Be yourself…we’ve all heard that or some other version of that but what speaks to me more specifically is to have confidence in your own unique style.
This next lesson came a bit later in my career but was at a pivotal time and this lesson still gives me confidence every day especially when it comes to finding my way with this new YouTube channel.
In 2010, I was hired to be the Senior Intelligence Officer for the Department of Homeland Security in Chicago. This was part of the nation’s response to 9/11 and we would be providing federal assets to the state and local level, which was not done effectively before. This was a huge step in my career in a very high-profile job in a very high-profile city.
The environment I walked into was this: my first day on the job, my boss, welcomed me by saying, “Welcome to Chicago, the easiest place to get fired from other than NYC.” Additionally, while I may have been born in Buffalo, NY, I grew up in Florida and I’m a southern boy at heart and have a bit of an accent, so I am an outsider to Chicagoans…but being from the south was not the biggest issue to overcome. I was a federal intelligence officer in the Chicago Police Department. If you know anything about Chicago politics, the city, the county, and the state don’t necessarily like each other, but what they all have in common is that none of them necessarily like Feds. As a matter of fact, the senior Chicago Police Commander I worked with, and who could easily have had a hand in firing me, says to me suspiciously in my welcome brief, “Are you one of us, or are you just living among us?”
So in the most intense and career defining position I had to that point, I started out at less than zero with my co-workers and my boss warning me not to get fired immediately. Great first day…no pressure.
At the same time, one of my fellow DHS peers took over in Milwaukee. Same job, same mission, different city. We were peers in about every sense, same age, same background, both Army boys from the country, but this other guy was a big-time personality. Big country boy over 6 feet tall and about 260 lbs with a loud voice and a take charge attitude. I am more laid back contrasted with this and Milwaukee is a much different city than Chicago but generally speaking, we had to accomplish the same mission and were going about it two different ways.
Not long after we started, I went to a table top exercise he hosted with about 100 federal, state and local officials. I was impressed by how he was totally in charge and had the local folks listening to his direction. This blew me away….there was NO WAY I could act like that in Chicago…NO WAY. Could I? Should I? How would I even go about it? I am barely even trusted. I began wondering if I was failing by not being more of a take charge personality. I had no idea…but I started to have doubts about my own methods and effectiveness given what I had just seen.
Going back to my early Army days and sports before that, I always believed in myself and thought I had good leadership traits but at this time I was not worried about leading, I was too busy just trying to fit in, navigate political minefields, gain confidence of co-workers, be effective in my mission…and of course…not get fired.
I have learned in many instances that it takes time, hard work, and facing adversity together to build trust and develop lasting relationships. Slowly over time, I put in the work and showed consistency in my work ethic and proved myself to my co-workers. We became a more trusting team, leveraged each other’s skill sets and after winning a few battles as a team, I began to realize I was in fact, becoming regarded with respect. This was not an overnight process and took many months or even years to get where I had once felt bad about not being immediately. But it was earned in time.
I was in Chicago for 3 and a half years. During my time there we accomplished many things together, and achieved many successes, some of which had never been done before within the Intelligence Community. When it came time for me to leave and take a new position back in DC which was a promotion earned on the merits of my time in Chicago, many people were asking me to stay and even in subsequent years reached out and offered for me to return. Given where I started, that was quite the accomplishment, and I am very happy with how that career opportunity worked out. I developed a great network of friends and colleagues and to this day regularly keep in touch with a lot of friends in Chicago and throughout the mid-west.
Respect was earned not given and ultimately I learned to trust myself and the skills that got me there in the first place. Certainly I did adapt traits and skills I witnessed in others that was successful, but even when I did, I adapted and used them in my own particular manner and fashion. This gave me the ultimate confidence in myself, and this is what I am relying on as I build the Go Fast Life Brand. There is no time limit, and my way is the right way.