How I Apply What I Learned in the Marine Corps to the Business World

Starting or running a business is not the romanticized experience you see on TV.? Entrepreneurs don’t wake up refreshed at the crack of dawn, stroll into a glamorous office with a steaming latte in hand, and proceed to shake hands on a life-changing deal—all before lunch (unless you were born into a wealthy family).

In the real world, we are juggling investors, seeking cash-flow, working to meet client expectations, and our time is usually at a frenzied pace. We’re trying to find the time to plan for the future while still making time to perform the work that starts our company or, if already underway, keeps our clients happy, and pays the bills.

We’re trying to figure out how to offer exactly what attracts investors or clients while eliminating what they don’t want. And through all of this, we’re trying to make all the right decisions the first time around.

The bad news is that none of us will?make all the right decisions the first time around.?There will be a lot of trial and error. Even though I’ve made my share of mistakes, I’ve avoided even more because of what I learned?in the most demanding organization ever—the United States Marine Corps. (I also was in the U.S. Air Force. However, that is a very different learning experience, which I will discuss in another article)

First of all, is there a correlation between the Marine Corps and starting or running a business??

Well, consider what is expected of someone entering Marine boot camp.

·??????? An EXTREME level of discipline.

·??????? Learning how to overcome challenges, physical and mental, that most people can’t even imagine.

·??????? Study and learn multiple systems, operating procedures, tactics, equipment, and more.

·??????? Take on leadership situations, sometimes involving life or death, at a very young age.

·??????? Plan and execute our mission under extreme stress (that would crush most people) and consider how your planning affects your squad, platoon, company, even regiment. (sometimes you have to shoot someone in the foot, but that's a separate story)

·??????? Master leadership skills that motivate your troops that do not rely on simply outranking them. (under normal circumstances, people will not perform as needed under extreme stress)

I will safe you the experience of having to go through boot camp to benefit from what you would learn by describing some of the key learnings.? Keep in mind, even though I may try very hard to practice these learnings, there are those you will encounter in the business world who simply want their way and have the rank and power to ignore what you are trying to do.

1. You need a plan

The difference between being proactive and reactive in the Marine Corps is often life or death; in?business?it’s the difference between success or?failure.

Without a plan, it’s easy to waste time, energy, and resources dabbling in every opportunity that comes your way.

If you try to react on the fly, you’ll generally make less effective?choices, so we planned for damn near everything: what to do in an ambush, what to do if separated from the unit while on patrol, what to do if communications went down, etc.

Business application:?Develop a set of plans, starting with the most likely scenarios?working your way down to the least likely. It's a lot more exciting to plan for an angel investor to swoop in and fund your path to becoming a leader in your niche, but it’s?far more likely that you’ll work your ass off to?incrementally increase your income month by month.

2. Your plan will fail

No matter how well-trained you are and no matter how thoroughly you plan, something will always go wrong.

While the consequences are less severe than in a combat situation, your business plans will fail too. Perhaps you developed the perfect communication plan and a few months in, one of your key supporters you were relying on gets cold feet.? An initial investor may back out, a business partner could die, a large company could disclose it will be doing exactly what you planned to do..?There are so many things outside your control that could cause your plans to fail.?You can do everything right and your plans will still fail.

Business application:?Be mentally prepared for your plans to fail and?look at it as an opportunity to learn instead of becoming judgmental of yourself.

3. So you better have a backup plan

The solution is to have a backup plan, and if possible, a backup plan to your backup plan. For example, prior to stepping off for a patrol, we would plan for what to do if separated from our unit. Depending on the circumstances, you might establish radio communication, rendezvous at a previous rally point, rendezvous at a new location, utilize a signal flare, etc.

In business,?you’ll want to?think about what it would look like if a plan failed so you can create a backup plan.

Business application:?Create a backup plan for what you’ll do if your primary plan fails completely. (a Plan B, C, D, E)

4. You can achieve any goal by consistently putting one foot in front of the other

For me, there was nothing quite as miserable as a hump. That’s when you load all of your gear including a 50-100 pound ruck sack, and walk from point A to point B, mostly up the side of a mountain.

How does one complete an ordeal as making it through boot camp? It’s simple, but not easy…take one step at a time. Don’t think about how far you have left to go, instead, focus on the next step. That’s all. Each step is one closer to your goal.

Business application:?Accomplish the most intimidating tasks by breaking them into manageable chunks.

5. You can’t do everything yourself

I don’t care how bad-ass you think you are, you can’t?win the battle alone. Whether covering overlapping fields of fire, hauling a wounded Marine up the side of a mountain, or splitting watch shifts, being a Marine?is a team effort.

Someone?might be a weapons expert, have extensive medical training, or decades of leadership experience, but I’ve never met anyone who can do?everything?at the highest level.

I was?very?effective with an M15, but my first aid skills were?average. I could do amazing things with a radio, but I had no clue how to fly a helicopter. The point is that while you should continually work on improving all of your skills, you should also collaborate with?people who complement your weaker areas.

Business application:?Delegate early and often for maximum growth. If you?don’t trust your employees, or they aren’t capable of performing the tasks, one of two things have happened; either you failed to hire the appropriate employees or you’re have control issues. If you find yourself in this situation, seek the guidance of a business coach or a consultant t to determine which one it is.

6. Discipline matters

If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say “I could have been a Marine,” I would have a nice cando by the beach by now.

No they couldn’t. If someone?wanted?to be a Marine and they were?capable, they would have done it. (Unless they chose to do something equally demanding like become an Army Ranger, Navy SEAL, or Air Force Para Rescue.)

Look, being a Marine takes?a lot?of discipline. It’s cute to think you’re “tough as nails” when you play airsoft in the woods and?then drive to Taco Bell to cram a chalupa before firing up the Xbox, but it takes a very different person to trudge through the swamp in the middle of the night, then lay motionless in the mud for hours being devoured by mosquitoes the size of pigeons while awaiting the opportunity to ambush the bad guys.

Discipline allows you to put your personal wants aside to focus on the mission at hand.

Business application:?Follow through on your commitments no matter what, and always deliver the best work you are capable of. If you say you’ll have a project complete by a certain day, you deliver that project even if it means camping out at the office for the next three days, and never sacrifice quality.?

7. Deal with the situation you have, not the one you want

When you’re trudging through a waist-deep river at?0300 (3am), it’s easy to think about how great things would be if you were warm and dry with a full belly, but that thinking doesn’t change anything. The only thing it does is make you focus on the negative aspects of your situation.

It doesn’t matter what things?might?be like if certain circumstances were different. The only thing that matters is dealing with the situation you have?right now—otherwise it will never change.

Business application:?Instead of thinking about how you want things to be, accept how they are and think about how to continue moving toward your goal from your current situation. Sure, it sucks that your investors or relied upon clients are getting second thoughts, but?instead of being upset about it, figure out where to make up the revenue and start working towards it immediately.

8. You learn the most when you’re at your worst

When everything is going to shit, you have more opportunities to learn something about yourself and others.

You learn very quickly about being a true team player during boot camp when your entire platoon is punished for your mistakes. Your first hump in full gear will teach you more about your own willpower than you could ever imagine. And retention from formal classroom learning is dwarfed by those conducted during field operations when you’re cold, wet, and tired.

We learn more from our adversities and failures than we ever could from our successes, so don’t shy away from them.

Business application:?Look at failure as an opportunity to learn instead of casting blame. Sure, maybe your business partner or investor got cold feet, but there were probably?signs you overlooked?that you can be more aware of in the future. Take some time to cool off, then evaluate the situation with the intent to learn what you can do better next time.

9. You can’t achieve perfection, but you should always strive for it

We used to spend days, sometimes weeks preparing for inspections. Buttons would be polished, uniforms would be starched and pressed, and ribbons would be carefully positioned, but it didn’t matter. They always found something wrong. Perhaps a small thread handing from a pocket, a fingerprint on a belt buckle, or a ribbon that was 1/16th of an inch off.

We still poured time into each subsequent inspection anyway because even though we would never achieve perfection, that attention to detail brought us closer than most people ever would, and it spilled over into all aspects of our lives.

Business application:?Ask each client what you can do to improve your work and use that information to improve the?next time around. You can also look at what your competitors are doing to see how you could?improve your work.

10. Aggressive action can make up for a tactical disadvantage

The outcome of a firefight is often determined in the first few seconds, based on which side achieves fire superiority first. The term for this is “violence of action” which means that you overwhelm the enemy with speed, surprise, and volume of fire, often enabling a smaller force to dominate a larger force.

This concept is most often used when?conducting?or attempting to break out of an?ambush. In either case, weapons are fired at the maximum rate, and explosives, such as hand grenades, satchel charges, and claymore mines are?used to overwhelm the enemy and achieve fire superiority. Once a few enemy are killed or forced to seek cover, the balance of power shifts quickly and exponentially almost immediately.

Business application:?Pick a selling point or product or service niche and DOMINATE it. If your competitor is blogging once a week, blog three times a week, guest post on other websites, and run a LinkedIn campaign driving traffic back to your own blog.?

11. Standard operating procedures exist for a reason

Do you know why we all carried our first aid kit in the same place? So that in the heat of battle or the darkness of night, we could render aid to an injured fellow Marine without having to search for a pressure bandage.

We had standard operating procedures (SOPs) for everything from combat to admin so that anyone could step in and fill a role in the event that someone was unavailable, injured, or even killed.

Just like planning, which I discussed earlier, you should invest the time to develop effective standard operating procedures. It will simplify and streamline daily operations, as well as enable new members to hit the ground running.

Business application:?Develop systems and procedures for your most common tasks, such as acquiring and handling vendors, preparing for clients, or anticipating client requests. Standardized procedures improve efficiency, simplify staff training, and enable you to accurately track performance.

12. Sometimes you have to change things on the fly

While SOPs can be very effective, they can also become a crutch. I’ve seen far too many 2nd lieutenants make things twice as difficult or time-consuming because “that’s the way we do it here.”

Does it really make sense to spend ten minutes trying to establish radio communication with a unit when you’re close enough to use hand and arm signals? In most cases, no, but I saw lieutenants fresh out of OCS do it over and over.? How about sending an email to people down the hallway?

Use your head and feel free to go outside of your SOPs when it makes sense.

Business application:?Don’t be afraid of?unconventional thinking. You don’t have to do things the way you’ve always done them, and you sure as hell don’t have to do them the way anyone else does.?

13. Titles do not?equal competence

I had a Company Commander who showed up hours late to field operations, went home at night while the rest of us slept in the hills, and disappeared when it was time to go on humps. His grasp of tactics was all but guaranteed to get a lot of Marines killed and he lacked any leadership traits.

In short, he was a shit bag who was just there to check a box before transferring back out of the infantry. (All officers must command an infantry company before being promoted from Captain to Major.)

He was the highest ranking person in our unit, but easily the least qualified.

Business application:?Don’t let your role as the CEO or COO go to your head. You are the boss or one of the main bosses, but you still need to hold yourself to the same standards you hold your employees to or you will lose their trust and respect. Also, be prepared to deal with the fact that some employees may be more?knowledgeable?on some aspects of your business than you are. In fact, if you’ve hired properly, that is exactly what will happen.

Good luck!? And if the best that you can do is try to follow these learnings, that may end up making the difference in your eventual success.