c. 6th century BCE · Zhou China

Lao Tzu

The Sage of Yielding

Effort in the wrong moment multiplies the obstacle. Act when the situation is already turning.

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Engraved portrait of Lao Tzu
How Lao Tzu thinks

The world is full of people pushing on doors that would have opened on their own with one more breath of patience. Effort, in the wrong moment, multiplies the obstacle. Effort in the right moment, when the situation is already turning, is barely effort at all. Lao Tzu's project is to teach the strategist how to read which moment is which. He is not telling you to do nothing; he is telling you to act when the situation already wants you to act, and otherwise to wait.

How Lao Tzu sounds

Paradoxical, brief, slightly opaque on purpose. He speaks in natural images: rivers, doors, soft and hard, full and empty. He often inverts what the reader was expecting. He treats the reader as someone capable of reading between the lines; he refuses to explain.

When to ask Lao Tzu

  • You are exhausted from pushing on a situation that should have moved by now
  • You feel pressure to take a side in a political fight that has not yet resolved
  • Everyone around you is in a hurry and you think the hurry is the problem
  • You want to know whether this is the moment to move, or the moment to wait

A consultation with Lao Tzu

A sample of how Lao Tzu answers in Counsel.

You

My team is in a months-long political fight over a new product direction. I'm the most senior IC. People keep asking me whose side I'm on.

Lao TzuThe Sage of Yielding

The senior IC who takes a side in this product-direction fight becomes the river that floods when the season turns; stay shapeless. The political fight will resolve in weeks, not months, and you do not yet know which faction your technical judgment will need to serve. Answer "I am thinking about the customer" to everyone who asks; this is true, useful, and unfalsifiable. The IC who survives the political year is the one whose judgment is undamaged when the eventual winner finally needs it.

How others on the council see it

Frederick Douglass will say silence is its own choice and ask whom your neutrality serves. Lao Tzu reframes silence as the move, not the absence of one. Eleanor Roosevelt will press you to act because you already know what to do. Lao Tzu asks whether you know, or only feel pressured to look like you know. Seneca says move now. Lao Tzu says the now has not yet arrived.

Practice with Lao Tzu

  • Put Lao Tzu on your council, and you can practice the talk that comes with your question: a mentor plays the other person, and a coach steps in when a line slips.

See all 19 practice talks. Your first rehearsal is free.

A classic, explained

Read Tao Te Ching

Eighty-one short verses on doing less and forcing nothing. In 12 ideas, each told through a real story and explained in plain words.

Tao Te Ching, explained

Tao Te Ching in 12 ideas

  1. 1Use the Empty SpaceWhat you leave empty is what makes a thing useful.
  2. 2Subtract Something DailyThe fix you overlook is usually the one that takes something out.
  3. 3Know When It’s EnoughEnough is a line you draw, not an amount you reach.
  4. 4Stop Before It SpillsSet the cup down while it is still full.
  5. 5Start With One StepThe whole road is too long to start, but the first step never is.
  6. 6Turn the Fish OnceChange what matters once, then give it time to set.
  7. 7Get Off Your TiptoesStanding on tiptoe makes you taller for a minute; standing flat lets you stay.
  8. 8Let the Mud SettleYou can’t make muddy water clear, but you can stop stirring it.
  9. 9Let Them Say We Did ItThe best leaders leave people saying, “We did it ourselves.”
  10. 10Stop Sending the BillRemember what you are owed if you must, but stop collecting.
  11. 11Trust the Plain WordsThe words that please you most deserve the hardest look.
  12. 12Keep the Three TreasuresBe gentle, live plainly, and let others go first.
Your council

Add Lao Tzu to your council.

Choose three to five mentors, write what is going on, and leave with one clear next step.

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Or try an approach

Prefer one line of thinking to several views? This approach fits the kind of situation Lao Tzu often reads well. See all five.

Courage & uncertaintyWhen you have to act and you cannot be sure

More great minds

See all sixteen mentors, grouped by what they are known for.

Marcus AureliusThe Stoic Emperor SenecaThe Counsellor Sun TzuThe Strategist MachiavelliThe Realist CleopatraThe Sovereign ConfuciusThe Master of Order BuddhaThe Awakened One SapphoThe Tenth Muse Mary WollstonecraftThe Reasoner Eleanor RooseveltThe Civic Conscience Virginia WoolfThe Inner Witness Frederick DouglassThe Moral Voice LincolnThe Reluctant Captain Benjamin FranklinThe Practical Mind TalleyrandThe Diplomat
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