Foggy Transitions make better Entrepreneurs

I enlisted in the Navy in 2001 when I was 20 years old, with only one and a half years of college to call my life experience. 11 years later, in 2012, I transitioned from the active duty world to the reserves. In my 11 years of active duty service, the world was straightforward. My jobs and duty stations were assigned, and it was up to me to do the best I could with what I was given. I excelled in that world, and like most, enjoyed the deep camaraderie and feeling of being part of something bigger than myself. The feeling that comes with working together under the constant threat from pirates, terrorists, drug cartels, renegade nations, and more.

By 2012, however, I felt that I needed more control over my life, so I made the leap into the private sector- albeit with one foot left in the reserves as my backup. After utilizing my GI Bill, more as a subsidy to figure out what I wanted to do, I finished my program in January, 2014. Upon graduation, I felt disconnected from the fast-paced, high-technology world that seemed to have passed by me while I was working aboard 20th century ships.

Over the course of two years of exploration, I was fortunate to encounter great mentors and advisors from the VA, private sector, public sector, and nonprofits. They afforded me opportunities to explore a wide array of possibilities, including medical school, epidemiology/ public health, the public sector, academia, nonprofits, consulting, and even commercial fishing for salmon on a boat in Bristol Bay, Alaska.

In one one particularly interesting opportunity, my local congressional office provided me an internship wherein I was able to network with veterans and veteran organizations in our state as well as research and draft legislation. It was a phenomenal experience, but I still didn't know how I would leverage that into a career, or even exactly what it was that I was looking for.

Eventually, my internship swung into a tangential orbit with three other veteran entrepreneurs operating within the VIBE (Veteran Incubator for Better Entrepreneurship) at the University of Washington in Tacoma. It was that interaction that finally triggered a spark of passion. It was an opportunity to work with like-minded colleagues to create something new, something incredible that carried unlimited possibilities. I found great comfort in the strong parallels between the startup world and military life. The common characteristics include making informed decisions quickly under pressure, placing teamwork and organization above self, adapting to new challenges, and intense focus on the mission at hand. Beyond the similarities, I found particular strength in the fact that the startup world tends to bring out the best in us. You can't work together under intense conditions without honesty, courage, compassion, and respect.

The strong community of veteran entrepreneurs in Tacoma, Washington all growing up together through the VIBE and Bunker Accelerator programs is truly amazing. With support from local politicians and community leaders that include local Angels and VC, Tacoma is rising to the challenge and providing great solutions for many veterans leaving the military from bases in Washington State. This mix of talent, capital, and infrastructure is supporting many veteran led startups such as Stabilitas, a blue force tracker for corporate employees,Bettery, a revolutionary battery recycling unit in red-box like store front containers, and ChooseVets, an online exchange connecting veterans seeking flexible work with customers seeking reliable workers. Together, we leverage each other’s strengths and challenge one another to achieve greater things.

Today, as the Director of Strategy and Partnerships for ChooseVets, I am thrilled, passionate, and eager to be a part of this journey. I find that the startup world exhilarates like no other experience I've had in the private sector. My years of wandering through the foggy transition process exposed me to a wide swath of knowledge and people that have become critical to my role at ChooseVets. Ultimately, the process of transitioning from the military to the private sector is intimidating,but if you embrace the fog and absorb everything along the way, the fog will lift and you will be better for it.