If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you will notice that the ticker under “Blog Stats” gained another digit on the left. This week, the blog reached 350,000 total hits! I want to take this milestone as an opportunity to thank you for your support since this website kicked off — to everyone who’s read, shared, liked, and commented on articles. As a reminder, you can make your guest post submissions using the following link.

For the 50 most recent posts, click here. For the complete archive of articles, click here. You can also view all interviews or transcripts.

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Next update will come at the one million mark.

A few days ago, I visited my brother’s condo in downtown Columbus where he had a copy of The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness sitting on the coffee table. When we asked him about the book, he described Naval as “one of the wisest people alive,” which is as glowing an endorsement anyone could give an author. I don’t always act on book recommendations, but this week I decided to take my brother up on one of his favorites.

The Almanack of Naval Ravikant is unique in that it addresses both wealth and happiness, two giant themes that are rarely treated concurrently. Naval’s balanced, holistic outlook on life is not what you might expect from a serial entrepreneur whose net worth exceeds $60 million. Money, for Naval, “will solve all your money problems,” but the love of money, he asserts, is an insatiable desire that leads down a path of misery.

Naval says he has a habit of mining books for knowledge and will often not read them from cover to cover. I also learned this skill in college, but I can say that I intently read every word of his almanack. In the process, I typed up a myriad of quotes/excerpts that I thought were worth stashing, which I have consolidated for this article. Below you can find 50+ hand-picked quotes/excerpts that I found inspirational, thought-provoking, or just plain insightful.

Overall, the ~six hours or so I invested in this book were well worth the investment. I recommend you grab a copy and see for yourself what made this work, collated by Eric Jorgenson, the #1 best-seller in numerous categories on Amazon.

50 Insightful Quotes From The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Build Wealth and Happines

Technology democratizes consumption but consolidates production. The best person at anything in the world gets to do it for everyone. 

#1

No one can compete with you on being you. Most of life is a search for who and what needs you the most.

#2

The group of scientists who made real breakthroughs and contributions probably added more to human society, I think, than any other single class of human beings. Not to take away anything from art or politics or engineering or business, but without science, we’d still be scrambling in the dirt, fighting with sticks, and trying to start fires.

#3

Specific knowledge is found much more by pursuing your innate talents, your genuine curiosity, and your passion. It’s not by going to school for whatever is the hottest job. It’s not by going into whatever field investors say is the hottest.

#4

The internet enables any niche interest, as long as you’re the best person at it, to scale out.

#5

Escape competition through authenticity. Basically, when you’re competing with people, it’s because you’re copying them. It’s because you’re trying to do the same thing. But every human is different. Don’t copy.

#6

The most important skill for getting rich is becoming a perpetual learner.

#7

Basic arithmetic and numeracy are way more important in life than doing calculus. Similarly, being able to convey yourself simply using ordinary English words is far more important than being able to write poetry, having an extensive vocabulary, or speaking 7 different languages. Knowing how to be more persuasive when speaking is far more important than being an expert digital marketer or click optimizer. Foundations are key.

#8

Intentions don’t matter, actions do. That’s why being ethical is hard. 

#9

The reason I say this is not to make some glib comment about how 99% of your life is wasted and only 1% is useful. I say this because you should be very thoughtful and realize in most things — relationships, work, even in learning — what you’re trying to do is find the thing you can go all-in on to earn compound interest. When you’re dating, the instance you know this relationship is not going to be the one that leads to marriage, you should probably move on. When you’re studying something, like a geography or history class, and you realize you’re never going to use the information, drop the class. It’s a waste of your time. It’s a waste of your brain energy. I’m not saying don’t do the 99% because it’s very hard to identify what the 1% is. What I’m saying is when you find the 1% of your discipline, which will not be wasted, which you will be able to invest in for the rest of your life and has meaning to you, go all-in, and forget about the rest.

#10

Accountability is a double-edged thing. It allows you to take credit when things go well and to bear the brunt of the failure when things go badly.

#11

We live in an age of infinite leverage, and the economic rewards for genuine intellectual curiosity have never been higher. Following your genuine intellectual curiosity is a better foundation for a career than following whatever is making money right now.

#12

If it entertains you now but will bore you some day, it’s a distraction. Keep looking. 

#13

I only really want to do things for their own sake. That is one definition of art. Whether it’s business, exercise, romance, friendship — whatever. I think the meaning of life is to do things for their own sake. Ironically, when you do things for their own sake, you create your best work. 

#14

You get rewarded by society for giving it what it wants and doesn’t know how to get it elsewhere. 

#15

There are three broad classes of leverage. One form of leverage is labor — other humans working for you. It is the oldest form of leverage and actually not a great one in the modern world. I would argue this is the worst form of leverage that you could possibly use. Managing other people is incredibly messy. It requires tremendous leadership skills. You’re one short hop from a mutiny or getting eaten or torn apart by the mob.

#16

The final form of leverage is brand new, the most democratic form. It is products with no marginal cost of replication. This includes books, media, movies, and code… Now you can multiply your efforts without involving other humans and without needing money from other humans… This newest form of leverage is where all the new fortunes are made.

#17

Humans evolved in societies where there was no leverage… If I was chopping wood or carrying water for you, you knew that 8 hours put in would equal 8 hours of output… With a leveraged worker, judgment is far more important than how much time they put in or how hard they work. 

#18

If you have specific knowledge, you have accountability, and you have leverage, they have to pay you what you’re worth. If they pay you what you’re worth, then you can get your time back. You can be hyper-efficient. You’re not doing meetings for meetings’ sake. You’re not trying to impress other people. You’re not writing things down to make it look like you did work. All you care about is the actual work itself.

#19

No one is going to value you more than you value yourself. 

#20

Wealth creation is an evolutionarily recent positive-sum game. Status is an old zero-sum game. Those attacking wealth creation are often just seeking status. . . They’re playing a different game, and it’s a worst game. It’s a zero-sum game instead of a positive-sum game. 

#21

The problem is to win at a status game, you have to put somebody else down. That’s why you should avoid status games. They make you into an angry, combative person. You’re always fighting to put other people down, to put yourself and the people you like up. 

#22

Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imaginary tomorrow. When today’s complete, in and of itself, you’re retired. . . Well, one way is to have so much money saved that your passive income, without you lifting a finger, covers your burn rate. A second is you just drive your burn rate down to zero. You become a monk. A third is you’re doing something you love. You enjoy it so much, it’s not about the money.

#23

Art is creativity. Art is anything done for its own sake. What are the things that are done for their own sake and there’s nothing behind them? Loving somebody, creating something, playing. To me, creating businesses is play. I create busineses because it’s fun, because I’m into the product… It makes money almost a side-effect… My motivation has shifted from being goal-oriented to being artistic. Ironically, I think I’m much better at it now. 

#24

The punishment for the love of money is delivered at the same time as the money. As you make money, you just want even more, and you become paranoid and fearful of losing what you do have… I think the best way to stay away from this constant love of money is to not upgrade your lifestyle as you make money.

#25

To summarize the fourth type [of luck], build your character in a certain way, then your character becomes your destiny. 

#26

Trying to build business relationships (networking) well in advance of doing business businesses is a complete waste of time. 

#27

Sharks eat well, but live a life surrounded by sharks. 

#28

Your only failures are written within your psyche and they are obvious to you. If you have too many of these moral shortcomings, you will not respect yourself. The worst outcome in this world is not having self-esteem. If you don’t love yourself, who will? I think you just have to be very careful about doing things you are fundamentally not going to be proud of, because they will damage you.

#29

I have this saying inside my head: the closer you want to get to me, the better your values have to be. 

#30

The most common bad advice I hear is “You’re too young.” Most of history was built by young people, they just got credit when they were older. The only way to truly learn something is by doing it. Yes, listen to guidance, but don’t wait.

#31

Your real resume is just a catalog of all your suffering… Anything you’re given doesn’t matter. You have to do hard things to create your own meaning in life. 

#32

Most of the time, the person you have to become to make money is a high-anxiety, high-stress, hard-working, competitive person. When you have done that for 20, 30, 40, 50 years and you suddenly make money, you can’t turn it off. You’ve trained yourself to be a high-anxiety person. Then you have to learn how to be happy. 

#33

My definition of wisdom is knowing the long-term consequences of your actions. Wisdom applied to external problems is judgment. 

#34

You can only make progress when you’re starting with the truth. The hard thing is seeing the truth. To see the truth, you have to get your ego out the way because your ego doesn’t want to see the truth.

#35

What you feel tells you nothing about the facts. It merely tells you something about your estimate of the facts. 

#36

It’s only after you’re bored, you have the great ideas. 

#37

Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. 

#38

If all your beliefs line up into neat little bundles, you should be highly suspicious. 

#39

“Praise specifically, criticize generally” [quoting Warren Buffet]. Then people’s egos and identities don’t work against you. They work for you.

#40

Charisma is the ability to project love and confidence at the same time. 

#41

“If you want it done, then go. If not, then send” [quoting Julius Caesar]. When you are the principal, you are the owner. You care and will do a great job. When you are the agent and you are doing it on somebody else’s behalf, you can do a bad job. You just don’t care. You optimize for yourself rather than the principal’s assets… The more closely you can tie someone’s compensation to the exact value they’re creating, the more you turn them into a principal, and the less you turn them into an agent. 

#42

If you can’t decide, the answer is no. 

#43

Pointing out obvious exceptions implies either the target isn’t smart or you aren’t. 

#44

It’s not about educated versus uneducated. It’s about “likes to read” and “doesn’t like to read.”

#45

[Question to Naval] “What can I do for the next 60 days to become a clearer, more independent thinker?” Read the greats in math, science, and philosophy. Ignore your contemporaries and news. Avoid tribal identification. Put truth above social approval. 

#46

The fewer desires I can have, the more I can accept the current state of things, the less my mind is moving— because the mind really exists in motion toward the future or the past — the more present I am, the happier and more content I will be.

#47

Happiness is what there is when you remove the sense that something is missing in your life. 

#48

Happiness, love, and passion aren’t things you find; they’re choices you make. 

#49

Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want. Every desire is a chosen unhappiness. 

#50

Today, the way we think you get peace is by resolving all your external problems, but there are unlimited external problems. The only way to actually get peace on the inside is giving up this idea of problems.

#51

The enemy of peace of mind is expectations drilled into you by society and other people.

#52

At the end of the day, you are a combination of your habits and the people you spend the most time with. 

#53

You don’t make any decisions if you don’t judge anything. You just accept everything. If I do that for ten or fifteen minutes while walking around, I end up in a very peaceful, grateful state. 

#54

Hiking is walking meditation. Journaling is writing meditation. Praying is gratitude meditation. Showering is accidental meditation. Sitting quietly is direct meditation. 

#55

Courage isn’t charging into a machine-gun nest. Courage is not caring what other people think. 

#56

Inspiration is perishable. Act on it immediately.

#57

An American Psychological Association’s “Stress In America” survey found that 72% of adults reported feeling stressed about money “at least some of the time” (financial stress survey). Money topped work, family responsibilities, and health concerns as the top source of stress. According to another survey of more than 1,000 adults, money was cited as the second leading cause of divorce, behind infidelity (financial stress in relationships). While the US is the richest large country in the world per capita, many Americans suffer from a lack of financial peace—as do people all around the world. Stress shortens both the quality and quantity of life. According to WebMD, stress “seems to worsen or increase the risk of conditions like obesity, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, depression, gastrointestinal problems, and asthma” (stress and physical health). While money is not an end itself, it factors heavily in the life satisfaction equation as a means to live, fulfill responsibilities, and achieve goals.

This week, I reached out to my uncle, Yousef Zananiri, to share some of his wisdom on money management. Mr. Yousef is a Strategic Sales Manager for a team at Spectrum Enterprise responsible for ~$25-$30 million in annualized revenue. His team sells scalable fiber technology and communication solutions to the government and educational sectors. In the evenings, Mr. Yousef volunteers teaching “Financial Peace” at C3 Church in Canal Winchester, Ohio—a class inspired by the philosophy of Dave Ramsey—to help people get out of debt and lock up their financial future. The following is an account of a live 60-minute interview conducted in person. You can find Mr. Yousef on Instagram @yzananiri

[For more, see the complete archive of interviews.]

Tell the people a little about yourself.

I moved to the US from Jordan 32 years ago at the age of 13. I finished my high school at a private school here in Columbus and graduated college from Fisher at Thee Ohio State University with a degree in business. About 80% of my work experience has been in the telecommunications industry and about 20% in the financial sector—45% in management and 55% as an individual contributor.

Outside of work, I’ve been married to Heather for 20+ years. We have three kids—a first year college student, a junior in high school, and an 8th grader in middle school. I’ve coached 6 different sports spanning over two decades, including lacrosse, basketball, and adult softball. I enjoy following sports and the stock market and watching how companies are trending.

What is “financial peace,” both as a concept and in terms of the class you teach? 

Financial peace is to be in control of your money versus your money being in control of you. People work too hard in this country not to be able to enhance and expand their capabilities by learning some basic concepts. Financial peace comes from living within your means, paying off debt, and preparing for the future. It also comes from contentment and being generous toward others.

The focus of the class I teach is behavioral/psychological. The idea is that by changing the decisions we make, independent of anything external, we can achieve goals we never thought possible. The class gives you a framework to handle all aspects of finance, from learning how to play offense and defense with your money. In the course, we also teach contentment—not wasting money on impulse buying or to keep up with the Joneses.

To sum it up, we inspire and empower people to make smart financial choices that benefit themselves and the people they care about.

What are the biggest things that trip people up financially? 

If I had to summarize the top 3, in no particular order, the first piece is a lack of awareness—whether that’s not having the education or knowledge to manage or maximize your money.

The second piece is lack of a framework/gameplan. Ultimately, everybody has goals they want to achieve, but not everyone has a plan in place to get there. A lot of people just go through the motions. It’s like a football team hoping to win a game without having practiced a single time.

The third piece is lack of contentment. Social media plays a big role in creating a constant demand to buy things people don’t need. This is the reason why a lot of people hesitate to take the class and make lifestyle changes—because they haven’t dealt with the psychological side of things.

What are the overarching goals of the program? 

The ultimate goal is to spend less than you make, to set aside money for the future, and to not be hampered by financial stress—to obtain financial freedom, in other words. On the flip side, financial freedom enables you to be generous toward others. There is a term we like to use for it, and that term is “outrageous generosity.” When you’re no longer worried about your own financial situation in your own home, you can shift your focus to the people around you. Giving to needy people on a consistent basis, we believe—through churches, charities, communities, or specific causes—is what brings the ultimate satisfaction in life. This stage is the final stage of the process that you want to reach.

How to you pitch people to enroll?

This curriculum has been around for three decades. Millions of people have followed this plan and have achieved the outcomes they were looking for. Of the 100+ people who have completed my course, we have many examples of people we have helped get out of debt, people who have been able to save more money, build up their emergency fund, start investing for the future; and, in some cases, start on a path to pay off their mortgage early. Above all, they are now able to give more than they were able to in the past. People’s lives are better. They’re happier. I know this because they told me.

If you’re struggling, then you have nothing to lose. If you think you’re doing OK, then you could be doing even better by learning these concepts. If someone has not gone through a course like this before, it is highly recommended they do so at least once in their lifetime.

What are key elements of financial stability?

Maximizing your income in the field that you’re in is the number one wealth-building tool. Another thing is reducing spending to less than what you bring in. There’s paying off debt—not relying on high-interest credit cards or loans that limit your freedom. We advise setting aside an emergency fund with 3-6 months of living expenses, just in case you lose your job, go through a health crisis, or some other unpredictable event. Obtaining quality insurance—home, car, health, etc.–is also important. Once you have those basic things in place, you can start investing for the future–including retirement, a 529 college plan for your kids, or an individual investment account–and pay off your mortgage on an accelerated schedule.

The steps really do matter, and you don’t want to go out of sequence. For example, we eliminate all debt minus the mortgage before we set aside an emergency fund and before we invest. We start with the smallest debt and then we snowball to the next one. As I said, our approach is behavioral/psychological. We don’t make it 100% about math. The curriculum contains a lot of data, but 80% of our focus is on controlling the human element.

What are some tips or principles that you teach your students?

Budgeting is one of the biggest things, because budgeting is all about awareness. The details of a lot of people’s spending habits are out of sight and out of mind. On the other hand, when people plan for every dollar that comes in, they make better decisions. We say, “Every dollar has a name.” For example, if I know that I’m spending exactly $600 a month eating out, I can ask myself, is it adding that much value? Is it worth me working three days for it? And then I can compare/contrast that value with the value of other activities. We use the “Every Dollar” app. I’ve used different ones over the years. This is by far the best one.

There are formulas that we recommend for asset allocation and debt repayment. In some cases, we discuss strategies to increase income, whether that’s taking a seasonal or part-time job, in order to expedite the process.

The financial future of many people in committed relationships is not solely dictated by their decisions. Can you talk about the relational piece of finances?

There are “free spirits,” and there are “nerds,” as we like to call them. People who are more liberal in their spending habits and people who are more tight-fisted. It starts by recognizing what you and your partner are and coming together to create a plan. For example, maybe someone who has nerd tendencies can put together the budget, but they allow room for someone who’s a free spirit to make changes. The budget is less about specific categories and more about the bottom line not exceeding income. There’s room to negotiate.

We’re not matchmakers. We don’t get into who you should be with, but we have some rules and best practices provided for managing finances in a relationship. Overall, a willingness to communicate is the biggest thing. If you have that, you can make a lot of progress.  

We also believe that accountability is very important for everyone. If you’re single, you need to find an accountability partner that can support you in this process.

What motivates you to volunteer to help other achieve their financial goals?

I think I’ve always enjoyed financial concepts and developing people. This course combines both of those things really well. I am a big believer in the concept of team. When people come together, they can achieve goals that they couldn’t achieve alone. You see it in business. You see it in sports. It’s about achieving specific goals, but it’s also about developing people to the next level. Being a part of that process brings me true satisfaction.

Sometimes, it’s easier to be an individual contributor and know all the things you need to perform than to get a whole team to do it. But there is opportunity in taking on the challenge of team building. It combines my passion and skills and gives me a sense of purpose.

I give you the last word.

When you follow this plan early on, you stay on schedule. If you’re already in a hole, the focus is not why did you get here. It’s how do you move forward and get back on schedule. There is no situation that can’t be resolved. Typically, it takes 3-5 years to clear major hurdles and change your trajectory quite a bit. The time is going to pass one way or another.

The roar of the crowd is not for you, it’s for what you can do. And as soon as you can’t do it, they’ll be cheering for somebody else.

The question isn’t what are you dreams, the question is what are you currently willing to give up to get something you do not already possess?

Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.

I would rather talk to one man with experience than a committee of theorists.

A story why things didn’t work out is really just a series of excuses.

There are few things as foundational to a good life as security. Many political scientists have argued, in fact, that that the drive to achieve greater security has been the chief engine of political and economic development throughout human history. This same impulse has motivated countless innovations, spurred massive economic growth, and led to the consolidation of bigger and more elaborate forms of political organization. From the hunter-gatherer tribe, to alliances of small political states, to behemoth modern nation-states backed by high-tech militaries, how people collectively define and achieve security has expanded and evolved dramatically in time. Today, the US military is the most sophisticated and powerful fighting force in the world, and the manner in which war is waged continues to evolve at a fast clip.

This week I brought in my friend and former teammate, Trenton Dennis, to shed light on his experiences as an Airman in the US military. Fresh out of high school in 2015, Trent enlisted in the Air Force as an Airman Basic before earning promotions to Airman First Class (2016), Senior Airman (2018), and to his current role as Staff Sergeant as a non-commissioned officer (2020). Trent’s experiences have taken him all around the world, from Texas to Tokyo to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he trained for his eventual 6-month deployment to Kabul, Afghanistan.

In September of this year, Trent will have fulfilled his 6-year commitment to the US military. I hope you find Trent’s reflections—taken from a live 90-minute interview this week—as candid and insightful as I did, both as it relates to his life, in particular, and to life in the American military more broadly. You can catch Trent on Instagram @vii_ii_xcvi

Tell the people a little bit about yourself.

My name is Trenton. I’ll be 25 years-old in July. I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. I grew up with my little sister, older brother, and both of my parents. I became interested in soccer at a young age. Soccer was a big thing for me, especially in high school. It’s how I met you and most of my friends today. About a year after barely graduating high school, I decided to enlist in the Air Force.

What was so hard about school?

I was doing all right in school up until about the 8th grade and freshman year, but it got to a point where I was really not interested in any of the work–I was not a good student. School felt like a chore they made us do, while I put a lot of my energy into soccer, which was my true passion. I did not see any value in school at the time, although I feel differently about it now that I’m older.

There are various reasons people join the military—career benefits, personal growth, national pride—what was your motivation?

I guess the answer for me was career growth. After high school, I originally thought about going to college just because that’s what the normal, usual next step is. My dad brought up the obvious fact that I’m not really school-oriented, and I agreed with him. He told me that I should think about doing something else. He mentioned the military, which wasn’t even on my mind at the time.

I didn’t want to go to college, but I didn’t want to be a bum, either. I didn’t want to get a minimum wage job and just sit around. I wanted to do something and make something of myself, so I started looking into the Air Force. The Air Force to me looked like a whole other world where you get to travel, wear a uniform, and learn a job. It seemed new and stimulating, and I was interested. For some people, the main motivation is to serve our country and something like that, but for me it seemed like the best career path for my life.

I graduated high school in 2014 and enlisted in September of 2015. I would have enlisted sooner but they were trying to limit enrollment at the time. I had to wait 3 or 4 months from the time I talked to a recruiter and committed before I could officially get started.  

How did your path in the military evolve?

The first determining factor is whether you’re enlisting or commissioning. Enlistment is for people who do not have a bachelor’s degree. Enlisted service members make up more the worker-bee tier of the military. Commissioning is for people with degrees that the Air Force accepts. Commissioned officers serve in an administrative/leadership capacity. They manage people from the get-go and deal with bigger scopes of the mission.  Entering straight from high school, I started off on the enlisted track.

The first main goal of basic training is to teach you how to focus, to teach you how to control your emotions, and to teach you how to think under stress. Something as simple as controlling the movement of your body. Being able to speak, for example, without moving your hands. I think these are all good skills for people to learn, especially at a young age. Over time, they do a good job of incorporating more responsibilities. Ultimately, it’s on you to step up and accept those responsibilities.

When I finished basic training, like many people starting out, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I decided to start training to be an Explosives Ordinance Disposal [EOD] Technician. Basically, a bomb de-fuser for the military, like in the movie The Hurt Locker, except in real life. EOD is a difficult job and requires a lot of training. The preliminary training was broken down into 5 weeks, with a separate focus each week. It was a 2-strike and your out system. We had tests every 3 or 4 days. Some of the tests were written, others covered more hands-on type stuff. If you failed one, you got a chance to retry it the next day. If you failed again, that’s two strikes and you’ve washed out.

I can’t disclose details, but I failed a written test during the first week. That was strike one. I made it through the rest of the training until the very last test, week 5. It was a simulation. I failed that test, as well. Strike two—I had washed out.

By the end, there were only 4 people who graduated out of the 25-30 people who started. I would have been the 5^th. The graduation was going to be that same day. In fact, I had brought my service uniform with me that I was supposed to graduate in, and had too take it back with me on the bus back to the dorm. I came really close and washed out on the last day.  

What was going through your mind in that moment? 

It was very upsetting at first. I had failed a test I tried very hard to pass. But then it was relief, for sure, because it was very stressful. The whole training was very intense, and I was also still trying to decide if this was something I really wanted to do or if I was just doing it for the stimulation.

It’s one of those jobs you have to really be passionate about. There were days when I didn’t really want to be there, but I kept going because I signed up for it and didn’t want to be a quitter. In the end, I was very relieved that I got do all of that and move forward with something else. If I had passed, I would have had to go through another year of that type of training.

What happens after you wash out?

The military places people who don’t have a job wherever they deem fit. I didn’t choose my next assignment as an engine mechanic—engine troop, as we call it—but that’s where they placed me. Engine mechanic has been my first and only job with the military. Obviously, the responsibilities changed and increased over time. At first, you learn about the different parts of the engine and later they trust you to work more efficiently by yourself. Once I earned the rank of Staff Sergeant, it was a lot less hands on, more just watching, but still in the same line of work.     

How do promotions in the Airforce Work?

Everyone starts off with the rank of Airman Basic. After basic training, you gain stripes based on how many years you decide to enlist. I decided to enlist for 6 years instead of 4, and so I was eligible for two stripes after a few months, at which point I became an Airman First Class. I later got my third stripe and was promoted to Senior Airman. About a year after that, I passed the test to become a Staff Sergeant as a NCO [non-commissioned officer]. I have been a Staff Sergeant for a year and 5 months now. The test consisted of technical stuff about the job, Air Force history, and an enlisted performance report. This was my first supervisory role and gave me good leadership experience. I had to deal with both work-related and personal issues in the lives of people I managed.

Obviously, the higher up you go, the fewer people get promoted. I would guess that around 30 to 40% of people get promoted to NCO, maybe 20 to 30% to Technical Sergeant, and a lot fewer for Master, Senior Master, and Chief Master Sergeant.

Describe your various stations and how you ended up being deployed to Kabul.  

My first stop was San Antonio, Texas, where basic training takes place for everyone in the Air Force. This is where they yell at you and teach you how to control yourself.

My second stop was Wichita Falls, Northern Texas. That’s where my training for EOD Technician and engine mechanic took place. That’s probably why they had me work as an engine mechanic–for logistical reasons–since I was already there.  

There is where I was informed that the first base where I would be serving as an engine mechanic would be in Tokyo, Japan. It was a two-year time frame. At that time, I was an Airman First Class and got promoted in Tokyo to Senior Airman.

My next stop was in Little Rock, Arkansas. This one was for three years. Different bases have different missions and goals. In Japan, they’re not a part of deployment efforts. People go there for training and things like humanitarian missions. In Arkansas, the mission was to support the war effort, and so people there rotate in and out of deployments very often.

My first deployment out of Arkansas was to Afghanistan. I didn’t know what to expect. A lot of my Staff Sergeants made it sound like a good time, hanging out, focusing on work–without having to deal with politics or anything crazy like that. It sounded pretty scary at the time of deployment, but we were pretty safe for the most part.

I served in Afghanistan for 5 months. It was a lot of work, and we were there during the winter months. Afghanistan gets cold in the winter, especially at night, if anyone didn’t know. I think there was one week where we got about a foot of snow. Overall, it was a lot of work, and a rough time, but I made a little extra money. You get extra incentive pay when you get deployed. You get hazard pay. You get family separation pay. And they don’t take any taxes from your paycheck, so you’re not paying taxes during that time. There’s also nothing really to spend money on while you’re there, so you end up saving a lot more, too.

Did you face any security concerns while you were there?

The base was obviously located in the midst of a war. There were definitely people around the base who didn’t want us there. As engine mechanics, we were not given that much information on who’s doing what and for what reasons. That’s more the intel side. Randomly, on certain days, we would get strikes coming from off base. Nothing too crazy. Usually, the base would deal with them no problem, as the base was built to defend against those kinds of attacks. The system wasn’t perfect though, and sometimes the strikes would land somewhere on the base.

To my understanding, these were smaller mortar-sized artillery. The assailants didn’t use too much technology or strategies, they were kind of just shooting blindly at the base. Whenever there was an attack, an alarm would go off and you would have to lie down and take cover. They would notify us via a robotic pre-recorded voice when something was incoming, when impact happened, and when it was safe to come out. After that, we’d sweep our area for damage, or potential damage, before the “all-clear” sign was given. This event probably happened 16-19 times during the 6 months I was there.

Is deployment to a war zone ever optional?

No. This is something you sign up for when you join the military. You go where they tell you unless you have a really good reason not to, like physical illness, single parent status, or a death in the immediate family.

I actually wanted to deploy again. Back in Little Rock, they moved me to a new squadron with a different objective. I went from a mission-oriented squadron that supported deployments to a training squadron where I repaired aircrafts for student trainees. It was a slower tempo environment that I found a lot less stimulating. This switch was actually a factor in my decision to rejoin civilian life.

If you had another go at the last 6 years, what is one thing you would do differently?

I’m pretty satisfied with the last 6 years and everything that happened. I definitely would have joined the military again. I definitely wouldn’t have went straight to school. Instead of signing a 6-year contract, I could have signed a 4-year contract. Not that I would have left earlier, but it would have given me more flexibility. As far as a job, I could have waited more for them to give me a job that I wanted to do instead of starting right away on the EOD track and getting assigned to be an engine mechanic. However, this experience, both in EOD training and as an engine mechanic, made me a lot more handy and taught me how to be mechanically inclined. Overall, I have no regrets.  

How do you think the military is different today than it was in the past?

The Air Force is more professional, less rugged, more diverse, more understanding, and more open-minded than how I understand it to have been in the past. The environment, for the most part, is similar to what you might experience at a normal civilian corporate job. When you think of military, you may think of wars and yelling and ruggedness—not professional—and I imagine it was more like that the further you go back in time.   

What about the future?

It seems like things are going more in that direction, which is interesting to me because I do feel that the military needs to keep a little bit of that ruggedness. A professional and corporate environment doesn’t work for everyone. Having that edginess, saying what you feel, and being yourself a little more in the military can be a good thing. But there are officers who do a whole lot of research and know wat more about it than I do.

I think this is happening more in the Air Force due to the technical type of jobs where that traditional military culture isn’t really necessary. The Air Force is isolated, for the most part, from the ugly part of war. The army and the marines is a different story.

What is something people don’t know about the military?

For one, there are separate branches. People refer to me as a soldier as if I were in the Army all the time. The Air Force is not the Army. The Army is not the Marines. It’s all the military, but the culture, the uniforms, the names of the ranks, basic training—literally everything is different. It’s similar to different colleges. You’re all going to school to learn something, but the environment and the teachers are different.

The Air Force is not as traditionally military as people might think. It’s a lot like a regular job, except we wear uniforms, the standards are higher, and things are a little more strict. Once you complete basic training, of course, where you get all the alarms, the shooting, and the running in groups.

What is the biggest life lesson you’ve learned?

I’ve learned plenty of lessons, although I don’t know what the biggest one is. One thing the military taught me is that how you present yourself—how confident you come across to other people—is definitely important. Especially in my career field, where it’s high risk. I literally maintain the engines of aircrafts that are going to be flown by people in the middle of war zones. The way you look and how confidently you speak about what you’re doing is is very important to earn people’s trust.  

Also, you have to learn how to figure things out. A lot of people are quick to give up when they come across obstacles. They think it’s too hard and that’s the end of it, but this is an important lesson I learned in the military. Obstacles are going to come up, but you have to figure out how to get through them.

What is the thing you are most proud of about your service?

No one in my immediate family had every been in the military, so this was all new to me and out of the ordinary. And I knew I would have to leave my friends and family. Similar to most people when they first join, I didn’t really know what to expect, besides what I saw on TV about basic training and what have you.

I was 19 when I joined—basically a kid—and I still thought like a kid. During the last 6 years, I grew and matured and gained a lot of experience. I’m proud of my decision to join, and I’m proud of who I’ve become. 

What do you think it would take to achieve world peace?

I don’t know how to answer that question. But in a joking way, and also kind of serious, we need a common enemy. If another planet came to invade, or something like that, and we all had to come together to defend earth—that’s the only way I can see that happening. As it stands, there are too many different people, too many different cultures, too many different ideals. We would need a threat so big to distract us from all our differences and to realize that the things we’re fighting over are ridiculous.

What’s next for you?

I’ll be finished with my military service in September of this year. I’m currently home early in Columbus, Ohio, due to a program the Air Force has that helps you transition back to civilian life. I’m working on the military’s dime at a warehouse for an E-commerce company. In September, the company has the choice to hire me in an official capacity.

My next big goal is going to college next spring, hopefully full time at The Ohio State University. I still need to figure out what I want to major in. I’m also looking to invest in some rental properties. I have a friend in real estate who’s helping me see if I can find something worth purchasing in this red hot market. 

Abba Pambo asked Abba Anthony, ‘What ought I to do?’ and the old man said to him, ‘Do not trust in your own righteousness, do not worry about the past, but control your tongue and your stomach.