0:00 who are you and where are you going what do you [Music] want hello and 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 to talk about um military history uh military Doctrine and the practices of great military
0:35 leaders and then distill from them lessons that we can apply to our business and professional lives in order to make them more successful excuse me one second okay um I have my little space Cedar on here it's a little bit chilly this morning so today I'm going to talk about um um the Great greatest sailor in English History um Admiral Horatio Nelson um and um and the
1:13 the topic of the show is navigating chaos and and that's really why uh Nelson was such such a great uh Naval leader and and as I do for these shows I I'm I'm going to give you um some information about his biography and and the kinds of and about the battles that he fought and then we'll we'll talk about what we can learn from that so jumping right in there's there's so much to say about Horatio Nelson um and uh so
1:48 first of all he was born on September 29th 1758 in Burnham Thorp um in in Norfork which is in Norfork which is in the east eastern part of England um he and he died pardon me on October 21st 1805 at age 47 at in at off of Cape Trafalgar in Spain he actually died in in battle and we'll talk about I'll talk about that in in a little while so he was born in a a a modest but
2:24 respectable family he was the sixth of um 11 children his father was Reverend Edmund Nelson and his mother was Katherine suckling his Naval career as was common at the time began when he was 12 years old okay he became um he joined the re Royal Navy um as a midshipman in midshipman in 1771 um through the patronage of his uncle his mother's s his mother's brother uh Maurice suckling who was a senior officer in the Navy so it may
3:00 sound strange to our ears a 12-year-old becoming a midshipman and joining the Navy um but in a family as large es especially in a family as large as Nelson's were you know 11 children so and he was the sixth so even if his father had had any kind of estate um Nelson was very far away from any hope of inheriting any money from his father um and so uh as was often the case for younger Sons during this time period
3:37 um they considered careers that included the Army the Navy and the clergy um and and then they also looked at potentially becoming um um gosh I'm going up in the word but uh um apprentices um so he might have uh you know clerked for a lawyer with the idea of becoming um a lawyer or a barrister or he might have um looked to potentially go into to medicine so um Nelson quickly distinguished himself um
4:13 for his bravery and Leadership um and by 1779 he had risen to the rank of Captain okay so eight years in eight years he made captain now by comparison in today in the US Navy generally speaking um you know you enter as an ensen two years later you're uh unless you do something incredibly boneheaded you become a lieutenant Junior grade two years after that for a total of four years you become a lieutenant and then it's probably going to be at least three to four years for
4:49 you to gain your next promotion to Lieutenant Commander okay and then probably another four years at least to become a full Commander so generally speaking it's going to be somewhere around 156 years um in order to become a captain in the United States Navy at least by the way at least could could be longer depending on um what core you're in so Nelson made captain in eight years now that wasn't unheard of in in the Royal Navy at that time but it was uh was pretty quick even
5:25 even by the standards of the day um and he served as the West Indies he served in the Mediterranean and in the Baltic um and and he he he had a reputation for being very aggressive tactically as well as being uh strategically brilliant so I'm going to talk about uh four of his battles of of his key battles that give you an idea of his quality uh as as as a naval leader so um in the first first is the Battle of
6:00 capee s St Vincent um which took place on February 14th 1797 so um um he had been a captain at that point for um about 18 years um and this was during the French Revolutionary Wars okay the French Revolution of course took place started um not long after the uh American Revolution and and the the the Battle of Cape St Vincent was between the British royal Navy and the Spanish Navy off the coast of Portugal near Cape St Vincent which is
6:37 of course where it got got its name the British commander was Admiral Sir John Jervis okay and Nelson served under him uh the Spanish Commander was Admiral Jose De Cordova e Ramos okay and the British um the British uh um Fleet contained 15 ships of the line okay so a ship of the line is um is is bigger than a frigate okay a frigate is a a three masted uh ship um generally speaking it
7:12 has um uh I believe um one one deck of of guns so a ship of the line was typically either two or three decks you did have like six rates which may have only one deck but these were these were very large ships for their day they would be the equivalent of you know battleships in World War II um I guess they'd be kind of the equivalent of Cruisers today um we don't really have um ship ofthe line type ships aircraft carriers aren't really a ship of the
7:47 line because they're not primarily gun platforms they're primarily aircraft platforms okay the Spanish uh Fleet had 27 ships of the line in it so almost double the number of British ships and the outcome of uh the Battle of Cape St Vincent was a decisive uh British Victory so although the the British were vastly outnumbered um Jervis and Horatio Nelson used Superior Tactics to win and the battle badly weakened the Spanish
8:25 Navy and prevented it from joining forces with the French Fleet and really solidified Nelson's reputation um in part because he pretty boldly disobeyed orders and engaged aggressively with the Spanish Fleet so uh there there there was at the time um a a I believe was called the the chronicle the naval Chronicles and whenever there was a noteworthy happening in the BR in the Royal Navy so so uh it would be written
9:00 up in the naval Chronicles and this is how other people in the Navy as well as the public at large learned about uh you know victories or disasters um you know that had occurred within the with with the Royal Navy so this battle would have been written up um in the naval Chronicles and that's that's really what um led to the the tremendous Fame um that that HTI Nelson uh you know gained during during his uh
9:35 career so um one of the among the notable um moments in the battle um was um Nelson took the the the ship HMS Captain HMS stands for his Majesty's ship HMS Captain um out of the battle line and engaged with the Enemy directly and he captured two Spanish ships the San Nicholas and the San HF um uh and and and again this was you know to take a ship out of the battle line that that's
10:10 not how things were done um and and and yet um you know Nelson he was a a um a smart enough tactician to realize that um the the rules should never be broken except for when they should be broken right and and and that's one of the reasons why he was able to to be so successful in this battle um and again um the the the aftermath of this battle was um Britain gained Naval Supremacy in
10:48 the Mediterranean number one um Nelson became a national hero and Spain remained um Brit although Spain remained Britain's enemy um it was significantly weakened at Sea as a result of the battle of Cape uh Cape Vin Cape St Vincent so the next um notable battle took place um about uh a year later a little over a year later it was the Battle of the Nile um also known as the Battle of abukir bay um and it was a a
11:23 major Naval action fought between the British royal Navy and the French navy from August 1st through 3rd in 1798 in abuur bay in Egypt so it was one of herel Nelson's Greatest victories um and and it it it really secured uh British dominance at Sea um while at the same time um disrupting uh Napoleon bonap part's Ambitions in the Middle East um and and if you know if you ever
11:59 have read um the Horatio Hornblower uh novels which written by CS Forester wonderful wonderful um historic fiction um you set against the the the Royal Navy so there are several references to uh to Nelson's Victory um at the Nile um and in and in fact um uh the the the theonomous character uh um Horatio
12:35 Hornblower um I believe he was in one of the ships oros I mean obviously this is fiction but he supposedly was in one of the ships in Nelson's Fleet at the Nile as as a I think a midshipman or something like that so um oops I just I just blasted my notes okay so um all right so the the British commander was at by by this time uh Nelson was a rear Admiral so it was rear Admiral Horacio Nelson the French Commander was vice admiral Francois Paul
13:11 Bri a Galer hopefully hopefully I said that correctly the British ship the British fleet was 14 ships of the line the French fleet was 13 ships of the line and four frig and transport ships so again the French fleet was uh in this case a little bit bigger um the the the French were known to be um better Sailors than than the Spanish at this time period okay and again the outcome was a decisive uh British
13:50 Victory excuse me so um Napoleon had invaded Egypt um in an attempt to weaken Britain's influence in India that India was um essentially a British colony um and his Fleet had transported 38,000 troops um but but but they um but they had to Anchor in abuur Bay for support and so um and and and by the way 38,000 may not
14:26 sound like a lot um but um that that's that's a huge Army by the standards of of the day so um there there's you know no doubt this was a very um um uh strong force that Napoleon was sending or intending to send into Egypt okay and Nelson in the meantime was was looking for the French Fleet and he finally found them uh you know in abur Bay on August 1st of 1798 so um the French were um anchored um in a defensive line near
15:02 the shore they were expecting an attack from from the seaward side um and Nelson's Fleet boldly sailed into abuur Bay um between the shore and the French line and and in so doing he was able to attack them from both sides uh um surprising the French Fleet who thought they were only going to have to defend themselves from the seaword side so among the notable things that happened in the Battle um is that uh Nelson destroyed the French Flagship um loron
15:41 um he his his ships just overwhelmed the French Center which is where lant was and at um 10 p.m on um August I believe it was August 2nd um lauron exploded killing Admiral uh Breuer and and and and really just devastating French morale um and and the the battle continued on um but by um August 3D most of the French ships were destroyed or captured and indeed only two French
16:19 ships of the line and two frigs escaped so 11 ships of the line were either captured or destroyed as well as two frigates were were either captured or destroyed um so it was you know a a a wipe out for for the French navy um so uh why it's important well um Napoleon was stranded in Egypt now um his Navy could no longer Supply or resupply him or reinforce him uh Britain Britain gained complete control of the Mediterranean from east to from east to
16:55 west um isolating France and and again um he was proclaimed a national hero for this tremendous Victory the the the um relations between England and France at this time were horrible the the the English despised uh Napoleon bonapart um they you know he was a tyrant um he was a blackard all every horrible thing uh you could think of uh was was said about bonapart uh and and
17:32 and uh he he it was even to the point where um when when parents would discipline their children they would say you know if you're not a good child you know bony is going to come and get you which was a a derisive nickname for Napoleon bonapart bony um and and um as as a result of the victory um he earned Nelson earned the title of Baron Nelson of the Nile um pardon me and it was really a turning point in the war against France okay next the next batt I'll talk about this
18:07 one um just real real briefly the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 so again uh Nelson ignored orders this time to withdraw instead he pressed forward and he serve and he and he secured a crucial British Victory against the this time the Danish Fleet so you notice he defeated the Spanish he defeated the French he defeated the Danish Fleet okay his best known battle and and and perhaps the most but certainly one of the most significant Naval battles in history is
18:43 the Battle of traler uh it was fought on October 21st 1805 off of the southwestern coast of Spain near Cape Trafalgar again hence its name and again it was a decisive British victory against the combined fleets of France and Spain um and it was during the Napoleonic Wars um and and the result of this battle was to secure British Naval dominance for over a century and indeed um that Naval dominance didn't start to
19:18 wne really until uh World War I um and then of course post World War II the United States became the the dominant Naval power um in the in the world but for a century after the battle of Trafalgar really the the the British Navy ruled the Seas there's no question so the uh British commander was was now Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson the French Commander was vice admiral Pierre Charles vev and the Spanish commander
19:55 commander was Admiral Federico graina the British Fleet had 27 uh ship ships of the line the French and Spanish Fleet a total of 33 ships of the line so again the British were outnumbered although um not you know nearly as as outnumbered as in the um Battle of of Cape St Vincent so Napoleon um was planning to invade Britain um which of course was one of the great Fe fears of of the British um but not unlike Hitler in World War II um
20:34 Napoleon had to gain control of the Seas first in order to launch an invasion of Britain and be able to resupply um and reinforce that Invasion so the French and Spanish fleets joined forces to challenge uh British Naval Supremacy um and Nelson command in the British Fleet intercepted them off Cape Trafalger before they could reach uh the English Channel so um and and and Nelson used an
21:11 unconventional strategy so the typical strategy for example used by Admiral Jervis at Cape St Vincent was to use a single battle line of ships that was how uh battles were fought at this time uh Nelson um divided his Fleet into to two columns and instead of attacking the ships perpendicularly where you could launch broadsides at each other he attacked I'm sorry sorry instead of um sailing parallel in parallel lines to each other where you could blast
21:47 broadsides at each other Nelson sailed perpendicularly to the French and Spanish fleets thereby being able to launch broadsides at the enemy ships without sustaining them himself so uh ships um wooden sailing ships like this they would have what were called bow Chasers which were small guns in the bow of the ship pointed forward but um they weren't nearly as large and Powerful as the main guns the main guns could be uh 24 Pounders um or or or maybe even um 16
22:26 Pounders um on on on the upper decks um the bow Chasers might only be you know nine Pounders okay and the pounds being the size of of of uh the shot that was that was fired so um by um by crossing the te as it was called um Nelson was was um using an unconventional strategy um but in doing so he was able to cut the enemy Fleet in half and prevent them from being able to maneuver uh effectively um and so he you
23:03 know he really had uh the combined French and Spanish Fleet at his mercy so um the um the fighting began at uh 12 pm that is noon um on October 21st 1805 HMS Victory which is Nelson's Flagship a ship by the way that you can still visit today in England um it is I believe it was recently refurbished recently in the last year or two the the ship is kept as a museum now um he led the attack and he
23:38 sailed straight into the um Franco Spanish line there was um heavy fighting with ships engaged at very close range um at around 1:15 p.m. a little over an hour into the battle Nelson was shot by a French sniper from the red doubtable um while standing on HMS Victor's death uh deck sorry um he was carried below um but he lived long enough to hear of Britain's victory in the battle and his
24:13 last words were thank God I have done my duty needless to say um to to you know utter such a uh humble statement as he was dying cemented Nelson as uh Great Britain's greatest naval hero no one has ever surpassed him um by uh 5:00 pm 22 French and Spanish ships had been destroyed or captured um the British lost no ships
24:49 despite being outnumbered it shows you the Brilliance not only of Nelson's strategic plan but the Tactical execution not just by Nelson but by his subordinate commanders uh who all aspired to live up to the standard that that Nelson uh that Nelson set so um why is why is the um Battle of Trafalgar important well first of all it ended any hope that Napoleon was going to be able to invade uh Britain um again
25:26 it it confirmed a British Naval Supremacy over the next century and it it it catapulted Nelson to essentially Eternal um uh uh status as as the legendary Naval uh hero um and because of the crippling of the French and Spanish navies um Britain was not only the greatest uh Naval power for a century but they also really gained control of global trade routes um which
26:04 which um gave uh Britain access to uh tremendous sources of of wealth uh and and in and indeed um Britain beca over the during the 19th century um and and the the Reign primarily of Queen Victoria uh Britain was you know the world power um there there was there's there was no there's no denying it so um in his personal life I just want to talk about a little bit about his personal life so you get an idea of of of who Nelson was so uh Nelson was known to be
26:43 extremely charismatic personally he was adored by men he was loved by women um he uh he was uh married to Francis Nisbet um but um he um uh he had a notorious affair with Lady Emma Hamilton um with whom he had a daughter um and so and and and it it it is really one of the um best known most famous love affairs in you know of all time um so
27:18 you know you could say well that that's not a nice thing for Nelson to do um you know maybe you know his personal life uh perhaps didn't quite match his his uh uh his professional life uh unfortunately that's you know um too often uh the case um he when you know after his death at Trafalgar he was brought back to to England he was buried with full honors at St Paul's Cathedral in London where his tomb remains to this day um as a National Monument um and one of the
27:56 aspects of Nelson that was so astonishing was at a time where um there was a a huge separation um not not just classwise but just uh sort of everyday wise between um naval officers and and rank and file Sailors um Nelson had fairly close relationships with the average Sailors with whom he dealt with in the Royal Navy um and this was very different than
28:32 than his contemporaries so um it it really um it it it mirrored uh more how the American Navy handled things than how the British Navy traditionally handled things so um so um you know among the um the the aspects of this kind of pecular uh feature of of Nelson as a naval leadership was uh he really um he he was approachable um and he had
29:09 a very personable leadership style that promoted camaraderie and morale among uh Rank and file Sailors um he took a genuine interest in the well-being of his men he made an effort to understand their hardships and and to be a sailor on a wooden sailing ship in the 19th century was a tough tough life you ate salt beef salt pork some what was sometimes known as salt horse because um a lot of times you couldn't be exactly sure what the meat was you ate hard tack which was
29:45 a kind of biscuit but it it was it was it was it was hard like so hard you oftentimes couldn't bite it with your teeth you had to soak it in water to get it soft enough to to to be able to eat uh the heart attack after a while at Sea would would develop weevils and you would tap it on the deck or the table in order to get the weevils to scramble out before you ate it um drinking water was was in casks in the hold of the ship and although at the beginning of the voyage it might be relatively decent um later
30:20 on in a voyage there would be you know awful green stuff you know slime in it and so the the the food was awful uh hammocks were slung 18 inches apart um in you know below decks so you had no personal space at all um the way you went to the bathroom is you you went what was called the head it was basically at the bow of the ship it was set up with a wooden board that you sat on and and did your business that's why on naval ships today the bathrooms
30:55 are are called the head um and so the life of the average Seaman uh was was was pretty bleak Nelson tried to did his you know did his best to understand those hardships and and and because of his attitude um he engendered tremendous loyalty from the average Sailors and his men uh called him with affection our Nelson right and and and you wouldn't have heard them addressing other Naval leaders in in that way so Nelson fought
31:30 alongside his men um enduring the same kinds of dangers and hardships that they faced um he was wounded a number of times he lost the sight in one eye at the siege of Calvi in 1794 he lost his right arm at the Battle of Santa Cruz De tener Tenerife in 1797 um and and despite these injuries um he commanded with with a tremendous amount of energy um again earning a a a deep Respect by Rank and file Sailors
32:06 really he led by example um an important leadership quality uh he he believed in uh fair treatment and being generous um in rewarding bravery and competence so he praised um his Sailors and official reports um and and made sure they receive their the prize money that they were due from ships that were captured okay at a time when official reports often only highlighted the captain's uh actions and were designed to make the
32:42 captain of the ship um look as good as possible to the admiralty again this was this was a very unusual um trait on Nelson's part to make sure that those who who deserve credit received the the credit in official reports um and and uh he really he you know at a time when discipline on a ship was um being uh whipped with a Catan n tals okay a cat a Ninetails was basically a handle covered in leather that had nine leather straps emanating
33:19 from it with knots in them okay and the bosen's mates would lay it on with a will as it as as was the order um uh Nelson really he he did not um he did not um engage in unnecessary and harsh harsh punishment um- which was very common in in the Royal Navy at the time um there were many commanders who would order uh you know um uh floggings for you know the the the slightest infraction um Nel Nelson did not did not
33:56 do that and again his his fair treatment his rewarding of Valor um um his refraining from unnecessarily harsh punishments all uh gained him the Loyalty of rank and file Sailors as well as his Junior officers so um Nels there was something called The Nelson touch um and and it was it was it was sort of um it was like he he he had an intuition about how to fight a battle um and and because of that um
34:33 especially his subordinate officers um had a great deal of trust in Nelson um and and and that trust I think oftentimes made the difference between um them you know following him because they had to as opposed to enthusiastically following him and enthusiasm in a battle can turn the tide he e even when a plan maybe isn't as well thought out as it could have been so um Nelson believed in empowering um his officers and sailors to use their
35:09 initiative in battle rather than waiting for orders again this was a trait much more common um at at the time especially in the American Navy um Nelson was small D Democrat in some way he I don't know that if he would I don't know he would agree with that assessment but um you know he he he wanted um all the members of his crew all the ships in his fleets um to to look for opportunities um to
35:44 attain Victory um and so his his his Sailors and Junior officers knew they had his trust and they they they knew that he he delegated the author uity to them so that they could act in in in the best way possible finally um he had an emotional connection um with with his crew so um unlike many Royal Navy officers who were Aristocrats you know they they came from U from the uh you know landed gentry Etc
36:21 from the aristocracy um in Great Britain um as I mentioned in the beginning although Nelson came from a respectable family he wasn't landed gentry or anything like that and so um Nelson saw himself as part of a naval family rather than above the the uh Rank and file in the Navy um and his his his Sailors and Junior officers uh recognized that that that that uh attitude on on his part um and um uh he um um
36:58 the even even in the Battle of Trafalgar as he Lay Dying um and you know his last words as I mentioned were you know thank God I have done my duty they were followed immediately by God bless you Hardy um and it was um it was directed to his close friend the captain of of the flagship Thomas Hardy um and and and it showed that even in death um Nelson uh you know reached out to his fellow Sailors um and and
37:34 acknowledged them um and and and it was just most Royal Navy leaders just did not have that kind of deep emotional connection um W be it with their senior commanders if it you know if we're talking about an admiral like like uh Horatio Nelson or Junior officers um if again referring back to the uh Horatio Hornblower Series so one of the traits of Horatio Hornblower is he he keeps
38:09 himself separate on purpose from his Junior officers um and Men he he purposely does not have that kind of emotional connection with him because he thinks that it makes him look weak Etc so and that was a fairly common attitude um in in the Royal Navy so uh Horatio Nelson was was was very a very different kind of officer and I think that's largely why he again through to this day lives on as
38:45 the greatest uh member of the that the Royal Navy has has ever had so um you know Nelson's bond with his Sailors um even after his death uh he he was honored by them as a national hero um he was uh um what what's the word I'm looking for uh um gosh I'm going up on it but you know after somebody dies oh mourned he was mourned by um by Sailors that had served
39:20 with him they they you know brought him up in conversations and and in many ways um Nelson lived on um long after his death because of the way the sailors who had served with him kept his memory alive um and and his his leadership style really became a model for um for future Naval commanders so um from from Nelson's career um I I I've I've talked
39:56 about some of these things during his history but um I I've distilled um seven lessons that I want to share with you so um uh first of all um Nelson started at a very young age as I mentioned he joined the Royal Navy at the age of 12 he got hands-on experience in Naval operations from a young age he was mentored by Captain William uh Locker um who taught him the importance of initiative and bold action in Naval Warfare um and he he served in a lot of
40:31 different places um in the world so he learned diverse Naval strategies and how to command under different conditions all in the early part of his career so this is well if you're you know an old guy like me this isn't quite so relevant but if you're younger and starting out you can see that that getting diverse experience in the early part of your career will turn out to be very valuable as you work through through as you work through your business and professional life and
41:06 and finding mentors who who will commit to helping you develop as a businessman or as a professional again there is no substitute for that in these days of of virtual meetings and such it is one of one of the things that I think is not good about that is we don't have the direct human contact that that really um in an informal way helps younger people find strong mentors with whom they can Bond and and and by whom they can be
41:41 served throughout their their careers and and it's a shame because as Nelson's career shows us uh having mentorship and consistent mentorship uh from from a young age really you know helps someone develop very strong uh skills tactical operational strategic okay second is and i' I've mentioned this in in several in the battle several of the battles um uh Nelson developed unorthodox thinking and aggressive tactics so uh unlike um most
42:19 of the naval officers of his day um who followed rigid Naval tactics that you know had been you know used for decades if not centuries right Nelson favored bold and decisive actions that that surprised the enemy and and in doing so gave him uh both a tactical and a strategic Advantage um in gaining Victory so uh he rejected the
42:55 conventional line of battle for formation where again you have these ships sailing in parallel lines of often times in opposite directions banging broadsides at each other um sort of a mutually assured you know destruction if you will um and and he developed um more flexible strategies he prioritized speed and maneuverability and and the idea of breaking the enemy's battle line to create chaos which then created opportunity for his ships to engage in ship shipon ship actions or cap capture
43:32 enemy ships so you know he he he we we talked today about thinking out of the box so this is what I will say is Nelson surely was schooled in the conventional strategies of the day however he didn't let himself get hemmed in by them and that's the lesson that I think we all need to to learn and that is it's we first of all we have to know what the conventional strategies are right until we know what they are we're
44:09 not going to know which unorthodox strategies are and and tactics are most likely to be successful so by knowing conventional strategies uh of of all all the Navies not just the Royal Navy uh uh Nelson was able to in some ways predict the the situation into which he was heading and and and in that way develop strategies and tactics that could disrupt the conventional strategies that the enemy was using and that's what we
44:44 need to do as well whether it's in a business or a profession we need to understand how do other people approach these problems and then what can we do that's different that will dis disrupt them so disruption is a very popular concept has been for a number of years now the problem with how disruption often is pursued is that uh uh disruption is is pursued just for the sake of disruption okay rather than a thoughtful form of disruption that's
45:20 that's based on an understanding of what the other side is doing and how it can be turned on its head to our advantage okay so that unorthodox thinking and aggressive tactics another lesson we can learn from Nelson so um I I mentioned a few minutes ago the Nelson touch the the idea of a a sort of um revolutionary strategy um most exemplified by the strategy he used at the Battle of Trafalgar where instead of using the conventional line of battle he
45:55 attacked uh he attacked at a perpendicular um on a perpendicular aess axis I mean and and in so doing so surprised um the other uh the the um other the enemy forces um that um they they were essentially overwhelmed again and also um another part of that was attacking in two columns rather than than one so he had two columns attacking the enemy Fleet so um there there was there's just no other
46:32 way to describe it and that's why it became known as the Nelson touch um and it had to do with a deep deep deep understanding of how the enemy would fight um probably uh the only other military person who had such a deep understanding of the enemy is my perennial favorite General George Patton who spent an enormous amount of time studying both military history and doctrine of foreign
47:09 militaries to really understand how they would approach a battle at a at any given point right and and it was because of this that that Patton had an almost uncanny insight into to the enemy that allowed him to be so successful no other commander in in any of the armies in World War II had anything like the depth of historic knowledge uh that that patent had there were other commanders that had other strengths but but when it
47:45 came to understanding the Enemy No One understood the enemy like like Patton and I think the same is true well and and and Nelson exemplified that I I I don't want to say say that that Patton learned that from Nelson I don't think that that's the case I I don't ever recall uh anything in in Patton's background that he studied uh you know Naval uh history uh you know nearly as much as as land-based Warfare or in particular you know Nelson's history um he probably was aware of him at least a little bit because Nelson was
48:20 instrumental in the defeat of bonapart um but but the two men shared this quality in so uh you know the the Nelson touch um allowed him to be victorious even when he was outnumbered and that's that's what we want to look for too in our businesses we want to we might call it punch above our weight right and and I think we're more able to do that today uh than ever because of things like the internet which can give us a a worldwide
48:56 reach despite being a small company whereas 50 years ago only companies of a very large size could uh could afford to be selling products or Services worldwide uh today that is not the case with the internet we can sell virtually anywhere no matter what the size of our business uh um and as well AI is also I think going to give smaller companies smaller businesses practices the ability to punch above their weight these can all help us to develop our own touch
49:33 okay like like the Nelson touch okay next uh Nelson really learned from past battles so um in in the military today we call it hot washing where after a after an evolution we sit down and and we analyze what happened what worked what didn't work uh and and that was something that uh Nelson um did as well so he he studied his past Naval engagements and analyzed them both whether they were victories or defeats um he was a big believer that lessons
50:09 could be learned from from both okay um and he also Incorporated the lessons from previous uh British Naval commanders such as Admiral George Rodney um who um had first experimented with breaking Enemy Lines right and and and so he wasn't afraid to borrow from other people he didn't have to be you know 100% originality was not the issue the issue was success okay and I think some of us get hung up on well I
50:44 can't use an idea unless it's my idea there are there isn't a whole lot of new ways to skin a cat as my dad used to say if any so the be the better thing to do is to look at what is being done and look for ways to uh develop those rather than trying to come up with something that's that's brand new okay um and then the other thing was because he studied past battles he studied the the victories the defeats as well as the
51:19 victory so Nelson had the ability mid battle to change his tactics so as he saw how things were shaping up uh he he W he was able to respond in a cogent way and that's important for us as well so um you know each each thing that we do in business whether it's marketing a new product whether it's hiring people whether it's uh presenting a case in court all of these are opportunities for us to
51:54 learn okay and and need to analyze them and that and the more we're willing to do that the better we can adjust tactics on the Fly and and be more successful so um I I I certainly see that in in my uh in my practice as a professional fiduciary there are some lawyers who clearly they're they're learning from previous cases um they're learning they're they you know because um typically there's a series of cases
52:29 called by the judge um they're watching the cases called previous to theirs to see how is the judge responding today and and tailoring how they handle their matter based on you know where the judge is coming from on that particular day right and that's that's an important skill we want to believe that judges are impartial and that they don't bring um their personal lives into the courtroom not true at all not true at all right judges have all their stuff going on and and so one has to not un not only
53:06 understand judges in general but individual judges and how those judges behave and and handle things okay so learn from past battles learn from you know things that have gone before you next uh Nelson as I mentioned a little while ago he trusted his subordinates and he decentralized command so Nelson encouraged especially the captain captains of the ships in his Fleet to think independently um which was unusual in an era of very strict Naval discipline um he empowered his officers
53:43 he trusted them to make decisions especially in the heat of battle so that they could take advantage of a situation um for the overall good of the fleet and his his approach made the British fleets more flexible more responsive and therefore more likely to be able to outmaneuver the enemy and win the battle and and this this is same thing in in business we have to trust our subordinates we have to give them the opportunity to make decisions
54:22 make and with with without our input uh and make mistakes learn from those mistakes okay we in the beginning we may need to help guide them a little bit and help them do their their hot washes okay but we we we need to empower our people uh so that they will take ownership of or not literal ownership but take part at least part ownership in the sense of really wanting to drive uh the business toward meeting its goals meeting its
54:58 objectives and Nelson that was probably next to his ability to think out of the box his his his ability to develop Mutual trust with his subordinates and and and therefore to decentralize his command probably his greatest uh trade and certainly his greatest leadership trade okay next is courage and leading by example so um I've talked about this idea of servant leadership if you watched the show before you know I'm not a particular fan
55:33 of it what I am a fan of is leading by example and showing courage in leadership if we want and that's certainly what what Nelson did as as I demonstrated uh through the talking about uh some of those battles if we want our people for example to conduct uh activi on behalf of our business in a uh in in a reputable moral way we need to set that example we need to demonstrate that we are at least at time
56:10 not at least that we are willing to stand by our principles even if it means a potential loss to the business that that our our reputation or the reputation of the business is more important than short-term financial gain and and I would I would venture to say that one of the reasons why um businesses um have a a bad reputation is financial expediency too often is used
56:45 to justify uh straying from the from the the the the the moral path right and so uh it's easier to do this in a in a smaller company where there's a more direct connection between uh you know the owner of a business and and and people who work for it um but even in a large business even in the largest business um senior leadership can set the tone um leading by example uh finally and I didn't really talk about this a whole lot um in in uh in my um
57:23 explanation of Nelson's victories but um Nelson understood the importance of uh psychological warfare to intimidate his opponents um we we we already talked about morale which might be an aspect of psychological warfare in this case psychological warfare what had to do with things like surprise um you know violating the tenants of standard Naval Doctrine all of these um put his enemies off balance at least and uh and and
58:01 really um really um it caused a a pause almost if you will um and and and it necessitated his enemies having to rethink which is something they weren't used to doing and so that that psychological warfare that psychological aspect of warfare was something that that uh that that Nelson understood um and and he used it to demoralize the uh enemy commanders um in
58:37 in a way that meant that they were not fighting as effectively as they might have and therefore uh he could he could have an advantage so so these are the and and and and these are the kind of things that we can think of too so um I I I I I'm not as you know I'm not a big fan of of calling business Warfare but we need to be we need to remember the psychological side of business and we need to to use it to our advantage so uh
59:12 for example this is going back uh a couple of months ago I was negotiating um a a situation and the other side was uh pressing me um to agree to certain things that um that were at complete odds with what we had uh discussed and agreed to before and so um I decided to just basically cut off communication and for um several days I
59:47 got frantic ever more frantic messages from the other side you have to do this you have to do this and I didn't respond and they got more and more frantic and and I didn't respond and when after a week and a half I re-engaged with the other side I actually went over the head of the person that I had been uh negotiating with and I basically said to his supervisor uh here's what here's what was going on uh this is this is not
60:24 acceptable and if you are interested in negotiating uh it'll have to be you and me and frankly it worked um you know we had we had strong Mutual interests and so it was it was worthwhile for both of us to engage uh but but the forcing of the you know the more Junior person that I've been negotiating with um to to get almost to a hysterical point and realize
60:59 that um he he couldn't Force um a a resolution on his terms really kind of pushed them back and it showed them that the only way this negotiation was going to come to a successful conclusion was by negotiating on the merits right and it's a form of it's a psychological tactic and so I think we have to we have to be aware of those um and use them when appropriate so um I I think that there's perhaps one
61:34 uh famous phrase that Nelson used that that sums up so much of what Nelson was about as a figure and why he remains England's most beloved um Naval Commander um to this day and that is um before the Battle of Trafalgar uh Nelson sent out a message to his Fleet and it said England expects that every man will do his duty um and and and that may sound a little bit strange to our ears at a time where
62:10 doing our duty is just not something that that we really focus on but the idea of doing one's duty of elevating oneself uh in that in that way I think is a tremendous morale booster and it says something about the moral tone with which we're approaching uh in in Nelson's case a battle in our case uh a business situation each of us needs to do our duty and if we want to be successful in
62:48 in a way that uh we can look back on and feel that we've we've not only been successful but we've we did things the right way uh I I think we need to focus on what is what is our duty not just to the business and to customers and what is our duty to our fellow citizens our duty to our ourselves and our families our duty to God all of these things are part of running a successful business in a way that enhances um reputation as as
63:27 business people as businessmen um and not detract from it and certainly Nelson exemplified that throughout his career so uh that's that's uh my my take on the business lessons we can learn from uh Admiral Horatio Nelson I went a little bit longer than I normally do I appreciate you uh hanging in there with me um especially those of you who are watching live uh it's always great to see you if you have any thoughts questions comments uh please feel free to comment on my social media posts the
64:03 the links will be in the show notes and always happy to to hear your thoughts so tomorrow Wednesday at 10: am. Pacific time is our monthly economic Echoes show we're going to look at the economic data and see what that means about the decisions we need to make in our own lives whether it's our business lives personal lives Etc okay so please join me again tomorrow Wednesday 10: a.m. Pacific time and then um next week Monday at 10: amm Pacific time is my show trust and Estates weekly and then
64:39 seven days from today we'll be back for the next edition of business lessons from the military so uh I thank you very much for joining me and wish you a wonderful rest of the day signing off as I always do Marie darling You Are My Bell