Sun Tzu on strategy
Describe your situation, or just name what is on your mind. You will get the exact passage from The Art of War you're looking for.
Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War around 2,500 years ago, and its central claim is almost the opposite of how most people picture war: the fighting is the last step, not the first. The outcome is decided earlier, in planning, position, and timing. Describe your situation above and the finder returns the line that fits. What follows is his thinking on winning before the clash.
Win first, then fight
Sun Tzu's most counterintuitive idea is that the victor arranges the win before engaging, while the loser engages first and hopes to find a way to win along the way. The calculations happen, as he puts it, in the temple before the battle is fought. The translation to ordinary life is direct: the work that decides an outcome usually happens long before the visible contest, in preparation almost nobody watches.
Strike weakness, not strength
Rather than meet force with force, he advises avoiding what is strong and striking at what is weak. It is not cowardice; it is efficiency. Throwing yourself at someone's strongest point is how you spend everything for little. Finding the soft spot is how a smaller force, or a smaller person, wins. Most contests are decided by where you choose to push, not how hard.
Momentum and timing
He compares the force of a well-led effort to a boulder rolling down a mountain: the power is in the position and the timing, not in the raw push. Act only when there is an advantage to be had, he says, and not before. The lesson is patience with teeth. You wait, not because you are passive, but because the right moment multiplies everything you do.
Notable lines on strategy
Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought.
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
Thus the energy developed by good fighting men is as the momentum of a round stone rolled down a mountain thousands of feet in height.
So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak.
Bring it to Sun directly
The quote is the start. Tell Sun Tzu what is actually going on and get his read on it, in a real conversation.
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