The Art of War Lessons

Elliot Prusa

Social Studies

Mr. Walker

3/4/10

The Art of War Lessons

For the Past month I have been reading the Art of War. At first I found this book sort of boring but after it picked up I have taken away a lot of cool lessons from this book. By reading the numerous military strategies of author Sun Tzu I have learned lessons like how to be successful in friendships, how to achieve my goals and how to deal with challenges.

The first main lesson I learned from The Art of War was how to be successful in relationships. I know you may find it weird, that I learned about relationships when reading a military strategy book. But by reading about how Tzu’s five successful factors of warfare, I realized the same factors could be applied in friendships. If you don’t take initiative to communicate to your friend your relationship will not be a very long one. Just like in the book.

The second main lesson I learned from The Art of War was how to achieve my goals. In The Art of War Tzu’s philosophy about strategy made me think about setting up a strategy to achieve my goals. Just like in warfare when Tzu wanted to attack someone or something he developed a strategy. The same thing applies if I want to tackle a goal of mine, like getting a 4.0 GPA.

The third main lesson I learned from The Art of War was how to deal with unforeseen challenges. Tzu’s Strategy is when he studied exactly what will work in order to overcome challenges in military life. I thought how I could apply this to my life. I figured maybe I could set up a plan to work out for sports like Tzu set up a strategy in the military. The Art of War taught me a bunch of good lessons like thinking ahead and always being prepared when in a tough situation. This book has a lot of great lessons that even we today can apply to our everyday life.

The Art of War Reflection

Elliot Prusa

Social Studies

Mr. Walker

3/4/10

The Art of War Reflection

The Art of War reminds me of a chess game. It is all about strategy and trying to think ahead of your opponent. This book provides great life lessons and military strategies. The Art of War was written by a man named Sun-Tzu in the 6^th century B.C. It is made up of thirteen chapters all speaking about different strategies of war at that time period.

In the first several chapters of the Art of war Sun Tzu talks about three main military strategies they are detail assessment and planning, waging war and strategic attacks. At first I found this book to be a bit confusing but after getting into it I began to understand what Sun Tzu was trying to say about how many variables there are in warfare. There are so many things that he could not control. But he knew how to use them for his advantage. Tzu laid out 5 main factors to success in warfare they are the Way, seasons, terrain, leadership, and management. After I began to think more in depth about this I realized how smart Tzu was. He had figured out the military keys to success 100’s of years before people began to think about in depth military strategy. This book reminded me somewhat of the Mongols when we studied them, and without these 5 key ingredients they would not have been successful.

In the second and third chapters Tzu talks about waging war and strategic attacks. After reading about his explanations of how to understand the economy of warfare and in order to be successful you need to go for the jugular, it made me realize how much of a military mastermind this guy was for someone in his day. Once again I was reminded of the Mongols when he talked about unity being another key ingredient to success and that how unity could defeat numbers. Like I mentioned earlier this book was like a game of chess, in how Tzu spoke of strategies and thinking ahead of his opponent. I really enjoyed reading the first half of this book even though it was a bit confusing at times.