Walking the Way of the Five Rings

The Unseen Edge: Five Rings of Wisdom for Life and Leadership

I don’t care who you are, what title you’ve dressed yourself up in, or how polished your LinkedIn profile looks—at some point, life will strip you bare, and in those moments, your degrees, your charm, your corner office—they won’t save you. The only things that will save you is discipline, clarity, and the ability to fight the battle that’s in front of you.

That’s why I often return to Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings. He wasn’t writing for CEOs. He wasn’t writing for anyone with a fragile ego. He was writing as a samurai, a man who had walked into over sixty duels and walked out alive. His lessons are not about combat alone—they’re about how to live, lead, and endure when the stakes are high.

Let me break down his five “rings” the way I see them—without fluff, without pretense. Think of this as a conversation. You and I, no filters.

1. The Ground Book – Build Your Foundation or Be Broken

Musashi starts with earth. Why? Because earth is stable. It’s the ground under your feet. You can’t swing a sword without balance, just like you can’t lead a company, a family, or even yourself if your foundation is cracked.

Your foundation is your discipline. Your habits. The way you get up in the morning when no one’s watching. I don’t care about your quarterly report if you can’t control your temper. I don’t care about your vision statement if you’re too weak to face discomfort. Without ground, you’re just noise.

So ask yourself: what do you stand on when everything else collapses? If the answer is “nothing solid,” then you’ve got work to do.

👉 Foundation isn’t glamorous. It’s what keeps you standing when others fold.

2. The Water Book – Adapt Without Losing Form

Once your ground is set, Musashi moves to water. Water is soft, but it can cut through stone. Musashi understood that victory often belongs not to the strongest, but to the most adaptable.

In leadership and in life, rigidity is a slow death. The market shifts. People betray you. Life throws illness, divorce and failure your way. If you can’t bend without breaking, you will shatter. Here’s the key though: water adapts while staying water. It doesn’t pretend to be something else.

The lesson? Adjust your strategy. Shift your tactics, but never lose your essence. Know who you are so deeply that circumstances can move you, but never erase you.

👉 You don’t need to be unshakable—you need to be unbreakable.

3. The Fire Book – When It’s Time to Strike, Burn Everything in Your Way

Earth gave you footing. Water taught you flow. Now comes fire — intensity, battle, and decisive force.

Musashi doesn’t sugarcoat this: there are moments when life demands aggression. You can’t “negotiate” with every storm. Sometimes, you must burn through it.

This isn’t about anger — it’s about decisive energy. Too many executives linger in indecision, caught in analysis paralysis. Fire says: commit. Attack the problem. Move forward with force when the window opens.

You don’t win battles by half-measures. You win by burning your hesitation and stepping into the fire willingly.

👉 Fire is the difference between thinking about change and actually lighting the match.

4. The Wind Book – Don’t Get Lost in Other People’s Styles

Once you’ve mastered fire, it’s tempting to look outward. This is where wind comes in. Wind represents knowledge of other schools of thought. Musashi studied them all, but he never worshiped them. He knew that imitating others blindly is weakness.

In today’s terms, this is your constant temptation: to copy the competitor, to chase the new framework, to parrot the latest leadership fad. Yes, learn from others. Respect them, but do not lose yourself in their wind.

Every time you chase someone else’s style, you dilute your own. Musashi’s point is sharp: mastery comes from understanding others but walking your own path.

👉 The danger of wind is that it makes you drift. Anchor yourself before you’re carried away.

5. The Void Book – The Power of Nothingness

Finally, Musashi leads us to the void. This is the hardest one to grasp. The void is about emptiness. Nothingness, but not in a depressing way — rather, in a liberating way.

The void is presence. It’s clarity when your mind is uncluttered by fear, greed, or ego. It’s when you stop forcing, stop grasping, and simply act. In the void, you don’t overthink—you move as naturally as breathing.

Executives rarely get here because their heads are stuffed with noise., but if you can cut through the chatter and find stillness, you’ll see the battlefield—whether that’s the boardroom or your own life—with terrifying clarity. It's in that space, you stop reacting and start being.

👉 The void isn’t emptiness—it’s freedom.

Closing the Circle

The five rings aren’t philosophy, they’re a mirror! Ground. Water. Fire. Wind. Void. Each one asks you a question that will sting if you answer honestly:

• Do you have a foundation?

• Can you adapt without losing yourself?

• Do you strike when it’s time, or hide?

• Are you lost in other people’s ways?

• Can you empty yourself and see clearly?

I’ve coached enough high performers to know this: most men and women fail not because they’re incompetent, but because they are blind to one of these rings. They wobble on weak ground, or drown trying to copy others, or freeze when fire is required.

So read this again. Sit with it. And then ask yourself—brutally—where you are weak? The fact is, Musashi’s truth is eternal: in the moment of battle, illusion kills faster than the blade.

Final Note

I’ve spent decades coaching and mentoring staff & professionals who thought they were untouchable—until life exposed their gaps. Musashi’s Five Rings has always been a compass for me, and I share it not as philosophy, but as practice. If you can walk these five paths with honesty, you will not only lead better—you will live with unshakable strength.

The Unseen Edge: Five Rings of Wisdom for Life and Leadership“The greatest advantage is not force, but awareness.”

I am a firm believer in having a clear set of core beliefs and an ethos to guide you. I have found that without ethos, we tend to go with the flow and live lives void of purpose. Hope this helps at least one person who needs to hear it. Ciao! Damien

Musashi, Five Rings, leadership, stoicism, performance coaching, executive mindset, resilience, discipline, adaptability.