Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 4:16 "The victories of the Skillful Warrior are not extraordinary victories; they bring neither fame for wisdom nor merit for valour."

Are you valorous? I like to think I am, but I suspect I may be more wrong than right on that one. I always calculate rewards as opposed to efforts, and I often accuse myself of lack of courage, lack of valor. How about you?

Allow me to return to 2016. I created, as many of you know, a new form of analysis for the Trump Campaign. @GenFlynn was intrigued. He asked me scores of questions. He ended up approving my method. And then, the question arose, should we publish? The answer...yes.

Allow me to return to 2016. I created, as many of you know, a new form of analysis for the Trump Campaign. @GenFlynn was intrigued. He asked me scores of questions. He ended up approving my method. And then, the question arose, should we publish? The answer...yes.

I confess. I did seek fame for wisdom. I became a consultant, almost not by choice and certainly not realizing I had, at age 27. Who does that? What's more, I never earned a college degree. I'm an outsider. Who am I to claim wisdom, and I have no fame. Hannity doesn't know me.

After two years of hellacious struggle, at age 29 I created my first tool, an analytical model. It worked. My clients made money off it. And that empowered me to increase my income and not die, economically. We won't talk about the previous two years.

Funny thing. In the coming years and decades, I essentially became famous for NOT being famous. My list of clients is, well, prestigious in certain circles. I helped them all accomplish new things. I'm very good at what I do. But, to this day, I remain more basically NOT famous.

I have another claim. The analysis I completed in 2016 helped the Trump Campaign win. @GenFlynn has expressed his recognition for this contribution. Yet, I do not know Trump, or any other player on the team. And I don't know if they'd even recognize my name.

Master Sun, yo! I think my victories ARE extraordinary. Does that mean I do not qualify as a Skillful Warrior of old? So it goes. Oh well. I surrender. Fame for wisdom and valor is my temptation, but not my destiny. Alas.

Smack, smack, smack. The mission, Master Sun scowls at me, the mission. NOTHING, not one thing else, the mission is all that matters. I'm looking at you Scopelliti, he says, your ego is out of bounds. The mission is all that matters.

Like me, you too have to face your ego. And your mission. You will not win 2020 for @realDonaldTrump. But you can recruit and lead a team. You can turn a blue district red. You can. (No one is very likely to say thank you.) Or, you can ensure that red district stays red.

Do you remember our Victory Quadrant? Let's review:

1) Easy victory
2) Difficult victory
3) Easy defeat
4) Difficult defeat

Can you put your ego aside and seek easy victories you will NOT become famous for? If so, you're my hero. I'm not quite as virtuous as you.

We have time. Let's talk about that. Let's discus virtue versus vice. I am a very vicious man. How about you? Yet, I do have my virtues, and vicious as I am, even I see that my virtues win where my vices fail. My ego loves my vices. My soul dreams of virtue.

#MAGA demands virtue. America does not surrender to vice, to vices. And there's the real point. America, Herself, was built on virtue. That, in case you haven't worked it out, is the real import of the Declaration of Independence with its key concept, the pursuit of happiness.

Happiness does NOT = success. It DOES = success based on virtue.

The ultimate in excellence is to win without doing battle. It takes real virtue to do so. No bloodshed. Just winning. No fame or merit. Just winning.

I wish I was that virtuous.

To return to previous sections in our #WarForAmerica2020 and #SunTzuForMAGA series, don't forget to head over to @WarForAmerica21.

76 verses completed, 346 to go. And also, be sure to purchase John Minford's translation, here:

amazon.com/Art-War-Pengui…