Where does one go from the top?

In Dao 76, Tao de Ching writes, "the strongest armies do not conquer, the greatest trees are cut down. The strong and great sink down. The soft and weak rise up". I believe that this statement serves the purpose of defining the position of high and low and evaluating the consequences of being at a particular position. Like most scientists say, "what goes up must come down" is apparent in the words of Tao de Ching. Tao writes that the strong will sink and the weak will rise. This seems ironic in today's context, but I believe Tao intended this statement to mean more that once something or someone reaches the top they or it have nowhere to go but down. For example, while CEOs are enjoying the lavish lifestyle that accompanies their salaries, they do have to live with the fear of having nowhere to go but down. When Tao writes, "the greatest tress are cut", it reminds me that the greatest civilizations crumble. Where ones achieve a level of greatness, one takes a rest and loses a portion of the ambition that one once possesed. This minute loss of ambition is enough to push one off the top, and cause one to fall down to a devestating state. On a different note, when Tao writes, "the strongest armies do not conquer", I believe he thinks that when one wields this type of superiority, status is sufficient to gain whatever one desires. For example, the athenians would not fight the spartans over a basket of bread, the spartans would just take it, and walk away untouched.