The Art of War: Applying Strategy in Every Day Life

Through initial impressions of the week six readings, I constantly tried to to find a way to relate the literature as a perspective of leadership. After finishing the reading however, I came to the epiphany that The Art Of War by Sun Tzu relates to leadership in ways that are both direct and indirect. Since we no longer live in a time and place where the original purpose of The Art Of War could apply in a straightforward manner, I instead will relate it to real life experiences through a symbolic approach. Through symbolism, The Art Of War can apply to the science of victory and leadership in everyday goals the daily lives of the modern civilian. Sun Tzu's The Art Of War is widely regarded as one of the top strategy books and a "must read". An acquaintance of mine has even taken a class at University of California, Berkeley on the computer game Starcraft where the professor chose The Art Of War as the textbook. Because of the renown of The Art Of War, I approached the reading with high expectations and was left initially unimpressed. As a young teenager, I was captivated and possibly even addicted to real time strategy games such as Warcraft, Starcraft and many other titles. Through these games, I gained an understanding of many of the strategies that Sun addresses and felt as though the reading was just restating strategic concepts that I already had a basic understanding of.