Beyond The Brotherhood

Thoughts from the book "Great Mental Models" by Shane Parrish 1B: The second barrier to seeing what is vs. what we think is ego. When my best friend was killed on 06 AUG, 2011 I was tapped to make notification to the family. After I made notification, I had to return home to get a surgery and the rest of the notification team set up the funeral. Upon my return, I was angry to see that my role in the funeral was to handle the distinguished guests - a role that I felt was not representative of who I was in his life. As I slammed the spreadsheet down and went over my angry words to the rest of the team, it dawned on me that I had lost perspective. Our role was to honor the family and honor JT. My own ego had clouded my judgement to a point where I almost made myself the center of attention instead of what the real task was - honoring JT and his family. I am happy to report that I shut my mouth and did my job. Ego is the second of the three flaws that prevents us from seeing reality.

Organizations need the right people, and people need the right organization.

Thoughts from the book "Great Mental Models" by Shane Parrish #1A: The first barrier to seeing what is vs. what we think is not having the right perspective. In 2018 I started a Sushi Business - "Sushi Assassin" - say it out loud, it is fun. In California, where I live, the government took invasive and restrictive actions during the pandemic, including forcing restaurants to shut down. If I had known California was going to be so restrictive, I would not have started the business because I didn't have the right perspective. I didn't understand: 1. People love their sushi and most don't know how to make it. 2. We were in-home catering, so private events not easily regulated by the government. 3. All other sushi restaurants had been shut down, so we had no competition. 4. Many of us were upset with government violating our freedoms and were eager to find ways to resist. 5. Fishing boats lost their customers, so these guys sought us out as one of the only customers still operating - often at lower costs since supply was higher than demand. Understanding these perspectives allowed us to flourish during the pandemic and Sushi Assassin is still rocking today. The pic below is from a Mayday Executive Event last week for the rowdies from EO Cleveland.

Making the transition is more than just applying for a job, its starting a new career and life.

A huge thank you to our incredible sponsors for making the Copendero event possible! Your support means the world to us; we couldn’t have done it without you. Here's to partnerships that make a difference! Refined Technologies Pray.com Western Steel Council Morgan Benjamin Search Group

?? Mission: Transition (Post #14) Overplaying your Veteran Card As a retired veteran, well-meaning organizations may want to capitalize on your service and request you to serve as a spokesman for a good cause.? Beyond the Brotherhood has a lot of amazing partners with some very long reach and we want to support them just as they support us.? As mentioned in previous posts, I don’t like dropping the “S-bomb,” but there are sometimes when it adds context or value.? Other times, the exact nature of our military service doesn’t need to be said, like on a national holiday when we honor the entire warrior class of America on Veterans’ Day.? This past Veterans’ Day, I was asked to write an OPED for ways to support our veterans, focusing especially on the importance of prayer.? While there is plenty of awareness regarding trauma that some veterans went through, I felt a duty to focus on the warrior’s heart.? Not every American is hard-wired for military service, and even fewer have the opportunity to serve.? And for many of us, it’s been awesome to work on a team with a bunch of patriotic meat-eaters who are eager to do violence on our nation’s behalf if it means keeping our countrymen safe.? That was the point I wanted to get across in the OPED, no “S-bomb” or affiliation with my career in the SEAL teams was? needed.? I was asked to read it out loud for Fox News Radio, so I did, and tried to convey a tone of force and conviction in every word I spoke.? But then Monday, the piece was released with a title that I did not author; CRINGE! ?? And if you clicked on the link to hear the audio, Ai was the voice reading it (no one likes the sound of their own voice on recording, but Ai sounds WAY worse ??).? So to all my teammates, fellow operators, and veterans on LinkedIn, please feel free to heckle me all you want for the title that Fox News ascribed to the piece; I totally understand.? But after you get done barfing at the title, read the OPED and be thankful that our countrymen are praying for us to continue serving the nation, whether we are in or out of uniform.

A few thoughts on the price of freedom and what I'm doing to give back. I LOVE personal freedom, property rights, free markets and the opportunities they bring. The only way I can have those AMAZING things is to have people willing to defend me with violence in the darkest hours. Our military makes it possible for me to have this amazing life. I am thankful for every service member that honors their commitment to our country or gets hurt/blown up trying to. While every member of the service plays a valued part, much of the heavy lifting is done by our special operations units. They are the most savage of us. They are the ones who do the hard things that nobody else can. To that end, I've decided to put on a paddle race next year. The race will leave from Bangor, Maine, and paddle down the Penobscot River and circumnavigate Verona Island. I'm thinking we'll have a water station at the Verona boat landing, but the race will be otherwise unassisted. This will be 51 miles with potential for winds and current. The last time I did this, I permanently sunburned my arms. 3 divisions will pay a cash prize divided between the top 3 finishers. Divisions will be? 1. Solo Paddlers 2. Team paddlers 3. Team that includes a female paddler 4. Some divisions that won't pay out, but you'll get a t-shirt and award I am thinking we’re going to split entry money between Beyond the Brotherhood and the winners. 50% 1st place, 30% for 2nd place, 20% for 3rd place. We’ll have a BBQ/party after completion, worst case you’ll get a t-shirt to go with your sunburn. I plan on leaning on my Friends/LinkedIn network to get this done, (Thank you in advance). Let's raise some money for Jimmy May and Beyond The Brotherhood, have some adventure, get some sunburned, and find out who the savages are among us all. I started Stillwater Investing to make lives better, this is the next step.

Here are a few highlights from our Veterans Day Shootout at Copendero this past weekend! We had an incredible time connecting with everyone and are deeply grateful to those who took part in our auction. Your generous contributions help keep Beyond the Brotherhood’s mission alive—providing community, purpose, and goals for our Navy SEAL brothers. More to come from this event soon! If you want to learn more about supporting BTB or when our next event is message us!

How do we rack up an 89% program percentage at Beyond The Brotherhood? We work hard and live without frills so that we stretch every cent of every donation dollar - putting it where you want it. I am proud of our team and our books. If you are looking for an honorable 501c3 this year to donate to - consider us. We screen, select and prepare Navy SEALs for their next mission in life as they transition to the civilian sector, providing community, purpose and goals for our nation's greatest warriors. This is us - Sean, Drew and me taking our lunch break while we gas up. These are good days.