The Art of War — Winning — is Anchored in Diplomacy

Along with Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great is seen as the greatest military commander of all time, but having defeated the first global empire in the world, the Persian empire founded by Cyrus the Great, he is the de facto GOAT, even if Genghis went on to reach further borders. Alexander's lack of succession planning puts somewhat of an asterisk by his record, undefeated though it was in combat despite being outnumbered.

Alexander The Great, on whom I wrote my 2nd book The Confessions of Alexander the Great on, killed one of his most trusted lieutenants, Parmenio - for reasons I’ll spare here. In the era, if you (or your son) worked for Bill Gates at Microsoft, you could not exactly walk across the street & suddenly hitch your ride to Google. If you tried, you wish Steve Ballmer was throwing a chair at you (in his case, it was against the wall).?

The Soldier and Diplomat

While Alexander expanded his empire through the industrious phalanx which rendered his opps into koubideh, his influence Cyrus the Great built his with the sword but mainly his word. Arguably one of the earlier examples of Iran’s Taarof (a form of extreme etiquette), Cyrus extended one hand in peace, with the other holding his sword by his side.?

The Cyrus Cylinder (currently sitting in the British Museum) is seen as the earliest example of universal human rights, making him the inventor thereof - one of many of the Persian Empire’s incredible inventions.

In exchange for religious and local cultural freedoms (a rarity at the time), Cyrus sought loyalty, allegiance, but ultimately, submission. Eventually, his pride & possibly, some oghdeh (complexes manifested via pride, envy, greed, insecurities, etc) led him to push his luck against a Queen who gave him “the blood he lusted for.”?

While his death is less publicized, in his life, his thoughts, words & deeds influenced not only Alexander, but also the Romans, Thomas Jefferson et al. While Alexander was a warrior, Cyrus was ultimately more diplomat, logical, since his Zoroastrian faith emphasized goodness and justice, leaving the real battle to defeat evil for the afterlife.

Indeed, my interest in Alexander at a young age was spawned by my earlier research into Iran, Ancient Persia, Zoroastrianism and of course, Cyrus. Mind you, Iron Maiden’s epic eponymous anthem helped spur my boundaryless curiosity. But it was always Cyrus who was more of my guiding light. Who was this man who overcame a traumatic early childhood only to epically return to consolidate power and amalgamate an empire so large and broad that it represented the largest on a relative density basis - and not that far off from subsequent larger ones. Cyrus was the first ruler of Iran who leveraged the oldest nation in the world’s vast resources to become the wealthiest man of his era, preceding Alexander, Genghis Khan. Mohammad Reza Shah did not earn that title, though by building Iran into one of the fastest growing economics of the 20th century & boasting the fifth largest military in the world until the 1979 Islamic Revolution, his net worth wasn’t too shabby, either. Even the current ruler of Iran, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been reported to have a net worth of $80 billion according to Reuters. The West has valid grounds to criticize Iran & its ruler Khamenei,? whose use of media & communications is on par with that of any other leader in the world. Ultimately, that’s diplomacy, which is relative and in the eyes of the beholder.

If you want to master business or life, master human[itie]s

Growing up as a second child with an older brother & younger sister (and eventually, another younger sister), I had to master diplomacy. But increasingly drawn to Alexander's incredible & undefeated track record, in some ways my nature clashed with my nurture to create this incredibly ambitious & driven warrior who competed in sport, business, etc at an intense level but which also demonstrated a ridiculous amount of statesmanship via Taarof (not just extreme etiquette, but also politeness, warmth, graciousness and occasionally the giving up of the upper hand, anathema in business). Though admittedly, this could quickly turn into a tempestuous tornado - over time the triggers being intellectual dishonesty or outright lies. As humans are driven by insecurities & strive to balance sins with virtues, my personal and professional journey was a constant struggle to balance ambition with apprehension, drive with despair, determination with dejection, pride with pain. Launching WatchMojo, I treated my colleagues then as guests at my proverbial house, so to speak - not a preposterous thought since I’d complement all of our offices with odds and ends throughout my life - starting in Iran, transiting via Madrid to settle in la belle province de Quebec, au Canada. As the company survived those early lean, money-losing 7 years, eventually we turned a profit & grew - a lot (by standard of non VC-backed firms, no less founded and run in the 514).

An early challenge, I realized was that inasmuch as my servant leadership style worked well with the first employees, the only way the company could balance productivity & profitability with culture & harmony was for them to balance my extreme Taarofy worldview with a more realistic and pragmatic counterweight. It took a while, but eventually we found balance - a key theme in my 1st book Course To Success, and based on the Chinese theme of yin yang. This did not mean that occasionally, my management team would not counterweight it too much - throughout 20 years, you experience a lot of unique scenarios. But hence the paradox of entrepreneurship, you start a business because you like people - either as clients or colleagues - but eventually you create layers (and thus barriers of communications) between you & others via delegation and specialization. You adjust to the growing isolation, and cannot really complain. But it’s a struggle that oftentimes amplifies through anxiety, addiction, depression, etc.

As we continued to grow and I needed to delegate and empower to retain by avoiding micro-managing, I generally solely focused on the good & positive, gave feedback when necessary even if it sometimes came with passion served with a side of hot mustard. But ultimately, you always supported them let alone dared criticize. If they erred, they knew (and through the development of best practices and a healthy collaborative style of management and planning, mistakes were infrequent - even if they may occasionally have been huge. But when you go from celebrating year 1 to 5 to 10 to 15 and now 20, while you go through many birth, life, death & rebirth cycles of the economy, industry (media), market (video), sector (YouTube) but your relationships morphs like trees with more and more layers of communications, tension, resolution, and resentment - albeit latent. At the risk of being crude, when you vomit or go to the washroom, you empty your system of toxins and feel anew. Feedback which can turn into disputes and disagreements are in fact healthy for the broader “body,” which in any organization is the collective.?It can also make things go sideways, or trigger larger and deeply rooted complexes.

But ultimately, unless as a leader you are willing to give negative feedback? - let alone probation or dismissal - then you should consider resigning or abdicating. So eventually you unleash fire, even if of the mere paintball variety, but you quickly realize that the openness, curiosity & desire to learn amongst entrepreneurs which leads you to accept feedback and criticism through your thick skin and even thicker neck (h/t gardan koloft) is not only not reciprocated, but it’s also uncommon in, well, most normal people.?

Indeed, the earliest entrepreneurs (the biggest compliment I could give - for the record!) included prophets, kings, commanders, explorers, inventors, scientists, technologists, media barons, and now creators/storytellers (thanks to the democratization of media via global social platforms).

Crazies, Misfits & Outcasts

As the GOAT Elon Musk recently observed on SNL: “Did you think entrepreneurs are gonna be chill, normal dudes?"

We like to win, but we also like to live. And living, we realize eventually, is about more than work and success, but balance in work, life & play which then leads to greater outcomes through newfound friendships, relationships as the cycle of life continues.?

When a startup grows and a doer becomes a leader, or we trade in our cleats for the chalkboard as teacher or coach, the feedback we give is fraternal and paternal, no matter how tough it may seem. This is how you avoid Alexander’s empire’s fate, which ultimately disintegrated and paved the way for the Roman empire. The average length of empires is 250 years (America’s 250th will be in 2026, btw). This is what makes Iran’s history so interesting: it has had dynasties (groups/families of related “leadership/management” teams, in business parlance) outlasting most other empires. But all dynasties or empires do die out, if they are not killed.

In business, it boils down to your team and succession plan. This is why unlike Alexander, we don’t kill our Parmenio, and au contraire, we seem willing to kill ourselves to protect them from incoming friendly & not-so-friendly fire. But in modern times, our Parmenios (& Cleitus’) can leave you (the wannabe Shakespeare in me will spare you the temptingly dramatic “but they may kill you by leaving”). And that’s a good, healthier thing. I have retained so much talent, but I have lost some good men, too. It’s a fact of life. If you balance sins & virtues, you can find yourself ahead in the end.

Feedback is What You Make Of It

Ultimately, we were once shown tough love, and we improved as a result. Even so-called self-made men stand on the shoulders of giants - be it fathers, siblings, advisors, mentors, teachers, friends and so on.

As such, those amongst your team who can take feedback go on to separate themselves from the good to become great, while helping you avoid the fate of Alexander the Great’s.