down the weakest points and loopholes in the enemy. At first, one should strike on the weakest soldiers of the enemy. Because if you attack the strongest person first, you will waste most of your time, energy, and people. At last, the weakest people will also be deemed to be the strongest as you would have already exhausted most of your time and energy and people. But if you attack the weakest people first, and then, at last, the strong will be a few and a few strong people cannot win the war without their army.
Who wishes to fight must first count the cost.
Whenever you are in a fight, you have two things at stake Your respect, and your bones. All wars and fights always have few things in common: destruction, pain, sorrow, and sometimes an increased hospital bill. Avoiding fights at all costs is the best option. Things can always be solved by discussion and mutual understanding. So always think 100 times before starting or indulging in any fight.
You have to believe in yourself.
All the time you hear this from someone that "You have to believe in yourself.". But no one tells you how and what to believe in yourself. Because when life comes crashing down because of any incident- be it a loss of someone or something you love, a failed relationship, failures, etc. the only things you are left with pain and self-doubts, so when someone says to believe in yourself, and you are confused like to believe in my self-doubts and pain?
So, let me tell you to explain to you today. No, you do not have to believe in your self-doubts and pain, just kick them out of your life.
You will have to believe in the moments:
1. When you were young as a child and were walking on knees and then one day you believed in yourself and without any fear started walking on your legs. just believe in that
2. When you didn't prepare well for the exam and feared you might fail, but you gave your 100% and kept faith in your hard work, and you passed, Just believe in that.
Just believe in the kid in yourself who once thought of achieving something good in life. Just believe in yourself. Just believe in the moments when you thought that you almost gave up, but you kept trying with all your hope. Believe in your hard work, dreams, and your family.
One may know how to conquer without being able to do it.
You can understand the above line with the game of chess. In chess, you must make up strategies in mind and analyze the opponent's pattern before executing any step. In chess, you must think deeply and organize the full game in your mind so that you can invite the opponent to checkmate. But you must do all calculations in mind before taking any step, because if any wrong step and you are gone. So, like the game of chess, one should predict the movement of the enemy and should lay strategies in mind to conquer before going to a game, fight, or war.
Co-author: Shraddha Thuwal
Shraddha Thuwal is the author of the book "Let us Conquer over weakness". She is a blogger and her work has been published in various anthologies. By writing, she aims to reach out to people, create awareness and create a positive impact globally.
