The Persians weren’t the best at everything they did, but they knew how to leverage their power to, you might say, “let others have their way.”
Most of the civilizations before when they would come in and conquer a land, they would make the inhabitants pay for it and treat them harshly. Instead of this, the Persian empire, comparatively, treated the people who’s land they invaded with dignity.
For example, after conquering Phonecia, they basically just acquired their navy. They didn’t try and take it from them or beat it, they just said, “Cool, you guys are really good at this, so now you can do it for us and we’ll take care of some of your other problems.
Since all of my customers are healthcare, I’ve gotten to see first-hand the pros and cons of Private Equity firms (PE’s). In one sense, some of the smaller practices finally get some financial backing to do things they haven’t been able to do in a long time. The bad side is that they no longer get to decide anything they feel like. The systems they had in place almost all get thrown away. Maybe not right away, but they know eventually it will change.
Over time, the leaders in the organization may be replaced as well. The PE puts in the people they think will be best to run it. They give just enough freedom to make you feel like you got a good deal but take enough power away from you to feel like you are worthless and have no power.
Persia played this card extremely well and very carefully as they conquered many territories and it caused them to be an extremely successful empire. I think if the German’s in the first world war and especially the Japanese in the second world war had taken some lessons from them we might be living in a very different world.
One of the biggest things going against both the Japanese and the Germans during these wars was that they were painted as barbarians or savages. This immediately caused people not to want to submit or ever help them. It caused countries and individuals to take the side of the allies instead of their side. If they had made an effort to make life better for the places they invaded, they may have had loyal citizens and soldiers who might have helped them conquer more land.
The lessons of history carry on for years, but the seeming inability for us to learn from them will never cease it seems.
Most of this insight comes from Hardcore History podcasts by Dan Carlin