Erik Prince: The Rise and Fall of Blackwater

Today I listened to a podcast with Erik Prince the founder of Blackwater.

It was honestly the most inspiring and interesting podcast I’ve listened to in a long time. Some key takeaways,

• Bias for action: Erik gets it done.
• Pragmatic and practical. He does not overthink (or underthink)
• Men, Mission and then Me; a true leader putting the men first
• A strong believer in acting within the spirit of A letter to Garcia.
  • I hadn’t thought about this in a few years and it made me sad.
• Better to employ your rivals than fight them
• Re-cock and go again; don’t let failure get in the way just take another angle.
• A why can’t we do that guy - things aren’t just “that’s how it is” with Erik
• A fantastic businessman with a good appreciation for history.
• Military bureaucracy breeds zampolit behaviour.
  • Case in point we had lawyers in our organisation that vetted each job; not to protect us but to make sure it conformed to the will of the political power!

So much of what Erik spoke about absolutely resonated with me. I fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and what a fucking joke those wars became through pathetic leadership at the top and in parliament.

Link to the episode, here

Tags:

#pmc #podcast