From Fighter Pilot to Entrepreneur

I kicked off my newsletter series with a heavy hitter right out the gate. Trust and teamwork are obviously essential to the Thunderbirds and any successful team. This week, I want to give you a bit of perspective on why I chose to stop flying F-16s and become an entrepreneur. I think it's important you all understand what drives me and why I made such a surprising leap!

At 24 years old, I had achieved a goal I had worked toward for over five years. I was a fighter pilot! Against the odds, I had done it. And once I got there...I felt completely in over my head. I suddenly struggled to succeed for the first time in my life. It turned out there was a lot more to being a fighter pilot than just flying the jet. The technical aspects and tactics were complicated.

I felt like an imposter.

I was sure everyone else was better than I was and knew more than I did. There was a good portion of my first assignment where I would have walked away if that were an option. I found myself stuck in my own head and consumed by my self-doubt. The amount I needed to learn was so overwhelming that I avoided it by procrastinating. I was scared to raise my hand when I had a question, because I didn't want anyone else to discover how little I knew. These reactions only made the problem worse.

In hindsight, this response to adversity was so flawed. I had never truly experienced failure, I hadn't developed grit, and my identity was wrapped up in my achievements. It took me that entire three-year assignment to take ownership for where I was at and decide that only I could change it.

The move to my next base acted as a catalyst for change. I made a promise to myself that I would stop letting my self-doubt and fear of failure control every decision. Previously, many opportunities had come up that I was drawn to but had stopped myself from pursuing because of the risk of failure that came with them. I made a commitment to start saying ''yes" to those from then on.

My question to you is: how do you become your own catalyst for change? Taking that leap can be intimidating, but if you take charge of the things that are in your control like preparation and planning, putting in the work, leveraging your network, and controlling how you react to adversity, you will find you are capable of much more than you realize.

Over the next 18 months, I started running marathons, got into technical mountaineering, traveled to Nepal by myself to trek to Everest Base Camp with a group of strangers, deployed for the first time, and spent a summer instructing in Poland. I started to grow an Adventure Mindset...one of curiosity, openness to new things, and a completely fresh perspective on failure. The voice of doubt was still there, but I didn't let it control my decisions and actions.

This was the result:

-Confidence

-Grit

-Resilience

-Perspective

-A desire to fail forward

That decision to change my mindset completely changed my trajectory. That change is what made me even consider applying to be a Thunderbird. It was something that had popped into my mind from time to time, but I had never set it as a goal because I didn't think I was good enough. Applying to the team is intimidating and there is a good change of not getting hired, of failure.... but I did get hired.

The three years on the team was the most fun flying of my career. My time in that role was coming to an end after the 2021 season regardless of what I was going on to do next. After some reflection on that last 13 years, I realized the thing I found the most rewarding was the ability to inspire people that I suddenly had as a Thunderbird. I was told by others again and again how they could never do what I was doing and that I must be so brave. I realized I was meeting people all the time that struggled with the things that I did during my first assignment. I also realized I was in a unique position to use my own story and what I had learned to empower others. Upside Down Dreams was born.

My passion is to inspire individuals and teams to make bold decisions, empower them to face fears, and help them find inner strength to reach their true potential. I do that through keynote speeches and via content creation on LinkedIn. In the works are online coaching programs for personal development, and in person corporate leadership coaching. I'm just getting started! Subscribe to this newsletter, follow me on here, and click the bell in the upper right corner of my profile to get notified when I post daily. I spend time right after I post engaging in the comments so comment early and I'll answer your questions.