Episode 5 - James Taulbee - Austerity and Ownership
I just want to get out of the way that many veterans have experienced far more combat than I have. I say that because I don’t want anyone to get the impression that I think I’m some subject matter expert on the matter. But when I experienced someone trying to kill me or someone from my team for the first time, one of the things that have stuck out to me is the loss of control I felt.
Here in the United States or most countries for that matter, even during the most austere times, you have some degree of control. If you’ve witnessed a bad car wreck or if you think there’s someone robbing your house, you can call the police. You’ve handed off the control of the situation to someone else. Someone else becomes accountable for the problem. If your radiator breaks in your car, you pay a mechanic to fix it. You’ve handed off the control of the situation to someone else. Someone else becomes accountable for the problem. If you’ve accidentally dropped a frozen salmon in the garbage disposal along with a half a cup of Brussel sprouts, and your sink gets clogged, as I did, you call a plumber. You’ve handed off control of the situation to someone else. Someone else becomes accountable for the problem.
When I witnessed someone attempt to kill me or a teammate for the first time, among the million thoughts I had, I wondered, who do I relinquish control to? Who will solve this problem? There was no police to call, there was no ambulance, there was no plumber… although I don’t really know what they would do in that situation. I was responsible to help solve the problem. Me and my gun. I was accountable for the situation.
I realized that, at a fundamental level, when things go to shit, I am, or perhaps we are, as a society, conditioned to take the easy way out. Just like someone eating an entire pack of HoHos because they feel sad.
We’re a society that gets what we want when we want it and if we experience a problem that we’re unable to fix, we get someone to fix it for us. I can’t help but somehow feel a connection with this sentiment to what we’re currently experiencing with the coronavirus. A loss of immediacy, a high level of restriction, and our inability to control the situation. There’s not really an easy way out of this. Unless you’re like Jerry Jones and have the ability to do things, like draft NFL players from the comfort of your yacht. Basically, we can’t do what we want when we want it, which is the essence of a combat deployment and an understatement when considering combat itself.
I chatted with a pal of mine who is one of my longest-serving friends and is set to retire soon. He is a wealth of knowledge, initially joining the military as a marine infantryman prior to 9/11, and then moving over to the army in 2006. He owns the best gym that I’ve been a member of. Particularly what makes it so special is the lack of ego, which initially inspired me to frame our conversation around the idea of fostering a first-rate team-culture, but our conversation drifted to ideas about austerity, accountability, and control, and how it relates to the situation we’re currently living in. Today we’re talking to James Taulbee.
