A Soldier’s Story©

Courage, above all things, is the first quality of a Warrior - Karl Von Clausewitz

Since the beginning of time there has been war. From the earliest days of recorded history until present day news headlines the world over, we have all been witness to war and all of the harm that comes from it. I am not a pacifist by any means. Even the Word of God says that there is a time and place to everything under the sun (Ecclesiastes Chapter 3). However, this does not justify the fact that the wars of late have been borderline senseless ones and a great many of our brave servicemen and servicewomen have been thrust into conflicts the world over on the whims of politicians that reside comfortably in their plush offices in our Nation's capital.

US Foreign policy as of late has pretty much made a police force (and occasional Assassination Squad) out of the US Military. As evidenced by the summary execution of Osama Bin Laden or even the capture and execution of Saddam Hussein. Our brave men and women of the Armed Services have protected this nation’s values valiantly and some have paid the ultimate price for us to enjoy the liberties that we so very often take for granted.  However, soldiers are forced to obey orders that sometimes tarnish the reputation of the United States by the use of questionable gestapo tactics (Can anyone say Gitmo?). The members of our military have even at times been forced to regulate its own citizens in times of Civil unrest; from the WWI Veteran’s Bonus Army Protests of 1932 in Washington D.C. to the Civil Rights Demonstrations of the Sixties in the South.

Now don’t get it twisted. The brave men and women of our Armed Services deserve our utmost respect and should always be regarded with the highest esteem and admiration. Their job at times can be a thankless one. Regardless of how you feel about America’s foreign policy and the wars that our nation arbitrarily finds itself in from time to time, the soldiers that sacrifice their livihood and place themselves in harm’s way every single day deserve our utmost gratitude and respect.

Now with that said, let me change gears for just a moment.

The one thing I have come to realize as I have lived this very interesting life of mine is that war is not just waged on battlefields or in mountain ranges or on plains half a world away. We all go to war everyday in one way or another and sometimes we don’t even have to leave the comforts of our own home. As a matter of fact, some of us only have to look within ourselves to find a conflict of astounding and astonishing proportions. The unfortunate but inevitable fact about a war or conflict of any kind is that there are and always will be casualties.

I know all too well about loss….especially loss for the “greater good”. Sometimes it is necessary for one to put their feelings and desires aside for the greater good of furthering a cause, saving or restoring a relationship, saving a life, etc. I have had to do this for each of the aforementioned scenarios. As I look back on the consequences and fallout of my actions I sometimes question if it was all worth it. Sometimes the answer has been a resounding no and if I had it to do over again I probably would not have made the sacrifice. In other instances, I would do it again in a heartbeat because my sacrifice bore good fruit and had positive results. Nevertheless, when it’s all said and done life is all about choices and all choices take you somewhere….bold choices take you where you are destined to be. It takes courage to embark on a mission with the odds stacked against you.  It takes a tremendous amount of audacity to set sail for an unknown destination on nothing but a vision and God’s promise to work everything out for your good if you stay faithful.

Perseverance is one of the qualities that I have always admired about trailblazers and those individuals that stand up for their beliefs. Trust me, standing for truth while those around you would rather roll with untruths and deceitfulness is not for the faint of heart.  It is more than a notion to follow the path less traveled. On the other hand if doing the right thing and living justly were easy, it would be the norm in today's society and not the exception.  It is this author's humble opinion that the number one goal of everyone that walks this planet should be to leave any environment that they enter in better shape than when they entered it. To be light where darkness exists. To stamp out untruths and injustice with every single resource that they have at their disposal. The great philosopher Confucius said it best:

“Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage.”

Over the course of my life I have had to face and overcome so many hardships and have nearly lost my life on a couple occasions because of recklessness and impulsiveness. Yet in spite of all that has happened to me I have obtained so many characteristics that I never would have learned had I not “been through the storm”. Now I am not a meteorologist or anything of the sort, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are more “storms” on the horizon. Whenever you attempt to lead a life of tranquility and positivity you are bound to meet opposition. Nevertheless, with each tempest I grow stronger, wiser, more resolute, and more patient no matter what storms may arise. My father would always tell me that the number one characteristic of a great soldier is adaptability - the ability to acclimatize one’s self to whatever their environment becomes. Now I personally have not served a single day in the Military. Nonetheless I am a soldier. Waging spiritual warfare against those who dare to oppose my pursuit of peace and serenity for myself and all of those that I hold near and dear. For as the Word of God says, the weapons of my warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Cor 10:4). I don’t go around picking the fight but best believe if you bring one my way I will never back down for if I don’t defend myself or the people and things I treasure no one else will.

Now by no stretch of the imagination am I under the impression that this soldier’s story is any different than a Million other people’s story on this little blue marble….nonetheless it is mine. Regardless of the similarities of individuals’ trials and tribulations, the thing that differentiates one person’s destiny from another is how they respond or react to the obstacles that life places in their path. Your story I’m sure has had its share of ups and downs. However, if you happen to be one of those fortunate individuals that have led a charmed life and haven’t had to endure any of the aforementioned seasons that I have referred to in this entry or anything remotely similar to them then all I can say is that is a wonderful thing….. and to just keep on living. Adversity is not a respecter of persons.

 As for me.... the will to press on in spite of disappointments and setbacks, the drive to do what people tell me I can’t do, the ability to persevere in the face of adversity, the faith to believe that a delay from the Most High is not a denial are all chapters in this soldier’s story. Glory be to God that its end remains unwritten. Nevertheless, for now I confidently press on ….. most definitely looking forward to what the end will be. Consequently, if at the end of this soldier’s story, my good days outnumber my bad days, if I have left a legacy of positivity, done my part to make this world that we live in a better place and have helped just one person to improve their quality life…. then my living will not have been in vain.

Grand Idea ©

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a theory on how organizations – whether you’re a fortune 500 company or a Mom and Pop shop in Butte, MT can increase organizational effectiveness, customer satisfaction, shareholder or company net profits. Become a more efficient; procedurally sound company that truly cares about the well being of its customers as well as its employees and not just how much money upper level management, company ownership, company stockholders and business owners can pocket.


Why? 


Simple. If there weren’t any customers there would be no company. If there weren’t any one to take the orders, fill the scripts, take the calls, make the calls no one else wants to make, handle the client and customer escalations, train the employees, etc, etc ... there would be no company. Happy customers equals faithful return customers. Happy employees means loyal and productive employees.
Now you may be reading this wondering, " What does this have to do with increasing overall company profitability"? 


Be patient please... I’m getting to that.


Now granted, company shareholder and overall company profitability should be a goal to strive for within any publicly traded company. I mean when its all said and done, companies are in business to make money. However, making money at the expense of not providing a quality product and not maintaining satisfactory employee morale is unacceptable. It shows the company in a very unfavorable light. It makes said company appear monopolistic and displays them as an unethical organization that lacks integrity (i.e. - the constant legal issues and covert investigations that besiege these companies and organizations year after year).


Now….. I know what  Upper Level Executives or even a Low Level Authoritative figures may say  - I have heard more than my desired share of corporate speak .... ahem..."There are going to be times when you aren’t happy about the way we do things around here, You can't make everyone happy. An organization can not survive without shareholder profitability", Embrace change (mostly for change’s sake which is counter productive), and so on. Ok I get it. I think… Nevertheless so many companies leave "money on the table" by mismanaging resources, alienating skilled labor with questionable processes and procedures, allowing unethical behavior to go unchecked and taking their "frontline" personnel for granted. Sure you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet... but making an omelet with rotten eggs is sure to spoil your entire meal.


There are a number of Business and Organizations that are in a unique position and that have the potential to be an innovators for how companies in their respective industries efficiently balances their responsibility of meeting shareholder and market expectations while providing customer satisfaction and making their employees feel as though their contributions – no matter how minimal – are truly appreciated. The resources are there. The personnel are there. The plans are there. All that’s needed is for the leadership within these business and organizations to take the initiative to implement and execute the plans, tap the resources and utilize the proper personnel.


The number one thing I have noticed throughout my employment history (I have been working since the age of 13 years old) is that there are serious gaps in communication within a great many of the organizations that I have had the pleasure to work for. Regardless of the size of the Business (I have held jobs in both the public and private sector), leadership within these organizations unfortunately have regularly been detached from what’s happening within their business due to a lack of communication effectiveness within the organization. There has been and still appears to be a disturbing trend amongst leadership and upper level management within these businesses and organizations of being reactive instead of proactive. Now granted you can’t plan for EVERY emergency but there is no excuse for suffering unnecessary losses and unnecessarily withstanding assaults to your reputation as an industry leader when there are capable individuals at every turn providing you with accurate warnings well in advance. Reputation is the cornerstone of power.  Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once you slip, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides.  In order to be successful in any industry you have to make your reputation unassailable and always be alert to potential attacks so that you can thwart them before they happen.  Unfortunately, because of an inability to communicate effectively between departments, a business or organization’s service to their customers can be adversely effected. As alluded to earlier, unhappy customers equals poor company performance ratings. You can only sweep dirt under the rug so long before the evidence starts forming and once your company performance begins to suffer shareholders will jump ship quick. As volatile as the market has been over the last decade, that’s the last thing any publicly traded company needs.


The concept that I think that a lot of people in leadership fail to comprehend is that productivity is a reflection of leadership. Poor productivity, poor leadership. It’s honestly that simple. A great many companies’ bottom lines are suffering from the lack of effective leadership at various levels within them. Leadership come with great responsibility and should never be taken lightly. To be an effective leader you have to have the pulse of your direct reports and their work environment. I personally believe that in order to be an effective leader you have to be a “people person”. I never understand how people who lack any kind of personality end up in positions where they have to interact and relate regularly people. I mean I know how they get their gigs. It’s all in who you know and not necessarily what you know. But hey, as I always say …. No since in hating the player, hate the game. But if you’re anything like me you don’t stop at hating the game…. You do your damnedest to change it.


My bad… I had a moment.


Now it’s not only the companies that find themselves “in the red”  that suffer from poor leadership. The successful businesses and organizations are the major culprits and repeat offenders of rewarding incompetence. They suffer the worse from the “if it’s broke don’t fix because we are making money hand over fist” mentality which can completely destroy employee morale within them. Don’t get it twisted employee morale can make or break a company regardless of how high you rank on the Fortune 500 listing. My earlier statement warrants repeating here, happy employees means loyal and productive employees. Loyal productive employees come to work when they are sick, stay late and work mad overtime even when they are salaried and go that extra mile to provide exceptional customer service every chance they get because they understand that they are ambassadors of the company of which they are employed. Trust …. A companies every interaction with the public is severely scrutinized. The question that the leadership of these companies should really be asking themselves is “how much money are we losing due to ineffective, questionable and unethical organizational practices, processes, and procedures.” I personally have seen companies practically throw away millions of dollars unnecessarily because of these ineffective policies and procedures. The sad thing is that the solution to these breaches in profitability are usually less financially in the long run that the millions that go out the door annually because either someone in leadership or upper level management is inept or simply chooses to ignore the problem.


 Either way, the true victim is the consumer. People spend their hard earned money on a company’s product and they should get nothing but that business’ or organization’s best. Sadly, this is not always the case. Hey! I have a grand idea! Why don’t Business and Organizational leaders do more to recognize what’s really important; their customer’s satisfaction, their employees’ quality of life, their stockholders opinions (all of their stockholders). Why don’t businesses and organizations concentrate on more than “staying in the black” and focus more on improving the employee morale within their ranks by showcasing their integrity and maintaining ethical behavior at the various levels within them. Time has come to lay that age old adage “ do as I say not as I do” to rest. True leaders, effective leaders lead by example.  Stop being so reactive and focus more on proactively heading off issues before the become major problems. It’s easier to extinguish a brush fire than it is to put out a forest fire. Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point.  You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another – intensity defeats extensity every time. You never truly solve an issue by approaching it haphazardly.


Now I’m no expert on organizational effectiveness but I have seen my share of companies and organzations fail. What they all had in common was that they did not listen to sound wisdom when it was provided to them. The ending is everything.  Successful business and organizations plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse their hard work and give their competition a leg up.  By planning to the end, an organization will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and they will know when to stop. A great many business and organizations just lack of a better phrase try to “do too much” instead of focusing on what initially brought them success. Hard work, fundamentally sound process and procedures, and the five P’s (Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance).


Hey, Business and Organization leaders….I have a Grand Idea. Get back to the basics. It’s a lot more profitable than you think it is.