Attitude Matters
Regular Force Cadet School, Jan - Dec 1987
Of the eight soldier boys in my barrack room in Waiouru Army Camp I was the only one that wasn’t Confined to Barracks (CB). I was 17 years old and I was existing amongst a proverbial shit show.
CB was an Army punishment that meant your limited spare daily time was taken away from you completely. From the time you woke in the morning to the time your head rested on your pillow the Army owned you. If you weren’t learning or exercising, you were marching or doing pointless tasks. The worst time was the evenings when they made you report to the CB hut and do ‘change parades’.
On one memorable change parade evening my seven CB roommates had been told they were to change into a new uniform within five minutes and get back to the CB hut. It was one of many uniform changes that night and our room was not close to the hut. My mates had already changed out of all of their uniforms and they had moved their lowboys (dressers), tallboys (cupboards), beds and bedding to the CB hut. This was only achievable if they had people in their room ready to help them. If they didn’t make it back in time they would get charged and end up with more CB.
[Being charged meant being marched in front of their Officer Commanding and being formally charged with an offence. The punishment was a minium of 3 consecutive days of CB/hell. The Army did not care how many days you did. Two of my friends spent over 150 days on CB.]
I was the only person available to help seven people… so my dilemma was who do I help? They were all my friends and roommates. Being in that position was worse for me than being on CB.
This sort of think doesn’t happen nowadays, but this was during the Cold War and the Army was a different beast then. Shit happens.
So what did that life experience teach me? It taught me at a very early age to take shit and to be tenacious. No matter how hard it got I decided I would not quit. My determination, stubbornness and pride meant I would graduate.
So what did that life experience teach me? It taught me at a very early age to take shit and to be tenacious. No matter how hard it got I decided I would not quit. My determination, stubbornness and pride meant I would graduate.
Why is this experience relevant? I believe tenaciousness and determination are good qualities to have when starting a small business. You don’t need to go through an extreme experience to succeed, just have a strong commitment to succeed and the grit to make it happen.
Determination doesn’t mean stubbornly sticking to the original plan. You may need to change direction, listen to customers, or rethink what you’re doing. The important thing is not giving up on the goal just because the route changes.
