Perhaps Sun Tzu's greatest gift to a family's study…

Perhaps Sun Tzu's greatest gift to a family's study of leadership is his observation that the greatest general is the one who never fights a battle either because he has planned so well strategically, long before any particular battle, that he is so well prepared, equipped, and manned, that his opponent declares defeat without fighting, or because his opponent is in a superior position and he withdraws to ensure his army can fight another day. For this leader, long-term strategic planning is everything and tactics are a means of bringing strategy to life. Such a leader takes opportunities that arise from long-term thinking-seventh-generation thinking and knows that no opportunity that risks the survival of his family, regardless of the reward, is ever worth taking.

— from Leadership & Business (Leadership/Business) · Family: The Compact Among Generations by James E. Hughes Jr.

In the book

Lao Tzu described the finest leader as one who is "never seen, never heard, and never felt, but is revered for a thousand years by his followers" — because the people did it themselves, and felt that they did. Sun Tzu said the greatest general is the one who never has to fight a battle, because he planned so far ahead that the outcome was settled before the first move; for such a leader, long-term strategy is everything and tactics merely bring it to life. This is the difference between the transactional leader, who meets today's problems, and the transformational one, who meets the problems of a generation not yet born. […] Back the right people and support them. That, more than any deal, is where the real return lives. Build to outlast yourself. Plan like Sun Tzu; lead like Lao Tzu; leave something that flies for a thousand years. Children — most of my working life I was captivated by one thing: that success in business could buy me freedom and independence, the freedom to do what I wanted, when and how I wanted, to merge money and freedom into one. — Leadership & Business (Leadership/Business)

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