u/ConfidentBoop

>4 Create a Sense of Urgency and Desperation The Death-Ground Strategy You are your own worst enemy. You waste precious time dreaming of the future instead of engaging in the present. Since nothing seems urgent to you, you are only half involved in what you do. The only way to change is through action and outside pressure. Put yourself in situations where you have too much at stake to waste time or resources—if you cannot afford to lose, you won’t. Cut your ties to the past; enter unknown territory where you must depend on your wits and energy to see you through. Place yourself on “death ground,” where your back is against the wall and you have to fight like hell to get out alive.

Strategy 4 is high risk high reward: by cutting out your options, you self motivate like none other. It is a very effective Strategy, but taken too far it can be self-defeating. In the book, Greene discusses how the Spanish sunk their ships in order to motivate them to conquer what is current day Mexico. And it worked: they defeated the local civilization, and the rest is history.

In school, I used the death ground strategy to great effect while studying: instead of giving myself all day to study, I gave myself only a few hours. By limiting the time I had to get my homework done, I was more efficient, more effective, and more productive with my time and getting the studying done in a prompt and realistic manner. Time expands and contracts based on how much we allocate, and by setting time limits we naturally become better, smarter, and more creative thinkers.

Dieting is great for death ground. Get rid of food in the house. Leave the house with no spending money. Put yourself in positions where you have to go to bed hungry because you've limited your options to eat. All of these are ways to use Strategy 4, create desperation in your life, but also lose weight simply by eating less when less food is available.

Goal setting in general works great with Strategy 4 and creating a sense of urgency and desperation. Whether it is acing a class in school, cutting pounds off your body, or getting anything done in life, Strategy 4 understands the concept that time is fluid and flexible, and that if you set goals, timeframes, and expectations, you will conveniently surprise yourself with what you are able to accomplish.

3 Amidst the Turmoil of Events, Do Not Lose Your Presence of Mind The Counterbalance Strategy In the heat of battle, the mind tends to lose its balance. Too many things confront you at the same time—unexpected setbacks, doubts and criticisms from your own allies. There’s a danger of responding emotionally, with fear, depression, or frustration.

Strategy 3 is very stoic and teaches about trusting yourself, avoiding blunder out of emotion, and keeping to your grand strategy even in the face of setbacks. Strategy 3 is the glue that keeps every other strategy together. It teaches to avoid sunk costs, to avoid pride as well as blunder, and to keep a presence of mind that will carry you to victory.

It was my final chess game, and I had just lost my queen. Any other player would’ve given up at this point. But, keeping Strategy 3 in mind, I continued to play, and play hard. Eventually, I was able to bait my opponent with a knight, and then pin his queen to his king, thus taking his queen and shifting the dynamic of the game from losing to winning. After that, my opponent continued to blunder eventually resigning in defeat, unable to even finish the game. Had I resigned when I first lost my queen, I would’ve missed out on a huge win and boost to my overall score.

Texting someone, I was flustered. They didn’t respond, and it was making me nervous. But, rereading Strategy 3, I waited them out, refusing to double text or break down with angry messages I’d later regret. A few hours later, and they eventually caved, sending me the texts I wanted and putting me in a position where I was being chased and asked to meet up again.

After reckoning whether or not I should approach a woman outside Starbucks, I was about to decide to dismiss the opportunity and walk away. But, maintaining my stride that evening, I decided to overcome my emotions of stress and nervous energy and go and talk to her. And I’m glad I did: we spoke for over an hour, exchanged contact information, and are planning to meet again. In the heat of the moment, I didn’t lose presence of mind.

Conclusion

Strategy 3 is about being grounded, being faithful to yourself, and having a grand strategy you stick with. It’s about strength in your mindset, and accepting a potential failure that will probably never even happen. Strategy 3 has my favorite story about Lord Horatio Nelson pummeling the Danish defenses until they raised the white flag, even going so far as disobeying direct orders to stop the attack.

Trust yourself, trust the process, and trust that things will work out in the end, as long as you come psychologically prepared.

1 Declare War on Your Enemies The Polarity Strategy Life is endless battle and conflict, and you cannot fight effectively unless you can identify your enemies. People are subtle and evasive, disguising their intentions, pretending to be on your side. You need clarity. Learn to smoke out your enemies, to spot them by the signs and patterns that reveal hostility. Then, once you have them in your sights, inwardly declare war.

Robert Greene starts off this book the 33 strategies of war in an incredibly epic narrative that gets you excited and ready to go. It is about the Greeks surviving in Persia by declaring war on the Persians and fighting inner battles that were keeping them at bay.

When you declare war on your enemies, it gives you something to look forward to. It gives you perspective. It gives you a measuring tape to understand your progress. By looking at your enemies, and seeing where they are in their journey against you, you are able to understand how to get better and further yourself.

A personal example in my own life is fighting over a family inheritance. My father passed away, but my mother is still alive. My enemy is my sister, who wants everything for herself. I have only a few years left with my mother, which means that I must make the most and prepare for battle with my sister over the estate. This means building up my cash reserves, getting in the good graces of my mother, and putting myself in a legally advantage position. I have declared war on my sister, use the polarity strategy to energize me, and given my life, a sense of purpose by working toward what amounts to a huge windfall if it ends up succeeding in my favor.

Law one is obviously the most important law because Robert Greene put it first in his book. And the most important masters in our lives, especially growing up, are our parents. There are often power struggles between children and parents. However, it is the clever child who learns to deflect pride and honor thy mother and father, and in order to get ahead in life.

It is easy, especially as a boy, to create jealousy within the father who expects you to usurp his power when he gets old and feeble. never outshining your father, you give him a sense of confidence that allows him to enable you to maximize your potential without being sabotage while in this younger, more vulnerable period of growth in your life.

When it comes to sibling rivalries, it is the one who doesn’t outshine their parents who gets the better deal. At least in my experience. If you want to be a favored child, follow Robert Green‘s rule, and never outshine the master. That master being your mother and your father. It is why this is in the Bible to honor thy parents. Because it is so important in a person‘s life.

My neighbor and I got tagged with some pretty ugly looking graffiti on the front of our buildings. I was able to get the graffiti off of mine with acetone and a rag, and it left no marks because it was on the metal electrical boxes. I offered him to clean up his graffiti, but he was hesitant and said don’t worry about it that he’s got it covered. It’s been at least six weeks and the graffiti is still up. It looks awful, and I don’t know how his tenants stand it.

I think he’s a bit of a slumlord and doesn’t find it a priority to clean up that part of his building. It’s not a big job, but it is something that I would like to take part in because graffiti is bad for everyone in the area. I don’t know if cleaning up his graffiti, this is some sort of “reverse vandalism”.

I might be able to convince him otherwise but I was wondering your thoughts about me cleaning up this fix that needs to be done at some point and would cost me nothing and cost the neighbor nothing as well. How should I handle this?

Adding insult to injury, I'm not from New Jersey and I was driving a rented U-Haul. It was pure theft, plain and simple. Looking back, I feel horrible because I took something that wasn't mine, and I'm desperate to know whether or not the difference in what I paid and what I owed wasn't taken out of this poor man's salary.

It was wrong, messed up, and selfish of me to steal what amounted to $100 to $200 worth of gas just because I thought I was being clever and that I'd never have to see this person or gas station again. I never got caught for it, but to this day I know that this sealed my ticket to hell for being so petty, so foolish, and ultimately so anti social to take advantage of this minimum wage worker working a gas pump just to feel cool about myself for making some money in free gas.

Like wow dude, you thought you're so clever but you're really not, I tell myself now.

As a property manager, I manage a house with storage units in the basement. I tell people if they want to store their stuff in the basement they have to put it in one of the storage units and lock it. Well we had a few people move out, and there were a few air conditioners I saw left over that were not in storage units and locked. So I emailed everyone if they wanted an air conditioner, it was on a first come first serve basis and they could go into the basement and pick one that was not behind a locked storage unit.

Well, someone's air conditioner was taken from the basement who still lived there. I bought a replacement. When they moved out, they took the replacement with them. I told them I needed it back, that it wasn't a gift to them it was rather a gesture of goodwill on my part, and that if they didn't return it I'd have to deduct the $300 it cost me from the deposit. They returned it, but said I had given the impression that I had bought it for them after I made the mistake of telling everyone they could take any air conditioner they saw in the basement.

AITA? From their point of view, I shouldn't have told people that they could take any air conditioner from the basement that they wanted. From my point of view, anything that is not behind a locked door could be taken by anyone in a communal space, and getting them a new air conditioner was not a gift for them to keep, rather a means to get their apartment cooled while they habited there.

*Strategy 32 Dominate While Seeming to Submit The Passive-Aggression Strategy Any attempt to bend people to your will is a form of aggression. And in a world where political considerations are paramount, the most effective form of aggression is the best-hidden one: aggression behind a compliant, even loving exterior. To follow the passive-aggressive strategy, you must seem to go along with people, offering no resistance.*

The most powerful among us know not to display their power. Rather, they keep it subtle, maintaining a simple and even hidden appearance. I’ve seen it before: someone cuts you off in traffic, or steals your spot in line, or doesn’t pay you proper respects. The powerless man will made a scene out of it, trying to get revenge and equaling things out. But, interestingly enough, the powerful man lets all this slide because he knows his time is more valuable placed elsewhere.

“A lion does not concern himself with a mouse blocking his path.”

There is something to be said about submitting. Power doesn’t mean winning every battle; rather it means winning the war. In 33 Strategies, Greene uses Gandhi as an example of passive warfare. By boycotting the salt tax, Gandhi was effective in getting the British to leave India. He didn’t start a guerrilla war campaign. Instead he knew what would work against the British and did just that.

Look benign, gentle, even passive, and people will not put up barriers in your way. In fact, they may help you out in your pursuit of power. Altogether, it’s about choosing your battles wisely, lowering people’s barriers, and not expending energy on Pyrrhic victories, instead having a grand strategy for your life.