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Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why, doesn’t know this yet, but he has profoundly changed my life, and thus, indirectly changed the lives of hundreds of our military Members, Veterans, and Retirees (“Veterans”) that I inspire, motivate, train, and coach.
At the end of the video embedded in his LinkedIn profile (https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonsinek), the quote that opened this piece appears. Many of his famous quotes inspire me, and affect my behavior, but this quote really touched my soul…
Honest ideas, born out of personal experience, brought forth to help a few but end up helping many.
Wow!
I am blown away not only by the quote, but by its power, by its enormity, by its impact, and by the fact that I am fortunate enough to live it each day!
The idea was simple: help Veterans become Project Managers.
After all, as a two-era, two-service Veteran; that has spent 2+ decades teaching and managing business and projects; I know what ‘industry’ needs a Veteran to look like, act like, and speak like.
So, 2 years ago 1 January of 2015, I founded a company that does just that: help Veterans become Project Managers. Every day.
The idea is simple: I share with military Veterans how civilian managers manage, which includes leadership, and more specifically, I teach them how to speak about it in the common tongue of management, so they can convey their significant amount of value doing it for the organizations they interview with.
In general, according to the widely adopted work of Henri Fayol, managers make plans to achieve objectives they identify (function 1), organize (and secure) the resources necessary to carry out the plans (function 2), lead the people executing the plans so they stay on track to meet the objectives (function 3), and tweak performance and plans as necessary to achieve the objectives (function 4).
You can see that these functions transcend process (i.e. operations), people (i.e. leadership), and project (i.e. everything not operations); they permeate organizations. All organizations.
You can also see they transcend boundaries between industries, sectors, and even between business and the military.
That is the hope, inspiration, and motivation the idea provides military Veterans; their vast amounts of knowledge, skills, experience, and talent is very germane to the CIVDIV (the civilian workforce), they just need to learn to translate it.
That is what I do each day. I help them translate what they did into the language of what they can do for the CIVDIV as managers in general, and project managers specifically.
And that is where the idea is today, after 2 years of perfecting it and sharing it. The idea is on its way to helping many. It is in the hundreds now quickly heading for the thousands this new year.
However, there is a lot more work to do. Hundreds of thousands more Veterans to help.
But “Wow!” is the journey so cool! And “Wow!” is my team so great; so high performing! And “Wow!” do I feel so fortunate and lucky, and sure enough, “Wow!” am I so stoked all the way down to my soul every day that I get to help Veterans lead meaningful, productive, lucrative professional lives after their military service.
I know My Why!
However, the take-away from this piece is not me, my mission, my company, or those I serve though. It is you. It is helping you find your Why. It is check out all of Simon Sinek’s stuff for yourself! You can read his books and watch his videos. I have no financial interest in either.
It will significantly expand your field and depth of vision, your mind, your ability to communicate with others, and your potential!
Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year,
EAW
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Eric is a decorated two-Service, two-Era US Military Veteran; Serial Founder; experienced, credentialed project manager and PMI Chapter-recognized mentor; and an entertaining instructor/public speaker on project management, deep learning and the military transition, PMI’s PMP® and CAPM® exams, Vetrepreneurship; and project manager development. He helps Military Veterans change their lives profoundly through project management, entrepreneurship, and AI through inspiration, translation, training, and placement. For more information, please visit https://vets2pm.com, www.militaryvetstone.com, and www.linkedin.com/in/docwright2012.