Sun Tzu and The Art of War for Contractors & Careers

Success in all aspects of life has to do with how effectively you align your opportunities and resources.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

Take on too much and you spread yourself too thin, introducing excessive stress, risk, and potentially failing in an unrecoverable way.  

Taking on too little will leave you with wasted potential and won’t create the right levels of stress that develops character, relationships, and capabilities.    

Taking on the wrong things won’t be fulfilling in the long-term, so it isn’t truly sustainable.

Quote: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy or yourself, you will succumb in every battle. Sun Tzu

PLANNING STARTS A GOOD INVENTORY


Know yourself deeply, including what you are really good at and what you aren’t so great at. Know what you love doing and what you don’t like doing.   

Understand your customer’s true needs, both stated and unstated.  

Know comparatively how you and your competition fulfill those needs. Be very honest with yourself about how your respective strengths and weaknesses are evaluated by the customer.



Related Training

Choose Your Outcome
A few life outcomes are determined by chance, but most are determined by choice. You can choose your actions and your thoughts. Choose to do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Connecting Metrics to Activities and Outcomes
Outcomes are created through doing the right activities. Data is only a proxy for that activity and a metric is a synthesis of lots of data points. Metrics are valuable, but always have a skeptical view of proxies for performance, especially with growth.
Capital Constraints to Growth (The Basic Formula)
Capital is one of the three primary growth constraints for construction contractors. Use this simple formula to determine how much of your pre-tax net profits need to be retained in the company to support growth and to establish your safe growth limits.