0:00 Who are you? And where are you going? What do you [Music] want? Hello and welcome to Business Lessons from the Military. I'm your host, Kevin Bemel, and we're here every Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time to talk about military history, doctrine, and the practices of great military leaders, all to distill from them
0:35 lessons that we can apply to our businesses and professional practices. So, this is a way for me to give back for the support that that you, my fellow citizens, gave to the military. uh certainly when I was a part of it uh but um even as you continue to do so now that I'm no longer in the military but u many many friends and colleagues are. So, uh, today's topic is run a business like a seal. And if you saw any of my social media posts, you saw something
1:10 along the lines of not the animal, the Navy Seal, right? I don't know. We want to run our businesses like a a large but somewhat cute, you know, creature barking and clapping its flippers like we see, you know, in SeaWorld or wherever. But uh so my uh last job in the Navy was as a chaplain for SEAL Team 17. That's one of the two uh reserve uh SEAL team units or reserve component
1:45 SEAL team units. Uh but we at the time we were right across the street from the active duty uh SEAL uh facility and I I got to walk through it many times and and see what went on there and I took classes uh a at that facility on special operations and such. It was it was quite fascinating. And uh uh one of the stories that and I I may have told this before on the show, but one of the stories I I most cherish from that time was I was taking a a class through
2:21 what's called the uh joint special operations university, JAW. And most of the people in the class were part of a Green Beret uh team and what's called an ODA. And then there were just uh two or three of us from the SEAL community. And on a break during the class, we were outside the classroom on a on a balcony overlooking where the SEALs were training. And they were running this exercise where there were two or three teams of SEALs. And they had a 50 lb uh
2:59 barbell and there was a chain slung through it. And then they had looped the other end of the chain and put a leather uh piece on it. And they would put that that leather chain part over their shoulder and they would drag that 50 pound barbell for whatever the distance was, 50 feet, take off the thing, hand it to the next guy, and it was a relay race going back, right? And so I was watching this this evolution with some of the green berets and one of them turns to me at one point and he turns he just says he goes, "Sir, they're just
3:35 animals, right?" And the the Green Berets really fancy themselves uh the more sort of uh uh intellectual um special operations people whereas they look at the SEALs as being just, you know, brute brute force, right? when when you absolutely have to destroy it, you send in the seals kind of thing. So, uh it was it was very funny, but but there was like a little little bit of truth to it. These guy these seals were just they were especially compared to the Green Berets, they were just
4:10 massively built, not necessarily tall, but just like so strong, you know, and the muscles and bulging and all that kind of stuff. So, so you you might get from this story that the seals are not an intellectual group, but but indeed they are. And it it it one of the things I learned in being in the seal community was the biggest and the strongest were not the ones that necessarily became seals. So the the the secret, if you will, to
4:46 becoming a seal really deal dealt deals with dealt with the um um mental grit that these candidates could muster through what's called BUDS. So BUDS stands for basic underwater demolition slash seals uh and and I should mention that uh seals stands for sea, air and land. So the idea is these special operators can operate in all the
5:25 elements in in in the ocean in riverine territory on land and in the air. So they they are they have an enormous amount of training and and and flexibility and they are perhaps the mentally toughest people on on the planet. So uh that so in in in thinking about this particular episode and what we can take away from se from buds seal training in general. It was
6:00 really from that perspective that you know I looked at or developed what I was going to say. So and and you can see in in my first point right off the bat. So the reality of buds is uh mental toughness is more is is a more important factor than physical strength. So mental resilience one's
6:36 mindset is much more important than raw talent. So, uh, BUDS train the BUDS trainees who succeed, they're usually not the biggest and and and the fastest, okay? They're the ones who have the mental toughness that they just refuse to quit. They refuse to give up. And in when we when we think about this uh in in a business context,
7:11 so business fundamentally is a mental endurance exercise. So if if if we're starting a business, running a business, it's going to be essentially a neverending series of challenges. That's what business is. There's no such thing as a business that we kind of set up and it runs on autopilot. Especially nowadays, maybe 75 years ago, we could set up a manufacturing business and it would churn out its widgets and we had our
7:47 distribution chain set up in such a way that the wi widgets got manufactured, they got distributed to the retailers and the retailers sold them and it just kind of went on and on and you know changes from year to year weren't that important. People kept buying them. maybe you made out of toothpaste or whatever. But but these days it's a constant battle almost of looking at one's product lineup, looking at one's services, figuring out what do I need to do to better align with the market,
8:23 better serve the market, operate more efficiently, what products or services do I need to drop, which what new ones do I need to bring online? and that that constant grind and that's it really is a grind. There's no romance to that that constant grind is a challenge to our mental capacity far more so than our physical capacity. Far more so. And so the mental toughness that
8:59 trainees are require required is is is kind of the wrong word that mental that that uh trainees need to exhibit in order to successfully complete buds. That same me that's if we had that same level of mental toughness, we would be much more successful in our businesses. And and one of the things you'll you'll note is there are a lot of seals that go into business and they are formidable competitors because they are
9:34 relentless. They have that that mental grit if you will to keep working on on whatever it is their goal is. They just they do not give up. Okay. So that that's number one. mental toughness is more important than physical strength. Okay. Number two, uh we we want to embrace the the pain basically. Embrace the pain. Now that sounds strange because our society is so pain
10:13 averse, right? comfort, pleasure. These these are the hallmarks of of our culture, right? People wear pajamas to go to the grocery store. I read an article, this is some months ago now, I think, where young people had to be told not to wear pajamas to work. I mean, honestly, when I was a young man starting out in the workplace and in in in business, it was just unthinkable. You wore a a shirt and tie
10:48 like I do now. Um, you know, in anything important. You wore a suit or at least, you know, a collared shirt, a tie, and a sports coat and slacks. There was just no other way of comprehending it, right? And the fact that it was uncomfortable was completely immaterial because what mattered was presenting oneself in a proper way in order to have the best chance at getting the business. Now, you know, honestly, last week I had a a a business meeting and time got away
11:24 from me. I had um worked out earlier in the day and I I just I finally threw up my hands. can, you know, and I I showed up at the meeting. I had a a shirt with kind of a a quarterzip uh you know, workout shirt over it. I mean, I didn't look sloppy and all that, but honestly to and I didn't do it for comfort, but I just it just but nobody blinked an eye even when I said I I pardon me for being inappropriately dressed. I think most of the people felt
11:59 like what do you mean everybody dresses that way these days right so we don't embrace the pain in in society today but in the seals culture okay they endure freezing water I mean the water off the coast of California so the SEAL training facility is on Coronado Island which is down in the San Diego area in the in the winter time especially that water is cold. It is really cold, right? They
12:35 deal with sleep deprivation, just punishing physical demands. And you, you know, they can either complain about them or they can embrace them. And and what you see is they when they're heading in the water, they're running that water like it's just going to be the greatest feeling in the world. And it's not okay if you've ever run into freezing water. It's not. But part of the ethos of the seal community is the more awful a a a situation is, the more they
13:14 want to embrace it. So they learn to operate at their best in the worst circumstances. And this builds true confidence that that they can, you know, look forward to diving into freezing water knowing that they're still going to excel. That's confidence, right? So much of what we build confidence on in our society is illusory. Gold stars for having shown
13:49 up. I there's nothing on honest there's nothing um laudiatory about showing up. That's the minimum behavior to get anywhere in life is showing up. Okay. So the fact that a lot of people these days it seems like can't even show up does not make showing up an achievement. Right? So you know as we as we look at what is it's necessary uh to be successful in in the business
14:24 world we we need to really to use the sort I but I'm not so fond of this term but lean into you know difficult conversations we may need to really you know embrace working long hours or taking big risks. Okay. So, we can't wait for perfect conditions. We can't only do the things we like to do. What we can do is learn to love the things that we hate in essence about a
15:00 business, right? And so, I'll give you an example from my current business. Lot of chaos in my current business. There's always things happening, many of which are they're just not in my control and they've got to be dealt with, right? And there's there's a couple things I could do. I could do them myself, in which case I could be sure that they're going to get taken care of in the way I want them to be taken care of. Okay? And absolutely run myself into the ground.
15:35 Okay? to the point where I would end up in the hospital, which is what happened about a year ago. Okay. And I realized, okay, can't that while that's my preferred way to handle things, can't handle it that way. Much better for me to learn to delegate and trust my colleagues to handle things well. Okay. And I've had to learn to embrace that and to really trust my colleagues
16:14 and and demonstrate that trust to them and stand behind that trust I'm giving them even when and on sometimes they're doing things differently than I would do, maybe not as good as I think I would have done them. That's not the issue. The issue is to embrace this difficult aspect of business so that my business will be sustainable, so that my clients will be served well. Right? That's what's important. Okay? So, I've got to embrace
16:50 the pain, you know, and and oftentimes just learn to keep learn to keep my mouth shut is really what it comes down to, which you might imagine is difficult for me because you see me broadcasting at least three times a week, right? Talking for roughly 45 minutes to an hour each time. So, we need to embrace the difficult aspects of our businesses, especially the ones that it's important get done, but but we we don't want to
17:25 do, okay? That's what that's what SEAL training teaches SEALs, okay? To embrace the pain. So, that's number two. Number three, team first, ego last. Okay, so seals do not operate alone. They operate in a team. They're called SEAL teams, right? Like I was part of SEAL team 17. Now, I was not an operator. I
18:00 was what's called an enabler, which I always found that a a funny term because enabler sounds somewhat salacious and being a chaplain didn't really want to be an enabler in that sense, but but that's that's what I was. I was someone who helped the operators be able to accomplish what they needed to accomplish, right? That's an enabler. So, in the SEAL world, there has to be a high level of trust among team members. Okay? Because each one has the things that he needs to do, but he's also part
18:35 of an interlocked group where if one thing goes wrong, it can have bad even cataclysmic circumstances for the other members of the team. Okay? So whether it's in buds when they may be doing you know your your your your where your boat cruise performance really matters far more than individual excellence right um or whether it's uh the exercise where they're you know carrying a log and each person's individual performance matters
19:12 but only as part of a team that's carrying that log on their shoulders. So much of Buds and SEAL train, seals training, SEAL training in general is about building teamwork and mutual trust between team members. Okay, those bonds have to be for all intents and purposes unbreakable. Okay. And for the for the the Bud Tra Buds trainee who lets his
19:48 ego get ahead of him thinking I'm I've got to be the best. I I got to stand out. That person is less likely to be successful in Buds because one of the things that the trainers are looking for is is this individual in it just for himself or is he in it to make the team successful? Okay, that's that's really an important factor that they're evaluated on. Okay, pardon me.
20:23 So, team first, ego last. And in business many times, that's what matters most of the time, maybe even all of the time. Business now more so than ever before is a team sport. Okay. So we as members of our group at our company or me or or as leaders of our business or professional practice what we what we need to build is alignment between the
20:59 different people involved. Okay? So that everybody is making everybody else better. That's really the goal. Okay. And as leaders, we need to be as comfortable leading and showing the way. I'm sorry. We need to be as comfortable making sure that the members of our team have what they need in order to succeed as we are in leading the way. Okay. And it seems like some leaders are better at one or
21:35 the other. So some they're very charismatic and they they can they can inspire and all of that, but when it comes to really looking after their team members, they're not so good about that. They're much more ego-driven. Others are very good at looking after their team members wants and needs or needs and wants is better better way to put it. Uh but when it comes to inspiring and and really leading and showing the way, they're not nearly as successful. Both of those are critical
22:11 leadership skills. Okay? And I've talked about this on other shows, this idea of the so-called servant leader. I I I find that to be an incomplete con conception of what leadership needs to be. So leadership needs to actually lead it. It needs to sometimes in a polite way give people a kick in the backside or inspire and or inspire them to move forward by showing what is
22:47 possible if we work together. That's as important as also having the kind of rapport with the members of your team where they're comfortable letting you know what their needs are. why maybe their performance is subpar um in seeking and feeling comfortable seeking your help in getting better, improving, getting up to speed. Okay. So, so both the inspirational side of leadership and
23:22 the helping side of leadership are part of putting the team first. Okay. So when I talk about being an inspirational leader, I don't mean from an ego standpoint. I mean from the standpoint of inspiring the team to work together for a goal. That's what's critical about being able to inspire people. Not showing off, oh, how great am I? Look what I can say and make people or get people to do. Largely irrelevant. Okay. Once ego gets inserted into it, the effectiveness of the inspiration starts to
23:59 deteriorate. Okay? And in fact, one of the worst seals I I ever met was someone who was not successful. He was a a sailor. He was in the Navy. He was not successful in advancing through the leadership hierarchy of the SEAL community. So he ended up making a lateral move into a different community in the reserves world and he was a horrible leader. One of the worst leaders I ever encountered
24:36 and it was clear why the seals didn't want him because he was just over the top in ego among the many egregious things he he did. And this was related to me by several of the junior sailors in his command was he would show up at the office with a backpack filled with rocks and he would brag about how even at his age and he was I think in at that point he was in his probably late 40s or early
25:11 50s he could run with a backpack of rocks on his back. Can you do that? That's not leadership. That's pure ego. That is not inspiring. That's putting people down. That's trying to convince them that, you know, he was trying to convin see see how great I am. But one couldn't escape the correlator, which is I'm better than you. That's not leadership. And that's why the SEAL community didn't want him because he was ego first, team
25:49 last. And that's the opposite of what SEALs look to inculcate into their team members. And we need to do the same thing as people who lead businesses and and practices. Okay? Team first, ego last. Okay. Next uh this is num point number four. Okay. Small things matter. Okay. So in the in the seal community uh and and it's certainly in buds. Okay.
26:25 They are inspected regularly. Everything from ma how they make their bed, arranging their gear, all of the attention to detail is absolutely nonnegotiable and it takes a very high level of discipline to maintain the vigilance that's necessary to make sure that all the details are attended to. Okay, I'm sure you've heard the expression, the devil is in the details.
27:02 That is so true of buds and seal activity in general. It's a the big things are really just the combination of numerous small things, numerous details that when brought together have a large impact. That's what seal that's what the seals are all about. Okay, so I mentioned that exercise where they're dragging that barbell back and forth. It's like one of the details that was so
27:39 crucial was the way they took that harness off and handed it over to the next seal in a way that made it easier for him to get it on. So they didn't just slough it off and kind of throw it to him. They took it off. They held the loop open so and and in a way where he could grasp it and put it on with the least amount of friction. the least amount of time, right? You say, "Oh, come on. They're dragging a 50 pound weight." It's like it that's the attention to
28:15 detail of that exercise. Okay. So in our businesses more so than huge initiatives which sometimes will launch of course but those initiatives will be successful because of all the tens hundreds maybe even thousands of details that were properly handled. So small improvements in processes, consistent
28:51 communication, honoring every commitment no matter how small. Okay, all of these build excellence in our businesses. So honoring commitments. Now, by the way, that doesn't necessarily mean that we're always going to end up being on time. What it does mean is if we find ourselves falling behind, we may need to seek out help. We may need to get to our other team members and say, "Hey, I'm falling behind. I'm not going to get this done on time. Uh, can you help me
29:26 out? How can we re readjust the schedule uh so that this all still happens?" Right? All of those details, the tens, the hundreds, the thousands, those are what really matter. Okay? And if we're able to master the detail, perform them with excellence, then we have a much greater chance at creating a successful business. Right? I I I' I've said this a number of times. I don't know if it's so
30:01 much on this show, maybe more on my show, people making money. great ideas for a business, you know, they're pretty much a dime a dozen. There's lots of people who can come up with a great idea. The people who are successful are the ones who can take that idea, create a plan, break that plan down into the individual steps that need to be taken in order to have a shot at bringing the plan to fruition. And those plans are made up of details. Okay. And if the details can be done
30:37 well, then maybe the business is going to be successful. But that's far more important than having the big idea where there's never a plan and we never get down to the details of executing the plan. Okay? So, small things matter. Okay. Going to take just a moment here for a sponsor break. So today's show is sponsored by the Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League of the United States. So, the Navy League of the United States is a civilian
31:13 organization designed to create interaction and communication between civilians and people in the military to support the sea services which which are the United States Marine Corps, the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, and the United States Merchant Marine. and their mission is three-fold. To support, educate and advocate for the sea services in terms of their part in our national defense, in uh sustaining international commerce and uh pro um and overall protecting our
31:51 country. So, if you are interested in more information on the Navy League of the United States, you can go to navyleague.org. or and would we we I'm the president of Beverly Hills Council. We would love it if you would join and if you're in the greater Los Angeles area, designate the Beverly Hills Council as your home council. One more word. On Thursday of this week, May 22nd, 2025, we're having a meet and greet at Fleet Week down in San Pedro, California at 5:00 PM. So, if you're interested or
32:27 you're going to be down at Fleet Week, uh please do keep an eye out for us and stop by and say hello. Would would love to shake your hand. So, um that's Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League of the United States. Okay. So going back to our topic now we're talking about what we can learn from uh Navy Seals buds uh training that we can apply to our business. So I mentioned already mental toughness is more important than physical strength. We should embrace the
33:02 pain. Team first, ego last and small things matter. Now next you're always being evaluated. Okay. So the fact of the matter is often times BUD's trainees are being evaluated even when they're not necessarily aware of it. The instructors are there watching how they perform under pressure, how they treat their teammates, how they respond to setbacks, all of that is being evaluated. Okay? And even even when the when the the
33:39 candidates or the trainees think they're not being watched, someone is watching. So from to to speak from a religious standpoint for a minute, I I always find it interesting when uh people sort of take this attitude that you know, oh I was alone, nobody was watching. Well, if you if you live a God- centered life, God is always watching. Okay? So we are never alone. We are never not under scrutiny. Okay. And and and going back to the Buds context. So, uh BUDS trainees are always
34:14 under scrutiny. So, in the business world, what we do and how we behave when our colleagues are not around is just as important as what we do when they are around. because how we speak, how we act reflects on us and our part in the business. Okay? So, we we would be wise to remember we're always being evaluated. Okay? Now, you
34:51 may say, "Oh, that's exhausting. How can I always be under such pressure?" Well, we need to build up our resilience. Okay. That's that's part of building grit, building toughness, okay? Is realizing that, you know, we're always we're always being evaluated. Okay? Now, at the end of the day, we can look at how we performed that day. We can take some pride in what we did well. We can make some plans on how to do better for the things that we
35:27 didn't do well. And then we can lay our heads down on our pillow and go to sleep knowing that we did our best. We've evaluated our performance and now we're going to get up tomorrow and face another day and redouble our efforts to perform better than the day before. That's really what it comes down to. Okay. Next, adaptability is survival. So, one of the hallmarks of BUDS is
36:02 that you have a plan, but something's going to go wrong. And so, you've got to be able to pivot. And the trainers hammer in the the the concept of adaptability the and and and the ability to stay calm and missionfocused even as it's crucial that plans be altered in order to get to the objective. Okay. And and this is the key
36:38 thing. If you're in a hostile environment and all of a sudden the plan is like poof, it's not going to work, right? You cannot panic, you cannot get upset, you have to cooly and calmly evaluate the circumstances quickly and make a decision about how you're going to adapt to the new circumstances. Okay? The same is true in business, right? And I was talking at the beginning about how you can't set a business on autopilot anymore if if you
37:14 ever could. But today, the pace, the rapidity of change in business is so great. We have to be adaptable always. It needs to just be part of who we are. Okay? And so the business leaders who can be adaptable or who are adaptable, okay, they will outlast the ones who rigidly stick to their plan. Well, it's a good plan and if I just stick with it, it's going to work out. Not in today's
37:50 environment. Okay? You have to have a plan and there are good reasons to have a plan so you can step off confidently. But as circumstances change, you need to be ready to improvise, adapt away from the plan. But that decision needs to be made cooly and calmly, not in a panic. Okay? So adaptability is survival. Okay. Next, voluntary suffering builds
38:25 confidence. So this is somewhat related to embrace the pain. But in this case, in the case of embrace the pain, the pain is largely being inflicted outside of of one's own desires. Voluntary suffering means actually take on doing difficult things. Do hard things on purpose. Look for challenges. Okay, so the culminating event in Buds is something called hell week and it
39:03 lasts for five and a half days and it is designed to push the trainees to their absolute limits. Okay? So when they come out the other side, they know they have truly walked through hell in that sense. Okay. So uh during during uh hell week, okay, they get perhaps 4 hours of sleep in total. Not four hours a day, but but four hour maybe four hours of sleep
39:38 during the whole five and a half days. They're soaking wet from being in the ocean. They're cold. They're exhausted. They're probably hungry. They are pushed to the edge. And it's not about physical strength. It's about mustering the grit, the mental toughness to get through. Okay? We need to do the same thing in our lives and and especially in our businesses, right? We need to take on tough challenges. Now, one of the places
40:15 we can do this most easily is is in our personal lives where we commit to physical exercise. That's tough, right? So, recently I decided to start doing I used to do push-ups every day when I was in the Navy to make sure I was always ready for the physical readiness test, the PRT. And for some reason, I stopped doing. So now I do a I do a set of three I do three sets of push-ups uh four or five times a week and and each week I
40:51 add one more push-up to and I am going to keep building up and I'm hopefully I'm going to get to the point where I can do a 100 push-ups again. Okay, I can't do that right now. Okay, but I don't I I know I used to be able to do easily like 70 or 80 push-ups. whatever the max score was for someone my age, I was able to knock that out in a minute. Right now, I because I haven't been training and haven't wanted to do hard things, frankly, I stopped doing it. So now I'm rembbracing doing this hard thing. I'm going to build up over the
41:26 the next, you know, whatever 50 weeks to be able to do 75, 80 push-ups and just knock them out, you know, a minute, minute and a half, whatever it is to be able to do them, okay? Because we need to, we all need to, I need to continue to do things to build my mental toughness and and like I said, to just do push-ups or pull-ups, right? you can just get right down on the deck and crank out the push-ups. It doesn't take that long, right? But it will help build that mental toughness. So then that mental toughness is available to us in
42:02 our businesses. Okay? And in our businesses, we want to take on tough challenges, right? So, uh, for a good nine months, I did an every weekday evolution of reaching out to 20 perspective clients or really prospective sources of business, contacting them, following up with them, right? To build up my contacts. Okay? And now I'm and and it it it's hard for me for me personally it's hard to do that because that I'm an I'm an
42:38 introvert not an extrovert and and so having to reach out to people all the time very very difficult. Now I'm I'm working on the the next level of that which is to reach out to the contacts I've made on a regular basis by phone which is even more difficult for me. Okay. I but I need to I need to do hard things on purpose and we all need to find those in our business in order to make ourselves more effective. We need to have our own little mini home week uh hell week I mean uh in in order to build
43:13 ourselves up. Okay. Next. Two is one and one is none. So redundancy and preparation prevent disaster. Okay. So one of the principles of se of the seal community is emphasizing backup plans and gear. Okay. So there's a essentially a presumption that gear is going to break, plans are going to go ary and so there has to be backup plans and backup
43:49 gear readily available so that the mission can so that the the mission yeah mission can continue and the objective be achieved. Okay. So in our businesses we need to be looking for the failure points. Maybe they're in our supply chain. Maybe it's cash flow. Maybe it's leadership succession. And we need to be actively working to prepare redundancies in those areas to prevent catastrophe. Okay. So, this philosophy
44:27 of two is one and one is none. It's I I I I I love that phrasing because when you think about it, if you've got a weak point in your business and it fails, now you essentially do not have a business. Okay? You're out of business until you can get that fixed. Okay? But if there are redundancies built in to the weak points. So okay it fails but you can immediately get the generator going
45:02 power back on and the business continues. Maybe it doesn't continue in the most ideal circumstances but it does continue. Okay. So that's what we mean by two is one because at when we have a potential failure point we have to be anticipating it is going to fail at some point. So if there's no backup one becomes none. But if there's two and that and then and the primary one fails it doesn't it's fine. We still have the other one to take over. So two is one
45:38 one is none. We need to critically evaluate our businesses. Where are our vulnerabilities? Where are our likely failure points? And then build in those redundancies. Okay. Next, control what you can control. Okay. So, there are really only a couple of things that we can absolutely control in our lives. One is what we say and the other is what we do. Okay? We can keep our mouths
46:15 shut and we can refrain from actions or we can open our mouths and say something and we can take action. Okay? And we can we can control that. Okay? There's no such thing as I just had to say this. You actually know you didn't. You did not. That's a copout to say you had to say something. Especially if that if what you say is counterproductive, okay? Unduly harsh or critical. No, you don't have to say those things.
46:51 Okay. I I have an ongoing conversation with a friend of mine who loves to troll. He says, "I just I just have to troll." He's like, "Actually, no, you don't. I mean, I know you you do troll and you like trolling and sometimes what you say is humorous, but let's be honest, you don't have to. It is a choice that you're making. Okay? Now, some people say, "I can control my mindset." Uh, I don't believe that you can control it to a certain degree. Okay? But nobody has absolute
47:30 control over their mindset. Nobody has absolute control over their thoughts. Right? Don't think about an elephant. And what are you thinking about right now? An elephant. Okay? I mean our we don't have absolute control over our minds. Okay? And that's fine. Okay? Let's recognize what we can control. We can control what we say and we can control what we do. Okay? From a BUD's perspective, they can't control the surf. They can't control the temperature of the water. They can't control that the instructor is yelling at them. They can't control what their
48:07 team members are doing. What they can control is the their own performance and what they say as individuals. That's what they control. Okay? And that's why it's so important to to to gain ever greater control over what they say and do so that it's goes back to team first, ego last. Okay. The incentive to exercising control over what they can control,
48:42 speech and action, is that that that is what will make them an ever better teammate. Okay. So in business, okay, we can't control changes in the marketplace. We cannot control our customers moods, the outlook of our investors. We can't control our competitors. What we can control is the message that our business gives and the actions that we and our teammates take. Now we we as as business leaders we can't control what our
49:18 teammates do but we can we can create an ethic inside our businesses that each individual team member wants to work to have ever greater control over his actions so that we're all focused on the same achieving the mission all focused on achie on achieving the same objective. Okay. So control what you can control and focus on that and use that control to respond to all the myriads of other circumstances
49:53 that that you face over which you have no control. Okay? Control what you can control. Finally, quitting is a habit. Now this this is this is a this is a more subtle one I think than uh than some of the other ones we've been talking about. So, in the in the SEAL community, particularly in Buds, okay, if a trainee just absolutely gets to the point where he decides he's not going to
50:28 successfully complete the training, he does what he what's called he rings the bell. Okay? He literally and you see the bell in the seal comp compound, okay? It's it's a brass bell on a like a post basically. And he walks up to it and he rings the bell three times. Ding ding ding. And that means I'm done. I'm stepping out. He goes and he packs up his gear and he checks out and he goes on with his life. Okay. Now part of that ethos
51:05 is there's no shame in doing that. It's understood that a a significant number of Buds trainees are going to end up ringing the bell. That is the point of Bud's training is to weed out the people who just don't have the mental toughness to get through. Okay, but here's the subtle point.
51:40 The people who ring the bell at Buds, they have been taken, they've absolutely be take been taken beyond where they can endure. They have in many cases endured challenges that they didn't think they could have endured before, Buds. And and yet they realized there are even greater challenges ahead. and I am not in I'm not going to be able to meet those challenges.
52:17 Okay. Some candidates come back and they're able to successfully complete Buds going through it another time. Okay. This is the ethos that we need to create in our businesses. Okay. We don't want people quitting just because things got a little bit difficult or a little, you know, they're a little bit tougher than they thought. That kind of quitting becomes a habit. If we're going to quit, we need to
52:53 quit because we've gone beyond our level of endurance and yet have realized the the challenges ahead are even greater than what we've met so far. That's where we decide to quit. Okay. Now, I remember when I was studying to get my rebbitical ordination and I was every day I was studying the material and it's it's it
53:30 was essentially like a year and a half in law school only the material was in Aramaic. Okay, Aramaic is essentially a dead language. it was spoken in ancient Babylonia and it was just there were days when I would I was going over and over and over a concept and just I just seemed like I couldn't get it and I finally went and spoke to somebody at my synagogue who I thought could help me out with this and I I explained to him the situation and I said I just I don't I
54:06 don't think I'm going to be able to get through this and he said, "Well, are you so sure that it's unendurable?" I'm like, "Well, um" and he said, "Well, obviously not because you just said, "Well, um" and he says, "What else is coming down the pike that's even more unendurable than this?" I said, 'Well, I mean, probably not anything. And he said, 'Well,
54:43 so if you get over this, it looks like you're over the hump and you're good to go. Not, these are not, you know, exact words, but basically conveying what he said, right? Quitting when you haven't been tried to the kind of last ounce of your ability, your endurance, that becomes a habit. Same in business. So we we need to push and push beyond. And having pushed
55:18 beyond, we need to reasonably conclude that the challenges ahead are even greater and they keep growing and growing. Okay, at that point maybe we need to quit. We need to ring the bell. Ding, ding, ding. Okay, but prior to that, no, we keep going. Okay, we don't ring the bell. And one of I think one of the reasons the bell stands so prominently in the SEAL compound is to remind the Buds trainees there is an easy way
55:55 out. You can just go up and ring the bell. No shame, right? But you have to take the responsibility of quitting, right? and they see that all day long during the training. It's an incentive for them to build their grit, build their resilience. Okay? And we need to do that in our businesses as well. So, especially for our team members who have decided to take on hard things on
56:34 purpose, those are those are the ones who will most embrace the concept that quitting is a habit and avoid doing so. So, we want to reinforce that to them. Okay. So those those are the those are the that's that's how you you um run a business like a seal, okay? Or like a SEAL team. So I I encourage you to think about these and see how you can apply them to your business, how you can apply
57:11 them to your life. Right? I I was fortunate that I got to, you know, be in the in this seal community, be in the gestalt, as we call it, and and and I don't want to say I absorbed them by osmosis because I don't think that's the case, but I I got to talk to them. Um, one of my uh um commanding officers was a a captain in the SEAL community who in he this was in the reserves. He was also a pilot for a private jet service. We talked a lot and I learned a tremendous
57:47 amount from him about resilience, about grit and it it's been invaluable in my life. And so hopefully I've been able to convey at least a little bit of that to you for you to apply to your businesses and your life. So, uh, that's that's the the the the show for today. Tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my show, People Making Money. We're going to do our monthly economic echoes where we break down the economic
58:22 data from the previous month and look at how we can use that to make better financial decisions for us and our families. Okay, our loved ones. So that that's again that's people making money 10 a.m. Wednesday. And then Thursday at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time is my every other week's show, Jiggers's Place. And we're going to sit back and have a cocktail, the Twain. And that's in honor of our subject, which is the great American author Mark Twain, who wrote Huckleberry
58:57 Finn, Tom Sawyer, um, A Connecticut Yankee and King Arthur's Court, Innocence Abroad, uh, Puddin Head Wilson, so many outstanding books. And if you've watched Jiggers's Place before, you know I am a tremendous afficionado of 19th century literature. Mark Twain is the way to get involved with it. So, uh, please join me on Thursday at 5:00 p. p.m. Pacific time at Jiggers's place. We'll have a cocktail and a smoo as we say. And then next week
59:34 on Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time is my show, Trust and Estates Weekly. I'm sorry, sorry, sorry. I I made this mistake yesterday as well. So, actually next Monday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific time will be a special edition of the Way to Wow shows for Memorial Day. So, I hope you will join me for that. We'll we'll take uh around 45 minutes to an hour like a normal show and talk about why Memorial Day is meaningful. And then a week from today, we'll be back for the next edition of Business Lessons from the Military. So, thank you very much
60:11 for joining me. Always great to see my online my live viewers. Thanks so much. Wishing you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off as I always do. Marie darling, you are my