0:00 Who are you? [music] And where are you going? What do you want? [music] Hello and welcome to Business Lessons from the Military. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel, and I'm here every What is today? Tuesday. Oh my. uh at uh 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about military history, doctrine, and um leadership practices
0:37 from which uh I distill lessons that we can apply to our businesses and professional practices. So today I'm going to be talking about someone who um certainly in in his time was uh um not a beloved figure. um of of Americans. Um but there is no doubting his his brilliance and u the value of his thinking. Um as
1:12 as we who are in the civilian sector and business and running organizations um uh I think we need to be willing to maybe set aside past perspectives uh and uh and and look carefully at u at um you know people's careers. So uh the person to whom I'm referring is uh Isuku Yamamoto best known by his last name Yamamoto.
1:47 So, uh, Admiral Yamamoto probably is best known certainly in the United States as the architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that essentially gave Roosevelt um what he needed in order to uh declare war on Japan and enter World War II combat. that uh in in an active way. I'll I'll put it that way. Um
2:23 we we're coming up on Pearl Harbor Day. Uh it's it's December 2nd today. So five days from today uh is is Pearl Harbor Day. I believe it's uh Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yeah, it's on a Sunday this year. And uh I I think if you asked my father about uh Admiral Yamamoto, uh he would um not have very good things to say about him. uh for myself as a student of World War II and uh and um
3:01 es especially certain battles uh like the attack on Pearl Harbor uh among a handful of others. uh Yamamoto uh it's it's hard to say that uh he bears responsibility for uh for how the attack came about. uh that that was happening on the political side of the equation and um and so uh as you know in in my shows
3:37 I I don't delve into politics um those are what I call bourbon discussions um so I I I think we are uh well advised to learn about uh Isoro Is isoruku my my Japanese is not good. Uh Yamamoto learn about his life, a little bit of his life and background. Uh and most importantly about his military philosophy and in order to see
4:15 there is no question that um Admiral Yamamoto was an extraordinarily intelligent man. He was a great leader and as hopefully you'll see as I talk about him or you'll hear I guess as I talk about him I I think it wouldn't be unreasonable to conclude that he was in some ways a reluctant participant in um Pearl Harbor. Uh, so I'm going to I'm going to go into the the discussion
4:52 now and um perhaps you'll you'll you'll see what I'm talking about. So um uh Admiral Yamamoto was actually born Isuku Takana. Um the second son of I'm reading the name here because I I don't I want to make sure I get get them as clearly as I can. He was the second son of Sadayoshi Takana who was a former samurai and Yuki Yamamoto uh who was his mother. Now you may see wait he has his
5:28 mother's last name. So he was adopted by the Yamamoto family which at the time was a common practice in Japan. Um and and it was done to continue the family line. Perhaps there were no uh uh sons of of the family to carry on the name. And so the the family Yamamoto adopted uh Isoruku uh and and he took their last name to carry on uh to carry to carry on their family line. So from a young age um uh
6:06 Isoruku uh Yamamoto was immersed in both uh traditional Japanese values as you might imagine having a former samurai as a father but also modern education. So, Japan has had been opened to the western world um at the at the turn of the 19th century um and and it it opened up somewhat reluctantly and slowly. However, um by the time of World War II,
6:41 um the the Japanese had made uh significant strides in terms of modernization, industrialization. Um at the start of the war, for example, the Japanese what was known as the Zero, uh the Japanese fighter plane was one of the best fighter planes uh in in the world. Um it was it was very fast and and and maneuverable. Uh and at the time the United States was sorely pressed to compete uh with with the zero. Um and uh
7:19 so going back to Yamamoto, he he was uh early in his life, he showed an from early in his life, I should say, he showed an aptitude for leadership and mil military strategy and this led him to pursue a career in the Imperial Japanese Navy. So uh he entered the Imperial uh the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1901. He graduated seventh in a class of 179.
7:54 So in the top 5% of graduates in 1904 uh he he continued his studies abroad uh spending several years in the United States where he was able to observe American society and military capabilities firsthand and and it gave him a perspective that would influence his strategic thinking really as he moved moved into the uh what turned out to be the latter part of his career. So
8:31 uh what having you know graduated from the naval academy of course he entered the navy and he rose very quickly through the ranks of the Imperial Japanese Navy here served as naval attaches in both uh the United States and uh Great Britain. So he was posted in Washington DC and London where Japan had their respective embassies and you know he had another opportunity to gain insight into western military technology
9:06 and tactics operations strategy. So, uh, his time in the United States in particular made him very aware of America's industrial and military potential. So, uh, you know, at at the time, um, I mean, like preWorld War I, the United States actually had a very small uh military relative to her size as a nation uh, and her her capacity,
9:42 her industrial capacity. And although uh the United States built up her military um to fight in World War I, uh that that buildup was short-lived. And after the war, the uh American military shrunk uh a great deal. And so in the leadup to World War II, once again, the United States did not have a particularly robust uh military. It's not like today where the United States maintains one of the largest militaries
10:18 in the world. Um, so during the inter war period, the period between World War I and World War II, so Yamamoto became an outspoking advocate for naval aviation. Now today we we we take it for granted that the aircraft carrier is uh the most important ship in in the navy of a you know of a large naval force like the United States or China. Uh but and and and even that idea has has lost
10:57 at least a little bit of ground of late as uh drones have become um more advanced. uh but in the period between World War I and World War II where the Mahanian ideal Alfred theer man uh who was the great US naval strategist of the late 19th century. I'm going to be actually doing several shows on um mayor's uh um ideas u in in the next season of business lessons from the
11:32 military. Um but it from mayor's perspective or from I'm sorry from Mayan's perspective um the battleship was the most important capital ship in any navy and the the Japanese at the turn of the 20th century uh were were definitely Mahanians in in their theory and the hidebound nature of the United States Navy Navy uh was also very much in the Mah in the Mayan camp. Uh so
12:11 um as aviation as a mil as the airplane as a military weapon developed so advocates for naval aviation started sort of sprouting up but they by no means uh had the upper hand. And so for Yamamoto to be such an outspoken advocate for naval aviation really pitted him against the old guard in the Imperial Japanese Navy. It it
12:46 showed a lot of confidence. Well, it first of all, it showed a lot of insight uh on on his part. Uh but it also showed a lot of courage uh because uh while I I'm not an expert in the history of the Imperial Japanese Navy, when it comes to United States Navy, there was more than one young officer advocate for naval aviation who found his career essentially sidelined because he had pitted himself against the old guard. So Yamamoto himself was
13:22 instrumental in modernizing the Japanese Navy and preparing it for potential conflict with the Western powers. Now, it's interesting to note that in World War I, Japanese uh I'm sorry, Japan was allied with with the United States, Great Britain, France, who were known as the Allies in World War I. I think there's a tendency to think that because the because Japan was part of the axis in World War II and and an enemy of the
13:58 United States that that must have been the same thing in World War I. That was not the case. In fact, both Japan and Italy, two prominent members of the of the Axis in World War II, were both allies of Great Britain, France, and the United States in World War I. Uh, one of the things that that happened as a result of World War I was the Japanese felt slighted under the treaty of Versailles. They felt that they were entitled to more possessions in the Pacific, spec specifically the Southern
14:34 Pacific. And so uh and and they felt that um you know the uh Europeans and Americans um basically didn't give them their due because you know they were they were bigoted which is essentially the case. I mean, they're [snorts] um you know, they you heard phrases all the time like, you know, our little brown brothers and and that sort of thing. And and uh so the the Japanese were not treated as equals uh in in World War I. It was a common belief of
15:11 the time. I I would add, by the way, that lest we think that the the Japanese are not susceptible to the very human trait of bigotry and such, I can I can assure you that um that that they are, having lived in uh o Okinawa and and and frankly seen it firsthand. So So this is not a condemnation of the Japanese uh nor is it a condemnation of Americans or Europeans. This is simply to observe that it is in human nature to put down the other uh as a way of building
15:46 oneself up and we have to we have to guard against that uh and and look at people as individuals and rate them as as individuals, rate their character as individuals, right? The the famous saying of um oh gosh, I'm I'm going up on his name. Uh but uh he said that there are only two races, the decent and the indecent. Uh and and and here here uh this the the the author of that uh statement uh lived
16:21 through Awitz. So he certainly had an ample opportunity to observe uh th those kinds of distinctions. Uh so uh so on into World War II now. So, as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, Yamamoto was best known for planning and executing the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. who was commanderin-chief of the combined fleet. um he believed that Japan's best chance against the United States was to uh hit
16:57 it hit the United States with a de decisive first strike um aimed at crippling the USPacific fleet and essentially forcing the United States to enter into a treaty uh rather than fight a war. uh and uh it it's an interesting aspect of Yamamoto that even even as he was planning and then overseeing the execution of the Pearl Harbor attack,
17:33 uh Yamamoto was not optimistic about the Japanese defeating the United States in a war. I I I think that if if Yamamoto had been in charge, I I'm I'm I have serious doubts as to whether uh he would have engaged in active combat with with the United States. Uh he he knew from his uh two times in the United States as a student and as a and as a military attache just what a formidable enemy the United States would pose. He
18:08 also knew the capabilities of his own country and I think he rightly was doubtful um that you know Japan could could win a war. Uh and I so I think that's why in the end he recommended the strategy that he did this idea of a first strike a decisive blow. I I I think he he saw that this was really the only chance that that Japan had uh in the event and uh you know it it it it did not work out
18:44 that the strategy did not pay off uh and and so um you know the United States declared war on Japan on December 8 uh 1941 and and you know um history goes on. So, uh Yamamoto um continued to lead Japanese naval forces in the early campaigns in the Pacific, including at the Battle of Midway, which was a major and essentially decisive defeat uh for
19:20 Japan. So, um, uh, Yamamoto, uh, uh, died on April 18th, 1943, uh, in in an incident that I think, um, [clears throat] h has a touch of irony to it. So um the uh so American intelligence intercepted and decoded uh Japanese messages revealing Admiral Yamamoto's travel alter travel itinerary and a US Army Air
19:57 Force's P38 Lightning. [laughter] One of my favorite aircraft that this it was a plane that looked like this. This is a P38 Lightning. You can tell because it has the twin tail booms. the the the twin uh propellers. Um I just think it's such a graceful looking airplane. I have my little P38 here always by me. Um so uh a P38 Lightning. So it ambushed his plane over Buganville in the Solomon Islands, shooting it down and killing him. And so, uh, you know, his surprise
20:35 attack on Pearl Harbor, uh, he was met with a surprise attack on himself that that led to his death, which which was a tremendous blow, um, not just to the Japanese Navy, but to the morale to Japanese morale uh, during the war. So um um Isuku Yamamoto's legacy, he's remembered as one of Japan's greatest, most talented naval strategists with a deep understanding of modern warfare and
21:12 an acute understanding of his nation's limitations. He he was both a a visionary um and a pragmatist uh which is a which is a unique combination. People tend to really be one or the other uh and and so that that he could see both and and yet by the way uh subsume his ego and and do what he was ordered to do. You know, one may argue he was ordered to do something
21:48 perfidious. Well, again, that's a bourbon question. Uh but uh there there's no doubt that in the end um a naval officer must must do what he's ordered. I suppose he could have resigned, but um there's not many if any uh naval officers that that would have resigned in in Yam Yamamoto's situation. So, um I think and and this is certainly the case for me despite his um controversial role maybe in in Pearl Harbor and in World War II in general.
22:25 Um many um historians, me included, recognize him as uh a consumate professional naval officer uh who was caught between what he viewed to be his duty and what he had concluded was likely to be the results of what his country was doing. And and so it is for that reason that uh that I I I wanted to tell you about um Admiral Isuruku's
23:01 Isuruku Yamamoto's uh background. And then after the break, I'm going to talk about some of his ideas and how we can apply them to our our businesses. 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
23:38 have heeded our call. No prior military services required to join our mission. 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 Bemel, and I'm talking about Admiral Isoru Yamamoto, the architect of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and arguably uh the greatest, but certainly
24:16 one of the greatest Japanese naval strategists uh I in history. So I have uh five um uh aspects of um Admiral Yamamoto's uh strategic thinking that I want to uh uh share with you and uh and and distill some business lessons from. So uh I I mentioned this right before the break. um Admiral Yamamoto had a prag
24:52 pragmatic uh realism as part of his view. So uh he understood the industrial and economic might uh that the United States could bring to bear and that was so important in global warfare because he had studied in the United States and also served there. and he recognized that uh Japan could not win uh a a sustained war um against the
25:27 United States because her mil because the America's um industrial capacity in the end would would win out. The same was true by the way in in the European theater of operations. It was um as much our industrial might as our military might that defeated Nazi Germany. Um and and um so uh he he believed in a as a result he believed in um that that the only way Japan could win was to um was
26:06 to make this decisive strike and hope to sort of knock the US out of the war in in in the event it it it didn't work of course. So I think that you know we as business owners people who run businesses lead them lead organizations whether they're nonprofits. So I think we have to be careful of engaging in sort of pie in the sky unrealistic thinking. So there's a lot of discussion around this right now with respect to AIS whether it's automation large language models right. So large large
26:44 companies whether it's uh Google or or I should say Alphabet which is the parent company of Google or or uh Meta the parent company of Facebook or um you know any of the other um uh Anthropic um Nvidia right so these these companies have uh tremendous resources and they have a tremendous stake in figuring out how to use or how to build AI into a useful
27:24 profitable tool, right? And they have the kind of cash flow to fund that kind of research. And so and and it's only recently by the way that they've started uh floating bond issues uh to you know to in effect borrow some of the money to fund the research. So for all the talk of an AI bubble and all this sort of thing that you hear uh you know these companies can engage in uh you know perhaps less pragmatic realism uh
28:01 because of the their their position in the marketplace. But for most of us we cannot. So we have to look at a tool like perplexity claude chat GPT very starkly as to how will its use u increase productivity, reduce expenses, increase revenue. How can it how can the tool be used
28:36 directly and pretty immediately to enhance our businesses? Okay. And it's it's not clear what the answer to that question is. And it takes experimentation. Uh but the experimentation I think needs to be practical, pragmatic. Okay. as opposed to um some sort of you know wild idea about what what it will allow us to do. Now is
29:11 does that mean you know no small or medium-sized company should ever sort of you know seek the stars? No. I I think that it's it's fine to do that, but that can't be part of the fundamental business plan for a small organization unless it just has tremendous resources and reliable resources behind it, which most small and medium ventures just do not. And so this idea of Admiral Yamamoto's of pragmatic realism I think
29:46 should be embedded in not just the planning for our companies but also the execution especially when we're facing some kind of new technology or some kind of uh either adverse or either favorable market shift. You know, the tendency when we get a favorable market shift is to think, oh, this is going to go on forever. But of course, that is not the case. A favorable shift may just be a precursor to an unfavorable shift,
30:21 right? And so, we want to take advantage of favorable conditions, but in a way that is sustainable, in a way that will build our businesses, uh, not um, overextend, scale too fast. In fact, I'm I'm going to be doing a show on this next week on people making money talking about a an and kind of an archetype of a company that thought it sort of had the business world, you know, by the ear and it turned out not to be the case. Okay, so that's number one. Number two, uh
30:56 decisive and pre and and preemptive action. So, Yamoto uh advocated striking first when necessary as is seen in Pearl Harbor. So, the idea was to uh you know deliver a crippling blow um that would essentially knock the United States out of the war and force it to and force the US force America to sue for peace. So, I think we've and and by the way, it was a
31:32 gutsy strategy. Okay. Uh and and in the beginning, I mean, look, Pearl Harbor went off spectacularly well for for the Japanese. They had some there were some uh operational and tactical decisions that turned out to be wrong. Uh such as uh not destroying the um uh the fuel storage facilities in Pearl Harbor and also not destroying the dry docks where ships could be uh repaired and rebuilt.
32:11 Okay, those those were major errors. Uh um and they had some, as I mentioned, they have some bad luck. The carriers weren't in Pearl Harbor on the day of the attack. They were at sea. So although uh several uh battleships were damaged or sunk, um in the end, this did not the United States Navy in the way that Admiral Yamamoto had hoped. And in some ways it forced the modernization of the United States Navy because it showed the vulnerability of
32:46 these battleships to an aerial attack. And so uh but but on its face um Pearl Harbor stunned the United States. And uh perhaps the one thing uh that Yamamoto while he understood American uh industrial and military might quite well, what he I think didn't understand nearly as well as he should have is how Americans would respond to such an attack. and that was to get angry and
33:23 and to become you know belligerent uh and fight back. So um but having said that America's ability to fight even with the carriers safe was attenuated by the Pearl Harbor attack and it took it did take time for the United States Navy to recover from that attack and to be able to go on the offensive. Right? uh you see even into Midway uh Midway was a defensive operation on the part of
33:58 the United States, not an offensive one. The American the US Navy really didn't go on the offensive until maybe very late 1942 and then but certainly in 1943. more than a year after or at le and that was by the way the idea of the Japanese attack on Midway was to deliver another you know decisive blow to the United States and the United States Navy. Uh unfortunately for the Japanese
34:34 uh intelligence had broken their codes and so um it you know the United States Navy knew what was in store and was able to meet the attack and and defeat uh the Japanese Navy sinking I I believe it's four Japanese aircraft carriers. So um so but nonetheless this preemptive attack um it it could have worked. It it definitely could have worked. And in business too, I think that there is a time for careful planning. But when it comes time to launch an initiative, to
35:11 launch a new product, to initiate a new marketing campaign, to reorganize our companies, we need to be preempt. We need to be decisive and in some cases we need to be preemptive. Okay? So just because things are going along swimmingly from our perspective doesn't mean that they're going to continue to they're going to continue that way. And so I think we need to consistently be examining um our business, our capabilities, the
35:46 market in which we operate, the competition. And rather than being reactive to those different aspects of being in business, we need to be proactive, even preemptive. There is a sense that sometimes the market will follow us. Now, you may say, well, wait a minute, small business, why would the market do that? Well, I it depends. So sometimes a small business can um can u start a new initiative and it catches
36:22 on and soon after that's the way that of of the entire industry. So Starbucks is an ideal example of this. Prior to Starbucks, the idea of people wanting to drink premium coffee in a relaxing setting, it didn't it really didn't exist. I mean, there were a few independent coffee shops of that type around the country. But in no sense was there this idea of the third place or the coffee shop as it existed in Europe, for example. Uh
36:59 Starbucks started that and changed the entirety of not just the coffee world but I think of how people looked at uh eating out. I wouldn't say dining out. Starbucks is not a place one d. So uh you know we we can choose to be proactive or reactive. And if we follow Yamamoto's example, we'll give serious consideration to being proactive. And you know, in the event, hopefully we'll be we'll be uh long-term more successful
37:37 uh than Imperial Japan was. Okay. Next, innovation and modernization. So, as I mentioned when I was talking about his career, uh, Admiral Yamamoto, who wasn't an admiral at the time, was a strong advocate for naval aviation and aircraft carriers, recognizing that battleships were basically obsolete in the era of naval warfare. And so he embraced this this this new technology and studied it and learned uh how to use
38:12 it effectively and and there's no doubt that it was used very effectively at Pearl Harbor. Okay. despite what turned out to be a poor strategy uh and and some operational mistakes or tactical I mean yeah operational mistakes tactically uh what the Japanese accomplished was was devastating and and Admiral Yamamoto was right naval aviation was the future and has remained the mainstay of great navies from
38:49 really as it turns out at least the late 1930s and and and on from there. So we're talking at this point close to a close to well over 80 years actually over 80 years close to going on 90 years now. Now will the aircraft carrier at some place become eclipsed by some other technology? Maybe. Um, there are talks about how swarming drones could sink an aircraft carrier at at shockingly little cost, especially compared to the cost of an aircraft carrier. I believe the USS
39:26 Gerald Ford costs something like uh $2 billion to build or some huge number like that, right? Uh it has a complement of around 4,000 sailors, officers and sailors on board. And if it could be taken down by a swarm of drones that cost, you know, a few hundred,000 that obviously at that point one would have to rethink the viability of aircraft carriers as a platform. Uh but but so far that the the technology to do that has has not been proven. And so
40:04 with our own businesses, um, we need to embrace innovation. We need to embrace modernization. So I know for my real estate company that I had before I joined the Navy, uh, I I was in I was in that business at the time when uh, first pagers and then cellular phones were developed. Uh, there Blackberries were in there as well. I never had a a crackberry as they were jokingly called. Uh but the fax machine came about and into the early days of the internet and one of the things I
40:41 found was all of this technology including ever smaller printers that combine printing and scanning and faxing. All of these technologies meant that I could operate much more efficiently with a smaller staff and therefore more profitably. And uh I I know that at the time that I sold my company, the amount of time that was that it took to do the the sort of administrative side of my business, the bookkeeping and and report generation and all that kind of thing because of
41:16 new technologies uh I had reduced it by 50% literally 50%. And and so it was why I was able to stay competitive even as u more and more property management companies were being bought up to make them ever larger so that profitability or higher profitability could be achieved through scale. So I I you know I tenaciously remained a a small uh
41:53 company um making a you know a nice living at it uh until I decided to join the Navy and sell my company. But I I didn't end up selling the company because I couldn't compete. I sold it because I had decided to do something else. And so you know I mentioned uh I AI is is is you know obviously that's the big emerging technology now. Uh having said that though I think there are still opportunities to use um communications technology things like the cell phone and the internet with or
42:29 without AI enhancements to increase our productivity. And I I know for myself, I'm always looking for ways to do that. There are and there are all kinds of tools that are not necessarily AIdriven that that can make our businesses more productive, more efficient, give give us higher profitability. And we need to be willing to experiment with them and and if we find the the right ones, embrace them and encourage our people to embrace
43:04 them as well. Okay. So, innovation and modernization. Um, next, uh, and and this is this is somewhat of a perennial, I think, among many of the great military, uh, personalities, leaders, um, about whom I've spoken during the the the three years of of shows um, for business lessons uh, business lessons from the military and that is leadership by example and respon and taking responsibility. So uh Yamamoto led by
43:41 demonstrating uh competence, discipline and professionalism. So he he mentored younger officers uh and and just as he had been an independent and strategic thinker, he encouraged his officers to think independently and strategically. uh he he did not uh demand of them that they you know parrot back to him what he wanted to hear. Quite to the contrary, he wanted to hear dissenting opinions.
44:17 Now this was not necessarily uh an aspect um widely held in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Uh and and so uh his his officers and and and the sailors that that served under him, I think, were very very devoted to Admiral Yamamoto because he led by example and he he took responsibility. Um but he also gave them the freedom to truly express their minds. Now once he
44:55 uh made a decision, he expected and demanded absolute loyalty in the execution of the orders given to enact a particular plan. But but on that score that's no different than any other uh person in the military. We need to expect um uh feelalty to duty um a a as part and parcel of how a military works. Uh you know um more junior people don't
45:30 always have cognizance of the larger picture and so we we need to be able to count on them to execute the orders that they've been given. maybe P and and not maybe pass information up the chain of command that they think it might be important for more senior commanders to know but in any event to aggressively pursue their objectives as part of the overall plan. uh and in in this case uh um you know Yamamoto was was no different and I think also correct once
46:06 the decision is made then everybody has to get on board and do their utmost to uh meet to pursue the mission and meet the goals. So uh he was known to value uh intelligence and careful planning balancing risk against uh uh the the the sort of pragmatism uh that that I talked about under the first point and and he uh you know inculcated that I I think maybe the best word among the especially the officers
46:42 on his planning staff uh you as as part of the ethos he expected them to adopt. So this the same is absolutely true in business. Okay. As business leaders, we need to lead by example. Uh I I I I was having a conversation with uh uh some of my colleagues uh recently and um I may have talked about this last week as well. It's it stays uppermost in my mind. But I I I am not a I am not one who you know yells or screams or engages
47:19 in histrionics in the workplace. Okay, maybe at a football game, but you know um and and and maybe when I'm sick and crabby [laughter] at home, but but in the workplace, none of that is appropriate. uh and especially from leadership because PE because you know rank and file workers they will they will do whatever it is they see senior leadership doing. So if senior leadership is yelling and screaming if they're acting in an abusive fashion uh
47:54 then they will take it that that must be okay that must be part of the culture. uh if uh senior leadership acts with uh discipline and professionalism and restraint then other people in the company will seek to do the same thing. If uh if if senior leadership acts collaboratively then people in the company will seek to act collaboratively. So, another example, I I won't give the names of the people, that wouldn't be appropriate,
48:29 but I'm being asked to be a part of a project. In this case, it's a media entertainment project. Um, I I I was I did a a very small project with this with this group and um a couple of weeks ago, and now there there appears to be planning to kind of do the next stage. And I was contacted last night by uh the individual who's putting up the money for the project and he asked me, you know, do I want to believe do I want to be involved in the next phase? And I haven't responded to the message yet
49:05 because I I really don't want to be part of the next phase because this particular individual is not a team player. He does not collaborate well. He he claims to want to learn, but he doesn't. You know, he's got certain ideas about how things should be and and he just goes with them. Now, I've been around entertainment and media circles for literally half a century. And uh that's not to say that I know everything. I
49:41 certainly do not. Uh, but I do know that the bull-in the china shop approach to doing good work in the entertainment and media business rarely works. Even when we think of great aur like like Woody Allen for example or Steven Spielberg um these these are both highly collaborative individuals. That's why, especially when you look at his early work and his best films, you see the same team,
50:17 film after film, working with Woody Allen because he was so he was so great uh to it was so great to work with him uh that everybody liked this team approach and and so um and you see you see something not not exactly the same think because uh you know Woody Allen's making small movies, Steven Spielberg obviously was making blockbusters, but um you know the both of these both of these men were highly collaborative and
50:53 it's because the making of a great movie, it takes a lot of diverse skills and nobody has all of them. And so the whether it's the producer or the director or the producer and director as a team, they need to recognize that people need to be collaborative and they need to demonstrate that they want to collaborate, truly collaborate. Okay? And so like in the example I just gave, while the uh the
51:29 director of of the project is one of my longest standing friends and we've done numerous projects over the decades and I love working with him. I'm not sure that, you know, it's worth it having to work with this other individual. Hence why I haven't responded yet. I I remain in stasis. So these you know we we have to lead by example and and and how we lead will be a very large part of what we get and finally
52:04 uh just as we need to be pragmatic and this is the final uh idea from uh Admiral Yamamoto who I'm going to share with you. I think we need to be uh cautiously optimistic. So, it's no it's no good working for someone who's pessimistic or working with people who are pessimistic. Uh if if you think that the future is horrible, if you think that a business can't succeed, well, you're probably right. Okay. on the other hand to be cautiously optimistic to to say we're
52:40 going to do our best to create the conditions where we can be successful where the business can grow. Okay? You know there obviously there are always going to be things outside of our control the larger economy uh what our competitors do. Okay. But within the range of what we can control, let's do our best to be forward-looking, to innovate and modernize, to be pragmatic about the goals we set and the and and how we pursue them, but in so doing with a a kind of optimism that, you know,
53:18 things are going to work out well for us. Okay? I don't think there's anything wrong in in in being that way. And if they don't work out well, well, okay, they didn't work out well. That's that's how it goes sometimes. Okay. But but uh it they're more likely, I think, to go well if we have a sense of optimism about them. Not unrealistic optimism, but realistic, cautious optimism. And and if we instill that into our teammates, into our colleagues, then we're all working together in a positive
53:54 way to make our business grow. And and I think that that's that that is what uh infused Admiral Yamamoto's philosophy even when he thought success was unlikely. uh you know he faced it with a a sense of cautious optimism and unfortunately for Admiral Yamamoto it didn't work out the way uh he hoped. Okay. Uh you know he he was fortunate to live on to fight another day until uh you know he he met
54:29 his his his end and and and we will too. We we can always live on to uh continue doing business another day. uh we may have our setbacks, we we may take some body blows from which we have to recover. Uh but recover we we shall and onward we will go. So um my thoughts on Admiral uh um Admiral Isuruku Yamamoto uh the great Japanese naval strategist and officer. And uh if if if you have
55:06 thoughts, comments, uh criticisms, by all means, please share them. Links to social media will be in the show notes. And let's see, tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my show, People Making Money. Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time is my show, Jiggers's Place. We'll have a cocktail and a smoo. And then, of course, next week we'll be back. I'll be back with the regular slate of shows. So, I thank you so much for joining me today. live viewers always good great great to know you're there and that only leaves me to say Marie darling you are my bell
55:44 courage