5分钟读完英文版《孙子兵法》

This is a book that I first read in my military strategic studies class at the United States Air Force Academy. And it's kind of crazy that a book written over 2,500 years ago is really the first and the most fundamental book studied by the world's greatest air force to this day. And you might not necessarily be fighting wars, but business is basically the modern day warfare, so if you own one or work for one, which should basically be everyone, then this book is just as useful for you as for a military strategist. Know your enemy and know yourself and in 100 battles you will never be in peril.

我在美国空军学院上军事策略研究课的时候第一次读到这本书。当今世界一流的军事院校把这本写于2500年前的书籍作为首要的最基本的学习内容，着实有点疯狂。可能你没必要作战，但商业基本就是现代社会的战争，所以如果你是老板或是其他人的员工，那么这本书对你的用处，就像对军事战略家的用处一样。

知己知彼，才能百战不殆。

A lot of people go to job interviews, don't get picked, and don't understand that this is exactly why. They walk in there having no idea about who they're dealing with. If you're walking into a job interview, you need to have spent the past few weeks learning everything there is to know about the company and the industry it's in.

很多人的面试以失败告终，不明白到底为什么会这样。他们去面试，却不知道和谁打交道。如果你去参加面试，需要花费几周的时间去了解学习关于这家公司及其所在行业的各种知识。

Do you know how impressive it is if you walk in there and say something like, "We're in a billion dollar industry. I know we're currently holding 20% of the market share, and the CEO has announced two weeks ago that we'll be trying to hit 30% by the end of next year. And here is how hiring me is going to help this company achieve that." Do you know how impressive that would be? Most people's answer to that would be something like, "uh... We try to sell shoes here. I don't really know..."

如果面试时你这样说，会令人印象非常深刻，“我们身处一个非常有前景的行业。现在拥有20%的市场份额，两周前总裁宣布我们争取在明年年底达到30%。雇佣我一定会帮助公司实现那个目标。”你知道这样的表达会令人印象多么深刻吗？多数人对于这个问题会回答，“嗯…我们尝试在这里销售鞋子。我不是很清楚…” 那就很差劲了…

Now that's crazy... but not only do people have no idea about who they're dealing with, they have no idea about themselves. Most people if asked, "Why should we pick you", have no idea how to answer it. It's like, "uh, I guess I'll work really hard..." No, that was the answer that the 20 other people before you gave. Why are you better than all the other ones? Objectively, what are you capable of that makes you better than all the other ones?

但是人们不仅不清楚他们在和谁打交道，而且也不了解自己。多数人被问及“我们为什么要选你”的时候都不知道该如何回答。“嗯，我想我会努力工作的…”错，你之前的其他20个候选人也会给出这样的答案。你为什么比别人更好呢？客观来讲，你哪方面的能力比别人更突出呢？

Know your enemy and know yourself and in 100 battles you will never be in peril. Avoid what is strong. Attack what is weak. So when Jen gets a job at a company, she goes in and sees how everyone's really good at answering the phone. And she says, "I'm going to work hard and be better than everyone when it comes to answering the phone." And Jen's never going to be valued in that company. There are all these other people who are really good at answering the phone. You don't want to compete there. You want to be the Jen who everyone goes up to with insurance questions because you're the only person in there who knows everything there is to know about insurance.

知己知彼，才能百战不殆。避强攻弱。当珍找了份新工作的时候，她在公司看到每个人都很擅长接听电话。她就说，“我会努力工作，争取在接听电话方面超越别人。”结果就是珍永远不会受到这个公司的重视。因为其他人都很擅长接听电话。你肯定不想在那里竞争。你想成为一个大家都来找你咨询保险的珍，因为你是那里唯一懂保险的人。

Same thing in business. No wonder businesses have such a huge rate of failure, when people walk into a business trying to compete with Walmart on price. Why are you attacking what is strong? You're never going to beat Walmart on price. But what are the weaknesses? What do people demonize Walmart for? The cup was made with the tears of Chinese children. The cup has nothing authentic about it. So all of a sudden you say, "Look at my cup. It's made by treating people really well, it's authentic because of this and that..." Now that's still a really hard market, so good luck with competing in there, but at least you have some chance of some little market share now, because you literally had zero chance before.

生意也是同理。当生意人试图与沃尔玛竞价时，如此巨大的生意失败率也就不足为奇了。你为什么要以卵击石呢？你永远不可能在价格上战胜沃尔玛。但是有什么弱点吗？人们把沃尔玛夸大成什么了呢？这个杯子是用中国孩子的眼泪做的。没有任何实质性的东西。如果突然你说，“看看我的杯子。制作过程尊重每一个人。因为各种原因它是可信的…”就算如此这个市场还是很难做，但是也祝你好运，至少你现在有可能获得一些市场份额了，因为你之前是一点可能也没有。 

To win 100 battles is not the height of skill- to subdue the enemy without fighting is. It's amazing how everyone's obsessed with suing today. There's definitely a time when fighting is the last resort, but a lot of these cases could be solved just by picking up the phone. Picking up the phone costs nothing, suing people will cost you a lot. And I love when people finally quote unquote win, and are so proud. Because that's all you can be, just proud.

赢得战斗不算什么本事—不战而胜才是最高境界。令人惊奇的是现在的人们都很热衷于诉讼。当战斗成为最后的手段，的确有这么一段时间，诉讼很流行，但很多这种案例可以用电话解决。打电话花费不了什么，起诉会花费很多。我很高兴人们最终给赢加了双引号，而非常自豪。因为你做了你所能做的，自豪吧。

Because if you looked at it rationally, you have spent endless amounts of money, years of your time and energy and all that opportunity cost, and now you quote unqoute"win". Maybe the benefit was higher than the cost in your situation, and that's awesome, congratulations, but a lot of times it's not. You're smarter than your opponent, you don't rely on emotions like anger and pride to decide if you're going to fight or not. You always take into account the cost, and you do everything you can to win the battle without actually fighting it. Because you know that fighting has a cost, and that cost is huge.

如果理性的看待它，你花费了数不清的金钱，时间和精力，以及各种机会，现在你给赢加了引号。或许益处会大于你的花费，那就太好了，恭喜你，但是大多数情况下，不是这样的。你比对手更聪明，你不会依靠生气或骄傲这类情感来决定是否迎战。你总会考虑花费，你想尽一切办法争取不战而胜。因为你知道战斗花费巨大。

So the three big ideas are: Know your enemy and know yourself and in 100 battles you will never be in peril. Avoid what is strong. Attack what is weak. And to win 100 battles is not the height of skill- to subdue the enemy without fighting is.

所以三大理论就是：知己知彼，百战不殆。避强攻弱。身经百战，不如不战而胜。

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