Next to Machiavelli’s “The Prince,” I find that Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” is probably the most often misinterpreted tome referenced by my patients.
A heralded Chinese military genius, strategist, and philosopher, Sun Tzu lived in a very different age than Wall Street of the 21st Century. Though he was supposed to have written his most-famous work in China circa 5th Century B.C., it was not until the 19th and 20th centuries that “The Art of War” gained popularity in the Western world.
As with Machiavelli, there is no denying that Sun Tzu’s strategic thinking is sound and applicable. Yet, Sun Tzu is often misinterpreted when applied to the context of business.
Consider perhaps the most famous quote from “The Art of War”:
“Every battle is won before it is ever fought.”
True. Yet, business is not battle. In battle, you strive for the actual, physical, and violent annihilation of your opponent. In business, though you aspire to eliminate competitors, it requires a level of restraint and modulated empathy in the boardroom that Sun Tzu would not exercise on the battlefield.
It is a dangerous game to apply a military mindset to a non-military pursuit. As the Greeks have said: “everything in moderation.”
Familiarizing yourself with the themes of Sun Tzu’s military treatise can be invaluable for surviving the cut-throat world of finance, as long as you realize you are not actually cutting any throats.
It can also help to appreciate the mindsets of the many higher-ups for whom FPs toil. Those that can have others do their dirty work are less merciful.
I encourage my patients that when reading Sun Tzu, absorb his strategic thinking and tactical playmaking, but discard the underlying naked brutality.
For instance, Sun Tzu believed that all war was based on deception. Deception is a complicated psychological phenomenon. For a financial professional, deception, or the omission of key factors or data, may be a permissible element of gamesmanship. Yet, the level of deceit Sun Tzu espouses, albeit necessary for survival when you are actually dealing in death, does not really apply to the financial arena.
With the Wall Street Psychologist’s Gyroscope, you have a stable center of self with which to temper your interpretation, strip away the savagery, and objectively apply the more valuable lessons of defeating your enemy psychologically, before the battle, breaking his will to fight, to compete.
Being aware of this tactic—and that, at times, people may use it to get what they want out of you—can help immensely when dealing with one’s colleagues, managers, and even clients. If you know, “this is how we do things here,” and you set your limits for your gamesmanship, you achieve more clarity and inner peace.
You empower yourself to more effectively plan your trajectory, and, in turn, complete your mission.