Business and Money Tips

Sun Tzu in the Art of War followed what Han Feizi said, "In war, there is no limit to deception" and said, "All War is about deception".  Indeed many people view deception as a low level and unscrupulous way to win.  They say that only dishonest people will deceive.  Is this true? If you were to read the Art of War carefully, you will realise that Sun Tzu advocates no war , and he preaches that war is expensive, and we should resolve problems through winning with no war.   How to win with no war?  It is to let the opponent know that he should not fight with you , for you are much stronger.  Isn't this deception?   Also, Sun Tzu said in the first chapter that the 5 elements are important. Among the 5 elements, Dao or Purpose is paramount.  Our purpose of deception is NOT to deceive the opponent to win over him but to not let him know  our true situation .   In this way, we can avoid war.   There are six common ways to not people know our true situ

In his military classic "Art of War" written 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu taught us that to defeat the competition and achieve your goals, you must have foreknowledge or 先知.  Foreknowledge is not about the following: Prediction based on the past Unsubstantiated Hearsay Analogy with past events Derived from calculations Foreknowledge is about 4 things: Detailed research and analysis from people who know the competition situation in detail Knowledge of the personality and behaviour profile of people Psychology of things, why people do things in certain way Knowledge about the environment, including business climate Foreknowledge does not stop at knowing your competitors.   The most important knowledge is to know yourself.   You must know where you are strong and where you are weak so that  your weakness will not be exposed and instead positioned as strengths.    Having foreknowledge will also help us to exercise  Deception,  which is simply  not letting th

From Sun Tzu's "Art of War" book: 1.  Seek Victory From the Situation A skilled commander seeks victory from the situation.  He knows when the situation is favourable to him and avoids war when it is dangerous to him.  2.  Deceive Your Enemy All warfare is based on deception.  Even though you're competent, you have to appear as incompetent.  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 that we are far; when far away, we must appear near.  In short, appear weak when strong, and appear strong when weak.   Hence those skilled in war will bring the enemy to the battlefield and not be brought there by the enemy.   Supreme excellence lies in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting .  Hence the ultimate winner is one that wins without fighting .  Or put in another way, the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. 3. Be Invisible and Soundless I

In his military classic "Art of War" written 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu taught us that to defeat the competition and achieve your goals, you must have foreknowledge.  Foreknowledge is not about the following: Prediction based on the past Unsubstantiated Hearsay Analogy with past events Derived from calculations Foreknowledge is about 4 things: Detailed research and analysis from people who know the competition situation in details Knowledge of the personality and behaviour profile of people Psychology of things, why people do things in certain way Knowledge about the environment, including business climate Foreknowledge does not stop at knowing your competitors.   The most important knowledge is to know yourself.  You must know where you are strong and where you are weak so that your weakness will not be exposed and instead positioned as strengths.   Having foreknowledge will also help us to exercise Deception, which is simply not letting the enemy kn

Sun Tzu said in the Art of War that it is not enough to "Know Yourself, Know Your Enemy", we also must ensure that our opponent does not know the real us.  This is what he meant by 'Deception' - "When strong, appear weak, when weak, appear strong".  The famous Sun Tzu quote: "All war is based on deception" does not mean Sun Tzu teach us to deceive people and be dis-honest.  At the beginning Sun Tzu said "Moral" is of utmost importance, thus we know that Sun Tzu is not a book for cheats. To Get People Not to Know You could mean the following 5 Things: Be Humble , for humility gives you flexibility if things go wrong Under Promise , so that you could Over Deliver easily.  If you over-promise, you would stand a high chance of under-delivering Be Confident , especially when things are uncertain.  For that confidence gives people confidence in you, and that will translate into support, which in turn will make you stronger Leave Questi

Sun Tzu in the Art of War stated that all war is based on deception.  Does he mean to cheat?  Of course not. What Sun Tzu means is that we need to adjust the enemy's perception so that 'when able to attack we must seem weak, and when weak must appear to be strong'. The reason is that people simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are, or the way they should be. Also, our attitudes and behaviours grow out of these assumptions.  In other words, we are not really seeing, but perceiving. Pick up the phone now and call your own company pretending to be a customer.  How are you treated?  If you are going to adequately manage other people's perception of your company you need to know what that perception is. This is not an exercise to catch people out but to find areas of improvement.  Like my seminar clients, you'll be surprised that the way your people answer the phone is not every business friendly! In business it is imperative that you