The 360 Degree Perspective

“Keep strong, if possible. In any case, keep cool. Have unlimited patience. Never corner an opponent, and always assist [them] to save face. Put yourself in [your opponent’s] shoes—so as to see things through [their] eyes. Avoid self-righteousness like the devil…” – Sir Basil Liddell Hart

 Sir Basil Henry Liddell Hart was a British soldier, military historian, and theorist. He served in the British infantry in World War I and was severely wounded in the Battle of the Somme, where his battalion was nearly wiped out. With 60,000 casualties, it was the heaviest single-day loss in British military history.

Liddell Hart wrote a series of influential military histories and The Strategy of the Indirect Approach. He was one of the foremost military thinkers of the 20th century. He advocated that the best means of achieving victory was almost always the long way around. This counterintuitive idea, he argued, was also the most efficient. This is true on the battlefield, it is true in leadership, and it is true in life.