The WAY to WOW Shows
The Cost of Delay
September 16, 2025
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[0:02] Who are you? 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 Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about military history, doctrine, and leadership practices from which I distill lessons that you can apply to your businesses or and professional practices. So today I'm going to be

[0:39] talking about the Civil War battle, the uh Battle of Antatum, which took place on September 17th, 1862. So it'll beund it'll be the 163rd anniversary of the Battle of Antatum tomorrow. And you know this this civil war is perhaps not surprisingly one of the most uh um studied wars in which um historians and scholars engage

[1:16] here in America. Uh it it was the most bloody war because people on both sides of the conflict were were Americans and it changed the direction of the country uh quite significantly. So and and it was it was a step in the realization of um the values that the founders of the country had espoused in the declaration of independence and also in the US constitution. So it's it's a it's a particularly good

[1:53] place to go for lessons of any sort. Uh but I think um some of a at least a couple of the lessons that I talk about in the second part of the show will be uh you know different than those that I've talked about uh in in other uh on other shows. So let's get a little context of what was going on before the battle of Antatum. So, uh, by 1862, the Civil War had been going on for over a year. Um, the Union, which was the

[2:30] North, and the Confederacy, which was the South, they were locked in what can only be termed as a a brutal conflict over secession, which the the Confederate States uh thought they had a a right to do. um that the Union was not in violate uh and the Constitution did not make it so over slavery. of course, the really the central issue and and in many ways the issue that triggered the

[3:06] this the South's uh secession from the unit when Abraham Lincoln was elected as a Republican on the anti-slavery platform and and then finally the idea of states rights. So this is something that has gotten renewed tension uh renewed attention I should say recently. The federal system we we talk about the checks and balances within the constitution between the three branches of government the executive the legislative and the

[3:43] judicial. But there's another set of checks and balances that is supposed to go on because we live in a federal system. Meaning that there's a check and balance between the people, the states, and the federal government. And in fact, the the US Constitution delegates specific powers to the federal government and specifically reserves all other powers to the states or the people. And so this idea of states

[4:19] rights, what what the states have the authority to do and what the federal government has the authority to do was much in question at the time a was much in question in the early days of the republic and it was another of the issues over which the civil war was fought. So the Confederacy had won several victories especially in the eastern theater in in 1861 and and and earlier in 1862.

[4:54] Uh the Confederate forces were led by General Robert E. Lee. He was a former uh commonant of the US Military Academy who had returned to the south to his home state of Virginia. um and and had uh agreed to lead the Confederate forces. Um the battles that he won included um what is known as the second battle of Bull Run or or second Manasses in August of 1862. And because of these victories, Lee decided to launch an invasion of the

[5:31] North by moving his army of Northern Virginia into Maryland. And he had at least three aims in doing this. One was to attempt to influence northern elections and possibly sway northerners toward suing for peace. That was number one. And number two was to gain supplies from the fertile northern countryside. The fact of the matter is uh while the the fighting was brutal uh

[6:09] the the north had to use absolutely scorched earth tactics on a military level to defeat the south. The the typical southern soldier was just a more competent soldier. The aspir of the south was superior to the north and probably most importantly the generalship of the south overall was superior to the general ship of the north especially in the early the first you know couple three years of the civil war. What the South could not match was

[6:46] the industrial output of the North and the uh the the the naval the strength of the naval forces that the North used to blockade the South. That's not to say that the blockade was 100% effective. It it certainly was not. uh but the norse ability well first of all the miles of railroad the number of factories with which the north started as the civil war far outstripped that of the south and

[7:22] the ability of the north to manufacture the ne necessities of warfare was far far greater than the south. Uh the the ability of the north to grow food was greater than in the south. the south grew primarily uh cot crops such as cotton, indigo, tobacco and rice. Those were the four uh most prominent cash crops in the south. So food was was was not the kind of cash crop in the south that it was in the north where wheat and rye and other grains were

[7:59] grown. Uh typically in such abundance that there was a big distilling industry in the north because the the bumper crops of of grain would spoil if they weren't used. And so turning them into whiskey was a good way of essentially preserving those those agricultural uh supplies. So uh so Lee thought that he could essentially commandeer some of the uh supplies that the North was producing. And then finally uh Lee wanted to encourage Maryland to a border

[8:36] state to join the Confederacy. Now the the district that Washington DC, Washington District of Columbia where the national government sits is essentially surrounded by Maryland. And Abraham Lincoln took extraordinary steps to keep Maryland in the north. And it would have been a a a significant uh morale booster had uh General Lee been able to convince Maryland to join the Confederacy. So that's that was the the South's sort

[9:13] of overall plan or motivation anyway for its invasion of the North that led to the Battle of Antatum. On the Union side, the Union force, the Union Army was commanded by George B. Mlelen. Uh Mlen was no fan of Abraham Lincoln. He ended up uh running against essentially attempting to run against him for president after uh he after his uh experience as a commanding general. Um he

[9:48] uh and he led the Union Army of the PTOAC to be specific. the Union Army that was in Maryland and was and had among other responsibilities that of defending Washington DC. Now, he had Lee's battle plan for Antatum. It was it was famously known as the Lost Order or Special Order 191. But in any event, despite having Lee's battle plans, Mlelen was very cautious. He delayed aggressively going after Lee and and this gave Lee and the Confederates time

[10:26] to consolidate their position and in the end avoid disaster. So the biggest problem was with Mlelen was he would train and and and plan and get ready uh but he would never take any action. That was essentially his reputation. So that sets the initial scene. The battle itself, okay, as I mentioned, it took place on September 17th, 1862 near Sharpsburg, Maryland along Antatum Creek, which of is of course where it

[11:02] got its name. The Union Army of the PTOAC had approximately 87,000 soldiers in it of of which uh 12,400 there were 12,400 casualties 21 these are approximate numbers of course approximately 12,400 casualties approximately 2100 killed the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was comprised of approximately 38,000 th000 soldiers, less than half of

[11:37] Mlullen's army. Nonetheless, it suffered approximately 10,300 casualties or over a quarter of its numbers and approximately 1,500 deaths. So, you know, much higher casualty rate among the Confederates. And as I talk about the battle, I think you'll you'll see why. So the morning of September 17th found 1862 of course found the action taking

[12:12] place in a cornfield. So the Union forces attacked the Confederate left flank in a series of bloody assaults. Now, if you've ever seen a movie about combat in the 19th century, it's not at all like combat in even in the 20 at the 20th century like you see in World War II movies or even World War I movies. So, uh, gen, you know, the the you generally speaking had still had troops facing each other, firing, uh, although from more strategic

[12:49] positions rather than just sort of marching toward each other while firing. Um however the the the tactic of of sort of uh you know firing from behind trees and such which had started during the American war for independence was used uh in the civil war became more frequently used es especially by the south who was very adept at this kind of warfare. So uh so these these uh these Union uh

[13:24] charges basic basically against the Confederate left flank uh caused a great deal uh of casualties. Um but despite the repeated Union charges, uh the Confederates held their position. So they did not give way. And you know the the the terrain of the dense corn, if you can picture these, you know, dense stocks of you know, fields of corn with the corn stalks, um which can for sure grow taller than a man. uh fighting in

[13:59] that that that those that situation the visibility was poor, the coordination was severely limited and it made the fighting very chaotic and hence why the casualties at least one of the reasons why the casualties were so high. So the initial Union action uh ended up not uh displacing the Confederates at all and and so you know the the the Union essentially withdrew from that attack um and and the the but the battle continued. So midday

[14:36] um took place in a a sunken road that came to be known as Bloody Lane. So the Union troops in this case attacked the Confederate center along a natural sunken road and the Confederates initially held strong, but eventually the Union forces were able to push through inflicting massive uh casualties. So it, you know, we're talking about the Union had more than twice the number of soldiers that the Confederates had. And

[15:13] so, you know, by midday, the the the just the superior size of the Union Army was starting to take its toll. Okay. And, you know, it was not in any way, shape or form superior general ship in this case. So the scene became just it became iconic sounds positive. It it became horrific a horrific uh um picture of the civil war because of the the huge number of casualties. The battle continued into

[15:51] the afternoon where Union General Ambrose Burnside, him famous for what are now known as sideburns. Um, so he attempted to cross a stone bridge to attack the Confederate right. Um, however, Confederate sharpshooters repelled his this assault for hours. Um, despite again being heavily outnumbered. Uh and when the Union forces were when when Ambrose and the Union forces were finally able to cross the bridge, it was

[16:26] too late to decisively defeat Lee's army. Um by then it was heading into evenings and uh reinforcements arrived that allowed Lee to stabilize his position and Mlelen despite having you know more than a 2 to1 advantage uh in in in troops. He didn't fully uh press the attack allowing Lee to withdraw back into Virginia the following day. And it it it temporarily ended uh the northern invasion. Uh but

[17:05] um it did keep his uh it ended I should say it ended the northern invasion that northern invasion um and it kept his army intact. So it was while it was perhaps a tactical defeat for the Confederates, it was by no means a strategic defeat of the Confederacy. Um and so the war continued to rage on for for another uh roughly two years. So what were the consequences then uh of

[17:41] the battle of Antatum? Well, first of all, um, ostensibly the Union had won. They had repulsed the Confederate invasion of the North. And so, President Lincoln was able to claim a Union victory first of all, uh, which was one something he was longing to do. And because he was able to claim that victory, he was then able to issue what became known as the Emancipation Proclamation. And the Emancipation Proclamation

[18:18] freed slaves in the States currently in rebellion against the United States. This is one of the criticisms of of President Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation was it did not free slaves in what were called the border states um uh Tennessee, uh Kentucky, Maryland, and and uh those in favor of the abolition of slavery uh excoriated uh Abraham Lincoln for not making an

[18:53] outright declaration of of the freeing of all slaves. From Lincoln's perspective, he was he was trying to end slavery, but he was also working to keep the Union together. And so he compromised with the Emancipation Proclamation, allowing slavery to continue in border states to encourage them to stay within the Union and not abandon the Union and join the Confederacy. So it was perhaps

[19:29] it was it was there was it was no doubt it was a compromise. It was perhaps a justified compromise. um if the if the border states had gone over to the Confederacy and if the Confederacy had either fought the uh North to a stalemate or won the Civil War, well, for sure slavery was not going to end. And so Lincoln looked at it from the standpoint of I I I have to win this war if I want to abolish slavery. And if and and I'm gonna I'm

[20:04] gonna make a a compromise here that hopefully will weaken the South's ability to prosecute the war and then will deal with the abolition of slavery completely once the war was done. And of course post civil war 14th and 15th amendments uh to the constitu I'm sorry the 13th and 14th amendments to the constitution were passed um that that abolished slavery. Okay. Um so um the other thing that um Lincoln wanted to do

[20:39] was um prevent foreign countries from recognizing the Confederacy pime essentially European powers Spain, France, England. Now England was reliant on raw cotton coming from the south for it to use in its mills. um the Confederacy was counting on England to support it in order to get the cotton and to to uh run the the northern blockade. But in the event

[21:14] rather than do that, England turned to other sources for cotton including India which was a colony of England by that time. So, uh, you know, the the the the victory of the North at Antatum, uh, helped Lincoln, um, toward his goal of preventing European powers from recognizing the Confederacy. Uh, the military consequences were not particularly favorable to the North. Lee retreated back to Virginia. He kept his army intact. Um, Mlullen was

[21:51] criticized for not aggressively pursuing and defeating Lee's army and he was eventually removed from command. Mlelen remained bitter against uh, President Lincoln for removing him from command. But the reality was Mlelen was not a good commanding general. he didn't have the aggressiveness that was necessary to confront the Confederacy and the fact of the matter is he probably should have been removed earlier. Um that that was a

[22:26] a personnel mistake that that President Lincoln made. So the long-term impact of Antatum was it started to shift the war's momentum until Antatum really this the South had the momentum in terms of military action. So the repulsing of Lee's invasion of the north at Antatum gave the Union a morale boost and um even though uh the Confederacy remained a formidable military threat um

[23:04] it tada marked a shift in how the new how the North pursued the war especially militarily. Um, as I mentioned a moment ago, it did lead to uh Mlen being replaced and eventually of course uh um Ulissiz Srant became the commanding general and along with his his along with other northern generals, particularly Sherman. Um I think I've talked about Sherman in the Battle of Atlanta in a previous show. um and and

[23:39] they they p pursued what amounted to just a scorched earth military plan against the south that eventually led to the south uh conceding and and and an appamatics uh Lee um surrendered. So So that's that's the history of the battle itself. Let's take a quick break and then we'll look at some lessons. America is a maritime nation. Our freedom and security depend on strong sea services. The Beverly Hills Council

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[24:50] uh on the 163rd anniversary of the Civil War Battle of Antatum, we're we're talking about I've just I just talked about the history of the battle and I'm going to talk about some lessons that that can be learned from it. So, one of the uh ongoing discussions uh that one of my closest business associates, Bill Gross, who I've talked about uh a number of times on this and my other shows, one of the things we talk about uh quite regularly is the difference between what

[25:25] Bill calls real estate time and lawyers time. So real estate time basically means you don't put off until the next minute what you can have done what you could have done a minute ago. I think that's a good way to summarize it. In other words, a lacrity in getting things done is part of the real estate ethos and in general I think that's true. Whereas for lawyers, speed in getting things done often time, I mean, unless

[26:00] it's something that's absolutely crucial, a case literally hangs in the balance, you don't see that the same kind of elacrity in pursuing matters. Now, there's there are reasons why that's the case. When you're drafting legal documents, they need to be drafted. They need to be reread. they they need to sit and and read read again later to in order to detect mistakes in order to reconsider the strategy contained within the document. So reflection is a part of the legal process. Uh but for those of us who are

[26:36] used to working on real estate time, it can be frustrating, right? That that that it takes so long, right? Uh and and so this is I think the first lesson and perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from the battle of Antatum and that is opportunity can be fleeting. So Mlen had Lee's battle plans. He had numerical superiority again more than 2 to one. He he fin he finally put Lee on

[27:12] the run and yet he did not pursue Lee and deliver the coupigrass as we say and this led directly to an elongation of the civil war. Mlen should have been aggressive in going after Lee in using the the intelligence that he had, the battle plans, and he should not have let Lee move back into Virginia unhampered. He should have been chasing him and harassing him and attempting to cut off

[27:49] his retreat uh and and and destroyed his army or at least gain the surrender of his army and maybe even the capture of Lee himself. If Mlen had done that in 1862, a lot of the carnage of of of the military aspect of the Civil War could have been avoided. Not to mention the destruction of farms, plantations, just the the ability of the South to operate economically that could have been avoided as well. And so th this this is

[28:28] part of the inherent dilemma in business, right? When should we move quickly to take advantage of opportunity to press our advantage to act on a new idea a new product a new service when should we sit back and I think in general we should be moving quickly that's that's is certainly that's the bias these days move fast take the chance you're going to break some things make adjustments as you move. That really should be the

[29:05] attitude in a business today. And and the fact of the matter is the race goes to the swift, right? That that's an old saying that's been around for I don't know how how many generations, but it is generally true. Okay. Now, we count on our our lawyers, our accountants, our advisors to advise us when a little more time should be taken in order to be prudent. And that's fine. If our advisors are are are giving us reasons why we should reconsider a rapid strategy, they make sense to us, then

[29:42] maybe we should slow things down a little bit. But in general, the bias should be toward elacrity and not doing so may may well almost surely will mean we lose out on opportunity. Opportunity is is fleeting. It just is. And we need to be poised to grasp that opportunity when it comes our way. So that that's number one. Uh number two, risk assessive. a risk a risk assessment and aggressiveness must be balanced. And

[30:17] this this is another one of Mlelen's faults is he was not he he he could not make a proper assessment of of risk versus assertiveness. He was just absolutely risk averse. And that's why, for example, he didn't follow Lee into Virginia. What if he was being led into a trap? What if there was a whole another, you know, army uh waiting there to uh to um reinforce Lee?

[30:55] All you know, there and there's always whatifs, but the fact of the matter is that he had Lee's battle plan. He knew that this wasn't some faint in order to draw him into I, you know, into a a trap of some kind. And and so his, you know, his concern that it might be a trap or something. Look, you rarely in business do we actually know what our competitors are are going to attempt to do. We don't

[31:30] have that level of clarity. for Mlen to have that level of clarity and to still not be able to make a proper risk versus aggressiveness assessment shows that he was just unable to do so. And we have to have that skill. That is probably the top one, two or three skills one needs in order to make a business successful. And the fact of the matter is we don't have to always make that assessment correctly. It's just we need to do it

[32:08] correctly a majority of the time. 51% of the time. Now, I I say that a little bit tongue and cheek. Uh but we don't need to be concerned about making the right call every time. The fact of the matter is often we can recover from a mistake. we made in assessing the risk versus aggressiveness uh balance and and and that's you know Lee made the same assessment and in the end his assessment proved wrong. He was not able to gain

[32:45] his objective and yet uh you know he was able to live to fight another day. He and his army were you know while they suffered you know again over 40% I mean over 25% casualties uh they were able to still continue the fight for another um two years. So the same is true for us in businesses and there are notable mistakes made that where where the risk of taking an action um it turns out was

[33:21] was too high but businesses took them anyway. uh and and they still, you know, live to do business another day. Um the the Oracle has been in the news quite a bit of late because of the huge runup in its stock value uh because it it's it's made several uh it's it's signed several huge huge deals of late, right? So, you know, I I was talking to someone yesterday. is like where did Oracle come from? You know Oracle has been there

[33:58] been around for you know what two or three decades now. So the fact that it was not in the limelight doesn't mean that it wasn't being aggressive in pursuing its business. It was okay. It's just it took these huge deals for Wall Street to take a closer look and realize that all in all Oracle and and Larry Ellison in particular is very good at assessing

[34:36] risk versus how aggressive it needs to be, right? And and and and so Oracle finally got its due for being able to make that assessment. So that's number two. Number three, uh intelligence alone doesn't guarantee success. So I mentioned a few minutes a couple minutes ago, Mlelen had access to special order 191. He knew what Lee was going to do and he still didn't act aggressively. It's like you don't get better

[35:13] intelligence than having your enemies, your competitors battle plans, right? So this is why when you know when a company you know is waiting and waiting trying to get more information and more information that is a dead end. Even the fact of the matter is if if a company is waiting to have perfect or even very high quality intelligence before making a decision and acting. That's a company that's

[35:48] probably unlikely to act even if it had such such intelligence because it wouldn't it wouldn't recognize the value of that intelligence. Right? So we can gather ever more information, but in the end we have to be prepared to act despite not having as much information as we want. Okay? And there's there's just no getting around that. That is the nature of the uncertainty of business. And that's why

[36:23] there's been a lot of talk over the last few months uh as the Trump administration has uh issued the tariffs. It caused a lot of uncertainty. Um and and the uncertainty has been played up a lot in the business media and there is there are a number of businesses that are that have taken a more cautious approach. On the other hand, there were a number of businesses that they they looked at the potential tariff threat and they said, "Well, if this happens, we don't want to have to

[36:58] pay higher tariffs. So, we're going to bring in our goods now in larger amounts that we would have, and we'll stockpile them in order to make sure that we have the supplies we need to run our businesses." um and and no matter what happens with the tariffs. So this is a situation where there was no amount of intelligence that could be gathered that would tell a business more clearly what to do because

[37:34] it was going to be no matter what it was going to be several months at least before what was happening with tariffs became clear. And so businesses couldn't wait around to get perfect or even high quality intelligence. They had to make a decision based on what they knew. Okay? And that that connects with the first one. We should be defaulting to action. So that that's number three. Uh number four, momentum matters. If you launch a new initiative, you launch a new product or a new service,

[38:10] if you see that it's gaining some momentum, the most the most important thing you can do is very quickly figure out how are you going to take advantage of that momentum. Right? So Lee's victories before Antatum gave him the confidence to invade the North. Now, in the event the invasion wasn't successful, but that doesn't mean that Lee made the wrong decision. In fact, he made the right decision. He did his best

[38:45] to take advantage of the momentum that the South had gained in the first year or so of the Civil War. The fact that this particular battle went against him by no means put the South out of the war. Mlelen could potentially have done that, but he didn't. Right? And so, while it did cause a momentum shift toward the North, that it was not inevitable that the North was going to keep the momentum. Okay? And and there and Lee made attempts to regain the

[39:22] momentum. And it's why in part the war dragged on for another two plus years, right? So if you have again an initiative that you're launching in your company, okay, if you have not already figured out what the followon plan is, well, you know, get get going with it, right? The worst thing that'll happen is you'll have developed a plan for taking advantage of momentum. The momentum does not materialize and so you don't launch phase two. Okay? But it's not wasted

[40:01] because the gains you can make by being ready with the next step, okay, will mean that if you are able to gain the momentum, it will be even that much more positive for your company, for your organization. Okay, so that's number four. Momentum matters. Next, leadership under pressure shapes outcomes. So, the difference between Mlen and Lee couldn't be sharper than in the Battle

[40:36] of Antatum. Lee was aggressive, seeking to take advantage of the momentum he had created in the first year or so of the war. He wanted he he attempted to take the battle to the north, right? Forced them to fight on their territory. Okay. Mlelen, for his part, he wanted to do more planning, more training, more preparation. And this in the end really demoralized it did as much to demoralize his men as

[41:12] anything else. Now that's not to say that one should be precipitous in engaging in battle certainly not warfare battle but even you know the kind of battle we have in business without being prepared. Of course we want to prepare but seeking perfect preparation is a fool's game. We're never going to be perfectly prepared. We're never going to have enough people. We're never going to be able to know well enough what our unknowns are to that, you know, as a way

[41:47] to mitigate the downside, potential downside of a of a of a program not happening the way happening the way we we want it to. So leadership then becomes the decisive factor and uh Lee consistently had the trust of his men. They respected him. They were confident he was going to lead him to victory. On the Union side, it was pretty much exactly the opposite. The rank and file Union soldiers did not

[42:25] respect Mlelen. They were they were not at all confident he was going to lead them to victory. In fact, he their attitude was much like Lincoln's at the time and and and became even worse after Ant Tatum that that Mlelen didn't know what he was doing. He was not going to lead them to victory and in fact he was going to lead them to disaster. Now when you think about it um going back to the the casualties. So while the percentage of Union soldiers

[43:00] uh Union soldier casualties was only roughly 15% as against over 25% for the Confederacy. Nonetheless, the Union Army suffered o approximately 12,400 casualties or about 20% more than the Confederacy and at least some of that addition can be attributed to Mlelen's poor generalship. So for all the time that he took to

[43:35] train and supply his men, yet the casualties they suffered were higher than the Confederacy. So leadership under pressure matters. Um Mlen should have pursued Lee into Virginia. He should have at least have attempted to bring a close to the war in September of 1862 rather than let the war go on for another two plus years. uh he did not it you know the pressure on him basically

[44:10] caused him to be afraid to move forward demonstrating that he didn't have the qualities of leadership under pressure that were necessary for for the union and for the north. Okay. Uh finally uh strategic victories uh can outweigh tactical outcomes. So um the union claimed a strategic victory although it was not a strategic victory. It was a tactical victory. Uh but they

[44:45] you they they claimed a strategic victory and used and Lincoln used that um as the grounds to issue the de the emancipation proclamation uh despite what was a pretty indecisive out tact a pretty indecisive outcome right uh and and so although in reality it wasn't much of a victory on the part of the union um through messaging uh the union was able to make itself

[45:21] look like it had gained a true strategic victory, right? And so uh um in the end um you know Abraham Lincoln was able to in essence paper over the fact that Mlelen was was a poor general was not aggressive enough and and sort of raise the war to higher stakes uh with the emancipation proclamation and with a subsequent electoral moral victory um

[45:58] that sol solidified his uh reelection um and and staying at the head of the United States during this time of war. So we we need to as in business we need to distinguish between tactical victories and losses and strategic victories and losses. Okay, they are not the same thing. So, uh, we can lose out on getting a particular piece of business. That says nothing all by itself as to whether we have a sound

[46:33] strategy for expanding our our businesses, expanding our practices. Now, if we repeatedly lose out on business, then we need to take a look at our tactics and our strategy, our growth strategy, and and probably rework them. But merely because we lose one tactical battle or for that matter win a tactical battle that does not mean that we have the proper strategy. Okay. Now it may be

[47:11] tempting to try and paper over a strategic loss and try and convince other people that it is a victory. if if the stakes are as high for our company as they were for the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War, uh that might work. But in general, I think people are very they're very jaded these days. They're much more skeptical. And so trying to create victory at a rhetorical level as opposed to actually achieve victory is not necessarily going

[47:48] to work in in in this day and age. And so I I I I recommend caution and and better better to look as frankly as you can at the outcome of a particular initiative and assess assess it frankly. Did this work? Did this not work? You know, is is this our first setback? If it is, you know, we probably need to try again. But if this is our fourth or fifth setback, it's probably time for a

[48:25] for a change in strategy and a change in tactics. Right? So those are the the lessons I think can be learned from the battle of Antatum. Again, uh celebrating its 163rd uh birthday or anniversary, not birthday, anniversary tomorrow. So, uh, I thank you very much for joining me, especially my live viewers. Always good to see you. And if you have any comments, questions, criticisms, all the links to social media will be in the show notes when this episode posts on,

[49:01] uh, YouTube. So, uh, for tomorrow, Wednesday at 10 a.m., it's my show, People Making Money. And then next week on Monday at 10:00 am'll be uh trust and estates weekly and then on for the rest of the week. Uh so I again thank you very much for joining me. Wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do. Marie darling, you are my bell. You are indeed my southern bell. Courage.