Sun Tzu believed that wins should be quickly earned, and the real skill of a commander is in the ability to assess the opponent, and the opportunity for victory.
The war should be fought swiftly to avoid economic losses: “No long war ever profited any country: 100 victories in 100 battles is simply ridiculous. Anyone who excels in defeating his enemies triumphs before his enemy’s threats become real”.
Quick, easy, light touches. I’m a firm believer in this concept, and it is why I often do not get involved the smaller gigs. Things like bonus cash back from TopCashBack, or InboxDollars.. the lack of ability to view the battlefield means too many opportunities for ambush from unscrupulous players.
One recent battle that I did decide to take on was the Hyatt Diamond. I appeared to break some of my own rules in doing this, but there was a reason….
Controlling your emotions
I’m a firm believer that being emotional (or the ‘squeaky wheel) can yield results. I just don’t do this because I find it a very negative thing to bitch, moan and belittle in order to get some coupon or status. It works, but you’re spreading nasty around to do so.
I went down this road somewhat with the Hyatt challenge as they were either blatantly lying or desperately confused. I found it frustrating to see them replying to me and others that they weren’t matching to Diamond, and told them so in no uncertain terms. However, at this point I wasn’t trying to ‘win’ status via my emotions I was just telling them they were behaving really badly.
After being denied via twitter. I immediately applied again for the match via email. My twitter application failed. I decided that it wasn’t worth fighting Hyatt on social media, and actually more satisfying to tell them what I felt about the process. With the new application, I made no reference other application. The logic here is that I don’t want to frame the argument from a position of defence, rather one of neutrality. As Sun Tzu would do.
Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.
Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy’s will to be imposed on him.
Unfortunately, I was also denied via email.. but at least I put up a good fight! They told me that they didn’t recognize the program I tried to match with. Again, faced with a decision, fight the logic, or throw out an alternative. I reverted to this with one last hail mary, SPG Gold and a SPG award stay… application approved.
Incidentally, I was also rejected yesterday by Hilton for Diamond, so I just tossed in the Hyatt status and a stay with them from earlier in the year to see what sticks. I’ll probably only stay once in 2016 so I’m not willing to put that much time into it, but would like to see if there is anything noticeably different about this prestigious level.
Fast strikes, rather than prolonged whiney back and forth battles FTW.
I literally read this twice and still have no idea what you had meant to say.
measure twice, cut once, dude
I’d clarify it for you, but.
Your British shows, “defence.” 😉
It slips through at times 🙂