The WAY to WOW Shows
Stubbornness Led to Death
July 30, 2024
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[0:00] lated welcome to business lessons from the military I'm your host Kevin bemel and we're here every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time except for today because it's it's already after 10:30 so I got um uh I got way laid in in in a phone call with a client and um and and so you know you know how that is right um but in any event uh thank you for being with me and our our purpose in being here on Tuesday mornings or Tuesday Mornings on the West Coast anyway is to talk about military history

[0:35] military Doctrine the leadership practices of great military leaders and take them and turn them into lessons that we can use in our businesses and professions and so today I'm going to be talking about something it's I I think you know from a military history standpoint it's it's somewhat obscure because it seemed to just sort of happen and I don't I've never seen any you know book on this or or for that matter even an article about it um other than you

[1:13] know sort of show plates about them but you know what what Soldiers and Sailors for that matter wore over time has has changed so if we go back you know to the time of um the you know of chivalry so you know the knights they wore armor they had chain mail under the armor especially where there were joints like at the nck to protect them from from arrows or or axes or whatever right but I'm going to start a little bit more

[1:48] recent than that and so the the the show is um the I titled the show stubbornness stubbornness may lead to death and what you'll you'll you'll see as as I develop this topic I think where it comes from because different militaries had a different timetable if you would for H for the change of uniforms from the very colorful almost flamboyant uniforms of

[2:23] the 18th and mostly of the 19th century and and then into the early part of the 20th century so I've I've um I brought up I'm going to use as an ex the two examples I'm going to use are the British and the French armies um because they highlight the differences okay so this is the um uh this this is a a um screen on um

[2:58] the how British army uniforms changed so if you see here um on on the first part of the of of the uniform you see that during the Seven Years War right you see this this uniform here it's it's red it's you know from basically from head to foot with the tall boots this was a a Lancer here and he has this this this sort of tall headgear and then we come down to the American war of independence and you know for those of you who know American history um you know the British

[3:33] were known as the red coats and in fact this red coat was a very important recruiting tool for the British military because there was prestige in a man walking around in this red coat people knew he was in the military the military in general was highly respected and so this very sort of fancy uniform with its bright color was was really a you know a highly desirable uh you know guard for for

[4:10] soldiers to wear and and you can see that um it continued into the War of 1812 they you know they changed the pants but the the red coat itself um still continued and then you know on through the Crimean War so the British uniform changed at the time of the bore War so the bore war was a war that took place in South Africa between the British who essentially were the the the colonial

[4:48] rulers of South Africa at the time and the bus who were of a of Dutch extract um who were a a large percentage of the inhabitants uh of of the white inhabitants anyway of of South Africa and so you can see that the change from uh the Crimean War which was basically in the mid 1800s to the bore War which started in 1899 that was the change in in the the

[5:24] the colorfulness of of the uniforms okay now the question you you know we would ask today would be why in the heck would they want to have these colorful uniforms that when you're on the battlefield they're so different than anything around them they make you a a better Target right so harvit had to do with what I mentioned a minute ago this idea that um there was a prestige in wearing these fancy uniforms and and you know today we look at this these bright

[5:59] colored uniforms say well this must be some sort of you know formal uniform some sort of dress uniform to use the term but indeed this was the combat uniform the dress uniform was even fancier than this in many cases especially for officers so a typical uh officer had both what was called a dress and an undress uniform now that doesn't mean he went with without any clothes on when we say an undress really what undress meant was kind of like a casual

[6:35] uniform having said that if if I showed you pictures of undressed uniforms you would still say wait a minute he's got you know fancy shirt on he's got a cat or a tie he's got the you know the the the uniform jacket with the the big uh uh turned up sleeves and and and the lapels with the brass buttons and know so from our standpoint today we we wouldn't see how an undressed uniform was was less fancy than a dress uniform but but indeed it certainly was and you would you know I could point out to you

[7:10] small distinctions but but the main thing is is that this uniform you see here in this with the bright red jacket that was a combat uniform during the Crimean War and there so there were there were other reasons besides recruiting and Prestige um that that militaries from probably you know the 17th century through you know the end of the 19th century had these bright uniforms part of it was military tradition so again it was the pride in

[7:47] unit the pride in in in being a member of the military and then the differences in the uniforms also show the difference status so if you were a an enlisted Soldier your uniform was you know Pro more like more like what you see here uh this is this this was a uh he's probably carrying a musket there probably not even a rifle yet um but an officer's uniform was even fancier um and so um this allowed class distinctions to be recognized even on

[8:24] the battlefield as well so while I'm using the example here of the British army with with the so-called Red Coats so even in the British army not all regiments had Red Coats some of them had blue some of them had uh green Scottish regiments sometimes had tartans and and so part of the military tradition and identity was the fanciness of the uniforms identified your regiment or your unit within the larger Army and

[9:00] there was pride of of of of unit if you will so um if you've ever seen um pictures in in world even in World War II where um the British army they they still had um Pipers oftentimes who would uh lead lead off a a March typically not into combat but but they were marching from point A to point B and they would have Pipers and they would have their kilt on and and whatever Kilt they were

[9:36] wearing was an indication of of their Clan or the particular unit they were they were affiliated with and all of that was part of the tradition and and and part of the pride in in their unit so that was one aspect another aspect is morale so the idea that that you are bravely standing up you have your bright color on and and and the you know there's this idea of Of The Dashing of being in the military and and and look

[10:11] the fact of the matter is you look at this B War uniform there is nothing dashing about it it's designed to be camouflage to um you know to to hide the soldier against the in this case it would have been the the grass lands in which they were fighting and and so the idea was more to to disguise oneself if you will to camouflage oneself on the battlefield well this is you know especially at the transition point this

[10:47] you know some people uh felt that this it was very cowardly to dress like this and in fact if you remember your American history so the one of the big criticisms that the British army had against the Americans was the Americans would hide behind walls they'd hide behind bars uh Barnes I mean not bars Barnes and and the idea of of hiding while fighting was considered cowardly whereas the British army marched forward in ranks with their bright red uh uniforms and and and and it boosted it

[11:23] gave them confidence like we're just going to run over these you know these these you know cowardly Colonials right so that was another part of it um a third was a third reason why the the bright colors is you could identify friend from foe so for example in the French and Indian War which you know pre uh preceded the American Revolution so the and and that's so the Seven Years War um in in in Europe was

[11:58] uh happening at at roughly the same time as the French and Indian War so you can see here's a here's a British soldier at the time of the Seven Years War he was all in red the French were in blue so if you saw a soldier in blue and you were British you knew to shoot him right whereas the if you were French and you saw a soldier in red you knew to shoot him so you you you know you we you were able to use the distinctive colors to identify you know friend from now when you get uh to a later time into

[12:34] the boore war and then into World War I so you can see that um the the uniform that the Boors wore and and this is this is the British uniform in the bo War but if if I showed you a picture of the uniform that the Boors wore pretty similar so it would it was much more difficult to distinguish friend from foe okay so and then the the next issue is there's a psychological impact um or there was felt to be a psychological impact of wearing this bright uniform so

[13:12] you know if if you're basically standing up and you're you're you're highly visible right you're basically saying see I'm brave I'm gonna conquer you and and you know if you're hiding you're a coward and and and you know you know you're a coward and so you know I'm I'm going to defeat you so there was there was also a psychological impact to wearing colorful uniforms and then finally there was an is an issue of command and control so when you're in the chaos of battle the fact that you

[13:49] had brightly colored uniforms that were distinctive by rate Rank and rate all of those made it easier for commanders to you know accomplish on the to to command on the battlefield to change deployments of troops etc etc so that um they could pursue the battle more effectively so given all of the advantages of bright colored uniforms why then did did they change to drab colored uniforms right to

[14:27] these these you know sort of C green khaki Brown uh uniforms and the reality was that as Weaponry improved being so highly identifiable on the battlefield became very problematic now in the boore wars where the Boors fought again much like the Americans they fought from concealed positions they fought from behind trees etc etc so if the if when when the

[15:04] British first started out in the boore war wearing bright uniforms they found that they were absolutely open targets for the Boors and it made no sense with the with the kind of effective weapons that the Boors had to be so highly visible and that's what finally caused the British to give way and switch to the C colored uniforms and then as you get into World War I where you have machine guns colossally foolish to be highly

[15:39] identifiable by your uniform when your enemy can just spray out thousands of rounds um you know in in in in a few minutes and just Slaughter your soldiers so uh concealment and camouflage became a much more important consideration in pursuing War as Weapons became more sophisticated more destructive right and and the other thing is um the the whole nature of

[16:14] warfare started to change so stealth and the ability to sort of sneak up on your enemy and surprise him became much more important so the old battles of of having ranks of soldiers line up on a battlefield opposite each other March toward each other until they were a certain distance apart and then what would happen typically is the front rank would kneel down and the next rank would stand behind them and fire right and there'd

[16:50] be there'd be a volley from each side and then because these were generally speaking singleshot muskets um that that those two ranks would fall back and the next two ranks would come forward the for the front one would kneel the second one would stand fire again and that's how battles worked now you might say oh my gosh that's so so brutal so bloody well it was but you know interestingly enough uh the number of casualties that happened um were were really lower um in those times because

[17:27] um things about facing your enemy so close you can see him and he's pointing his his musket at you right and how effective are you going to be holding up this very very heavy weapon and actually hitting something and so the the reality was Mo most soldiers um you know they would discharge as part of a volley and and people would get hit um but but nothing like what a machine gun would would you know would would do to a rank of people and in fact in many cases the

[18:03] the battles could be quite short by contemporary standards because after the you know each side did several volleys you know they might fall back and call a truce clear their wounded and then you know start the battle up again or the battle might be over for that day and so they'd go back to Camp they'd clean up they'd take care of their wounded they'd have something to eat and they you know start the battle again the next day so this whole way of fighting a war had to change well not had to but it gave way in the face of much more um

[18:38] destructive weapons and and so you know it just it just was no longer practical to to be so identifiable and then the other thing that happened um as as War progressed through the time of the American Civil War and the Crimean War in Europe and on into early 20th century is um War became a almost like a mass industrial um uh I I I'm not sure quite what to call it Endeavor I guess is is the best thing

[19:14] to call it um and and so you know these uniforms with the brightly colored jackets and all of that they were expensive to make they were expensive to maintain and and when you have an when you had an army of maybe you know a thousand people well so that's one thing but when you have an army of 100,000 men or 200,000 men in an army group or a half a million you know soldiers deployed on the Western Front so the cost of these expensive uniforms was

[19:49] just too great and so the Practical matter of being able to maintain a war fiscally basically necessitated um giving giving way in terms of um these brightly colored uniforms so like like I've been showing you here for the British um that that that inflection point was really the the the end of the 19th century now for the um for the French oops for the

[20:26] French oops where are oh here we go okay um so for the French um the timing was different so here's um here's a here's what uniforms uh look like from the French perspective this is this is the Seven Years War you see they're wearing white jackets with with blue cuffs but the brass buttons they're wearing a tri corn hat already a blue Tri corn hat okay this was a typical French uni form of of the Seven Years War okay and then from

[21:02] there into um the the French uh revolutionary Wars so these were just after the American Revolution and again you can see it's a combination of a blue uniform this is an officer here with his tunic in blue with the two rows of brass buttons he's got a not a tricorn hat now it's a by corn hat um but you can see the enlisted Soldiers with the with the uh the the leather white bands on a blue uniform okay so and now keep in mind you say well well blue isn't isn't as as as

[21:37] bright and identifiable as red no it's not but against a green field um it's it's still pretty identifiable plus you look at the hats and um you can see this one here he's got a plume on his hat so you know different types of uh different types of uh individuals depending on what they're you know what they do whether they were Lancers whether they were Musk Etc so they had different headgear again to distinguish them so commanders could distinguish them so here into the late 18th and and very early 19th century the uniforms were still colorful and and and elaborate

[22:14] okay and we get into the Napoleonic Wars okay and and you can see this is still the early 19th century again look with the red plumes again very fancy uniforms swords this is this is an officer here you see the drummer he's got um uh epulet with the braid on them right very still very very fancy okay and continuing now look at this for the Crimean War right the British still had fancy uniforms so did the French now and you can see look with the red pantaloons and the white um um what do you call

[22:52] them um H shoot not putties uh but they're you know covers for the shoes the Blue Jackets the red kees okay the key is kind of like a uh like almost like a fez right and he's they're carrying the the flag right with with with um with banners on it those are probably unit citations okay and here's this is this is probably a non-commissioned officer here with his sword he's wearing he's wearing white gloves right so still very very fancy and then now on into the Franco Prussian War

[23:29] okay so this is already getting toward the end of the 18th uh 19th century sorry and you can see the French are still wearing red pants blue coats the red kees and and you know while while the the weapons are starting to get more deadly because you had rifling now in in uh the in rifles hence the term rifle rifling makes a weapon more accurate um so uh you know you could shoot more accurately over longer distances but still very very bright weapons now

[24:04] notice the German uh uniforms here they're a sort of bluish gray but you've got the helmet with the point on top so not as colorful as the French but still pretty elaborate right okay and now even into so here's the French uniform um oops at the beginning of World War I it's still a a blue uniform with a with a blue uh helmet uh pretty fancy okay not as elaborate as it was 40

[24:39] years ago but still pretty elaborate and by the way some of the French units at the beginning of World War I still had things like red pants uh and and and and those kind of things they were much more colorful so contrast that with the uniform that excuse me the the British had already been uh had already adopted for uh World War World War I which I'm G to bring it up here in just a moment okay so here's

[25:15] the World War I uniform that the British adopted and you can see it's it's got It's the khaki uniform it it's it offers a lot more camouflage a lot more um uh um ability to conceal oneself okay and and so when you're in the trenches in World War I it's a lot harder to see you than it is to see the French who at least initially are in this blue uniform which you know

[25:51] by no stretch of the imagination is you know is is is hidden by you know the mud and so it wasn't so it wasn't until partway through World War I that the French adopted um the uh the the Khaki colored uniforms and then of course in World by the time of World War II coming around this you know this is what um this is what the you know the French uniform looked like much more like the British uniform now why in the end did the French change because they were suffering a much higher C casualty rate

[26:29] than the British were and indeed this is why I titled the show stubbornness stubbornness may cause death and that is because because the French were more stubborn or more committed however you want to phrase it in keeping the colorful uniforms they experienced in the beginning of World War One a much higher casualty rate than the British did now people may may argue well you know the British were not as aggressive in combat okay yes that's true but there but there's there's no doubt that the

[27:08] conspicuousness of the French uniforms made them much bigger targets for the German machine guns now by then by World War I by the way the Germans had already adopted a field gray uniform which was much more camouflaged in the mud uh and and the the sort of Forest like the Argon Forest where it was relatively dark and so if you're sort of moving through the trees and the shadows and such in a gray uniform you're heavily camouflaged so the French were really the outliers in World War I but by the

[27:43] way by by by this time um the Americans too had adopted a khaki uniform um if if you recall the American Civil War the the um the north wore a blue uniform a dark blue uniform the South wore a gray uniform they were still pretty fancy with the brass buttons and all of that and that uniform continued on into the late 19th century um and it it didn't change until the Spanish-American War around the same time as as the boore war but here's here's the lesson that that I

[28:21] think we need to take from this for our businesses and professions and and that is is is what does what we're doing still have utility with respect to our businesses so some of you may Wonder well gosh you know you put on a tie every time you do a show and and and indeed I do because I do believe that dressing in this way for business has

[28:57] still has an important purpose and so the the sort of in this case I would say it's sort of a reverse stubbornness in the sense that this sort of casual wardrobe that we've adopted in business I think is somewhat counterproductive so there have been lots of studies that show whether it's in the school environment academic environment business environment when people dress up uh more formally um they behave

[29:33] differently so to the extent that we are experiencing inappropriate behavior in the workplace part of that may be due to a more casual attire that makes people think ah things are loose things are cool you know that kind of thing and and if they you know for for example if if if a man has to put on a tie and a sports coat or a suit probably not going to act as casually as he would if he's wearing you

[30:10] know shorts a T-shirt and flipflops right it's just it it creates a different mindset so when we when we either choose to adopt or to estu changes in the workplace what we need to look look at is what is the utility underlying this particular decision okay and and and I I I use this this example of uniforms because it used to be that in the civilian World while

[30:45] we didn't literally wear uniforms there was kind of a uniform so if you've ever heard of the movie The Man in the gry flannel suit that's that that's a movie about business life in the late 1950s and in those times if your professionals wore a suit and a tie that's that is what you wore you did not wear slacks in a sports coat in fact back then a slack slacks in a sports coat were considered casual wear and in fact a business suit which which

[31:21] today is considered formal was just considered business attire so um a tuxedo today is considered very formal a tuxedo is is what was known as semiformal dress formal dress was white tie and Tails a hundred years ago even into the 1930s even through the 1930s I should say and into the early 1940s that didn't start to break down until World War II and one of the reasons why it it broke down then was that the United

[31:57] States had field such a huge military 8 million people and to give them the full range of uniforms was way too expensive so for a an officer in the Navy for example prior to World War II he would have had a formal uniform which would have looked very much like the uniforms from the 19th century he would have had a semi-formal uniform he might have had a mess dress uniform and then he would have had um a service dress blue uniform which is the the the uniform you see today with the blue jacket the double

[32:33] breasted Blue Jacket blue navy but it's actually black but uh with the brass buttons on each side service dress whites that's the white tunic with the the collar and again the white pants service dress khaki which the Navy doesn't have anymore it's the it's usually the uniform you see in World War II movies um on Navy ships where they're wearing the Khaki black blouse with the single row of buttons they're wearing a khaki shirt khaki tie khaki slacks and then there was what were called wash khakis especially for uni

[33:08] for uh officers and for uh chief petty officers and that was that's for sure the uniform you see in World War II it's it's I'm sorry the the tie with the Khaki uh service dress khaki was a black tie not a not a khaki tie sorry about that so but with the with the wash khakis the uniform was khaki pants khaki shirt long sleeve or short sleeve black tie with just uh a a rank insignia on the collar okay whereas the um uh service dress khaki uniform you had your

[33:44] your Ribbon rack on on this side and and and so it was already a little bit fancier so you had all those uniforms prior to World War II and it it did it just didn't make sense uh and by the way enlisted had um equivalent uniforms for each of those for the most part um it just didn't make sense to spend all that money and so what ended up happening is for the most part the uniform was was shrunk down the the the dress uniform that looked like you know something from the 1800s pretty much went away and and

[34:21] the the fanciest uniform you had was what we would call the mess dress uniform it it's kind of a a short um blue or white coat depending on the season with a a cumber bun a bow tie and and and high-waisted pants with a um a uh what do you call it a silk stripe down the sides um people say you we look like waiters when we wear the uniform and that uniform still does exist in fact I I have that uniform from my days in the Navy um but that became the most really the dressiest uniform um but for

[34:56] the most part World War II Sailors wore uh either the the service dress blue and there used to be an A and A B service dress blue and and that went away as well so they dramatically Shrunk the number of uniforms and that made sense because it did it there just wasn't the need for all these different uniforms number one and to go to the expense um the same thing but but you know nowadays we've gotten rid of so much so now all of the ser branches wear these sort of camouflage uniforms now if you're a

[35:33] marine wearing a camouflage uniform that probably makes sense because you're fighting in the forest or whatever but for a sailor on the deck of a ship to be wearing a camouflaged uniform that essentially makes it impossible to see you if you fall in the water is beyond ridiculous and in but in fact when I was in the Navy and transferred to a seao going unit that was the point at which they got rid of the wash khakis and adopted what they called the blueberries and the joke was if you fall off the ship that's it you're done because you're never going to see us right now

[36:10] that was eventually replaced with a a green camouflage uniform which frankly isn't much better because you're not going to see it in the waves much more effectively than a blue one it's it's really kind of silly but the the Navy's idea was that we you know younger sailors are going to like this more and so that's what we're you know that's what we want to do really what we need to get back to in the military I would argue is what has the most utility for the job at hand and the same is true in civilian life what

[36:46] has the most utility for the job at hand so if we're in a courtroom for example we should have a a at least a coat and tie on if not a suit because if we want the the Dignity of the law to be upheld and we want people to take the legal process seriously then we should dress accordingly if we're in a meeting to discuss large transactions and we want people to take those discussions those negotiations seriously we should dress

[37:23] like we mean it so so when we when we look at these various decisions in our businesses I encourage you to think about this whole issue of um what militaries have done over the years and o o not over the years really over the centuries and recognize when it's time to make changes and when it's time not to make changes and and and on what basis are we going to do those and I think that what

[37:59] we should look at is what best supports the missions of our businesses and professions okay not necessarily what's most comfortable although Comfort seems to be the most important thing in dress these days I would argue Comfort should be U you know maybe a secondary uh consideration what should be the primary consideration is how do we need to present our elves to be most successful in our business or profession so that is our show for today I thank

[38:36] you for tuning in with me especially since I started late um I appreciate your Indulgence on that I I know my my client certainly did and uh I hope you enjoyed the show love to hear your comments love to hear your criticisms questions feel free to post them in our social media the links will be in the show notes if you've got something private I don't know what it would be on this particular show but you can always feel free to email me my email address is in the show notes as well tomorrow at 10: am is my show 10: am Pacific time is my show people making money my guest is

[39:12] Adam wisman I I saw an email from him this morning confirming he's looking forward to being there Adam is an entertainment and media attorney based in New York haven't talked to anyone in Adam's profession before so really looking forward to hearing what he has to say about how to gain success in that area so I encourage you to tune in tomorrow Wednesday at 10: a.m. Pacific time for people making money and then on Thursday is the next edition of jigger's place this is our every other week show that starts at

[39:47] 5m Pacific time this is a half hour for us to spend together toward the end of the week talking about all the things not related to business and professions and have a cocktail together so I'm going to be making a Jerusalem sour in honor of my topic which is I'm going to reveal to you the most Jewish television show and maybe you can guess what it is I'm betting you can't but I'm hoping you'll tune in and and see if you got it right that's a that's a half hour

[40:22] together toward the end of the week and then next week on Monday at 10:00 a.m. is the next edition of trust and Estates weekly and then a week from today will be the next episode of business lessons from the military so I thank you again for joining me wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off Marie darling You are my