6 ideas
All deliberation belongs before the first move. Once an act is begun, stopping to reconsider whether to do it at all exposes the actor to shame and wastes what has already been committed. The window for doubt closes when action opens.
Before undertaking anything, weigh four things together: the strength the task demands, your own strength, your opponent's strength, and the strength of both sides' allies. Failure comes from measuring only your own capacity and ignoring the task's demands or the other side's backing.
Individually trivial loads, piled on without limit, will break even a strong cart's axle. Each addition looks harmless in isolation, so a capacity limit is crossed through accumulation rather than through any single heavy burden. Likewise, a climber at the tip of a branch who keeps climbing loses everything, because the danger lies in not recognizing when one's limit has been reached.
Settle five things before acting: the resources available, the tools or means, the right time, the nature of the task, and the place. A good act done with the wrong means, at the wrong moment, or in the wrong setting still fails. Each factor must fit the others.
What people call strength in carrying a task through is really steadiness of resolve, since outward resources don't supply it. Many can describe a plan, but few can carry it out, because following through means enduring hardship along the way for the sake of the final result. Once a matter is decided, it should be pursued without wavering or delay.
A task left half-done, like an enemy left half-defeated, resembles a fire that wasn't fully put out: it grows back and does damage later. Delay has two kinds. Some matters can safely be slept on, but matters that must not wait are harmed by postponement. Completion means leaving no remainder behind.