The Power Of Persuasion Ancient Chinese Style
Kenrick Cleveland
"So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will win a hundred times in a hundred battles. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you win one and lose the next. If you do not know yourself or your enemy, you will always lose." -Ancient Chinese Proverb
Learning is one of my main passions in life. For many years I've been intimately involved with learning and utilizing the ancient Chinese proverbs called the Thirty-Six Chinese Stratagem. Cunning and pervasive, these stratagem are similar to the strategies in the Art of War and while their main focus is warfare or military activities, these stratagem can be applied to politics, business, negotiations of all kinds, romance, sports. . .almost all aspects of modern life.
Many people mistake stratagem for strategies. Stratagem is synonymous with 'ruse'. These are intentional deceptions and with this as an intention, obviously, they're not always nice. These are manipulations and psychological warfare. You've heard the proverb 'all is fair in love and war'? Well, stratagems share this sentiment.
Sounds a little sinister, doesn't it? Yes. And no. As with all my work, with the thirty six stratagem, I want to stress and emphasize the importance of integrity above all else. If we are not honest with our prospects and clients, if we are not congruous with ourselves, everything that stems from what we do will be tainted. There are definitely ways to use the thirty-six stratagem for good if only to protect ourselves from others who are trying to use them against us. It is my feeling that these tools bring persuasion (which consists of influencing others and self knowledge) to a whole new level. Once these become a part of your conscious thoughts, you will see how they illuminate all aspects of life.
There are six categories which the stratagems are broken down into corresponding to six situations. They are: The Stratagems of Winning; The Stratagems of Defending; The Stratagems of Attacking; The Stratagems of Scuffling; The Stratagems of Merging; The Stratagems of Losing. These lessons will most assuredly benefit your persuasion. If we can understand exactly what they describe, we can reverse engineer them, pull out the parts that work, and then decide when and how others might be able to use them on us. By understanding them, we can also decide when it's ethical and honorable to use them on others.
Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of wealthy clients using http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion strategies.
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