Strategy is an Art, never a Science!
Strategy is the Art of the conscious mind. Man invented strategy 3500 years ago to overcome the mounting challenges of the day and succeed while avoiding costly and painful conflicts.
Strategy is the Art that man invented to succeed, when the voices of Gods stopped guiding him!
Strategy is the greatest “winning tool” ever invented by man!
It enables the practitioners to predict the future of any encounter they undertake. While reacting rationally without the need for the “supernatural” or the voices from within!
It is the Art of the “Conscious Mind”, the Art of the General in the battle field.
A strategy guru once said: “Strategy is a style of thinking, a conscious and deliberate process, an intensive implementation system, the science of ensuring future success.” And how right he is…
When you know “what is strategy”, learn, and practice, you develop the strategist’s mind.
“The Thinking of the General”, who is trained to thinks several moves ahead of everyone else.
Strategy is the discovery of a “loophole” in nature!
It is the discovery of how the weak can overcome the strong and how the small can defeat the large….
It is the discovery of how you and I can succeed in business and in life no matter what the obstacles are.
FACT: Successful people know “what is strategy” and use it every day.
Usually they learn from expensive mistakes, trials, and errors.
You could be spending years of your life learning all sorts of theories of success from the “Gurus”, while still reacting to challenges the wrong way.
“Fight or Flight” response in meeting challenges is the prevailing instinct among most people…
Fight or Flight response to challenges, create a short-term satisfaction and long-term enemies and misery.
Don’t believe in the “use your instinct Luke” type of teachings…
Instinctual and spontaneous responses to challenges in business and in life, is the number one cause of “long term” failures for individuals, nations and businesses throughout history.
Strategy is the success art of the mind that for the last 2600 years its masters preserved its knowledge to the ruling classes’ politics and business throughout the world.
Strategy, “the thinking of the General” is the Forbidden and Secret Art of Success for thousands of years!
“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”
Sun Tzu the Art of War
What is Strategy According to Sun Tzu the Art of War?
Before we begin… please see this seven minutes video clip of
Osama El-Kadi in action… talking about strategy!
Sun Tzu answers the serious question of what is strategy.
In the opening of The Art of War treaty, he begins by saying:
“Strategy is the great work of the Mind. In Situation of Life and death, It is the Tao of Survival or Extinction. Its study cannot be neglected”
The Chinese written their most important classics in a very general universal style. These classics are templates for meeting life challenges.
The language of China lends itself well to this phenomenon. Each character is a multidimensional picture of an idea.
For example, the word Bing Fa could literally mean Martial Art, Strategy, and Conflict, Negotiation or even war.
Nevertheless, the way that Sun Tzu uses it, is closer to the way we use the term Strategy today.
I guess “War” was the most frequently used interpretation due to its strange “appeal”, but certainly, the word “strategy” is the closest to what Sun Tzu advocated.
Three words in the opening of the Art of War are very important:
First “Strategy”, second “Skill”, and third “Study”. Signify that it is not an inborn skill but a learned skill that you must study in order to win over life’s challenges.
What is strategy?
As a tool, Strategy is a “conscious” and systematic approach to winning over life’s challenges and achieving one’s mission.
In warfare, it is the art of employing all the military, economic, political, and other resources of a nation to achieve the objects of war.
In Business, it is the art of employing all the marketing, sales, technology, operation, and other resources to achieve the objectives of the business.
The English term, strategy, after all comes from the ancient Greek, meaning literally, the thinking or the art of the General or the Leader.
What makes strategy an Art?
Only one thing: the ability to consistently create new moves to overcome challenges in life.
When you or anyone masters Sun Tzu’s system, they are able to more completely understand their situation and take the right actions.
It doesn’t require any innate inborn skill.
Unlike all other strategic thinkers in history, Sun Tzu was able to breakdown the steps in building a strategy into simple components.
Why is this strategic art necessary?
Because our instinctual reaction to challenges is inappropriate. Our natural “inborn” reaction to life’s challenges is “flight” or “fight”.
Running away from challenges or getting into costly fights with people and organizations.
Strategy has a different approach to life’s challenges.
It teaches systematic positioning leading to triumph.
Ideally, over time, people want to join you and not to fight you.
Strategy is not for reactionaries but for “conscious” and thinking people.
Strategy is based on certain economic realities and teaches us how to use simple mathematics to calculate our possibilities and basic psychology to understand and to persuade our opponents.
What is strategy again?
A strategy is a continual “conscious” process of thinking, not a one-time planning effort.
Nevertheless, it also teaches the skills for taking advantage of opportunities that come our way every day of our lives.
About the Author
Osama El-Kadi
Strategist and Motivational Speaker
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