Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 5: 19 & 20 "(19) The Skillful Warrior exploits the potential energy; he does not hold his men responsible. (20) He deploys his men to their best but relies on the potential energy."

Today's focus is #SunTzu 5: 19.

I don't know. Professor Minford is essentially DEMANDING that we come to terms with his choice of terms, potential energy. So, I suppose we'd better comply. What is potential energy, and how does one determine it, discover it, employ it, win by its use?

Let's work first, though, on Master Sun's charge that the Skillful Warrior does NOT hold his men responsible. Consider how important that is. If you're the leader, and you blame your followers, who are you blaming, really? They tried to do what you told them to do.

Or worse! You didn't guide them - you didn't identify the potential energy and employ it to lead to victory - and did the best they could in lieu of your proper leadership. To blame your men is to fail to admit your own failure as a leader. Men don't fail. Leaders do.

Seriously go there. If any of your men fail on the mission, then YOU chose the wrong man to send. Whose failure is that? If the team fails, then either they were led wrongly on the field, or the mission was chosen wrongly in the temple. Whose failure is that?

In the decades of my coaching practice, I have a tremendous amount of experience in helping leaders face and analyze, learn from and catapult forward on the basis of failure analysis. It is core to all I do. In a failure, the good news is, the fault was yours.

In the military the term is After Action Report. You will never read a military AAR that states, the men didn't follow well. Most won't say the leader didn't lead well, either, but they ALL indicate a failure of leadership, never a failure of followership. It's how it goes.

Hold to the logic. It is NOT stating that followers can't fail. Of course they do, all the time. It IS stating that BEFORE action, a leader must know whether his followers will succeed or not. To be surprised by a follower's failure is to have chosen the wrong man for the job.

A follower's failure can never be any worse than a weakness in tactical execution. A leader's failure is by definition strategic. The choice of mission is strategic. The choice of whom to deploy on the mission is strategic. Mission failure is, itself, a strategic failure.

To Minford's core point: potential energy is everything. A leader either feels it, or he doesn't. If he doesn't, he MUST NOT engage. If he does, and does so rightly, then he cannot fail. Follow this out in the art of love. How will she react when you place your hand on her knee?

Decades ago, before I met the love of my life, I have had my hand returned to my own knee in romantic rejection. Failure. I misread the potential energy of the moment. Will she let you kiss her? If she does let you, will she kiss you back? This is potential energy.

Allow me to tell you what our side, conservatives, the #MAGA movement, etc., has missed forever. The other side cares too. We care. They care. There is a true giant in America, and he's been sleeping beneath our soil these decades. He cares. Or is it She? America cares.

But of course, HE is Uncle Sam. SHE is America. They both care. What we, the MAGA movement, seem so often to miss is the potential energy of the moment where we can win the support of those on the other side. They're not really ON the other side. They're Americans.

Go back to 2016. @realDonaldTrump did NOT win because he was a Republican. He won because he spoke to the heart of America. His words rang true with the previously sleeping giant of Uncle Sam. He awakened the warrior in our souls, and we shall never sleep again.

Well, we fell back asleep a bit in 2018. But there's no chance we will in 2020, and my hope is to awaken leaders who will lead, following @POTUS, and fight for victory in 2022. We must rebuild congress. It too must serve Uncle Sam and Lady America Herself.

The Skillful Warrior exploits the potential energy. Hmm. Do you? Do you even notice? Admit it. Thinking in such terms is, well, a bit weird. Most people do NOT talk about things like potential energy. Minford translates and Master Sun speaks, you must think in these terms.

Allow me a bit more time. Ben Franklin. He led things called, back then, schemes. How do you make muddy paths into streets? Paving of some form. How do get the money? Subscriptions. Who subscribes? People who will profit from improved streets. That too is potential energy.

Why do they subscribe? Ego and profit. It is good for their egos to be recognized as leaders in the community. It is good for their profit that people can get to their stores. What is required? Persuasion not force. Wow, freedom at work. Potential energy employed.

You can lead. Look across your street, or apartment hallway. You can say hello. You can open a conversation. You can ask to hear your neighbor's story. You can ask to hear your neighbor's position. You can support or resist, but with joy and respect. You can be a friend.

Leadership commences with nothing more than saying hello. It follows by listening, active, actual listening to the other person speak. It invites conversation, builds bond, connection, friendship. Leadership cares about the other person, the other person's mind and choices.

Leadership can make a simple request. Please consider. Can you hear the beauty of those two, simple words? Please consider. They are respectful and NOT combative. Please consider. If your new friend will, then you have led. If your new friend will not, then he is no friend.

Please note the stark difference between "consider" and "agree." Friendship is NEVER based on agreement. Leadership and followership are ALWAYS based on agreement. But you can't find followers if you can't find friends. Be a friend. Be a leader. Find the potential energy.

With an enemy, you exploit the potential energy to win. With a friend, you employ the potential energy for a positive, shared purpose. Exploit? Employ? No difference...yet ALL the difference in the world. Uniform, however, is the search for the potential energy.

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

107 verses completed, 315 to go. And also, be sure to purchase John Minford's translation, here:

amazon.com/Art-War-Pengui…

The local MAGA leader’s library needs three other books. The first is by my great friend, hero, and today’s greatest constitutional scholar, @shestokas. His most important work so far is:

amazon.com/Creating-Decla…

The second is available free. It is the combined Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

uscis.gov/sites/default/…

Last is my own book. I'll give you the link here, and then conclude with its ten MAGA principles:

amazon.com/America-First-…

1. Remember The Forgotten Americans
2. Rule Of Law
3. American Jobs
4. Quality Of Life For Every American
5. Heal Our Cities
6. Build The Wall
7. Make America Wealthy Again
8. Make America Strong Again
9. Make America Safe Again
10. Make America Great Again