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Stop Asking For Easy
By: Daniel J. Stone, MBA

“Work smarter, not harder!”, my Leading Petty Officer (LPO) would often tell me. Working in the Supply Department of a 5000+ person aircraft carrier and taking on supplies before at-sea periods were gruesome. I was a younger man in those days but these days the weekly visits to the chiropractor remind me of my LPO’s candid advice.

“Stone, before lifting the 6-gallon container of milk off the deck, wait for the conveyor to be in positioned to take the container. It will allow more time on the deck and less time for you to carry.”

I often remember that invaluable piece of advice, “Work smarter, not harder!” and have heard this be said as, “The pathway of the least resistance.” And “The shortest bridge to cross.” While these sayings are all fine and good, there is a fine line to cross which is for someone who looks for the easy way out.

Back in 2008, I was a year removed from a three-year stint on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program where I served as a Language Training Consultant aka “Assistant English Teacher” in Saitama, due north of Tokyo. I was working in a different role in my hometown in the Upstate of South Carolina. I vividly recall having a meeting with the organization’s CEO with my supervisor. We were discussing the rollout of a new municipal multi-million-dollar event center. My supervisor mentioned something to the effect of, “It would be easier if….”. Our CEO stopped her in mid-sentence, “More manageable. Don’t refer to things as being easy, as it sends the wrong message.”

As we celebrate President's Day, I would like to address this message specifically to the active duty service members and new veterans. You will be getting out or you have gotten out recently. While there is plenty of specific and solid advice being given to you in terms of writing the perfect resume which will get you the interview, and how to use the STAR method which will get you the follow-up interview or even the offer, one piece of advice I want to remind you about is to “Stop Asking For Easy.”

When I was in high school, I lettered three years on the varsity football squad. Our coach was from the old school and would work us hard in the preseason before classes started and throughout the season. “If playing football were easy, the entire student body would be out here in the hot and humid South Carolina sun!”, he would bark. When I would talk to my friends at church who played football at different schools, I felt that we were getting the short end because our practices were so long and hard. When I was a senior, we won our conference, a feat only done once before in my school’s history. That was 25 years ago, and that championship season still holds a special place in my heart. Had our rough and tough old-school coach not worked us hard, we would not have beaten the defending state champions on their home field to win our conference championship.

Since earning my honorable discharge back in 1997 after serving four years comprising of two tours of duty to the Persian Gulf, I have seen other veterans go about things in really great ways and some have gone about things in not so good ways. First, I had a shipmate that elected to not participate in the Montgomery GI Bill. The $1,200 investment the first year in the Navy wasn’t something that appealed to him. To me, the GI Bill was one of the biggest reasons as to why I joined the military. The lesson learned was to make sure you are getting the best advice. Not getting the GI Bill was something that he eluded to as one of his biggest regrets years later. Also, make good and sure that you know everything that is available to you before you get out. Wear your honorable discharge like it is a badge of honor, because it is.

Next, after that newly created position with the municipal government back in my hometown dried up due to the Great Recession of 2009, I found myself out of a job. It was a first for me to be sitting on the other side of the table and being told that an organization no longer needed me. I was hurt, embarrassed, and felt cheated since I was so committed to seeing the organization’s goal of having an event center come to pass. I doubled down on my past successes, and applied for a rural mail carrier position in a nearby farming community. The sign at the post office read, “Looking for Veterans to fill rural carrier positions.” The lesson learned from this was to always be preparing for the next opportunity even if you do not know what that opportunity will be or if what you hope and dream for does not come to pass. Two years later, I found myself in Columbus, Ohio, a place that had never crossed my mind on the verge of buying a home. In 2011, buying a home was very strict and probably still is due to the housing market meltdown a few years prior. The home buying application needed to show a current work history long enough to meet the criteria of the home loan, VA home loan of course. In doing so, I had to add those six months at the Post Office as a rural carrier with my current position as a Program Manager of an educational program which satisfied the criteria.

While at the post office, I met another veteran who was new like me. He served in the Army and did so for six years. He regretted getting out since according to him, “Life in the Army was easy. I did next to nothing on most days.” Again, I had that feeling of getting the short end since life as a ship’s company sailor on two different warships was anything but easy, thus is likely the main reason why I never regretted getting out when I did. While my four years in the Navy were some of the hardest work that I ever endured, looking back, the tough lessons learned on the aircraft carrier and guided missile cruiser and the prolonged periods away from the US due to one of the ships being forward-deployed to Japan had my co-worker and I at different stages even though we were roughly the same age. I felt that he was at a disadvantage. He was in his 30s and living at home with one of his family members. He had two children who were staying with family members as well. Before returning to his hometown after getting out, he “lucked up” according to him and got a position in Denver that he really wasn’t qualified for but paid well. Then the Great Recession hit taking that job away forcing him back to his hometown. At the end of the summer, I was giving my two-week notice and accepting a teaching position at Clemson University which was made possible due to my return to Japan on the JET Program, not to luck. My goal was to keep the low-paying rural carrier position as a stop gap opportunity while my fellow veteran co-worker seemed content with the days out in the country smelling the cows and driving his left-wheeled car in a right-wheeled way delivering the mail to the addresses on his route. After an academic year of teaching at Clemson, I was promoted to director of a new program in Ohio. While I didn’t have the easy life in the military, I felt that my fellow veteran co-worker was at a disadvantage since he would rather take the easy approach instead of taking himself out of his comfort zone.

In closing, “If it is to be, it is up to me!” should be your battle cry as you transition from the military to civilian life. Be careful who is giving you the advice, always be asking questions until you are confident that you know all there is to know about transitioning to civilian life, be working towards something even if you do not know for sure what the next opportunity will be, and don’t expect things to be easy. In the end, you will be thankful that things weren’t easy. Furthermore, do not leave things to "luck". If you fail to plan, plan on failing.

Daniel J. Stone is the founder and principal consultant of Two Birds One Stone Learning, (http://www.onestonelearning.com) a tutor dispatching firm based in Columbus, Ohio that caters primarily to the Japanese expats supporting Honda and its suppliers. Daniel's passion for Japan originated from his first tour of duty on the forward-deployed aircraft carrier, USS Independence (CV-62) in Yokosuka, Japan. Daniel seeks to expand his mantra “Taking out two birds with one stone…” to veterans in need of real life experiences when transitioning back to civilian life. He can be contacted at [login to see] .