“I found the limits of my ability, but in doing so liberated myself from fear of failure.”
From an interview with ADM Stavridis about a new book, over at the USNI blog. It took a long long time for me to understand that concept well; submariners and naval officers aren’t allowed to be seen as failing, or discuss failure as anything other than some other guy who’s a lesser being. (Yes, we do admit smaller failures, particularly in the nuclear world where the culture is to admit mea culpa almost before it happens. I’m talking about personal failures.) But we do fail, being humans, and perhaps it’s healthy to have a successful four star talk about his own frailties like that. Might be useful in changing the culture a little bit.
4 Responses to ““I found the limits of my ability, but in doing so liberated myself from fear of failure.””
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March 19th, 2009 at 4:46 am
Donny Horner’s excellent essay on last two pages of this week’s Navy Times absolutely hammers the skimmer navy for its wardroom culture. Whether that dysfunctional tribe suffers from fear-of-failure or from just being a bunch of jerks, guys like Jim Stavridis really stand out … as exceptions to the skimmer norm. I say this as a qualified surface warfare officer who has written extensively on that culture and as one who’s been a Stavridis fan since he was a lieutenant. Here’s the link: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/03/navy_horner_swoculture_031509/
Submariners typically have scant experience with the climate in many surface-ship wardrooms. It really is a bit poisonous and harms the mission – success is treated as a zero-sum game. Submariners can’t afford this crap – too easy to get the ocean in the people tank if folks are fighting one another.
March 19th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
I was lucky my last float–CO and commodore were good mentors and the chain of command fell in to that culture. Then again, it was the gator navy and those guys are different from the CRUDES mafia.
Port Royal, by the way….whoa. Significant problems in execution and I wonder how widespread that was and why it wasn’t caught higher up.
March 28th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Just finished the book, a good read. You really get the sense of ‘constant stress’ these guys live under. His ship did well and he put the credit in the right places back to the crew. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes a bit as he described wonderful meals at his ports of call in Europe and that fact that his wife was able to fly to meet him. I suspect that wasn’t possible for most crew members, huh? His career certainly took off after that experience. He was an O-5 in 1995 and now an O-10! Looks like he left a lot of his contemporaries in the dust.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Not to knock the guy one bit, because it’s rare that ANYBODY talks about such stuff, but OTH, it’s easy to say now that he’s “got it made” so to speak. Unfortunately if he had voiced such opinions as a JO he never would have become an O-10. Few officers of any branch make flag rank in today’s cut-throat PC world by voicing their true views frankly and publicly. The clones of the Vinegar Joe Stilwell’s of the world need not apply.