Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, Sun Tzu 1-11: "Head my plan, employ me, and victory is surely yours; I will stay."

For the link to the preceding threads in the #WarForAmerica2020 series, head over to @WarForAmerica21.

According to some sources, Sun Tzu was, himself, an itinerant counselor to the king, and military general for hire. The Italian term for such a profession is Consigliori. It took me a long time to realize that my own daily work placed me in Sun Tzu's tradition.

Please do check for yourself. Not only will you find my basic presentation, and an article on leadership, the most important element of my website is the leadership self-assessment provided:

TheConsigliori.com

I am a bold man, and a strong, old-school, classically trained salesman. I don't think, though, that I've ever been quite as bold as Sun Tzu. "Heed my plan, employ me, and victory is surely yours; I will stay." Wow. I am SO jealous of that!

We must be clear. That simple, powerful and profound promise, was precisely the core essence of @realDonaldTrump's message to us in 2016. There would be no #MAGA Movement, if one man had not had the confidence to pitch America on that pledge.

For now, there is simply no separating our founding creator from our movement, and we should not wish to do so. #MAGA is 100% President Trump's creation. He brought us here and we owe him our gratitude and absolute loyalty. For me, I am a Trump man. He is my leader.

Turn back to Sun Tzu. Many argue he never existed, but no one knows. I happily believe he did. And imagine, the very king he served was, in fact, his follower. This has been missed in our culture. Strength and power do not confer leadership. Followership is not understood.

Can't you feel the flavor of democracy in Sun Tzu's pose? Every single voter should deem himself a king. Every candidate is making his case for hire. And We The People are the boss of our "leaders," and they must follow our will, while executing the plan they pitched us on.

Please remember, Sun Tzu taught us that victory can be known in advance, as can defeat. Our leaders must present their cases for victory and we must decide whom to place our confidence within. Every single vote matters, and is the tentative statement of acceptance.

Tentative? Thank the Heavens, and our forefathers, our leaders are NOT chosen for life. Their plans, the ones they sell us, must succeed. If they don't, we have the power to fire them. Yes, we rejected kings. Yes, we are each of us kings.

Sun Tzu also taught us that victory and defeat can be known. How is it that we let go of such simple, powerful clarity? Now, think @realDonaldTrump again. Are we winning? This is the ultimate question underlying all of Sun Tzu's work. It is the promise he made to his king.

What does this mean for you, for you yourself, personally? No, no leader can assure you of the victories that only you can win. But, every leader must assure his nation of its victories, and have a plan to stand behind and fight for.

The power in the plan is this. Yes, it must win for the entire nation. In doing so, however, it MUST make your own personal victories more likely. Even easier. That is, you are NOT the nation, yet you remain a king anyway. Your leader's plan must give YOU, you yourself, benefit.

That is today's meaning in Sun Tzu's pledge. Hire him and win. We'll see the opposite tomorrow. But right now we can contemplate the future. Winning now is ultimately defined by winning then. We can't just win for today. We must win for tomorrow as well.

Looked at that way, every time we cast a vote we're making the same pledge to the future. "I am voting for YOUR benefit, NOT just my own," we state. That is what our founding fathers say to us. It must be what we say to our children forever forward. Our plan will succeed. #MAGA.