I was taking a look Alexander Kjerulf’s blog today, and he had an interesting post about the ‘business as war’ metaphor that is so omnipresent. I would have to agree that this metaphor gets a little tiring.Conversely however of course, competition not only drives us to be better than others. It can also be a driving force for our own self improvement.

Of course that doesn’t mean we have to treat our competitors as enemies — as Alexander points out, this is a rather inane way to treat competition — instead, we all become better through a little healthy competition.

Alexander mentions The Art of War as one example of where the ‘business as war’ folks look when seeking strategies for confrontation.

The main point of The Art of War however, is to win through avoiding confrontation.

For those of you reading this who are unfamiliar with The Art of War, it was a Chinese military treatise written by Sun Tzu during the 6th century BC. It became popular in the 1980s as a guidebook on how to strategize in the corporate world.

If you’re interested in it, you can actually get a paper copy of The Art of War: The oldest military treatise in the world for less than five dollars.

One of the main points of the Art of War was that you succeed not through repeated confrontation, but through avoiding doing battle with your enemy.

There are certainly a whole host of books out there that take a business-minded approach to The Art of War — so I won’t get into that here.

A similar but lesser-known military treatise was written around the mid-17th century by an author named Miyamoto Musashi, called The Book of Five Rings (you can get a copy of The Book of Five Rings for around seven dollars). Also, here’s Wikipedia’s description of the book if you’d like more information (you can also read the text online for free).

This article explains some essential business and success strategies derived from my own interpretation of The Book of Five Rings. This will give you a synopsis of these strategies; for more detail, I would highly suggest reading the book.

Let’s get started on what this treatise is getting at and how you can use the knowledge within it.

It’s all about the timing (well, of course it is).

You’ve heard this before. Success is about knowing how to time your actions and reactions to create the most advantageous situation for you.

The focus here however, is on what we’ll call background timing. This background timing is important in the sense that we are trying to focus on being strategic, rather than tactical.

To explain background timing, let’s contrast it with its opposite: foreground timing. If we were timing our actions and reactions based on foreground timing, we would almost always react inconsistently. We would be at the complete mercy of others, since we would always be responding in a reactionary fashion.

The key to focusing on background timing is to forget about the short-term picture — to learn to sacrifice short-term position for long-term gain.

To say this another way, you want to act and react consistently (timing your actions to the background and strategic goals you want to achieve). When things don’t go your way in a meeting or other situation, focus on the background.

Does getting what you want from this meeting really impact on your strategy? Or could sacrificing something you want now offer you a strategic advantage in the future?

This is a similar strategy to what is presented in The Art of War: do not attack an enemy head-on unless you are offered no other option. This leads us to the next point.

Be strong and determined: but do it calmly.

In business, like in our personal lives, it’s easy to get carried away with what we want. We feel that a particular way of doing things or approach is better than what someone else is presenting, and we become emotionally attached to that option.

When facing an opponent who thinks differently from you, be ready to change your opinion when you are presented with evidence that makes more sense.

The key here however, is not to be overcome by an emotional appeal to another suggestion or solution. One of Musashi’s main points is that you will achieve success mainly through dedication and self-control — letting your emotions guide or influence you will cause you to stumble and fail.

This also applies to fear of what you know needs to be done. While our own passion for our opinions can can us to fail, fear of not doing what needs to be done can be just as crippling.

If you are afraid to do something, do it first. The longer you think and hesitate, the more fear you will develop about that particular action that requires doing.

Confidence is irrelevant to your success.

While some would say that your attitude will certainly determine how successful you are, would say that there are times you are very confident about doing something, and then sudddenly feel uncertain about your success?

Success in many endeavors is less about the attitude we have during our actions than about how well we carry out those actions. While a poor attitude or lack of confidence can certainly be detrimental to our own success (by causing us to not act as we should) — an overly optimistic or positive attitude can be just as dangerous.

If we appraise our own performance as less than average, we may spend our time taking precautions that are not really necessary, thereby wasting valuable time that could’ve been spent elsewhere.

Yet when we feel very confident in our own abilities, we often abandon normal precautionary measures, feeling that they are a waste of time and better suited to a beginner.

The important strategic element to take away from this is to carry out each action as if it were going to be performed by someone else of average competence at that task.

Also, each task should be performed on its own — don’t lump a few tasks together into one task when they should be distinct.

“By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist.”

That sounds incredibly philosophical and esoteric, doesn’t it? What possible applciation could that have in real life?

Musashi’s point is complex but simple. If you want to achieve a small thing, focus on your long term goals. And when you want to achieve something that seems like a huge, impossible goal, attack it piece by piece.

As Peter Drucker famously said, it’s not only about doing things right, it’s about doing the right things.