The Mission Mentality
Your #1 Newsletter for Accelerated Learning.
“When you’re surrounded by people who share a passionate commitment around a common purpose, anything is possible.”
-Howard Schultz
Are You Missing Purpose? Find it. Now.
Mission Mentality
January 14th, 2010 changed my life forever.
I was in San Francisco at the Marines Memorial Club & Hotel. The building is a focal point for all military-related events and communities in the Bay Area. That day we were listening to a senior military commander give a talk titled “The Way Ahead In Afghanistan”. This particular general — Richard Mills — would be leaving the U.S. soon to take command of all the Marines in the volatile Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
I sat at a round table, the remains of a meal scattered across my plate. With me at the table were seven other guys, all of whom had served in the Marine Corps or Navy. Surrounding us were hundreds of others veterans from the major wars of recent American history: Iraq (both times), Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, and World War II.
In 2010 the surge in Afghanistan was well underway. Everyone knew that the next couple years would make a huge difference in the outcome of the war, and also the stability of the entire region.
As I sat listening to this general lay out his plan, I casually scanned the room. I was drawn to the faces of the older men. They were perched on the edge of their seats, eating up every word. As crazy as it sounds, these guys all wanted to deploy to Afghanistan! Most of them would have had to leave behind cushy jobs in banking, real estate, consulting, or technology.
These people didn’t care about money, though. Not at that moment. Everything else about their lives receded into the background as they listened eagerly to details about the upcoming campaign that could decide the future of a nation and a people.
All I remember thinking at the time was “I don’t want to be like that when I’m their age, wishing I had raised my hand to take on this challenge.” Something had shifted inside as I listened to that general. Once again, I had that old, familiar feeling. I had a purpose. I was on fire.
Like the men around me, I had some fight left in me. But unlike them, I could actually do something about it.
And so I did, dropping out of Stanford to rejoin the Marines. I finished the quarter at Stanford in March and checked back into Camp Pendleton in Southern California by the first week of April. By the middle of August, I was saying goodbye to my family and heading over to Afghanistan.
Many of my civilian friends didn’t understand. My behavior was borderline insane. Drop out of a great school to go to war? Why? They couldn’t see the value of the mission, or how I fit into it. But that’s okay. I didn’t blame them. They weren’t me and didn’t have my experiences. I could clearly see how much I needed to walk down this path.
School wasn’t cutting it. I couldn’t sit in a classroom. Not when there was a chance I could make a real difference instead.
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