Flying in the Face of Fear

EPILOGUE: CALL TO ACTION

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

—Theodore Roosevelt

FINDING MY “WHY”

One day after flying a close air support mission in Iraq in 2003, I came back to the operations building to find a note from a group of soldiers who had stopped by to see me. The note, scribbled on a piece of paper, simply said, “Thank you. You saved our ass.”

That note meant more to me than anything else. I didn't need anything more than that. I loved my job and the mission and people we were tasked to support. For me, it was all about service to our troops on the ground and helping them get home safely. I had found my purpose and my passion.

Simon Sinek talks about the importance of this concept in his follow‐on book, Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering ...