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I am a fan of and participant in Klemmer & Associates (K&A)? leadership training programs.? The founder of Klemmer & Associates was Brian Klemmer.? Unfortunately Brian passed awayin 2011 very suddenly.?? He left a plan for the company to continue without him and it is already expanding to continue his legacy.
Brian was the author of the Compassionate Samurai.? This book describes a way of living that charts the difficult path to a life of financial, professional and social success that won't compromise one's ethics.When he founded Klemmer & Associates, his dream tigers #35 jersey was to create an army of compassionate Samurai to make a difference in this world.
I had the opportunity to talk with Brian on the phone for a half hour last year and discuss his organization and what Klemmer & Associates can offer to people.?? I am reposting this in tribute to Brian and tigers #35 jersey to help spread the message of dream for the world.
Brian, since we are both prior military, I am retired Special Forces and you have a West Point background I want to see how that has helped you through your path in bringing about your company.--so the first question I had for you was how did the attendance at West Point and your military service benefit you in developing and presenting the K&A program?
Well, a couple things pop into my mind. Number one, West Point was a lot about values. You know, it was always about doing the right thing versus easier thing. And so, obviously, a lot of those same values are integral to the work that we're doing today. We're a values company, a leadership company, and I think that that's one of the challenges that America has today.
I heard a pastor just the other day was downgrading capitalism. And, to me, I don't know whether you want to tigers #35 jersey call it Christianity in this article, but it's probably a wider sector, but in terms of--if you want, drop the Christianity out--there's nothing wrong with capitalism. Capitalism is a phenomenal venture, as long as it's got values with it. And unfortunately what's happened today is we've got the capitalism, but we don't have the values. And so when people are greed-motivated and have capitalism, that's as bad as anything else with greed, you know, which you ran into in communism, socialism and everything else. They're just like different ways of compensating people inappropriately. And so the values at West Point of service, contribution, duty to our country, integrity--they were all core kind of issues to what see as the model of human being.
So this first piece is values. So then the second piece that I would say that connects is the experiential nature of all my West Point training. You know, they didn't just teach you, Okay, this is why you put a gas mask on fast, they threw you in a tent full of teargas, you know, basically and cry, throw up and the rest of it and then said, Okay, well, we can either put one on fast, or you're going to just cry. So, you know, I am an experiential nut.? I think that that's what changes the heart of a human being.
Good. That phases into another question I had, you talked about values and I want to ask about ethics. In the military, service men and women are on their ethics. It seems like some of the things we've had happen recently with the financial crisis--there's been a break-down of ethics. Can expand a little bit about values and how that translates into ethics and how that could help on the corporate world?
Yeah, and by the way, the military's not exempt from ethics problems.? If you go back to the Vietnam war, of course, there was tremendous pressure put on for, like, body counts, and so numbers got inflated. To me that's an ethics violation. And, you know, more recently at the--who's the NFL football player for the Arizona Cardinals that became a Ranger--incredible values here--here he gives up fame, fortune, whatever, to be of service and but then when he was killed by our own gunfire, instead of the military coming clean, they covered it up, you know? And they wanted to use it as PR play and so I think that every human being, there is pressure put on to not tell the truth, and in business, in sports, in the military and so it's important to train people to stand up to that pressure and still tell the truth.