I just finished reading the excellent book Masters of Command by Barry Strauss, about the military exploits and strategies of Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar. I've been pondering this subject as it applies to business and my own life, not least because I've also recently finished Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

What is war? In its simplest and basic terms, it's a physically confrontational power struggle: vying for being top dog and gaining control over X resource. In today's day and age, war seems to be waged on the corporate battlefield, which is one of the reasons that The Art of War is read by so many CEOs and leaders. It's an excellent way to move forward with leadership of an organization, but I feel that this way of conducting affairs has an inherent quality that many people overlook.

In the book Masters of Command, the author wrote something tha I found to be quite profound:

Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Julius Caesar are models and warnings. We ignore them at our peril, but we should imitate them only with caution. War will always be a sad fact of life, and they were too good at war for us not to learn from them. But a good society never lets war be guided by anything other than the public interest. What guided Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar was their selves.

This is interesting to note because their way of warfare centered around their own egos. Ego is inherent in each of these leaders' actions, but their actions led to some of the most profound moments in history and to them becoming some of the greatest generals who ever lived.

They say that leaders have a responsibility to the people they lead. I agree, but I'd like to add an addendum to this: leaders also have a responsibility to the people they go against. This is because war (or conflict in any form) is a zero-sum game: someone will win and someone will lose. But really in any conflict those who lose are ordinary people, people whose lives are impacted by the actions of a select few. In my estimation good leaders (no, great leaders) are those who offer the people they win over to be in better positions than they were before.

Look. I get it: this can be taken as some form of "socialism is good" nonsense way. It is not, and I am a very staunch capitalist. Which is why if you find this to be objectionable, really take the time to read through this. You'll see that what I'm saying is by far the most capitalistic view because what this promotes is playing positive sum games: playing games where all parties involved are better off than they were before. This leads to fostering fertile grounds for innovation, collaboration, and further positive sum games. And that, I believe, is what led to these three men's ultimate falls: they played the wrong game. Please read the book to get more details of what I'm talking about, it's a fascinating read.

Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar were great men who went on to become great leaders. After reading this book, I'm hoping to learn from them on how to become a good man who can go on to become a great leader. That's all I have for now. Let's get after it today and revisit our thoughts tomorrow.

Vivek.

I just finished reading the excellent book Masters of Command by Barry Strauss, about the military exploits and strategies of Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar. I've been pondering this subject as it applies to business and my own life, not least because I've also recently finished Sun Tzu's The Art of War.

What is war? In its simplest and basic terms, it's a physically confrontational power struggle: vying for being top dog and gaining control over X resource. In today's day and age, war seems to be waged on the corporate battlefield, which is one of the reasons that The Art of War is read by so many CEOs and leaders. It's an excellent way to move forward with leadership of an organization, but I feel that this way of conducting affairs has an inherent quality that many people overlook.

In the book Masters of Command, the author wrote something tha I found to be quite profound:

Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Julius Caesar are models and warnings. We ignore them at our peril, but we should imitate them only with caution. War will always be a sad fact of life, and they were too good at war for us not to learn from them. But a good society never lets war be guided by anything other than the public interest. What guided Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar was their selves.

This is interesting to note because their way of warfare centered around their own egos. Ego is inherent in each of these leaders' actions, but their actions led to some of the most profound moments in history and to them becoming some of the greatest generals who ever lived.

They say that leaders have a responsibility to the people they lead. I agree, but I'd like to add an addendum to this: leaders also have a responsibility to the people they go against. This is because war (or conflict in any form) is a zero-sum game: someone will win and someone will lose. But really in any conflict those who lose are ordinary people, people whose lives are impacted by the actions of a select few. In my estimation good leaders (no, great leaders) are those who offer the people they win over to be in better positions than they were before.

Look. I get it: this can be taken as some form of "socialism is good" nonsense way. It is not, and I am a very staunch capitalist. Which is why if you find this to be objectionable, really take the time to read through this. You'll see that what I'm saying is by far the most capitalistic view because what this promotes is playing positive sum games: playing games where all parties involved are better off than they were before. This leads to fostering fertile grounds for innovation, collaboration, and further positive sum games. And that, I believe, is what led to these three men's ultimate falls: they played the wrong game. Please read the book to get more details of what I'm talking about, it's a fascinating read.

Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar were great men who went on to become great leaders. After reading this book, I'm hoping to learn from them on how to become a good man who can go on to become a great leader. That's all I have for now. Let's get after it today and revisit our thoughts tomorrow.

Vivek.