Joseph T Simms
38 Years Exploring Conflict, Strategy, and Performance
Joseph Simms’ understanding of conflict, strategy, and human performance is grounded in direct experience—from the battlefield to the boardroom, from being taken hostage aboard a Turkish Airlines flight to the disciplined study of Japanese swordsmanship. His background spans active and reserve service in the United States Marine Corps, corporate security, consulting, entrepreneurship, and academia.
Underlying these diverse experiences has been a lifelong inquiry into conflict, reality, and the human condition. Never absent, it has moved between foreground and background—at times a demanding struggle, at others a quieter influence on Joseph’s choices, pursuits, and understanding. More than thirty-eight years ago, it took recognizable form as a restless search for purpose, direction, and fulfillment and has since matured into a disciplined practice.
Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Joseph spent his childhood in Europe, Asia, and the United States. His father’s career with Pan American World Airways gave Joseph opportunities to travel extensively and encounter diverse cultures from an early age. These experiences led to an observation that would shape his later inquiry: although cultures differed greatly, the underlying human condition remained the same.
Political violence and terrorism were frequent aspects of life abroad. Events such as Turkey’s imposition of martial law in December 1978 amid escalating political violence and the seizure of the United States Embassy in neighboring Iran shaped Joseph’s upbringing. For his family, these threats were direct and personal, not merely abstract.
One such incident occurred on April 15, 1983, when Joseph and his family were taken hostage aboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to İzmir. The plane was diverted to Athens, where Greek security forces stormed the aircraft, overpowered the hijacker, and took him into custody.
These early experiences left Joseph with questions he could not yet articulate and an enduring need to understand the human condition, struggle, and conflict.
At seventeen, after returning to the United States, Joseph joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve. Restless and searching for purpose and fulfillment, he was drawn to becoming part of the Marine Corps’ storied warrior culture and proving himself within it. He graduated early from high school and reported to Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in the spring of 1988. Assigned to Third Battalion, Company H, he was meritoriously promoted and graduated as his company’s Honor Man.
Joseph served on active duty during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm with Company B, 2nd Light Armored Infantry Battalion—later redesignated the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. Bravo Company's offensive operations began several days before the formal start of the ground war. After extracting a 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion team compromised while operating forward of defensive positions, the company took part in a three-day counter-reconnaissance operation. This operation culminated in locating and identifying the breach lanes through which the 2nd Marine Division would penetrate Iraqi defenses and advance into Kuwait.
Sergeant Simms received a commendation for superior performance in the execution of his duties. The citation recognized his team’s aggressive combat operations against enemy forces.
Following his release from active duty, Joseph returned to the Marine Corps Reserve and worked to support his studies at George Mason University.
Military service sharpened Joseph’s questions about conflict and human behavior, but conventional explanations proved insufficient. In 1993, his search led him to begin training in the Aikijutsu of Yamate-ryū and the Kenjutsu of Ittō Tenshin-ryū.
The enduring wisdom of these traditions lies not only in their teachings on strategy and the act of cutting but also in their methods for cultivating a person capable of cutting and living with the consequences of their actions. This wisdom transcends culture and context. Its strategic teachings extend far beyond martial conflict, while its methods for developing the human spirit are timeless.
After graduating from George Mason University, he accepted a security position with The Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research and development center serving the national security space community.
Joseph oversaw physical security, government security, and business continuity across the organization’s Washington corporate and satellite offices. During this time, he became a certified executive protection specialist and completed training through the Center for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, the Defense Security Service, and BSR, a nationally recognized center for security driving.
Joseph also had the opportunity to study strategy and swordsmanship alongside several influential business leaders. Among the most consequential of these relationships was his friendship with Joshua Freeman, president and chief executive officer of the Carl M. Freeman Companies and a former United States Army Green Beret.
They agreed that Freeman would mentor Joseph in business while Joseph provided risk-management solutions as Freeman expanded his holdings. Through this relationship, Joseph gained firsthand insight into entrepreneurship, decision-making, and the power of relationships.
Joshua Freeman died in a helicopter crash in December 2006. His death was a profound loss, but his example continued to influence Joseph long after his passing.
Joseph founded Gianella-Simms Enterprises and pursued several entrepreneurial ventures, including working in the online stored-value industry, representing a U.S. heavy-equipment manufacturer in Peru’s urban transit sector, and entering the insurance industry. Together, these ventures required Joseph to navigate uncertainty, competing interests, and resistance across industries and national boundaries.
Drawing upon his study of conflict and human behavior, Joseph has worked with attorneys to help legal teams examine how people perceive, decide, and act amid danger, uncertainty, stress, and rapidly unfolding confrontation.
In 2020, Joseph was designated successor to the current headmaster of Ittō Tenshin-ryū and tasked with serving as head instructor. He also received the highest licenses in the Aikijutsu of Yamate-ryū and Goseki-ryū Aiki Heihō.* These recognitions marked a decisive turning point: carrying the traditions forward to a new generation became the sole focus of his work. He approaches this responsibility first as a student, committed to continued study and practice while finding meaningful ways to share their teachings beyond the dōjō.
That same year, Joseph wrote the foreword to the second edition of Frederick J. Lovret’s seminal work, The Way and The Power: Secrets of Japanese Strategy. First published in 1987, the book explores strategic principles preserved within Japanese martial traditions and the way of being required to face the unknown. Writing the foreword gave Joseph an opportunity to honor his instructor and contribute to a legacy that continues to inform his life and work.
He serves as an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, where he introduces students to these martial traditions’ teachings on conflict, strategy, and human performance.
He also hosts The Way and The Power, a podcast devoted to conflict, strategy, and human performance. The podcast examines how the teachings preserved within these martial traditions can be practiced in contemporary life.
Joseph’s work has spanned the battlefield, boardroom, courtroom, classroom, and dōjō, yet beneath them all lies a single realization: the essence of life is struggle, and its goal is to overcome. The reality of life is conflict. From this fundamental understanding arises the question at the heart of his work: How can one live a balanced and meaningful life amid conflict? His answer lies in realizing an orderly, unfettered, and powerful way of being—and then serving something greater than oneself.
*Ittō Tenshin-ryū Rokudai Hanshi, Menkyō Kaiden, Yamate-ryū Aikijutsu Menkyō Kaiden, Gokui Kaiden Mokuroku in Goseki-ryū Aiki Heihō.