Five Ways to Win- Part 5: Generals that are able and not constrained by their governments

Hi, everyone!

Last week I said that I am especially going to enjoy writing this post.

This is mainly because I am particularly fond of pointing out the advantages of working alone.

It is three years now that I am working alone as an attorney. During the time I have worked in a firm with fairly strict oversight I have quickly learned that your opponents can make a lot happen while you still have to get instructions from your boss.

In a firm where I have virtually full autonomy I usually had my opponents phoning me for postponements and extensions of time. Most fun with taking steps nowadays is blocking opponent's phone numbers at those critical times when I know that a lot of trouble is in store for their clients.

Aside from work- I have never known much about Rugby, but the All Blacks' ability to pull off the most amazing plays that flip the script at the most unexpected of times in a match has had me hooked on the game for years now.

A while after following the All Blacks fan pages on Facebook and so forth I have learnt that the players in this team did not limit themselves to what their coaches tell them, but they are used to taking initiative and improvising. This explains why their front row often gets into jobs one would think are reserved for the back row. I apologise to people who are not familiar with the supreme form of football. I assure you, however, that it is a sport worth watching.









Well...

If we don't know anything about fighting we would not understand why Sun Tzu would point out that Generals should not be limited by the governments they serve. We know, however, that in a fight or a battle things often do not go as planned.

Yes- we can prepare, plan, speculate on what the adversary might do and how we would counter it, but once the battle is on there is no time to consult with superiors.

As long as the General knows the objective and what he has in front of him and what he has behind him the Ruler has no business with what the General does to achieve the objective.

Besides- nobody likes a backseat driver, right?

As an individual fighter you would know that it is already hard enough to get one's body to follow one's mind without delay. The increased mental load of trying to carry out instructions from someone else simply does not help.

This also means that advice and guidance are things that you would have to obtain and accept before you get into a fight. Once you are in the fight you can count only on what you already have.

Lastly I will add that this is also a reminder to us that whatever we learn we use in life as far as it can help us, but we should always be ready to put our training aside to do what the situation calls for when necessary.


This concludes the 5 part discussion on this paragraph from Sun Tzu's Art of War.

See you next week with another new post!