What Sun Tzu Wrote:
“The difficulty of tactical maneuvering consists in turning the devious into the direct, and misfortune into gain.”
What This Means to the Modern Financial Professional:
In this section, Sun Tzu emphasizes the value of guile, to deceive your opponent into a point of passivity before capitalizing with a swift stroke. This, again, is an area fraught with psychological danger. When the stakes are dollars, not lives, the level of deception must not exceed your personal moral limitations. My experience in my practice is that those who have sacrificed their morals for money can suppress their guilt and shame for a time, but not forever. “Doing the right thing” is not a school rhyme or fairy tale. On the Street, it’s the real deal. Money and trust are two of the most important five letter constructs in our culture. All human beings are ultra sensitive to betrayal.