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1-Page Summary of 33 Strategies Of War

Overview

The 33 Strategies of War (2006) by Robert Greene teaches different approaches to conflict. He uses historical anecdotes and other real-life stories to explain offensive maneuvers, defensive tactics, and cunning strategies that give warriors the advantages they need in life.

It’s important to realize that you’re always in a war, whether it’s with friends, enemies or coworkers. Admitting this can be socially isolating, so most people don’t want to admit it. However, everyone has rivals in life and everyone has betrayed someone close to them before. These facts reflect human nature more than anything else.

Because of the challenges that we face, people must be aggressive and smart. They need to keep their long-term goals in mind at all times. Smart fighting is about outwitting your opponent instead of getting into a fight that can cause harm or destruction. It’s more important to have a deep understanding of your opponent than it is to get angry or emotional during a battle.

Before warriors can focus on defeating their enemies, they must prepare themselves. They need to keep their imagination under control and be able to think quickly.

Real military leaders don’t act alone. They leverage the power of their team to reach goals more quickly than they could alone. The chain of command should be clear, but not oppressive. Armies always require ample moral support and material supplies to do their jobs well.

Sometimes, you have to fight defensively. You should pick your battles carefully and analyze your opponent to figure out how best to respond. Some opponents can be deterred or avoided altogether. If you’re on the offensive, strike quickly and hard while keeping them off balance so they don’t have time to recover. Speed is everything in this case; take advantage of weaknesses whenever possible for an easier victory.

War is a complicated thing. It’s important to remember that things are not always what they seem. Defeat may be inevitable sometimes, but it isn’t necessarily so. If you take the right steps and use your creativity, you can turn the tide of battle in your favor. Even underdogs have a chance if they spot opportunities to make gains or build alliances with other groups. They can trick their enemies by weaving fact and fiction together into believable lies. Deception is an option for those who want to consider it as such a strategy, even though terrorism should only be used as last resort when there’s no other way out of a situation where defeat seems imminent.

Key Point 1: It’s important to develop a grand strategy.

It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day struggles of life without having a long term strategy. A grand strategy is goal oriented, takes into account things that will happen in the future, understands what drives the other side of an issue and has subtlety.

Businesses often fail because they have goals that aren’t well thought out. For example, one might want to sell more widgets than a competitor. However, it’s not enough just to say you want to do this without explaining how you will accomplish this goal. Even C-level business people confuse broad strategies with narrow tactics and don’t explain the choices or steps along the way that will help them reach their goals.

Even if a company or army has a strategy, it might fail at the implementation level. A real strategy should guide an army’s choice so that soldiers know how to behave in any given situation. It may help to explain the logic behind the strategy because fighters who feel vested in a strategy and understand why certain choices are required will be more likely to follow their leaders to victory.