Don't Try to Be Perfect, Be Prepared

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

You know, one of the things I'm always saying is that if this country is gonna get better, if this country is gonna go on the right path, we have to step up as a community. Veterans are the sleeping giant in this country, and it is time for us to step up. That's why I wanna talk to you about The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. Now you might have thought about The Citadel in the past as this corps of cadets, this military institution, But they have programs for veterans that don't involve you joining the corps of cadets, don't involve you wearing a uniform every day, and don't involve you living a military lifestyle. If you wanna do that, great.

But if that's not what you're up for right now after your military career, then you don't have to do that, and you can access some of the best programs in the world. The Citadel has some hot degrees in intelligence, tactical strength and conditioning, engineering, and project management. And there's five student type options for veterans. There's graduate college, there's evening undergraduate, there's active duty students, non cadet day program, returning cadet veterans, and online programs. The academic offerings include undergraduate, graduate, college transfer, graduate certificates, and online degrees.

Veterans have access to every single academic degree the college offers, and they have the most flexibility when it comes to their schedule. They can major in anything offered to the cadets and would take those classes during the day with the cadets. But then there's other programs offered in the evening or online and graduate programs to choose from too to make things so flexible for you. The US World and News Report has named the Citadel the number one column for veterans in the South. And for veterans who choose to take classes on campus, they get to be a civilian student in a military environment.

They don't have to wear uniforms like I said before. They don't have to join the military culture of the Corps of Cadets. The atmosphere is a really good transition environment from military to civilian life. There's an organic mentorship that comes from taking classes with the cadets. The cadets wanna talk to you guys.

They wanna hear your stories. They wanna know what it was actually like to be in the military. A lot of the a lot of these men and women are gonna go on to serve as officers in the military, and they're gonna exact change. And they need to hear from you guys. They you also get access to The Citadel's alumni network.

Like I said, this is one of the most illustrious institutions in the world. And when you join the Citadel and you graduate, you're part of their alumni network. That includes so many leaders. It includes so many business leaders, so many leaders from the military, and so many leaders from the government. The college's core values of honor, duty, and respect align with veteran culture.

They align with who you are, and it's something that you're not gonna get anywhere else in this country. There is tons of special assistance for veterans at The Citadel, and whether you're a veteran or active duty military personnel, you can take advantage of these programs. You also get access to the veteran student success center, the career center, the academic success center, the student veteran association, and all campus clubs. If you wanna play rugby, you could do that. If you wanna you wanna lift weights, you could do that.

You get access to everything that the students get. There's fellowship opportunities. There's tons and tons of financial assistance. So if you're interested in getting a degree from The Citadel and building your life, head over to citadel.edu/veterans.

This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. Now that's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

We need to be reminded of this as much as possible for one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul podcast.

Look, in life, nothing's gonna be perfect. Right? When when you are trying to work on something, you're trying to get together, you're trying to push forward, you're trying to to, you know, get to a goal, there's gonna be this temptation for you to wait till things are perfect. You know, wait till you have enough money in your bank account. You're gonna wait until you have a perfect setup at home.

You're gonna wait until you have this. You're gonna wait until you have that. And a lot of times, if you're waiting to pursue significant life goals, you're gonna be waiting forever. Right? If you're waiting for perfect conditions to start a business, you're gonna be waiting forever.

If you're waiting for the perfect time to go back to school, you're gonna be waiting forever. If you're waiting for the perfect time to get married, you're gonna be waiting forever. Right? And those are just examples. Now, this isn't me saying that you should just jump into things without making you know, without doing your research.

Right? You you need to do your research. You need to know if an investment you're getting into is gonna be a shitty investment. You need to know if, you know, a a house you're gonna buy is has been inspected or not. You need to know if person you're gonna get yourself involved with has issues, has problems.

Right? I'm not telling you to just cavalierly jump into things. But what I am saying is that if you're waiting waiting for things to be absolutely, positively perfect, you're gonna be waiting forever. If you're waiting for yourself to be perfect, you're gonna be waiting forever. Nothing is ever gonna be perfect. Right? You know, just to give you a few examples of this, when when companies are putting their products out there, right, I'm talking like big tech big tech companies, They're generally starting off with what's called a minimum viable product.

Right? A minimum viable product. That means that the product hasn't been hasn't been perfected. It doesn't have all the kinks. What they're trying to do is to see how it's gonna do on the market.

Right? And the reason why they do this is because of this. You know, they could spend a million dollars in research or a billion dollars in research. They could spend tons and tons of money on market research. They could spend tons and tons of money on a bunch of different things that are gonna get that product to be quote unquote perfect.

But they don't know how that product is going to sell until they put it on the market. Right? They don't know how that product is going to sell until they put it on the market. And if they'd waited until that product was perfect, and let's say it worked out all the kinks, they worked out everything, and they put it on the out of the market then without knowing whether or not that product was gonna sell, then they could potentially be wasting billions of dollars. Right?

They could potentially be wasting billions of dollars because they have a perfect product that doesn't sell. Instead, what you wanna do is you wanna put an imperfect product out there. You wanna see if the idea sells. You wanna see if the idea sells. That way, you you haven't spent as much money.

You're not too too deep if the idea is not going to sell. It's a similar thing with a lot of different things in life. Right? If you are unwilling to go on dates with anybody, you're never going to get into a long term relationship and you're never gonna get married. Right?

If you are unwilling to even try and exercise because you're scared of getting hurt or you're scared of having imperfect form, then you're never gonna get to the point where you're gonna have the physicality that you want. Right? If if you're scared to even put money into an FDIC bank, right, and that's probably an extreme extreme example. But if you're scared to even do that, then you're never gonna get used to the idea of investing. You gotta, you know, prepare, but prepare for imperfection.

Understand that nothing's gonna match up perfectly. And if you do try to to be perfect in everything, then you're going to fail. You're gonna fail. It's like we learned in the military. A good plan is always only as good as as the first shot.

Right? And and generally after that, things go to shit. Alright? Be prepared for that because that's the way life is, guys and gals. Alright.

Well, again, I wanna thank you guys so much for listening to the Warrior Soul podcast. The purpose of this podcast is to help you guys to to push The US military veteran community to greatness. And that's what gets me up in the morning. That's why I do this show. That's why I've been doing it for five years.

I don't make tons of money off of this show. I anytime we've had sponsorship, it's been enough to pay for the bandwidth, and I'm happy with that because I'm not looking to get rich off of this. I do this because I love you. I love this community, and I have have to give back. I have to give back.

The Marine Corps gave a lot to me. This community has given a lot to me, and, you know, I'm gonna keep doing it. So thank you guys so much. I'll be back at you next week with some more awesome content. This is Chris Albert with the Warrior Soul podcast, and I am out.