Sun Tzu and Machiavelli – two of history’s greatest experts on power – were of the view that countries or leaders could only achieve success if they had self-awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses. “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. … If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle,” Sun Tzu wrote.
It is as valid a proposition today as it was in their times, and self-awareness is likely attained as rarely as it was in ancient China or Renaissance Italy. Indeed, neither Canada nor the United States get great marks for self-awareness today.
