I've been watching Battles B.C., which is truly the most awesome show ever. Okay, it might not be awesome for everyone, but it is for me because I'm a war history nerd and have a thing for BCE timeline. A show were other history nerds talk about battles just makes me has happy as pie.
Anyway, Hannibal Barca is known in history as doing a lot of massage damage to the Roman Republic during the second Punic War. He was a son of Carthage and wanted to get revenge on Rome for the Republic's harsh treaty with his city after the first Punic War. You know, one of those revenge and repeat kind of deals.
So if you know anything about history at all, I'm sure it will occur to you that Hannibal didn't succeed. He lost his war against the Romans. In fact, he kind of helped to set up the chain of events that would eventually lead to Roman becoming an empire and Carthage being destroyed. You'll also notice he's still famous though. We can learn a lot from Hannibal.
1. If you are going to engage in a conflict, it's always best to do it on your terms.
When Hannibal could coax the Romans into fighting him, he almost always won. Even though the Romans outnumbered him and had a higher degree of discipline and training than his army, Hannibal was damned good at beating them. No matter what they tried to hit him with on the battlefield, he could find a way around it. At one battle, his army killed 70,000 Romans in about six hours.
The problem, however, was that the Romans knew they didn't HAVE to fight him. He was in their lands and dealing with men who were growing more discontented everyday. The Romans knew that all they had to do was keep making sure he couldn't resupply himself and eventually he would run out of food and equipment. Once this happen, he was beaten and he would have to go home.
So if you have to confront someone or otherwise engage them in a conflict, make sure to control as much of the situation as possible. The more things that are happening on your terms, the better off you will be.
2. Don't waste your energy on a war you can't win.
Like I said, Hannibal was very good at winning battles. The problem was, he started a war he couldn't win WITH just battles. Even as a republic, Rome was just too big for him. His plan to kill lots of soldiers and then try to get Rome to treat Carthage better just wasn't a winning strategy.
The sad thing is, Hannibal's father had spent a great deal of his life conquering Spain. By taking Spain, he had given Carthage a huge tactical and economic advantage, especially considering Rome had practically destroyed their seafaring abilities during the first Punic War. IF Hannibal had applied himself to securing Spain and building up the defenses, he could have expanded in other directions and made Carthage strong enough to not even worry about Rome at all.
This is a slightly different philosophy than the old saying 'choose your battles wisely." The idea there implies that the 'war' in which these battles are being fought is one you want or at least have no way to leave. What I'm talking about is more along the lines of 'choose your wars wisely.' Now, we don't always have a choice in this matter. When we do, however, it is always best to consider long and hard if you truly want to involve yourself in a conflict. You need to decide if it is one you can win, and, even if you do win, if it is worth what it may cost you.
3. Don't less success fool you.
Hannibal was GOOD at winning battles. He could think fast on his feet. He was inspiring to his warriors. He was deadly in his own right. He was smart, bold, and knew how to take advantage of even the smallest bit of luck he had. All of this added up to a string of some of the most deadly and successful battles in history.
It also added up to him losing his ability to really assess the situation. He kept winning battles, but it didn't matter because he couldn't win the war. In the end, he lost a lot of people, all of his elephants, blinded himself in one eye, and met defeat and shame. In a way, it would have almost been better if he lost his first battle horribly and went home then. At least less people would have died.
Early success can be very detrimental for us. It can make us forget to practice, forget to study. It can cause us to make foolish decisions that will cost us later on. Think about how many people during the early 2000s got these crazy mortgages they couldn't pay back, all the while thinking they would keep getting promotions and pay increases at their jobs. It backfired so badly on them, all because they would deluded by early success.
Succeeding is great, but we always need to keep it in perspective. The catch line of Project Runway, 'one day you're in and the next day you're out,' is true of any profession. Quite often how well we do in life isn't determined so much by how well we succeed but by how well we prepare for and bounce back from failure.
I have to admit I admire the hell out of Hannibal. He was completely Quixotic, but brilliantly so. He made a lasting impression on history and did things by 27 that most of us will never do in 100 years. In the end though, he died without accomplishing his goals. Rome grew into the greatest and most famous empire in the world and Carthage was lost to the ages.
Of course, in my mind, there is always the fantastic speculation of what could have happened had he won . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment