14 September 2017

The Universal Principle of “Open & Close” to Mastering the World - GuiGuZi's Wisdom#3 Chapter 1 捭阖

This is the Universal Principle & the Key to Mastering Your World and Increase Your Influence
In modern terms, I will call it the switch or button. To master the world, yourself, others, and systems, you need to discover the ways they work and more importantly, the switch or trigger that will cause them to act in a certain predicted way. The Newton Laws, the Theory of Relativity, and the various scientific laws are the basic principles that enable us to build all these scientific things that make our lives better and more productive. GuiGuZi tells us to discover such principles of behavior whether of things, animals, weather, or people too.
How can we discover such principles of behavior?
粤若稽古，圣人之在天地间也，为众生之先。
观 阴阳之开阖以命物，知 存亡之门户，筹策 万类之终始，达 人心之理，见 变化之朕焉，而 守司其门户。
GuiGuZi said: “观、知、筹策、通达、见、守司”
Observe, know(life & death), analyze & measure(begin to end), understand(human heart/intention/purpose), insights (laws of behavior), and then manage(the doors).
E W Deming, the Father of Quality Control, said that Management is about prediction. To manage anything, you must be able to predict. If your prediction is wrong, then you could not manage it. That's why in Wall Street if the company performance differs widely from the management forecast, even if it exceeds the forecast, it is considered no good. It shows that the management does not really understand what is going on.
Once you know how things and people work, you can then switch on (Open) to get it/him to do certain things and switch off (Close) to stop the action.
So, how can we apply this understanding?
On Ourselves:
Understand the switches/buttons on our body. What will upset us? What will make us happy? etc. We talk about knowing ourselves and knowing others in the Wisdom#1 post.
Knowing the switches, we can develop ourselves better. If we are quick to anger, we must develop our ability to remain cool. Most of the Chinese Philosophies are about how we develop self-control and increase our EQ.
The devil knows the switches of our bodies and can get us to sin willingly by pressing the right switch. We call it temptation but actually, the devil is pressing a switch --- anger, lust, wealth, pleasures, fear, etc.
We develop ourselves by controlling this switch or doorway to our minds. We are open to letting in the good thoughts and close to shutting out the bad influences.
Proverbs 4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
We use open to meeting new people. We use close to form partnerships. That is the development of self. The principle is the same - open and close. See the power of this simple law. It is like our DNA, with four basic elements to form all the living things of the world.
On Others:
To look for partners, we must understand them first. Understand the switches on them. Do they share the values as us? Do they share the same purposes as us? What are their abilities and weaknesses? How can they complement us?
On Your Business:
What are the switches of your business? Which ones can grow the business and which ones can shut it down? Are the KPIs that you measure so diligently really switches? What worries do you have about your business? If you spend the time to discover the switches and the key factors, then you can worry less and think more about growing the business.
Knowledge and Understanding are about identifying the switches for the various outcomes of the subjects of study.
See the Wisdom of GuiGuZi? Simple but Powerful. It is called elegant.

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