Takeaways from the Book

Chapter 1 – Trust and Betrayal

 Noble Character Doesn’t Guarantee a Place in Heaven

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For Every Action there must be a Clear Goal

The reason that the noble idealistic Brutus became the dark prototype of an infamous
criminal is that he acted with no clear goal. Even a betrayer needs a clear goal to achieved
success. What would be the goal for politicians like Brutus engaged in a conspiracy? In such a
case, to obtain power would be the only goal..

 Betrayal Does Not Spare Friends

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Someone who betrayed once is very likely to betray a second time.

Toghril did not utterly pursue Genghis Khan although this latter man, having betrayed
the one who had treated him as real son, had challenged him to battle and was fleeing defeated.
Later, he again trusted Genghis Khan when this latter man suggested negotiating for peace, and
this led to his tragic death. One should always guard against a person who has already betrayed
once.

 More Advantage for the One Breaking the Promise First

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It is more likely for a “smart bad person” to succeed than for a “stupid good person.”

Living through a hard life, one often confronts with a difficult choice between two
alternatives, namely, to be a “smart villain” or a “stupid angel”. In such circumstances, one is
more likely to succeed by being a “smart person” rather than a “good person”.

 Betrayal is the Last Stage in Human Resource Management

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The only real security against betrayal lies in increasing ones’ usefulness.
 In both circumstances, personal and organizational, the only way to avoid betrayal is to
make myself more valuable for the other than the other is for me. That’s why one must
continuously develop oneself.

Chapter 2– Truth and Hypocrisy

 History is Written for Winners

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The world consists mostly of lies and a little bit of truth.

It is not only in historical documents that we cannot easily distinguish between lies and
truth. From the lies of an adept counterpart in negotiations to those of the government in
announcing that business will recover in the next quarter, we live also in a reality flooded with
all kinds of lies. That’s why we need good eyes to distinguish between jades and stones.
‘
 What They Want is Not Truth but Lies that Sound as Sweet as Truth

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The important thing is not to present the truth closely but to determine the precise lies
desired by ones’ audience.

If a girlfriend asks “How do I look?” after visiting a hairdresser, which would you
choose: cruel truth or sweet lies? People ask a lot of questions every day, bur usually, they do not
necessarily intend to learn the truth.

 Hypocrisy is Also a Virtue

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Not showing emotions easily is a characteristic shared by successful people.

We often feel anger, hate and disappointment towards others in our relationships, but we
don’t always express them. We call keeping emotions in control “self-mastery” and this has
always belonged to the virtues of both East and West. Hypocrisy can therefore be understood in
the same context. The control of emotions is a common virtue of successful people.

 Be Mistrustful Not Only of a Woman’s Tears but Also of a Man’s

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Tears make a human pure, but they don’t last long.

 Even though we might be able to distinguish between lying tears and pure tears, we still
should not believe the pure tears. If so many criminals who shed tears in prison had not
committed crimes again after being released, this world would have been a better place to live in.

 Tears Have to be Shed When Ma Su Gets Beheaded

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The best art in conducting one’s life is not that of persuading others but of moving other
people’s hearts.

A great master with wisdom for conducting life, like Zhuge Liang, tries to find an
effective way for moving people’s hearts instead of seeking their understanding for his
contradictory actions. Hence, approached from the perspective of the art for conducting life, the
right interpretation for “Shedding Tears Beheading Ma Su” would be not to “behead Ma Su
while shedding tears” but “to be sure to show tears while beheading Ma Su.”

Chapter 3– Love and Power

 Love Changes History

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Success in Love and Life are not Separate Things.

Everyone has a different approach to love. The romantic ones approach it from
biological and psychological perspectives, whereas the successful ones try to understand it from
social and economic perspectives.

 The One who knows how to Love is Successful

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The art of conducting life begins with love.

The reason that people successful in love also tend to succeed in society follows from the
fact that the one-to-one relationship of man and woman is the basis for all human relationships.
Therefore, people who are not good at human relationships should train themselves for building
up a stable relationship, starting with the love relationship between a man and a woman.

 Love is Art as Well as Business

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Love with an ulterior motive doesn’t necessarily have to be impure.

 The so called “pure love” a motif in many movies and works of literature is a fiction to
comfort average people, those unsuccessful in love. Instead of pursuing a “nice other” based on
“animal – like” instincts and as an object of pairing without recourse to reason, it is not a more
reasonable attitude to start a relationship based on perfect calculation and to sublimate it into a
higher level?”

 Brilliant Lovers Don’t Act as They Please, Foolish Lovers Make Themselves Miserable

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Love is an investment. Before starting, analyze it carefully.

The reason that love is such a difficult task in our lives is not only because of its
characteristic of changing dynamically but also because its success or failure depends not only
upon me but also upon my partner. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate about the partner
thoroughly and to analyze with cool head before starting.

 A Woman with Power is the Most Attractive Woman

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Power is the most powerful motivation for moving human beings.

The reason that we today cling to accumulating more wealth, sacrificing our whole lives,
is that we believe that the more wealth we have, the more power we will be guaranteed in society.
The attraction between man or woman is proportionate to the power he or she has now or will
have in the future.

Chapter 4– Head and Heart

 Human Crime Acted Out in the Name of God

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Think and act rationally, for numbness to rationality calls down disaster.

In history, the very religious faith that should bring human beings to a higher stage of
maturity has often called down disaster on a large scale in the real world. That is a problem
caused not by specific religious teachings but by the contradictions of our essential human
nature.

 Human Speak Not with Hearts but with Lips and Tongues
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One has to be able to play on other people’s irrational emotions to be successful

Whether one succeeds in life depends completely on how many people one can move to
achieve one’s own will. We know very well that to do so, the rational approach by itself has
limits. The great people in history didn’t appeal to human rationality. On the contrary, the
incited people emotionally to freely act as they, the leaders, intended.

 Not Always Does God Decide Fate

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The successful are always accompanied by a myth.

This reflects the common belief that those who are successful have something more
special about them than ordinary people do. Therefore, myths are not handed down as relics of
the past but are being made now in various places.

 Emotion is Not Possessed Only by the Weak

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What makes people strong is not the head but the heart.

Rationality suppresses people, but emotion makes them focus. A significantly large part
of a conqueror’s great achievements is possible either through inciting others to partake
voluntarily in criminal actions or through driving to their deaths the people who follow in trust.
In such cases, there is not much room for human rationality to play a part.

Chapter 5 – Conviction and Utility

 Neither Religion nor Ideology but Worldly Power Moves a Conqueror

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The goal of success is not a metaphysical but a worldly one.

Even in the Bible, it is taught that one should “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and
unto God what is God’s.” Such things as power, wealth, good residence, and a comfortable life
surely belong to Caesar’s realm. To leave the worldly things to the realm of the world and to
leave what belongs to God to God’s realm is the secret of success.

 A Conqueror, Like God, Does Not Distinguish Among People

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Be free of all criteria of values

People tend to behave according to the standard of values they have, such as those
rooted in a religion or faith. But the successful show themselves much more flexible that the
common people in this regard. They are not bound to standards of values but, rather know how
to use them as freely as they like.

 All Religions are Like Five Fingers Cleaved from the Palm of a Hand

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An open mind brings vitality and prosperity.

The ancient Romans as well as Genghis Khan and his successors were able to build
great empires by positively taking in foreign elements and assimilating them. Whatever their
starting point, one can say that conquerors who were not bound to the spiritual values imposed
by religion or ideology had foresight far ahead of their times. Not only for a political system, but
also for social organizations of a general kind or for individual thinking, without openness as a
condition, vitality is hardly to be expected.

 What Conquerors Protect is Not the World of the Mind but Their Territories

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One should sometimes be able to ask help.

Conquerors often did good business with representatives of God so that they could either
be acquitted for their criminal acts or even blessed. If the case in one in which the two are not
competing for the same goal., conqueror and religious leader can become allies for each other’s
interest. Success is not gained solely through one’s own power alone.

 Things Invisible Might Not Exist

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Believe only in something visible, real and certain

Even if existent, something that we cannot know is the same as nonexistent. This is the
core of that traditional wisdom from ancient time, “agnosticism.” We can see in people’s faces
joy, sadness, despair, anger, and fear. But things like judgement and abstinence, morality and
faith, these don’t show up so easily in facial expressions. Things invisible might not exist in the
actual world.
  Geniuses are Unfortunate, Especially One Who Possesses a Noble Mind

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One can fail despite brilliant talents if one lacks ability to analyze a situation well.

Brilliant talents don’t always guarantee success. That’s perhaps because people with
excellent talents seem to have a tendency to possess an innocent side. Hannibal was one who
during the Italian expedition was told that “he knew the way of victory but not the way of
applying victory.” This genius pure mind become the cause that led him and, in the long term.
His entire country falls.

Chapter 6 – Generosity and Cruelty

 Cruelty Prevents Future Slaughter

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Find out what the opponent fears and capture it.

Most people who work in the field of advertisement in modern society agree that, in
human consciousness, it is the images connected to “fear” that are remembered most intensively
and remain for the longest time. People in modern society, in addition to direct threats to their
lives, have fears of being deprived of their own and their family’s right to existence or to a
bountiful condition of life and fears of alienation from other groups.

 Whether Enemy or Comrade All Have Fear

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Sometimes, the opponent has to fear you to be properly moved.

Leadership in human relationships is judged according to the potential power to give a

decisive blow to the other in a situation of antagonism. For this reason, we distinguish between
legitimacy officially conferred by various positions in an organizational system and the power
that one actually has. Therefore, a senior officer who is not feared by those under him has no
power despite having the power of legitimacy.

 Cruelty is Not a Natural Disposition but a Necessary Acquirement

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 Use generosity and cruelty properly, depending on the situation.

Generosity belongs to the ultimate values that humans should pursue in the noble,
spiritual world, but cruelty is one of the worldly arts of ruling. And the latter is not a special art
required solely for rules. However

 God Sometimes Chooses a More Cruel Person

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Being aggressive is another name for being active.

Among the traits required for the successful, being active is most essential. Yet from a
psychological perspective, the basic starting point for being active is being aggressive. And being
aggressive has a very deep connection to cruelty.

Chapter 7 – Courage and Cowardice

 The Weapon of a Coward is Stronger

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What is necessary for a war is not courage but thorough preparation.

Sun Tzu said that one should know the outcome of a war before it takes place. In other
words, one should be well prepared beforehand with military, economic and information power
to win the war. Without through preparation, one cannot win a war regardless how courageously
one wages it.

 The Key to Success is Not Victory but Defeat

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Have the courage to admit failure.

We know very well that we should learn from our failures, but putting this into practice is
hard. When we face a failure in our lives, we don’t learn from it; instead, we try to find reasons
for the failure or try to accuse others, and sometimes, we don’t admit failure at all.

 There’s Only One Moment When Courage is Needed

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In a moment’s decision, the fate of a life can be decided.

 The moment for a crucial decision in life comes, in many cases, suddenly, without
advance notice, and regardless how many times one tries to think it over in advance, the decision
itself is made in a moment. It is maybe not too much to say that one’s life itself is a long training
process for making a right decision at a decisive moment, which comes only a few times in life.

 A Flame is Beautiful but Will Eventually Go Out

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Decide either for honor or for an actual profit.

Courage is certainly something beautiful, and if self-sacrifice is added, it is even more

beautiful. But courage and self-sacrifice bring great honor that one mostly receives in times far
later, when there can hardly be any actual profit for oneself.

 A Dead Hero is Not as Worthy as a Live Coward

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To go two steps forward, one should be able to take one step back.

For the final victory, one should be able to endure short-term disgrace and dishonor.
This is also a kind of courage. If someone overcomes a crisis, even through being disgraced, but
later becomes the one who laughs last, people would call him “one who wait for the right
moment”

 A Bear Only Displays Skill and Takes No Direct Admission Fee

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If you want to be a hidden person of power, relinquish popularity among people.

Wealth, honor and power – to have all these is difficult. Whether to become a clown on
the stage applauded by the audience or the person hiring the clown, that depends on one’s values
and abilities.

Chapter 8 – Self – Restraint and Greed

 Abstinence Belongs to Saints Not to Conquerors

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It is important to work hard, but one should be able to enjoy oneself, too.

The reason that self-restraint is one of the important virtues is that it is based on strict
self-management, and this is required for everyone. But although one can be respected by other
people through self-restraint, one should remember that self-restraint alone does not qualify one
to rule over people.

 Even with Virtues, Too Much is Worse Than Too Little

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One should avoid extremes in acting or thinking.

The uncertainty theory applies not only to physics. In this world, there is nothing certain,
or even if there is something certain, wee can hardly recognize it and especially if the element
“human being” is interfered with any form, the probability of uncertainty becomes even higher.
Therefore, the important thing in life is to be extreme in neither acting nor thinking but to ever
try to keep the Golden Rule.

 Conquerors Practice Goodness Not Out of Their Own Resources but From Other People’s

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To be generous to others is also a kind of investment.

From an economic perspective, the virtue of generosity is a kind of investment using real
treasures towards obtaining immaterial values such as name or a reputation. Therefore, it is
foolish not to invest if the gain of the investment is secure, and it is also foolish to invest if the
gain is not sure or relatively small.

 Destruction and Creation are Two Stalks Growing from One Root

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To create new things, old things have to be destroyed.

Creation and destruction always go together. Destruction, the negative phase, has to
occur first so that creation, the positive phase, can be based on it. The cynical movement of these
two not only makes human civilization but also makes organization live and breathe.

 Violence is One Tool of Self – Display

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 Don’t forget that there are people closer to food than to fist.

Every organization that humans set up depends upon force at its core. Things that we
usually respect, like law, authority and order, don’t practice violence directly so long as they
remain within their permitted scope, but as soon as they exceed that scope, they become a form of
social violence.

Chapter 9 – Intellect and Savagery

 Philosophers are Quiet, but Rulers Express Rage

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Don’t commit foolishness by harming public affairs through private interest.

If one does not recognize the difference between public and private selves, one cannot
succeed in either case. Needles to say, the best situation would be when one’s work accords with
one’s avocation, but there are more cases where they do not.

 Jeckyll and Hyde are Originally One Person

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One should be able to bring forth the positive merits and hidden possibilities of others.

Every human being has both bright and dark sides at the same time, and everyone has
positive and negative aspects. If you are a supervisor, the side that the people under you will
manifest depends on your own ability.

 The Normal is Not Mysterious

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Maximize scarcity value.

In normal cases, the market prices of water and of gold are radically different. We don’t
value highly things that are easily obtained even though they are directly essential in our lives,
whereas other things have great value simply because of their scarcity. In the case of human
beings, this works the same way. The basic condition for being successful is to be radically
“different” from ordinary people in some aspect or other.

 God Gave Human Beings One Head and Four Limbs

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The many are led by the few. If you want success, become one of the few.

Although simple things like eating or walking are complex tasks that require the
mobilization of all organs and their proper harmonization, the brain is what controls all that.
This is the provision of nature. Also in human society, regardless of time and place, there exists
the relation between the few who rule and the majority who are ruled by them.

Chapter 10 – Earlier Generations and Future Generations

 Rough Seas Make a Good Seaman

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Don’t be afraid of hardship and setbacks

From reading historical records, we can see that the most successful people rose to the
top only after overcoming ordeals. They placed no value on what is easily obtained without one’s
own efforts, and they therefore understood the proper value of the success that they had
achieved.

 Bankrupting the Rich Doesn’t Always Require Three Generations

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Pay attention to raising a successor

To keep and develop further what one has achieved, pay attention to selecting and
raising a successor. Through that, history and tradition is made, and new energy also comes into
being.

 Renewing a Contract is More Difficult than Reaching the Original Agreement.

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Don’t forget that there are ups and downs in life

Retaining the top position turns out more difficult than rising to the top. Nobody can stay
at the top forever. If there is an up, there is also a down. Therefore, one should not waste one’s
time of success.

 What Belongs to the Devil Goes Back to the Devil

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 Leave while people are clapping

It is said that those who know when to exit the stage leave behind a good impression.
Being free from attachment, knowing when to stop, this is the most difficult part adorning the end
of success.