Sun Tzu's Sun Tzu's Rules give you a powerful view of how the competitive world works. As you master the principles of Sun Tzu's strategy, you make better decisions about how to advance your position and make them effortlessly and confidently.

Constant Positions Awareness

Positional awareness is a comprehensive, systematic perspective for seeing complex, competitive environments. A sense of position awareness is the ultimate confidence builder. When you can see the relative strengths and weaknesses of competitive positions and map the relationships among various positions, the future becomes easier to predict. Challenges seem less threatening and situations more controllable. Position awareness is the most basic form of science of strategy. It is the conceptual foundation for more advanced forms of competitive awareness.

Seeing and Using What Others Miss

Opportunity development builds up our existing position and helps us explore new areas successfully. In the Play Book, opportunity development is broken down into four skills: 1) Source Development, 2) Opportunity Identification, 3) Opportunity Evaluation and 4) Safe Experimentation. While most people feel trapped in rut, as we master these skills, we instantly begin to see new opportunities all around us. We know how to use every openings we are given. Our moves are small, incremental advances that others cannot oppose. By advancing continuously and consistently without opposition, we win little victories every day and eventually build up powerful, winning positions.

Picking the Right Options Instantly

Situation response is the study of the appropriate response to specific challenges. This area covers four skills, 1) Fast Response, 2) Creative Response, 3) Position Claiming, and 4) Position Security. This is the most detailed and advanced aspect of Sun Tzu's strategy. Once mastered, we can make the most challenging decisions in a flash. We can see longer term into the future, recognized where various opportunities lead. We can respond appropriately to threats, avoiding unnecessary conflict. We can also identify the best methods for neutralizing an opponent.