5 Principles From Sun Tzu’s The Art Of War Relevant To Startups

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is a renowned ancient Chinese military treatise that has been studied and applied for centuries. Although originally written for warfare, the principles outlined in the text can be applied to various fields, including business and startups.

Ancient wisdom shouldn’t be discarded quickly even in modern circumstances. The principles of the world haven’t changed much despite the ever-changing makeup of our time.

Here are five quotes from the ancient text that can inspire and guide modern startup founders:

1. “Every battle is won before it is fought.”

This quote from Chapter 6 emphasizes the importance of preparation and planning in achieving success.

Before launching a startup, founders must conduct thorough market research and analysis to identify opportunities, competition, and potential challenges. This preparation is essential in developing an effective strategy and positioning the startup for success. Startups must also have a clear mission, vision, and goals to guide their efforts and keep them on track.

2. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

To be successful as a founder you must have a deep understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your project. You must also understand your competition, including their strengths, weaknesses, and strategy.

While this is obvious, it is much easier said than done. Having a surface level understanding of either could be fatal, as the devil is in the details. This is why the best way to acquire deep knowledge of your project and its environent in the early startup stages is to run validation tests.

3. “All warfare is based on deception.”

Chapter 1 highlights the importance of deception in warfare. While deception is not the right term for startups (since they are not in an adversarial situation with most of their stakeholders), creativity and originality are crucial for success.

Successful startups use storytelling to create an emotional connection with their audience and differentiate themselves from their competition.

4. “Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”

Chapter 5 stresses the importance of opportunism.

This is likely even more important in the startup field – innovative projects must be agile and quick to respond to changes in the market, including emerging trends, shifts in consumer behavior, and competitor moves. This requires a culture of innovation and experimentation, where failures are viewed as learning opportunities and pivots are embraced as necessary.

5. “In war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.”

As a startup, you can’t take on established corporations head-on. Instead, you need to differentiate yourself and provide more value for customers in areas where corporations struggle ot do so. Usually those are market new dynamic market niches that require rappid innovation and agility – qualities that large corporations lack.