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What do you really want out of life? Now what's stopping you?

Monday, October 08, 2007

The Postal Wars

Finished reading Terry Pratchett’s ‘Going Postal’ and am half way through ‘Sun Tzu and the Art of Business’ by Mark McNeilly. Surprisingly for a fantasy fictional novel and a business book based on ‘The Art of War’ there is much in common. From the idea of maintenance versus repair, to finding your competitors’ weakness and building your strength there, there are multiple ideas shared in both books. The other concept occurring in both books is the idea of forcing your opponent to make rash decisions by forcing them into a heightened state of emotion. Angry people can be manipulated and are more likely to make poor decisions resulting in their defeat. Combine this with the idea of knowing yourself before you know your enemy and it raises the inevitable question of triggers. In this case the negative ones. It’s pleasant to look at what makes you happy, excel and strive for more, but what about ‘the dark side.’ What gets under your skin and why? What is time wasting was a huge issue-your time is valuable so don’t waste it. Positive attribute on the surface but could also be exploited as a weakness…just get me late to a meeting or better still make me wait. Being aware of this helps you avoid being trapped in this manner. While most people you deal with probably wouldn’t think on this level, there are some that will-sorry it takes all sorts in the world and some of the liquorice ones are nasty. So have another look at yourself-I know I have.

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