SOWPub Small Business Forums - My "obsession" with planning...a story. Post FOURTEEN.

Jan. 30, 1968.

I left school at noon, right after lunch. Left and vowed never to return. I was going to enlist in the Marine Corps. A neighborhood kid just got back and man did he look good in the Marine uniform, in fact, I think he had to fight the girls off with a stick.

Ah, that's what I wanted. Or so I thought.

But, alas, the Marine recruiter was literally out to lunch. So the Navy guy grabbed me and did a little chat. Then told me to return the next day an hour earlier to catch the Marine before he went to lunch. He left me with the thought,

"I'm sure the Marines will take a high school dropout, we don't want you but you'll be good for them as low man to clean up the sh*t and puke when your fellow jarheads come back from leave."

Sort of a startling comment I thought at the time.

Next day, an hour earlier and you probably saw it coming, sure enough, the Marine had gone to lunch and wouldn't be back for hours.

So the Navy guy offered me some coffee (which I didn't drink, in fact didn't drink coffee until I was 25, out of the Navy)...and donuts. I had a couple of donuts and a coke.

He had all kinds of pictures on his desk and around the office. He showed me one.

It was him with a BEAUTIFUL blonde in a bikini sitting on Waikiki Beach with Diamond Head in the background. He asked me:

"Know what I'm doing here?"

I said, "No".

His response..."I'm serving my country, drinking a cold beer with a beautiful co-ed from California, and....(pause) collecting hazardous duty pay while doing it. Better than cleaning up sh*t and puke, eh?"

He had me at beautiful co-ed.

So he told me I could be doing the same thing, ONLY, and this was the catch...only if I finished high school and got my diploma. Only 4 months, and a PLAN and I could get what I wanted from my time in the service.

Jan. 30, 1970.

Two years to the day...

I was sitting on Waikiki Beach sipping a cold one, with my beautiful Wisconsin co-ed at my side, a chili 72 degree breeze blowing her long blonde strands as Diamond Head held watch in the background. And, OH...

I was serving my country and collecting hazardous duty pay, and I thought of my dad, who said,

"Son, life isn't fair...never will be, but you can always go to the County or State or any other fair and eat some cotton candy."

Exactly two years after a picture in a Navy recruiter's office convinced me the Marine Corps uniform was a "second choice"...

by executing the PLAN we had developed...

I got EVERYTHING I wanted from my four years and two days of active duty.

Here is a glimpse of a type of pic which had great influence over an 18 year old recruit: www.gjabiz.com/navy.html

Later, I'd spend 15 years as a social worker where the IHP, IPP and IEP came into play, these were Individual Habilitation, Program and Education plans respectively.

I qualified on two subs, SSBN 624, Fleet Ballistic Missile nuclear sub and LPSS 574 Landing Party (diesel) pig boat. My "qual" cards were written plans of action to achieve my SS designation. (SS=Qualified in Subs).

So, yea I may sound like a one track record, and harp on endlessly about planning AND

knowing what you want.

And anytime I forget I just close my eyes and feel the warm gentle winds of a winter's day spent in Hawaii with my sweetie and a cold brewski and a big grin on my face as I was serving my country.

What do you want? Got PLANS?

.j