Questions of the Week

What is the next dream that is waiting for you to pursue?

Where might you be accepting no, where yes is still possible?

Who are the missing people in your company right now and do your efforts to find them match your need for them? 

What mindset shift would have to occur so you’re no longer waiting for the talent to come to you, you are actively searching for the right talent to fill your table? 

Is hiring a necessity due to growth, or are you hiring to force your growth? What safeguards do you have to only hire to support your growth?

Who do you want to be a super-hero for? What steps are you currently pursuing to show up in the world that way? 

If you could rewind the clock, what goal would you most like to accomplish?

The Castle Strategy

In Chess, when the King castles, he moves two squares to the left or right and the Rook is moved to stand on the opposite side of the King. Castling is a common move and frequently used strategy as it moves the king into a safer position away from the center of the board, and it moves the rook to a more active position in the center of the board. What’s the point and how does this connect with my business you might ask? Building a Castle was both a defensive and offensive war strategy, primarily during the middle ages. Castles were constructed first with a defensive motive then quickly can become an attacking strategy with one of the most powerful pieces in the game. Castling in Chess is a defensive and offensive strategy simultaneously, that creates difficulty for your opponents to win the game quickly. Turning your business into a fortress and Castling it will do the same and perhaps your business will exist for 1000s of years to come, like the Nishiyama Onsen. Consider what would Castling your business look like, the question is; will it stand the test of time or become a piece of ancient history? 

Defenders of the Castle

In the game of Chess, I have a love hate relationship with Castling and at most have a distained relationship with the Knight. I love when I have my knights and can’t stand when my opponent has theirs. I’ve been known to risk it all and make stupid moves at the pursuit of eliminating the elusive pain in the ass pieces. Knights are powerful chess pieces that next to the Queen perhaps have the most flexibility among pieces on the board. If you have ever played chess with someone who Castles early then uses Knights effectively, they are tough to play against. Chess is a game of strategy and has all the components of a fortress, when building a Castle consider the army who will defend the King until the end. 

 Although this dates me a bit, one of my all-time favorite movies is the story of Willow. Good versus evil, sword fighting, magic, Castles, trolls, I mean what’s not to love?  There is a scene in the film where the two lead characters attempt to defend a Castle from an attacking army, and as you’d expect two men an army does not make yet it’s a funny scene and displays the power of a Castle. Imagine if Willow and Madmartigan had more than a goat, two brownies, and a couple acorns to defend the Castle.

Another example how Castles give inferior odds a fighting chance is the Alamo. In December 1835, in the early stages of Texas’ war for independence from Mexico, a group of Texan volunteers led by George Collinsworth and Benjamin Milam overwhelmed the Mexican garrison at the Alamo and captured the fort, seizing control of San Antonio. By mid-February 1836, Colonel James Bowie and Lieutenant Colonel William B. Travis had taken command of Texan forces in San Antonio. Though Sam Houston, the newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Texan forces, argued that San Antonio should be abandoned due to insufficient troop numbers, the Alamo’s defenders–led by Bowie and Travis–dug in nonetheless, prepared to defend the fort to the last. These defenders, who despite later reinforcements never numbered more than 200, included Davy Crockett, the famous frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee, who had arrived in early February.

On February 23, a Mexican force comprising somewhere between 1,800 and 6,000 men (according to various estimates) and commanded by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna began a siege of the fort. The Texans held out for 13 days, but on the morning of March 6 Mexican forces broke through a breach in the outer wall of the courtyard and overpowered them.

When one looks at the landscape and construction of the Spanish mission, you’ll see a Castle. I grew up watching the old Disney Davy Crocket Fess Parker movies, with him being the last survivor, swinging his riffle Bessy, and fighting until the bitter end. The Texans had a Castle… It also helped that they had amazingly brave solders who’d rather choose death over surrender. With the right Knights guarding a Castle, it’s a truly formidable opponent. How else could less than 200 defenders hold off over 6000 soldiers for 13 days? The defenders of the Alamo lost roughly 200 men while historians estimate the Mexican Army of General De Santa Anna lost nearly three times more around 600 in total. Imagine, what would have happened if the Texans had 400 or even 1000 men defending the Alamo? Numerous movies have been made about the Alamo and over 1.5 million visitors tour the famous battle site every year. Is the history of the battle or the brave souls who stood to the last man that makes it still such a highly visited landmark? The Alamo is a Castle with Legendary Knights William Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett living forever in history. 

"What we're trying to do," he said, answering a question from the audience, "is we're trying to find a business with a wide and long-lasting moat around it, surround -- protecting a terrific economic castle with an honest lord in charge of the castle."

He then went on to explain some key traits a company with a moat must have:

"What we're trying to find is a business that, for one reason or another -- it can be because it's the low-cost producer in some area, it can be because it has a natural franchise because of surface capabilities, it could be because of its position in the consumers' mind, it can be because of a technological advantage, or any kind of reason at all, that it has this moat around it."

 When he's found a business with a large moat around it, the next stage in Buffett's process is to try and figure out what's keeping the moat intact:

"But we are trying to figure out what is keeping -- why is that castle still standing? And what's going to keep it standing or cause it not to be standing five, 10, 20 years from now. What are the key factors? And how permanent are they? How much do they depend on the genius of the lord in the castle?"

In medieval society a knight enjoyed a position of high status and often wealth, they were feared on the battlefield and known for their chivalry off it, but it took a long time and a lot of training to get there. Trained in weapons handling and horse-riding from childhood, a young man could be made a knight by the local lord he served, through exceptional bravery on the battlefield, and, at least in later times when European monarchs desperately needed funds and men of skill for their armies, the position could even be bought. In any case, a knight underwent an elaborate initiation ceremony, after which they were expected to uphold the chivalric traditions of their rank and courageously face the best-equipped and most heavily armed opponents also Knights from opposing armies. Who are you Knights?