Independence Day 2025: Service Wisdom...

Who among mortal men are you, good friend? Since never before have I seen you in the fighting where men win glory, yet now you have come striding far out in front of all others in your great heart… —Homer, The Iliad

It was December 21, 2009 boarding a Delta flight with a newly published book in hand on a 10 day Christmas vacation in another country.

“Where Men Win Glory” The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer is a tragic story worth remembering as we contemplate our country the USA and all those brave men and women who have defended our freedom and our way of life.

As we approach our next July 4th weekend, this book caught my eye on the shelf as the thoughts of celebrating our United States of America birthday in 2025 came to mind.

Before you were wise, you as an American can’t truly know or understand it all, until you leave it. Until you travel far away across our globe to other countries and cities to see and feel the differences.

Most recently traveling on a Boeing 787 for 14 hours then another 7 hours to another place near the equator, this first gives you the real context of how enormous our Earth really is.

Secondly, spending weeks time in other countries that are foreign to you, provides you the vivid context on our United States in so many ways.

You learn why America included specific language in its “Constitution” as a new country and you can better understand what influence the United States has had on other parts of the world since it’s 1st birthday.

In early June 2002, Pat Tillman and his brother Kevin appeared at the Military Processing Station in downtown Phoenix, AZ. Later in the day, they signed away their freedom and recited the oath of enlistment, and received their orders to appear at Fort Benning Georgia on July, 8 2002.

Two years later Pat Tillman died on a desolate hillside in southeastern Afghanistan after leaving behind a $3.6 million NFL contract to enlist in the United States Army.

How will you work in your own years ahead in America or OCONUS, to defend our freedoms and to help defeat evil across our small towns, our cities and vast metropolitan areas?

This 4th of July Independence Day weekend, think about how you will contribute to our great nation.

Maybe it begins by leaving it for a week or two, just to reveal what you will miss.

What you will feel. What you will better understand about the “How and “Why” we were founded as the United States of America.

"We as a nation have so much to learn from others across the world, and yet if you never travel outside your state or even your own country, how will you ever say you truly understand."

When you feel the same calling as Pat Tillman and his brother did about serving your country, figure out how you too will contribute.

How might you make a difference in fighting evil and making our country even better?

Get out there! How will you serve…

Linchpin: Life Journey To R3...

Before you realized how indispensable you had become to the team, the organization or the agency, you made an important decision.

Growing up in life there are several points in your journey where you are so challenged. It all really starts when you are a Junior in High School and the dialogue begins on your next steps after graduation.

The conversation is already about who you are and what you have already achieved. In your studies, with your athletic team and so many others. Were you OK, Good, or Great.

Your next decisions in life will take you where you never imagined. Before you really knew your real talents in life, you began your journey. Was it close to home or hundreds or thousands of miles away?

It was only several years later in your early twenties when you started to see your true ambitions and your God given talents.

Developing real skills that would become so valuable in your life.

Recognizing now your compass point, you dived into making those skill sets even better. The challenges before you became greater both physically and mentally in order to achieve true success.

After awhile, the skill sets you had learned and utilized to pay the rent and the jobs you loathed were not enough. Change was in the wind.

Now you began to understand the value of the “Linchpin”:

“Every successful organization has at least one linchpin, some have dozens or even thousands. The linchpin is the essential element, the person who holds part of the operation together. Without the linchpin, the thing falls apart.

Is there anyone in an organization who is absolutely irreplaceable? Probably not. But the most essential people are so difficult to replace, so risky to lose, and so valuable they they might as well be irreplaceable. Entire corporations are built around a linchpin, or more likely, a scattering of them, essential individuals who are worth holding on to.”Linchpin - Seth Godin - Page 49

Think back to that place in Orange County, CA or Northern Virginia or any other virtual geography where the competition was fierce and you were a “Linchpin”.

After you realized your true abilities, real ambitions and the increasing value to your fellow colleagues for the mission, you were now indispensable.

Life is full of skill building and showing those who pay you that you can be trusted and that you are worth it.

Yet never forget how much your life will be more fulfilled with faith, family and relationships with those you love.

Someday, you will reach that place where maybe you got it all wrong. It could be that it all comes down to this: “Relationships, Results, Rewards (R3).”

Simple as it may seem, you became a linchpin and indispensable because other people respected you, learned from you and enjoyed your guidance on the joint mission…

Godspeed!

Team Mission: Trusted Community...

Just when you think you know it all, you realize that your graduation or promotion is nothing more than a stepping stone in your next phase of your life.

You begin to realize that the experience and the education is vital, yet you only have a glimpse at the value of the entire community.

How will you know your wing man or your class mates even better than you do today?

Your mission now is to continuously grow your relationships within your latest trusted community.

You might begin with a regular monthly meeting online and then add Face-to-Face gatherings every other month.

In both cases you learn your community members names, you begin to know their real expertise and you start the process of building your growing trust.

Imagine for a moment that some in your trusted community will ask you curious questions about your upbringing, where you grew up or what your focus is currently.

Over the course of your time with your community you start to become more genuine, more open to sharing your true thoughts and bold ideas.

Your levels of "TrustDecisions" are becoming exponential.

We are embedded with our end-users listening and learning. We are testing hypotheses and working side-by-side while continuously adapting to ever changing problem-sets, to improve and become more agile.

We are developing new solutions, iteratively and incrementally with our beneficiary clients.

So what?

You now begin to realize who you can really trust and the true value of the time and resources dedicated to your community.

Now is the time to learn again and to seek that next stepping stone towards your next life milestone.

Accomplish it together, not “Alone”. Your community is growing with you and your dreams will soon become even more true…