Skipping to the core principles which I believe should be how the book should be read (which are more interesting too) instead of from Page 1. I will cover what I feel are the main principles then jump back to continue in sequence.
– Original Text –
知彼知己，百戰不殆
Understand others + understanding ownself grants you an unlosable position
– Understanding –
The common mis-read version is 知彼知己，百戰百勝 (win everytime). In fact, the book never mentioned this and the accurate version should be 百戰不殆 (never lose).
There is a drastic difference between the two.
Furthermore, the core principle states that 百戰百勝 (winning every battle) mindset is a subpar one while 不戰而屈人之兵 is superior (win before battle). I’ll go through this in subsequent posts.
In essence, the core principles to be applied to investment is not to seek to always win but to seek to never lose. It is akin to the famous quote of Warren Buffet “the first rule of investing is to never lose money” and the second rule “is to remember the first rule”. Making money was never mentioned.
Yes, so 孫子 had said it first about 2500 years ago. (there are many other modern day quotes which also coincides with the book)