Comparison Of Nicolo Machiavellis The Prince And Sun Tzu

Nicolo Machiavelli’s The Prince and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War both both provide directions for leadership with similar goals. The Prince is primarily geared towards providing valuable information about how a ruler of many principalities may govern different populations and acquire new lands. The Art of War provides us with a schematic of the optimal path to victory. This book is instead directed towards generals of powerful militaries with only the goal of winning. Concepts such as Machiavelli’s view of destruction will be contrasted with Sun Tzu’s victory-oriented argument for taking whole and several of their other ideas will be compared. Although Machiavelli and Sun Tzu have different intended audiences, many of their ancient tactics can†¦show more content†¦Destruction will continue to be significantly inferior to the strategy laid out by Sun Tzu. This strategy of taking whole could clearly be applied to everyday life as well. A businessman wo uld likely prefer to acquire a competing company, persuade its valuable employees to stay, and utilize the entirety of its assets, especially information, rather than buy it out, only to dissolve it and gain nothing but one less competitor on the market. Sun Tzu and Machiavelli have similar views on preparation before battle. Both believe that appropriate preparation ultimately causes victory to lean in the favor of those with little reliance on circumstance. Machiavelli stated that â€Å"rulers maintain themselves better if they owe little to luck.† Leaders prepared for battle will not falter under the weight of pressure unlike opposition who rely on a specific circumstances for their strategy to be effective. Sun Tzu practically implies that the same exact tactic be used by generals of armies. He says, â€Å"Therefore, the victorious military is first victorious and after that does battle. The defeated military first does battle and after that seeks victory.† Sun Tzu’s statement seems to provide a more precise strategy which is clearly tailored more towards a military interested in winning battles rather than a ruler governing a principality. Sun Tzu’s directions are all about