Preface: Ten Veteran Lessons for Every Day

Topic: Leadership

Ten Veteran Lessons For Every Day

By Capt. Seth Keshel

Preface

            I haven’t worn a military uniform in nearly eight years.  I left the active Army in December 2013 and mustered enough enthusiasm to drill with the Reserve for six months before entering the inactive ranks.  I had all the military experience at that point that I have today, but only now am I able to harness those lessons and explain clearly how the best ones are applicable in daily living.

            The active military lifestyle is best described as a blur, short on sleep and time at home, and long on physical distance, monotony, and expectations to perform.  The days drag on, but in retrospect, months disappear as if they were mere breaths.  Military leaders are so busy putting out metaphorical fires that they are unable to reflect on the valuable life lessons accumulated through simple membership in the profession of arms.

            One of the driving forces behind my exit from the service was our continued national involvement in unwinnable wars.  I realized halfway through my tour in Afghanistan that my twenties and thirties would be consumed by going back and forth from Afghanistan, with our national leaders failing to outline any clear objectives for winning the war there.  That, combined with a very timely reading of Ron Paul’s Liberty Defined, hastened my exit.  Nonetheless, I still consider service in the military to be the crucible of leadership, a time of testing without equal.

            It is my strong belief that the epidemics of veteran depression, hopelessness, and suicide stem from a sense of lost purpose in having sacrificed so much, whether in death of friends, personal injury, lost relationships, or mental anguish, while watching our country self-destruct from within.  I believe that veterans are the ones baptized to lead our nation out of this period of great despair, and when they look within and return to their baptisms under fire, they will realize that they have trained on a leadership platform like no other.

            Battle-tested military leadership principles and lifestyle habits have great impact in the civilian world when properly deployed and effectively implemented.  While one may find no benefit in physically outrunning peers in a sales organization, the competitive spirit fostered in military service offers a strong advantage to the one who learns to maximize his time and energy.  The seemingly unconquerable challenges faced in a battlefield thousands of miles away provide a can-do attitude for conquering the operational challenges found in our fast-paced economy.  The interpersonal leadership challenges faced by all officers and NCOs translate both in the workplace, and with family members and friends in everyday life.

            I hope you get as much out of these lessons as I have in identifying them over the years, and that they give you a clear advantage as you face the challenges of a world moving at warp speed.

Capt. Seth Keshel

March 2022