“Never be the rival of a powerful man.”Baltasar Gracián · Oracolul manual · 1647 · aforismul 108
The advice is purely strategic: a powerful rival has resources, allies, and time to crush you, and a frontal conflict wastes your only advantages — discretion and growth. Gracián does not recommend cowardice but choosing the battlefield: compete where the powerful man's strength does not count, or wait until the balance shifts. A startup attacking a giant head-on in its main market loses; the same startup in an ignored niche can grow unnoticed.
Why it matters In career or business: when clearly outmatched in resources, avoid the public duel and find ground where the opponent's strength is irrelevant.