Chandra Kamil’s Reviews > The 33 Strategies of War > Status Update

You have begun to think about morale only after it has become an issue, not before. That is your mistake.

Remember: a motivated army can work wonders, making up for any lack of material resources.

Make both rewards and punishments rare but meaningful.

Lead from the front: let your soldiers see you in the trenches, making sacrifices for the cause. That will fill them with the desire to emulate and please you.

In a group in which people have truly bonded, moods and emotions are so contagious that it becomes easy to infect your troops with enthusiasm.

The secret to motivating people and maintaining their morale is to get them to think less about themselves and more about the group.

Wise generals set nothing in stone, always retaining the ability to organize their army to fit the times and their changing needs.

Since thr structure of your army has to be suited to the people who compose it, the rule of decentralization is flexible: some people respond better to rigid authority. Even if you run a looser organization, there may be times when you will have to tighten it and give your officers less freedom.

The Spider’s Web

Most animals attack along a straight line; the spider weaves a web, adapted to its location and spun in a pattern, whether simple or complex. Once the web is woven, the work is done. The spider has no need to hunt; it simply waits for the next fool to fall into the web’s barely visible strands.

Like frontiersmen generally, his soldiers were restless and nomadic, so he exploited their mobility and kept his army in perpetual motion, always marching faster than his enemies could.