Notes on Jiang Tai Gong's Six Secret Teachings (Section 7 of Chapter 1)

The observed lessons from the seventh section of chapter one (The Civil Teaching: Preserving the State Territory) are:

Be friendly with nearby competitors. Keep your certain family members (and associates) close to you. Remember the common people. Control your destiny or someone else will.  Be ready for incursion. Build resources before you need them. Use your power mindfully and critically (Understand the configuration of the Big Tangible Picture before using your power). Never lend your resources to your current and future protagonists. Analysis A critical concern for a CEO is to sustain their territories, protecting against both attack from without and division within. To avoid any incursion,  be mindful to the politics in other organizations, especially those with who you share some level of commonality. Notice the personalities of their leaders especially those with aggressive and acquisitive nature.  It is suggestive to build alliances with certain ones, yet never fully trust them. One aspect of strategic power is about creating a perception that other people would believe that you have more than the actual resources at your command. Managing their perceptions is quite important. If you fail to act when others expect you to do so, then they will assume you have less power and, in doing so, reduce your power. Appropriate action is hence important, and none more so than when there is a threat of incursion. When a person has gained the power of CEO, there is a strong possibility that their relatives may become envious and try to usurp him/her, killing them and taking their position. History is full of examples of this category of events. Managed these relatives carefully and they can be your greatest supporters.  (cross-reference to Jiang Tai Gong's Six Preservations chapter.) It is also important to address the concerns of the common people, whenever there is chaos that could affect their lives.   Those who wanted your power  will often pretend first to be your friend and may even weaken you by borrowing or utilizing your resources.   Be aware of that action.