0:02 who are you and where are you going what do you [Music] want hello and welcome to business lessons from the military I'm your host Kevin bemel and we're here every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about B uh mil milary history Doctrine and the practices of great military leaders all by way
0:38 oops all by way of distilling uh uh lessons that we can use in our business and professional lives so uh this show is is broadcasting on December 3rd 2024 which is four days before Pearl Harbor day December 7th and um Pearl Harbor happened uh let's see 59 plus 24 uh so 79 83 years ago this week and it
1:15 was uh one of if not the most devastating defeat that the United States Navy ever suffered and and so I'm I'm going to talk about um what happened on Pearl Harbor and and and what lessons can be learned from it um that that that we can um you know use in our own lives and in particular in our business and professional lives so um as I mentioned a moment ago the attack on Pearl Harbor took place on DEC December 7th
1:50 1941 it was a strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy and Air Service on the um American Naval Base at pear Pearl Harbor in Honolulu Hawaii it was an early morning attack and essentially um the German H the German the Japanese uh Fleet including uh I believe it was four aircraft carriers approached Hawaii from the north and they had made sort of a big Northern Ark
2:25 to um hopefully stay um unrecognized that that they were approaching Pearl Harbor which they were successful in doing it was a surprise attack and they launched over 350 aircraft and and those those includ they included dive bombers to torpedo bombers um and they bombed Pearl Harbor and um and the idea behind the the attack was it was actually more strategic than anything else so the um
3:04 the Japanese military hoped that by um by um uh completing this devastating attack on the American Fleet and forces in Pearl Harbor that it would uh cause the United States to basically stay out of the war to um to create a treaty with Jaan agreeing to let Japan keep the territorial gains they had made in the uh Western Pacific
3:39 and also to uh to stop the various embargos that the United States had imposed against Japan on things like oil and raw materials and such of which Japan had none um domestically in the Japanese Islands um and and hence um their their efforts to uh take over territory in places like Indonesia and such where they had access to oil and rubber and and and other raw materials that they needed for their expansion so
4:14 the the overall idea of of Imperial Japan was to create something called the um um East Asian co-prosperity um sphere of influence and the idea was was sort of Asia for Asians if you you will and and so by uh attempting to knock the United States out of the war but by not even you know coming into it the Japanese were hopeful of of of gaining victory in the Pacific um the the main targets of the attack
4:50 were the capital ships of the United States Navy primarily the battleships and the aircraft carriers that were um based at Pearl Harbor um and um the the Japanese prepared quite thoroughly uh for this Mission um by um practicing these you know coming in very low and and and targeting the ships with Torpedoes and bombs Etc and and indeed the attack was overall quite successful
5:26 so um 2400 American Americans were killed um both military and civilian another nearly 1,200 were wounded um eight battleships were destroyed or damaged including the USS Arizona which remains as a memorial to uh to the dead at Pearl Harbor um I I I when I was in the Navy we we made Port calls in Pearl Harbor several times and one of them I went and visited the Arizona Memorial it's it's it's quite an awe inspiring uh
6:03 thing to do um the uh attack also destroyed o over three destroyed or damaged over 300 aircraft um and and there were basically two two waves um in the attack and then um and then the the you know the the Japanese planes flew back to their ships and and and that was kind of that so the um immediate um impact of the attack at Pearl Harbor was the next day uh
6:40 December 8th uh President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke to Congress and called for a declaration of war against not just Japan but the entire axis uh including Nazi Germany and the declaration of war was almost unanimous there was one uh congresswoman who U voted against it um and so um the in that respect Pearl Harbor um the the opposite effect of of what Japan had hoped um because the United States ended
7:17 up entering the war um and it it gave um FDR um a very firm rationale for finally having the United States engage completely in World War II because prior to that um the United States had been supplying all kinds of material to uh in particular the British and and they were sharing intelligence so the United States was was definitely supporting um the Allies um we were providing Convoy
7:52 Escorts uh in the North Atlantic um and there was a pretty profound tilt toward the wi although there were a number of uh well-known people in the United States that definitely had sympathy with the axis including um uh Lindberg Charles Lindberg and uh Henry Ford um but um in in the end um as as you you probably know the United States entered World War II on the side of the allies and and and was instrumental in the
8:28 allies prevailing so um there were there were a number of of um non uh strategic impacts if you will um as a result of um of the Pearl Harbor attack um and one is in the short term um it did indeed impede the United States Navy's ability to prosecute the war in the Pacific theater so as I mentioned before eight battleships were
9:03 damaged or sunk um including the USS Arizona and the USS Oklahoma complete losses um however the other battleships were eventually refloated and and repaired um fortunately for the United States none of the aircraft carriers were in Port when the attack came and and so they all survived the attack um completely operational now as it turned out um this was one of
9:39 the most important shortcomings of the attack because there was a fight going on in the United States Navy at the time between uh those those Admirals who uh in in a way sort of cherished the Old Navy that was based on Firepower battleship with ever larger guns and that sort of thing and the newer Navy that saw Naval Air power as being the dominant Force for the future so by having so many battleships um damaged or
10:15 or destroyed um the United States Navy had had no choice but to essentially organize its its fleets around aircraft carriers and this hastened the transition uh and and uh and to and the dominance of uh Naval Air power that exists to this day so although in World War II for example um aircraft carriers did not sail alone they went with escort vessels Cruisers destroyers Etc Oilers
10:52 that sort of thing today in fact aircraft carriers don't need those support ships either for support functions or for defense functions in fact the aircraft carrier provides defense for the other ships so I can tell you from my own career um when when I was deployed in 2011 and the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan so we were task we being um the
11:27 USS Ronald Reagan we were tested with immediately sailing to Japan and because we could sail faster than than our other uh so-called escort vessels or the other the other ships in our um in our uh strike group uh we left them behind and we sailed liy split across the Pacific to to Japan on our own and and the reality is the airwing which of which I was I was a part of the airwing um um and and the
12:02 airwing was was assigned to to the Reagan but the airwing provided not only the power projection capability but also the defensive capability for the ship so that that's just the reality of how aircraft carriers are today um but but that's a result of the transition that took place uh during World War II where the capital ship Navy the the the the battleship and Cruiser uh supporting Admirals lost out to those who saw air
12:38 power as being the future of the Navy um so so that was a a sort of um uh maybe operational um feature of of the attack it it it forced the Navy to update its uh Doctrine if you will um there were um over 30 uh aircraft destroyed or damaged during the attack and initially this did hamper offensive capabilities although um the uh Patrol aircraft for the most part
13:13 survived and so um the uh Navy and and the Army Air Forces um were able to um keep up Recon flights and such and so um but the uh destruction of of the of so many aircraft spurred the very uh fast uh gearing up of industrial capacity so that the aircraft that were lost could could not only be replaced but the both Naval and Army and
13:49 Marine Corps Air Forces could all be augmented to a wartime footing um as well the the the the the killing of 2400 people like I said both military and civilian as well as the wounding of uh almost 1,200 more um it it absolutely shocked the nation um however instead of demoralizing Americans it really galvanized American public opinion against Japan and in favor of U the
14:26 United States taking an active part World War II on the side of the Allies so um one of the features of of Pearl Harbor was uh the from a diplomatic standpoint uh the Japanese Ambassador in Washington DC was continuing to have discussions with the Secretary of State Cordell Hall um up up until essentially up until um the attack the the this as it was described sneak attack and Americans in general felt that um
15:03 Japan had um acted in bad faith by um not declaring war in advance um and and using this sort of sneak attack as a way to um gain an advantage on the United States and so again contrary to what the the Japanese military leaders uh thought um uh that that you know Pearl Harbor would sort of rock America back on her heels um quite to the
15:38 contrary it ended up really motivating Americans to fight and recruiting stations starting on December 8th were overwhelmed with young men wanting to sign up to to fight World War II to fight the Japs in the language of of the day um and uh there's a a a a famous uh um radio announcer whose name I'm going up on but but he he was saying everybody today wants to take a crack at the Jabs meaning young men wanted to uh enlist in the Navy the Army and the Marine Corps
16:14 the Army Air Forces in order to go and fight Japan um and and of course not just Japan at that point Nai Germany as as well and so the the the um th those were some of the short-term results the longer term results um were were um sort of a a continual gearing up of ever greater uh industrial production so um right after World War II um President Roosevelt called on
16:50 manufacturers um I I forget the exact numbers but like 50,000 planes by the end of 1942 and these big huge numbers that um the goals were not achieved however um there there was an an an inpouring of people into def into the defense uh industry and Round the Clock shifts and industrial production in the United States absolutely skyrocketed um in in the language of the times the United States became the great arsenal of democracy so we produce tanks jeeps
17:28 aircraft ships um rifles everything you can imagine in terms of War material that was sufficient not only for the American Military but also for the British military the Russian military um whom we supplied and and and and really um you know most of the material that was used um to for the Allies to eventually win World War II came from the United States uh for example the Sherman tank was used
18:03 was used throughout um Allied militaries the the um British were producing tanks as were the uh the Russians however the the Sherman tank was produced in such huge numbers that even though uh the the tanks produced by Nazi Germany were actually far superior in many cases for examp example the Tiger tank was a much better tank than the Sherman but the but Germany could just not come even close to the the the
18:40 amount of industrial production of the tiger tanks that the US did of the Sherman tanks and in a way the American industrial capacity just overwhelmed um the axis both both Germany and Japan so on the Japanese side um we we uh the United States waged submarine warfare against uh Japanese shipping and and the Japanese were just not able to keep up with their losses in merchant shipping nor were they able to
19:16 keep up in their losses of of um of aircraft of of of naval ships um and and so there was a long-term Industrial mobilization that took place um such that by the middle of 1942 the Navy was uh replacing ships and aircraft at an absolutely unprecedented rate they surpassing their losses and growing and growing and growing and on and on until the end of of World War II in 1945 so there was also as I mentioned a
19:53 a a a strategic shift um initially it was forced on the Navy because the battleships just were not available but then at the uh Battle of Midway in 1942 um if memory serves I want to say October of 1942 this was a decisive battle between American aircraft carriers and Japanese aircraft carriers in which the US Navy absolutely decimated the the Japanese
20:28 Navy uh three of the four Japanese aircraft carriers I think were sunk or maybe it was four out of four the United States did lose um um two of their carriers um but but it was a decisive win uh for not just the United States Navy but for the United States Navy uh air arm um and it showed conclusively that the future of the Navy was with aircraft carriers and so thereafter um when battleships did take
21:03 place they were there to do things like bombardment prior to amphibious operations and that sort of thing um they were they were not the the primary force of the United States Navy so and and um Cruisers and destroyers um became the the the sort of picket ships and and provided defense uh to aircraft carriers Etc um but that they were relegated to that position um as as opposed to uh you
21:38 know a purely offensive position that they had had in in the older Navy um and so that was that be and that became as I mentioned earlier um a long time a long-term shift um in the US Navy it's it's interesting to note you know as a side note that um there are discussions going on in Naval forums um over the last few years that are calling into question whether the United States should still be investing the kind of money it invests
22:14 in aircraft carriers so the last us carrier launch the USS Gerald Ford uh cost um I believe it was a billion a billion dollars plus you know for one ship right um a lot of there's a lot of advanced um technology on the ship that that means it requires a much smaller crew um than previous aircraft carriers but the idea of having so much uh uh assets financial and and and and people and otherwise uh concentrated in one ship that you know
22:51 if if a a missile gets through could sync it um there's a lot there are people questioning we in today's uh World given the kind of military technology that exists things like the ability to potentially swarm drones at at a cap at at an aircraft carrier and overwhelm its defenses um that that it makes sense to continue with that um it's not clear to me how that's going to play out but like I said those discussions are happening so um the
23:26 other uh both short term trending into a longer term Trend was just the whole outlook of of Americans toward the war the unity the resolve um in general Americans are not up for long Wars um and yet in general the United States stayed committed to Prosecuting World War II for almost four years we entered the war in December of 194 1 um the uh the war in Europe ended in May of 1945
24:04 and in Japan in September of 1945 so like I say almost four years um and remained fairly unified uh throughout the war now there there were people who um you know were not at all happy about World War II being fought there were people who got War fatigue as World War II continued but overall um America stayed very unified um in the prosecution of World War II and part of that came from this idea of
24:41 remember Pearl Harbor remember the perid of of the Imperial Japanese Navy Etc and and so um Americans were on the one hand remained committed to industrial production agricultural production and that was necessary in order to fight the war they remained committed to sending ever more uh men and and to a lesser extent women uh into the military to pursue the fight um women were not in combat back then but um you know there
25:17 were roughly a half a million American Service members lost their lives in in World War II um that was a huge number only surpassed by by the the losses of the American Civil War and and there was probably not a family in the country that either hadn't had a father or son killed or was you know friends with a family who had had a father and son killed nonetheless Americans in general stayed uh committed to the war so these these were um the the the trends um that
25:55 that came out of the battle and um the reality is that the United States recovered pretty quickly from Pearl Harbor it was not the devastating uh uh victory that it was a devastating Vic uh a devastating loss for the United States but not at the level that the Imperial Japanese um military hoped it would be and that was there were there were several reasons for that one I mentioned already is the the aircraft carriers
26:30 were not there that day and so um they remained to fight another day uh but as important and often not talked about is the the um the the Japanese attackers at Pearl Harbor failed to destroy the uh um the the the um uh tank Farms that held uh fuel Fuel and lubricants that were necessary to um fuel the ships so that they could sail
27:05 this was before the days of nuclear powerered carriers and so fuel oil was necessary to uh Power the ships so those tanks were left undamaged uh as important or maybe even more important is the dry docks and other repair facilities remained essentially undamaged as well well and so the ability of of the United States Navy to refloat ships get them into Dry Dock get them prepared was very little harmed by the
27:43 the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and so starting on on December 8th that that process of um of um what's the word I'm looking for um anyway of of of you know fixing the ships and and and and repairing them and getting them ready to fight uh started and there was a great deal and the other thing that um that Pearl Harbor wasn't able to do was to destroy the Ingenuity of those people working um on
28:21 the effort to to to refloat ships and get them ready to fight again and so from from the get-go um because of the kind of unity and spirit that was engendered in in Americans as a result of Pearl Harbor attack um the United States Navy very quickly recovered from from what was no doubt a devastating aat defeat but not a cataclysmic one in the sense of forcing the United States to
28:58 unable to fight the war and and so uh the United States went on um to the island hopping strategy that eventually ended up with the surrender of of of the Japanese after the dropping of the two atomic bombs and so so despite the defeat uh the United States military in the United States in general came back stronger than ever uh more strategically capable more operationally and tactically capable and so in terms
29:35 of an overall lesson for our business and professional lives I think that's that's the number one lesson to take away that we can suffer a devastating defeat but that doesn't have to put us out of I don't call War a game but business is kind kind of a game and so we don't have to let a devastating defeat put us out of business okay we can we can use it to
30:11 inspire our team Inspire our people to to a renewal to a reexamination to make the Strategic operational and tactical shifts that need to be made to go on not just to get back to where we were with our businesses or professional practices but to go beyond that and I can tell you from my own experience so I started in business in 1986 for the first time and I I was I had a real estate company for those of you who watch the show you know
30:46 that and the uh very end of the 1980s 89 through 91 were a terrible terrible time for Real Estate state in the United States uh and I held on to my business by just the barest of of margins that that I didn't have to declare bankruptcy was only because frankly I was just too stubborn to do it but but it was an extremely tough time and yet by rebuilding out of that time and and and
31:22 I I had to let go of all of my staff because I couldn't afford them and it really pained me because most of my staff were family members um so I had to make painful decisions to do in order to survive but when when I was able to rebuild my business and it took me a good couple of years to do so I ended up going on and becoming much more successful than I had ever been before and part of why I became more successful was uh for ex example I did not load up
32:00 on a huge number of employees and burden the business with a lot of salaries instead I started looking for technological solutions to help me and usually the one other person I had helping me on a part-time basis be able to get more done in more efficiently and and and and that was number one and number two instead of hiring people in house I looked for ways to essentially contract out what I needed done so I wasn't burdened with salaries and
32:37 benefits and all that kind of thing and I could be more flexible in terms of of the expense I needed to incur for uh you know for labor for people to to you know be members of my team um because they weren't in house they they essentially had their own businesses uh and so you know we we came together as a team when we needed to and and otherwise we were off doing other things so the the the the the devast the devastation I suffered business-wise in the very late 80s and early
33:13 90s forced me also to examine my strategy operations and tactics and and figure out ways to do it more efficiently less costly um I you know I embraced things like um online banking which was just beginning to happen at the time uh it made it it it saved money on postage it saved time I didn't have to print checks and mail them out and all that kind of stuff um and and you know all all all kinds of technological
33:49 solutions um in in order to make my business more efficient so so that's the large lesson from uh you know learning from defeat in this in this case I'm using Pearl Harbor as the example um I have five other uh lessons uh that I want to pass on to you that that apply to our business lives so um one of them is we need to an anticipate and address emerging threats and the re the reality
34:24 is that um and and there's been tons of discussion about Pearl Harbor over the decades at the time and and and even till now there are people who say that that Roosevelt knew that the Japanese were going to attack Pearl Harbor and he purposely didn't uh notify um Admiral husband Kimmel and general short about it because he wanted the devastating attack in order to motivate Americans to get involved I've read extensively on this I don't I don't buy that theory um
35:01 however it was the case that American Communications systems were were not at all adequate to the task uh It event you know the notifications or the information that was being passed to Pearl Harbor in some cases was being done by you know Western Union which is ridiculous I mean that's a completely essentially open source um way of of transmitting messages and so um the the uh United States just was
35:36 not at all an participating anticipating uh uh threats and they were not addressing emerging emerging threats well enough um and so in business we need to be on a consistent basis examining our competitors examining the uh the marketplace in which we're operating and and looking at how is that likely to um affect our businesses so I was in a networking meeting this morning with a a group of
36:13 military veterans and we were discussing the topic of AI or what's really known what's really better known as large language models and there were several of us there who are actively looking at how AI can improve our businesses While others are almost like Dearing the headlights I I hear about this I have no idea what to do with it I'm afraid that I'm GNA lose my businesses there was one fellow there um who was saying that uh you know AI um is is going to cause um
36:50 you know massive losses of jobs in certain areas and and then there were a couple of us who were saying yes but those people whose jobs stand to be lost should be thinking now about retraining in order to uh maintain the systems the the the robots and the AI systems which is a much more lucrative thing to do than the kind of jobs that AI could replace and so these are the kinds of strategic operational and tactical matters we need to be looking at so we can address anticipate and address
37:26 emerging threats um they they can be Market threats they could be things like C cyber security threats all of these we we need to assess the vulnerabilities of our businesses and practices and start looking now at how to deal and how to you know address them rather than waiting for some sort of cataclysmic event to happen that would really you know put us uh you know very far behind okay next uh preparedness and adaptability so
38:02 um one of the things that um that that Pearl Harbor showed was the United States was really not prepared um at all for this for this kind of surprise aerial attack while there were patrols set out um and and radar did exist um the the radar um was only active I think for a couple of hours in the morning or something like that and so you know the idea that that was adequate to protecting what was after all probably
38:38 the most important strategic military asset in the Pacific Ocean it in in retrospect was very very foolish and so we need to also take a look at um where where can we be um directly attacked and and how can we prepare uh what do we need to have in place in order to fend off that attack and prevent or at least significantly reduce uh losses losses in business uh losses in in Key Personnel so for
39:15 example um I I'll give you um one from um the my practice as a professional fiduciary I was having this conversation with my guest on my show yesterday and and that is uh if if if you own a company and how are you going to prepare for the loss of uh a charismatic founder owner of the business um so that the business doesn't fall apart when that person passes away so it you know a lot
39:50 of people I don't know about a lot of people but people make the mistake of thinking that longtime employees are very dedicated to a business and even and you know people who've been working with the founder for years and decades and they're going to stay on um because uh you know they've been there so long uh that is not necessarily the case so if if continuity of of employees is important for the survival of a business and and the business is being run by a
40:27 founder especially a charismatic founder so the uh the factors need to be examined and put into place that will encourage these people to stay otherwise when the founder dies they may abandon the company because it turns out they were only there because they had the chance to work with this individual who's now gone indeed they they don't particularly like the business that they're involved in or they don't feel they're being compensated well enough but in in deference to the relationship they had with the founder they they stayed for a
41:03 long time but but now that he's gone they all leave the company and now there's nobody there left to you know mine the store as they say so preparedness and adaptability are things that we need to look at and and clearly Pearl Harbor is an example of lack of preparedness um although I would say um after the fact um the Navy adopt adapted pretty well um but um better to build in
41:38 adaptability rather than to have to create it on the fly as was the case after Pearl Harbor okay next is the value of effective communication and coordination and and this was this was one of the poorest aspects that both LED to uh The Pearl Harbor debacle as well as exacerbated the losses so I spoke about how communication between senior military leadership in Washington DC and leadership in Pearl Harbor was was not
42:13 good um a lot of the communication was not at all clear now messages just didn't you know transmit as fast as back you know back then as they do today uh but Clarity of communication is as important as timeliness of communication and neither one of those were present uh at Pearl Harbor as well uh so there was a flight of I believe it was B17 bombers that was coming from the mainland to Hawaii um they had been lightened of a
42:51 lot of things um uh in order for them to be able to make this long flight without you know without falling into the ocean because there was no midair refueling back then uh and it was anticipated they were coming in um but it but the the timing wasn't clear and and so when it was detected that there were a bunch of airplanes approaching some people thought oh it's this flight coming in from from the mainland and indeed it was no it was the Japanese na Naval Air arm attacking so uh there there should have
43:28 been a way uh for these these bombers or at least one of them to maintain some kind of communication um and periodic communication so that their status and and ETA estimated time of arrival was known rather than having to be guessed at and and two oh and also there was uh not the greatest of communication between the various br an es the Army and the Navy there there was um uh you know communication on the ground as the
44:04 attack was happening was not great so on the one hand um you know there were um Soldiers and Sailors trying to mount a defense but but there was really little coordination um and and and there was no preparation for that and so uh the the defense was was all in all pretty week um and and so as we look at our businesses uh the ability to communicate clearly and in a timely manner is
44:42 critical for our success and so um you know there's there's a lot of popular apps these days slack and all these kind of things it's just assumed that that these make uh communication more timely and clear um I'm not necessarily convinced that that's the case um that that uh that that technology Alone um will will solve this problem technology can help but it but communicating
45:18 clearly is as much a a mental function as it as it is well not as much it is a mental function so to communicate clearly we first have to have a deep enough understanding of what it is we we believe needs to be communicated um and then we need to have the vocabulary vocabulary with which to communicate it and those whether we're we're talking about technical terms or whether technical terms are getting in the way of clear communication all of
45:55 these things need to be underst stood in our businesses um I I'll I deal with a lot of lawyers and one of the things I I find frustrating is that oftentimes even lawyers will use terms that are not at all clear uh and so um you know we'll talk about a petition but but but mean a declaration or or a declaration but mean a petition um an ex party application um you know we'll talk about waving the
46:30 probate referee no you can't wave the probate referee that's automatic the appointment's automatic but you can wave the work done by the probate referee at least in theory so I when I talk with lawyers I strive to be very precise in the language and vocabulary that I use to be as clear as possible in what I think think needs to be done or in what I'm planning to do as the administrator and and and likewise no matter what what your business is or
47:05 what profession what professional practice you're a part of uh it's it's crucial that we develop the proper vocabulary the the the ability to communicate clearly and in a timely way and then have the have the channels through which to do that um much of which was lacking at Pearl Harbor and added to the catastrophe okay next is learning from failure to drive long-term success so this is really the primary one that that
47:41 I mentioned at the beginning that we can rise you know like the proverbial Phoenix from a disaster and go on to longer term success that was certainly the case uh post Pearl Harbor uh the the United States not only uh ended up uh with the Allies victorious in World War II but the entire world or World Order changed as a result of World War II and the United States emerged as the most
48:17 powerful country in the world as a result of World War II and and for decades afterwards America really propelled growth and development in the world now we started to lose lose ground uh in the in the mid to late 70s um and into the 80s with u stagflation and and and these kind this kind of economic malays um that we encountered um but eventually that too
48:52 set the stage for ever greater uh growth and prosperity um and after uh the defeat of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold Cold War America indeed emerged as the single superpower in the united uh in the world um a a a a condition that at least nominally exists uh to this day although China obviously has has risen uh quite a bit um over the last two or three decades to to
49:27 potentially challenge American dominance um and and there are um there are other foes that we Face Iran uh Russia North Korea in in a sort of disproportionate Warfare um that that the United States is still uh struggling to figure out you know how how we're going to deal with these kinds of um geopolitical threats um but but nonetheless the the postor War II period has in general been a time of
50:02 tremendous economic and social progress for the United States um and and probably not probably would not have have happened had uh had the United States not been engaged in in World War II so for example civil rights espec especially for black Americans uh took a big Leap Forward Ward as a result of World War II it became untenable after the performance of of of black Americans in in in and outside of the military to
50:38 maintain for example a segregated military the Tuskegee Airmen probably being among if not the most well-known of um um uh uh performance standard of of black Americans in World War II um this was a group of fighter pilots um trained at Tuskegee that's how they got the name Tuskegee Airman and and a very short time after they entered combat um in the Italian theater um bomber Crews were begging to have them be their escorts
51:13 because they were so highly effective uh and and and that's just one example of of of the social change that was wrought in in the United States as a result of um you know the United States uh you know being defeated at Pearl Harbor entering World War II and seeing the kind of tectonic shifts that happened in our country after the war ended finally the importance of innovation and modern modernization so I i' I talked a little
51:49 bit about this as well already but the fact of the matter is like it or hate it social media is a fact of life large learning models I I.E AI is is here to stay the question isn't how do I be successful avoiding them the question is how do we be successful with these tools in a way that makes them effective for our businesses um but avoids as much as possible the the downside of of you know
52:24 being involved in these kind of things and and uh you know the the fact of the matter is um the United States especially United States Navy was not well served by this controversy between the Admiral supporting the old style capital ship Navy and the Admirals supporting the the new Air air-based Navy if you will um this is something that that should have been decided before uh per Harbor it shouldn't have taken a disaster like Pearl Harbor for
53:00 the United States to recognize the importance of aircraft carriers and have had the success of the United States naving Navy uh hang upon the carriers just not happening to be in Pearl Harbor uh dumb luck really when the Japanese attacked so these are the kind of things that we need to be examining technological change we need to be examining social change and and and determining how are these things uh economic changes as well how are these things going to affect our businesses how do we innovate and modernize our
53:37 businesses in order to keep up with change and so um these are the these are the lessons that can be learned from defeat and I I want to go back and stress the the first lesson I mentioned which is defeat does not have to put us out of the game now it does sometimes put businesses out of the game unfortunately but it doesn't have to so we can shrink down and Grow Again IBM is the perfect example IBM was the dominant
54:12 computer manufacturer of its day and with the Advent of personal computers IBM could have failed and gone away instead IBM shrunk significantly reinvent itself and has gone on to um great success as more of a computer services company than a computer hardware company so we we don't need to defeats small or large don't need don't need Force us out of our businesses and professional practices
54:47 they are a challenge to us to re-evaluate reinvigorate for greater success in in in the future and and and that I hope is the lesson you'll take away from today's show okay we we we we can be defeated but we don't have to lose the war as was the case we were defeated in Pearl Harbor but we ended up winning World War II and going we meaning the United States going on to greater and greater victories so um that's my message for
55:22 you today I thank you very much for joining me again I've got um my uh my Cadre of of uh live viewers always grateful to have you watching I appreciate it very very much a little reminder if you have thoughts comments questions you can always drop them into the chat on the various uh social media from which you're watching they all aggregate here on the right side of my screen and I'm happy to address them uh while while the show is going on I I that's why you see me periodically sort of glancing real quickly over to the side it's it's to see if if there's any
55:59 messages there that I that I need to respond to so uh tomorrow at 10: a.m. Pacific time is my show people making money and being that we're heading into the last where we are in the last month of the year it's time to start thinking about setting goals and objectives for next year so I'm going to be talking about Advanced goal setting so this is going to go beyond the typical you know develop smart goals blah blah blah blah blah and get into some very deep issues of goal setting to really set us up for
56:37 achieving the kind of life that we want to live not just business-wise and professionally although certainly in that area but through all the aspects of our lives so I'll be talking about that tomorrow 10:00 a.m. uh Pacific time and then on Thursday at 500 PM Pacific time is my every other week's show jiggers is place and I'm going to be talking about the pursuit of beauty so I think this is probably a more controversial subject than it it may seem and so we're going
57:12 to sit back and have a cocktail uh I developed a cocktail with the help of chat GPT called a blossom Elixir uh I don't know how it's going to be because I haven't made it yet so we'll we'll we'll try it for the first time together you can always sign up for my email list by going to my website baml.com scrolling down at the bottom you sign up for my email list and you'll get uh an email with the with the recipe for the cocktail if you want to make one to have with me while we while we talk and and and and watch the show so that's tomorrow 5:00 pm Pacific Time jiggers his place and then next week um on
57:50 Monday at uh 10: a.m. is my show um trust and Estates weekly my guest is Kevin Quinn who is the president of the uh independent trustees Alliance uh this is an organization I my guest and I yesterday Kai and I talked about uh a a little bit and um for for those of you who are interested in growing professionally in the um in Estate Planning and the administration of trusts and Estates um the the ITA is
58:27 really the place to be and so please join Kevin and me Kevin it'll be the Kevin and Kevin show uh as as we talk about um what the ITA is all about and and what it what it offers and then seven days one week from today I'll be back for the next edition of business lessons from the military so I thank you very much for joining me wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do Mar darling You Are My Bell