If you can’t be a boss, at least you should know how to choose a good boss to serve, or else you’ll be ruined. As the same as Jia Xu, Guo Jia has amazing insight on people. His opinion on Yuan Shao is exactly the same as Jia Xu’s. Great minds think alike. He and Cao Cao can be called model employee and model employer during the Three Kingdoms period.

  After defeating Lu Bu, Cao Cao decided to lead his army back because of the soldiers were all very tired. Guo Jia persuaded Cao Cao to destroy Lu Bu completely. Never give even a tiny chance for your enemy to breathe. Cut the weeds and dig up the roots. Chairman Mao knew it too. He wrote, “with power and to spare we must pursue the tottering foe, and not ape Xiang Yu the conqueror seeking idle fame.” Xiang committed suicide finally.

  When Cao Cao had war with Yuan Shao in Guandu, Sun Ce was going to attack Xu Chang. All Cao’s army was scared except Guo Jia. Guo Jia speculated, “Sun Ce just annexed south of Yangtze River, killed people who were all heroes and these heroes all worth other people to serve with life. But Sun Ce does things rashly and without caution, even though he has an army of one million, which is just the same as walking alone in field. Suppose assassins rush out from where they ambush, he is just only rivalry for one person. In my opinion, he will surely die in normal people’s hands.” Before Sun Ce crossed over Yangtze River, he was killed by hanger-on of Xu Gong as expected. A man with such strategy and foresight is really horrible and undefeatable and much more dangerous than guys only with reckless courage such as Lu Bu and Xiang Yu. By the way, a real leader must be born with cool head instead of hot head as Sun Ce. Sun Ce is only good enough to be a brave general.

Don’t look down upon those fragile brain truster, though they often appear as gentle and weak scholars. The real power of a person is inner power, in other words, brain power instead of physical power.

  Guo Jia later used estrangement strategy to destroy Yuan Shao’s sons, which was really the same as Jia Xu. He knew Liu Biao well so that Cao Cao didn’t need to prepare for Liu Biao’s attack on Xuchang. In order to win, one must have speed and can forsake things, even important things.