0:00 Who are [music] you? And where are you going? What [music] do you want? Hello and welcome to Business Lessons from the Military. I'm your host, Kevin Beml, and I'm here every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about military history, doctrine, and the leadership practice and leadership practices, I should say, and and distill from them lessons that we can then apply
0:36 to our uh civilian businesses and professional practices. So, this is my way of giving back to you, my fellow Americans, who have been and continue to be so supportive of the American military, uh, during the time I was, uh, in the United States Navy and and and afterwards. So, today, um, I'm going back into history. So, for the last um I don't know couple of well week or so I guess um I've been watching this program
1:11 through an organization called the teaching company. A little you know um plug for the teaching company. They they get some of the best teachers in the world and they do audio and video classes on hundreds of topics it seems to me. And the one I'm looking at is called the other side of history, everyday life in the ancient world. And I'm at the part now where um the the professor who's teaching it, and I I I don't remember his name. He's most most of these people are not famous, but they're excellent. uh he's talking about
1:48 everyday life in [snorts] ancient Greece and [clears throat] how virtually every male who lived in ancient Greece joined the military um typically pretty early in his life. Um and that military service was a profound uh part of being a man in in ancient Greece. And so, uh, it's coincidental perhaps that today's I'm going to speak about probably the most famous Greek
2:23 soldier in history, uh, known as Alexander the Great. And I I think that he's he's his name is known, but perhaps his life not so much anymore. I know I studied him when I was in junior high school or actually mi I went to middle school um um back in uh uh Santa Barbara in the early 1970s. But I I'm I'm I I don't know. I I get the sense that you know no one studies Alexander the Great's life anymore unless they are
2:59 studying you know ancient Greek history or something like that. And it's a shame because uh Alexander was indeed pro almost almost for sure the the most um important military figure of his time and he is one of the most important military figures in in human history. So uh we call him Alexander the Great, but he was actually Alexander III of Macedon. Macedonia was part of, you know, sort of the Greek area, we'll call
3:36 it. Um, and he was born in 356 BCE before the common era in Pella, which was uh the capital of the kingdom of Macedon. He was the son of Philip II who unified most of Greece under Macedonian rule and Queen Olympius who claimed descent from Achilles. So Alexander was not an everyday kind of kind of guy. He he you know he was um born to the manor
4:12 as they say. uh but but nonetheless uh there's lots of people who are born to the manor who do nothing important in life. So he was um highly educated by some of the greatest minds of the time most notably the philosopher Aristotle who taught in philosophy, science, medicine and literature. uh he had early exposure to Homer's uh the Iliad uh one of the quintessential uh works of the western cannon. If you have not read the Iliad, shame on you.
4:48 You need to read both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Uh and and and Alexander read a great deal of other uh what became, you know, classic Greek texts. I'm sure he wrote he read dramas and and and comedies and and philosophies. Uh if you if you watch my show Jiggers's Place, uh I believe it was last week I did a show on Greek dramas. I guess this is my Greek period I'm going through here. [laughter] I don't know. But anyway, uh and um he he reading these sources um the Iliad etc.
5:27 really instilled in Alexander a lifelong im ambition to emulate these heroic ideals. So it inspired him. It developed within him the values uh the sort of marshall values in the best sense um that that such readings can do. And um throughout his life uh Alexander showed exceptional intelligence, courage and leadership. Hence uh why he was so so
6:02 successful. So [clears throat] in 336 BCE uh when Alexander was 20 years old, King Philip II of Macedon was assassinated by a man named Po um Posanius. It was one of his uh personal bodyguards known as the I'm going to have to read this Greek word. I my Greek is you know almost non-existent. [snorts] Um he was uh okay member of his personal guard known as the som uh somtoakis
6:37 I guess. Okay. So if any of you know Greek uh you know please correct my pron pronunciation. So, um I I'm I'm just want to cover a little bit of King Phillip's assassination. So, um the the we're not really sure what the exact motives were. It may have been a personal grievance um um between Posanius and and Philillip. Um Posanius had at one time been Philip's lover. Um and and and then you know Philillip
7:13 dropped him basically and um and and so according to Aristotle and um and Deodoris um you know it was it was a personal vendetta. Um, some believe that it was a political conspiracy um and and that um [clears throat] uh that that um Olympus uh King Philip's wife and maybe even Alexander himself conspired to murder King Phillip so that Alexander could seed to the throne. This is the perspective of of Plutarch um and
7:50 Justin among others. Um and others believed that uh that that it was really a plot launched by the Persians. The Persians had at that time the strongest empire in the world. Um but there was a lot of animosity between uh Greece and Persia and it could have been on the part of Persia sort of a preemptary move uh to try and prevent Greece from attacking and conquering Persia. Uh you know we we'll we'll never know and by the way it it could be you know a
8:26 combination thereof right so uh you know we unlikely to ever know what the real story is. Uh so but the in the aftermath of the assassination, Alexander was immediately proclaimed king of Macedon again at the age of 20. Uh Olympius his mother and and the queen reportedly honored Posinius Posanius um after the murder. This is one of the reasons why historians suspect there may she may have been involved in uh Philip's murder. Um almost immediately Alexander
9:04 faced revolts within Greece. Uh you know Greece hereto for had been a grouping of city states that prized their independence. Uh Philip had unified them under Macedonian rule. Um but now that the conqueror was dead uh the you know the individual citystates got restive and uh so Alexander had to move immediately to decisively crush uh the rebellion which he did most famously for essentially destroying thieves one of
9:39 the um more northern parts of Greece uh to to deter uh future rebellion. So having secured his kingdom uh he then uh Alexander then turned his attention to his father's plan which was the invasion and conquering of the Persian Empire as I mentioned a moment ago the uh the um most powerful uh empire in the world at that time. Uh so there were there were several key battles in the conquest in
10:16 Alexander's conquest of Persia. The first was in 334 BCE at the battle of Gran Granicus River. Um it was his first victory against the Persians in Asia Minor uh what we now call Turkey roughly. Um in a year later in 333 BCE at the battle of Isis. So Alexander defeated the Persian king Darius III, captured his family and much of the empire's wealth and and [clears throat] that pretty much at that
10:51 point spelled the end of of the Persian Empire and the ascendance of of Greece. A year later at the um at at the siege of Ty well Alexander put the city of Tyer under siege and he invaded Egypt eventually conquering Egypt. He founded what became one of the great cities of of the ancient world Alexandria obviously named after Alexander. Okay. Which became a major center of uh of of
11:28 um Henistic culture of Greek culture. And then um in 331 at the battle of Galgamela um this was the um the final major victory that led to essentially the complete uh destruction of the Persian Empire. And so by his early 30s, Alexander controlled territory reaching from Greece south into Egypt and east all the way to India. So he conquered
12:04 much of the quote unquote civilized sort of western Middle Eastern world if you will. Um so Alexander's vision and legacy I think are what matter. uh to us as we look to distill business lessons from what he did. So Alexander not only sought to conquer other nations, he also sought a kind of cultural fusion to create a united
12:39 empire. So he encouraged marriages between his soldiers and the local women. He himself adopted Persian dress and customs. He founded cities throughout his empire to spread henistic culture. So and and which became a blend of Greek, Middle Eastern and Asian influences. in 3:26 um his army reached the heasis river uh in Indian and and at that point his troops were exhausted and they were
13:16 homesick and they essentially refused to go any further and so uh India was never uh conquered by Alexander the Great in in indeed he reluctantly turned back and he planned and new campaigns from Babylon which became uh his imperial capital. Um but um from that time until his death a few years later uh his his empire really really didn't uh change significantly. So at the age of 32 in
13:51 323 B.CEE Alexander died in Babylon under mysterious circumstances uh that was you know common in in in ancient times. It may have been from fever. It may have been from poisoning i.e. an assassin possibly even an assassination. It may have been some kind of pre-existing illness. Um we again this is a this is an aspect lost to to history. Having left no clear air uh to himself, Alexander's empire fractured pretty quickly and his
14:28 generals known as uh Dio Diokai Diodokai sorry Diodokai I believe again my Greek is not so good um basically divided into competing kingdoms um that were uh ruled by the his various generals. So despite his short life, 32 years old, um Alexander the Great's impact was truly monumental. His campaigns spread the Greek language, arts, sciences, philosophy, and culture across three
15:03 continents, laying the foundation for what became known as the Henistic Age. and his blend of military genius, his visionary ambition, his car charismatic leadership really ensured he would have an enduring reputation as one of history's greatest conquerors and military leaders. So, so that's a kind of a brief history of his life. And as I delve into some of the lessons, I'm going talk about some other aspects of of Alexander. So let's let's uh let's
15:38 jump jump jump right into that. So um this I I mentioned in in in the the brief summary I just gave and that is that Alexander had a clear ambitious vision. Okay. So from the beginning right uh Alexander saw himself not just as the king of Macedon but the ruler of a world empire. Okay. His the the the the studying and learning that he did prepared him to do that and his vision
16:13 was both clear and audacious. While Babylon while the Persians had a large empire uh it was really an empire of of Persians whereas uh Alexander's empire was really the first sort of multicultural empire. So again, Egypt, uh, uh, Greece, Macedonia, Persia, um, other peoples in Asia Minor. So it it he he had this this this idea that empire went beyond just
16:50 one's own people. Um, and he was able to communicate this this clear, really audacious plan to the men in his army. and inspired them to follow him thousands of miles from Greece. So, you know, to look for something comparable today, I think, you know, we really have to look at someone like, you know, like Elon Musk, for example, right? He had he had this vision uh first as as part of PayPal, but then on his own he had a
17:27 vision for uh true making a a a a truly um a great electric car and and making electrical vehicles a reality as an alternative to the internal combustion engine. And then he had a vision for making space travel um in in reusable vehicle in reusable vehicles. Um eventually you know being able to go to places like like Mars um all you know uh through a private business not through
18:03 you know getting the government to do these things. Although, you know, one would acknowledge that he got, you know, huge government uh subsidies essentially um that helped underwrite and and uh his his companies especially in the early stages um so that they could get to a point of profitability. He had a vision for um an internet uh from for internet access uh from essentially anywhere in the world which turned into Starlink. uh and now he's got a a vision through
18:39 through X uh and and through AI ventures and it goes on and on and and he does not think small, right? He only thinks big. Now, does that mean that the only great business ideas are those that are so audacious um that you know they have to rival Elon Alon Musk's? and and I I think the answer to that is clearly no. However, I think what's most important is that the vision be clear and it be ambitious,
19:18 i.e. something that challenges us to accomplish it. So to have a vision that's some kind of pedestrian accomplishment that doesn't inspire people. So what does inspire people is doing something great. It can be small and still be great. And so I think while Alexander himself had a vision of a worldwide empire, I think the lesson that we take from it is the clarity and
19:53 the inspiring nature of that vision that allowed Alexander to be so successful. Okay, let's take a break. America is a maritime nation. Our freedom and security depend on strong sea services. The Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League stands with our Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine through community support, education, and advocacy. For over 120 years, Americans of all walks of life
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20:36 >> [clears throat]
20:36 >> The Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League of the United States. Help us support those who serve at sea. Visit navyleague.org. So, this is Business Lessons from the Military, and I'm your host, Kevin Beml. I'm talking about Alexander the Great and the and the lessons we can learn from this this man, this great military leader who conquered a great deal of of uh at least from a western perspective the known world. Uh certainly China
21:11 existed at the time by the way um but but was still relatively unknown uh to people in in Europe and and Northern Africa. Okay. Okay, so I talked about having a clear ambitious vision that will inspire our team. Next, build loyalty through empowerment. So [clears throat and cough] rather than ruling purely by command, Alexander cultivated loyalty by giving responsibility and trust to his officers
21:47 and his troops. So he frequent frequently uh rewarded initiative. He promoted based on merit not birth. This was an unusual concept at at a at a time when um uh um oh gosh I went up on the word but when um uh people you know looked to either they promoted their relatives or they promoted you know people who were well born in society and and Alexander really he wanted the
22:24 best and the brightest so to uh to be rewarded. And so that's that's what he did. So um and [clears throat] he allowed talented subordinates like Parmmenion and uh Hepacian and Tommy to lead independent commands. So uh it really in in the way much more closely to the way uh the American military works today where a a unit leader whether it's a platoon or a you know or
23:00 a battalion um is given an objective and then is and and then largely is left to their own um their own planning or the commander's planning to determine how that objective will be achieved. Alexander, you know, did the same thing with several of his key leaders. And so his army followed him not just out of fear or discipline, but because they felt personally invested in his vision and were proud to have his confidence in
23:35 being able to craft how that vision would be attained. And I can't I cannot stress this enough that how important this is as a leadership lesson. So [clears throat] excuse me when marched for to take an example from uh from Alexander's life. So when marching through Asia, Alexander often sent trusted generals ahead to negotiate alliances with other peoples or to secure supply routes. And this was authority rarely dedicated uh delegated
24:12 I mean by previous uh kings. So this imp by empowering leadership um it created a structure that allowed him to move faster and more um uh adaptably uh to the circumstances uh that that he faced. And so, uh, I I was, um, I was at a, uh, oh, it was the Titon Outlet, uh, Teton, Tahhon, Tahhon, uh, outlet mall on on Sunday. So, I was visiting some friends up in Fresno and I was coming
24:48 back and I wanted to take a break from driving. So, I stopped off at the Tahhon um, outlet mall. I' I've driven by it many, many times, never been there. And so, while I was there, I figured, hey, I'm going to do some shopping. and uh going into various stores and I went into the Calvin Klein store and I bought this shirt and one other and one of the things I had found uh was that the merchants at the Tahhon uh outlet mall all give a military discount. So a discount to veterans, active duty, military, that sort of thing. And so,
25:25 you know, being me, right, [laughter] when I went to pay for my shirts, I asked the young woman behind the counter, uh, if they if Calvin, the Calvin Klein store, offered a military discount, and she said, "Uh, well, we do, uh, but the the sale for the shirts sort of preempted that." So, I said, "Okay, that's fine." Um, so she rung me up and then she turned to me and she said, "You know what? I'm going to give you an extra $5 off because I couldn't give you the military discount, but I'm I'm going
26:00 to do that because I want to thank you for your service." Now, presumably she was allowed to do it. I assume so. Right? Like a little teeny thing. But how smart are the people who run that store to give their to empower their people to do even small things like that that really that really touch a customer. I mean, you know, I I candidly not a big fan of Calvin Klein clothes. You know, I was there. I went to take a look. I kind of like this
26:36 shirt. You know, it it was a great sale, so it was inexpensive to buy it. Uh but you know I I I I'll give I'll give the store credit. You know um it was a very nice thing for her to do. Not a huge gesture but a very nice thing for her to do and to show you know to show her appreciation or to show her you know store it appreciation and and so I think these are the kind of small things we can do that maybe that we don't think of sometimes. I don't know if we think of empowering our frontline people, but
27:12 often times they can have the biggest impact on on our business. I think I'm still feeling the after effects of singing karaoke until about 1:30 Saturday night at the party I was at in Fresno. So we often times think of empowerment as giving senior leadership more leeway like Alexander did with his generals. I think we as business owners
27:47 and and and professional practitioners, we need to be looking for ways to empower all the members of our team from the most junior to the most senior to having bought into our vision, execute on accomplishing that vision. And and if we can do that, then we really will build tremendous loyalty. And especially for a a retail business,
28:22 loyalty is critical because staff ch turns over so much. If we can build loyalty, we can really improve the prospects for our business. Okay. Same with same with a restaurant. Again, turnover very very high. So if we can do even small things that make our people feel empowered, make our team members feel empowered, we will be helping our business, we'll be helping those people, we'll be helping our customers. Everybody is will be better off. Okay,
28:57 so that's number two. Number three, innovate faster than your rivals. So um Alexander fought in the mountains of Anatolia in the deserts of Egypt in the jungles of India or sort of nearby you know close to India. So he had to constantly and consistently adapt his tactics to new terrain, different enemies, different cultures. and he really had to learn and innovate on the fly in order to beat his rivals. So uh
29:35 some of the things that uh some of the innovations that Alexander brought to warfare. So when um before Alexander um really armies typically relied on one dominant type of unit and that was heavy infantry or cavalry, horsemounted uh soldiers basically and they deployed in pretty rigid formations. So uh Alexander revolutionized this by first of all integrating different types of units. So
30:12 infantry, cavalry, archers, engineers into an overall dynamic system. again really anticipating the kind of combined arms that we started to see um in the 19th century um here in in the United States in the Civil War where you would see kind of sometimes combined actions between infil infantry, cavalry and artillery. Okay. So, Alexander uh did that and and that way um he could adapt much more quickly to the
30:51 conditions in which he and his army had to fight. So, um, his he I'm it's interesting as I'm I'm just glancing at my notes, but I'm thinking back to the the the show the program that I'm watching on the everyday life in the ancient world and uh the professor did a segment on being a Greek soldier and he talked about um the the fallanks which was sort of the standard um unit uh army unit in um in the Greek army. So it was a a a basically a dense line of spearmen
31:29 who had um 18 foot long they're called um saresis um and and they they were designed to sort of fix the enemy in place and then he had his companion cavalry oftentimes led personally by Alexander that would you know um would in like um what's the word I'm looking for? they would they would hit the enemy um on its flank um or in the rear at the decisive moment. So as as the the fallances faced off on each other and
32:04 engaged, the cavalry would come in with a crushing side or rear blow uh throwing the enemy into chaos. And then his light light infantry and archers, they provided flexibility and mobility so that um they could continue to harass the enemy even as the enemy engaged with the with the more heavy in infantry. And then finally, his engineers were adept at building bridges and sea uh siege towers, even causeways. So, for example, at the siege of Ty to overcome seemingly
32:40 impregnable defenses, right? And so, all of these various units worked together. And I've talked about this before, the idea that we don't want to have our businesses siloed. We want the different aspects of our businesses working together. But it's a challenge because you know different um different people doing different things sometimes use a different vocabulary and so there can be misunderstandings because people misinterpret what somebody else said. It
33:16 becomes even more um difficult when you have departments not just individuals handling various aspects of a of your business. And so there needs to be some internal kind of cross-cultural u um uh activity going on in order that the various parts of your business can work together. And then going back to the previous point, people need to be empowered to take the initiative to work with other with people in other departments in order to achieve whatever
33:52 their objectives are. And so we want to we need we want to create businesses uh business structures I should say that can innovate faster than our rivals and that way keep them off base and allow us to have this strategic advantage. Okay. Next we want to balance hard power with soft power. So uh Alexander the the strongest military uh of of the day that was his hard power but he also
34:27 understood the desiraability of soft power. So conquest alone was not going to create his empire. He needed to use diplomacy, cultural exchange, symbolic gestures to win not just to to win not just the battles, but the loyalty of the various conquered peoples and turn them and turn them into feeling like they were part of a a a huge empire as opposed to just conquered peoples. conquered peoples are not nearly as
35:04 productive or cooperative as peoples uh who feel that they are part of something larger. And so uh so I I I mentioned earlier after conquering uh Persia um instead of destroying its traditions um Alexander adopted elements of Persian dress and ceremony. Uh he respected their gods. He appointed local nobles as satraps, you know, the kind of governors of various um uh provinces along with his Macedonian officers. He encouraged
35:39 marriages between his soldiers and Persian women. Um and then most famously he there was a mass wedding at Susa in 324 B.CE CE where he himself married um Roxanna of Bactria and later Stetera daughter of Darius III. So the king that he conquered he ended up marrying his daughter. Okay. So by blending Greek and Persian uh customs and culture uh Alexander as the conqueror built bridges u between the conquered and and the con
36:15 the conqueror and the conquered right and and he potentially turned rebellion into cooperation. So um that was part of the reason that at least parts of his empire endured beyond his lifetime. um because he did balance hard and soft power. So uh you know when we're uh when we're you know working with our teams uh we can be very directive and and and sort of authoritative. That's kind of the hard power side of it. Um
36:52 but we can also develop a culture where um people see that the values of our company uh and and our desire to empower them to have them truly feel a part of the success of the business is at least if not more powerful than the than than the you know the use of authority. in directing where the business goes. Okay. And it can be difficult because
37:27 uh it in some ways it's easier for someone to be you know led by authority because then they they really in I think people we think well I I have to do this. I'm be told to do this. I have to do I don't really have any responsibility for it because I'm just being told what to do. All I have to do is do it to the best of my ability and and I can go home. Right. And and that's that's not the way to build an agile adaptable business because often times by the time we find out that there's a
38:02 problem, that problem has into something bigger. Whereas if our people had felt motivated to deal with it quickly when it was first identified, it's it's a much easier problem to solve. And so that's why soft power becomes so important. But we can also use uh we we can also balance the use of soft and hard power in other aspects of our business. So we tend to think of of the competitor our competitors as uh you
38:40 know businesses that we need to conquer or people we need to conquer but that's not necessarily the case. So you know we can drive an entire industry in a particular direction as much by soft power as hard power. So you see this in in companies. For example, I I I was telling uh a friend of mine yesterday, having been at the Tahhon outlet mall, I was surprised at the fact that I saw little if anything that had been made in
39:17 China in terms of clothing. I mean, there was a time when it seemed like almost all clothing was made in China. Now it's made in places at least the stores I visited which included um uh Tom uh Tommy Hilfinger, Nautica, Calvin Klein I mentioned um earlier in the day I had stopped off at an Eddie Bower. Um clothes was made in in Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh. So these are all countries. They're not geopolitical rivals of the United States like China is. And by by using commerce
39:59 as a way to engage with these other countries, that's soft power as opposed to, you know, military might. We can engage with them. Our militaries can engage and that's a hard power engagement. But um our our um our uh soft power engagement um with these countries with these other countries is a good thing. And in fact that one or one particular clothing manufacturer I couldn't tell you who took the lead on this. I don't know that they necessarily did but you know given for example what what what's happening in China with the
40:35 weaguers and how much cotton comes from uh that that part of China you know clothing companies started turning away from China as a source for cotton and for sewing clothing. Uh I think it because many times customers you know demanded it. I know I certainly asked um companies uh where I bought clothing about that and what was their policy etc. And so when one company does that that can begin to use soft power to uh encourage competitors to do the same
41:12 thing. But if if you know our company is the leader in using soft power to change how an industry behaves that gives us a competitive advantage even though even as other companies follow suit. Okay. So we want to use a blend of hard and soft power. Okay. Next invest in communications and culture. So uh Alexander founded more than 20 cities named Alexandria. Each one served as an administrative and cultural hub spreading hellenistic values, Greek
41:49 culture, etc. architecture, education, symbolism that unified his far-flung empire um into one shared identity borrowing from this culture and and adding on to it. And we can do the same thing. So, uh, you know, just because, uh, you know, I'm I'm Jewish, for example, the the, you know, the dominant, uh, culture of a business that I run doesn't have to be Jewish. And in fact, I like it when, um, the people with whom I work, you know, talk about
42:24 their holidays, whether it's Christmas, Easter, whatever. Uh, one of the nice things about the military is because there were people from all kinds of backgrounds and so I got to learn about um, Muslim holidays. I got to learn, you know, somewhat about how Ramadan works, for example. Uh, and so we can do the same things in our businesses. We can encourage people to uh, you know, freely express um, you know, kind of what they're about. um you know as a way for you know our team members to learn about
42:59 each other uh to understand each other better um you know we probably don't want you know proitizing going on in the workplace but but certainly um it's good for us to understand other people's cultures so I mentioned I was at um a party on Saturday night and I met a young couple there um and both of their families had they had had had come to the United States from India. So they were both born here in the United States but their parents all their parents had been born in India and it was fascinating to learn about their culture
43:35 and this fellow was the president of his company and it was clear that he was very comfortable uh both talking about his cultural background and also learning about other people's cultural backgrounds and I think that builds a a stronger uh workplace a and a stronger team and one where people can communicate uh more uh can communicate yeah more clearly uh with each other and that all works toward the betterment of the business because the
44:11 closer our team males our teammates uh feel they can be right the more readily they'll work together work in concert in achieving uh the vision for our business and Then finally, and and this is this may be a kind of a a weird sort of business lesson, but I think we need to know when to stop expanding, right? They're they're Alexander got to uh India and basically his troops essentially rebelled and said, "We're not going any farther."
44:46 Rather than push them or fight them, Alexander just said, "Okay." He realized he'd reached the limits of his people's endurance and he realized a new strategy was necessary at that time. And we need to do the same things with our businesses. Not every business is meant to be a worldwide or even a nationwide enterprise. Okay? And there are there are lots of examples where businesses expand too fast, expand too far. One that comes to mind is Crispy Cream. The doughnut store, they they expanded
45:23 very very quickly um back in the uh I believe it was 80s and 90s and they just could not keep up with the expansion. They lost tons and tons of money. ended up having to do a huge retrenchment and now are rethinking, you know, over the last 10, 15 years how to expand their business in a much more thoughtful way, right? And so you again, not every company needs to be nationwide, worldwide, even necessarily statewide. a
46:00 partic one one your particular business it may work best on just kind of a regional basis like you know southern California or uh you know atama Iowa that comes from [laughter] where a character from the TV show MASH was from I think it was from a Iowa as I as I recall right so it's important for us to understand how how extended our business should be or our practice should be with with the internet and and and all of these tools, it's very enticing to try and cover a
46:38 territory larger than what is perhaps practical uh for us to do. Okay. So, it's a question that deserves a lot of thought and careful consideration consultation with our team members because we don't want to so dilute what we're doing that uh we're we're ineffective everywhere. better to be very effective in a smaller area than much less effective over a larger territory. So, I think those are some of the lessons, those are the key lessons we can learn from Alexander the Great
47:14 and and his uh military successes. And you know, I I would love to hear your thoughts on on on my ideas and uh you know, good, bad, and different uh how you or how you might apply them to your businesses. Links to all my social media will be in the show notes. Feel free to post a comment. My email address will be there as well if you want to email me something uh that you think is private, happy to to have that as well. So, I thank you very much for joining me. Uh, I haven't I don't think I've
47:49 mentioned this in a while on this show, but if you know someone you think might enjoy um this this uh show, so I'd really appreciate it if you'd send him a link to it, uh send him a link to um the show on YouTube and perhaps I'll have an opportunity to gain that person as a subscriber and and help more people, which is really what this show is all about. So, thank you so much for joining me today. I got some live viewers on. Always a treat. And tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my show uh people making money. Uh my guest is Anna Tran.
48:25 She's going to talk be talking about personal branding. So uh tune in for that. And then on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time is my show Jiggers's Place. We'll we'll have a cocktail and a smoo. So I hope you'll join me then as we head toward the end of the week. So again, thanks so much for joining me. Wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do.