A textbook for one of my classes this semester is The Art of War for Managers, a spin on Sun Tzu’s classic work, The Art of War (which, by the way, is available as a free e-book on Kindle, nook, etc.). The professor for this course is the same one I had last semester, when we discussed Dune as a case study for organizational management. Since it became necessary to familiarize myself with the entire Dune series–beyond just the first book that we were assigned, I thought it would be wise to read the original Art of War text (well, not the original original, because I don’t read Mandarin, but at least the English translation) before the class began.

The book is brief and is a fairly easy read. It is broken down into poetic segments, much like the book of Proverbs in the Bible. Here is one of the statements that resonated with me:

“To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.”

The quote was written in the context of preparing for military battle, but I can see how there are applications toward other aspects of life. Put another way, I think the statement means that we should not define success based on everyone else’s definition. We aren’t cookie-cutter human beings. We have different gifts and skills, and we each have a purpose in life. 🙂