33 Strategies Of War

The 33 Strategies of War

by Robert Greene

Part 1

Self-Directed Warfare - Waging War Starts In Your Own Mind

The Three Steps You Must Take To Become a True Strategist

Strategy 1

Declare war on your Enemies: The Polarity Strategy

Clarity is key to waging war. Your main obstacle is yourself-namely your own mind. How you interpret the world around you determines how you see yourself. Declaring war on who you do not want to be, grants you clarity and gives you a true sense of direction. Knowing exactly what you aren't, creates polarity, and also determines what you are.

Key Thought: "He that is not with me is against me." --Luke 11:23

Strategy 2

Do not Fight the Last War: The Guerrilla-War-of-the-Mind Strategy

The source of nearly all your current and future losses and failures is the persistent memory of past losses and failures. This strategy focuses on identifying and clearing your mind of all ineffective memories, formulas, and strategies. Like an athlete who must always clear the slate and stay "in the moment" a great strategist must continually invent new ways to overcome his enemies and use his enemy's adherence to habits against them.

Key Thought: Thus one's victories in battle cannot be repeated--they take their form in response to inexhaustibly changing circumstances. --Sun-Tzu "The Art Of War"

Strategy 3

Amidst the turmoil of events, do not lose your presence of mind: The Counterbalance Strategy

The danger of tunnel-vision. Anyone who has experienced a high-stress situation has felt the overwhelming strain that has the power to cloud the mind and limit your options. This strategy is based entirely on your ability to overcome your emotions and detach yourself from the chaos of the situation you're in.

Knowing this law you can use the chaos to your advantage by attempting to create chaos in the minds of your opponents. Greene argues that as a leader you should train yourself to face your fears by regularly exposing yourself to high-stress and adverse situations that force you out of your comfort zone. You must gain control of your thoughts, imagination, and fears if you want to become a great leader.

Key Thought: "More life may trickle out of men through thought than through a gaping wound." --Thomas Hardy

Strategy 4

Create a Sense of Urgency and Desperation: The Death-Ground Strategy

We kill ourselves by thinking of the future and not focusing on the present. You must put pressure upon yourself to perform NOW! Put your back against the wall if you want to perform your best. This is the only way to generate the feeling of urgency and desperation that are so important to high-performance.

Key Thought: "Death is nothing, but to live defeated is to die every day." --Napoleon Bonaparte

Part 2

Organizational (Team) Warfare

How to Build a Nimble Team

How to Get Your People to Fight for Your Ideas

(Without actually knowing they're your ideas).

Strategy 5

Avoid the snares of groupthink: The Command-and-Control Strategy

Robert Green goes into detail about leadership, chain-of-command, and building a team based on your needs, while also looking after the needs of your people (at least on the surface). Ultimately your success as a leader is determined by your ability to retain "unity of command". Success in war is dependent upon your ability to give orders and receive feedback quickly and accurately.

How you communicate with people, taking their abilities and faults into consideration, is the most important thing you do because your ability to distill and infuse your spirit into others and build a "team that shares your goals and values . . . who make up for your deficiencies, who have the skills you lack" will determine your success.

Key Thought: "The single greatest risk to your chain of command comes from the political animals in the group."

Strategy 6

Segment your forces: The Controlled-Chaos Strategy

Great leaders know how to infuse their teams with a unified spirit across their ranks. By breaking your organization into teams is key to building flexibility.

Key to doing this well is to find and hire people who share your goals and values, and can act independently without you to manage them. By doing so you create more opportunity to succeed because you put yourself in a position that has almost endless options, your ability to see and grasp these options is ultimately limited only by the power of your mind and the minds of the people around you. Most people look for formulas to follow mechanically, great leaders and teams know this and use it to their ultimate advantage. Use your uniqueness to your advantage.

Key Thought: "In a real sense, maximum disorder was our equilibrium." --T.E. Lawrence

Strategy 7

Transform your war into a crusade: Morale Strategies

In this chapter Greene goes into detail about what effective leaders do to motivate their people, and to keep morale high on their teams.

The great leaders, Napoleon Bonaparte, Oliver Cromwell, Hannibal, Alexander The Great, even Lyndon Johnson and Vince Lombardi all new the best way to motivate their teams. . . it is through effective psychology. The difference between a great team and an losing team is attitude and morale. Your ability to capture the hearts and minds of your people will determine your success or failure as a leader.

Key Thought: The Way means inducing people to have the same aim as leadership, so that they will share death and share life, without fear of danger. --Sun-Tzu "The Art Of War"

Part 3

Defensive Warfare - Make the Most of Your Resources and Counterattack

Be ready for the next battle. . .

Strategy 8

Pick your battles carefully: The Perfect-Economy Strategy

Ultimately, it is the leader who forces their opponent to fight on his/her terms who will be victorious. Some people see this as passive-aggressive; Greene just sees this strategy as smart.

You must make war inexpensive for yourself and expensive and taxing for your opponent. The best way to do this is through good defense. You can see it in the Greeks victory at Thermopylae, the defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English Navy, even the three fights between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.

Key Thought: The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it but in what one pays for it--what it costs us. --Friedrich Nietzsche

Strategy 9

Turn the tables: The Counterattack Strategy

Often the first person to move will be put at a disadvantage because they will expose their strategy and lose the surprise of the counterattack.

Most armies and individuals have been taught to go on the offensive first. But it is wise to use others' impatience against them.

Key Thought: A rapid, powerful transition to the attack - the glinting sword of vengeance - is the most brilliant moment of the defense. --Carl Von Clausewitz

Strategy 10

Create a threatening presence: Deterrence Strategies

The key to this strategy is to appear more powerful than you really are. The strategy of the playground bully.

Foster uncertainty in your enemies and they will not mess with you because you represent too much risk to them. Play on people's natural fears. Greene gives five key examples of how to do this: 1) Surprise with bold maneuver 2) Reverse the threat 3) Seem unpredictable and irrational 4) Play on people's natural paranoia 5) Establish a frightening reputation

Key Thought: When opponents are unwilling to fight with you, it is because they think it is contrary to their interests, or because you have mislead them into thinking so. --Sun-Tzu "The Art Of War"

Strategy 11

Trade space for time: The Nonengagement Strategy

Do not engage a strong enemy before you want to. Give yourself enough time because time is more important than any other resource you have.

By allowing your enemy to advance they run the risk of overextending themselves and their army. By refusing to fight, or engage your opponent you infuriate them causing rash moves and silly mistakes.

Key Thought: Space I can recover. Time, never. --Napoleon Bonaparte

Part 4

Offensive Warfare - Seize the Advantage and Opportunities

But Always Expect The Unexpected. . .

Strategy 12

Lose battles but win the war: Grand Strategy

We've all heard of losing the battle, but winning the war. It's as old as warfare itself. You can lose battles along the way and still win in the end.

Ultimately it is your ability to deal with losses unemotionally, and still remain true to your course of action in the long-run that will determine your overall success. Taking an indirect route

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