Not For The Weak or Fainthearted | Part I

You see a sign as you drive up to the U.S. Army Ranger School, located under the direction of the Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia. It says, "Not for the week or faint-hearted." This sign is not designed to instill confidence but to discover character and mental toughness. What is true of Ranger School is true also of Entrepreneurship and Senior executive leadership in the 21st Century. Why, you ask? In essence, mindset is the determining factor in leadership. 

Mental toughness is required. It takes guts to make things happen when the going gets tough. When you ask most Rangers what made them successful at completing the world's most challenging leadership development and small unit tactics crucible experience… most will say it was "the decision to become a Ranger or be carried out on a stretcher." Easy to say, but not easy to do. 

Mental toughness, it follows, is the secret to sustained high performance. Managing time is the key to high performance. Time management is essential, but it results from mental toughness and discipline. One of the most critical Ranger leadership principles is to "seek and take responsibility for your actions ."Navy SEAL Jocko Willink calls it "extreme ownership ."He is not wrong. The victim mindset is the opposite of this.

There's a season in my life when I spent a lot of time with a particular family, one blessed to be one of the wealthiest in America. Unfortunately, the patriarch, whom they all loved deeply, had passed away years before our meeting and way before his family hoped. He was a man who was a noted leader, and the reputation of his prowess and business acumen were unparalleled. If I were to tell you his name, you would recognize it quickly from his commercials on television. I had one quiet moment with his widow where I asked her what was the secret of his success. She mentioned that, although he'd always been a hard worker and had always provided well for his family, it was only in the 8th business attempt that he was majorly successful.  But of course, that business was so successful that everyone thought him to be an overnight success from one project. No, she said, many projects had to be scrapped along the way. 

I first learned this idea professionally in Army leadership training when one of our instructors noted that the famous Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken had been turned down over 40 times with his business idea. What if he'd set a goal of just trying this business plan 39 times? Decidedly, endurance, which is an output of mental toughness and character, created one of the best chicken recipes of all time.