Hello. My name is Jesan Sorrells, and this is the Leadership
Lessons from the Great Books podcast, episode number
128. The
journalist Walter Durante once quipped that, quote, in
order to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs, unquote.
Duranty was, of course, talking about the efforts of the Russian
strongman known as Stalin to remake the Soviets
in his own image, But Duranty
didn't realize, of course, at the time that the ultimate egg breaker of the
20th century would ascend the feudal and colonial
peasantry, one of the largest countries on the planet.
We cannot think about the nature of warfare in the 20th century without considering the
nature of revolutionary struggle and, of course,
guerrilla warfare. After all, revolution and resistance
go together. One follows the other, and
political power comes out of the end of a gun.
The long and tragic story of the post World War 1 20th century
is partially one of vast static armies seeking to
crush a people's led rebellion to advance political
aims. And in reaction and response, the other
side of that story features small bands of jihadists,
terrorists, revolutionaries, and guerrillas formed
almost organically, it would seem, to oppose
those large army's goals.
I have said in previous episodes that, quote unquote, the enemy gets a
vote, and the enemy does. But the inevitable and
unstated pushback to this idea is that somehow the level or
the degree of resistance to the use of
mass inflections of political and military power must
somehow match the level, size, and force of the power wielded
unjustly in order to be considered legitimate.
This is a fatally faulty understanding that leaves the door open
to the granular seat of resistance being planted,
watered, and grown. It
turned out, against all odds, that in the 20th century
small resistance, small pushbacks, and small power
mattered quite a bit. And the person,
the individual, the, titular leader who understood
this fact innately and leveraged this fact to secure
himself long term political power over the lives of almost
900,000,000 souls in one of the most populous countries on the
planet is the book who is the
person who wrote the book we are covering today
on the podcast. Today,
we will be pulling. We will be extracting. We will be, dare I
say, in a guerrilla fashion, running
after the leadership lessons
for leaders in the 21st century,
from one of the greatest political leaders of the 20th century
on guerrilla warfare by
Mao Zedong.
Leaders, to engage successfully in guerrilla
operations, you must articulate as a happy
warrior a coherent, and some
would say revolutionary, vision
of the future. And we pick
up from Mao Zedong on Guerrilla Warfare.
The version that I have is translated and with an introduction by
Brigadier General Samuel b Griffith, United States Marine
Corps retired. Looks as though he,
wrote 2 introductions to, to this book.
We will not be covering the introduction. Instead, we're
gonna jump right into what
is guerrilla warfare.
And I quote, in a war of revolutionary character, guerrilla
operations are a necessary part. This is particularly true in a
war waged for the emancipation of a people who would have an assassination. China is
such a nation, a nation whose techniques are undeveloped and whose communications
are poor. She finds herself confronted with a strong and
victorious Japanese imperialism. Under these
circumstances, the development of the type of guerrilla warfare characterized by the quality of
mass is both necessary and natural.
This warfare must be developed to an unprecedented degree and it must coordinate with the
operations of our regular armies. If we fail to do this, we will
find it difficult to defeat the enemy.
These guerrilla operations must not be considered as an independent form of warfare. They are
but one step in the total war, one aspect of the
revolutionary struggle. They are the inevitable result of the clash
between oppressor and oppressed when the latter reaches the limits of their endurance.
In our case, these hostilities began at a time when the
people were unable to endure any more from the Japanese imperialists.
Lenin, the people in revolution, said, quote, a people's
insurrection and a people's revolution are not only natural but inevitable,
close quote. We consider guerrilla operations as but
one aspect of our total or mass war because they, lacking the
quality of independence, are of themselves incapable of providing a
solution to the struggle.
Guerrilla warfare has qualities and objectives peculiar to itself. It is a
weapon that a nation inferior in arms and military equipment may employ
against a more powerful aggressor nation. When the invader pierces
deep into the heart of the weaker country and occupies her
territory in cruel and oppressive manner, there is no doubt
that conditions of terrain, climate, and society in general
offer obstacles to his progress and may be used to advantage by those who
oppose him. In guerrilla warfare, we turn these advantages to the
purpose of resisting and defeating the enemy.
During the progress of hostilities, guerrillas gradually develop into orthodox
forces that operate in conjunction with other units of the regular
army. Thus, the regularly organized
troops, those guerrillas who have attained that status, and those who have
not reached that level of development combine to form the military
power of a national revolutionary war.
There can be no doubt that the ultimate result of
this will be victory.
When we think about revolutionary characters, when
we think about people who lead revolutions,
we should be thinking about Mao
Zedong rather than Lenin or even Stalin.
Mao Zedong, born December 26, 1993, died
September 9, 1976, also known as Chairman
Mao, was a Chinese politician,
revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of
China, the PRC, and led the country from its establishment in
1949 until his death in 1976.
Mao was the son of a peasant raised in Shaoshan Hunan
and, apparently his father was rather
brutal with him, demanding that he get an
appropriate education, which he, of
course, did. Now
being born in 18/93, there was a lot of things happening in East
Asia, boxer rebellions, and, of course, the
aftermath of World War 1. And,
he, went to Peking University. And while working as
a librarian at Peking University, he adopted
Marxism Lex Marxist Leninism, and in
1921 became a founding member of the Chinese Communist
Party. He helped establish the Chinese Red
Army as first in opposition to the,
to the nationalist, the Comintag, but then later
on in opposition to the Japanese imperialists. This
is the perspective that he wrote, on guerrilla warfare
from. But then after the war was over
in the 19 forties, he turned his revolutionary
army onto the Comatog and drove them
out to the island of Taiwan.
By the way, that's gonna come back later to haunt us.
He helped establish the, the the
Chinese Red Army as a result, as I already said, and he developed a
coherent and principled we'll talk more about principles
today as well, but a coherent and principled strategy, of
guerrilla warfare. He laid it all out.
Now with that being said, chairman Mao, it must be
acknowledged, did lead China
through the tumultuous middle part of the 20th century.
Everything from great famines and great purges
all the way to the little red book
and, quite a few struggle sessions. His
policies were responsible for a vast number of deaths. Close
to 100,000,000 people died at his hands, or because
of the ways in which policies that
he advocated for were carried out by his henchmen.
These people were victims of starvation, persecution,
prison labor, mass executions, and, of course,
famine. The Great Leap Forward,
couldn't have happened without there
being enough bread to go around.
Chairman Mao's regime was totalitarian, and just like
Stalin before him and Lenin before him,
Mao Zedong was a totalizing force. He was
principled, but he was totalizing.
Everything bowed to him, and even these days
in China, if you go and you read the Wikipedia
article, which I pulled the majority of the information that I
have from here today, from, If
you go and read the Wikipedia article on him, you will discover
that modern Chinese folks, the modern
Chinese Communist Party, the modern
CCP, struggles with
Mao Zedong's legacy. Yeah.
He, just like Stalin with Russia, he jerked the
Chinese out of peasantry and feudalism and into
the 20th century, but he had to kill a lot of people in
order to do it, and he had to be a man of
iron principle during a time when the
United States and the Russians, well,
almost came to blows during that thing that we
all forget that occurred in the middle of the 20th century
called the Cold War. There's a
lesson here for leaders about principles. There's a lesson here for
leaders about strategy. There's a lesson here for leaders about
innovation. But if you get all caught up in the totalitarian
nature of it you will miss the lesson. And don't get me wrong,
I'm not in favor of tyranny, but I am in favor of
learning from everything
and everybody. Back to the book, back to
on guerrilla warfare. We're going to pick it up
with a discussion or chairman Mao's
I shouldn't say chairman Mao Zedong's positions,
on guerrilla warfare in history.
And I quote, guerrilla warfare is neither a product of China nor peculiar
to the present day. From the earliest historical days, it has been a feature of
wars fought by every class of men against invaders and oppressors.
Under suitable conditions, it has great possibilities. The many
guerrilla wars in history have their points of difference, their peculiar characteristics,
their varying processes and conclusions, and we must respect and profit by the experience
of those whose blood was shed in them. What a pity it
is that the priceless experience gained during the several 100 wars waged by the peasants
of China cannot be marshaled today to guide us. Our only experience at guerrilla
hostilities has been that gained from the several conflicts that have been carried on against
us by foreign imperialisms. But that experience should help the fighting
Chinese recognize the necessity for guerrilla warfare and should
confirm them in confidence of ultimate victory.
In September 18 12, the Frenchman Napoleon, in the course of swallowing all of
Europe, invaded Russia at the head of a great army totaling several 100,000
infantry cavalry and artillery. At that time, Russia was weak
and her ill prepared army was not concentrated. The most important phase of her
strategy was the use made of Cossack cavalry and detachments of peasants to
carry on guerrilla operations. After giving up Moscow, the
Russians formed 9 guerrilla divisions of about 500 men each. These
and the vast groups of organized peasants carried on partisan
warfare and continually harassed the French army. When the
French army was withdrawing, cold and starving, Russian guerrillas blocked the way and, in
combination with regular troops, carried out counter attacks on the French rear, pursuing
and defeating them. The army of the heroic Napoleon was
almost entirely annihilated and the guerrillas captured many officers,
men, cannon, and rifles. Though the victory was the result of various factors and
depended largely on the activities of the regular army, the function of the partisan
groups was extremely important. Quote, the
corrupt and poorly organized country that was Russia defeated and destroyed an army led by
the most famous soldier of Europe and won the war in spite of the
fact that her ability to organize guerrilla regimes was not fully developed. At
times, guerrilla groups were hindered in their operations and the supply of equipment in
arms was insufficient. If we use the Russian saying, it
was a case of a battle between, quote, the fist and the ax,
close quote, Ivanov.
From 1918 to 1920, the Russian Soviets, because of the opposition and
intervention of foreign imperialisms and the internal disturbances of white Russian
groups, were forced to organize themselves in occupied territories and fight a
real war. In Siberia and Alishan, in the rear of the
army of the traitor Denikin, and in the rear of the Poles, there are many
red Russian guerrillas. These not only
disrupted and destroyed the communications in the enemy's rear, but also frequently prevented
his advance. On one occasion, the guerrillas completely destroyed a
retreating white army that had previously been defeated by regular red forces.
Kolchak, Denikin, the Japanese, and the Poles owing to the necessity of staving
off the attacks of guerrillas were forced to
withdraw regular troops from the front. Quote, thus not only was the
enemy's power impoverished but he found himself unable to cope with the ever moving
guerrilla, close quote, the nature of guerrilla action.
The development of guerrillas at that time had only reached the stage where
there were detached groups of several 1,000 in strength, old, middle aged and
young. The old men organized themselves into propaganda groups known
as silver haired units. There was a suitable guerrilla activity for the
middle aged. The young men formed combat units and there were even groups for the
children. Among the leaders were determined communists who carried
on general political work among the people. These, although they opposed
the doctrine of extreme guerrilla warfare, were quick to oppose those who condemned it.
Experience tells us that, quote, orthodox armies are the fundamental and
principal power. Guerrilla units are secondary to them and assist in the
accomplishment of the mission assigned to the regular forces, close
quote. Lessons of the Civil War in Russia.
Many of the guerrilla regimes in Russia, gradually
developed until, in battle, they were able to discharge functions of organized
regulars. The army of the famous General Galen was entirely
derived from guerrillas. During the 7
months in 1935 and 36, the Abyssinians lost their war
against Italy. The cause of defeat, aside from the most important
political reasons that there were dissented political groups, no
strong government party, and unstable policy, was a
failure to adopt a positive policy
of mobile warfare.
Mao, in describing guerrilla warfare in history, of
course, talks about the French army's
retreat from the Russian steppes during the Napoleonic
wars, and, of course, ends his analysis with
this quote. If we use the Russian saying, it
was the case of a battle between the fist
and the ax.
Guerrilla strategy, whether it is guerrilla strategy applied
to entrepreneurship and startups or guerrilla strategy applied
to established organizations. Any type of strategy,
that is based in overcoming an incumbent
and in overthrowing their long held chivalis
and rules and ways of, quote, unquote, doing things.
Any strategy that is put forth in a guerrilla manner or
executed in the form of guerrilla tactics,
Any strategy relies on alertness, mobility, and
attack. The gorilla must be alert to the
conditions on the ground, both geographic, but
also economic, social, political, and, of
course, spiritual. The gorilla must be
able to move. The gorilla must not be tied
down to a particular place or even to a particular set of
ideas. And the gorilla is always
attacking. Mau noted this. He said
the gorilla is always attacking from the rear.
Gorilla's strategy relies on adaptability, innovation,
and it also relies on a
hyper level of skin in the game that tends to
defy and flummox mature systems.
Guerrilla warfare, All guerrilla warfare is typically based on the
attaining of political power. Not necessarily
theological power or social power or cultural power,
but political power. Because most of the purveyors
of guerrilla warfare, most of the individuals who engage in guerrilla
warfare are attempting
to create political change via other
means. In many
ways, the tip towards the tyrannical use of power to
control other people and ensure compliance is always just
there on the other side of the revolutionary
Elon and the really drab and
dour uniforms. It is
that compliance that you need in order to get people to,
well, to fight and to die for you. From the silver haired
brigade all the way to the children, Everyone is armed.
Everyone participates. Guerrilla warfare
and the overall guerilla strategy has to involve
mass, which is what Mao started with in on
guerrilla warfare. Mass
though does not necessarily mean large. Mass does not necessarily
mean huge. And that's where we get confused because we think
mass, we think a lot of people. But guess what?
If I wanted to overthrow the country or if I
just wanted to overthrow your business, I wouldn't need a
whole bunch of people. Matter of fact, if I really wanted to start some
problems at Google or Facebook or John
Deere or Toyota or Ford
or even SpaceX, all I would need is a
really dedicated group of
like minded individuals with low numbers.
Leaders need to understand that you don't need
all of these, to paraphrase the comedian Joey Diaz,
motherfuckers out here in order to get shit
done. Leaders need to understand
that all you need is the impact of a historical vision
of where you like to go. You need revolutionary elan for
sure, and you need to keep that level of emotional
engagement at a high level. But you really don't need all these people. You
just need the dedicated few, The proud,
to paraphrase from another segment of our
American military, you need the marines.
But you need to apply that thinking to guerrilla
strategy and guerrilla tactics in
guerrilla warfare. When you lead this
way, when you lead,
when you lead through understanding the impact of history
on your vision, you will not have a disembodied vision. You will have a
vision that actually works. You will have
people who will be excited to kill the enemy, who will be
excited to lean forward into business. They will be
excited to stay long nights and do hard things.
And when you lead this way, you will be leading with your fists.
And leading with your fists, well, you don't
actually have to win the battle with the ax. You just
have to knock it out of the other guy's hand. Back to the
book, back to on Guerrilla Warfare
by Mao Zedong. We're gonna pick
up in a long chapter.
Chapter 1, what is guerrilla warfare? We're going to we're gonna pick up with
some ideas here that, I think you need to have.
And I quote, in guerrilla warfare, slick the tactic of
seeming to come from the east and attacking from the west. Avoid the
solid, attack the hollow, attack, withdraw, deliver a lightning
blow, seek a lightning decision. When gorillas
engage a stronger enemy, they withdraw when he advances, harass him when he stops,
strike him when he is weary, pursue him when he withdraws. In gorilla's strategy,
the enemy's rear flanks and other vulnerable spouts are his vital
points. And there, he must be harassed, attacked,
dispersed, exhausted, and annihilated. Only in this way can
gorillas carry out their mission of independent guerrilla action and coordination
with the effort of the regular armies. But in spite of
the most complete preparation, there could be no victory if mistakes are made in the
matter of command. Guerrilla warfare, based on the
principles we have mentioned and carried on over a vast extent of territory in
which communications are inconvenient, will contribute tremendously towards ultimate
defeat of the Japanese and consequent emancipation of the Chinese people.
A careful distinction must be made between 2 types of guerrilla warfare. The
fact that revolutionary guerrilla warfare is based on the masses of the people does not
in itself mean that the organization of guerrilla units is impossible in a
war of counterrevolutionary character. The
second type of guerrilla warfare directly contradicts the law of historical
development. If we fail to differentiate between the two types of guerrilla
hostilities mentioned, it is likely that we will exaggerate their effect when
applied by an invader. We might arrive at the conclusion that, quote, the invader
can organize guerrilla units from among the people, close quote. Such a
conclusion might well diminish our confidence in guerrilla warfare.
As far as this matter is concerned, we have but to remember the historical
experiences of revolutionary struggles. Further,
we must distinguish general revolutionary wars from those of a purely, quote, unquote,
class type. In the former case, the whole people of a nation without regard to
class or party carry on a guerrilla struggle that is an instrument of the national
policy. Its basis is therefore much broader than is the
basis of a struggle of class type. Of a general guerrilla war, it has been
said, quote, when a nation is invaded and the
people become sympathetic to one another and all aid in organizing guerrilla
units, in civil war, no matter to who to what extent
guerrillas are developed, they do not produce the same results as when they are
formed to resist an invasion by foreigners. Civil war in
Russia. Close quote. The one strong
feature of guerrilla warfare in a civil struggle
is its equality of internal purity.
One class may be easily united and perhaps fight with great effect, whereas in a
national revolutionary war, guerrilla units are faced with the problem of internal
unification of different class groups. This necessitates the use
of propaganda. Both types of guerrilla
war are, however, similar in that they both employ the same
military methods. Now let me move a little bit further
forward in this chapter. If in today's struggle, we fail to apply the
historical truths of revolutionary guerrilla war, we will fall into the error of believing
with Tao Hu saying that under the impact of Japanese mechanized
army, quote, the guerilla unit has lost its historical function, close
quote. Jane Shishan writes, in olden days, guerilla
warfare was just part of regular strategy, but there's almost no chance that it could
be applied today. These opinions are harmful. If we do not make
an estimate of the characteristics peculiar to our anti Japanese guerrilla
war, but insist on applying it to mechanical formulas derived
from past history, we are making the mistake of placing our hostilities in the same
category as all other national guerrilla struggles. If we hold
this view, we will simply be beating our heads against the stone wall and we
will be unable to profit from gorilla
hostilities.
You gotta innovate in business like you're a
gorilla or pirate or in
leadership in general. Look, gorillas and pirates,
have many things in common as we can see from that last
clip we just read. They have the ability to rely on
the failure of established incumbents to move quickly, break things, and
take risks. Gorillas and pirates don't care about
history or the historical dialectic either.
They don't care about what came before. They only care
about taking risks. As we know,
innovation is the most overused word in business and
leadership, and innovation really only matters if you're a gorilla willing to
break the bounds of approaches, forms, and even,
well, even break the bounds of rebellion itself.
This is why incumbents from politics to
business, from finance to family,
don't like it when things change, don't like it when a gorilla comes
in and becomes the
vanguard of a revolution.
I love this quote from Vladimir Lenin, evil does not exist in
guerrilla warfare but only in the unorganized and undisciplined activities that
are anarchism are anarchism.
He would probably say anarchism. Point is, and Lyndon was
correct, it is that lack of organization. It is that lack of
discipline that kills guerrilla leadership. It kills
gorillas forward momentum. See,
incumbents think that a gorilla, that a person
coming in who is doing the things that a gorilla
does, that is overthrowing the established
system, they think that that person is undisciplined, unorganized,
or even unfocused.
That is the failure of the incumbents.
That's the failure of incumbents to even think
about what is happening. They
don't understand. They don't appreciate.
And, invariably, they are
overthrown.
The biggest challenge that gorillas represent is a
challenge of delivering chaos. It's the challenge of
taking risks to overthrow an incumbent, and it's the challenge of doing it in a
way where the incumbent is completely and totally taken
by surprise. We saw this most recently
in the, in the most recent
presidential elections in the United States, but
we also have seen it in a lot of other places. We've
seen it in entrepreneurship, and we've seen it in the course of the
last 25 years in the
start up community. Pirates are
organized and disciplined. They take risks. They overthrow
incumbents. Gorillas are organized and disciplined.
But gorillas and pirates differ in one very key way.
Gorillas make sure to use propaganda. They use messaging to ensure
that everyone stays in line. Remember that whole ensuring compliance thing?
They use the messaging because they understand that the both the medium
and the message are important to keep everybody engaged
in the revolution.
Leaders innovate like gorillas and scare
the incumbents like pirates.
So what are we to do with this
information from the few clips that we've read from On Guerrilla
Warfare by Mao Zedong? I would encourage you to pick up the book.
One of the better chapters in it, if you're going to pick it up,
and one of the more highlighted or annotated chapters
that I read in the book was on it was
chapter 5, organization for Guerrilla
Warfare. Could be particularly useful for you if you're looking
to mount an insurrection or overthrow an
incumbent. What can we learn
from what guerrilla warfare did
and what it accomplished in the 20th century
by writing history in iron and blood?
Well, first the caveat. I don't want it to be said that I
am supportive of Marxist Leninism or Marx or or supportive
of communist revolutions. I'm not a communist.
I'm actually an anti anti communist, if
you know what that means. I'm also not in support
of overweening capitalism. I believe we need to have a
moral core inside of our capitalism and our
capitalistic approaches to the environment, to
human capital, to dealing with other people, and to the
the placement of our resources in the world. I do believe
that one of the fundamental problems that has been exposed in the last 25
years of, not only Western culture but
also global culture has been the failure of capitalism to have a
moral core and a moral core
based not on secularism or secular morality but a
moral core based in Christianity.
With that being said, I wanna be very clear. The Marxist approach to
revolution, the Marxist approach to guerilla tactics, the
Marxist approach to piracy, the Marxist approach to innovation
is inherently anti Christian and fundamentally
Luciferian because it focuses on the dissolution and deconstruction
of history, always chasing
a never ending vista of utopia while quote
unquote breaking a few eggs along the way.
I think in the 21st century the
opposition to marxism and leninism is coming,
well, interestingly enough, from the places where marxism and
leninism used to come from small places that are
local. Small and local is the new big
as we have moved past the traumas of the 20th century. And
leaders should pay attention to this. Leaders should
know that leadership is required to reduce the
impact, to reduce the the overweening
power of mass on a on the on the on local
issues and on local incumbencies and
even on local guerrilla factions, leadership is required to reduce
the impact of the national on the local and to reverse
the power of scaling problems to their highest level, which is what
social media brings us rather than dealing with the problem closest to
its source of origin. There's no dopaminergic
reward for solving a local problem.
I think chairman Mao would agree with this next
statement. Skin in the game is vital to any kind of
gorilla strategy, but it's also vital to
any type of business innovation. Discipline is
critical to the evolution of action. If you're not
disciplined, you're just doing things.
Kind of the way the Joker talked about it in The Dark Knight.
I'm just a dog chasing a car. I wouldn't know what to do
with it if I caught it. And
when faced with malevolence, a gorilla must maintain
skepticism in the face of authoritarian,
tyrannical manipulation.
One of the ways that guerilla tactics work is they ensure
compliance. They brainwash people with propaganda. And
that's not to say that we aren't brainwashing our own social media
ways in the appropriate social media ways in our own era and in our own
time, but it is to say that we do live in a free society
where alternative viewpoints can act in a guerilla
fashion not only on your
followers, but also on you.
And that's something to keep in mind if you're gonna go out and be a
pirate or behave like a
gorilla. And
well that's it for me