What's the best advice you've ever gotten from someone in the military?
Army
NCOs
Officers
Mentorship
Advice
To stay financially comfortable:
Live within the means of 1 rank less and 1 yearly pay wage less than what you actually receive. For Example: SSG/E-6 with 10 years. Each month only use what a SGT/E-5 with 8 years makes. SAVE/INVEST the difference, never worry about being strapped for cash when emergencies or big investments come your way.
BG Bosse, great question. My best advice was given to me by a former Platoon Sergeant and First Sergeant of mine (same guy). He has been a great mentor and knows I am a hard-charger and am a standard bearer. I contacted him for guidance on managing a new motor pool. The work ethic was horrible, ordering parts that haven't been verified by effective troubleshooting, no discipline at all, etc. I knew this place needed some straightening out, but didn't know where to start. He told me that "small victories win the battle", the battle was getting everyone on the same page and changing bad habits... We won each victory at a time, and feel confidently that we won the battle as a team. Small victories.
"A Battalion SgtMaj sees a young PFC (E2) marching a Platoon, and thinks he is doing a good job. So he stops the Marine with the intent to praise him. After a quick interaction, the SgtMaj realizes the praise is falling on deaf ears, and asks 'What's wrong?'. The PFC responds 'A Private could do this.'"
The morale of the story was, never assume that it takes a certain rank to accomplish a specific task.
A lot of times we get into the habit of thinking we need a SNCO or an NCO to do X, when in actuality, we just need to get X done, and who actually does it is irrelevant to the task.
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