PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
"Commander Jarrod H. Smith, call sign #HeckYeah, is a son of God, brother in Christ, husband in the Church, and father on Earth with his beautiful bride who's blessed him four wonderful kids, and a Lhasa Apso dog. He is preparing for that inevitable last day on Active Duty. His Liberty Event on 1 October 2022 is more traditionally referred to as the separation date. But for him, it's the Liberty Day!As a 19-year active-duty military service-member with work experiences in supply chain and logistics spanning 15 years in the U.S. Navy, Jarrod's immersion into the submarine force, naval aviation, expeditionary forces, and a stint with the U.S. Army framed in the functional areas of tactical supply, strategic information systems, operational planning skill-sets, and both program & project management. These experiences combined and led him to realize that the most important weapons system, the military family, was being sorely unprepared for the biggest Mission of their military service life...""military transition.""Learning words matter during an MBA, and figuring out skillfully crafted questions matter during an advanced M.S. degree (specializing in Global Supply Chain & Logistics Strategy along with a deep dive into the Energy Industry at National Defense University's Dwight D. Eisenhower School for National Security & Resource Strategy), he came to see that the QUESTIONS we ask with the WORDS CAREFULLY CHOSEN through his own self-education as an Autodidact since the beginning of the 2020 government response to COVID (and the resulting decimation of our economy and way of life), ......he was called to solve the problem of ""military transition"" by re-framing the discussion around not ""military transition,"" but family Liberty...and Freedom for life fully alive in service, and in preparation for far beyond, with or without the family hero.Because it's not about the military...but about the family and that Liberty they all sacrificed so much for in service to our Nation.It comes down to basic military family readiness, and not what the government programs condition us to believe what those government bureaucrats tell us to believe it is. Understanding this from the earliest days in training and continuously throughout the burdensome staff and operational assignments from 5 years in to 35+ is crucial, and is the only path to Liberty for the military family.With us sailors on active-duty preoccupied with the ""little-m"" mission of being ""Ready for Sea,"" able and willing to deploy on a moments notice to break things and kill, Jarrod realized in 2020 with the ""22/day push-up challenge,"" which brings awareness annually to the military service suicide crisis, that push-ups weren't moving the planet and that it was past time to push back on the status quo.So he started his journey toward the Liberty Accelerator Program solution for the military service family, and urges you to engage in the fight for Liberty...and Freedom, for the family you know, right now.Because time, it's of the essence in the battle for victory for your hero.Don't be the senior [wo]man with a secret.Don't let your family down.Be the hero.Become a Liberator, and guard against the serious domestic threats lurking in your life, today.They're the Trojan horses within our gates.To Your Liberty, #HeckYeahP.s. Fairly certain the above wasn't read in our TLDR culture.Here's the skinny: Your future Liberty depends on your joining this Liberty movement for the Armed Forces Family.There's nothing else like it. After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy soon after Sep 11, 2001, I served in Iraq and Germany. In late 2008 I separated to begin a career as a financial advisor serving American military personnel stationed in Stuttgart. It seemed like a way to truly give back by serving others. I was wrong. My last day in uniform was on Sep 10, 2008. Lehman Brothers collapsed on the 15th. Nothing like being a self-employed rookie in an industry that was rapidly imploding before my eyes while trying to make ends meet in a foreign country! All this while I was struggling with my identity after taking off the uniform.As a new financial advisor, I went through all the required trainings. I learned the so-called agreed upon financial planning standards. I followed the rules, regulations and compliance of how everybody is ""supposed"" to save their money if they're doing all the ""correct"" things from a fixed income perspective. I came to discover this is mostly useless info for high income earners.Like all new financial advisors, I didn't know any better, so I served my clients in that capacity. I kept at it for two years, burned through all my savings, lost my girlfriend, had no prospective business clients, and to top it off, I had no guidance from my mentors, who had 30+ years of experience and were now as lost in the sauce as I was after this surprising financial collapse (which says a lot about the fallacy of financial planning).My wake-up call came while working with a young woman that I always considered my best client and a good friend. She was working in Germany for a DOD contractor. As a single, 38-year-old former Air Force officer, she was doing everything ""right"" financially, and she had already managed to save $750,000, the majority of it in retirement accounts. She liked to really enjoy life. Any moment she could get away from work, she traveled. It was amazing.She started to fall in love with going to Africa to work with charitable organizations. I'm sure she thought she had a stable lifestyle. But every time we'd get together, she was always confused about how we did the retirement planning. She didn't want to take risk in the markets. So we had her invest in low risk vehicles that offer absolute guarantees, in case the stock market crashed.Then she got very passionate about these trips to Africa, and one day she asked me, ""Scott, what if I quit my job, used $20K, and went down to Africa and traveled the world for a year? Could I do that?"" She was so nervous about the idea of quitting her job and using her money. This was at about the same time that I was starting to have philosophical problems with traditional financial planning. So I said, ""Yes! Take the money! Use $50K if you want to. You have enough. You don't spend it. Use your money. Go enjoy the life you want.""And then she fired me.She sent emails to my supervisor about me being in over my head. And that's when I realized that I wasn't in over my head - everybody else was doing financial planning wrong. She had literally created the opportunity to do whatever she wanted, but somehow she had it in her mind based on all the poor information that she couldn't do it. From that point on, I believed if I was being a ""financial advisor"" doing things the way financial professionals are all told to, then I was failing at providing true value. I wasn't helping people.Anyone who has a passion they want to realize or a mission they want to accomplish needs money to do it, and I wasn't having these kinds of conversations with my clients. All I was doing was telling people to do a budget and save for retirement. I wasn't encouraging and enabling them to pursue their passions or life goals; I wasn't allowing them to serve, to become the person they wanted to be. At one point I realized...I'm not even having that conversation with myself!"
"John Cordle: Reading this reminded me of a quote by Danny Trejo: ""Everything good that ever happened to me came out of helping others."" Jarrod brings this quote to life by his own example, and in doing so, turns traditional wisdom on its head. His no-hold-barred book might offend and insult you, and you might think ""it's not personal"" - but it is, and for a reason. By sharing the lessons of his life story, with all its bumps and turns, he shows you that almost everything you learned about your military transition is wrong. His message - that the military does not define you, you do - is transformative. You have the ability to control your life, your brand, and your destiny. Start by reading this book - and acting on it! Refreshingly honest! Recommended for readers still a ways from transition/retirement - it comes sooner than you think! ------ D. Douglas: Everything in this book is an important first step to getting your freedom back. Jarrod identifies a few of the pitfalls that military members, myself included, fall into during our service. We stay in a service mindset and undervalue ourselves, our families, and our interests. The book helps spread some light on how to get out of that mindset in time for our transition, so we can enjoy the freedom we sacrificed so much for. Book has a unique personality aspect, which is something else the military tries to crush! I'm approaching retirement and know how uncomfortable it is. I'm fortunate that I didn't get pushed out early for medical reasons or retention concerns. If I had, before this book, I would have struggled. ------ K. Kim I blew through this book in about two days. I could not put it down. Funny, is everything written with regard to the military transition process I went through. I recently just retired from the military on 1 July '21. I checked the proverbial boxes. Did it my own way. Imagine if I had this information when I first started in the military! Get this book, get involved and own your Liberty Battle! Thank you Jarrod for being you and sharing this with the world! Priceless!"
