Sun Tzu, the master military tactiton who's 5th century B.C.E writings still apply today.
Read probably the greatest military treatise of all time, and you may better understand how to move through life it's very self.
Have you not deceived people in your day to day interactions with them ? Sort to put one over on someone or get the upper hand ? Or even used somebody, being all nicey nicey to get what you want ? Or indeed been a victim of it.
All this can be found in the Art of War written by the afore mentioned. Make no mistake in thinking that the book and the contents that lie within it's pages only apply to battles or wars, they do not. The work place can be and is a prime example as is Your own personal world as you move through it on a daily basis.
The problem arises when people you have been using wake up to your agenda. The smart ones, who may otherwise come across not that well read, become a living nightmare. I've seen it before and it ain't pretty. These people know exactly what they're doing.
In entering many martial art competitions, I always used to study my opponents, if given the chance. Patterns generally emerged which could then help me put a strategy together when engaged in combat on the mat, aggressive or a passive start, wade in or sit back. It didn't always work of course, but before I stopped fighting altogether I was winning more than I was losing. This can be seen in my medal Tally. But this said the hardest battle was always from within.
A notable 8th Dan Sensei once told me that competition fighting where you would try to beat someone else had little or nothing to do with Budo and was focussing Karate outwardly not inwardly as is the case with the Budo. I took this on face value at the time, well, he was an eighth Dan training in the Art for more than 40 years after all. I now know differently.
The thing about competition fighting though is this, whilst granted you are trying to beat, literally, someone else, you have to beat yourself first. Fear, nervousness, self doubt, fitness ( you have to be first and foremost in good physical condition, a battle with the self if ever there was one) all have to be overcome in stepping out on the mat to being punched, kicked or put in a lock.
Just to clarify When I was competing we only had a mouth guard and a box, that was it. Split lips, fractured/broken ribs, cuts above the eye, black eyes, bloody noses, stitches and bruising were very common.
Back to Sun Tzu.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer unless that is, you wish to stop their lack of integrity and poor behavior which has now become a personal choice.
Sun Tzu Said "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the outcome of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself then you will succumb in every battle."
Sun Tzu Said......
