Sun Tzu
The best fight is the one nobody has
Winning a hundred times is not the top of the list
Art of War, Attack by Stratagem
A hundred victories sounds like the ceiling. He says it isn't, and the reason is arithmetic rather than modesty.
What actually happened?
The chapter gives a ranked list that runs against instinct: attack the enemy's plan first, his alliances second, his army third, and his walled cities last. Each step down costs more and returns less. On sieges he is unusually specific — three months to prepare the engines, three more for the ramps, and a commander who loses patience and sends men up the walls like ants, a third of them dead and the city still standing. He calls that the disaster of assault.
Winning is also spending
A hundred victories is not the height of skill; subduing the enemy without fighting is. Every win costs people, money, time and trust. The side that won five times can easily be stronger than the side that won a hundred.
They won the pricing war and came out of it with a team that had shipped nothing new for a year.
Plan, then alliances, then force
Attacking the plan means making their approach stop making sense on its own terms. Attacking alliances means removing the support it rests on. Neither requires contact. By the time only fighting is left, the first two were skipped or botched.
The integration deal with the distributor ended the competitor's route to market without a single price change.
The most expensive move is the one you take personally
Assault happens when there is nothing else left, or when someone cannot stand to walk away. He singles out the commander who attacks in anger. Losing a third of your strength to a wall you did not need is a decision made by a mood.
The lawsuit was about being right. Two years and a quarter of the budget later, it was still about being right.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: locked into a fight you expect to win.
Ask first: what does winning this cost, and what would have to be true for it not to be necessary at all?
Where it goes wrong: reading it as avoid all conflict — the ranking has fighting on it; it is just not at the top.
Lines to keep
Winning a hundred battles is not the height of skill.
Every win you take spends people, money, time and trust.
A third of your strength on a wall you did not need.
Same situation, other people are asking
I keep winning these and I'm more tired every time.We're all fighting hard and nobody in this market is making money.My clever move didn't land. Was the idea wrong?They set the agenda every week and I just respond.Winning is costing too much · all 7 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.