Win Without Fighting: Top 20 Ways for You

Human beings like to fight even though they know very well from past history that fighting never work for any parties.  Just look at the devastation World Wars I and II and the on-going wars today and you'll realize how silly we are. Psychologists said that fighting is an animal instinct, for people have this scarcity mentality and they are too attached to the notion of having things and that's why we cannot let go.

Yet wisdom from over 2,000 years of ancient civilisation including Sun Tzu Art of War, Zhuang Zi, Confucius, Lao Zi and Sidharta Gotama 'Pali Canon' told us that at the end of the day, the winner is the one that wins EVEN WHEN HE DOESN'T FIGHT.  In fact smart companies like Facebook, Twitter, Google and Apple know and practised these No-War Strategies.  In particular, Facebook is a latecomer in social media but they did not go out to fight head-on with pioneers like MySpace and Friendster.  Instead Facebook created a perfect photo-sharing and time-line platform that worked with MySpace and Friendster users and in the process, made the competitors obsolete.

In business and management, there are at least 20 ways to apply Win Without Fighting philosophy:

1. Go with the Flow of things like be part of the trend instead of fighting against the tide
2. Go High, for higher level have fewer competitors.  In sales, go high could also mean to straight to the decision-maker instead of to the buyers
3. Win People's Hearts, for people think with their heads and act with their hearts
4. Pull instead of Push.  Pushing seldom works because people like to resist changes. Instead pull (attract) people over to you
5. Stand Out
6. Persuade, Influence and Negotiate instead of Arguing and Fighting over differences in opinions
7. Strategize, Plan and Review and you'll be on top of things
8. BE-DO-HAVE: Be the Person first, and you'll do the necessary things and Have the results
9. Leverage on other People, like strategic alliances and host beneficiary
10. Work with People
11. Prepare for the Worst, and your plan will prevent problems from happening
12. Kill with a Borrowed Knife, i.e. use other people or things to 'kill' your enemy.  Like in sales, overcome the customer's objection by presenting the objection as the reason to go ahead
13. Align with Other People's Strategy, and they'll come to work with you
14. One-Stop Solution - there's no need for people to look elsewhere as you have all the solutions
15. Indirect Attack, like the best way to cure sickness is to be healthy in your mind
16. Ask Questions instead of making statements.  In this way, you'll get the answers that you want
17. Lose first so as to gain later.  Like apologizing even when you're not in the wrong will score you marks in people's emotional bank account
18. Know Yourself, Know Others and you'll know how to win others without fighting
19. Make Friends or Families, for blood is thicker than water and people seldom fight with friends
20. Wait for a Better Timing.  When conditions are ripe, you'll be able to win easily without a fight. This is especially so in investments and looking for job or for the right candidate. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

Written by Andy Ng, whose Leadership with Sun Tzu Art of War is on 22 May 2014 Thursday 2 to 6 pm.  Those who registered 2 seats will get the book "Turning Ideas into Gold" worth $55. For details, click here or call or text 8201-4347.