I haven’t post in a week or so because I am taking some time to look at what I am doing, to make sure it is in line with what I want  for my blog and business.  The military does the same thing either periodically or based on an event.  It is called Stand Down.

Stand Down

One day, back when I was on a Special Forces team we were waiting on a dusty, dirty airfield waiting to be taken to another dusty, dirty airfield. The C-130  aircraft we were supposed to be on had broken down and we were waiting for a replacement to show up.  We were passing time with the broken down airplane’s air crew.  They were telling us about the Air Force’s Stand Down activities.  According to them, the Air Force did a scheduled Stand Down at least once a year.  The idea was to stop all operations for one day to review all safety incidents over the last year.  They wanted to learn from the accidents and get better.  It is a lot like doing an After Action Review (AAR).

One thing that always stuck in my mind from that conversation was that they told us that air crew had to listen to the inflight recordings from all the fatal crashes.  It was important to review the details of the incidents.  I also think another aspect was to reinforce how serious safety was to the air crews.

Reassess, Refit, and Rearm

Now in Army Special Forces, we didn’t do scheduled Stand Downs.  We did Stand Downs if we had a serious safety incident or if a pattern was starting to develop.  My old Sergeant Major always warned us to be alert if a training event or mission started to spin out of control. Improvising, adapting and overcoming is important but if so many things have changed that the new plan doesn’t resemble the original plan at all; you need to take a step back and reassess, refit and rearm.  Too often we get into a frenzy of trying to fit square pegs in round holes that someone gets hurt or even killed.

Using a Stand Down

So how do you use this in your life and business?  I have talked before about how AARs can help you get better.  Just think of Stand Downs as bigger ones.  A Stand Down should have a review of what took place during the particular time period and if it was on track with your intended purpose.  It should also include a review of your purpose/mission/plan and see if that is what you really want of if you should think about moving in a different direction.

I will have a new post soon up soon about the results of my Stand Down.

Photo Credit – Eagle Claw wrecks at Desert One April 1980

Being an entrepreneur is a lot like being a Green Beret.  I know some will take offense to that, but I believe it.  You have to fight for what you want in your life.  If not, you might as well lay down and give up right now.  If you haven’t downloaded my manifesto, you can get it here.

I believe that you have to fight for a piece of the American Dream and really the only way it get it is to have a or multiple side business to get it going.  We always kept our options open in Special Forces. To pin ourselves down to one course of action could be fatal.

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 While you may not immediately think of entrepreneurship when you think about the Special Forces there are a lot of similarities.  First you have to go back to the classic movie – The Green Berets.  Look at Sgt. Pertersen.  Petersen’s resourcefulness and ability to bargain makes him a valuable team member.

I have actually had team members just like Petersen. They could talk anyone out of most anything.  You have to be able to do this as a Green Beret.  I spent a couple years in Europe setting up training events. I had to be able to go in, find facilities and get us access to use them.  Entrepreneurship will teach you the skills necessary for negotiation and getting er done.

 Dealing with Uncertainty

Entrepreneurship is about dealing with uncertainty. It is about turning risk, feelings of doubt, exposure to criticism around and using it to making yourself better.  We did the same on my SF teams.  We used After Action Reviews (AAR) to learn from our mistakes.  We used the competition on the team to make everyone better.  Without that in your life, you stagnate.

Leadership

You have to be a leader to be an entrepreneur. You start out as an entrepreneur by yourself, building your business.  Next you have to bring on customers, leading them to the right decisions.  After awhile you start leading employees, taking on responsibility for their livelihoods.

It’s the same with being a Green Beret.  You start our leading yourself, part of your responsibilities is working with others, training them.  You have to show leadership to get your point across.  Finally as you grow, you take on more responsibilities leading others.

Leadership develops you.  Step into it.  It makes you a better person, parent, friend, spouse.

Entrepreneurial Fitness

Flat out, entrepreneurs are more healthy.  I think it has a lot to do with keeping your mind active, getting off the couch to do something, engaging with other people.  There have been detailed studies on this you can check out here.

Perhaps more than just the habits that take off calories is the mindset that comes with being an entrepreneur.

•  It’s about giving yourself power and control over your own life and not being subservient to a job that dictates life conditions to you.
• It’s about growing a belief in yourself that you can improvise, adapt and overcome
• It’s about waking up in the morning and looking forward to the day, instead of counting the days of the week until the weekend.

All these contribute to your health and willingness to get out of bed everyday.  You have to have a mission to work towards. Entrepreneurship gives a mission.  Even better if you can find a business (of businesses) that does good in the world.

 Warrior Mindset

Entrepreneurship develops a warrior mindset of never quit, to continually raise the bar for yourself, to understand that quick rewards come from hours of preparation.  It makes you willing to be different, to set yourself on a higher level, open and yet unbeatable.

I strongly urge you to read my manifesto and start doing something to take control of your life.

Let’s say you want to know something.  You have to ask the right type of question to get the answer you want.  Do you want strictly the facts?  Do you want someone’s opinion?  Do you want an answer that takes some thought?

You need to pay attention both to what type of question you are asking and what sort of answer you are providing when answering other people. When you ask questions from other people, you need to know what kind of answers you are getting.

• Questions of fact—Questions with one correct answer are questions of fact. For example: What is the speed limit on a particular street?
• Questions of reason—Questions with better or worse answers are questions of reason. For example: What time should I leave my house to get to work on time?
• Questions of opinion—Questions whose answers reflect a personal preference are questions of opinion. For example: What’s the best restaurant near work?

I talk in my book Get Er Done about fact and meaning.  You want to be aware when you are observing something that you stay strictly with the facts.  Any meaning you put to it is based on  your own perceptions and might not be reality.  When we did intelligence work, we stuck strictly to facts and let intel people worry about the meaning.  You might wonder how they took the information and turned it in workable intelligence.  They used reason…

Matters of reason

Matters of reason are often treated mistakenly as matters of opinion or even as matters of fact. While everyone has a right to his own opinion, there is a difference between asserting one’s viewpoint as truth and supporting an answer with legitimate reasons and evidence. Unlike opinions, not all reasoned answers are of equal value.  Always make sure you have good sources for reasoned answers.

Reasoned answers

A well-reasoned answer requires experience, a well thought out process and cross checking of the answer, while opinions and facts do not. A poorly reasoned answer is one that results from simply guessing or from a sloppy process.

Classify questions

It is especially important to ask the right questions when problem solving. Finding successful answers to your problems often depends on how you ask the questions. When seeking information or facing a problem, ask yourself what kind of answer best suits the question. Which will provide the best solution to the problem?

• Do you need a factually correct answer?
• Do you need an expert opinion?
• Do you need a well-reasoned judgment?

You can only find the right answer if you ask the right question.  Keep in mind the three types of questions and answers—fact, reason, opinion—to help you get er done .

PS  I am offering both of my books – Get ER Done and Train Your Brain for a special package price.  Check out the offer here – http://achievethegreenberetway.com/Book_Set

Those you that know me, know that I love baseball.  Even though my team the Mariners continually disappoint I love the strategy and explosive action of the game.

I have written before that being on a Special Forces team is a lot like being on a professional baseball team.  All the guys had come up through the ranks or minors. Each was in very good physical condition and extremely good at what they did. We traveled quite often together and spent more time together than we did with our families.

It’s a Long Season

The Major League Baseball season stretches from April to October, and includes over 160 regular league games. And that doesn’t include pre-season or playoffs. With each game lasting an approximate 2.5 hours, that’s a lot of time on the field!

What happens in the first inning of the first game in the pre-season has little bearing on who the pennant winner will be. The season lasts a long, long (and some say TOO long) time. By the time the season wraps up, the average batter has been in the box over 500 times. Sometimes they get a hit, but more often, they get out. But that first time up to bat doesn’t set the tone for their season – unless they let it.

Life is the same way. While any one thing, project, date may seem of the utmost importance — and it is, in that moment — in the overall scheme of things, it is only one piece of a larger mosaic. Yes, great players play hard every pitch, but they also know how to pace themselves and shake off a missed strike and move ahead.

Not Always Home Runs

As you go about your life, you need that perspective. Yes, you want to hit a home run each and every time you are at bat, and you want to make a play every time the game comes your way, but chances are you are going to flub a few easy pop-ups, and miss a few easy strikes. That is just the nature of the game.

On a SF team, not every thing we did was an absolute success.  We took our lumps and moved on.  The key is not to let it effect your next mission.  A good batter won’t let the last strikeout impact his current at bat.

Every time at Bat is a New One

Sometimes, a date doesn’t go well, no matter how hard you try to fix the situation. Sometimes, a great project doesn’t sell well. Sometimes you can figure out why, while other times you just have to let it go and move forward, realizing that you will have hundreds of other interactions and opportunities to make your season a winning one.

To put things in perspective, the best hitters in baseball typically have a batting average of around .300. That means every ten times they get up to bat, they fail to get on base seven times. And these are the best of the best! Even the venerable Babe Ruth had a lifetime batting average of only .342.

On a team level, most clubs are striving for a winning season — meaning they win more than they lose. That should be your goal, too — to win more than you lose. And when you do lose — dust your cleats off and try again.

Mike

PS  I am offering both of my books – Get ER Done and Train Your Brain for a special package price.  Check out the offer here – http://achievethegreenberetway.com/Book_Set

One of the big problems society has these days is that we don’t understand economics. Now I am not talking about how the Federal Reserve distributes money or how the Euro and the dollar interact. What I am talking about is the fact that everything comes with a price that must be paid before you receive what you are looking for.

Let’s say that you are in a bad relationship, you are in horrible physical shape or that you are in a job you hate.  I am willing to go out on a limb and say that everyone has something they want to change, have different, or long for.

It Is What It Is

In any case, the first step is to accept personal responsibility (man up) and acknowledge you got yourself into it.  Don’t blame yourself, just accept the facts for what they are.  Not everything works out the way we have planned.  Just take stock of what you have or where you are at and what is the price to get what or where you want.

Everything comes with a price.  Might cost real money, might cost time, might cost sweat, nothing comes for free.  That is the misunderstanding that people have these days.  You just can’t walk around the block once a day and lose weight.  It’s not going to happen… You have to understand the true cost and be prepared to pay it.

To get out of a relationship, you might have to pay financial costs, a lawyer, child support, etc. or you might have emotional/societal costs of being shunned by friends and family.  To get in better shape is going to cost time, sweat, not eating comfort foods.  To leave a job might cost a salary drop or having to relocate.  Everything has a price.

Inertia Has Its Price Too

The flip side of this is that staying where you are at has a price too.  The wretchedness of living with someone you don’t care for, the horrible self esteem of being obese, the drudgery of working a job you hate. It is costing you everyday and you pay and will continue to pay until you decide to pay the other price and get it over with.

I talk in my book that one of the secrets in Special Forces is just not to quit.  I always valued that price as too much to pay.  The idea of having to face family, friends after quitting was too high a price.  I valued it more than the pain, sweat of whatever I had to go through.

My advice for you is to start thinking about what you want in your life and what the costs are for you to stay where you are at and what the costs are to go for it.  Most of the time if you really want it, it is a small price to pay…

Mike

PS  I am offering both of my books – Get ER Done and Train Your Brain for a special package price.  Check out the offer here – http://achievethegreenberetway.com/Book_Set