This 2500 Year Old Book Will Make You A Strategic Genius!

today I'm going to summarize a book written 2500 years ago despite that it was written many years ago it is still to this day one of the most studied books by entrepreneurs military generals politicians and athletes the book I'm talking about is The Art of War yes this is a book about war but the lessons can be applied to your job business and daily life after all business is a modern day war if you run a business or work for a business then it is a book for you I have 24 lessons so let's get started number one he will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight a few months ago I found out that one of my suppliers had sold me a service that I absolutely didn't need they presented it as if it were mandatory by law so I bought it after almost a year I accidentally discovered that that was a lie that service cost me around 1 000 dollars I got really angry when I found out about it and sent them an email of course they kept saying that I needed that service after a few email exchanges and phone calls I canceled my contract with them and ended our cooperation I didn't continue to argue with them despite the fact that I had hard evidence that they were being dishonest if I pushed harder I would most likely win the argument and my ego told me to just do that but I didn't do it and here's why every argument every war every conflict has a cost and many times the cost of fighting doesn't justify the prize you will win in this particular example if I kept fighting I would have to spend several days of my time hire someone to defend my position plus the stress of the entire process I had two choices I could invest my time and energy into that conflict and win one thousand dollars or invest the exact same time into my business and win at least four to five times more than that this is why I just let it go now looking back I still feel good about my decision even if my ego keeps telling me that I had to punish them but that punishment would come with a heavy cost and even if I won I would still lose that's why sometimes it's just not worth the fight so lesson number one is he will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight number two should the enemy strengthen his left he will weaken his right should he strengthen his right he will weaken his left if he sends reinforcements everywhere he will be weak everywhere you've probably heard that diversification in business and in investing is the way to reduce risk but here's the thing every great business you see and use today such as YouTube Instagram Facebook didn't diversify at the beginning they all found one thing and focused all their resources on that and did it better than everybody else once they were successful then they started diversifying so if you are starting something new and have limited resources diversification isn't the way to go if you focus everywhere you will be weak everywhere the same thing applies to your customers pick a customer group and focus all your energy on serving them if you sell to everybody you sell to nobody if everybody is your customer nobody is your customer number three avoid what is strong and attack what is weak you can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended and weak let's say you start your first job and see that everybody in the company is great at Excel so you work hard and try to compete with those guys can you imagine how hard it's going to be to compete with those sharks who have 10 plus years of expertise in Excel you attacked something that is very strong and hard to defeat you are very likely to lose or become a mediocre employee now instead imagine you look around and see that there is no expert in the company for PowerPoint presentations so you decide to focus on that guess what will happen next after a short time you'll be considered the go-to person for PowerPoint presentations not just that it will also be very hard to fire you because there are simply not enough people with that skill in the company let me give you one more example the things you are good at and enjoy doing are the things you should be attacking focusing more on the other hand the things you suck at and don't enjoy doing are the things to be avoided because focusing on them is like attacking the enemy where he is the strongest for example if I'm good at creating the videos you are watching right now and it gives me huge pleasure benefits people like you who also helps me to earn a decent amount of money then why should I spend my time improving my Administration skills I don't care if I'm bad at Administration I know that as long as I focus on what I like and get good at it that I can always hire someone who can do Administration work for me cheaply and more efficiently if I make a hundred dollars an hour doing what I love and can hire a professional project manager for ten dollars an hour then why on Earth should I focus on improving my management skills it just doesn't make sense financially plus focusing on what I don't like will reduce my confidence make me feel miserable and unhappy so lesson number three is avoid what is strong attack what is weak avoid your weaknesses and focus on your strengths number four raising a hundred thousand men and marching them great distances entails heavy loss on the people and a drain on the resources of the state the daily expenditure will amount to a thousand ounces of silver there will be civil unrest at home and abroad men will drop down exhausted on the highways as many as 700 000 families will be impeded in their labor war is very expensive it costs lives even when there is no fighting it costs the patience and support of people at home that cost is paid for a long time even after the war has ended and even if you were victorious that is why you should understand the cost before you go to war the same thing applies to starting your business the idea of having your business sounds great but are you willing to pay the costs are you willing to work for a year without profit are you willing to have arguments with your partner because you are working a lot are you willing to be under pressure and stress are you willing to work on weekends and not go off with your friends these are just a few of the costs you have to pay and it isn't just you it's also your family and friends who pay it many people don't see the cost and they think that having their own business means being in a black suit sitting in a fancy office in a tall building holding a phone in one hand and a coffee in the other hand and ordering people to do this and that but that is not the reality the reality is that your office will be your bedroom or coffee shop if you're lucky and you will not be ordering people you will be the one doing it a few days ago I saw a post on Facebook from an entrepreneur that I think perfectly explains what it means to have your own business he wrote you know when I was working in a company for somebody else I didn't like when I had to work on Saturdays that is why I worked very hard and finally created my own business now that I have my own business I also work on Sundays number five we cannot enter into an alliance with neighboring princes until we are acquainted with their designs we are not fit to lead an Army on the March unless we are familiar with the face of the country its mountains forests and swamps alliances both in business and in Warfare are essential however a problem is that those who would be your friend often have an agenda of their own which does not necessarily agree with yours your allies may also have deceitful tricks that is why it is important to spend the time to research your allies and understand their real interests number six if you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles if you know yourself but not the enemy for every Victory gained you will also suffer a defeat if you know neither the enemy nor yourself you will lose in every battle if you go to a job interview there are two questions that are very likely to be asked the first one is why should we hire you and the second do you know anything about our company the way most people answer is like this ah the reason you should hire me is because I am a team player reliable and I work hard and I checked your website and it seems like your company is selling books guess what happens after such an answer the interviewer says she will contact you soon but you never hear from her again you don't even get an email explaining the reason they rejected you now imagine this scenario imagine before you go to an interview you do a deep research to understand what the company is doing and what are the problems they are facing these days you don't stop there you also find someone who works in that company and you arrange a meeting to learn more you also find some people who work in that position that you are applying for and talk to them simply put you learn everything you can about the company their problems future plans new initiatives Etc then you take a look at the results of your research and discover that the company is facing five main problems and you can actually help with two of those so you take a piece of paper and describe those two problems in detail and explain how you would solve them if they hired you for example you say your company had the biggest market share in the number of books sold but since 2018 You've Lost Your dominance and your Revenue has been decreasing every quarter since then if you hire me as a marketing manager here are three things I will do to increase sales number one I will do XYZ because I've done it in my previous job and got great results number two I will do this and that Etc in this way you describe the problems and explain how you would solve them if you do this well here are two things that will happen number one the person interviewing you will be amazed and you will get hired immediately number two you will be offered the highest salary they can offer and if you want you can even push higher and they will be willing to accept it because no other candidate seem to understand their problem as much as you did and provided a solution now this is not some Theory I've done it personally and I've also seen others doing it and getting amazing results it works and it works because you took the time to know your enemy and yourself so lesson number six is Know The Enemy and know yourself and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles number seven when some are seen advancing and some retreating it is a lure if those who are sent to draw water Begin by drinking themselves the Army is suffering from thirst when the soldiers stand leaning on their Spears they are faint from want to food if the enemy sees an advantage to be gained and makes no effort to secure it the soldiers are exhausted if Birds gather on any spot it is unoccupied if there is disturbance in the camp the General's Authority is weak so you're probably asking what all that means for you because most of them are quite specific to war and don't apply to business or daily life yes you are right but if you pay close attention you will see that there is one thing that is common in all of them and that is they're all signs regardless if it is in business or in war signs tell a very important story entrepreneurs who are skilled enough to read the science can easily use it to their advantage that is why you should pay close attention to signs in your life or in your business and understand what they are trying to tell you for example I recently found out that 75 percent of people who watch my videos don't subscribe it's a sign telling me I'm doing a terrible job at converting viewers into subscribers so signs tell me that I should ask you to subscribe more often so here I am asking you to subscribe so what are the signs in your life telling you for example if you always feel tired and sleepy during the day it's a sign that you should fix your sleep if you're on a diet but still struggle to lose your extra weight it's a sign that you should change something in your diet number eight we can't rely on the likelihood of the enemy not coming put on our own Readiness to receive him not on the chance of his not attacking but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable look right now everything might be going well for you you might have a reliable job a great salary company car and no health problems I hope everything stays that way for you but let's be realistic things go wrong you might get fired you might have financial difficulties and the worst of all you might have health problems this is reality we can't ignore it and naively believe that they will not come one day that is why we all need to be prepared we can't rely on the likelihood that difficulties aren't coming they will eventually come and what matters is if you are prepared or not here are a few basic ways to prepare for them number one have an emergency fund where you keep the equivalent of three to six months of your monthly expenses number two make sure you have good insurance for yourself and your family number three become an expert at your job during tough times amateurs get fired first and demand for experts goes up number four if you don't see yourself as an expert at your current job then start a side business or take new courses to prepare yourself for a new job number five have some cash ready for great investment opportunities that might come your way number nine there are roads which must not be followed armies which must not be attacked towns which must not be besieged positions which must not be contested commands of the state which must not be obeyed this lesson is all about knowing the things that you shouldn't be doing there's a saying that goes like this knowing what not to do is more important than knowing what to do most of us have to-do lists but have you ever created a not to-do list if you haven't just give it a try and you'll be amazed by the results for example you shouldn't be doing the things you're bad at you shouldn't be hanging out with people who drain your energy you shouldn't be spending the first two to three hours of your day on low value tasks not to-do lists also applies to customers there are certain customers that you shouldn't be serving there's a famous saying the customer is always right which I personally don't agree with the customer is not always right right customers are always right there's a big difference if you serve the wrong customer they will waste your time and drain your energy you should throw away such customers just like you're throwing away your garbage toxic customers are really like garbage and probably someone else threw them away and if you continue to serve them you'll be basically feeding on someone else's garbage let someone else deal with them and you focus on customers that really matter for your business if you do that and not serve the wrong customers you'll now have extra time which you can spend on the customers that really matter and this will make them even happier and they will refer your business to even more similar-minded customers now I understand that in some businesses it would be difficult to choose your customers but many small business owners and Freelancers can do that easily by positioning themselves in a certain way or by simply rejecting certain types of customers with a certain budget or attitude I also know that many people will have a hard time with the idea of rejecting customers for example last year I couldn't convince my friend and his business partner that they shouldn't be accepting every customer and instead position themselves for a very specific group of customers they kept saying a customer is a customer and we shouldn't be rejecting them if you say a customer is a customer then you operate just like the grocery store in the corner of your street that is selling potatoes and cucumbers you become a commodity business commodity businesses lose clients as soon as there is a new competitor with better prices for example you probably don't care where you buy potatoes right a potato is a potato and you're better off if you buy it from a grocery store that sells it cheaper number 10. there are not more than five musical notes yet the combination of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard there are not more than five primary colors yet in combination they produce more colors than can ever be seen and in battle there are not more than two methods of attack the direct and the indirect yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers oftentimes in personal life or At Work We complain that there are not enough resources We complain about not having enough time money employees Etc it's easy to complain but what is hard is to use your limited resources creatively and come up with new Solutions this lesson personally made me realize how often I choose to complain about the lack of resources rather than focusing on doing something creatively with what I already have our brain's potential is endless it just requires you to ask the right questions instead of saying I don't have resources you need to ask how can I achieve what I want to using the things that I already have this is a simple question but it opens up the brain and lets it work on the possibilities number 11. the control of a large force is the same Principle as the control of a few men it is merely a question of dividing up their numbers have you ever noticed that sometimes a task or project looked so big and scary that you don't even dare to start working on it however once you sit down and break it down into pieces you realize that it actually isn't scary in fact it's pretty simple when it comes to managing my tasks effectively one technique has been tremendously helpful and that was naming my days and batching my tasks for example my Mondays are for administrative tasks this is the day I respond to emails and deal with tasks related to management of the company Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays are for Creative work these are the days I research and write scripts like this one Finally Friday is the meeting day when I hold most of my meetings some weeks it's difficult to manage things like I described especially if not everybody is willing or available to meet on Fridays but I do my best to stick to this formula ninety percent of the time this technique is great for four reasons number one you're not overwhelmed and worried about all 20 other tasks you only focus on what is in front of you for today number two it increases productivity and focus every time you switch a task you lose momentum this technique avoids it number three you have better Clarity and worry less sometimes you see an email and want to jump in and get it done but when you know that today isn't the day to respond to emails then it's easy to bring yourself back on track and ignore that task number four if you have many tasks then we usually tend to avoid the painful ones and focus on easy ones but when you know that this is the day you have to deal with that painful task then you have no option but to get it done number 12. throw your soldiers into positions where there is no Escape and they will prefer death to flight if they will face death there is nothing they may not achieve this simply means if you're trying to conquer the island the best way to do it is to burn your ships in other words have no backup plan and go all in on the other hand I believe that it's a powerful tactic because it turns I should do it into I must do it many of us just keep saying I should do this I should do that but actually never do it there's tremendous power when we know that there is no turning back and it's a must in many aspects of life this can be a very powerful tactic but in my opinion when it comes to starting a business it's not the way to go for example it doesn't make sense to quit your job next month and start your business especially if you have no experience with running a business I personally didn't burn my ships right away I started the business on the side and eventually went all in and burned the ships but it wasn't until I knew that there was at least 60 to 70 percent chance of success number 13. good Fighters put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat and then wait for an opportunity to defeat the enemy to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself whatever the situation you are facing you know yourself better than anyone else you know your weaknesses and strengths that is why it's in your hands to put yourself beyond the possibility of defeat however you don't know your enemy once you are sure of your defense you need to do a lot of observation to find a weakness in your enemy's defense but again first you need to be sure that you have a good defense otherwise regardless of how big the opportunity is you can't benefit from it for example there is a saying that more millionaires are made in a market crash than in a market boom Market crashes bring a lot of opportunities because a lot of great businesses are sold on a discount however if your defense sucks meaning if you are deep in debt have no emergency fund have no reliable source of income have high expenses and no savings then it doesn't matter how big the opportunity is you will not be able to benefit you will probably be the victim of the market crash because you didn't build your defense and put yourself beyond the possibility of defeat number 14 he will win who knows how to handle both the superior and inferior forces different groups of people use different words and speak differently for example investors speak differently than entrepreneurs entrepreneurs speak differently than employees and married people speak differently than single people sometimes language is so different that a person listening might feel like he is listening to a foreign language investors use words such as Roi return on investment asset liability capital gains appreciation Etc on the other hand employees use words such as good Pension Plan High salary flexible working hours meal vouchers Etc depending on which of these groups you are talking to you should be able to adjust your language if you want to communicate effectively I used to have a manager who I admired for his great presentation skills for example when he was talking to us to his team he would have 15 to 20 slides in his PowerPoint presentation but when he was presenting the exact same topic to hire management he would usually have one slide with 10 to 15 texts on it because management only cared about a few key information and he could give it to them in one slide he was well respected and loved in the company because he knew how to talk to his superiors and inferiors number 15. the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temper before the battle is fought the general who loses a battle makes a few calculations beforehand thus doing many calculations lead to Victory and few calculations to defeat It Is by attention to this point I can foresee who is likely to win or lose it's ironic how we all understand the importance of plans but still ignore it in our day-to-day life there is no single football or basketball team that starts the game without a complete and well-defined plan but when it comes to life only a few people take the time to develop a game plan here is the most important rule of planning for life don't start your day without a complete and well-defined plan don't start your activities until you know exactly what you plan to accomplish on that day in other words don't start your day until you have it finished on paper I know it takes time to plan but do this every day and you will be amazed how much you accomplish if you do it you will not say ugh I have no idea how this day ended so fast you'll look back and feel great about what you have accomplished once you master planning your days then the next rule is don't start your week month and year until you have it planned plans are great but they are not written on Stone and you should adjust them according to circumstances number 16. to win 100 Battles is not the height of skill breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting is the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting he captures their cities without laying Siege to them he overthrows their Kingdom without lengthy operations in the field in terms of business battling means competing too often businesses compete over market share and start price wars only to find out that they have destroyed the market by reducing the profits so in business how do you win without competing how do you win without fighting well it's absolutely possible but not easy there's a great book called Blue Ocean strategy which explains how to do that I can't tell you the strategy in this video because it isn't that short but to put it simply the author of the book explains that there are two oceans ocean means Market the red Ocean and the blue ocean the red ocean is red because competition is too Fierce and the blood of the competitors has turned the water red on the other hand if you swim past the red ocean there is another ocean that is blue and free of competition your goal is to be in that blue ocean and the book explains it well how to do that I'll be summarizing that book very soon on this channel if you're an entrepreneur and have a business in a very competitive market then this is a must read book number 17. carefully compare the opposing army with your own so that you may know where strength is super abundant and where it is deficient in my marketing class at the University I learned a technique called SWOT analysis invented by a guy named Philip kotler even though at the time I didn't take it much seriously later in life turned out to be a practical tool in case you don't know SWAT stands for strength weakness opportunity and threat it's a simple tool to analyze a business to find out what are its strong and weak points where are the opportunities and threats this is a great tool you can use to analyze your business your competitors or simply you can use it to analyze yourself as an individual this can be especially useful if you are at a career Cross Point and don't know which direction to go analyze yourself as if you are analyzing a company or another person and write down what are your strengths the things you're good at what are your weaknesses the things you're bad at and finally what are the opportunities and threats that you see in your life the things you put in the weakness and threat column are the ones to be avoided your future career shouldn't be based on your weaknesses and threats what is the most interesting for you are the things you put in the strength and opportunities column these two columns will be the main indicators telling you what to focus on also if you're planning to go to a job interview there is a high chance that you will be asked what your strengths and weaknesses are quite a basic question and gets asked a lot but many people can't provide a clear answer number 18. an army May March great distances without distress if it marches through a country where the enemy is not this one sounds pretty clear right if there's no enemy then it's easy to March but let's see how many times have you tried to study or get some serious work done while you kept your phone next to you and checked social media every five minutes that phone is your enemy and you just put it on the road that you are going to march on how many times have you gone on a diet but still bought cookies and chocolate and put it in your fridge don't you realize that you're putting enemies in your fridge that are looking for weak moments to attack so for me this lesson means creating a system where you eliminate the enemies so that you can March without danger if you're trying to read more the Netflix is your enemy if you're trying to improve your grades then friends who care more about drinking than studying are your enemies a few weeks ago I summarized a book called Atomic habits and talked about the importance of setting up systems and explained why goals are useless if you don't have the system in place number 19. now A Soldier's spirit is keenest in the morning by noon day 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 key but attacks when it is sluggish this is the art of studying moods so this simply means if you're going to do something important better do it in the morning because by the evening you'll run out of energy and willpower your willpower is like a muscle just like your muscles get tired after every push-up you do your willpower also gets tired in the morning your will power battery is full but as the day advances every single activity you do depletes it here is the most important thing about willpower that many people aren't aware of you only have one source that you use for everything it isn't like you have a different source of willpower for exercise a different one for shopping and another one for work you have only one source and everything you do depletes it people who don't realize this wake up and first thing they do is to check their phone then they stand in front of the fridge analyzing if they should eat an omelette for breakfast or some cereal then they start responding to some minor emails or they start cleaning their room or do some low value tasks finally after every meaningless job is done they sit down to do something meaningful in the evening but here's the thing it's already late because you didn't attack the most important tasks when your spirit was high and had the energy number 20. if soldiers are punished before they have grown attached to you they will not prove submissive and if they are not submissive then they will be practically useless if soldiers have become attached to you but punishments are not enforced they will still be useless therefore soldiers must be treated in the first instance with Humanity but kept under control by means of iron discipline this is a certain road to Victory there are two commonly used methods for motivating people either by rewarding them or by punishing them many CEOs and managers today use the punishment method first to get employees to do something but even the Army General who lived 2500 years ago thought that you shouldn't use punishment first few people are submissive by nature and they might follow your orders however starting out with a hard approach risks creating grudges against you instead if you first get their respect then they will accept your punishment happily number 21. when the common soldiers are too strong and their officers too weak the result is insubordination when the officers are too strong and the common soldiers too weak the result collapse you can be a great general or officer but if your soldiers are weak there's no way you're going to win that battle it's the same in business at the end of the day it is the team that gets the job done not the manager or the CEO that's why it's very important to hire the right people hiring people with the wrong mindset and not enough skills will collapse your business number 22. it is the business of a general to be quiet and ensure secrecy both in war and in business information is critical a secret shared is no longer a secret even if it's just one person whilst some may be trusted but even The Trusted person may also be captured and tortured for their knowledge they may be blackmailed or bribed the more critical the knowledge the fewer should know it is hence often better to keep major plans to oneself number 23 record your soldiers as your children and they will follow you into the deepest valleys look upon them as your own beloved Sons and they will stand by you even unto death however if you are indulgent but unable to make your Authority felt kind-hearted but unable to enforce your commands then your soldiers must be likened to spoiled children they are useless for any practical purpose the best way of parenting leading soldiers or leading a team is both to love them and at the same time make your Authority felt and orders obeyed maintaining balance is quite a hard thing to do some leaders are just all about showing love and taking care but they have a hard time getting things done on the other hand some leaders are all about being tough and giving orders which is not effective either the key is to find balance number 24. all Warfare is based on Deception when able to attack we must seem unable when using our forces we must seem 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 if he is secure at all points be prepared for him if he is in Superior strength evade him if he is taking his ease give him no rest if his forces are united separate them attack him where he is unprepared appear where you are not expected this is it for this video if you remember I mentioned two other videos to check out one was Atomic habits and the second one was circadian code Atomic habits which you see on the left side of your screen will help you to build better habits and create systems circadian code which is on the right side of your screen will help you to lose weight improve your sleep and increase your energy so that you don't feel tired and sleepy all day long thanks for watching and I hope this was a useful video

Channel: LITTLE BIT BETTER

Views: 629,610

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Length: 39min 51sec (2391 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 29 2023