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What the Maginot Line Teaches Us About Future Ready Leadership

France built the Maginot Line to stop future invasions—and it failed. Here's what leaders today can learn from that mistake to build truly future ready organizations.

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Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Five Minute Leader.

Today, I want to talk about this idea that it’s not what you’ve built—it’s oftentimes what you’re blind to that might determine your future.

And for today’s topic, I want to share a cautionary tale about the Maginot Line. You may be familiar with this or not, but after World War I, France realized that they never wanted to let Germany invade them ever again. So they spent billions of francs and tons of resources, time, and energy creating this Maginot Line.

It was many, many kilometers—many miles—of a fortified wall. They had turrets that could retract into the ground. They had hospitals, garrisons, food. I think they had around 400,000 men stationed along the Maginot Line. So basically, they created this seemingly bulletproof wall so that Germany could never invade them again. And they thought, “You know what, we’re good. Problem solved.”

But during World War II, what happened?

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