When I came across the book, the art of war for the first time, I was a bit skeptical.
Why would anyone read this book in the 21st century?
I am not in a state of war, neither most of the world.
Even if I was, this book is probably for generals and military leaders.
As I was reading through the pages of the book, I came across sentences such as “If
you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles"
it sounded a bit funny back then because I did not have any enemies, neither I was trying
to get one.
But as I pondered more about the ideas that this book presented, I came to realization
that life is a warfare.
I mean, not in the traditional meaning, where you have to shoot your enemies, but you have
to deal with similar problems such as when You get into an argument or a conflict with
a friend or relative.
Or take another example, if you are running a business, you will undoubtedly have competitors
who will work their ass off just to kick you out.
It's like modern-day warfare.
When diapers.com clashed with amazon, guess what Amazon did?
First, they offered to buy diapers.com, but they refused, so Amazon started selling diapers
at a loss until diapers.com would run out of cash and file bankruptcy.
Bezos even famously said that amazon will drive diaper prices to zero if they don't
sell or end up selling to their competitor.
Even if you are just an employee, you are fighting with your colleagues for that promotion.
People don't get randomly picked to be managers or head of a department.
So the strategies that Sun Tzu talks about in the art of war are still revenant to this
day.
Avoid what is strong and strike what is weak.
A lot of people inspired by their favorite YouTubers start a YouTube channel, try their
best to upload as much as they can, stay consistent, improve the quality of their videos but still
end up failing and don't understand why!
There are literally a million channels that play Minecraft.
For example, there are people who play this game way better than you.
Why would you start a YouTube channel in such a competitive niche?
You are competing with people who play this game non-stop and are way better than you.
Why would anyone watch you when they can watch a far more skilled player?
Especially when there are no barriers to entry.
What does it take to make Minecraft videos? a computer, a mic, and an internet connection,
which pretty much everyone can get.
Compare that to Mr beast.
How many people can put 100 Millon Orbeez in their friend's backyard or spend 50 hours
in solitary confinement or plant 20 million trees just to make a 10 or 15-minute video?
You can't be getting into a crowded niche and doing the exact same thing but expecting
different results.
Imagine if there are 10 coffee shops in this block.
Do you think you can succeed if you open one more coffee?
Instead, you should be opening a hair salon maybe because there isn't a single one in
the entire block.
I made the exact same mistake when starting this channel.
I wanted to share my ideas and opinions with the world, and I started doing animated book
reviews using a software (videoscribe) that every other YouTube used back then, and guess
what?!
I didn't see much progress.
People found my videos similar to other channels.
There wasn't a good reason for them to watch my content or subscribe.
It was a competitive space.
I knew that if I wanted to grow this channel, I can't be doing what everyone else does.
I should do what most people can't do.
I should do something what others will find difficult to replicate.
So instead of blaming YouTube, I hired an amazing team of graphic designers who knew
how to make these beautiful animations.
And not everyone can easily replicate them because it's not cheap, to say the least.
And instead of reviewing just books like everyone else did, I decided to also share my experience
in real estate and the stock market since I have been an investor for years by then.
And guess what?
More and more people started watching my content.
Of course, not every video I post gets a lot of views, but the channel is far bigger now
than it was back then, with just 2K subscribers.
2.
He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight
So here is why a lot of people fail.
You are overweight, and you come across a motivational video here on YouTube, and suddenly,
you are fired up.
You are ready to take on the world.
You promise yourself to jog every morning, reduce the number of calories you consume
daily, cut back on sweets, never have another cheeseburger again, and workout every day
for 2 hours at least.
Seems like a brilliant plan to get in shape.
But here is what happens in reality.
You do it once, maybe twice, and then on the third day, you decide to skip the gym because
you are exhausted, and then in a few days, you are back to your unhealthy lifestyle.
And it's not that there is something fundamentally wrong with you, but when you try to take multiply
battles at the same, you simply don't have the willpower to fight them all.
It doesn't matter how talented are you.
Your resources are limited.
Start first with cutting back on sugar, for example, once you make that part of your lifestyle,
then move to the next important thing, which might be jogging.
Once you get used to that, start going to the gym.
If you don't choose your battles wisely, you will be defeated.
I don't care who you are, but you can't be a basketball star, a successful politician,
and a singer, all at the same time.
You simply won't have the time to be good at all of them.
You either going to train at the pitch all day long every day to be the best in the world
at throwing the ball into the ring or learn how to code and build a technology that will
solve a complex problem.
That's why if you look at successful people, every one of them is known for just one thing—Bezos
for building amazon, JayZ for rapping, or LeBron James for playing basketball.
3.
If you know your enemy and know yourself, you will always be victorious
So the other day, I had an argument with a friend who was telling me how he has invested
in the stock market but lost his money.
That's why he is never going to invest in the stock market again.
He tried to convince me that the stock market is more like gambling.
Of course, it is like gambling if you don't
know what you are doing.
Before you even put a dime in the stock market, you should have spent months studying the
market, understanding how the market works, why some stocks rise, and others fall?
Why some companies perform better than others?
You can't just invest in a company because you heard about it in the news and be disappointed
when it falls the next day.
Everything is like gambling if you do not prepare for it.
Sun Tzu is basically saying if you know who are you dealing with or what are you dealing
with?
You are not going to lose.
Imagining getting into a fight with a Marshall art fighter.
You will get your ass kicked but if you study your enemy, find out his weaknesses, train
harder than him, you stand a pretty good chance to win.
The book is filled with such concepts.
Of course, we can't discuss all of them.
Otherwise, this video will have to be an hour-long, but it is just fascinating that the strategies
that worked thousands of years ago are still relevant until today.
Seems like humanity at its core hasn't changed much since then.
And now it's your turn.
What's your favorite lesson from the art of war?
I am really curious to know what you think about this book.
But before you do that, make sure to give this video a thumbs up if you have enjoyed
it, and make sure to subscribe and turn on your notifications.
Thanks for watching and until next time.