Five years on from the Army - it still feels like yesterday. There's so much I learned over 10.5 years (including ROTC cadet time) that I apply to my day to day life and work: routine, time management, leadership principles, international experience, and meeting people where they are. There are some things to miss, and others that I don’t. While I still attempt to make it a routine to get my work out done in the morning, it’s great knowing that it’s not a requirement and it can be done later.
I remember being on a flight to Bali as I started my transition leave and reading a quote in my passport from Astronaut Ellison Onizuka:
Make your life count – and the world will be a better place because you tried.
I looked up the speech later on - he gave it as the 1980 commencement speaker at his alma mater, Konawaena High School in Kona, Hawaii. Onizuka was tragically killed in the 1986 Challenger space shuttle explosion, but his words live on in U.S. passports.
As I took a deeper dive into the speech, I made the decision to mark my shift into the civilian world with his words. The lines right before the passport quote really hit home, as I was walking into the unknown at the time: new career, new friends, new experiences.
Your vision is not limited by what your eye can see, but by what your mind can imagine. Many things that you take for granted were considered unrealistic dreams by previous generations. If you accept these past accomplishments as commonplace then think of the new horizons that you can explore.
From your vantage point, your education and imagination will carry you to places which we won’t believe possible.
Make your life count – and the world will be a better place because you tried.
A trip to Bali was nice, but it was just a temporary solve for what was to come. Many veterans struggle finding a purpose after the military. I was one of them - at first, things felt very foreign, like my experience did not matter and that I was not going to find solid footing, especially in my first experiences. I was fortunate to present my experience switching from the military to sports last weekend, and it always reminds me how far I’ve come - to confidently stand in front of a room of accomplished people and talk about my background without lips trembling and nervous energy is not something that happened overnight. I struggled with anxiety, imposter syndrome, and not feeling good enough to be up in front of group of people. In my head, I was like “What is going on?” - I used to stand in front of people and give tasks and orders all the time and never felt nervous. It took an investment through learning, some experiences, mentors, and a communications coach to get me to where I am today (big shout out to Dr Murphy at McCombs for her help).
What matters most to me from that time, though, is that my soldiers, like Jason Foster, still feel like they can reach out to me - I'm still there for them as much as I was as their team lead, as they make their transitions out of the Army into the corporate world. Jason is going through Trailhead and Salesforce training now as he leaves his military time as a satellite systems operator. These are some of our most talented and intelligent soldiers and he's an excellent candidate for anyone hiring today. Ultimately, Jason helped me succeed as his leader. If he hadn’t set up the satellite system correctly, or manage our satellite time appropriately, we would have failed to provide communications to our unit - ultimately a failure on my part. Jason helped me succeed back then, so I want to help him make this transition happen in the best way possible.
Even more so, even with some mistakes along the way, my hope is that others knew I always had the intention of leaving a place better than I found it: helping out the team, improving the mission critical systems I was tasked to manage, and making sure that people had what they needed. Sometimes intentions aren’t always the result, but at the end of the day, not everything can be a 100% success.
It's easy to take for granted what leadership and management really mean. I'm not a perfect leader, nor will I ever be. I recognize my flaws and work on them, every day, realizing that all workstreams and initiatives are the result of the sum of the people around me. Even though I don't lead people directly now, influencing environments by helping others has helped me find purpose - working with veterans, students, my colleagues and peers, and making sure others feel included in my community, whether that be Austin, veterans, sports industry, and/or any others. Leadership does not have to be managing people, it can include so much more.
Five years is a long time, but not long enough to forget what my soldiers and experiences mean to me. It’s easy to forget the people that get you to where you are today, especially when deadlines, workstreams, and decks are the priority. Regardless, I’m proud of myself for getting here, and hope that every veteran can find the same clarity in the journey.
“Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” - General Colin Powell