Battlefield to Boardroom - A Lesson

Here was Mike’s experience using Sagan Passport. Give it a shot, if you dare.

This week’s new Passport members include a mid-market healthcare PE group, an automation company, a digital education company, a CPA, and a email marketing expert.

Jim was a bearded, 38 y/o Pararescue Jumper (PJ), training a group of enthusiastic 20 something government employees in trauma medicine

Meet me, a cocky & headstrong 25 year old.

Jim was a “PJ”.

PJs are a highly trained special operations force within the United States Air Force.

If a fighter pilot goes down in home hostile environment, the “PJs” are the ones who go in to get them, and provide medical care… prepared to fight as they go.

Breathing.

Bullet Holes.

Blankets.

(There were a half dozen of these mnemonics that I can still recite years later - they are to remind you to check or do certain things).

Jim taught me one lesson, that I still use every day, even though our overseas adventures are over.

I was in a training exercise, trying to put a tourniquet on a mannequin.

The lights were off, techno music was blasting, getting whacked with a pool noodle, squirting me with super soaker, and Jim was yelling from a bullhorn (about 4 feet away from my face).

He was asking me why I wouldn't give him a ham sandwich.

“I want a ham sandwich. I need a ham sandwich. Please make me one now. Please, please, please, please, please. I'm begging you for one. I'm begging you for one. Ham sandwich, ham sandwich, ham sandwich. I'll be forever grateful. I'll be forever grateful. You're my only hope. You're my only hope. My taste buds demand it. My taste buds demand it. Be my sandwich hero. Be my sandwich hero.”

This dude was really funny.

It was obvious what Jim was trying to do.

He was trying to distract me, confuse me, disorient me and knock me off my rhythm.

Get me out of breath and panicked.

I'd been well trained - but doing it in this environment was a different story.

At some point, I grabbed someone else to help me.

I was a little flustered from the super-soaker, the Madonna in the background, and Jim yelling:

"WHY NO HAM SANDWICH, IS IT BECAUSE YOU THINK I’M FAT, SHOULD I DO ATKINS!?"

Distracted, I made a mistake.

If I recall, I didn’t look in the mannequins mouth to check for obstructions, before saying we needed to do a “Crike”. (A Cricothyrotomy - it’s pretty gnarly if you are curious)

A clear mistake, that in the real world would have consequences.

Jim stopped the exercise.

Turned the music off.

Turned the lights on.

He sat me down and said:

"Jon - Slow down, and calm down. Focus. You are the leader. If you are calm under stress, the people around you will be calm. Calm is contagious."

So much wisdom, in so few words.

I think about Jim, and his lesson, every day.

I hopefully won’t have to rely on the hard skills Jim taught me (except once, at a car crash…a different story) - but I think about the soft skills that Jim’s approach instilled.

As business owners - we often run around in a light state of “Mania”.

• More meetings!

• More activity!

• More content!

• More emails & slacks!

More More More.

When you meet with your team (global, or local) are you calm?

Are you present with the challenge at hand, or are you rushing?

As leaders, we should be the most predictable, calm, clear headed members of our team.

In our words, our actions, our thinking - we set the standard for the type of organization we are running.

Does your team look at you and think “No matter what comes our way, Jon will be calm, clear eyed, and supportive of anything thrown at us”.

I certainly aspire to this standard, and I hope you will too.

In summary - when shit is going wrong, when the cash flow is tight (is it ever not?), when a key person quits…

I just remember two things:

1. Calm is contagious

2. Get Jim a ham sandwich

What’d you think of the newsletter this week?

I read every response.

Yallah Habibi,

Jon

Passage of the Week - Also read beautifully here.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poem Ulysses

“…is not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”