0:00 Who are you? And where are you going? What do you want? 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 we can apply to our businesses and professional practices.
0:37 So, kicking off the new year 2026, season 4 of Business Lessons from the Military. So, it's kind of wild. I've been doing this for four years. Uh but I um when I first the first year of the show, the first season, I did a series on Marine Corps warfighting doctrine and translated that into business principles. So I'm going to start out uh this year giving not exactly equal time to naval doctrine. this the one of the
1:13 other sea services, but I'm going to be talking about um a man by the name or name of Alfred the Mayan. His name is not particularly easy to pronounce. And um back in 1890 he wrote a book called the influence of sea power upon history uh from 1660 to8 to 1783. This was one of the most influential
1:48 books militaryoriented books literally of all time. It was not just it did not just have a powerful impact on American naval doctrine but indeed virtually across the world Japan Europe uh even uh China to I think a certain extent was influenced by Mayan's view of how sea power worked and and and how it was part of an integrated system. And so I'm going to start today.
2:24 I'm going to give you just a brief biography of Alfred Mayor Than so you can understand a little bit about him as as a person. And then over the next four episodes, I'm going to talk about the doctrine that he developed and translate that into business principles that we can then use to hopefully have a a prosperous and fantastic uh 2026. So without further ado, Alfred Mayor Thean, sorry, Alfred the Mayan was born
3:04 um in 1840 in West Point, New York. Now that alone should clue you in because West Point, as it's more commonly known, is the location of the United States Military Academy where Army officers are trained. His fam he was born into a deeply um military and academic family and his father uh Dennis Hart Mayan was a renowned military theorist and professor at the uh at the military
3:40 academy at West Point. And so man's perspective and and strategic mindset was developed from a very early age. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1859. This was just before the American Civil War started in 186061. uh and he did serve during the American Civil War gaining firsthand experience with naval operations, blockades, logistics, combat, etc.
4:16 uh he was a competent uh you know sebased commander but he was not by any means a standout leader in in the actual um the actual you know I'm trying to think of the word the actual application of of naval power and and this kind of pushed him in the direction toward intellectual leadership as opposed opposed to being, you know, a great naval commander like a David Farragut or a John Paul Jones, someone
4:52 like that. So, he became an instructor and later president of the Naval War College uh in um Newport, Rhode Island. and excuse me, he refined and he, you know, during his time at the Naval War College, he really defined his ideas on strategy. And then as I mentioned a couple of moments ago, he published the influence of sea power
5:27 upon history 1660 through 1783. In 1890, notice that there was a 100red-year gap between when his history ended and when he wrote the book. uh he I I think he recognized that one needs to have a fairly lengthy perspective to really understand the sweep of history. So this this work really synthesized centuries of naval warfare. Although he states 1660 to 1783,
6:04 it's it's really reflective of of the the larger sweep of naval history. So he synthesized the the you know sort of centuries of naval warfare and commerce and his basic argument was that naval strength, commerce and national policy are inseparable. Right? And if one looks at for example Great Britain which at the time that Alfred Mayor Alfred the Mayan wrote his book was still the greatest naval power
6:39 in the world and indeed maintained an empire essentially solely through uh the Royal Navy. Um an empire by the way the the the saying was the sun never sets on the British Empire. That's how extensive it was worldwide. So, Great Britain was an example of this merging of naval strength, commerce, and national policy. So his ideas directly influenced US naval expansion including the great
7:16 white fleet under President Theodore Roosevelt and and the creation of overseas bases, coing stations, for example, because the Navy was transitioning from sale to to steam and uh it was not just the United States indeed that was uh that was influenced as I mentioned before um Germany embarked on a naval expansion. In fact, all the major powers of Europe embarked on naval expansions. That was part of
7:52 the leadup into World War I, which in Europe started in 1914. So it was read globally by political and military leaders shaping arms races, imperial strategy on into the 20th century as I as I just mentioned. So there it it's it's hard to understate the impact that that Mayan and and especially his book had on indeed world history, not just military history or or the the the
8:28 fates of particular nations. and and and indeed World War I as I mentioned just a moment ago was kind of a demonstration of the kind of or kind of an outgrowth partly not not totally but partly an outgrowth of the expansion of navies among the European powers and and indeed in in that way alone uh Mayan had a tremendous impact on the world the the first you know world world war um could could be I
9:04 don't want to say traced to him that would not be accurate but his his theories and such definitely impacted uh how what what what the kinds of issues that coalesed and created the the atmosphere that led to World War I. So starting today and over the next uh the succeeding three weeks I'm going to be looking at um different aspects of mayor's thesis kind of his worldview um
9:39 on on sea power on um on governing and and and like I said um developing uh some lessons that we can use uh in in the business world in our professional practices If if like me you have a professional practice. Okay. So uh the first so the first concept I want to talk about is that mayor felt that sea power was a system not a fleet. Okay. So if we think about how uh for
10:16 example Great Britain or Spain looked at sea power going back to say the Spanish Armada. So how could this what at the time was a scrappy uh nation of Great Britain defeat what was at the time the greatest sea power of its day, Spain. Right. And and it wasn't just due to the audacity of the English leadersh of the English uh um
10:51 naval officers and the the stoutness of the English sailors. It had to do with something more than that. And although it probably wasn't recognized by by Queen Elizabeth or for that matter the the admirals at the Admiral T, England was has had already started to develop this this sort of concept of sea power as a system, not just a fleet. And so, you know, setting setting aside there were there was, you know, some luck and such in in in the in the
11:26 British victory Britain recognized that the the ability to have the ability to sustain its fleet was as crucial as the fleet itself. So, one needed to have ports. One needed to have logistical support to be able to build ships, repair ships, supply ships, and and one needed to have a system for recruiting. I'm using that word with air quotes because the impressment system
12:02 was essentially how uh England manned its ships. But for you know it need to have a system for getting enough sailors to man its ships. It needed to have a process for developing naval leader leadership. Hence uh the the the system whereby uh young young men when I say young they sometimes as as young as 11 or 12 years old uh could be midshipmen on a on a on a ship actually going to sea where they learned to be naval
12:38 officers, right? And boys even younger could sometimes be cabin boys. Uh so again this was part of the system of developing the manpower that was necessary in order to make a fleet powerful along with the political support that was necessary not not not just to have a navy. Lots of people would presumably be in favor of a powerful navy, but it's the cost of maintaining that navy, right, which requires taxing the populace. And so
13:15 there has to be political support for that not just among in the case of England the ministers of parliament but among sort of you know the the middle and upper middle and upper class who were the segments of the population that could afford to pay taxes. Okay. So all of this was part of the system that that England developed that made it the predominant sea power um roughly up until World War I. the United States,
13:52 pardon me, in the inter war years, uh a as it developed the air aircraft carrier and other facets, um the the U the United States was poised to become the dominant sea power. Um I I don't want to say it was necessarily in in the inter war years, but certainly as a result of World War II and the United States became and has remained the dominant sea power in the world. So in Meyer's view, a fleet without
14:27 infrastructure is essentially strategically hollow because you if you cannot maintain the fleet, then you're not going to it it it serves no value. It it's not able to project power or or be meaningful in the execution of the policy of a nation. Okay, let's take a quick break and I'll be back. Uh and I'll uh come back and and talk some more about uh thing than thing. Mayor Mayor Than America is a maritime nation.
15:02 Our freedom and security depend on strong sea services. The Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League stands with our Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine through community support, education, and advocacy. For over 120 years, Americans of all walks of life have heeded our call. No prior military services required to join our mission. The Beverly Hills Council of the Navy League of the United States. Help us support those who serve at sea. Visit navyleague.org.
15:41 So, this is uh business lessons from the military. I'm your host Kevin Bemel and talking about Alfred the Mayan's book the influence of sea power on history and I'm starting what is um going to be a four uh episode series looking at his ideas his thesis and applying it to the business world. So the first one I I talked about was that sea power is a system not a fleet. And so the same thing can be said about our businesses.
16:16 We can't run our businesses as siloed entities. Okay? Everything has to be integrated. And the more effectively we can merge the parts and get them working in concert so that they're they're you know their their gears that are operating together. Okay. The better we can do that, the more effectively our businesses will run both from the standpoint point of serving our clients and customers and in terms of
16:52 meeting whatever objectives we have. And so you as we as we develop our plans, I think we need to be conscious of if I'm going to create an initiative, how does this fit into the overall um scheme of my business? Okay, so I'll I'll use my own company as an as an example. And most of you know my primary business is acting as a professional fiduciary or what's also known as an independent trustee and probate administrator. Okay. So
17:29 much of my focus is creating strategic relationships with other companies so that I can form teams with the people necessary to be effective for a for administrating a particular trust or estate. But then as I look at my own business, so included in my own business is is a small media company. You see its name down there, Snappy Pattern Media, right? That produces the shows that I do,
18:06 right? So I do a show called Trust and Estates Weekly. I do that show for a couple of reasons. One is to offer an opportunity to the people with whom I'm work with whom I work to come on the show as guests and talk about their expertise and share it with other people. Right? So it's a platform for the people with whom I work to help them, you know, showcase themselves and build their businesses. That's number one. Number two, it's an opportunity for for
18:44 me to show my knowledge and expertise, right? So people can can who watch the show, they can say, "Oh, you know, Kevin knows about X, Y, or Z. Kevin has connections with these other people." Okay, great. Right. So, and each of the other shows, well, with the exception of Jiggers's Place, which which I do pretty much purely for fun, but the other shows all are part of they're all geared to support other parts of my business. So, I have a a consultancy called Hebrew Advisors, and this show and people
19:21 making money are designed to support that aspect of my business as well. Right? So, I look to be very integrated in in how I handle my business and make sure that if I'm going to take time to do something, how does it support the overall effort? Okay. So, uh we we you know we we don't want to develop sort of isolated products, isolated services. those really they take a lot of of um resources and they
20:00 divert us from our prime our primary focus which I realize is somewhat redundant right so we want to be integration is really the key word so and if we have weak support functions okay so that's going to undermine all the other parts of the business okay that's Why? Rather than developing a vertically integrated trust administration organization like you might find in a trust company for example. Okay. I've
20:35 chosen to build an an integrated trust administration practice by teaming with other top professionals. And that way I can bring in just the people who are necessary for that particular trust or estate and the administration of that trust and estate is not burdened by the fact that I've got a huge overhead that I need to feed part of which is not applicable to this particular matter. Okay. So I look
21:10 at my business as a system not as the individual parts. Okay. That's number one. Number two, trade follows security. So, this was this was um another this was the next of Mayan's principles. And when we're talking about trade, we're talking about global trade. In in in Mayan's day, it was primarily the exchange of goods, whether it was raw material like metals or uh agricultural goods, cotton, um flax, those kind of things, or
21:46 whether it was finished goods, machinery, um consumer goods, which was starting to get traction at the time he wrote this book. Okay. So uh in in concept nations that protected trade routes accumulated wealth and influence and and going back to the example of Great Britain that is how that is why Great Britain was able to become the greatest empire of its time because it protected trade routes. Okay. It also had a very robust
22:22 uh commercial fleet that was privatelyowned. Okay. But that commercial fleet wouldn't be nearly as effective if it hadn't been protect wouldn't have been nearly as protected, I should say. It it wouldn't have been nearly as effective without the protection of the Royal Navy. So that's another aspect of of integration of sea power. kind of going back to the first one, right? Okay. So, commerce declined quickly when security failed. So, if we go back to the early
23:00 uh days of the American Republic when we were trying to develop trade with other countries, one of the problems we had was being prayed upon by the Barbarie pirates in the Mediterranean Sea. So until America was able to effectively deal with those pirates, her ability to expand commerce was attenuated. Okay. And that's why in the end uh Thomas Jefferson who was not a
23:37 particularly Bellicose president uh when it when he had when he had to decide whether to pay tribute to the essentially the leaders of the pirates the the the bay of uh um going up on the name of the country. But anyway, rather than uh or or essentially go to war, he he essentially said the great quote um millions for war, not a penny for tribute, right? So he recognized that once he went down the
24:15 road of of paying essentially buying off the pirates, he was to a certain extent at their mercy. Okay. So he needed to establish the security of the American merchant fleet and the way to do that was to build a strong US Navy. Right? So the same thing is true in the business world whether we're talking about literally being engaged in trade where we're we're se our our business is selling products or we're selling
24:51 services. Okay. We we need to erect a strong security apparatus that supports those functions that are the actual revenue producing functions. Okay. If we shortch change the security functions, what we're actually doing is putting our revenue at risk. So what does it mean to to implement the security necessary
25:28 in order to support the revenue the revenue um um u generating functions. So it may mean for example robust cyber security. So if if a lot of what we do is online and if being hacked or or having our computers uh shut down because of a power outage, okay, then making sure that those technology systems are secure and stable
26:05 is crucial to our business. It's not an overhead cost and it's it's a it's a it's part of the cost of generating revenue. And that mind shift that mindset shift is important because a lot of businesses uh businesses really all businesses today are forced to operate as leanly as possible and that means with as little overhead cost as possible. Okay. Well, what is what is overhead
26:41 things like for example rent versus what is actually part of the security apparatus that is undergirling the business's ability to generate revenue. So is the is the purchase of electricity is that overhead or is that part of the security apparatus? Well, if if if you're running a lot of computers or a lot of machinery and and the loss of electricity basically means that your business closes down, electricity is no longer part of overhead. Electricity is
27:18 a strategic commodity that's necessary to your business for generating revenue. Okay, so that's that's one aspect of it. Another aspect of the security of potentially of of your security apparatus is proper insurance. Okay. So if you're in my business where you act as a professional, so being loss of a license essentially means that the business is out of business. Okay. being sued,
27:55 okay, without being insured, without having proper professional liability insurance or depending on the type of structure, directors and officers insurance. Okay, that could mean that the business is put out of business because just the cost to defend a lawsuit can be so high. Even if in the end you win the lawsuit, if it cost a h 100,000 or 200,000 or more, $200,000 or more to defend yourself in that lawsuit, can your business sustain that kind of
28:33 expense and still have sufficient revenue to pay for all of the various costs that are necessary for you to generate revenue. Right? So that's the point of having professional liability insurance. It's its most important function usually is that it covers defending you and your company against a charge of failure to perform properly you know in a professional context. Okay. So these setting up the proper security
29:11 apparatus the prop the prop proper security aspects of your business is crucial to its ability to continue to trade. Okay, in this case I'm using trade in a very general sense i.e. generate revenue. So where are your business's vulnerabilities? Okay, so that's that's that's number two. All right. Number three, geography creates opportunity and constraints. Okay. So, going back to now looking at this first from a naval
29:47 standpoint. So, some countries have natural harbors. They have coastline. They're not, for example, like Austria landlocked. Okay? and others have choke points that shape national success. Okay. So, geography both limits even powerful nations, but it can also create opportunities. So, if you're familiar I' I've used the Mediterranean Sea as an example already. If you're familiar with
30:23 the Mediterranean Sea, there's this sort of strange situation whereby the entrance to the Mediterranean on to the north is guarded essentially, not not so much anymore, but you especially in in the time of of Mayan, it was guarded by Gibralar, and one had to pass through the straits of Gibralar in order to enter the Mediterranean. Ian sea. Now this became a potential choke point on Great Britain
31:01 as the preeminent naval power. It needed to be able to freely navigate the seas. And yet Gibralar is well at the time was part of Spain and Spain was one of the rival sea powers to Great Britain. So, Great Britain basically took a hold of Gibralar and Gibralar to this day remains part of the British Empire. Right? So, Great Britain decided that it had to control the Straits of
31:37 Gibralar in order to achieve its national objectives. Right? So it turned a choke point into essentially I mean it it it diffused a choke point by taking control of the choke point right so and and you know for the for other sea powers well France had a northern coast as well as a southern coast so you know France wasn't necessarily hampered by uh Great Britain controlling Gibralar uh Italy
32:14 Italy was never a particularly strong naval power and and even less so countries like Greece etc. So by taking Gibralar away from one of its greatest rivals uh Britain Great Britain was able to um use geography to create opportunity. Okay. And then especially um after the Suez Canal was built. So now a sea route was developed through the Mediterranean Sea down through the
32:50 Suez Canal and Great Britain could get to her colonies in for example India in in a much shorter time than if she had to sail down the coast the west coast of Africa all the way around the Cape of Good Hope and then back up the east coast of Africa and into the Indian Ocean and on to India. Right? So this this perception of how geography creates opportunities or constrains opportunities is is a very important
33:25 aspect of un of understanding how sea power impacts history and the fates of nations. Okay. So we may have you know similar geographic issues in a business. Okay. So you know you may have just a local business right I I should I don't mean just in the sense of just but your business may operate locally. That's that's great. Uh what would happen if you were able to expand the
34:00 reach of your business? Right? This was a a a crucial question in the 1980s and 1990s as commerce globalized. And the big what turned out to be the biggest driver of the ability of smaller local regional businesses to expand their reach geographically was of course the internet. So as ecommerce developed, the ability of small businesses to reach
34:36 far beyond what otherwise would have been the geographic constraints of, you know, operating in even a big city like Los Angeles, let alone a a smaller town like say Ventura or Oxnart, something like that. All of a sudden, almost any business could have a worldwide reach. Okay. So this is how how we define our market. The tools available for accessing that market. Okay. That all creates
35:15 opportunity or constraints. Okay. So there are still people today who are somewhat conu uh con computer phobic and don't uh use the internet. So I was listening to uh a podcast yesterday morning. It's called the OddLots podcast and its name is indicative of the topics. It's a business podcast and it talks about sort of just various subjects. In this particular case, they were interviewing the owner of I guess the a a hot restaurant in Washington DC called
35:51 Butterworths. I I I believe that's what it's called. And the owner of the restaurant, what one of the questions they asked him was, "Where do you get your supplies from?" Because in this day and age, most restaurants get their supplies from companies like Cisco, big nationwide, indeed almost worldwide suppliers. And so there's a tremendous homogenization of the kind of fair that one gets at a typical restaurant. Now, that didn't used to be the case when I was a kid.
36:28 That that just it just didn't work that way. there hadn't been the consolidation in restaurant supply that there is today. Restaurants like Butterworths which are uh um you know higherend very typically high-end restaurants they estu the use of suppliers like Cisco and in the case of Butterworth almost everything is locally sourced. So I guess they do um something called tallow fries. I've never had these. And they do beef bones that and that the tallow is
37:05 uh in in the bones is is I guess particularly good. One of the one of the hosts act the hostess the it's a man and a woman who hosts the show. She evidently loves uh u tallow. And so she was talking about how delicious it was. And she like where did you get where do you get these these bones? And he said, "Well, we get them from a Menanite farm ranch that supplies us, I guess, each day or whatever." And he and and and they but you can't go on the internet and order from this, you
37:43 know, Menanite company. Basically, they don't use the internet. Okay? And indeed they don't use I believe any kind of mechanization. Okay. So once a week he can call him on a phone that's at I guess the local store because people don't have phones in their houses and he lets him know what he needs or you know he finds out what the fellow has and then sets up the deliveries for the coming week. Okay.
38:19 And so the menu at the restaurant changes every day based on what's locally available. Okay. Now that's a very different model from Chili's or or whatever where the standard menu is is part of their attraction evidently. Okay. The Menanite farmer who mischie technology, he has made a decision that he's only going to supply the local market, the market that is as
38:55 far away as he can get using his horsedrawn conveyances. And in fact uh the the restaurant uh uh owner was saying that he has to make special arrangements because the deliveries have to happen so early. They have to happen early in the mornings because the the Menanite fellow does not want to be in Washington DC with all the traffic and the noise because it's too disturbing to himself and and his uh horse or horses whatever you know I don't know how many
39:30 he uses to draw his his wagon. It's it's fascinating in this day and age we think everybody's on the internet. No, that is not the case. So in this case of the Menanite farmer, he has purposely decided to work within the constraints of geography that he has set for himself. Okay. So and this restaurant Butterworth's has made the strategic decision that because they want to serve the freshest
40:06 the best food available. Okay. They're going to have a menu that changes every day. They're going to accommodate someone who has to make deliveries at I think I think it was, you know, 3:00 in the morning. That kind of thing, right? This is a very different perspective on running a business than I think most of us would have. That's why the podcast, frankly, was was was so fascinating. Right? So we need to think about geography in that strategic way. Just because we
40:43 can go worldwide, do we want to? Businesses that were worldwide when the hair when the tariffs when the tariffs hit uh back in April, I think some of them may have thought, oh gosh, I maybe I maybe I'm I was wrong to be so dependent on foreign markets. Right? So these are the kinds of risks with which we have to deal when when our geography expands. Okay. So uh geography creates opportunity and constraints.
41:21 Okay. Next, long-term strategy beats tactical winds. So one of the things that Mayan noted in his study of naval history was that wars were were won generally by sustained dominance not individual battles. So tactical victories without a strategy for how the war would eventually be won often led to essentially exhaustion of one's forces
41:57 to no long-term benefit. Okay? And and and so again, the the strategy needs to be based on a vision beyond just the the win today or the win this month or even the wins this year. Okay? So from a business perspective, sometimes a shortterm win can actually weaken the long-term prospects for a
42:32 company. So let's say the company decides on a new product launch and it spends a tremendous amount of resources developing and launching that product. Okay. And let's say that let's say the project is su the product is reasonably successful. Okay. But if it doesn't integrate into the overall plan for the business, now a lot of resources have been drained off
43:08 and probably will continue to be drained off in support of this new product at the expense of the existing business. Okay. Now if the development of that new product is the harbinger of a strategic shift on the part of that business, okay, good. So then that new product is part of the long term a new long-term strategy. But if the bis the the the
43:44 existing products or services or both of that business remain viable long term, then the bleeding off of resources to support something new that doesn't integrate with the with the other parts of the business is probably weakening the long-term uh position of the business. And we see this all the time. Well, not all the time, but we see this in in mergers where companies think, you know, we're going to bulk up and and just the bulking up is going to give us market
44:20 dominance. That's not necessarily true. So, we've seen it in uh the the merger, this is going back into the 80s, 80s and 90s, the merger of Warner Warner Brothers with AOL. The the idea was that they were going to create this behemoth company that was going to dominate the market. The problem was among other things, the various products and services of those companies did not mesh nearly as well as the people uh supporting the merger had thought they would. That's number one. And
44:56 number two, the cultures of the companies were so different that again the companies as they tried to integrate the companies, it became increasingly clear that that close integration was just not going to work. And in many ways that that merger it just never lived up to what people thought it it would do. looking today where um uh Paramount and Netflix are both looking to uh grab a
45:31 hold of uh I think it's Warner Brothers again if I'm not mistaken. Right. So one of among the discussions that I've heard on this topic is you know how does owning a production studio the sort of nuts andbolts real estate oriented aspect of an entertainment and media company how does that support the long-term objective of Netflix which has never owned those kinds of assets and as a result has been able to be grow fast. It It wasn't held
46:07 down by a huge capital investment in plant and equipment and so it could devote its resources to just licensing or or you know um producing the best content without all of the overhead, right? Versus Paramount which they okay they already own a studio. Do they really need another studio? What is it really? Are they really going to going to get the synergies out of owning yet more streaming services, right? Where where is the long-term
46:44 plan, the long-term strategy that's going to result in a stronger company once whoever ends up being successful, and I've heard lots of great analysis about which one will or, you know, which one will end up being successful. uh where is the where is the analysis that shows that the long-term strategy is indeed viable? Okay. And in many ways, this is almost like, you know, you'll you'll forgive the metaphor, you know, hyenas, you know, fighting over the
47:19 scraps of the legacy entertainment and media business, right? So, you know, I I mean, it's it's interesting to watch from a business perspective. Uh, and and it's it's it is very difficult to predict the future, of course. Uh but I think some of the lessons of prior mergers need to be looked at for our own businesses. We need to be as clear as possible. What is our long-term strategy? And then whatever we're doing, we we need to be as clear and objective in
47:55 assessing how a particular uh product, a particular service will will or will not support our long-term strategy. And we need to be fairly ruthless in not engaging in what be what end up becoming distractions. Okay. Uh the last one probably maybe not the most relevant for businesses. I'm going to talk about it just briefly and that is national policy
48:33 shapes commercial success. So from mayor's perspective, governments that aligned uh naval strategy and commercial policy prospered, that's certainly the case with Great Britain, right? A large reason for the existence of the Royal Navy was to protect protect Great Britain's merchant fleet. So the two worked together. I don't want to say literally seamlessly but they worked the very in a very symbiotic fashion
49:11 for the betterment of the country and commerce as a whole. Okay. Disconnected policies lead led lead to dis led to decline. Okay. So uh countries that perhaps engage I think this is I think one could make the case that for Germany in this respect. So when the Kaiser went on a big ship building u initiative he diverted a lot of money into building up his navy but Germany really didn't have any empire to
49:48 protect. They had always been a land power. And so the buildup of a navy didn't really align with any kind of commercial policy. It was really just kind of a sapping of the wealth of Germany into something that was kind of a vanity project on the part of the Kaiser. Right? So it's important that government policy and and commercial policies align. Okay? They need to be symbiotic. Now, where do we see that
50:26 today? Well, I'm going to go back to that podcast about the restaurant in Washington DC because the host uh asked him what I think is the the show largely tries to a stew politics. Um but the the one of the questions they asked him is you know how have uh for example immigration policy impacted your business. Okay. And one of the things he said was that with the uh reduction of the number of people in this country
51:02 illegally. Okay. his ability to attract and hold uh employees for his restaurant got more difficult. As a result, he had to raise the wages of his employees and take other steps in order to retain retain them and and keep their loyalty to his restaurant. Okay. So on on a the there seemed to be kind of the implication
51:37 that uh current immigration policy was at odds with what would be best for the restaurant business. Now I I mean that was again that was kind of the sense I got from the way the hosts at asked the question. It was it's interesting to note though that in a high-end restaurant where quality of service is so important and quality of food is so important. Having
52:12 continuity of staffing would seem to me as someone who I've never run a restaurant. Okay. I've worked at fast food places, never run a restaurant, but it just seems to me that that would truly benefit that particular restaurant. And so, you know, was government policy or is government policy misaligned with the with the needs of the restaurant business or is it actually better aligned now? Right. And and and that's what I for that's what I call a bourbon question. It's it's best discussed over
52:48 Burman. So my point is not to say yes or no on that issue. It's only to point out that especially in in the time it may not be obvious whether government policy is at odds with commercial policy or is aligned with commercial policy. Okay. And also in a country like the United States where we seem to you know go back and forth between uh parties in terms of leadership and such. So there there has there is going to be some changes right
53:26 and so how do we deal with a you know somewhat to very volatile government policy environment? Okay I know how I deal with it. I seek to be in businesses that are as little impacted by government policy as possible. That that's my that's how I handle that particular issue. So for me, aside from tax policy that affects my clients and me in in terms of paying taxes, uh and some regulatory policy that deals with
54:01 real estate. Okay. um what happens within the government doesn't have nearly as much doesn't impact my business and my clients nearly as much as it would impact other building other businesses that are much more highly regulated for example banking um securities right uh and in fact I was offered an opportunity to be to become essentially a a registered investment advisor and I I I worked worked on it for a while and I decided I just didn't want to be in that heavily
54:36 govern government regulated business, right? And so that's why I ended up doing what I'm doing now. Okay? So I think we need to look at where government policy and our businesses have to interact and how symbiotic is that interaction. Here in California, of course, we're the poster child for uh government burdening business, and that is certainly the case. Much California burdens businesses much more highly than than other states do, right? So, it's
55:11 it's a matter of both government policy, but also geography going back to one of the the prior issues. Okay. So, uh real quickly just summarizing the the points that I covered today. uh sea power as a system, not a fleet. Trade follows security. Geography creates opportunity and constraint. Long-term strategy beats tactical winds. And finally, national policy shapes commercial success. So, those are the first five of Mayan's
55:46 ideas that we can apply to our businesses and prof professional practices. I look forward to continuing this discussion with you over the next 3 weeks. So, thank you very much for joining me. Uh, tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. is my show, People Making Money. Hope you'll 10 a.m. Pacific time. I hope you'll join me for that. And that only leaves me to thank you again very much for joining me. Wishing you a wonderful rest of the day. Signing off as I always do. Marie darling, you are my bell. Courage at all times.