Nope—don’t mean Johnny Cash, though we could possibly learn from him. I mean, dear Wesley from The Princess Bride. Recently, Fast Company had a great post about how he employed tactics from the ancient Chinese classic The Art of War by Sun Tzu. Fast Company states:
The strategy from the Art of War that is exemplified is “Winning the Battle Before It Is Fought.”Westley creatively illustrates this by having beforehand made himself invulnerable to the iocane poison through constant exposure. He then sets the terms of the contest to include it. Therefore it matters not which cup he drinks from, as either way he will win the battle.
How does this matter to you? Well, learning to see ahead of the pack and determine how and where the battle will be fought is critical. As Fast Company indicates, “In the business world, one sees companies that have applied this principle to win battles in their competitive space and capture market share. It relies on looking at the contest and re-setting its terms.” For most of us, though, we aren’t really in control of entire companies, but just simple people in the story of life.
You can, however, take the same principle into your normal realm. To make Sun Tzu’s ideas work for you, one must learn how to see the multiple possibilities inherent in every situation. This is akin to learning to play the chess board without moving the pieces. Of course, no one can see everything, but the more you can hypothesize the possible narratives, the better and stronger you become. As Fast Company put it, “To do so means you must understand what customers desire (sometimes even before they do), competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, and the capabilities you will need to win. Of course, this takes time, strategy and a lot of effort…much like developing resistance to iocane powder. But the results, as we’ve seen, can pay off handsomely.”
Next time you approach your college classroom, think about the various possibilities of what your professor desires. Or, trying to secure that great date for Friday night? Anticipate the responses the object of your desire might come up with, including knowing what the best choices that he/she would enjoy. Want that raise? Be able to put in enough strategy in your thinking to anticipate the needs and wants of your boss—that person doesn’t just have more money lying around that they wish to give you; you must figure out their desires and seek to meet it in a way that also includes you being in a position to gain your own desires.
You don’t have to start taking in small quantities of a poison in the assumption that you’ll need to be immune to its effects, but if you can imagine ahead of the pack what sorts of challenges or difficulties could come your way, you’ll be better positioned to deal with those when they come.