Security:military about life and business.

Military thinking for success in life and business. 

Introduction. 

My military philosophy is about my beliefs on engaging in violence in pursuit of an interest and the justification for such action. It is my belief that because violence causes pain, which is a word I use for any suffering which is the product of war, war needs to be justified before it can be prosecuted. The sacrifices made in preparation for war are also suffering, even though it's part of preparation, for instance an army needs to be trained in conditions as close to battlefield conditions as possible if they are to have any chance of victory. There will be emotional costs physical injuries psychological wounding to harden the individual and all this is suffering even before the first battle. Then during the battle there is suffering on a higher scale, including mortal wounding. Training will usually not involve the risk of death but the actual war has that not as a risk but a possibility and it takes mental emotional and psychological preparation to engage in an activity knowingly where your very mortality is at stake. But I also believe as my military philosophy that any engagement in organised violence is what constitutes war,but military principles can also find application in socialising, politics and business. This principles include an understanding that an army is more powerful than a single soldier, and that you are better off fighting as part of an army instead of as a loner. 

Then know the battles you are going to fight not superficially but in detail, who is the adversary their strengths and weaknesses, and who are you not in self deception but in reality, and what are your strengths and weaknesses. Then ask yourself if the war is justifiable, is it of benefit to you and can another approach be chosen like a deal or political settlement or must the war precede any of this because that is a necessity? Only if a war is justified should you enter into it. 

Military principles. 

Preparation is the first military principle. Before you prosecute a war you must first prepare for it. Gather intelligence on the adversary, practice countering his strengths and exploiting his weaknesses. Then for yourself deny the adversary intelligence on yourself by misleading them or making it impossible for them to gather any. Then assessments your real strengths and amplify them, while you can use your weaknesses as a bait for the advesary to crush them with a hidden strength. Then drill your army, don't ignore the value of practice make sure they are well fed and in peak physical state, both from exercising and from good health care and nutrition. Key is consistency in preparation. Don't slacken or overlook any factor or detail. Make sure you have enough ammunition and weapons and a system of support supplies and maintenance that will sustain the war when it finally dawns. It's better to over prepare than to under prepare, for you can never be too ready, you are only as ready as you are. 

The second military principle is communication. You must control communication. How are you perceived how do you perceive others what is your reputation and can you damage the adversaries reputation without being tempted to be dismisivenes of it? You should also not unduly respect or disrespect both your army and the adversary. You must learn to be nominally private so that even some details are withheld from your closest associates, for in the end you are the most trustworthy individual to yourself. You also get better  at interpretation of communication you receive, what is the real message, what does it say about your advesary and his situation, for getting better at interpreting communication makes you better at keeping the secrets you want to keep. Having a reliable communication system is key. How available are you who speaks on your behalf, what does your absence say and availability, for this also is a communication system. Too much absence and you appear disrespectful too much availability and you are desperate, you need a balance. 

Endurance is the third military principle. The question that captures it best is are you a cheater or a wild dog? A cheater hunts with short bursts of the fastest speed in the animal kingdom but has low endurance which is why most of its hunts fail. It's built for speed, instant gratification.a wild dog on the other hand is a different mentality all together. It's about sustaining an operation beyond the capacity of the advesary, it's winning by attrition wearing the enemy down slowly until they collapse from exhaustion. The down side of a wild dog is that it requires a team to hunt it's most ineffective alone. A cheater is the assassin the lone operator lethal and covert, a wild dog announces it's presence to flush out the prey, the pack represents intimidation so needs to be seen and heard to have effect,then begins the chase where eventually the dogs kill an animal much larger than themselves. 

Strategy is the fourth military principle. It merges the different principles into a combined effort, where to wage a war you need a strong economy that can survive temporary disruption without such disruption being catastrophic. At a personal level the economy is the health of the soldier and commander. This is both mental, psychological, physical and financial health, all four not one or the other but all 4.the politics is that war should serve a purpose that is political being achieved through military means. A war should not be for it's own sake. This political objective becomes the inspiration to the soldier during the toughest moments of the battle, that they fight for a worthy cause. It also is is the insurance for the justification of the war, so that if the political objective is realised then the war should be concluded. Then you need to decide what kind of army you want as the commander, how large equipment recruitment drilling which for instance is winning their loyalty and what economy do you require to fueL your military machine.

Execution is the first and last military principle. It's is the actual war being waged for which you have been preparing for. No amount of preparation can anticipate every detail of actual operation, so you need to be prepared for surprises, some challenges you hadn't anticipated, some preparatio that fell short of what's needed. And so the most important thing during execution is flexibility of tactics and operations. Your way of fighting should actively adjust to battle field conditions instead of sticking to some pretty battle plan which is how you will lose. Their will also be advantages realised during execution which you need to incorporate into your operations, exploiting the opportunities as they emerge. 

Example for illustration. 

Sam is an accountant who quit employment to start his own accounting firm. He had been a good employee at different organisations giving good business advice to his bosses and so believed his own business will surely thrive. A junior officer in an army is however not the same thing as a general, the difference is quality. So unknown to Sam his business would be the training he needed to get promoted from junior officer to general. He forecasted income and came up with a strategy of partnerships to realise it, and in a way it worked but two months later he had to admit that his forecasts were simply too ambitious. His income was way below what he should be getting as professional fees. But he didn't revise the forecasts. Instead he found a way to realise them by diversifying his business and knew he had learnt the most valuable lesson in business, that execution doesn't discount preparation rather demands flexibility to realise initial objectives. The politics was what he wanted to earn in a year that needed to be achieved through business just that it requires adjustments to do so. I have given this example in business to show how the military principles can apply beyond war, for you don't only fight in war. 

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