Bi-monthly
Minute Wisdom
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Minute Wisdom - Food for the Soul and Mind
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(Part one) Killing with a borrowed knife
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Wiseman: "If you want to do something,
make your opponent do it for you".
Borrowing a knife to kill means making use of others' resources for one's
own gain--meaning that, if you can cause someone else to do a difficult
job for you, it will certainly save yourself a great deal of trouble.
The king of Zhen (722 - 481 B.C) employed the "Killing with a borrowed
knife" strategy to pave the way for an invasion of state of *Kuai.
King of Zhen first prepared a list of names of wise officials and brave
generals of *Kuai with description of rewards they would receive should *Kuai
fall.
The king of Zhen then secretly made sure that the spies from the king
of *Kuai got to know of the hidden list.
The king *Kuai manage to obtain the list and suspect those on it of
plotting against him and executed every one of them. Shortly thereafter,
the king of Zhen conquered *Kuai.
Questions to Ponder?
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Have we learned anything from the "Wiseman" today?
Can we apply it to our daily business or personal lives?
Borrowing a knife to kill may seem too devious; fundamentally, it is
adapting to new circumstances or making use of other's resources for your
own gain and sometime without your opponents knowing it or aware of the
opportunity you have created for others to exploit.
Here is a classic example of applying “Borrowing a knife to kill” in
today’s modern society;
Microsoft recently *announced that it will terminate support for their
seven-year-old Exchange 5.5 software and IBM took advantage of it by
introducing a better replacement multiple OS platform (Domino’s) product
with a 30% discount.
*May 17 2004, Asia Computer Weekly
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Until the next issue....
Have a Grrrreat Day!
Best Wishes
TonyKoh
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