Great Generals, great points.

The following quote comes from Winston Churchill. He's one of my favorites and has been a wonderful, intellectual and entertaining study. My printer is out of ink at the moment so I may miss it word for word, but this should be close enough to make my point:

"Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he delivers in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter".

The point I wanted to make through Churchill's quote focuses on the choices we have in life, career and family situations, not in war. As an example of that, in my life, using Churchill's thoughts about maneuver worked like a charm. This is especially true when you are trying to overcome any obstacle that's blocking your path to a particular goal.

I'm not wanting to claim that I was any kind of a "Field General" but I will say that the studies I've made about war led me to do many things that weren't exactly in the mission briefing. I'll be the first to confess that Lorin Bustin and I didn't exactly follow the orders we were given before we crossed the border into Cambodia and that Craig Wollman was a great mentor and pretty much taught me how to do those things. Thanks again to both of you.

For the Fighter Pilots that read this epistle, they already know the values of "The Thatch Weave", an aerial combat maneuver that produced a higher kill ratio than had ever been achieved before it's discovery. For the readers who aren't used to the term, Google "Thatch Weave" and enjoy the story and the great results of that maneuver.

With regard to Churchill's theory being used in business, I'll give you a paragraph to explain.

In the 1980's I owned an industrial supply company. As a  distributor, my goal was to sell rock crusher parts to 88 asphalt plants in my territory. A steel foundry I did business with came up with an idea to consign my inventory instead of demanding a purchase that required tons of money to fund. It worked like a charm and resulted in a market domination that lasted for years and years and allowed me to be ranked as the number 1 parts distributor in the Country. Talk about a successful maneuver, that was one for sure.

I could go on and on for hours and tell stories about maneuvering through a whole lot of situations that were very tough for me. Instead of doing that to make a point, I'll refer to a couple of quotes again and hopefully connect all of them on the next post which I will make shortly.

I will add that I hope to effectively connect all the dots here to an obstacle that I'm trying to overcome in my efforts to help the Veterans who are having trouble making it through the system. Here are the quotes.

"The Pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty".

"If Hitler invaded hell, I would at least make a favourable reference to the devil in the House of Commons".

"If you have an important point to make, don't try to be suttle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once then come back and hit it again, then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack".

That's it for today. I have an appointment with the Neurosurgeon tomorrow so I may not finish this by then but I will as soon as I can. Stand by for more. .