Many of you may not know of John Mosby or the Mosby Rangers, but Mosby lead a small team of guerilla-type soldiers during the Civil Awar. I didn’t know much about the man until I was at a networking meeting and a person did a presentation on John Mosby. You would think this had little to do with business, but by the time he was done, I realized that many things that made Mosby successful are still very important today.
When in college, Mosby was put on trial and sent to jail for pulling a gun and trying to shoot the school bully. Mosby became interested in law and instead of holding a grudge against the prosecuting attorney, he became his friend. Mosby learned about the law and ended up studying under this prosecutor to eventually become a lawyer himself. This was the first of two key times that Mosby became friends with his adversary. After the Civil War, Mosby knew the war was over and that it was time to start the healing. He reached out to help President Grant and was appointed to his cabinet. This launched Mosby into position to be the ambassador to China, then lead him to be a very successful lawyer in Virginia.
Upon the start of the Civil War, Mosby was a simple private but understood the importance of networking and gathering competitive intelligences. He was constantly talking strategy with officers and was quickly working up the ranks before he was captured and jailed in Washington, DC. In typical Mosby fashion, he befriended the guards and talked with them about strategy and all aspects of the war. What he was doing was not only making his stay in jail more comfortable, but he was also gathering intelligence no matter how small and from across all ranks.
When Mosby was released, he used his connections with officers to talk with and debrief General Lee about the information he gathered while imprisoned. Lee was so impressed he promoted Mosby and gave him his own men to start a new type of guerilla warfare that was very successful in disrupting the Yankees in the Middleburg, VA area. His unconventional warfare allowed his team of only 12 men to disrupt large battalions from the north.
So what can we learn from John Mosby?
- Befriend or at least find out what you can learn from your advesaries.
- Capture and learn as much information as possible about your competitors and what is happening in your industry.
- Know the importance of networking with those around you.
- Don’t always follow conventional thinking – think differently.
- Turn failures into success. Look at you current situation and think about how you can use the failures to move forward.
