The Art of War by Sun Tzu is an indispensable resource for people who want

to achieve more in life. Initially, this book was written for the purpose of achieving
victory in warfare. It gives pointers and ideas that allow the commander of the army
to prevail in every battle. However, within this modern world, the war we have is
not only through physical means. The most common lens through which The Art of
War is seen today is through the lens of business and management. It provides the
reader multiple insights on how things are to be taken and how they should be
tackled. It all depends on the reader on which lens he/she chooses the book to be
seen through.
As stated in line 58 of chapter XI in The Art of War, “Place your army in
deadly peril, and it will survive; plunge it into desperate straits, and it will come off
in safety.” I believe this is very essential to the development of people, especially
for challenges in the future. When I entered college, I was a very happy-go-lucky
person who was not very aware of my academic standing. There were multiple times
where I would just barely make it to the passing mark, and I wasn’t very alarmed
about it. However, it came to pass that I eventually failed a subject because I was
never fully alarmed of what the result of my failures would be. Thus, it was at that
point that I realized that life was beginning to become too comfortable for me that I
did not strive to achieve more. I became someone mediocre but received a wakeup
call when I found out that I failed a subject. I also realized that experiencing
something hard was necessary to be able to achieve something more and to keep
ourselves uncomfortable enough to continue to improve. As a result, I realized the
importance of experiencing hardships in order to come out as a new, more revitalized
person. Consequently, I have lived with that principle since then. What keeps us
from living our lives from the fullest is the fear of hardships. For that reason, we
must embrace all the mistakes that we can ever make and learn from each one of
them, one step at a time.
Relating this to business and management point of view, the manager must
not be afraid of failing and making mistakes in the business. This is because if the
head of the company, or the manager, does not want to explore new horizons and
innovate, it would result to an eventual and quick downfall of the company because
of the monotonous offerings of the company. As future leaders of an organization,
we must be able to be decisive and intelligent at the same time in our decision
making so that the organization will not only stay afloat, but also thrive in its
industry.