The WAY to WOW Shows
Sink or Win
October 28, 2025
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[0:02] Who [music] are you and where are you going? [music] What 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, military doctrine, and military leadership practices from which I distill lessons that we can apply to

[0:37] our businesses and professional practices. So, I I I want to start out today. I I think I don't think I've mentioned this for a while. Uh, and and I was having a a conversation with a friend last night and he was using a lot of war metaphors for business and I finally stopped him and I said, you know, business is not war. And I I know there's a group of people that like to think of of business as war. Uh but for those of us who have been in the military, uh who have had colleagues

[1:14] killed in in combat, uh maybe even have been in combat ourselves. I was not, but but I certainly know people who were. The equating of business with war is um it's distasteful to say the least. Um, presumably no one goes into a business situation with the intent of killing his competitors, right? And and my friend at one point

[1:50] used the word enemies for competitors. And I said, you know, I think competitors is a better word. um you know calling the people we compete with in business enemies is is is really going too far. uh and and I I mean to my friend's credit he you know he he heard the argument and he ameliorated his his speech but but he did say something that I thought was was quite interesting and that is and he's he's in the the the tech world um and that's he's been in that you know that industry for at this

[2:27] point decades and he thinks there's a significant percentage of people in that business who who do indeed look at business as war. Um they look at it as an existential enterprise. And uh while I'll I'll take him at his word, he knows that industry far better than I do, I I I do hope he's wrong. So the idea that the ideas that I bring forth here are are based on the premise that I mention from time to time

[3:02] and that is that you are my fellow citizens uh have been certainly during the time or were during the time I was in the United States Navy and I think continue to be very supportive of the United States military and especially uh the the the soldiers and marines and sailors and airmen. that that uh make up the [clears throat] various service branches. You've been very supportive of us. You spend trillions of dollars of your money uh among other things equipping and

[3:37] training us. And what I'm doing with this show is sort of paying you back for your support, both uh your uh financial support of course, but also um for the the the good treatment that we received. I I grew up I was a child during the time when the United States was fighting in Vietnam. And I I when I was a boy scout, I met some uh um some men who had

[4:12] fought in Vietnam or or they were home on leave and had to go back. And um they were not nearly as well treated. In fact, in many cases, they were badly treated compared to how service members of of of my time in the in the military have been treated. And so that's what this is all about. But I do not in any way, shape, or form think that business is an existential enterprise. And and I I I I frankly condemn that idea. Um, I I I I get it that, you know, drug lords

[4:49] and and others involved in, you know, criminal activity, they will, you know, in in in at least in some cases blightly kill other people to meet their business objectives. Um, that that that's flatout criminal activity. Um but in the legitimate business world I I I strongly um advocate for not using the language of writers like Sun Soo and and others uh in in

[5:27] terms of the you know kinetic combat type language in describing what we do in business. We have competitors, not enemies. We don't go into battle. We we don't combat our um our competitors. Um yes, we use tactics. Tactics is a rather uh neutral word. We do use strategy. Again, a rather neutral word. Um but we are not trying to, God forbid, kill our enemies in in business. we are trying to

[6:02] out compete our competitors and and I I I I hope that um you'll you'll take this to heart, keep it in mind um as as you hopefully also continue to watch these shows for for the for ideas that we can get from like like today we're going to be talking about uh Captain John Paul Jones, one of the legends of the of the United Navy uh from the uh American War for Independence. So, um I I I hope

[6:39] we'll be inspired by um you'll be inspired by his courage, his leadership, and and when I talk about the business lessons we can learn from his victory at Flamborough, um that uh that you'll realize it's taken in the spirit of of being a more resilient competitor, not you know to to bring to to bring forth worth the idea that business is war. Business is not war. Okay. So, uh I I I I felt compelled to say that in light of this discussion

[7:14] I had with my friend yesterday. So, uh t today's um uh uh episode is I am going to be talking about u John Paul Jones's victory at Flamborough Head. Um just a little bit of background um on John Paul Jones. He was born in 1747 in Scotland and he went to sea at the age of 13. Now you may say, "Wow, that's really young." Actually, that wasn't particularly young for someone to go to to sea. In the 18th

[7:50] century, there were boys even younger than that on ships. Um, you had um um a position called a powder monkey. I know that sounds horrible. It was just a boy who carried powder charges from the magazine to the cannons. They had to be small to get into the small spaces where where these powder charges were held. Um and and uh mid shipmen often times were in, you know, 12, 13, 14 years old. Uh sometimes they were older, of course. Um but it wasn't unusual for them to be as young as John Paul Jones was. Uh um and

[8:29] you know, universal schooling was not a thing yet. Number one. Number two, families needed to be able to live. And so uh families were typically larger then than they are now, certainly. And so children uh or what we would call children work. They might work on the family farm or they might be apprenticed at a very young age into some kind of trade or profession. In this case, we're talking about John Paul Jones joining the Navy. So, uh early in his career in

[9:04] his uh um late teens and uh and and and early 20s, he commanded merchant ships and he later worked as a privateeer. I've talked about privateeering on this show before. privateeering is kind of a legal form of piracy and and through those activities he learned especially the privateeering he learned the art of naval combat um and and commerce raiding um that he used so effectively uh during the uh American war for independence in 1775

[9:40] at the outbreak of the American Revolution. So, John Paul Jones volunteered for what was then called the Continental Navy. So, he quickly gained fame uh for raiding British shipping in the Atlantic and the Irish Sea. Uh he commanded a small squadron of a squadron, I should say, a small squadron of small vessels. Um often taking [clears throat] very bold risks. Um, one might even consider them almost foolhardy. Um and and and and but but

[10:15] this was also part of the sort of um uh the espree not the aspa core the uh just the the the the the sort of way of of uh navy naval commanders of that time um to to to gain a reputation for being audacious was uh you know what they what they sought to do. uh and and he certainly uh John Paul Jones certainly earned his his reputation. So uh by 1779, okay, the American Revolution had

[10:52] been going on for several years at that point. Um he was in a French port and he was commanding a ship known as the USS Bonome Rishar. Okay. And yes, it's a a French name. was a former French East India man um that had been converted into a warship. It's one of the most storied names for a ship in the United States Navy. I I think most recently I I think I think there's still a a USS Bonom Rishard. I believe it's a um um like an LHD which is sort of a a ship

[11:30] that the US Navy uses for uh transporting Marine Corps units. There was at one time a US uh an aircraft carrier called the USS Bonom Rishar. Um and um its armorament included 44 gun I'm sorry 42 guns uh cannons and I believe some caranades as well. Um, but because the ship started out as an East India men and and so was built to maximize the amount of cargo it could hold as opposed to speed and maneuverability.

[12:05] Uh, the Bonom Rishard was not well suited um for for certainly for not the kind of naval warfare that went on at the time, what was called a line of battle fight. um it was slower and less maneuverable than the British warships of the day. So um setting the stage for uh flam the the battle of Flamborough Head uh it the the battle took place on September 23rd 1779. Okay. So um what about 236

[12:41] years ago? Uh and Flamborough Head is um um located um off the Yorkshire Yorkshire coast in England. So uh Yorkshire is located on the east coast of England. You kind of um north certainly north of of the Tempames and London. Um, it's not all the way to the border with Scotland, but it's it's I think closer to the Scottish border, uh, than it is to to the Tempames. So, uh,

[13:16] John Paul Jones commanded an American squadron that included his flagship, the Bonom Rishard. It also, uh, included the USS Alliance and two smaller vessels. Two smaller vessels. So, four ships in all. The British squadron uh consisted of the HMS Sarapis which was a 44 gun heavily armed uh frigot and the Countess of Scarboro which was a smaller escort ship. So you would say wow that was a pretty unbalanced battle 2 to1. uh the the Royal Navy was very

[13:54] very proud of its ability to take on a larger force and still become victorious. And indeed the the HMS Sarapis was a vastly superior ship for for combat at least than the USS Bonomishar. So Jones's goal was to raid uh British shipping and disrupt commerce. Uh but you know generally speaking uh you know he was up against British u you know merchant men uh going again going up

[14:31] against the HMS Sarapis um meant essentially full-blown combat. So uh the the the the battle um began with the Bonom Rishar and the Sarapis closing to within range. that's within the range of of how far their cannons could reach. And um the British ship, which was faster and more maneuverable, it opened fire and pretty quickly started battering the Bonome Rishard. Um it it

[15:06] it just it was like, as I said a moment ago, it it was just overall a vastly superior ship. Um and and pretty quickly, um the Jones's ship was was heavily damaged, the rigging was torn, the sails were shredded, and the hole um had been shot through uh so many times it was leaking. Um and and Jones realized that uh he could not he could not survive this kind of uh you know

[15:41] cannon firing battle that he he was going to be defeated if he kept up uh if if he you know continued to to essentially play the the British ships uh play into the British ship's strategy which was to um outmaneuver the Bonom Rishar and basically just pound it to the point where it either had to um it either had to give up or it it was sunk. So, uh, Jones made the

[16:16] clearly audacious decision to, uh, essentially, um, use what what way he had left on the Bonome Rishar to come within grappling distance of the Sarapis. and they and then he had his men throw grappling hooks um from from his ship to the British ship and essentially tied them together. And so while the cannons did continue to fire, they were much less effective

[16:52] because there's no way to get a cannon firing at a steep enough angle down to hold the ship below the water line without seriously endangering the gun crew of that cannon. And and that was part of the strategy of grappling the ships together was it it um dramatically reduced the effectiveness of the the Sarapi's um um uh gunnery. And so having locked the two ships together um and

[17:28] while the cannons continued to fire at essentially point blank range and uh marines in the mass of the ship were firing musketss ac across the decks. They would generally speaking try to uh kill the officers, right? So because a leaderless crew was much less effective. So, as as this the battle sort of ranged in that way, uh uh Jones's ship, the Bono Rishard, um began to sink and and and in fact was in danger of of going

[18:03] down. And and it was at this point that the um British the commander of the British ship um demanded that Jones surrender. And Jones, his reported famous reply was, "I have not yet begun to fight." And this has become an absolutely legendary uh event in American naval history. And indeed, whether those are the exact words or not, they definitely inspired the crew

[18:40] of the American ship. And and so to turn the tide, John Paul Jones led his crew in boarding the Sarapis. And the fight uh was essentially hand-tohand combat. swords, pikes, um um the uh the the short uh wooden posts that were put into the the deck railing around which the various rig u um running rigging of the ship were tied. They would they would take those and uh and so um the the crew

[19:17] of the Bonome Rishard got on board the Sarapis and and again that the fighting was was handtoand. The battle raged for another three hours and the American crew outfought the British crew and eventually the Sarapis was forced to strike her colors which means lower her flag and that signaled the surrender of of the British squadron, the two the two ships. And so John Paul Jones and his crew emerged victorious. they really

[19:55] snatched uh uh victory out of what looked like certain defeat and it's why this battle goes down in history um as being so so legendary. So in the aftermath of the battle uh the Bonome Rishard did uh end up sinking a few days later. Um and it was it just could not be salvaged. There was no way to to uh uh tow it. First of all, they couldn't tow it to a British port. Um they would have been, you know, captured and and and imprisoned. Um and they were not going to get it all the way back to to

[20:32] France given the condition it was in. Um the Americans captured the Sarapis and they uh they ended up it was in pretty bad shape as well, but the but um they were able to tow it into port. Um and it became not only a major victory, but a major propaganda victory. uh among both the Americans and the French. So during the the American Revolution uh al although uh uh England and France were not in active uh war um they were by no means allies they remained um

[21:08] geopolitical uh enemies um and and so that um the Americans had um emerged victorious um over uh the English uh was was a cause for for French uh for French um uh celebration. Um so the significance of the battle was on several levels. First of all, strategically it demonstrated that even in British waters um America the

[21:43] American the this nent American Navy it had only been around for a few years at that point. Uh the the back in the 1970s, as I mentioned in my show yesterday on Navy Day, in the 1970s, the founding date of the United States Navy was set at uh October 13, 1775. So at this point, the American the Continental Navy was, you know, essentially four years old, uh up against the strongest naval power in the world. um and and they could go into British the

[22:20] American Navy could go into British waters and they could achieve victory. So it was it was stunning on some level uh for the Royal Navy um as well as the rest of the world to hear that this is what the Americans had done. Um it was a moral victory um in that it inspired Americans certainly but also the French and other Europeans by proving that the colonies were not defenseless uh at sea. And and this was important because u the

[22:56] because the naent United States of America needed allies. They needed uh the the French they and and other countries to supply them with the material of war and and and nations were often times reluctant to do so if they thought that the party seeking that kind of support was not going to be victorious. Why support a loser basically right? So, uh, John Paul Jones's victory showed that, uh, the US Navy could fight shipto- ship basically

[23:33] and could be victorious. Uh, it also the b the battle also showed the the tactical um, innovation may be too strong a word. Um because there you know it it John Paul Jones was not the first one uh to use the boarding of a ship to achieve victory. Uh certainly uh navies and pirates had been doing it uh before. Um but but the idea of of using grappling hooks and tying the two ships together

[24:09] and really sort of staking one's all on on boarding an enemy's ship and and uh defeating it. Um that was bolder than um was was certainly typically if not ever seen before. and and so uh you know typically if there was a boarding party they would board the ship but the ship from which they came might stand off uh to sort of live to fight another day. And then finally uh John Paul Jones became a legend in his own time. uh he

[24:46] became a symbol of courage of unyielding determination in naval warfare and even beyond that he he inspired Americans uh in general uh in in their fight for independence uh from England. So um just some interesting details um the Bonome Rishard lost 30 to 50 of her crewmen. Well, that that is a somewhat large number. Uh if the ship had sunk, of course, the loss would have been much much greater. And and indeed, the

[25:23] Sarapis suffer suffered much heavier losses than the Bonome Rishard. Um the weapons used as I mentioned a little bit a little while ago included cannons, musketss, grenades, uh swords. I mean it was it was as as basically as broad a variety of weapons as ships as squarerigged wooden ships carried in those days. Um, and it is notable, and I'm I'm repeating this, uh, Jones led the boarding crew, right? He put himself in personal danger,

[25:59] um, and risking his life and and and that was, you know, inspiring to his crew that, you know, he wasn't sitting back and saying, "You go fight while I have my tea," or whatever. uh you know, he was willing to take the same risks that they took. Um and and it there was a cultural impact to Jones's victory at Flamborough Head, including uh it inspired poems and paintings. Um if you saw any of the promotions uh for any of the uh social media promotions for this episode, you saw one of the uh

[26:35] paintings. Um, and really it was a a significant uh peg, if you will, in the development of American naval traditions. So, um, let's take a break here and then and then I'll come back and we'll talk about some of the lessons. 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,

[27:10] Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine through community support, education, and advocacy. For over 120 years, Americans of all walks of life 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, if you noticed in the background of of that uh sponsor spot, there was a

[27:47] ship that was indeed LHD6, the Bonome Rishard. I I that's why I had I had it in my mind that that that was the case. So, uh so there you go. You got to see the most recent version of this uh storied name. So I I I came up with uh six lessons um that we can learn from uh John Paul Jones's victory at Flamborough Head. And and number one is turn weakness into strategy. So um when your resources are limited um change the

[28:26] rules of engagement. So, as I mentioned, uh, you know, the the Bonome Reishard was slower, weaker, less maneuverable than the Sarapis. And so, instead of fighting at a distance, he closed in. John Paul Jones closed in, grappled the ships together, and turned the battle into one of individual courage and manpower as opposed to firepower. He certainly was go even though he had 42 guns to 44. Uh the gun the gunnery of the Bonomishard was just not as uh

[29:04] strong and and the weight of shot that the Bonom Rishard could fire was not as great as Sarapis. And so uh Jones realized, you know, pretty quickly that he was not going to be able to win victory that way. And so he realized he needed to change his strategy. So in business it's often times that um we we have larger um competitors competitors who have more market power and and uh they have greater capitalization. maybe they have a a larger uh team than we

[29:41] have and and we're not going to be able to compete with them um based on our relative the relative size of our resources. And so if we're small um we're going to have to learn to be more creative, more agile, more scrappy. That's such a great word. It it sounds like what it means, right? And I know for from from my own uh history in business when I had my real estate company. So uh I um I did a very complex real estate appraisals. Uh the kind of

[30:17] work that was almost never done by a the a small the the small firm that I had. It was usually much larger firms did the work. And the way I was able to be successful was by being much more responsive to my clients needs. There were times when they needed a a a report turned around in as little as 48 hours. Okay? No large uh appraisal company would commit to doing work that quickly

[30:53] while maintaining a high level of quality of work. And uh there were there were times when I maybe you know in a 48 hour period I may have slept for four or five hours. Um and and that included, you know, flying to a destination where a property was located and and doing all of the work, doing the research, and then just, you know, staying up it almost literally all night drafting the report to get it to the client. And the

[31:28] client the clients appreciated that because they were competing against other lenders. And so to be able to respond to a potential borrower more quickly gave them a competitive advantage. And so that I was able to give be more agile, be more um uh specifically customer responsive uh gave them the ability to be more competitive. And so they looked to me um as opposed to a larger firm uh for for that kind of work. And so I could I

[32:05] could out compete my larger um better capitalized um you know larger teamed competitors and and be successful. Okay. So number one turn weakness into strategy. Number two uh refuse to quit when the odds are against you. So perseverance under pressure sometimes maybe often times creates breakthroughs and and and I would argue that uh when things are going well and and we're feeling pretty comfortable, we're

[32:41] probably not motivated to look for breakthroughs. We should be um but oftentimes we're not, especially if we're we have small businesses. So uh when Jones a as I related in the history of of the of Flambor had when he was called on to surrender he said I have not yet be begun to fight and I think that we have to have a similar level of resolve. So, uh, times right now are, um, uh, the business climate. Um, I I think it's less chaotic now than it was earlier in

[33:17] the year, but there's still considerable uncertainty, uh, what's going to happen. Um, we're not getting the kind of regular economic data uh, for the last month uh, that we're we're used to getting. Um um tariffs still remain um an an uncertainty how they're going to play out, if they're going to play out, will the Supreme Court um um overturn the tariff regimes that that the Trump administration has put into place and if so, uh how will the administration respond to that? So all of these create

[33:54] uncertainty and yet uh we as we as business people need to persevere and we need to find ways to deal with the uncertainty and still be successful, still be prosperous and many firms it turns out are doing that. So if you if you've been listening to earnings reports, if you've been listening to the discussions undergirling the the earnings reports and and the projected earnings. So many companies are coming out and saying that um the the initial

[34:31] assessment of the impact of tariffs, for example, is not as great as it was as as it's not as great as they had they had at first anticipated maybe four, five, six months ago. uh and so they're able to to be uh they've been able to generate better earnings than they thought. Uh there are companies like uh UPS was reported this uh United Parcel Service UPS reported their earnings this morning and their earnings exceeded estimates, their revenue exceeded estimates and that was partly due to the CEO of the company uh

[35:09] realizing that he had to streamline operations and it looks like that strategy has been uh very successful. So whether you're a small scrappy company like like mine, whether you're a a large uh multinational company like UPS, um you we have to refuse to quit even when the odds are against us. And we need to inspire our people, our team members to to do the same thing because one person in a company can't uh o

[35:46] overcome uh the the challenge the the challenges of the market and and business competition but as a team we certainly can. Okay. So number three, we need to inspire relentless commitment. Right? So leadership is first and foremost about conviction to the uh goal, the purpose, the mission of a company and to inspiring others to

[36:22] follow in reaching that goal that that that mission um that the that that fulfill the purpose of that company. That's fundamentally what leadership is about. and and we see uh John Paul Jones um exhibiting exemplary leadership uh at at Flamboro Head u because uh he had to make the the the quick decisive decisions uh to change the strategy in the battle, but also when it came time to, you know, where where the rubber

[36:57] hits the road, as they say, he led his men over the railing in and in in launching that hand-to-hand combat that through which the Americans uh after several hours reigned victorious. And it was that kind of uh audacious action and self-confidence that inspired his crew and convinced them that if the captain believes we're going to win, then indeed we can win. He

[37:32] John Paul Jones had unshakable confidence um and and his un unshakable confidence became the source of the courage of his crew. So uh when we are leading an enterprise, a business, a nonprofit, a professional practice, right? How we approach things is largely going to to determine how the other members of our team approach the business. Right? So if we don't think we

[38:08] can be successful, almost assuredly we will not be. If we're facing headwinds and then as leaders we need to project self-confidence. We need to project resilience and in doing so, but we need to do it in a way that will inspire our other team members to follow our example and to relentlessly commit not just to following our leadership, although that's part of it, but be themselves

[38:45] relentlessly committed to accomplishing the mission, to fulfilling the purpose. Okay. Next uh number four, we need to adapt in real time. Okay. Business the the speed at which business happens today is much faster than it was even when I started in business now going back close to 40 years ago. Um, and in fact, next year, 2026, I'll well, it won't be my 40th year in business because I took some time off to be in the Navy, but it'll be 40 years since I

[39:22] started my first company. And the pace of business in the 1980s was nowhere near as fast as it is now. And the uh the competition um is is much more uh innovative and flexible even among large companies than it was 40 years ago. and tools like large language model, like uh AI automation, all of these allow companies of all

[39:59] sizes to adapt much more quickly than has ever been the case. So, uh this is a skill that we need to learn and constantly consistently improve. So, uh, you know, going back to John Paul Jones and his battle, as I mentioned in the history, he saw pretty quickly that his battle plan was not going to be successful. And so he adapted shifting from a strategy of gunnery to a a

[40:34] strategy of of boarding where uh he was not outguned but where the where leadership and the courage of his crew would be set against that of the uh the officers and sailors of the Sarapis. Right? And and that was why in the end they were able to be victorious. So in in going back to business then market conditions change continually. Uh competitors are also changing constantly. So the the successful

[41:11] business is the B is the leader uh is is the business that has leadership that is looking to adjust quickly to seize opportunities to see where troubles may be brewing ahead. and will tack left or right uh in order to avoid those difficulties. And and having made a change will be equally uh um decisive about making further changes if they're necessary. And and indeed

[41:46] staying competitive in business on some level can be exhausting these days. It seems like there is no opportunity for downtime. And so I'm not going to get into that as as part of this discussion, but we as as as business people, we as leaders of businesses, we do need to be very attentive to our own physical, mental and spiritual health so that we can be so that we can maintain our resilience and have the ability to adapt in real time. That's number four. Number

[42:22] five, value symbolic victories. So oftentimes perception is as important as performance. Okay, so excuse [clears throat] me. indeed winning a shipto- ship battle. It was just one ship to- ship battle uh you know between uh John Paul Jones's USS Bonom Rishard and the HMS Sarapis. you know, uh, in the grand scheme of things, it it it was a pretty modest victory, but the symbolic impact of it

[43:01] was much much larger. That the scrappy Americans defeated a ship of the most powerful navy in the world at that time was something truly of note. And the the propaganda victory or the propaganda value of the victory more precisely stated was probably more important than the victory itself. The fact that the um Sarapis was captured, okay, one fewer

[43:37] British warship, but you know the Bonome Rishard sank. So the American Navy um you know they they ended up with a ship that at least when it started was a better ship than the US Bonome Rishard but required a lot of work to get it back into sailing trim right and and the British lost one ship out of hundreds that they had not a significant loss but that they had lost in a straightup shipto- ship fight was of tremendous tremendous impact um

[44:13] in in what eventually became the uh the American victory in the war for independence. And so in in business too, um sometimes we have to look at where we can uh where we can make ground in a way that will inspire our our people, that will demonstrate to the larger market our ability and will bring to us

[44:50] accolades. ades that maybe they're in in in excess of of what was really won. Um but but nonetheless, uh they they bring the kind of accolades to our business that will help us expand, grow, and inspire our teams. And uh um trying to think of a quick example of this um from what I've heard in the news recently. I had it in the back of my head and now it's gone away. Uh oh. So, uh I I again, if you're following

[45:26] current business news, uh both Apple and I I don't remember what the other company is, but two major tech companies now uh have over $4 trillion market capitalizations. $4 trillion. I remember when to hear the word billion used in a business context was just mindblowing. And now we talk about trillions. And I I think while in a way, okay, you know, trillions, what does it really mean? Nobody owns all those trillion. No

[46:01] individual owns those trillions of dollars. Okay. Yeah, sure. On the other hand, to be part of an enterprise that has reached a valuation unheard of in human history, I think has to be inspiring. And so for whatever market challenges Apple has, uh there's no doubting that there's a a public relations victory in in having such a tremendously large uh market capitalization.

[46:37] So the value of that symbolic uh victory, if you will, I think is is notable. And I would imagine that Tim Cook is using that to inspire not just his senior exe executives who, you know, because they have stock options or whatever may directly financially benefit from the increase in value of of the company to such a lofty level, but just the sort of more rank and file people working at Apple who uh should be proud of of of h helping build uh such a

[47:14] successful organ. organization and finally uh build alliances that expand uh businesses that expand your reach. So partnership amplifies power. Um the uh squadron that um John Paul Jones commanded it included uh French crew uh I'm sorry, French ships. It in it had a multinational crew, which wasn't particularly unusual for the time. Um, often ships had sailors on board from many nations. Uh, even even

[47:50] the Royal Navy had had that uh had ships with uh sailors that weren't English. Um, although the the vast majority of their sailors were. [snorts] and and John Paul Jones's cooperation with France in in getting his ships fitted out in French ports meant that he was able to take the fight to England much more effectively and efficiently than if he had had to go back to American ports, sail all the way across the Atlantic, all the way back across the Atlantic. So the partnership that he was able to

[48:25] build with French officials meant that he could be much more effective and much bolder in his commerce rating. And so I think this is an area that that small businesses uh don't on which small businesses don't focus enough. um we often perhap I don't know about often but I think there's a tendency perhaps to think that oh alliances those are for large companies so um uh um I was listening to an

[49:03] airline ad earlier today today and I think United Airlines was touting their alliance with uh Airia or whoever it was right and then and they were touting on on how close it was and how howffic efficiently they worked together and how good that was for their passengers and you know kind of blah blah blah blah blah. Um okay, I'll take them at their word. I mean I don't I don't I don't fly these days. Um but but there there's no doubt that things like code sharing uh allows uh airlines to operate more efficiently. Um and rather than

[49:39] duplicating routes, uh they can provide more uh uh more seamless uh service to their passengers by having alliances between different airlines as opposed to just having, you know, trying to trying to, you know, cover every route within one airline. And so, you know, we're I think we're used to understanding that. I think less understood is how we as small businesses can create alliances. So I'll give you an example uh

[50:15] Sunday before last uh I was I was invited to uh Sofi Stadium which is the beautiful new sports stadium in Englewood which is just south of the city of Los Angeles. It really is an impressive uh engineering work if you haven't been there. I all I can say is go check it out. Uh even if you only go once. Uh and uh a business colleague of mine, a fellow by the name of Andrew Nutbrown, who's an estate planning attorney, invited me uh

[50:50] to go and I got to meet some of his colleagues and some of um some of the other uh clients of the firm. And I met a young uh young man there who works for a home health care uh company. They provide RNs and other uh individuals who can take care of people in their homes. It could be 24-hour a day care. It can be just needing visits periodically to administer medications or whatever it is. And uh he mentioned to me that he was thinking about becoming a

[51:26] professional fiduciary, which is what I do. and we started talking and and I I mentioned to him that you know as a and he he was looking he's already involved in in the client care side in what he's doing. He sells the services. He doesn't do the client care himself. Um he's not an RN but um he's already involved in that side of it. That's what he knows is how to take care of people. He doesn't know the financial side of a conservatorship or a guardianship. And I

[52:01] and I said to him, I the one thing I would say is if you are going to become a professional fiduciary, you need to make sure that you're handling the financial side of of being a fiduciary as competently as the client care side. And he said, "Well, I don't have any experience in that." And and you know, kind of half joking, I said to him, "Well, you know, we could always team up because I only handle the financial side. I don't do client care. So, you know, we could team up and you could handle that side and I can handle this side and we can both do what we do well

[52:37] and be a powerful duel." And uh you know, he he loved that idea. So, you know, we're going to we're actually we scheduled a meeting next week or two uh to to talk about this and and the fact of the matter is we would be much stronger allied than we would be individually. This the we would be more than two in essence you know the sum of the parts the whole is some is greater than the sum of the parts. So that's where I think we who are have small businesses really need to to look

[53:13] for those kinds of uh situations. So I have a similar alliance with my friend uh Bill Gross who's one of the top probate real estate agents in the country. So, Bill and I work together on lots of projects and perhaps even more importantly, we back each other up so that uh you know where where he has um where he's not as strong um I tend to be strong and vice versa. And so again, the whole is greater than the sum of the

[53:49] parts when Bill and I work together. And so those are the kinds of alliances that will expand our reach, expand our profitability, and make our businesses and our professional practices more successful. So those are the those are the the lessons that we can learn from John Paul Jones's victory at Flamborough Head. Real quickly, just reviewing them. Turn weakness into a strategy. Refuse to quit even when the odds are against you. uh inspire relentless commitment, adapt

[54:26] in real time, value symbolic victories, and finally build alliances that expand your reach. So if we can do those things, we will indeed be much more successful in business. So I thank you very much for joining me today. Always got some some live viewers on. Uh thank you very much for joining me. Tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my show, People Making Money. And then on uh wait, let me double check my calendar

[55:02] so I'm not telling you the wrong thing. Uh yeah, and that yeah, tomorrow is is is my uh last show for this week. So hopefully I'll see you tomorrow, 10 a.m. Pacific time. And in the meantime, I wish you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do.