Robert Greene
The 33 Strategies of War
Many psychologists and sociologists have argued that it is through conflict that problems are often solved and real differences reconciled. Our successes and failures in life can be traced to how well or how badly we deal with the inevitable conflicts that confront us in society. The common ways that people deal with them—trying to avoid all conflict, getting emotional and lashing out, turning sly and manipulative—are all counterproductive in the long run, because they are not under conscious and rational control and often make the situation worse. (Location 209)
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winning without bloodshed. (Location 238)
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By playing on the psychological weaknesses of the opponent, by maneuvering him into precarious positions, by inducing feelings of frustration and confusion, a strategist can get the other side to break down mentally before surrendering physically. In this way victory can be had at a much lower cost. (Location 238)
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War also reflects trends in society. The evolution toward more unconventional, dirtier strategies—guerrilla warfare, terrorism—mirrors a similar evolution in society, where almost anything goes. (Location 244)
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The strategic ideal in war—being supremely rational and emotionally balanced, striving to win with minimum bloodshed and loss of resources—has infinite application and relevance to our daily battles. (Location 247)
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if you want or desire anything, you must be ready and able to fight for it. (Location 261)
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Look at things as they are, not as your emotions color them. (Location 277)
In strategy you must see your emotional responses to events as a kind of disease that must be remedied. Fear will make you overestimate the enemy and act too defensively. Anger and impatience will draw you into rash actions that will cut off your options. Overconfidence, particularly as a result of success, will make you go too far. Love and affection will blind you to the treacherous maneuvers of those apparently on your side. Even the subtlest gradations of these emotions can color the way you look at events. The only remedy is to be aware that the pull of emotion is inevitable, to notice it when it is happening, and to compensate for it. When you have success, be extra wary. When you are angry, take no action. When you are fearful, know you are going to exaggerate the dangers you face. War demands the utmost in realism, seeing things as they are. The more you can limit or compensate for your emotional responses, the closer you will come to this ideal. (Location 277)
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Although a goddess of war, [Athena] gets no pleasure from battle . . . but rather from settling disputes, and upholding the law by pacific means. She bears no arms in time of peace and, if ever she needs any, will usually borrow a set from Zeus. Her mercy is great. . . . Yet, once engaged in battle, she never loses the day, even against Ares himself, being better grounded in tactics and strategy than he; and wise captains always approach her for advice. THE GREEK MYTHS VOL. 1, ROBERT GRAVES, 1955 (Location 284)
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Judge people by their actions. (Location 289)
The brilliance of warfare is that no amount of eloquence or talk can explain away a failure on the battlefield. A general has led his troops to defeat, lives have been wasted, and that is how history will judge him. You must strive to apply this ruthless standard in your daily life, judging people by the results of their actions, the deeds that can be seen and measured, the maneuvers they have used to gain power. What people say about themselves does not matter; people will say anything. Look at what they have done; deeds do not lie. You must also apply this logic to yourself. In looking back at a defeat, you must identify the things you could have done differently. It is your own bad strategies, not the unfair opponent, that are to blame for your failures. You are responsible for the good and bad in your life. (Location 289)
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People who accuse you of being unfair, for example, who try to make you feel guilty, who talk about justice and morality, are trying to gain an advantage on the chessboard. (Location 295)
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Depend on your own arms. (Location 297)
In the search for success in life, people tend to rely on things that seem simple and easy or that have worked before. (Location 297)
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But true strategy is psychological—a matter of intelligence, not material force. (Location 299)
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Everything in life can be taken away from you and generally will be at some point. (Location 299)
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As Sun-tzu says, “Being unconquerable lies with yourself.” (Location 302)
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Worship Athena, not Ares. (Location 303)
Elevate yourself above the battlefield. (Location 323)
In war, strategy is the art of commanding the entire military operation. Tactics, on the other hand, is the skill of forming up the army for battle itself and dealing with the immediate needs of the battlefield. Most of us in life are tacticians, not strategists. (Location 323)
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Spiritualize your warfare. Every day you face battles—that is the reality for all creatures in their struggle to survive. But the greatest battle of all is with yourself—your weaknesses, your emotions, your lack of resolution in seeing things through to the end. You must declare unceasing war on yourself. As a warrior in life, you welcome combat and conflict as ways to prove yourself, to better your skills, to gain courage, confidence, and experience. Instead of repressing your doubts and fears, you must face them down, do battle with them. You want more chal-xx lenges, and you invite more war. You are forging the warrior’s spirit, and only constant practice will lead you there. (Location 331)
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Without war human beings stagnate in comfort and affluence and lose the capacity for great thoughts and feelings, they become cynical and subside into barbarism. FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY, 1821–1881 (Location 356)
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Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended. RALPH WALDO EMERSON, 1803–1882 (Location 366)
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In this world, where the game is played with loaded dice, a man must have a temper of iron, with armor proof to the blows o fate, and weapons to make his way against men. Life is one long battle; we have to fight at every step; and Voltaire very rightly says that if we succeed, it is at the point of the sword, and that we die with the weapon in our hand. (Location 368)
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Do not be naïve: with some enemies there can be no compromise, no middle ground. (Location 389)
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if someone could turn their minds from wondering what will happen to them, and make them wonder what they could do, they will be much more cheerful. (Location 405)
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You know, I am sure, that not numbers or strength brings victory in war; but whichever army goes into battle stronger in soul, their enemies generally cannot withstand them.” (Location 406)
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Fighting for money rather than for a purpose or cause, (Location 435)
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He was no military man, but he knew philosophy and the way men think, and he believed that if the Greeks concentrated on the enemies who wanted to kill them, they would become alert and creative. (Location 437)
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We will declare war without parley on the Persians—no more thoughts of bargaining or debate. We will waste no more time on argument or accusation among ourselves; every ounce of our energy will be spent on the Persians. We will be as inventive and inspired as our ancestors at Marathon, who fought off a vastly larger Persian army. We will burn our wagons, live off the land, move fast. We will not for one second lay down our arms or forget the dangers around us. It is us or them, life or death, good or evil. Should any man try to confuse us with clever talk or with vague ideas of appeasement, we will declare him too stupid and cowardly to be on our side and we will drive him away. Let the Persians make us merciless. We must be consumed with one idea: getting home alive. (Location 441)
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As Xenophon said, your obstacles are not rivers or mountains or other people; your obstacle is yourself. (Location 457)
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He that is not with me is against me. (Location 471)
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every growth reveals itself in the seeking out of a powerful opponent—or problem: (Location 478)
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for a philosopher who is warlike also challenges problems to a duel. (Location 479)
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The undertaking is to master, not any resistances that happen to present themselves, but those against which one has to bring all one’s strength, suppleness and mastery of weapons—to master equal opponents. (Location 479)
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Everything in life conspires to push you into the center, and not just politically. The center is the realm of compromise. Getting along with other people is an important skill to have, but it comes with a danger: by always seeking the path of least resistance, the path of conciliation, you forget who you are, and you sink into the center with everyone else. (Location 534)
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Do not worry about antagonizing people; without antagonism there is no battle, and without battle, there is no chance of victory. (Location 538)
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Do not be lured by the need to be liked: better to be respected, even feared. Victory over your enemies will bring you a more lasting popularity. (Location 539)
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Don’t depend on the enemy not coming; depend rather on being ready for him. (Location 547)
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Often the best way to get people to reveal themselves is to provoke tension and argument. (Location 590)
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Man exists only in so far as he is opposed. GEORG HEGEL, 1770–1831 (Location 598)
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Note: Salmaaz “you are the battles that you fight”
Adopt the method of Cortés if friends or followers whom you suspect of ulterior motives suggest something subtly hostile, or against your interests, or simply odd, avoid the temptation to react, to say no, to get angry, or even to ask questions. Go along, or seem to turn a blind eye: your enemies will soon go further, showing more of their hand. Now you have them in sight, and you can attack. (Location 604)
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Danger is everywhere. There are always hostile people and destructive relationships. The only way to break out of a negative dynamic is to confront it. (Location 613)
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Avoidance of conflict becomes a habit, and you lose the taste for battle. (Location 615)
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Enemies bring many gifts. For one thing, they motivate you and focus your beliefs. (Location 639)
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The samurai of Japan had no gauge of their excellence unless they fought the best swordsmen; (Location 643)
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It is better to lose to a worthy opponent than to squash some harmless foe. (Location 645)
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Being attacked is a sign that you are important enough to be a target. You should relish the attention and the chance to prove yourself. (Location 647)
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victory is your goal, not fairness and balance. (Location 654)
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Your enemies force on you a sense of realism and humility. (Location 660)
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You are the last line of your own defense. (Location 667)
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a master polarizer, always looking to draw a line between himself and his enemies. Once he had made that line clear enough, though, he backed off, which made him look like a conciliator, a man of peace who occasionally went to war. Even if that impression was false, it was the height of wisdom to create it. (Location 677)
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Wage guerrilla war on your mind, allowing no static lines of defense, no exposed citadels—make (Location 686)
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What limits individuals as well as nations is the inability to confront reality, to see things for what they are. As we grow older, we become more rooted in the past. Habit takes over. Something that has worked for us before becomes a doctrine, a shell to protect us from reality. Repetition replaces creativity. (Location 754)
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Never take it for granted that your past successes will continue into the future. (Location 759)
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your past successes are your biggest obstacle: every battle, every war, is different, and you cannot assume that what worked before will work today. You must cut yourself loose from the past and open your eyes to the present. Your tendency to fight the last war may lead to your final war. (Location 759)
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I never read any treatises on strategy. . . . When we fight, we do not take any books with us. MAO TSE-TUNG, 1893–1976 (Location 769)
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It is a disease to be obsessed by the thought of winning. It is also a disease to be obsessed by the thought of employing your swordsmanship. So it is to be obsessed by the thought of using everything you have learned, and to be obsessed by the thought of attacking. It is also a disease to be obsessed and stuck with the thought of ridding yourself of any of these diseases. A disease here is an obsessed mind that dwells on one thing. Because all these diseases are in your mind, you must get rid of them to put your mind in order. TAKUAN, JAPAN, 1573–1645 (Location 796)
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Anyone can plan a campaign, but few are capable of waging war, because only a true military genius can handle the developments and circumstances. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 1769–1821 (Location 813)
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The problem, though, is not that we think of the solution only when it is too late. The problem is that we imagine that knowledge is what was lacking: if only we had known more, if only we had thought it through more thoroughly. That is precisely the wrong approach. What makes us go astray in the first place is that we are unattuned to the present moment, insensitive to the circumstances. We are listening to our own thoughts, reacting to things that happened in the past, applying theories and ideas that we digested long ago but that have nothing to do with our predicament in the present. (Location 840)
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My policy is to have no policy. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 1809–1865 (Location 845)
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Understand: the greatest generals, the most creative strategists, stand out not because they have more knowledge but because they are able, when necessary, to drop their preconceived notions and focus intensely on the present moment. (Location 846)
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no amount of thinking in advance can prepare you for the chaos of life, for the infinite possibilities of the moment. (Location 848)
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The great philosopher of war Carl von Clausewitz called this “friction”: the difference between our plans and what actually happens. (Location 849)
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It can be valuable to analyze what went wrong in the past, but it is far more important to develop the capacity to think in the moment. (Location 855)
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Think of the mind as a river: the faster it flows, the better it keeps up with the present and responds to change. The faster it flows, also the more it refreshes itself and the greater its energy. (Location 857)
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Obsessional thoughts, past experiences (whether traumas or successes), and preconceived notions are like boulders or mud in this river, settling and hardening there and damming it up. The river stops moving; stagnation sets in. You must wage constant war on this tendency in the mind. (Location 858)
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When Napoleon was asked what principles of war he followed, he replied that he followed none. His genius was his ability to respond to circumstances, to make the most of what he was given—he was the supreme opportunist. (Location 862)
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To believe that strategy has inexorable laws or timeless rules is to take up a rigid, static position that will be your undoing. (Location 864)
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Be brutal with the past, with tradition, with the old ways of doing things. Declare war on sacred cows and voices of convention in your own head. (Location 866)
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For if he is ever to command in battle again, he must shake off these regrets, and stamp on them, as they claw at his will and his self-confidence. (Location 885)
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During the Vietnam War, the great North Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap had a simple rule of thumb: after a successful campaign, he would convince himself that it had actually been a failure. As a result he never got drunk on his success, and he never repeated the same strategy in the next battle. Rather he had to think through each situation anew. (Location 891)
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The Greek thinker Aristotle thought that life was defined by movement. What does not move is dead. What has speed and mobility has more possibilities, more life. (Location 905)
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To know that one is in a certain condition, in a certain state, is already a process of liberation; (Location 933)
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because what is is constantly moving, constantly undergoing a transformation, and if the mind is tethered to belief, to knowledge, it ceases to pursue, it ceases to follow the swift movement of what is. What is is not static, surely—it is constantly moving, as you will see if you observe it very closely. To follow it, you need a very swift mind and a pliable heart—which are denied when the mind is static, fixed in a belief, in a prejudice, in an identification; and a mind and heart that are dry cannot follow easily, swiftly, that which is. (Location 937)
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By staying in constant motion you show your enemies no target to aim at. (Location 948)
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Adapting its shape to wherever it moves in the stream, pushing rocks out of its way, smoothing boulders, it never stops, is never the same. The faster it moves the clearer it gets. (Location 950)
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if men make war in slavish observance to rules, they will fail. . . . War is progressive. —Ulysses S. Grant (1822–85) (Location 953)
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Make the mind tougher by exposing it to adversity. Learn to detach yourself from the chaos of the battlefield. Let others lose their heads; your presence of mind will steer you clear of their influence and keep you on course. (Location 968)
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The expression “presence of mind” precisely conveys the speed and immediacy of the help provided by the intellect. (Location 971)
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No war, he said, had ever been won by waiting. (Location 993)
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When the Admiralty put its faith in Sir Hyde, it made a classical military error: it entrusted the waging of a war to a man who was careful and methodical. Such men may seem calm, even strong, in times of peace, but their self-control often hides weakness: the reason they think things through so carefully is that they are terrified of making a mistake and of what that might mean for them and their career. This doesn’t come out until they are tested in battle: suddenly they cannot make a decision. They see problems everywhere and defeat in the smallest setback. They hang back not out of patience but out of fear. Often these moments of hesitation spell their doom. (Location 1025)
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Presence of mind is a kind of counterbalance to mental weakness, to our tendency to get emotional and lose perspective in the heat of battle. Our greatest weakness is losing heart, doubting ourselves, becoming unnecessarily cautious. Being more careful is not what we need; that is just a screen for our fear of conflict and of making a mistake. What we need is double the resolve—an intensification of confidence. That will serve as a counterbalance. (Location 1063)
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before the filmmaking had even begun, Hitchcock would have prepared for it with such intense attention to detail that nothing could go wrong. He was completely in control; no temperamental actress, no panicky art director, no meddling producer could upset him or interfere with his plans. Feeling such absolute security in what he had set up, he could afford to lie back and fall asleep. (Location 1082)
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Most directors leave themselves some latitude, shooting scenes from several angles, for example, to give the film editor options to work with later on. Not Hitchcock: he essentially edited the entire film in the shooting script. He knew exactly what he wanted and wrote it down. (Location 1093)
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Understand: presence of mind is the ability to detach yourself from all that, to see the whole battlefield, the whole picture, with clarity. (Location 1122)
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We humans like to see ourselves as rational creatures. We imagine that what separates us from animals is the ability to think and reason. But that is only partly true: what distinguishes us from animals just as much is our capacity to laugh, to cry, to feel a range of emotions. We are in fact emotional creatures as well as rational ones, and although we like to think we govern our actions through reason and thought, what most often dictates our behavior is the emotion we feel in the moment. (Location 1128)
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Understand: your mind is weaker than your emotions. But you become aware of this weakness only in moments of adversity—precisely (Location 1136)
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What makes your mind stronger, and more able to control your emotions, is internal discipline and toughness. (Location 1138)
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The first step in building up presence of mind is to see the need for it—to want it badly enough to be willing to work for it. (Location 1140)
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Historical figures who stand out for their presence of mind—Alexander the Great, Ulysses S. Grant, Winston Churchill—acquired it through adversity, through trial and error. (Location 1141)
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The story of Patton teaches us two things. First, it is better to confront your fears, let them come to the surface, than to ignore them or tamp them down. Fear is the most destructive emotion for presence of mind, but it thrives on the unknown, which lets our imaginations run wild. By deliberately putting yourself in situations where you have to face fear, you familiarize yourself with it and your anxiety grows less acute. The sensation of overcoming a deep-rooted fear in turn gives you confidence and presence of mind. The more conflicts and difficult situations you put yourself through, the more battle-tested your mind will be. (Location 1169)
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familiarity soothes our fears. (Location 1180)
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There is nothing worse than feeling dependent on other people. Dependency makes you vulnerable to all kinds of emotions— betrayal, disappointment, frustration—that play havoc with your mental balance. (Location 1182)
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Understand: we tend to overestimate other people’s abilities—after all, they’re trying hard to make it look as if they knew what they were doing—and we tend to underestimate our own. You must compensate for this by trusting yourself more and others less. (Location 1192)
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Understand: you cannot be everywhere or fight everyone. Your time and energy are limited, and you must learn how to preserve them. Exhaustion and frustration can ruin your presence of mind. (Location 1214)
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Therefore we would argue that a strong character is one that will not be unbalanced by the most powerful emotions. (Location 1223)
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A focused mind has no room for anxiety or for the effects of an overactive imagination. (Location 1259)
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The key to staying unintimidated is to convince yourself that the person you’re facing is a mere mortal, no different from you—which is in fact the truth. See the person, not the myth. (Location 1275)
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Get your mind into the habit of making lightning-quick decisions, trusting your fingertip feel. Your mind will advance in a kind of mental blitzkrieg, moving past your opponents before they realize what has hit them. (Location 1296)
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do not think of presence of mind as a quality useful only in periods of adversity, something to switch on and off as you need it. Cultivate it as an everyday condition. (Location 1298)
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The better you get at the game of war, the more your warrior frame of mind will do for you in daily life. (Location 1301)
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A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before. —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) (Location 1323)
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You must find a way to put yourself in the thick of battle, then watch yourself in action. Look for your own weaknesses, and think about how to compensate for them. (Location 1326)
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People who have never lost their presence of mind are actually in danger: someday they will be taken by surprise, and the fall will be harsh. (Location 1327)
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Surprise them—nothing is more unsettling than the unexpected need to act. (Location 1331)
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You are your own worst enemy. You waste precious time dreaming of the future instead of engaging in the present. Since nothing seems urgent to you, you are only half involved in what you do. The only way to change is through action and outside pressure. Put yourself in situations where you have too much at stake to waste time or resources— if you cannot afford to lose, you won’t. Cut your ties to the past; enter unknown territory where you must depend on your wits and energy to see you through. Place yourself on “death ground,” where your back is against the wall and you have to fight like hell to get out alive. (Location 1335)
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Let each of your acts be your last battle on earth. Only under those conditions will your acts have their rightful power. Otherwise they will be, for as long as you live, the acts of a timid man.” (Location 1403)
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People who involve themselves completely in the immediate problem are intimidating; because they are focusing so intensely, they seem more powerful than they are. Their sense of urgency multiplies their strength and gives them momentum. (Location 1418)
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His new motto was “Try to get as much done as possible in the shortest time.” (Location 1477)
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Dostoyevsky wrote as if his life were at stake, with an intense feeling of urgency and seriousness. (Location 1491)
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As a warrior in life, you must turn this dynamic around: make the thought of death something not to escape but to embrace. Your days are numbered. Will you pass them half awake and halfhearted or will you live with a sense of urgency? (Location 1495)
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Chinese strategist Sun-tzu came to believe that listening to speeches, no matter how rousing, was too passive an experience to have an enduring effect. (Location 1511)
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Sun-tzu talked of a “death ground”—a place where an army is backed up against some geographical feature like a mountain, a river, or a forest and has no escape route. Without a way to retreat, Sun-tzu argued, an army fights with double or triple the spirit it would have on open terrain, because death is viscerally present. Sun-tzu advocated deliberately stationing soldiers on death ground to give them the desperate edge that makes men fight like the devil. (Location 1512)
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Death ground is a psychological phenomenon that goes well beyond the battlefield: it is any set of circumstances in which you feel enclosed and without options. There is very real pressure at your back, and you cannot retreat. Time is running out. Failure—a form of psychic death— is staring you in the face. You must act or suffer the consequences. (Location 1527)
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But put yourself in a high-stakes situation—a psychological death ground—and the dynamic changes. Your body responds to danger with a surge of energy; your mind focuses. Urgency is forced on you; you are compelled to waste no more time. (Location 1532)
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Unlimited possibilities are not suited to man; if they existed, his life would only dissolve in the boundless. To become strong, a man’s life needs the limitations ordained by duty and voluntarily accepted. The individual attains significance as a free spirit only by surrounding himself with these limitations and by determining for himself what his duty is. THE I CHING, CHINA, CIRCA EIGHTH CENTURY B.C. (Location 1551)
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Death is nothing, but to live defeated is to die every day. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 1769–1821 (Location 1562)
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Be absolute for death; either death or life Shall thereby be the sweeter. (Location 1571)
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As one journalist wrote, “Hate seems to activate his reflexes like adrenaline stimulates the heart. Animosity is his fuel!” (Location 1593)
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Remember: in any battle you are putting your name and reputation on the line; your enemies will relish your failure. Use that pressure to make yourself fight harder. (Location 1597)
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When we are tired, it is often because we are bored. When no real challenge faces us, a mental and physical lethargy sets in. “Sometimes death only comes from a lack of energy,” Napoleon once said, and lack of energy comes from a lack of challenges, comes when we have taken on less than we are capable of. Take a risk and your body and mind will respond with a rush of energy. Make risk a constant practice; never let yourself settle down. Soon living on death ground will become a kind of addiction—you won’t be able to do without it. (Location 1611)
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In war it is not men, but the man, that counts. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 1769–1821 (Location 1679)
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If your orders are vague and halfhearted, by the time they reach the field they will be meaningless. (Location 1733)
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For what the leaders are, that, as a rule, will the men below them be. —Xenophon (430?–355? B.C.) (Location 1739)
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The less attention you spend on petty details, the more time you will have for the larger picture, for asserting your authority generally and indirectly. (Location 1824)
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Madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups. —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) (Location 1826)
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People in groups are political: they say and do things that they think will help their image within the group. They aim to please others, to promote themselves, rather than to see things dispassionately. (Location 1846)
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Where an individual can be bold and creative, a group is often afraid of risk. The need to find a compromise among all the different egos kills creativity. (Location 1847)
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The group has a mind of its own, and that mind is cautious, slow to decide, unimaginative, and sometimes downright irrational. (Location 1848)
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This is the game you must play: Do whatever you can to preserve unity of command. Keep the strings to be pulled in your hands; the overarching strategic vision must come from you and you alone. At the same time, hide your tracks. Work behind the scenes; make the group feel involved in your decisions. Seek their advice, incorporating their good ideas, politely deflecting their bad ones. If necessary, make minor, cosmetic strategy changes to assuage the insecure political animals in the group, but ultimately trust your own vision. (Location 1849)
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The first rule of effective leadership is never to relinquish your unity of command. (Location 1853)
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Control is an elusive phenomenon. Often, the harder you tug at people, the less control you have over them. Leadership is more than just barking out orders; it takes subtlety. (Location 1866)
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A critical step in creating an efficient chain of command is assembling a skilled team that shares your goals and values. That team gives you many advantages: spirited, motivated people who can think on their own; an image as a delegator, a fair and democratic leader; and a saving in your own valuable energy, which you can redirect toward the larger picture. (Location 1874)
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Be careful in assembling this team that you are not seduced by expertise and intelligence. Character, the ability to work under you and with the rest of the team, and the capacity to accept responsibility and think independently are equally key. (Location 1881)
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never choose a man merely by his glittering résumé. Look beyond his skills to his psychological makeup. (Location 1884)
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Rely on the team you have assembled, but do not be its prisoner or give it undue influence. (Location 1885)
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Franklin D. Roosevelt had his infamous “brain trust,” the advisers and cabinet members on whom he depended for their ideas and opinions, (Location 1885)
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he never let them in on the actual decision making, and he kept them from building up their own power base within the administration. He saw them simply as tools, extending his own abilities and saving him valuable time. He understood unity of command and was never seduced into violating it. (Location 1886)
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A key function of any chain of command is to supply information rapidly from the trenches, letting you adapt fast to circumstances. (Location 1888)
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What you need is what the military historian Martin van Creveld calls “a directed telescope”: people in various parts of the chain, and elsewhere, to give you instant information from the battlefield. These people—an informal network of friends, allies, and spies—let you bypass the slow-moving chain. (Location 1894)
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The Reins. A horse with no bridle is useless, but equally bad is the horse whose reins you pull at every turn, in a vain effort at control. Control comes from almost letting go, holding the reins so lightly that the horse feels no tug but senses the slightest change in tension and responds as you desire. Not everyone can master such an art. (Location 1922)
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No good can ever come of divided leadership. If you are ever offered a position in which you will have to share command, turn it down, for the enterprise will fail and you will be held responsible. Better to take a lower position and let the other person have the job. (Location 1926)
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The critical elements in war are speed and adaptability— the ability to move and make decisions faster than the enemy. (Location 1933)
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The technical means at the emperor’s disposal were not a whit more sophisticated than those of his opponents; he differed from them in that he possessed the daring and ingenuity needed to transcend the limits that technology had imposed on commanders for thousands of years. (Location 1940)
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“In war the object is to beat the enemy, not merely to avoid being beaten.” (Location 1951)
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He tried to think of everything in advance, to come up with a clear plan and make sure everyone stuck to it—“clockwork warfare,” he called it. (Location 1961)
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Napoleon would give the marshals their mission, then let them accomplish it on their own. (Location 2013)
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Patton’s philosophy of command was: “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” (Location 2016)
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the future belongs to groups that are fluid, fast, and nonlinear. (Location 2030)
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It takes strength of character to allow for a margin of chaos and uncertainty—to let go a little—but (Location 2031)
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but by decentralizing your army and segmenting it into teams, you will gain in mobility what you lose in complete control. (Location 2032)
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the essence of strategy is not to carry out a brilliant plan that proceeds in steps; it is to put yourself in situations where you have more options than the enemy does. (Location 2043)
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Sun-tzu expressed this idea differently: what you aim for in strategy, he said, is shih, a position of potential force—the position of a boulder perched precariously on a hilltop, say, or of a bowstring stretched taut. A tap on the boulder, the release of the bowstring, and potential force is violently unleashed. (Location 2046)
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It was during this period of post-war introspection and evaluation that one of the fundamental military concepts of Scharnhorst and Gneisenau coalesced into a clearly defined doctrine understandable to and understood by all officers in the Army. This was the concept of Auftragstaktik, or mission tactics. (Location 2053)
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The highest commander and the youngest soldier must always be conscious of the fact that omission and inactivity are worse than resorting to the wrong expedient.” (Location 2056)
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A major, receiving a tongue-lashing from the Prince for a tactical blunder, offered the excuse that he had been obeying orders, and reminded the Prince that a Prussian officer was taught that an order from a superior was tantamount to an order from the King. Frederick Charles promptly responded: “His Majesty made you a major because he believed you would know when not to obey his orders.” This simple story became guidance for all following generations of German officers. (Location 2063)
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a rigid, centralized organization locks you into linear strategies; a fluid, segmented army gives you options, endless possibilities for reaching shih. (Location 2069)
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The most important reform was the development of the Auftragstak-tik (mission-oriented command system). In German there are two words for “command”: Auftrag and Befehl. A Befehl is an order to be obeyed to the letter. An Auftrag is much more general: it is a statement of overall mission, a directive to be followed in its spirit, not its letter. (Location 2082)
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Officers were first inculcated with the philosophy of German warfare: speed, the need to take the offensive, and so on. Then they were put through exercises to help them develop their ability to think on their own, to make decisions that met the overall philosophy but responded to the circumstances of the moment. (Location 2086)
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His segmented forces could disperse and concentrate in complicated patterns; the armies that faced them were shocked at how chaotic they seemed, so impossible to figure out, yet they maneuvered with amazing coordination. (Location 2105)
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Mongol soldiers knew what to do, and when, without being told. For their victims the only explanation was that they were possessed by the devil. (Location 2107)
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Every winter in peacetime, Genghis would run the Great Hunt, a three-month-long operation in which he would scatter the entire Mongol army along an eighty-mile line in the steppes of Central Asia and what is now Mongolia. A flag in the ground hundreds of miles away marked the hunt’s endpoint. The line would advance, driving before it all the animals in its path. Slowly, in an intricately choreographed maneuver, the ends of the line would curve to form a circle, trapping the animals within. (The hunt’s endpoint would form the center of the circle.) As the circle tightened, the animals were killed; the most dangerous of them, the tigers, were left till last. (Location 2109)
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The Great Hunt exercised the Mongols’ ability to communicate through signals at a distance, coordinate their movements with precision, know what to do in different circumstances, and act without waiting for orders. (Location 2113)
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you need to structure your group according to your soldiers’ strengths and weaknesses, to their social circumstances. To do that you must be attuned to the human side of your troops; you must understand them, and the spirit of the times, inside and out. (Location 2139)
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In a real sense, maximum disorder was our equilibrium. T. E. LAWRENCE, 1885–1935 (Location 2141)
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Like Sherman, do not struggle with your soldiers’ idiosyncrasies, but rather turn them into a virtue, a way to increase your potential force. Be creative with the group’s structure, keeping your mind as fluid and adaptable as the army you lead. (Location 2149)
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the rule of decentralization is flexible: some people respond better to rigid authority. Even if you run a looser organization, there may be times when you will have to tighten it and give your officers less freedom. (Location 2158)
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Wise generals set nothing in stone, always retaining the ability to reorganize their army to fit the times and their changing needs. (Location 2159)
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The secret to motivating people and maintaining their morale is to get them to think less about themselves and more about the group. Involve them in a cause, a crusade against a hated enemy. Make them see their survival as tied to the success of the army as a whole. (Location 2163)
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Lead from the front: let your soldiers see you in the trenches, making sacrifices for the cause. (Location 2165)
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Make both rewards and punishments rare but meaningful. (Location 2166)
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Remember: a motivated army can work wonders, making up for any lack of material resources. (Location 2167)
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