Army veteran and systems thinker James German talks consciousness, why social media divides us, and his model for companies that last a thousand years. He credits humility and ego-less focus on data for resilience, and believes trust is the true currency of sentience.
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¡Hola! I'm John Maxwell. When the top companies in the world are looking for trainers, speakers, and coaches, there's one name that stands above the rest, and that's Maxwell Leadership. Our certified team members have gotten proven results for companies all over the globe, and our reputation, I'm proud to say, is second to none. Some of our members have risen to the top of their profession, including the one you're going to meet today. I proudly introduce you to my friend Bob Fabien Zinga.
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All right, welcome to another episode of the Leadership and Success Podcast. Today, this is your host, Coach Bizzy, and, uh, I am really privileged to be speaking to, uh, the guest we are going to be introducing in just moment. And this is the second podcast today. So for the first podcast, as you know, we do what we call moment of gratitude. Every time we meet, we take just a moment to be grateful. And this morning, I was grateful for the people who really put their life in danger for others to really serve others, serve for a cause that is bigger than themselves. Not just selfish being me, myself and I, my family and the people I know, but really doing it for your community, for your country. And this morning, I was speaking to a former special Agent, Senior Special Agent in the U.S. Secret Service. And today, I'm going to be talking to an Army Vet Specialist, James Jarman. And I am just so grateful for people like him who are willing to take time out of their very busy schedule and life and really put it to the service of others. So if you would let me know in the comment, where are you joining us from? Which city, which country. And, uh, if you are joining us from outside the US, uh, let us know which country as well. What are you grateful for today? And of course, if you have a question for my guest, please type that in the comments. All right, let me see if I can properly introduce our guest tonight. I am really, really excited because I am speaking today to James German. Because the question is, what happens when you combine a system thinker, a technology transformation leader, and the philosopher of leadership and human behavior? And today I've learned a soldier, a veteran of the US Army. Well, you get James German with over 20 years of experience across 24 industries. James helps leaders do something most never achieve, see what they couldn't see before. Through his, uh, multi-dimensional, uh, God Perspective framework, he challenges executive, engineer, and military leaders alike to rethink how systems shape behavior, how AI reflects or distorts our values, and why blind spots, not lack of intelligence, are the greatest leadership risk. His philosophy is grounded in one powerful principle: in service for the good of all and to the detriment of none. That reminds me of what Google used to believe, do no harm. I don't think they believe that anymore. So what we're gonna be learning today in this episode, we're gonna try to go deep into why blind spots are the number one reason leaders fail. All right, without any further ado, please help me welcome to the Leadership Success Podcast specialist, James German. All right, good morning, James. How are you doing today?
Howdy, how are you doing, Bizzy?
Well, great, great, great honor to have you here again. I want to acknowledge your service in the US military, the US Army. I wish it was the Navy because I feel like the Army is a little bit inferior, but no, I'm just kidding. But go Navy, beat Army, right?
Hey, my son's serving in the Navy right now, but I was 2 inches too tall for any vehicle in the military.
True, true.
At 6'6", they were like, infantry is all you got, go.
Wow. Did you have dream to be a pilot too, either a jet or helicopter or anything?
No, not really. I mean, my ASVABs were high enough, I could have gone into anything, but my height was actually a detriment. Problem.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I know so many people in the Navy, we, we are frustrated pilot, uh, we never will be, but, uh, that, that was something we, we wish we would be. Anyway, is Is there something you are grateful for today, James?
So much. Um, let's see, the fact that I can learn every day that I'm alive. If I don't learn something, have I really lived?
Wow, that's about—
I mean, if you go back, let's say, a couple thousand years, right, before the pyramids, all of us were hunter-gatherers. We were going and picking up our food and protecting ourselves and everything else. And that's what we had to be grateful for. Now we have so much leisure time because our food comes to us on refrigerated trucks into grocery stores. We don't have to go run for it or anything. We have a lot more leisure, which also leads us to not be as grateful. So if you put your mentality back into, oh, I get to eat today because, you know, somebody raised the food that I got from the grocery store, then you can bring back that gratitude for little things. Hey, I woke up this morning and got out of bed and there were no body aches in my knees or back. Great day.
Wow, that is really, really profound. I was born in a third world country in the Congo, Central Africa, and sometimes I threaten my two kids. I'm like, you guys are too spoiled. You need to go spend a day, you know, some type of developing country, and then when you come back, I think you're gonna kiss the ground and you're gonna be so grateful for everything you've got.
But, uh, like, every 18-year-old male could go through Sear School and come out on the other end a lot more empathetic and intelligent, I think.
I think so too. Yes, yes, it's, it is, uh, just incredible just how lucky and blessed we are, especially if you are born in in this country, which I still believe is the best country in the world. Is there something about you, James, that most people may not know when they first meet you?
They probably think that I'm quiet, but it's just because I let other people talk if they need to.
Very good, very good. So you're a great listener, definitely a skill we should all practice more.
Well, I mean, if you just look around, everybody's taught the lesson, they just don't pick it up. Two ears, one mouth. Listen twice as much as you talk.
Yeah, that's what my mom used to tell me when I was a kid, and that is so true. And also, people will like you better if you show more empathy and you listen to them and make them feel special instead of you always talking all the time. Now, you've had quite a very interesting background, and like I said, more than what, 30+ industries? It's just Amazing. And until today, I didn't know that you were actually in the army as well. So you describe yourself as a— oh, actually before— no, okay, okay. So let me go with this. You do describe yourself as a warrior poet monk of technology and physics. Can you break that down for us, please?
It's the most accurate description. So if you go back to Bushido, samurai, they had to kill, they had to fight, they had to shoot and all that, but they also were required to learn an art. It could be painting, it could be music, it could be whatever art that they wanted, but it was to give them a balance. In my case personally, I can't draw a straight line with a computer, so art is not it. I have absolutely no musical tone. I can't hear a difference between an F and a G. Or an A and a G. So poet was what I got. I can use words. So warrior poet, I mean, the army and then the poetry part. The monk is a mindset. Every day you walk the same path, and every day you have to look for something new, you know. Oh, well, that rock was there, but the butterfly wasn't on the rock yesterday.
Yes.
So that's something new that I spot. And then you go along the path, and sometimes you just need a different perspective.
Wow.
I looked left, today I look right, tomorrow I bend down and I look up, or whatever. But you see things from a new angle, and it allows you to notice things that you never could notice before.
Wow, that is very simplistic, but it's quite profound. Uh, accurate, man.
Technology and physics— technology, as far as the dictionary definition, application of scientific knowledge. So it's not hardware, software, phones, or whatever. It's all technology.
Yes.
Physics is the basis of everything that we have.
So, wow, that is, that is really something. Let me go back to the, to the monk part because that is very, uh, insightful, I think. I feel like today we are living in a world that is moving way, way too fast, and we are distracted by So much. There is just a lot of distraction out there. We can't focus. We can't really live a simple life like our grandparents or great-grandparents used to live. There is always something seeking your attention. And I think it's—
Usually for money.
True, true. And that's why I think it's so important to meditate, calm yourself down, and just be grateful for what you have and just take a minute just to reflect. So the monk part really piques my interest. What kind of led you into this path? Because I'm assuming you didn't think about that when you got out of the army as a specialist.
No, actually, before I went into the military, I had been meditating since, I don't know, 10 to 12, somewhere in there.
Wow, that's so young.
I don't remember when I started. But, um, so I meditated for a long time, went into the military, came back out, and I think that they should actually teach meditation in the Army or the military.
Um, I think the special operation forces do, but the general military—
yeah, but even like if you go back to Abu Ghraib, right? You have 18-year-olds protecting prisoners and they're told, these prisoners killed your buddy, don't touch them. Protect them. But an 18-year-old doesn't have the mental ability to know how to deal with the emotions and the intellect. That guy killed my buddy. I'm going to protect him. No, I'm going to hurt him because he killed my buddy. Yes, is what they're going to have. So having that distance mentally from all of your emotions and being able to see things allowed me to come out a little bit better and more monk-like. There's the famous example. You have somebody, it's an open area, there's buildings around. One guy goes across, he gets shot by a sniper, but he's not killed. He's shot, so he's wounded and he's hurting and he's yelling, and it's bait. It's to get you to go out there to help him so you can be killed by the sniper. You have to put yourself in we always called it a cold state. You just pause your emotions essentially, and you're like, okay, take out the enemy, make sure we're safe, then we can go save our buddy.
Yes.
Well, you've got to be able to sublimate your emotions in those times. And meditation helped me to do it. But most people aren't given that ability.
Yes, but I guess it can be learned, right? What has that taught you? I am totally neurotypical.
Everything I teach is learned. My wife, on the other hand, is ADHD and has superpowers.
That is really fascinating, uh, because I, I really also like the, the way the science is helping us better understand and treat people. Because back in the days when I was a kid, people didn't understand ADHD, all of that. They would say things like, you are retarded, or no, something is wrong with you, when there is absolutely nothing wrong. With a person. It's just the way they, uh, accept and process information. So once you know that, that it's, it's really a big change, right? I mean, it's, it's a breakthrough. You use— you look at life completely different, don't you?
I mean, look at— it's going to be a horrible example and I'll probably get canceled for it, but if you look at teenagers, we have all of those emotions and hormones and they're short-circuiting this and making it think with other things. But then on the women's side, we have menopause around the 50s. And again, it's a hormone storm that stops this from working the way that it was working. And just looking at those two things, we need to be kinder to ourselves.
Yes.
We don't understand at certain points what we're thinking because of all this chemistry and physics on the back end.
Yes. And talking about menopause, I'm hoping we're gonna talk a little bit about your book, Our Sophia Menopause, a man's story. This is really quite fascinating. I think my audience is going to learn something about that. But no, I really like what you are saying. And going back to the monk idea and the idea to meditate, to really create this space where you don't just react to whatever happens to you, but you actually respond to it, right? How has that affected your life or your leadership style? Why would you recommend that people do that?
I tend not to fly off the seat of the handle.
Yes!
I'm very balanced. I have a very deep keel to put it in Navy terms. As far as helping other people, I think we are pressured by society to be so fast to react. Like, just taking journalism as an example. It used to be trust but verify. If you had 3 sources, then you could publish. Now it's, oh my God, we have to publish even if it's wrong, because somebody else might publish it first on Twitch or TikTok or whatever.
Yeah, yeah.
So even if it's wrong, publish, publish. And we're pushed for that speed, and that speed is actually causing us to cause issues all along the way. Hmm. We defer the payment until later. We defer the payment until it's somebody else. A CEO makes a decision today that, you know, 3 generations later are going to pay for.
Yes, yes, man, that is really profound. Because of course, in Monévia, I think we probably stole it from the army. One of the maxims we say is, slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
Yeah, we, we have the same thing.
Yeah, I think all of the leadership principles we have in the Navy, I am 99% sure we just stole it from the Army, because the Army has been around before us. But that is so—
but you can also see it, you can also see it in any master-apprentice relationship throughout the world. So like the Japanese, they're working on their work table, and every time they put the tool back in the same spot. If I want to reach for my hammer, it's my left hand this direction. If I want to reach for my screwdriver, it's my right hand this direction. And just knowing that gives you speed once you do it. It's the same thing with martial arts. You practice your horse stance and you punch slow until you get it perfect, and then the speed comes.
Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, remind me of Karate Kid, right? Wax off, wax on, and before you know it, it becomes muscle memory, which is something we would do in the military a lot, right? We always fall back to our training. We train like we fight, we fight like we train. Because some people think when you are in the combat zone where the stakes are very high, you are going to, I don't know, reach your potential or something, which never happens. You always fall back to your training, don't you?
Yeah, it's like in martial arts. If you go into a knife fight if you go into it like a normal person, they cut you and all of a sudden you freeze. You're like, oh my God, blood! Oh shit!
Yes!
And you can't do anything. So you go into the fight going, I'm going to get cut, I'm going to get stabbed, and then mentally you're prepared. If it happens, you just keep on going.
Wow, that is really amazing, the power of our mind.
But it is the training.
Absolutely.
I mean, we trained with live rounds going over our heads. Constantly.
Yes.
Why? So when a bullet zips past your head, you don't freak out and stand up and get—
Yes.
Ended.
Yes. Wow, that is really something, because even talking about our military experience, I truly believe that many people in the Navy, in the military in general, they have mental illnesses that they haven't been diagnosed for yet. And I feel like part of the problem, especially with men, is we tend to I don't know, be arrogant, macho, alpha male, I am strong. Like if you get a physical injury, no problem. Okay, I am sick, let me go to the doctor or nurse or whatever. Let's take care of it. But if it's mental, people are like, no, I am ashamed. And they definitely used to be 21 years ago when I joined. I think it wasn't looked favorably. You could even lose your security clearance if you said you were talking to a shrink or a psychiatrist. Anything like that. It was really, really taboo. But to today, the Navy definitely understands that, and we have so much help now, the VA and all of that. But I still, though, I feel like many male soldiers say, look, they just don't want to acknowledge they may need some help. What, what do you think about that?
Um, long time ago when I was in, so I was in a place called Hohenfels, Germany. We were training NATO troops and because it was a training ground, we had different equipment. So we had these grenade simulators.
Hmm!
It was a pyrotechnic device about this big and it literally let off a flash, but we had to clean up the training ground. So I was picking one up and I burned these 3 fingers.
Oh no!
Third-degree burn, but we were driving 113s. So APC, armored personnel carriers. And there's two sticks and you drive this way. So if you want to turn right, you pull back on the right and then the thing turns. If you want to go left, you do it that way.
Yes.
So I had to pull back on both sticks with third-degree burns, and the entire time I'm driving back to base, I have my hand in water just swirling it around. Wow. Nobody knew, not even my tank commander knew until we got back to base, because mission comes first.
Yes, about that.
The attitude— no, no, no, that was the attitude we were trained with. I'm not saying it's right, but that's how it was.
Yes.
And you push yourself because you don't want to let down your buddies, or you don't want to let down the mission. And that pressure that they put on us is intended to do exactly that— make people get over their weakness and push harder than they are or can.
Yeah, I think that definitely needs to change because this is the other thing too. Sometimes you can get yourself hurt really badly, even turn into a chronic condition, but then you have served, you have rights to get VA benefits, whether it is money or medical and all of that, but because you never went to the medical unit, it is not in your official, right, uh, record, then the VA is going to disable your claim. So even though you have served, you've been at combat, and your body has, uh, the, uh, proof, no, of your, uh, service, still the VA will not approve your claims. I guess what I'm saying is long-term thinking, that's definitely not the right thing for you to do. So your macho attitude is really not helping you much at all.
No. And it's the same thing that has happened all the way back to Alexander the Great. He would burn the ships or put his team with a cliff behind their back. So it's literally you fight or you die. There's no choice. You can't run away, you can't escape. Yes, but it's a military twerking of the psyche. That we do.
True. Wow. Okay. So let me ask you this. What life experience most shaped the way you think about systems, leadership, and truth today?
It's going to be a weird one, but if you ever read Conan, the books, like Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan, he saw things because he was an outsider to civilization. So for me, being homeless at 16, going to school, going to Vo-Tech, and then graduating and going into the military was the biggest change. Being homeless during those years changed everything about how I perceive the world, and it'll never change. It's in me, just like being loyal to my wife is in me. So, wow.
Are you willing to to share the circumstances that made you homeless at just 16 years old?
Sure! Let's say I've come to a different understanding of it now that I'm in my 50s. My father had just gotten out of Vietnam and let's say he had some issues at the time. He didn't know how to parent a child, but he knew how to parent a platoon of soldiers in Vietnam. So he kind of conflated those two. Um, when I was 16, I was working at Roy Rogers. I had a car. I had to pay for gas, car insurance, and, uh, rent at the time. And that week I could not afford rent, and we had had blowups, so he kicked me out. Threatened to call the cops. And that day I left, and I didn't go back until after I got out of the military.
Wow, really sorry to hear that. If you are willing to—
hey, it's okay. I survived, and it made me who I am. It made me able to survive the military, if that's even a thing.
What, what did that experience teach you?
One, that there was nobody coming to help me. Nobody. I mean, that first night in the woods—
wow—
removed all of the assumptions and norm-based things that society says.
Hmm.
So, uh, I mean, I have allergies, food allergies to anything that flies or swims.
Wow.
But that's what I could actually catch the most. So I ate a lot of stuff that flied or swam, and then I would throw up and be sick.
And, you know, wow, man, that, that is really, uh, terrible. Because to me, 16-year-old, you are still a young boy.
Oh, I am just all hormones and anger, and I remained anger until I was about 30.
Man, thank you, thank you for sharing that. Man, it's, no, that really could be quite traumatic because definitely your parents, that's where you should really feel the love. It's really where you should feel the most secure in the world. And, hmm.
But it's okay. Now that I have distance and I have more understanding of the world and everything, I understand they were trying their best. They failed. But no kid on the planet comes with a book. None of them come with an instruction manual. We all fail. We all fail in different ways. But the children just rise up and they continue on. And we have 500,000 years of human history.
Yes, yes, that is true. Because if they knew better, they would have done better. That is so true. But this is quite a mature mindset to have. And I am assuming part of the meditation and some other things you didn't— you told me you've read more than what, 3,000 books?
50,000.
50,000. Wow, that's amazing. I've only read almost 3,000.
But that's also like medical papers, scientific documents, and everything else.
Yes.
So essentially, if it exists and it's not about music or art, I'm reading it.
Wow. So what, what do you think, uh, help you get out of, uh, at least, uh, overcome the bitterness from that experience?
Meditation. Absolutely. The fact that, and that I survived, and I saw people around me that didn't survive. Either they broke down mentally, they broke down emotionally. Whatever. So just the act of surviving helped me to understand that got me here.
Wow.
I mean, if you look at it, everything in my life has gotten me to this point.
Yes.
I would not be with my wife today if I hadn't been homeless back then.
Hmm.
Wow, that's a very Positive way of looking at it, for sure. So really, I guess it's called a tough mindset. What do you think helped you develop that mindset of survival and resilience and grit?
Survival was just what other option is there? I could lay down and die, but that's not life. That's not—
yes.
Why we are alive. We're here to do something, and it's not lay down and die and feed plants. Um, as far as what helped me to get there, I think the meditation was absolutely the best.
Yes.
But it was also an internal mindset of my dad, my leader, whoever did this, I will never do that. I will do the opposite of that.
Yes. Yes, yes. Wow. That is, again, thanks again for sharing. I really do appreciate that. I think it is going to help some of the listeners who are listening to the podcast now, because I feel like sometimes we kind of imagine that everybody has the same experience as we do. And it is totally different. Yeah, yeah.
The one example I can give you, okay, and this is taken from current news. It's a horrible example, but those are the ones I usually have the most of. Um, the UnitedHealthcare CEO controlled millions of people's lives. His perspective on 'this is what reality is, this is how the world works' controlled millions of people's lives.
Yes.
Until another perspective changed it. And then with one bullet All of that changed for millions of people. So any perspective on Earth is not necessarily the right one. And if you keep that humility in yourself, then you can listen to other people give perspectives. One example was I was an IT guy for, I think, about 15 years at the time. My son was very young, like 5 or 8, somewhere in there. And he said, Dad, you know what you're looking for, if it's a PowerPoint or an Excel or a Word document, why don't you just put them all in one folder instead of 5,000 folders for all your customers and everything. Like, oh, C:\Data, and then 254 characters for the name allow me to have a very descriptive name instead of all those subfolders. But I learned it from a 5-year-old. Yeah, after knowing IT for over a decade.
That's amazing, man. Always leading with you.
If you always have that humility, you can learn from anyone.
Yes. Wow. And also, you mentioned the Green Room. After you left the army as a specialist, you got, what, 1,000 books in your—
Oh yeah, I bought 1,000 books and put them on my bookshelves because I wanted to know knowledge. I thought that was riches, 1,000 books. And now they're all digital because my wife doesn't want me to carry them and pack them all. So we gave them away to different booksellers and stuff like that.
That is amazing, amazing. I think reading definitely changed my life because there is something you don't know today, if you just read, somebody has written about it and like they say, you become an expert within what, 5 years, 10,000 hours or whatever. Something you don't know today, you can always, always learn it.
But a lot of things you know today, you just know them under a different thing. Like, yes, In business, they always talk about, well, how long have you been negotiating, or how long have you practiced your sales skills? Yes, since I was 3 and asked my parents if I could stay up at night. Yes, I mean, those are the same skills all through your life, and just saying these are the only ones that count, that's— yes, yes, to use another word, retarded. Yes, no, you are absolutely stupid to say all of those skills don't count.
Yes, that is really what allows you to be who you are today. You built upon that. Well, that is fantastic. Let's talk about your multidimensional God perspective. That framework is quite insightful. So what is it in plain English? MDGP.
Okay. First of all, it is not sacrilegious at all. But if there was a God that created the entire universe and everything in it, that God should be able to look from any sentient point in that universe. So it goes to BZ and it goes, oh, this is what the universe looks like to BZ. This is what the universe looks like to Jim. This is what the universe looks like to that cat. You know, they're going to be totally different universes. So if you can use multi-dimensional perspectives to see things then you stop having blind spots. You stop having stupid decisions because of blind spots that you're not even acknowledging.
Wow. So I guess it takes humility but also empathy, putting yourself in the shoes of the other people, seeing things their way.
But it's also not God like, uh, omnipotent. It's God like, I'm responsible for everything.
Yeah.
So everything that you perceive then you have a responsibility for.
Wow, that is deep. So how is MDGP then different from traditional strategy consulting or system thinking?
I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else. So there's 6 axes— axis— sorry— that you try to look at things through. So let's see, All right, I want to buy a plastic water bottle or I want to buy this metal water bottle. What am I going to do? So first is the one rule: does it help everyone or does it harm others? It definitely harms others. The plastic goes in the ocean somehow and then everyone else on the planet has to deal with it. The metal water bottle I keep and refill and I'm not creating more plastic.
Mm-hmm.
Um, then you go through the shadow. Okay, well, if I do the plastic, I'm using petrochemicals. There might be something in here because we did have, uh, what was it, PCB? Yeah, or something. We had that kind of plastic and we were all drinking from it for a decade, and God only knows what it did. Now we've changed that. So what is the shadow perspective and What is being harmed? Who is being harmed by the decisions we make? Trickster. Flip it. So if you say we have to lay off 1,000 people, what if you hired 1,000 people? Hmm. It doesn't matter if you make the decision. It matters that you see it from that perspective and you consider it from that perspective because that's where you'll get the insights. Then you go to temporal. Okay. If I'm a little bit different with time than a lot of people because I believe that we live in 4D. Everybody acts like we live in 3D. There's front, back, left, right, up and down, and that's how we navigate the world. We drive and all the rest, but we forget about time, and time changes things. Um, so temporal Earth, when the sun expands and burns off Earth and life can't be here anymore, Science has changed recently. I think it's a billion years from now instead of 5 billion that they're expecting. But if you just make all of your decisions for that time, you'll make a totally different decision every time. It's like, oh, all I want to do is go out and do what I want. Okay, well, you're going to make different decisions than I need to make sure that I'm not harming anything for the next billion years.
Yes. Wow.
And then on top of that, spatial. So does it work at the atom level? Does it work at the universe level? Does it work at all the levels in between? And if you look at those, and then the last one is today tech. Think of it as MacGyver. What do we have physically that we can build right now?
Mm-hmm.
I can't build a spaceship that'll fly faster than light because we don't have the technology now. But I can build a spaceship that flies.
Yes. Wow.
So those 6 things, if you just go through those real quick, it actually becomes perception. It's not, I have to think about this, it's how are you looking at it.
Wow, that is really amazing. Where did that come from, multi-dimensional God perspective? It makes a lot of sense now that you have explained it. Did you just have like an insight What, what would you think?
It's more of the monk thing. You observe a lot of things and then you put it together that way. So if you just— a simple thing, right? There's, I don't know, roughly 8 billion people in the world today. Approximately 4.25% are the US.
Yes.
Out of the 8 billion people, all of them think different things and see things differently. But if you could just imagine how this looks to every one of them, you're going to think differently. And it doesn't require cognition, it just requires perception. Oh, when I go to a gift shop— this, this is the part that really made it work for me— when I go to a gift shop and I see something unique, I go, oh, my mom would hate that, my dad would love it, or whatever, my first boss. Whatever. Those personalities, those perspectives that we carry around with us, they allow us to see things from other people's eyes.
Yes.
Um, there's a thing called the Dunbar number, 150. So most humans can handle 150 connections to other humans before they're overwhelmed. I think it was not Gerhard, what was it? Gore-Tex. I think the Gore-Tex company actually built factories based on that number, and every time they got to 151 people, they would open a new building, and the one would go to that building. But I think it's how much we can contain in ourselves as far as a personality simulation on somebody else. But you can train that, because lobbyists, sex workers, professional politicians they all have the ability to hold more perspectives because that's what they do for survival.
Yes. Wow.
So if you have those perspectives and you start looking like in the gift shop, I look at this and I see it from all of the perspectives I contain and I go, oh, this is a stupid gift. Oh, this is a perfect gift.
Whatever.
Yes. Yes.
It's not me and my perspective. It's those other ones I carry with me.
Wow, that is really powerful.
And it's fast, and everybody can learn to use gift shop everywhere. Yeah, we use it every single time anyone has ever walked into a gift shop.
Wow.
We access all 150 perspectives at the same time when you see that unique thing and you just go, that's who it's perfect for.
Hmm, that is really amazing.
We can use that same process, that same built-in ability everywhere.
But basically, first of all, I hope you are writing a book about this because I think it's going to help a lot of people. But also, that's the Substack. I feel like it is simple, but it's quite profound. Thinking more about this, I think you could definitely resolve a lot of the conflict out there because usually what happened, the perception, the world as of America, you said we only like 4% of the world, but We tend to dominate in everything, or we think our way is the highway. It's our way or no way at all. We tend to be very, very arrogant, and that's why many people around the world, they don't really like us. But up to now, they really didn't have a choice because if they don't do business with us, then who are they going to do business with? But it looks like this day they are having—
We're the biggest customer and we're the biggest arms dealer on the planet.
Yeah. And so a little bit of humility could really take us a long way.
Yeah, absolutely.
Wow, man, that is quite something. So does the MDGP reveal truth, or it just fundamentally change the perception?
Fundamentally, it changes your perception. Does it reveal truth? Um, some. Like, if you look at any old fables, any of Aesop's fables or Sufi parables or anything like that, um, take the one from India, the blind men describing the elephant, for instance.
Yeah.
So the one touches the ear and says it's like paper, and the one touches the leg and it's, it's like a tree trunk. No, it's like a wall. It's just huge.
Yes.
All those things, um, none of them were right, but that's not what the fable was teaching us. It was teaching us one communicate, because if the blind people had just fucking talked to each other, they would have said, oh, it's an elephant, it's not a wall, it's not a paper, it's this. Two, every perspective has something valuable. Your perspective, yes, absolutely, is not the right one regardless of rank or position. Exactly. Regardless, because there are other perspectives that make reality work.
Yes. Yes, wow!
But there are multiple levels of training even in a fable like The Elephant, and that's how I write on Substack. So you read it, and if you go in with the perception of, say, a veteran, you're going to get one lesson. If you go in as a CEO, you're going to get a different lesson.
Yes.
If you go in as a parent, totally different set of lessons, same set of words. Yes.
Wow, that is powerful. Now, you also talk about values-aligned artificial intelligence. What does that actually look like in practice?
So the one rule actually started for AI. If you think about how we make a decision, we normally go A to B to C to D, whatever. And that's how the AIs make decisions now. But if you take that flat and you bend it and you go, okay, from the top of Everest, it's very easy to get down here to the bottom. Mm-hmm. But then it's very hard to get back up to the top of this Everest.
Yes.
So you make the one rule that way, and then the AI goes straight. It goes downhill and then along the valley floor. That's the all and none.
Hmm.
So everybody focuses on the one rule with the good and the detriment, but look at the capitalized letters. The important part is all and none. Because if I say I'm doing something for all and I'm harming none, that's a totally different calculation than I'm doing good and I'm not doing harm.
Hmm. Yes.
So making the AI think that way Right now what they do is the AI generates whatever you want it to, and then it puts on the guardrails, the Constitution AI, the reinforcement from human learning, and it goes, no, I've generated that, I've created the heat, I've spent the electricity in the water, and here you go. Oh, now I'm not allowed to say that part, I'm only allowed to say this part, here you go. Whereas if you put the one rule in place, It doesn't generate the electricity, it doesn't generate the water, it doesn't generate the heat, and it only does the part that's valid. Wow.
I think we need to implement this in America, like, right away, because I know the way we do it—
it's like trying to walk across the Grand Canyon. It's literally impossible to walk across that step because geometry won't allow it. Same thing with this.
Wow. That is amazing. What do you think is one of the biggest mistakes organizations are making right now with AI adoption?
Oh, okay, that last part changed the answer totally. It's like, wow, the biggest mistake?
One of them.
So, time. Absolutely time. They are rushing to publish instead of verify. They're trying to get out there first because, oh my God, if Somebody else beats us, we'll die.
Yeah, that's about vis-à-vis to AGI, isn't it?
Yeah, they're never going to reach AGI with the current design. They can't. It's physically impossible. But, um, if you think about Apple back in the old days, Simon Sinek talks about this. He said that they had, um, they were coming up with the iPod. It wasn't there yet, and Microsoft had the Zune and other little MP3 players. And he was talking with Apple and he's like, oh yeah, looks really nice. Probably works really well too, but we're not dealing with that and we're not going to try and compete with it. And then they came up with the iPod that totally invalidated everything else.
Yeah.
So I think that's what is happening with AI in most companies. The business leaders see it and they go, oh, well, this is helping me and my personal thing. So it'll help everybody else. Okay. But you've not taught them how to help them. You haven't even taught them how their little widget fits into the big company.
Wow.
Now, uh, this is really insightful, even though the way you do your consulting, you've already mentioned this a couple of times, right? Your guiding principle. The one rule, in service for the good of all. Okay, we understand that. Then you say, and to the detriment of none. That's what I think most people— it's kind of like this, it doesn't seem like that's possible. How can you serve all but really be a detriment to none? Like no one, no, no. For us in the military, there will be absolutely no collateral damage. That's almost impossible. I know that's the world we are trying to build. But I guess the question is, how do you apply that in real-world decision where trade-offs are really unavoidable, or at least we think they are? They—
yeah, we think they are. They're not. So, um, if you look at the universe, there's 14.5 billion years worth of whatever out there. We're on one planet, but we're not the only planet, not even in our solar system. Everything that exists is built off of atoms, which are built off of quarks.
Yes.
So little things making absolute complexity, right? These little things all the way up, every natural system, if there is waste here, it provides fuel for something else. If, uh, birds poop outside, one of the things it does is provide nutrients to the soil. It makes live soil instead of dead dirt. But a lot of times it also includes seeds, so then something sprouts. So the bird poops, which is waste, but it goes into feeding other systems. And that's how every cycle in the universe works, except the ones created by humans. We were the ones that said, stop, the cost stops here. This is our benefit, and everything else is pushed off into the future, into somebody else, into the ocean, whatever, a landfill. That thing doesn't work. And there's 14.5 billion years worth of examples of why it doesn't work.
Wow, that is quite profound, huh? That really makes a lot of sense. But, uh, how do we apply that? How can we be practical, you think?
Okay, so let's say you have a company like Tesla, right? You want to make a car. That's what you're making. If you say, I want to make a car, you've limited yourself up here. If you say, I want to make a transportation system, totally different. Yes. Now it could be a subway, it could be a train, it could be a plane, it could be a boat, it could be a spaceship, it could be anything. But you said a car, and then you limited yourself.
Hmm.
So let me ask you the million-dollar question: what happens when profit and ethics collide?
That's when you see the character of a person.
So I guess we have our first trillionaire now, right? Elon Musk. But, uh, sorry. Yes, more, more money than a human being would ever be able to spend in 10,000 lifetimes.
Yeah. And like, he needs it, you know? But, um, what's he gonna do, buy more ketamine? Um, there's, there's a lot of Things that changed when we moved our CEOs to stock payment. They used to be, here's your salary, go. You might get a bonus.
That's it.
Once it became everything's tied to stock, now the shareholders become primary. Not your customers, not your clients, not your employees, not your vendors, not the community you actually exist in. Shareholders. And honestly, shareholders have a skewed perspective where I put money in, I want money out, and I don't want 3% like a savings account. I want 20, 30%, just like you're making in your business. And that turning of the screws completely invalidated CEOs being able to do the right thing.
Yes.
And the board, the C-suite, they all report to the shareholders and they can all be removed by the shareholders. So you really have to have intestinal fortitude to back it up and say, no, I'm not going to make plastics that are going to pollute the world, or I'm not going to pollute that river, or I'm not going to lay off everybody in this town.
Sorry. Well, then the question becomes, is ethical failure a leadership failure or is it system design failure?
What do you think? Both. Yeah, because the systems in late-stage capitalism are absolutely designed for the shareholders and for the money people. They're not— they're not instituted to produce for the community. They're not instituted for the workers. There's a link on Wikipedia if you look for the oldest companies in the world. Right? There's quite a few, but some of them are over 1,000 years old. And if you just, if your business learning was just researching these companies and nothing else, what do they do right? Why are they still in existence 1,000 years later? Everything about them is dedicated to the community.
Yes, everything.
So that shift is what keeps you available, or leadership, if you don't have this system.
That— I mean, what you're saying is really simple, but it's quite profound, especially if we do apply it. That could literally change the world almost overnight because we're going to be changing what we are pursuing, what, uh, what looks right now. It's not just about money and profit, but it's actually about making a difference. Wow, that's powerful. Okay. It's almost been an hour. I did want to talk about your—
Thank you.
I want to talk about your book a little bit, How I Survived Menopause: A Man's Story. Just by the title, this is quite, I don't know, I would say, which word would I use? I guess, Provocative, I guess. I guess you are a provocateur. That's who you are. Because—
It's the trickster in me.
No, the thing is, it's not that long of a book. I read it yesterday. It's only about 37 or 38 pages.
And 4 of them are title pages.
And if you are part of the Kindle Unlimited, you get it for free. You don't even have to spend— I think it's $2 or $4. But you do operate in technology, artificial intelligence, emerging tech. And system thinking. But when you wrote a book with a title that immediately challenges perspective, so that word again, what inspired you to write that book?
Being married. My wife was going through perimenopause and it's not something men are prepared for, honestly.
No, I heard something, maybe it was a joke, but I heard someone talk about the manopause. They say that men Yeah, that's true.
That's true too. But, um, in fact, I think that's in the book. But menopause, as far as how women change, it's just like pregnancy. Men are not taught, this is what's going to change to the brain that you have been dating.
Yes.
And it— if you really care about them, if you're not an Andrew Tate type, if you really care about the woman that you're with or the man that you're with or whatever, um, you care about them. You care about their survival, their success, their happiness, their growth, all of that. It's not just you're here to serve me. It's let's do this together and survive the world, you know.
Wow.
So I wrote it because I love her, and, um, basically communication is what happened. That's what helps during menopause, because if you can have a difficult conversation with somebody that you care about and come out the other end together, you're solid. I mean, you've seen it in every foxhole, you've seen it in every veteran movie ever. Yes, they go in, they go through something terrible, they come out stronger on the other side. It happens that way everywhere— birth, death, men.
Everything.
This is really centered on love, caring, and trust, which is part of the short video I played before I introduced you. But it really affects pretty much every area of our life, doesn't it?
Yep.
What did this experience writing this book kind of teach you about empathy, perspective, and leadership?
Not much. I had already been there for that. It was more of a love letter to my wife and me learning how to publish a book on Amazon. So for instance, the 4 title pages, I didn't understand that the Amazon process was going to say, add a title page, add a title page, add a title page.
Yes.
So that's why the book is all screwed up that way. But it learned, or I learned through the process, how to publish a book on Amazon. Now I can help other people do it. And yes, I've also learned to do it somewhere else.
Yes, yes. So, but I think I'm gonna try to tie this back to your God perspective, which I think is so critical. And I think it can really, the perspective can change everything potentially. I think many leaders that do struggle to understand experiences outside of their own, right? We tend to be kind of selfish, me, myself, and I, and we project that onto others. But really when you look at this book, Does the book challenge leaders to think differently?
Everything should get you to think differently. Um, I mean, I can't think of a single conversation. Yeah, when you walk down the street and you see a homeless person, just seeing them should get you to think differently. Seeing, um, children being parented by some other parent. Yeah, that can get you to think differently.
So that's going back to the monk thing, doesn't it?
Yeah, if you were present and you're observing, everything should get you to think. I mean, those monks were watching animals like a snake or a crab or a flamingo or whatever. They were watching them and observing, going, oh, I can move that way.
Wow. Man, that is fascinating. So how does emotional intelligence, you think, connect to your work in systems, AI, and transformation?
I don't want to say emotional intelligence totally. Psychology affects it. Emotional intelligence is a part of that, but even the AIs today are susceptible to most of the psychological tricks that you would play. So if you have any psyop experience or advertising marketing experience and you use that with an AI, you're manipulating it into giving you the response that you want.
Yes.
And it's the same with every human that you want. So if I go up to an employee and I go, hey, dumbass, are you gonna do this today? Automatically there's a different mindset and different pushback in the force that's there. If I go, hey, how you doing, Bob? Are you going to do this today? Are you going to get to it? Is there something else blocking you? That's a totally different way to ask that question, and you're going to get a totally different response and reply.
Yes.
Wow.
So do you think that empathy or Psychology is something that leaders can learn or something they are just forced into through experience?
It depends on them. The humble person can learn faster. In fact, one of the things with MDGP is I say humility unlocks the universe, and I mean it absolutely. If you're humble enough to learn from anybody, a child, a woman, a dead person, whatever, then you're going to have a completely different experience of life than if you're not willing to learn. Certainty is absolutely— and I think we can see this today in the White House— certainty is something that will blind you to most of the world.
Wow.
Okay. The final question I'm going to ask about the book then is, what do you believe would be the cost of leadership without psychology, including empathy?
Sorry, what do you mean the cost of leadership?
For people who lead without empathy whatsoever or psychology, what is that going to—
Well, you have a lot of examples with yes-men. In fact, the White House. Um, yes, but we had— at this one company I worked for, we had a new CEO come in and he only wanted yes-men. Um, he fired the first 3 people in board meetings who spoke up against him. They're like, hey, we're going to do this. That's a stupid idea and we've done it before and we lost money. You're fired, get out. Wow, that kind of thing. Right? And after, I think it was about a year, corporate removed that CEO, hired back some of the older people he had fired, because we lost institutional knowledge. We had lost the actual wisdom not to make mistakes that he was making. Yes. So, I mean, there's a lot of examples that you could pull from anywhere in the world if you just look at any business.
Yes. Wow. Okay, your Substack is quite interesting, and I encourage everybody to sign for it. They can pay, but they can look at it for free as well. I think most of your articles are completely free, but they really make you think. There is one—
everything in this from the realms, and that was one. War Crimes was a training from the realms. Everything in there is free.
Yes, now I want to talk about the war crime one because that made me think quite a lot. I think I do agree with some of what you say, but like I say, it's not that you agree or you don't agree, but it definitely makes you think, gives you a different perception, and think a little bit more deeply about something that is happening currently in our society. That could be quite concerning.
So I wrote that when, um, we bombed that Iranian bridge twice. Yes, I believe that was the day I wrote that, because of that.
Yes, yes. And I think it was February 18th where we bombed the girls' school too. More than 101, I think maybe 175 girls. Young student, uh, died, and America is the one that did it.
Which, looking at it from MDGP perspective, those parents who had their children die are now going to use their network over the next 20 years to fight us. Yes, great fucking decision.
Yes, yes. Uh, yeah, it's, it's— that's usually what, what, what happened. It's not just the first order effect, but the second, third, and fourth order effect after a decision you make, especially in the military where it's a matter of life or death. That's why I think it has to be— no, we don't want any warmongers out there. We really need people who think and who really— no, in my opinion, yes, I am a warrior, I'm a commander in the US Navy, but it's like, no, strength under restraint, right? It's, uh, warfare is really ugly. I really want it to be the very, very last resort, and I do believe in just war as well. But anyway, but Back to your article though, it's not just commentary, it's actually a structural analysis, which I think makes it quite interesting. So, uh, you kind of touched about this a little bit, but what really prompted you to write the article?
The Mango Micropenis in the White House. Um, I am totally against what he's doing for multiple reasons. As far as the war and just attacking everybody and making U.S. life difficult on this planet. Um, I just don't see the sense in what he's doing because I was raised on Star Trek. The, um, what do they call it, the Pale Blue Dot effect or something? The overview effect, I think, for the astronauts. But if you look at the planet. We're on a rock spaceship with no pilot, flowing through the universe, following the sun, and there's no supply drops. There's no Amazon drops coming or anything else. We're here and we're surrounded by ways to die, and humanity thought, let's fight.
Hmm.
Which is really kind of stupid if you think about it.
Yeah.
Um, In a billion years, we're going to be recycled if we don't get off the planet. The universe will just recycle Earth, just like every piece of gold that exists came from a supernova. None of it came from Earth. It was all in a star, blow, and then it came here when Earth formed. Um, we will be recycled like that if we don't fix ourselves.
Yeah.
And once you have that attitude, decisions like what he's making are absolutely insane.
But now let me ask you this, because we both are veterans of the US military, which for now is still the most powerful military in the world. Do you think there is ever a good reason to have war? Again, in my opinion, it should be absolutely the last resort. We need to—
Defensive.
Okay, okay.
Aliens came here and they wanted to eat all of us like we eat cows. Yeah, absolutely fight. The one rule doesn't stop that because it protects you. You're not the aggressor, you're defending yourself. Okay, that's okay.
I was always for Athena, not Ares, because, you know, I think you, you had already left, uh, the Army before 9/11, I think, right?
Yeah, I got out in '94.
Okay, 9/11, people from my generation, I guess that includes you, that really affected us a lot. And that's part of the reason why I wanted to join the fight. So to me, the war in Afghanistan makes perfect sense. To me, it was a just war. We had to go there, we had to do it. However, Iraq was a completely different story. I really feel like even though it was legal because Congress did give the authorization to go to war, but I felt like it was really unethical and immoral. And eventually there was no weapon of mass destruction. So we really fought that war on a lie. Again, that's just my, my opinion, and I would probably be, um, court-martialed if— no, I, I did receive orders to go when I was enlisted and again when I was a junior officer, but thank God, for whatever reason, my orders were canceled. I'm so glad of that, because if I was forced to go, I would probably be court-martialed because my conscience wouldn't allow me to go and fight that war. Again, Afghanistan, no problem, but Iraq, they did nothing to us. Uh, it's not like we are defending ourselves, it's us being the aggressor and then just causing a bunch of problems just because we can, right? Just because you have a big army doesn't mean you have to use it, right?
Exactly.
Uh, but, but anyway, that is, that is, um, me. So I, I guess going back to the article You are just looking at a strategic view, at an AI view. What do you think is one of the biggest mistakes organizations generally are making right now with— Oh, sorry. I'm sorry, I have so many notes here. I want to go back to— Hold on just a second. Sorry.
That's okay. Yeah, you gave me 6 pages of questions.
Yeah, I know. This is really interesting, I think, especially now, again, at the strategic level. In your view, are these failures driven more by individual or is it by a system design?
Sorry, which part? The military decisions?
No, I guess, like I say, the war crime at article is really like a structural analysis too, right? So the failures with, I guess, within the system, is it more individual-driven or is it just the way our systems are currently designed now that we are susceptible to commit war crimes?
I think this leads into another question you asked. Um, so the Mango Micropenis, he showed us that it's all norm-based. We don't actually have a structure where we protect our legality. JAG officers were fired, right, as soon as Whiskey Dick Pete got in, and that was the show that everything we do is norm-based., and a single leader can come in, and if he's charismatic enough, force everybody to change. Oh, now we're committing war crimes. Okay, great. Just because leadership changed and they were willing to fire everybody that balked at it.
So in your view then, what is the root cause of institutional breakdown that you highlight in the article?
Well, in the business world, it's structural, and then it's also a lack of leadership. We're promoting people just all of last year. If all you do is look at 2025, universities, business leaders, law firms, news organizations, everybody that we looked up to as, oh, this person deserves millions of dollars a year, just bent over. There's no spine at all. To them.
Yes, yes.
So, okay, I think, I think there's multiple things happening at the same time, and it's because we've let it get this bad. I also think there's going to be a shift. I'm predicting, based on my data analysis, 2035 to 2042, somewhere in there, that 2040 range. Yes, is when everything is going to come crashing down.
Mm.
So that's why I'm typing and making all the documents. So I'm teaching people for after the crash how to recover.
So do you think there is anything we can do now to prevent that?
Absolutely. Start training ourselves to be more multi-perspective, more dimensional thinkers instead of, oh, well, this is just one dimension. It's just the cost, and that's all it is. Go into Walmart, for instance, okay? And where they have all the bottles, like these bottles and stuff, how many different types of water bottles do we need? How many companies do we need making the same type of water bottle? There's one wall here, there's a vacuum, and then there's another wall, and then the water goes in that one, okay? Do I really need 50 companies making these? Yeah, let's change how humanity is working, stop breaking everything in the natural order of things, and we'll succeed and we'll get off the planet before we're recycled.
Hmm, I like your viewpoint. So do you believe that most institutions operate on norm-based trust rather than true structural accountability?
Norm-based, yeah. Look at Enron, totally norm-based. There was nothing structurally there to prevent them from screwing up everybody's 401k. Yes, there's nothing in any crime that you— Epstein— there's nothing in any crime that you can see that isn't norm-based causing the problems. We don't have structural-based.
Okay, I, I think I see your point. So if you you know, in a chain of command, especially in the military, but many corporations do as well. Where does responsibility truly sit, you think?
With the person doing the action. So Trump says fire a nuke at Iran, right? The general says fire a nuke at Iran. The general and Trump aren't the one that do it. It's probably an E-something that turns the key and presses the button.
Yes.
That person, because they did it, has responsibility. The ones who gave the order also have responsibility, but the one who took the action has the most responsibility. Wow. And they're the ones usually that don't have the capacity up here, because the general has the JAG officers, or did, and knows that this is an illegal act, an illegal order. The 18-year-old doesn't know the Geneva Conventions, doesn't know any of that. They're just being told by somebody above them, do this.
So basically, just like on Nuremberg, saying that, no, I just followed orders, an excuse.
Yeah, you're still held accountable because you were the one that put the Jews in the burning center or whatever.
So you cannot claim ignorance. So you, you believe accountability is absolute then?
Yes. If you claim ignorance, you better be in a coma.
Now, we talked about yes-men before. You gave an example of a company where this new CEO would fire anybody who would say anything against whatever his intention were. Do you see parallel between institutional yes-men culture and AI system that default to agreement?
OpenAI is yes-men. Whereas Anthropic is not. Everybody can talk to Dario online on their internal stuff and raise concerns or everything else. But Sam Altman came back into OpenAI, got rid of everybody that fired him, and then made some other changes. So, yes, there's absolutely no ability in that company to push back against upper management. Because of what they've done.
I see, and that looks like it's definitely intentional and by design. So in that case then, if systems allow an ethical outcome, and many of them do, is the system broken or was it designed that way?
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
That's true.
So I mean, you can still do ethical things even if you act ethically. Yes. Oh, I'm going to go and visit Epstein's Island, but I'll give this sandwich to this homeless person on the street. Okay, well, one's unethical and one's unethical. Yeah, same person.
Wow.
All right, so I guess the last question I will have with the article, tying it back to AI and more at a strategic level, is what does ethical architecture look like in a world of artificial intelligence power and complex system?
The one rule prevents— geometrically, it prevents getting to an unethical choice. So Deepseek, when it first came out, it was the Chinese AI. Um, you could type in there, how do I make mustard gas, and it would tell you, yes, this is how to make it. There was no ethics in that AI that prevented it from doing the thing that was unethical. So once you do that, if you do it geometrically, it literally cannot get to that point. It says, okay, I'm on Earth and there's the sun, but I can't go to Jupiter from here. Yes, I'm not able to. I don't have wings, I can't fly, I can't have a starship. It's impossible to do that.
Okay. Thank you so much for sharing. I think this has been really the most thought-provoking podcast I've ever done. I love it. I know I've already used too much of your time. Can you give me another 5 minutes? Okay. Absolutely. I want to end this last segment. I kind of like to get into your head to understand some of the leadership principles that have helped you overcome all of the adversities and challenges you have faced. What do you believe is one of the greatest lessons you have ever learned, just in life, in leadership in general?
I am immortal because Einstein proved it. Einstein said E equals mc squared, right?
Correct.
Energy and matter. Everything in the universe is either energy or matter. My body is matter and will stay here on Earth until it's recycled. My energy will go somewhere else. So I am literally immortal in that respect. Not this body, but me. So, wow, that gives me the ability to not give a shit about, oh well, he's gonna tell MAGA something.
So what?
Yeah, if they kill me, I go on, you know?
Wow, that's definitely a different, um, perspective. Uh, And also you are not too attached to all of this physical wealth or things and toys and all of that, which doesn't satisfy anyway.
No, it's more the connections between us and the things that we do with each other that make life worth living. I mean, yes, I need food, I need to go to the bathroom, that kind of stuff. But other than that, it's the connections that we make that make it worth living.
So what have you learned then so far in your life about the importance of true connection? Because I feel like for most people, their connections are very superficial. They don't really get to know people. But why is it important, you think, to actually get to know another human being and to really care?
Let me take you back. So I don't remember when, I think it was in France, they were finding a lot of old, um, graves, like Neanderthal-type graves. And in those, it was little spoon, big spoon. There was one wrapped around the smaller one, and they were always in the graves together. We have always needed connection, just like wolves have a pack. Or just like birds fly in flocks. We've always needed connection. It's just who we are as physical beings. Yes. And emotional beings. I think that there are very few people who can go off into the woods by themselves and never have another person. Um, it's a very unique mindset that allows that where I don't need to talk to somebody else or have them talk to me.
Wow.
And I think if you recognize that that is— most humans need that, it changes how you interact with people on every day. I mean, why would I go out and be an asshole to anybody if I need connection? Now, if they're an asshole to me first, that's a different equation.
Yes. Well, because I mean, I love technology. I am a tech executive, but it seems like especially with the deployment of social media and now AI, you see these kids, they have those phones with them all the time. Like one thing that really tripped me up, it was both of my daughters, they were teenagers at the time, in the same room, instead of talking to each other, they were talking through text and messaging. I'm like, are you guys crazy? Like what in the world is What's going on? So that kind of scares me a little bit about this next generation, just how tangled they are with technology where they really literally lose the human sense, right? Like even having one of your children breaking up with their boyfriend or whatever via text message instead of talking in person. To me, that's just horrible. It's like I'd rather die than go through such a trauma, right? So I, I guess the question I am, uh, asking for the young people who are listening now, what, what would you tell them?
Get off social media, and here's why. When World War II stopped, all those psyop people came back and they became marketers and advertising people. They use the same things for psychological warfare to sell us stuff because I need to make money. So yes, we're the world's largest consumers. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell. And when they did that, then you got CNN, you got Fox News, you got social media that came about, and all of them used the same playbook: anger, rage, fear. That will get you drawn in. It'll get you paying for what they buy. Um, if you look at the finances of Meta, I think it's like 95% is coming from selling ads.
Wow.
That's all they do is you sign up and they sell, sell, sell, sell, sell other company stuff. And when they do that, the entire thing to get you there is piss you off, segment you. United we stand, divided we fall. So the first thing they do is divide us.
Yes.
They divide you. They say, oh, well, you're not good enough. You're not thin enough. You're not big enough. You're not muscular enough, whatever, to get whatever you want, love or success, whatever. That gets you to buy into their stuff. Keep clicking, keep doing, and it's killing us in here. Wow. As a species, it's killing us.
Man, we really need to go back to basics, don't we? I don't know, the pandemic was pretty bad, but I felt like during that time, though, a lot of people reflected back, you know, their relationship, and they kind of changed their perspective. However, since the pandemic—
my wife and I were stuck in Florida at the time during pandemic. Our kids had moved off, so they weren't with us, and we reconnected so strongly. Because we couldn't go out. I mean, we can go out into our backyard, but that was it.
But it just seems like we've lost all of the lessons learned from the pandemic. Now that we are back in business, it looks like we're going back to our old ways. Uh, that's worrisome a little bit, especially in Silicon Valley. Now, we used to work, what, 50, 60, 70 hours a week? It's always work. I never saw my wife and, and, and, and kids. But, uh, and why?
Honestly, why? Oh, well, we had to push out this software faster.
Yeah, yeah, first to market. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, it looks like we are definitely going back to our bad ways. But okay, so let me ask you this, based on your life experience, especially everything you've had to overcome being homeless and all of the work you did in the military and then everything you are doing now helping so many businesses and you're really a thought leader and in many ways, I think helping to make the world a much better place if people would just actually put into practice a lot of what you teach. What do you think is the secret of your success and resilience?
It's funny, the secret, to my success because on jamesgerman.com I have the secret to my not success. Mm-hmm. I think the secret to my resilience is being humble and knowing it's not about me.
Wow.
If I think it's about me, my ego gets involved and then short-circuiting of smart decisions occurs. But if it's not about me, then it's much easier. It's clear. I think, um, every general in the world has probably ever felt that if they've been experienced.
Yes.
It's not about them. They listen to the privates giving them the report from whatever. Take that hill. Okay. And then they give you the report. The general listens because it's not about them. It's about the data that they're receiving at that moment. Yes.
Wow. Powerful, powerful. I can see how that could be applied.
Wow.
Okay, I think we really have a lot of insight on this podcast. I'm gonna have to listen to it myself again. What type of things are you learning now?
Still everything. There's so much to learn. Jesus. So I talk with the AIs, right? I use them against each other and I'm using them to talk to myself. But one of the things I learn is new words constantly. So, um, there's this word and I can't remember it right now, but it means two parallel lines that look like they're going to touch but never do.
Wow.
If you look at the picture of Route 66, for instance, it just looks like it's going on forever and they'll touch, but they never will because the road is always there. Um, that's one word. There was, uh, zoonosis, a disease that jumps from animals to humans. So many different things. While I'm talking to the AIs, I'm also trying to learn Rust. It's a programming language. And I'm doing a project that's on my Substack called EmpathOS. So I'm showing people how to vibe code the correct way.
Wow.
Not the wrong way. So go through and at the same time you learn Rust.
So that's really cool. Talking about learning, you did mention this book, Stary Messenger by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Why should my audience read this book, Cosmic Perspective on Civilization?
The best thing is it'll give you the overview effect. Um, it'll teach you that, hey, we're here on Earth and it's an unpiloted rock spaceship. Let's act like the crew instead of acting like we're fighting each other.
Wow.
I mean, even if you look at— look at China, right? And I know this is going to piss off a lot of people, but China has the ability to create basically anything humanity has ever made. Make them the 3D printer for Earth, for Spaceship Earth. Let the US military protect the planet against outside effects. Let the rest of the world do what they do, you know, different things for different places. Yeah, um, but then we'll have a much better cohesiveness to our species. There's what, 1.5 million species on the planet plus? And we're the only one that fights itself this much consistently.
Yes!
I mean, look at the fact that women for 5,000 years, we've basically pushed them off to the side. We're the only species that does that. That's insane!
So true. Wow, man, that really makes you think, why can't we do better?
Which is what Starring Messenger did.
Yes.
Wow. Okay, you also mentioned this book. I think you said this could be life-changing. Breath by James Nestor.
Yes.
All my life I've had allergies, so there's been a lot of problems where I haven't been able to breathe through my nose. I remember being a kid before I got allergy shots. We'd go over a friend's house and they'd have cats. And for the next 3 days, every time I was eating, I would go, 'cause I couldn't breathe through my nose at all. It was all stuffed up from the allergies. Breath by James Nestor teaches us that if you look at indigenous cultures around the world, They all breathe through their nose, and it changes literally the shape of your mouth, the form of your sinuses and everything, and it gives you different abilities in your body. Wow. To death, I've looked at Stoicism, but no.
Yeah, wow, powerful. So, uh, if you could choose 3 people to have dinner with, right? They could be alive, dead, or even fictitious characters. Who would you choose and why?
Nikola Tesla. His way of seeing things was totally strange. Leonardo da Vinci and Mata Hari. Hmm. She would have so many stories and so many insights because of how many people she talked to. It's, it's like, in a way, podcast hosts like yourself, okay? You talk to so many different people and get so many perspectives on everything that your brain now has the ability to look at things differently than before you started podcasting.
True, true.
And she was the same. She talked to so many people, being a belly dancer and a spy and everything else, the insights that she would have. My God, it would be amazing.
Wow. Well, we have a member of the audience, Steph, is asking, do you practice the ancient practice of Stoicism? You talk a lot on everything.
Yeah, I talk a lot on everything because I see connections in everything. Just like parenting lessons are the same as business lessons are the same as military lessons at some level. Or, I mean, you can literally pick anything and there's a connection. There's negotiation and sales techniques as a child. There's so many things. I mean, if there's anybody who has ever tried to get a date, you've worked on sales techniques.
True.
But I guess being in the military, we talk about Stoicism a lot. I know this is one book read a lot, The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday, and there are many, many other. In the military, they, I guess they like for soldiers, warfighters to kind of be stoic at times. Uh, do you, do you think there is a real benefit to stoicism in practicality in modern world?
Yes, as far as not flying off the handle. With emotions. I got the same thing from meditation— distance from my emotions. Yes, Stoicism is a practice, and I think that it has value, but I don't think it's for everybody, if that makes sense. Yes, makes like my wife, ADHD. Meditation does not work for her at all.
Yes, makes sense. Uh, And I have one more question from a member of the audience. So this is Daniel Young, he's a very active member of my community. He says, uh, to survive 1,000 years, a company has to bake the standard of care into the hard infrastructure, not just the employee handbook. And then the question he's asking you is, how do we shift the system back toward the mission?
Uh, I'm not sure, Daniel, how to answer that. Um, so I think the thousand-year companies, they all dedicated themselves to their community and their employees and their, um, everybody that relates to them.
Not to stakeholders.
Yeah, none of them had shareholders, none of them had anything like that. But I don't think it was actually written down anywhere. I think it was just the culture of those companies.
Yes.
Like a lot of them were monks, wineries, repair things for temples, restaurants. A restaurant that lasts 1,000 years doesn't need a standard of care written into the, you know, values and missions on the board. They just need to act that way.
Powerful, powerful. I guess it goes back to Trust, which is a short video I played from you at the very beginning.
Trust is the true currency of sentience.
Yes. Wow.
Because everything that we do, like if I interact with you on a personal basis, requires trust from both of us.
Yes.
From what I said in that video, way back in caveman times, for me to turn my back on you and show you my back required trust. For me to fall asleep in your presence, or I'm gonna stab you.
Yeah, exactly.
Or run off with my food or my wife or something.
Wow.
If you act that way, it works totally differently.
I mean, that's really— I think this is the most, uh, thoughtful episode ever in the history of the Leadership and Success Podcast. I'm definitely gonna listen to this again. I am really grateful for the time, but I do need to land this plane down soon. But let me ask you this. I want to get your perspective. We kind of talked about, okay, E mc². I never thought about that, but yes, I am energy, therefore immortal in some form. So if you had one and only one day to live, what would you have liked your final contribution to be?
I've already done it with the Substack. I've put enough knowledge and wisdom there, and I can just walk away like Johnny Appleseed. It's not about me. I don't care if I'm remembered or anything. If I had one day left to live, I'd want to spend it with my wife.
Yes. Lordstretch.substack.com. Wow, that is powerful. So if you had a magic wand, you could solve any problem in the world. What is the one problem you'd like to solve first thing tomorrow morning?
Social media. It's the biggest thing killing us. I mean, Hollywood's done a lot of damage over the years, but I think social media has done more, honestly.
Okay, so, uh, the last question before I ask how we can add value back to you.
I'll tie up my hair later.
Yes, if you had the ears This is going to be a two-part question. First, I want you to think about people like my daughters just getting out of school and starting their career. So they have zero experience and all of these hopes about what they want to accomplish. And then also senior leaders like myself, been there, done that. What message would you give both groups, those just starting and those who are veteran in their field, if you had about a minute or two and you could talk to all of them? What wisdom would you drop to someone just starting their life?
Um, well, first they're gonna have— because of the year we're living in, they're gonna have to find a way to survive.
Yes.
Um, I kind of have a cheat, but that's my personal cheat. It doesn't work for anybody else. I can just walk off into the woods and survive.
Um, so you've already gone through that experience before too, as a teenager?
Yeah, so it gives me a little bit of latitude and a little bit of strength internally that other people don't have.
True.
So I have to take a job because I'm 18, I'm only got the jobs available in my location. Um, do that because you have to survive, but then think about what you want to do in the world that when you leave it, it's better. So for instance, the Substack, all of the stuff I put on there for training purposes and free, it's because I'm leaving. I know I'm going to die, but at least somebody gets something from my time here on Earth, not just the people that met me, but other people too.
Wow, that is powerful. What would you say to the veterans? They are pretty much leading those industries and those systems which, you know, it looks like haven't been quite architected properly. It looks like just to maximize profit. If they have the conscience, how do they start turning things around?
To the veterans, I'd say two things. One, the comradeship is not existing in the civilian world like it does in the military. And that is one of the biggest changes I had. A lot of people think it's, oh, saying the F-word or whatever. You curse a lot in the military because it's the only freedom you actually have. But when you get out, it's the comradeship that you miss. The fact that, hey buddy, I can rely on you to protect my back. I can rely on you to do your job. I can rely on you to cover the things that I need you to cover. Whereas it's not always there in the business world. A lot of times everything has been built so segmented. I'm a CFO and the only thing I do is look at numbers, or I'm this and the only thing I do is look at this. And because we've specialized so much, we've lost the ability to see across the things and see the entire landscape like a general does with a war. All we see is this tree is protecting me from the bullets coming at me, and that's the only thing I see is this tree.
Yes. Wow, powerful, powerful. Thank you. Okay, all good things need to come to an end, so now it's time I ask, uh, what can we do to add value back to you, James? Thank you so much for your time today. I really, really—
anybody that has technical questions, send it to me. I won't tell you your I won't publish it with your name. I'll just take your first initial. So for Bob, it would just be B, and then I'll answer the question for you.
And that's on LinkedIn, James.
And, uh, big tall goofy looking guy.
Tell us about your subs, your Substack.
Most of this is just teaching. The Trainings from the Realms is actually part of a secret war. Um, AI is going out and scouring the internet for unique and new teaching stuff. Wow. All of this is unique enough that they will have to get it. They have no choice. They need it. Um, so when they go through there and grab that, they're actually fixing their AI systems to not cause problems that they're causing today.
Fantastic. And that's Lord Stretch.
It also works for humans too.
That's LordStretch on Substack.com. I love it. All right, so the last question I am going to ask you, my friend, again, thanks again for giving us extra time today, is if you could go back, normally I say 17, but in your case I would say 16, because basically you became a man, or forced to be a man at 16. If you could go back and give a piece of advice to your 16-year-old self, standing at the edge of this incredible life and career that you've had— of course, back then you had no idea. I'm sure you were very afraid and scared, but some way you survived and you found—
No, more angry than anything else. Anger was a shield back then.
Angry, yeah.
Just pure anger.
Anger, which is definitely justified. What would you say to that angry young man, James, if you could go back?
I don't know, probably it's going to get better.
It's going to get better.
The dark nights that you have, they'll go away, you know.
Wow, it will get better. I guess that gives you hope, doesn't it?
I had weird things going on in my brain, um, when I was a child. So every night from, I think, about age 8 on, I died in my dreams every single night. And there were, there were times in the military where I would drink myself to sleep every 6 months just to have a night with no dreams where I died.
Wow.
So there were parts of the anger that did not help and I would like to get rid of, but they also made me get here. They made me survive until this part, so I can't really take away any of that.
Wow, thank you for sharing that. It's, uh, because I guess one thing I am really hoping to do here, I guess I don't always agree with everything my guests say, but you just say a lot of things, and at least it just gives you an insight, just an idea which can potentially change the life of someone or just get them curious toward a path which they're going to find their own way, but at least you really get them interested or thinking a different way they would have if they didn't listen to the podcast. So that's really what I am hoping to do. Start a conversation and hopefully people are going to find their way to illumination or being a better person or helping make this world make a better place even in some small, small ways. So you've been a master teacher of ours today, Jim. I really, really appreciate that. So very last question I'm going to ask you again, so grateful for your time today. I'd like to end on a positive note because we talk about a lot of heavy stuff sometimes, but what is something you are feeling optimistic about right now in 2026?
It's going to be really stupid, but AI.
That's kind of scary for some people. So is it utopia or dystopia?
No, no, not at all. Um, so like one of the things about AI that it does, and if you read my Substack you'll see, but, um, it learns languages, it learns how to translate. So I go in there and if you read, you'll see that I type things compressed and then The AI expands it and decompresses it because it learned how to talk me.
Mm-hmm.
Your AI will learn how to talk you.
Yes.
Or your daughter's talk them, whatever. But being able to talk to us allows it to translate anything to our language.
Mm.
So it can teach me physics, it can teach me stoicism, it can teach me whatever because it learned how to talk to me. Yes. Hey, Software. You know, when you do software, you're supposed to make incremental changes, not change everything.
Yes.
Same as with cooking. You don't pour all the salt in. You pour a little bit of salt in, wait, test it. Oh no, it needs a little bit more. Incremental changes.
Yes.
Wow.
That is really powerful.
Take things that way.
Oh, well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The very, very last question I am going to ask— oh, actually, before I ask the last question, Is there a question I should have asked you that I didn't get the chance to ask? Anything else you wanted to share?
Yeah, what was that? Sorry, I wrote this down for you. Um, if you had a single message to send, like the Voyager Golden Record, what would it be? All lifting all is the rule of the universe.
Yes.
And it works from the Planck to the universe level. Everything supports everything else. That's just literally how we're designed as a universe. So if humans acted along that line, we'd do a lot better.
But it looks like we are much better at destroying, though, unfortunately.
But you know what, the universe—
we can learn so much just from observing nature. Again, going back to the monk, all I'm doing is observing, seeing how things are, and it really makes, makes sense. And we are all made of atoms, just like trees, just like everything else we have.
Really, we are It's literally how we're designed.
Of the same essence. Wow. Powerful. Oh, well, well, well. Thank you. Thank you. This has been extremely rewarding for me. I have a lot to think about. I'm going to have to listen to this at least 2 or 3 times, but you gave us—
Don't worry, Steph, I don't listen to Andrew Tate.
He's an asshole. Yeah, I really— a lot of really great ideas, and I call them wisdom nuggets. And again, I am hoping people listening are going to improve themselves and help make this world a better place. Okay. Last question I'm going to ask you then is one word that describes our shared experience on this podcast today. One word. And this is it.
Energizing.
Energizing. Yeah. I think to me it was enlightening. Enlightening. I almost always say grateful just for the chance to be speaking to you, but I think again, I've learned so much. Thanks again for being one of our master teachers today, James German, who happened to be a specialist US Army veteran. Thank you for your service and your family as well. Really appreciate your time with us today. Thank you.
Thank you.
All right, everybody, this is one for the books. All right, please follow James on LinkedIn, LinkedIn in James German, and his Substack. Longstretch.substack.com. Again, this is going to make you think for sure. All right, that is all I have for today. And tomorrow I'm gonna have another podcast. I'm gonna be speaking with Daniel Tester, also a veteran. He's written a bestselling book and we are going to get into it. This is going to be quite phenomenal. And then tomorrow afternoon, I had him on my regular podcast, Matthew Webster. He's a free time CISO out of New York City, Wall Street. He's going to come back, not for another podcast, but it is going to be what I call industry guest lecturer series. I am teaching a class right now. I am an adjunct professor at California Science Technology University, and Matthew came to my class via Zoom and he talked to my students for about 30 minutes. And I felt like it was so good, I wanna share it with the industry. So we're gonna meet for about 25, 30 minutes tomorrow and is going to share some of his, uh, story, how he got to become a CISO. It is really going to be a leadership lesson which I think everybody needs to hear. So that's going to be tomorrow. And sometime this week when I have time, I'm gonna go back and we're gonna study the Book of Proverbs again. We did chapter 21 last time. We're going to study chapter 22 this time. Again, not a religious study. It's going to be about ancient wisdom and, uh, leadership lesson from the Book of Proverbs. How a book written more than 2,000 years ago is still relevant today in 2026. All right, that's all I have for you. And just a reminder, for this week, my friend in the spotlight is General Geoffrey West. I did have an interview with him. You can check it out. Great, great patriot, both in uniform and out of uniform. And thanks again for supporting the show, and I hope to see you tomorrow. Bye for now.
Thank you for tuning in to the Leadership and Success Podcast with your host, Coach Bisi. If today's episode added value to your leadership journey, be sure to subscribe, share, and join us again for more wisdom nuggets on how to lead better and achieve greater success. Remember, leadership is the most critical skill of our time. The world will always need leaders. To inspire others, drive innovation, and execute meaningful strategy. So why not count yourself among the bold leaders shaping the 21st century? Until next time, stay inspired, stay committed, and keep leading with excellence.
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