Douglas James of Amped Local Inc: Life and Leadership Lessons I Learned In The Military

You can’t do it alone — We have teams and people for a reason, understanding that you have to bring people together to get the mission done, understanding this early on will set you apart. For example, on deployment in Naples and putting together the events, it took 100s of people to do that from cooks, to drill team to honor guard, the people of the remembrance ceremony, all the staff. They all needed direction and they needed a leader, for which I volunteered for, but it wasn’t just about them needing me as a leader, I needed them, I needed them to show up, to perform and do their job and I had to be able to show support and give good communication. This transplants to everyday life, when you’re out there trying to get that degree or that new job and you have responsibilities but you need support and people you can lean on, whether its a spouse, friend or family member we all have people we have to lean on to get the job done.

As a part of my series about “Life and Leadership Lessons Learned In The Military”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Douglas James Doherty.

Douglas James owner and CEO of Amped Local Inc began his career in the military, serving in the Navy for 10 years where his deployment to some of the most impoverished places in the world sparked his fire for effecting change. Douglas launched his career as an entrepreneur after the navy and immediately experienced the power of certain digital marketing and advertising techniques and how they can positively impact virtually any business. Today, his business helps everyone from brick and mortar companies to entrepreneurs alike in the digital marketing and paid ads world, from strategies and systems to marketing and coaching. Douglas’ company is an Inc. 5000 Entrepreneur, meaning its is one of the fastest growing companies in the United States today, outside of being an entrepreneur Douglas is a keen philanthropist and is effecting the change he dreamed of in the navy by supporting non profits such as Pencils of Promise, which builds schools for children in Mexico and RIP Medical who help to eradicate veteran medical debt.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a bit about your childhood “backstory”?

I grew up on the north shore of a town called Covington, 30 miles north of New Orleans, Louisiana. I was a C- student at best, I was really bad at paying attention, always getting into trouble and my teachers believed I had ADHD. I couldn’t read for a big part of my childhood and was held back in both 2nd and 7th grade because of it. Not only could I not read, but I was really overweight, at age 15 I was about 260lbs at 5’10”. Overweight and can’t read were a winning combo for being bullied and picked on in school. However, in high school I discovered I could throw and started to play both football and basketball. I also joined the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) and did this through all of high school and managed to lose all the weight. The ROTC had a huge impact on my life and was a big influence on me joining the navy.

And what are you doing today? Can you share a story that exemplifies the unique work that you are doing?

Today I am in the business of internet marketing. I work with brick and mortar businesses like Chiropractors, Attorneys, Dentists for example and help them to generate new customers and clients, using social media and online advertising. My business started going so well, while I was still active duty in the navy that I was making my annual salary in 1 month, this led to a lot of people seeking both my time and attention for training in what I was doing. I therefore set up an online college and training course for people to be able to educate themselves in what I was doing, this however transcended into more programs as people need for more education and more hands on services grew. It all started with an online college to watch and educate yourself, to courses with live instructors and now our latest venture of Done-For-You services, where we do 80% of the work and the client does 20%, over a 90 day period.

This latest venture has been attracting a lot more entrepreneurial type clients, who have money to invest but are able to remain more hands off in the process. Equally, the blue collar workers, such as builders or nurses have been attracted to this offer, allowing them to facilitate a career change and work hands on with our team and have the nuts and bolts of the business taken care of for them. The most recent addition to what my company does is a course we created, based on the fact that people were craving more time and more in person access to me. It is a two day course that we hold at my home, with myself and my executives, we provide training, coaching and support whilst also building out these businesses for people. We also enjoy dinners, drinks and social time with these people, we build such rapport and relationships that I can truly call these people my friends that I believe will last a lifetime and is priceless.

All of these endeavors have ultimately allowed my team and I to make more money and it has therefore opened up other opportunities for us to be able to give back and do good in the world. Being a retired navy veteran I am obviously passionate about helping other veterans. When you are discharged from the military they provide you with a lot of tools on how to go about getting a job or other assets of that nature, but a lot of veterans are not rated correctly on leaving and are unable to get the proper medical care or coverage. Veterans will often have to seek other means to get their medical expenses covered. There is a non-profit called RIP Medical that I am heavily involved in, where every $1 donated will help to eradicate $10 worth of a veterans medical debt.

Another non-profit I give back to is called Pencils of Promise, having visited third world countries on a humanitarian mission in the military and witnessed poverty on a large scale, where there is a distinct lack of resources, I had the privilege of building out schools, hospitals, basketball courts and football fields to name a few with my team. So this one is especially close to my heart and for every $25,000 raised the non-profit will build a school for children in a community in Mexico.

Can you tell us a bit about your military background?

I joined the navy in 2008, went through bootcamp, which was about 2 months and chose to be a corpsman (a nurse’s assistant) after bootcamp, where the training was also about 2 months, all in Chicago, Illinois. From here I went to Bethesda, Maryland to the National Naval Medical Center, which is now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, as part of the Mobile Blood Bank Group. We traveled all over Maryland and Washington DC doing blood drives and collecting blood units for the navy. This was at a time when a war was still going on from 9/11 and there were still a lot of casualties coming in, at this time in Bethesda I got to be a part of a hospital they were starting called the TBI Clinic (Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic) that was a hospital with virtual reality technology designed to help patients overcome TBI.

Bethesda was where I met one of the main and most influential mentors in the military, Chief James Arnold, he was an E7, he is retired now. Chief Arnold was the one who really set the groundwork for me in my growth, ambition and leadership style. I was hungry to grow and be number one, Chief Arnold showed me that there are a lot of opportunities in the Navy outside of just your allotted job or role, that a lot of military personnel in general don’t branch into. He showed me that if you wanted to make rank and progress in the navy you had to seek out other opportunities outside of your main job and do the jobs that others do not want or are not willing to do. To be able to live the life in the military that others don’t get to live you have to be of service to others, you have to volunteer and do the things others won’t and most importantly you have to bring people with you in order to stand out from the rest. Making rank and receiving awards is not solely based on one person’s actions, it takes a team to achieve these things and remembering that was instilled in me by Chief Arnold. Learning these key lessons really set the foundation for me early in my career and allowed me to have success and go to the places I wanted to go in the military. I managed to make Junior Sailor of the Year — E4 (Enlisted 4) in Bethesda after only 2 years in the navy, I was ranked #1 at that hospital out of a few thousand E4s that were stationed there, so it was a huge deal for me and a great achievement.

I was heavily involved in volunteering at this point in my career and I would spend one weekend a month at Sunrise Assisted Living Retirement Home. I usually had to reintroduce myself to people each time I went to volunteer and sometimes even had to reintroduce myself to the same person on the same day, the majority of the people there suffered with Alzheimers. At 20 years old it was an incredibly rewarding and life changing experience for me and highlighted the importance of not being alone as you get older and how key giving back is to that.

From Bethesda I got orders to move on to field medical training with the marines and was training in Jacksonville, North Carolina for about 3 months. I learnt how to do field combat wound dressings, as well as combat out in the fields.

Following Marine training I got orders to go to Lab school in San Antonio for about a year and a half, where I got my associates degree from George Washington University. My job was to analyze any blood samples that came in for any form of illness.

I was then ordered for my first deployment to Naples, Italy, where I was stationed for 2 years. It was definitely a huge culture shock Italians are very different and that being said so are Europeans in general is very different from the U.S. I learnt Italian and immersed myself into learning about the culture. It taught me a lot and was definitely where I came into my own in terms of leadership and management. When you’re in the military the military becomes your family, especially when on deployment and something that the personnel very much look forward to is the Corpsman Ball that includes all (4–10) of the stations, not just your one station, so it is a couple thousand people. I stepped up into a management position of these balls and was in charge of coordinating food, music, equipment and remembrance ceremonies. This is where I excelled as the go to guy for events in Italy and in total put on two corpsman’s balls and one naval ball. It was an incredible experience, not only for the awards and accolades I received but also and mainly because the people I met and worked with out there were some of the most incredible people I have ever met in my life.

From there I then received my orders to go to San Diego, California where I still reside, ultimately I was there for 6 years when I finally got out of the military. I was stationed at the Naval Hospital Balboa, working in the labs and was currently at an E5 rank. I quickly volunteered for deployment on a humanitarian mission where I was stationed in Papua Neuguinea for 7–8 months. This deployment was life changing for me, being in a third world country and being able to give back, quickly made me realize that I wanted to be able to progress and make more money so that I could not only give back more money but also give back my time. Whilst on deployment I got capped to an E6 rank, only a small number of people get capped each year, I had only been in the military for 5 and a half years at this point, it normally takes 12 years on average to reach this level. This was a huge accomplishment for me and I was now in a high leadership role more than ever. A huge contributing factor to this was about taking care of the people around me and following a philosophy that I focus on in my business going forward and instill in my company — take care of yourself first, so that you are whole, happy and healthy, when you show up as those things in your life you can then show up for others and take care of the people around you.

After that deployment I found internet marketing, I still had three years left of my contract, so I finished out my contract while still building my business ready for when I was discharged with just over 10 years of service.

Can you share the most interesting story that you experienced during your military career? What “take away” did you learn from that story?

There are so many amazing moments, it makes it hard to just pick one. I think the best moment that is worth sharing is the moment that was the catalyst to me becoming an entrepreneur. While on deployment in Roja City in the Philippines, I was there to provide medical attention to anyone who got injured on the mission. We built a whole school, six buildings in total, a soccer field, basketball court, garage and shed. On the very last day we came back to the site to drop off supplies, text books, note books, pens, crayons etc and as we approached the site I just remember hundreds and hundreds of kids running up to us, hugging our legs and thanking us. It was honestly one of the most humbling and gratifying experiences of my life. To put in so much work and to be so tired and to get through it, but to then see them there and experience their joy was truly transformational. My biggest take away from this experience, money is great and money provides opportunity, but most people don’t have money and a means for the opportunities, so it’s important to remember to give, if you give you will receive. Giving back is truly important.

I’m interested in fleshing out what a hero is. Did you experience or hear about a story of heroism, during your military experience? Can you share that story with us? Feel free to be as elaborate as you’d like.

When working in Bethesda, I was working on a ward at the time where a lot of patients were recovering from the war going on during 08/09 time, coming back from the middle east. I was doing rotations for about a month at a time there, a marine who was at the end of his recovery was opening up to me about his story and why he was there. He was in a convoy with about 4–5 Humvees and an MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected Vehicle) A tank with a V shaped bottom that would essentially go ahead and sweep for IUDs and when it would travel over them and they would detonate out and away from the vehicle, protecting the people inside and paving the way for the rest of the convoy. Their convoy was about 30–40 military and they were attacked by about 30–40 enemies, the marines best friend got hit and injured in the midst of the combat and was exposed. The marine took off under fire and exposed himself to go out and save his team mate, they were both shot multiple times but made it to cover and were extracted from the battle safely. His team and convoy were able to defeat the enemy and win the battle but the marine and his team mate were in critical condition. I had heard of multiple stories of that nature second hand from people but never had I heard a story like that, in such detail from the person that was there first hand. To hear it in such detail from him live and to be a part of him and his friend surviving was incredible and it goes back to love, love and care is what it takes to be a hero, you will put yourself in harm’s way for the people you love and care about. He went on to be decorated for his actions and deservedly so.

Based on that story, how would you define what a “hero” is? Can you explain?

A hero is someone who is willing to put someone else’s life in front of their own life. In extreme fear and danger, being able to sacrifice your life for someone else’s life is the pinnacle of being a hero. There are many forms of being a hero and it is not all about being on the front lines and sacrificing yourself for others, there are heroes in all aspects of the mission, no matter how big or small the role. We are all heroes if we are all actively involved and engaged in the same mission, there are just different levels of sacrifice involved. When you’re on the front lines with fire going overhead and your teammates are wounded, it takes a lot more power and will to pull someone out of the line of fire knowing ultimately you could lose your life.

Does a person need to be facing a life and death situation to do something heroic or to be called a hero?

A person definitely does not need to be facing a life or death situation in order to be called a hero, as I mentioned heroes come in all shapes and sizes, big or small. The ultimate goal in the military and in any mission is peace and to achieve that peace it takes many people working together. We want deployments to be avoided if possible but ultimately we will do what is necessary to protect other people’s freedoms.Whether it’s the guy in the lab, the admin staff or the front liners we are all working to push the mission forward and they are all heroes. You don’t have to be the top brass to be a hero, you can be the guy pushing the broom and getting your job done and still be a hero.

Based on your military experience, can you share with our readers 5 Leadership or Life Lessons that you learned from your experience”? (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Automatically humble yourself and don’t assume you know everything and you do not have all the answers — Taking my first advancement exam, testing my knowledge to show I am ready to move up in rank, when it was time for me to go up for my E4 exam I didn’t study at all, because I believed with all the training they provided, I was just out of corps school and it was all the same material on the test that I didn’t need any extra study and I had it in the bag. Needless to say, I failed that exam horribly. You can’t assume to know everything and you always have to continue to prepare yourself, you have to prepare yourself even if there is no test. Things happen in life where you have to take action and there is no written exam for it. Can you step up and handle those moments and deal with the pressure and make the best educated decision or are you going to blow yourself up.
2. You can’t do it alone — We have teams and people for a reason, understanding that you have to bring people together to get the mission done, understanding this early on will set you apart. For example, on deployment in Naples and putting together the events, it took 100s of people to do that from cooks, to drill team to honor guard, the people of the remembrance ceremony, all the staff. They all needed direction and they needed a leader, for which I volunteered for, but it wasn’t just about them needing me as a leader, I needed them, I needed them to show up, to perform and do their job and I had to be able to show support and give good communication. This transplants to everyday life, when you’re out there trying to get that degree or that new job and you have responsibilities but you need support and people you can lean on, whether its a spouse, friend or family member we all have people we have to lean on to get the job done.
3. Communication — If you’re not telling people what you need from them and why you need it from them you will never get what you want. Communication Is the number one downfall in most people’s endeavors because our egos usually get in the way. An example of learning about communication in my military career would be working in the labs, it was a late night 2am-3am shift. I received a blood sample from a baby. A mum had just given birth and they would take blood for us to figure out the baby’s blood type. I would write down the baby’s blood type on the vial, bearing in mind that not all communication is verbal, then we would put the blood types into the system. The baby’s blood came back as A+ but when I reported it I reported it as A-. It took about an hour for the blood type to be corrected, the reason that it was finally corrected was due to my supervisor and all of the checks they have to do when coming into their shift of all the entries into the system. She luckily caught the mistake and was able to report the correct blood type to the doctor. This just highlights that if you don’t communicate effectively it could be the difference between life or death. If that baby had needed a blood transfusion in that hour and was given the wrong blood type based on my communication error, that baby would have lost its life. Naturally, I felt horrible at my mistake, but I picked myself up and I learned from it.
4. Have pride in your work and attention to detail — Doing something solely for a paycheck is important, sometimes times are tough and you have to take care of your family and put food on the table. But if you want to truly be successful in life you have to take pride in what you do and always put your best foot forward. When you show up and always work to the best of your ability it says a lot about your character. An example of this was when I was in the military, I was at a point in my career where I had zero responsibility, I had to show up and stick needles in people’s arms and take blood. No leadership, no responsibilities. I set myself apart in this role as the guy that always showed up early and the guy that stayed late, I became the face for every person donating blood and made sure they always felt welcomed and comfortable. I was seeking out opportunities to make it the best experience for others and adding value to their experience. This resulted in 5* feedback and people mentioning me by name, which led to me becoming the blood drive team leader at the age of 21. This in turn led to our blood drive unit being the number one supplier of all blood on the east coast. One unit of blood can save four people’s lives, and we were taking 100s of units of blood a day, which would save thousands of lives. My leaders saw my work ethic around the job I was doing and opened up more opportunities for me. If you want to stand out in life you have to step out and do something other than just your job.
5. Don’t Quit — No matter what you do in life there will always be mountains to face, once the going gets tough most people will surrender but the journey is the dream and the target is always moving, once you reach the top of that mountain you are in fact just at the base of the next mountain. If you quit you are robbing yourself of the legacy you could leave behind. I would see so many military personnel that would not do the things they needed to, not do things that served them, not preparing themself for the job, for the exam to make rank, they would not focus their time on things outside of their job to progress. Many would stay E4s-E5s for a long time, with no vision. You can’t just work the hand that’s given to you in order to progress, you have to go out and build your own deck. When you join the military in your late teens early 20s and are away from your families, younger people can go out and be reckless and live in euphoria, but I saw so many people get kicked out that way. Many tried to avoid deployments, they wanted to put their life first and to avoid putting their lives in the line of danger. There is no judgment there, we all have to take care of ourselves ultimately, but deployment didn’t always mean front lines, danger and lives on the line. As I mentioned before I went on a humanitarian mission, I didn’t pick up a gun once and it was one of the most transformational and rewarding experiences of my life. I ultimately didn’t go on more deployments due to funding or the mission being shut down. If you don’t take risks someone else will step in and take the opportunity from you and you will be left in your small bubble with everything the same.

Do you think your experience in the military helped prepare you for business? Can you explain?

I believe one hundred percent that the military helped prepare me for business. I am a firm believer that you do not always need formal training to get into business, you need a strong work ethic. The military definitely taught me about leadership and how to utilize it to get in front of people. That’s how you build companies, you build it based on believing in a mission and a vision and that’s how the military operates, you inspire people to believe in a mission and a vision with you. Having a mission and a vision drives you forward and if you can ultimately align and partner yourself with the right people that share in your vision you can build a business. When you find those people that share those same beliefs with you, that’s where the true magic happens.

As you know, some people are scarred for life by their experience in the military. Did you struggle after your deployment was over? What have you done to adjust and thrive in civilian life that others may want to emulate?

With over 10 years in the military you definitely see and hear people’s struggles, things that are extremely disturbing that you don’t and wouldn’t want to see in everyday life. I absolutely experienced PTSD and the biggest thing I learnt from it is you can’t do it alone. Always seek help, we don’t have all the answers even though we might think we do.

When you’re in the military you have the luxury of a paycheck every month, with added bonuses, whether you are at home or deployed. But when you are out of the military and in the civilian economy you don’t have that certainty of a government paycheck anymore. In the civilian economy there are layoffs and businesses closing down, the military does not prepare you for civilian life and you have to seek out getting prepared and ask for help. I was proactive in my military life and had the follow through to seek professional help, things aren’t just going to land in your lap and be given to you, you have to create your own opportunities in life.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Crypto currencies and NFT’s (Non-Fungible Tokens) are things that are becoming very hot right now. According to Google trends, more people are interested in NFT’s right now than they are crypto, not to say that crypto doesn’t have a following, just more people are following NFT’s. I do believe that crypto and NFT’s are going to become a part of our everyday lives and conversations in the next 5–10 years and with that said, becoming an early adopter of these technologies early on will allow you to get ahead of that herd.

The project that I am currently working on involves NFT’s and giving people a better option than just putting all of their money into a 401K, IRA or even stocks and day trading. Stocks and day trading are very risky, just as day trading crypto is very risky. When you look at yields for investments like this, for a savings account it is generally 0.2%, but other yields, including real estate, are generally around 5–10% APY (Annual Percentage Yield). In today’s economy those are acceptable returns, however, when you look at inflation that is happening in today’s world, the reality is you are actually losing 10–15% of your dollar value each year, so year over year you are technically not making any money on your retirement investment and actually losing around 5–10%. Over these last few years I have learned a lot about crypto and decentralized finance, and what I like about this form of finance is that it essentially gives you the opportunity to be the bank. The bank will take your money and loan it out to other people and for that privilege you earn a 0.2% interest rate on your money from the bank, but with crypto you are the bank and you are fronting a liquidity that gives you a lot more freedom. The returns are much higher than your usual APY’s, because there are less users, so anyone can earn anywhere from 20% and in some cases up to 70% return on their investment.

This current project involves a technology, whereby it allows people to purchase an NFT, this NFT on your end will look like a typical digital .jpg but it is actually written on the blockchain, an indisputable ledger, one which cannot be changed, it is what all crypto transactions are reported and recorded on. The person buying into this program will own the NFT and all funds will be transferred into a business treasury account, which we will use in a decentralized banking system and will produce anywhere from 20–70% in interest. Distributions will be paid out every 90 days, however due to compounding interest, I believe people will leave their money in the treasury year on end and let the account build rather than cash out every 90 days, as returns will be much higher. Especially with this predominantly being a retirement funds based program, normally you would not withdraw your money early on as you affect your total gains over time. However, unlike a traditional 401K where you have to pay a penalty when withdrawing funds early, here you do not have to pay a penalty. The beauty of this project is that it’s not only a potential 401K/retirement opportunity for people, it’s also a possibility to earn passive income and just hold something that will earn compounding interest and if they wish to cash out every 90 days, they can with no penalty incurred. I’m incredibly excited about this project and really believe it’s going to be a big game changer.

What advice would you give to other leaders to help their team to thrive?

People in general want to feel empowered to do their job, most leaders are micro managers and intrusive, which takes away the employees opportunity to do their job to the best of their ability. People ultimately want to feel that their job is theirs and be able to show up and do it effectively. My leadership style is to trust and give space and then to verify the work that has been done. When a person is empowered to feel like the job has been their decision they show up effectively. This is very much how I run my company today.

What advice would you give to other leaders about the best way to manage a large team?

When you are dealing with a smaller team or company it is usually much easier to show up and show their face on the floor. When you are looking at larger teams, let’s say over 50 people or so, leaders tend to mess up because they want to hide behind a desk and computer and they only want to communicate with one person. But being seen is key, leaders need to make the effort to be seen and be available to their team, they are most effective when they can keep the bigger mission in mind but still get down in the trenches and have a conversation with even the lowest person on the totem pole. People truly want to feel that their leader is both personable and reliable, when they feel those things it gives them pride in their job, their leader and their company.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Obviously a huge influence in my success was Chief James Arnold and I would not be where I am today without him. I would, however, like to give a shout out to someone else that was a significant individual in my career Andrew Pomer, he was my commanding officer in Naples. He was the one who recognized my work ethic directly, he supported the crazy ideas I had while deployed in Naples. An example of this is the fitness program in the military, twice a year you have to go through a physical fitness test to make sure you are up to scratch to being in the military and a lot of personnel would always struggle to reach their goals. Typically there was about an 80% pass rate of the physical test and lots never made the cut to stay in the navy. I decided to bring in a program to help people and start incentivizing people to reach their fitness goals. The program was called the H2H program and it effectively turned fitness into a gaming and points and reward system, people could win gifts and prizes by hitting their goals with points. The years that this program was in effect the military saw roughly a 97% (it’s been a while since I have been in the military so I don’t remember exact numbers) pass rate of the physical test. Commanding Officer Pomer loved the program so much that he funded the program with $10,000 of his own money. The program even got pitched to the naval medicine division, I don’t think that it unfortunately ever made it as a naval wide program, regardless I had the blessing of a CO of the hospital who believed in me. It takes really amazing human beings to create new opportunities and get the mission completed. Those types of people are leaders that are just on another level from the rest, they see the bigger picture to help people along the way and to leave a legacy behind them. CO Pomer and I are very much still in touch and we had such a close working relationship that it always felt like a friendship and for that I am truly grateful.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I am only one man and there are so many people in the world I want to do good for, but if I can touch and change one person’s life for the better it will have all been worth it. The main thing that Iwant to bring to this world is that we are all capable of more and we can always do better. People in general have a lot of trauma and it takes courage to move past it and seek out help. It’s not always financial help that people need, money is the easiest part to the equation, more money can always be made and with more money comes more opportunities, which of course is great. The biggest thing though, is what are people going to be saying about me, what is my legacy?

My friend and I worked on a ward together taking care of a patient, she was at the end of her life and no one ever came to visit her, on her deathbed she got no love and her last words to my friend in an empty room, where I could hear were that she had made a lot of bad decisions in her life and burned many bridges. She confessed her sins to god and told him how grateful she was to him for being there in her last moments. Just being there for people, even in my success and contributing both my money and my time are how I want to spread goodness in the world.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I think if there is a key thing to be taken out of this interview it is about legacy and what people leave behind, I hope that what I am saying will speak to people’s hearts and have an impact on their change. The simple facts are that no one is getting out of this life alive and all you really have is your name, this tells you everything you really need to know. Not only do I want people to look back at everything I have accomplished in my lifetime and everything associated with my name, I want people to be able to look back at the people around me and what they were able to accomplish also. As I mentioned previously, people are capable of so much more, there is greatness inside of everyone and everyone needs to take the time to find it with them and they need to share it. I think specifically to this question though what I would share as a movement is stop being afraid of what you share with people and what you bring to the table, stop being afraid if things are well received or not. Just because what you share inside of you, isn’t a topic that resonates or fits with one person, does not mean it’s not a topic or fit that won’t resonate with someone else, you just have to find your people. If you touch at least one person in your lifetime, well then mission accomplished in my books. You never know whos listening to what you’re sharing or whose life it might save one day, the cleaning lady in the hotel on her way to clean the next room over hears you telling a friend something that has a profound affect on her and stops her from committing suicide and makes her want to stick around for her two daughters. This was also true for my navy career and I know of a handful of instances where something profound was said in passing to someone else and it prevented someone from committing suicide. Even if you beleive what you have to share is dumb or stupid, it will land on the right ears and you could change someone’s life, without ever knowing it.

In conclusion, always share it would be the movement I believe would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Nobody remembers the person that quit”

This is relevant to me because everything I have done up until this point I have failed at, I didn’t always hit it right off the bat, something always broke, I lost trust with someone, I didn’t complete something. I wasn’t always great at doing things in the most effective way possible, life and goals often change and we always have to pivot and change direction. I didn’t always hit the goals that I wanted to and especially not as easy as I wanted to, but I didn’t quit.

At any moment in your life you could get devastating news and no matter how much you prepare for those moments, have the right resources, there will always be an unexpected challenge. You have to be able to adapt, pivot and change direction in life in order to be successful. People don’t remember the quitters.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them :-)

There are many interesting people in the world to me and so many I would love to sit down to lunch with, but right now someone that is of great interest to me is Elon Musk. Elon Musk does a few things that sets him apart from others and one is not being afraid to speak his mind despite what others say or the government might think. In my opinion he currently is having the greatest impact on humanity and I would love the opportunity to get closer to him and talk more about his life views, his newest technologies, his stand point on sending people to live on another planet and getting people ready and in the right mindset for this to be an acceptable reality.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!