Thread by @ThyConsigliori

John Minford, #SunTzu 8: 29 "If an army is defeated and its general slain, it will surely be because of these Five Perils."

As my work in commentating upon Master Sun has proceeded, I've noticed how many simple statements I've completely bypassed over the decades, no matter how many translations I read. Today's verse is one of them.

As my friends know, when I set out upon this mission, I was almost paralyzed with fear. My count was 422 verses (and I recently discovered 16 more that I missed!, but more on that soon enough). The thought of a 422-day project shook me to my core.

What I found as I struggled through each day was this. The only thing I really need to do is show up and listen to Master Sun speak. As long as I do that, the layer after layer of meaning begins to reveal itself each day. Take today, for instance.

You certainly do not have to believe him, but Master Sun makes a simple, clear, emphatic statement. If an army is defeated, its general slain, one of the Five Perils was at play. He makes no exceptions. He means every single time. Sure, it can be one or more, of course.

But his statement truly could not be clearer. You will never fight a defeated army with a slain general where one of the Five Perils failed to be present. Every single time. Contemplate that. How important is that? Hint...IT'S HUGE!!!

Here's the list again:

1) Recklessness
2) Cowardice
3) Hot Temper
4) Delicacy of Honor
5) Over-concern For His Men

Now, let me slightly amend it for non-generals:

1) Recklessness
2) Cowardice
3) Hot Temper
4) Weak Ego
5) Over-solicitude for others, or what others think

Take Master Sun at his word and give it a spin. Look back on any major failure of your life, and you are guaranteed to find one or more of those causes present. Right now, I'm 58 years old and I'm furious. I was 30 years younger when I started reading this damned book.

When I contemplate the catastrophes I might have averted had I had THIS lesson pounded into my head back then, my head just droops. But it's not my translators' fault. It's my fault. I never chose to study Master Sun verse by verse, phrase by phrase till now. Who can I blame?

Let's turn very practical. How do you learn to apply this lesson to your own every day, real life? The key is to analyze small failures, rapidly. Sure, you'll easily find how horribly you did in big failures, and if you pay attention, learn and change, wonderful.

But picking up on Master Sun's language, truth is, the dead generals tends not to learn or change much. So, be a wounded general and analyze, before you lose your entire army and are slain, yourself. That is, analyze the small failures to avert the big ones where you can.

We'll take this practice even deeper tomorrow, the practice of failure analysis. But sticking tightly to our Five Perils, try to notice every single time you're unhappy for any reasons - every time - and ask, was I reckless in any way, and might that be why I'm not happy?

Did my fear overwhelm my courage? Did I let my temper get away with me? What about this hellaciously weak ego of mine, did I let my insecurities take charge? Could I have just blown that off instead of overreacting...yet again...?

Did I take responsibility for what others really did need to do, letting them off the hook and encouraging and rewarding poor performance and bad behavior? And why I am so worried about what others think? Why don't I seem to focus on teaching them to care about what I think?

What you'll find if you scratch the surface of the greatest leaders you ever meet will be a perpetual stream of just such questions constantly flowing within. I cannot too strongly emphasize the power of these questions focused on the minute, in advance of the catastrophic.

Last cut for today. The power of the incremental over the monumental is profound. Everyone loves to go to the mountaintop and return with their own new set of 10 commandments. But must such transformations fail to pass the test of time. Ecstasy does not prophesy change.

Rather it is the small, tough battles to fight for the next increment of better performance that transforms over time. Therefore, if you want to avert the great losses, work your way to the big victories by repeated little ones, and pay extraordinary care to small defeats.

If you recover from each small defeat a little bit less reckless, a little bit more courageous, a little be cooler tempered, etc., you will win your way small victory by small victory to the big ones when you're ready.

It is only in this manner that you can come to truly know yourself. Hey, didn't Master Sun say something, once, about the importance of knowing yourself?

Oh well, who can remember all these lessons, eh?

Evil smile.

228 verses completed, 194 to go.

To return to previous sections in our #WarForAmerica2020 and #SunTzuForMAGA series, don't forget to head over to @WarForAmerica21. You'll find the digital table of contents for this series, there. Please retweet each entry you enjoy.