UNKNOWN - The Art of Psychological Warfare_ 51 Principles of Conflict Resolution, Negotiation, Strategy, Office Politics, Career Building, Self Help, & Motivation for Success & Happiness in Business & Life

Battle

Principle 1: Most aspects of business and life involve never ending psychological battle.

You are reading the words of a complete schmuck, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

Wouldn't it be nice if all authors admitted what I just said? The world would surely be a lot less confusing if they did...

You are wise to be reading this book, but you are also wise to be skeptical about what I say... But please keep an open mind. I will walk you through the sobering realities of business and life, but I will not leave you without hope, faith, and a plan of action for success and inner-peace.

This book is about the private struggles we all go through.

No one likes to talk about them. Most of the times we can't even put our finger on what's really happening as we're going through them. But the truth is that we are constantly in psychological battle.

A coworker says something. A friend does something. A client closes their account with you. A family member asks you for something. A vendor refuses to fulfill on their promise to you.

When these things happen, we think about they we want. We think about what we want. We try to understand our own mind and understand theirs. And our moments of reflection and response cost us valuable time and energy.

Moreover, we construct visions of what we want on our own and then go out into the world to pursue them. Inevitably, other people's desires come up against our own. There is conflict. There is battle. And that battle is often purely psychological.

Not everything in business and life is adversarial, but much of it is.

The world we live in is transforming rapidly. In a world of constant transition, there is uncertainty. When there is uncertainty, there is aggression. And because the world is transitioning at an increasingly accelerated pace, it will only become more and more aggressive. You must face reality and prepare yourself for never-ending psychological war.

You may think I'm being overly dramatic or cynical. Fine. Be that way. I don't expect you to necessarily agree with me. What I respectfully ask of you, again, is to keep an open mind. This book is about the way the world really works and what you can do about it. These principles, when understood and implemented with wise combination, will make you the best psychological warrior you can be.

Your time, energy, talent, and mental strength are your currency in psychological warfare. Resources such as money just posture you better, but they don't necessarily protect you.

Battles lie within battles. Wars lie within wars. And in today's world you must carefully choose your battles. But it isn't easy. Others will tempt you, bait you, and seduce you into conflict.

Most battles are psychological and psychological warfare is unavoidable and endless. To keep your sanity, you must work to understand and ultimately master the psychological warfare of everyday life.

Principle 2: Self-interest rules the world.

Want to know why the world is so screwed up? Self-interest. The world you inherited was screwed up. The world you may leave your children will be screwed up. Why? Because human beings are fundamentally driven by self-interest. I'm not saying that you can't do good things in the world or that certain areas of life aren't improving, but people's self interest will come at you virtually every second in a myriad of ways. And many times their self-interest conflicts with your self-interest.

It's okay for you to have self-interest and it's okay for the other 7 billion people in the world to have self-interest. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. It just means that battle is never-ending. Want to know when war as we know it will end? When there are no people left on the planet.

Sometimes people hide behind organizations or corporations. But behind these fronts are usually one or two key decision makers and they are the ones waging war on you, not the corporations they hide behind. Moreover, sometimes the self-interest of a person may slightly conflict with the interest of the organization that they hide behind, and if you are strategic, then you may be able to get that person to back down by exploiting this gap.

For now, understand that self-interest rules the world and that it is the reason you are constantly being kicked around in business and life.

Principle 3: The personal paradox: everything is personal, yet nothing is personal.

Bare with me here. This is a bit of a tricky and deep concept, but nonetheless, it's an important one to articulate at this point in our dialogue. Business life and personal life are emotionally inseparable. And when people come at you, it's very hard not to take it personally.

The thing to understand is that people pursue their self-interest. They may say things which appear personal, but this is just a tactic to demoralize you so that their self-interest can be advanced. In this sense, people make things personal, but it is purely rooted in the pursuit of their self-interest.

When people come at you in life, they are objectifying you. They are literally treating you like an object. Thus, there is nothing to take personally. The master warrior constantly works on and refines his personal psychology so that the actions of others don't cause him to self-destruct as a result of taking attacks personally.

Not taking things personally is easier said than done. I will address aspects of this problem later in this book. For now, understand that it is to your advantage not to take attacks from others personally and to assume you are merely being objectified by the opponent.

Principle 4: You cannot avoid attack. The world will exploit you.

If you think you can avoid the world of psychological warfare, you are sadly mistaken. You can be in denial, but you cannot be in peace, for the self-interest of others will inevitably cause them to come after what you have. There are tactics which can deter others from coming after you, but aggression from opponents cannot be completely demolished.

People pursue their self-interest and will take everything from you that they can. Don't think that you can hide somewhere and avoid this. For instance, if you tried to hide from life by being a hermit in the woods, some other hermit would come along and try to take your cabin. So don't even fantasize about avoiding attack, you silly hermit.