Tian Dan was about to attack the Di stronghold, and went to visit Master Lu Zhongzi. Master Lu Zhongzi said, "General, if you attack Di, you will not be able to take it." Tian Dan said, "I once, with an inner city of five li and an outer city of seven li, led broken and defeated remnants, vanquished the mighty state of Yan, and restored the territories of Qi. If I could not take Di, why should that be?" With these words, he mounted his carriage and departed without taking leave. He then proceeded to attack Di, but after three months, he had still not succeeded. The children of Qi sang a rhyme:
"His great cap like a winnowing basket,
His long sword propping his chin—
He attacks Di but cannot take it,
And bleached bones pile up like hills."
Only then did Tian Dan grow afraid, and he asked Master Lu Zhongzi, saying, "Sir, you said I could not take Di—may I hear your reasoning?" Master Lu Zhongzi replied, "When the General was at Jimo, when seated you wove grass baskets, when standing you wielded shovel and spade, and you urged your soldiers on, saying: 'There is nowhere left to go! The ancestral temples are destroyed! Our very souls are lost! Where else can we turn?' In those days, the General harbored the resolve to die, and the soldiers had no thought of survival. Hearing your words, there was not one who did not wipe away tears and raise his arms, eager for battle—this was the reason you defeated Yan. But now, to the east the General holds the fief of Yeyi, to the west you have the pleasures of the Zi River; with a golden belt at your waist, you gallop between the Zi and Mian rivers, knowing the joy of living, without the resolve to die—this is the reason you cannot prevail." Tian Dan said, "That I harbor such thoughts—you, sir, have already perceived them." The next day, he roused his spirits, inspected the city walls, stood where arrows and stones flew thick, and personally seized the drumsticks to sound the charge—and only then was Di conquered.
💡 商战启示录
The success and failure of Tian Dan's campaign against Di reveals the decisive influence of a leader's mindset on organizational combat effectiveness. During his time in Jimo, Tian Dan shared hardships with his soldiers, harboring a "resolve to die," and the entire team was united in purpose—thus creating the miracle of defeating a stronger force with a weaker one. Yet when he ascended to high position, enjoying the pleasures of his fiefdom and losing his sense of urgency, the team's fighting spirit dissipated, and even the small city of Di proved impossible to conquer. This mirrors modern business: in their early stages, many enterprises have leaders who work on the front lines and endure hardship, forging strong team cohesion that overcomes challenges. But once companies grow large, if leaders sink into comfort zones and detach from the market and their employees, the organization breeds bureaucracy and inefficiency, ultimately falling to competitors. For instance, Nokia, once a mobile phone giant, saw its executives grow complacent after succeeding in the feature-phone era, failing to respond promptly to the smartphone wave, and its market share was gradually eroded by Apple and the Android camp. Conversely, Huawei's Ren Zhengfei has consistently emphasized "wolf-like tenacity" and "self-criticism," maintaining a sense of crisis even as an industry leader, continuously investing in R&D to sustain organizational vitality. Therefore, business leaders must guard against the "prosperity disease," preserve their founding spirit, and stay in resonance with their teams to achieve sustained victory.