Initiative as a principle of war.
Getting there first with the most and taking advantage of the situation is the principal quality of the combat leader, and not all of them have it. Being first off the mark most of the time leaves the other fellow with less opportunity to respond to your moves. Defeat is the likely outcome for a commander who always waits for something to happen. Indeed, surprise is little more than an enormous disparity in initiative between two forces.
A good example of this is the Gulf War. Saddam Hussein dug in and allowed Coalition forces to mass for a large-scale attack. If Hussein had taken the initiative (or rather maintained the initiative) and attacked coalition forces before they were prepared, the war could have gone on much longer and with far more casualties on both sides. Allowing the enemy to seize the initiative means giving up control of the battle. Even outnumbered forces can control the battlefield by attacking and keeping the enemy responding.
It was not until the United States took the initiative at the Battle of Midway in World War II that Japan started responding to allied actions. Once Japan was responding to the allies instead of initiating combat, Japan was on the defensive.
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