Implementing A Dagger Sheathed in a Smile - 36 Strategies
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Implementing A Dagger Sheathed in a Smile - 36 Strategies
To summarise what "A Dagger Sheathed in a Smile" is that you hide your ill intentions (the dagger) under the covers of friendly gestures (the smile). The pre-condition to implement this strategy is that you are on friendly terms with the enemy initially.
What are the factors that would lead to the successful implementation of "A Dagger Sheathed in a Smile"? They are
- Secrecy of Intention.
- Quality of Smile.
- Sharpness of Dagger.
Secrecy of Intention
As the title says, you must keep your actual intentions under wraps. If your intentions is already made known, no matter how much you smile in front of the enemy, the enemy will not have let his guard down and in fact raise his guard against you. So the intentions must be kept under high secrecy. As the saying goes "Too many cooks spoil the broth.", thus only those that are involved should know the actual intentions. This is a very critical factor of this strategy.
Quality of Smile
The purpose of the smile in this strategy is to make the enemy let down his guard by signalling to him that you are friendly and meant no harm. The fundamental objective is to gain the person's trust. Once you have gained his trust, then the smile have worked. One have to note that the time taken from putting a smile to gaining the person's trust can take a long time and it can incur heavy costs if one is to shorten this time period. There is a need to shorten this time period because of the first factor. The longer the time period, the higher the risk of exposing your real intentions.
Sharpness of Dagger
As mentioned, what this dagger means is your ill intention to harm the person. So if your dagger is not sharp enough, and not able to inflict enough damage, you have wasted your previous effort. The more prepared you are in dealing the damage, the more you will reap from your previous effort. So similar to "Observing the Fire from the Other Side of the River Bank", one has to be prepared for the kill, to do the biggest damage at the correct time.
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