The Art of War: Doing Business Like a Warlord

By Ilan Cohen

Unleash the Ancient Secrets of Strategy for Business Success

Master Sun Tzu's Art of War, reimagined for the modern entrepreneur.

This groundbreaking ebook unlocks the timeless wisdom of Sun Tzu's Art of War, translating it into a powerful guide for business dominance. Discover how to:

Outmaneuver your competition: Learn Sun Tzu's winning strategies, adapted specifically for the business battlefield.

Secure victory in any industry: Navigate every stage of your business, from launch to exit, with proven strategic principles.

Close deals and achieve objectives: Master the art of negotiation and resource allocation, maximizing your competitive advantage.

More than just a business book, it's a strategic revolution.

This ebook isn't about aggression. It's about intelligent planning, resourcefulness, and outsmarting your competition. Discover why Sun Tzu's principles are still relevant today, and how they can propel your business to new heights.

Get your copy now and unlock the secrets of strategic business success!

This revised description emphasizes the benefits for business readers, uses stronger action verbs, and avoids potentially negative connotations of war. It also positions the book as a unique and powerful resource for achieving success.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: May 12, 2024
• ISBN: 9781718171701

Book preview

I cannot recall if I was browsing online or in an actual shop, I think it was in a New York shop, when I saw the infamous book The Art of War from Sun Tzu. Who hasn’t heard of The Art of War, I thought?! The book was an illustrated and commented version, with a hard cover. The book was reddish with gray tones, some Chinese signs on it, quite big and fat. I thought to myself this is for sure a book that will nicely decorate my home. So, I bought it of course and used it as a decoration. The poor book stayed on a table a few years before I even opened it. I have to admit I knew the name and title; I was pretty sure it was a book about war (duh!), but nothing more.

When I was a kid, I was always creating crazy stuff like slingshots, anti-stress balls, and more. These were home-made, cheap stuff but very efficient! So, I took a friend of mine who had a good mouth, showed him the products, and told him to go and sell those products in his school. We’re talking about elementary school, I was probably 8 or 9 years old, my friend as well. This is how I created my first venture. All went well until I received more and more phone calls about my clients’ mothers screaming on the phone that the anti-stress balls, I sold to their sons just popped up and that there was sugar, or flour, everywhere on their couches! Those balls were made with two balloons, one on top of each other, and sugar or flour was used as the filling. I asked my mum to buy me some balloons at the supermarket, and well, for the flour and sugar, I supplied myself in our own kitchen. Pretty large margins I was making. Go figure out, I never got bothered for the slingshots. Except maybe this one time where we got arrested with 2 of my friends because we were slingshotting chickpeas on buses. I never thought a chickpea could break a window.

Back in 2012, Geneva, Switzerland. I’m quitting my nine-to-five job in a large bank and I am about to launch my very own hedge fund. No experience in business except selling shit on eBay. I got a $100k client who subscribed for 3 months, then I had to close the whole thing of course. I was well organized but underrated the administrative burden and burn rate.

It’s now 6:59.

From that moment, I was caught in the entrepreneurial life. I was probably already caught since my early days when I was selling shit to other kids, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I just had that fire inside me screaming to myself that X can be done in a better and more efficient way. So, I was doing it in a better way. And sold it if I could. Flipping items from eBay to a local marketplace, ordering Livestrong bracelets online and reselling them in Switzerland for 10 x the price, writing essays for the baccalaureate for other students and getting paid for it, growing illegal plants (legal in Switzerland) and selling pounds of it, day trading the stock market and making double-digit performance, losing money by card-counting at Blackjack tables in casinos, buying VIX options... Yes, I was at war. I still am. Since my childhood I have been grinding for an unknown reason. I must work, I must create art pieces, I have to produce more, I have to be successful. Restlessness.

Then I moved to Tel Aviv and launched my startup. The real thing: structured, organized, with a vision and a precise plan. I could finally see the thing, I am not yet successful but after all those years, I made a hell lot of progress in the way I conduct a business. Those books I bought in the past helped me a lot, no questions asked.

Recently, I got my hands on this red book, The Art of War. I read the whole thing, and while reading, I could not stop thinking Wow, if you permute the words war by business, Commander by CEO, army by team", you have the perfect business book!

So finally, I am doing it.

It’s now 7:16.

I am writing the time on purpose to show each reader how long it took me to go from zero to a final product. War doesn’t leave you time: either you’re killing it or losing it. THIS. IS. SPARTAAAA!

I stopped writing until the 15th of February 2018.

In a plane, flying to Switzerland, my home country. I’ve always had a huge inspiration in planes, don’t really know why, maybe it’s the altitude. Or maybe it’s the weekend that awaits me: a loaded weekend at the mountains for my birthday with my homeboys, my childhood friends, my brothers. A war in the cold is approaching…

8:07 Saturday morning, 24th of March 2018. Back to writing, I’m at war. Again.

The Art of War is a bestseller. Originally, it was a war treatise attributed to an ancient Chinese military strategist, the great Sun Tzu, or Master Sun. Sun Tzu elaborated this perfect go-to-war instruction book in the late 6th century BC. There is a debate about some parts of the treatise being added by other authors later, but that’s not our focus. The fact is that back in the days, a kick-ass army general wrote a kick-ass manual of how to kick asses at war. As mentioned earlier, you can permute some words and get one of the most efficient business books ever written, and I’m pretty sure you can permute war words with other words from other industries such as relationships or sports.

You won’t find any probability theory, it is just a simple book about how to conduct business in general, what to do and what not to do to be successful. Apply those laws and you will go from 0 to 100 in a couple of months. Once you’re cruisin, you can start applying some savage statistical and e-marketing techniques to acquire another 2% here and there. But the Art of Business is, let’s say, the Genesis of business, the must in order to launch a viable business in any field. Basic, rude, but yet, inevitable rules. If you do not follow Master Sun’s advice, you simply cannot win a war. If you think you can win a war by applying the CIA’s principles at first, it will not work. Don’t get me wrong: the CIA is a super-smart agency and is crucial for the United States’ survival, but The Art of War precedes and supports the CIA. Once you globally dominate a nation, then you can go into detail and release those highly trained brains that will elaborate strategies to protect borders, or work on bulletproof vests, night vision and other acute things. The Art of War, or The Art of Business, is a clearing tool. It is a fat hammer that will grossly slaughter the markets in front of you, it is a weapon of mass destruction. Apply these holy principles and you will see your business flourish. Of course, some principles are strictly applicable to warfare, but the majority perfectly fits business, hence the enormous success The Art of War has with businessmen.

Here is my take on Sun Tzu’s treatise remastered in its simplest form, where I permuted a couple of words: The Art of War becomes The Art of Business. At the end of the treatise, you will find a list of all the permuted words and the original text of The Art of War translated, with permuted words in brackets, and some comments. The Art of War is composed of 13 chapters, each chapter being dedicated to a particular aspect of warfare. I have decided not to modify the titles, as they are self-explanatory and perfectly relevant.

10:28 Saturday morning, 11th of May 2024. Cannot believe it’s been 6 years.

I’ve been through a few business wars by now, some against business partners, some against clients, but most against my own self. I’m not the same, became way sharper, solid. Nothing can destroy me.

Let’s move the troops forward.

Important note from the writer: I say ‘writer’ because the real author, the mastermind behind this, is of course Sun Tzu. I added a few business comments but that doesn’t make me the author of these principles. At the beginning I’ve done it for myself, but for the sake of other Entrepreneurs, I had to, I had to, publish this book once and for all.

Second note: many sentences won’t sound correct, as I took an unedited version, directly translated from Chinese.

Thank You!

A special thanks to Sarah, my wife, Eden & Lia, my children, and to my close family who have been supporting my crazy quests, they have an infinite patience.

🖤

To my grand-parents, Ronny, JJ.

The Art of Business

I. Laying Plans

1. Sun Tzu said: The art of business is of vital importance to the Holding.

Writer’s note (WN): As mentioned in the introduction, the Art of Business is of vital importance to your company. It is the first heartbeat of your firm. The first steps you’re about to take will lead you to your success.

2. It is a matter of success and failure, a road either to success or to failure. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

WN: Our world has become so competitive that if you want to make it, if you truly want to make it in a massive way, it’s either get rich or die tryin. There is no room for half-successes, we’re living in an uber-fast economy where more and more people want to make it to the top, it’s a road either to success or to failure.

3. The art