After yesterday’s email, I had quite a few people ask me to talk about my Army experience more. To be honest, I’ve purposefully NOT done that because it just seemed sort of cliche and banal.
But…
If people are finding it helpful, I’ll give it a try.
Depending on how you respond I may do more.
Anyway, when I was in Iraq, I was stuck on the teeniest of teeny camps. It was 300 yards wide by 1 mile long. For comparison, Camp Victory, which was right next door to us was 20 square miles.
And, in the year I was there, we had 1159 mortar rounds land inside our walls.
If you can imagine a Google map just covered in pins…
That’s what the “mortar map” looked like.
In fact, the camp was nicknamed “Mortaritaville”.
Every square foot of the camp had a mortar round land on it at one time or another. Which, as you can imagine, was terrifying. Every day, you woke up and knew that your walk to the bathroom or shower or chow hall could be your last.
And, there was nothing you could do about it.
Anyway, the closest I ever came to “getting it”, I was just leaving the warehouse I ran while I was there. I got about 20 feet outside the warehouse and the camp sirens started going off.
There happened to be a CONEX box just a few feet away.
So, I dove on the ground and crawled up next to the side of it.
Good damn thing, too.
Because, the mortar rounds started landing just on the other side of it. And, they slowly started walking back closer. The last few rounds hit right next to the other side of the 8 ft. box. I could hear the shrapnel pounding up against it.
I was sure more rounds were coming…
And, were going to land on my head.
But, the biggest mistake you can make is to get up and run.
That’s asking to get hit.
So, I just laid there waiting.
That was my life for the year I was there. But, it taught me something that I’ve used literally every day since… and I credit for the majority of any success I’ve achieved since. And, that’s the ability to endure, be patient and stay focused…
Even when everything around me seems like it’s falling apart.
When I got back and was bouncing from job to job. When I felt like my wife would leave me at any second because I was a loser. When, I started do this coding thing and was terrible at it. Hell, even now, as I’m living and working in the same building while we build our house.
The ability to persist…
And, keep focused…
And, just keep moving forward…
Most of that came from my time in Iraq.
Anyway, I don’t think you necessarily need to go to a war zone to develop that ability, but you do need to KNOW just how important it is. In some ways, it’s everything. Because, no matter what you do… you’ll face adversity.
How will you react?
Cut tail and run?
Or, stick in there and keep grinding.
That’s something only you can answer.
Of course, you don’t need to go it alone when it comes to the adversity you’ll face in building your web development career. That’s what I’m here for and I’ve got a whole curriculum to help you fast-track down that path.
And, you can get access to it for nothing over on SkillShare.
All the details on that are here: https://www.skillshare.com/r/user/johnmorris
BUT…
Know, there will be challenges, doubts, fears and lots of hard work.
Your ability to PERSIST will determine how far you go.
Later,
John
