Life lessons from the greatest swordsman who ever lived

Miyamoto Musashi is considered the best swordsman who ever lived. After fighting over sixty duels, Musashi pondered the concept of strategy and what enabled him to win so many battles. He recorded these thoughts in a book entitled ‘Go Rin No Ryu’, or, in English, ‘A Book of Five Rings’.

So why am I talking about sword fighting now? Well, because the book itself uses sword fighting as a metaphor for all things. The book is about strategy in general. It is considered a masterpiece of strategy that some business schools, including Harvard, use to teach business strategy.

In terms of the modern world and the lessons we can learn from it now, I would like to quote a line from the book. Musashi says, “The way of the warrior is the resolute acceptance of death.” These eleven words are profound and contain the secret of many successes in them. The declaration means that to do his best, a warrior must accept the possibility and reality of death. A warrior who did not do this would be afraid of dying in combat and as such would diminish his ability to fight. Ironically, the more worried a warrior was about dying, the more likely he was to die. Only by accepting the reality of death could a warrior overcome it.

Taken outside of feudal Japan, this sentiment can have a huge impact on your success in a variety of areas. As the warrior, instead of fearing the negative consequences, once you embrace it and accept it as a real possibility, you can overcome it.

The same rule applies to business. If you’re afraid of messing up a presentation, project, or sales call, you’re more likely to screw it up. Once you accept the reality of failure, you release your energy to allow yourself to perform to the best of your ability.

Remember, all you have to accept is failure, rejection, or shame – Musashi had to accept death.