What my time in the military taught me about starting a business
Ever wonder what the world looks like through the eyes of a Gen Zer?
I'm a 25-year-old (recent) college grad who has seen and done more in my young life than most. Serving in the military gives me a unique perspective on the world and has helped me to launch a vodka seltzer brand from scratch. Infused with this worldly knowledge I'm passionate about sharing my vision with you.
I've had a job since I was 10.
Hard work was always the easiest way for me to get what I wanted growing up. I am incredibly grateful for that experience. It taught me something that most kids don't learn until they are graduating from college and finally not on their parent's phone plan anymore.
Student debt or the military?
It wasn't put quite that bluntly to me but my parents and I both knew the deal. I came from the as blue-collar as it gets parents who sacrificed everything to keep their kids happy and out of the loop on the money struggles. This is a mom that spent one winter without a car and walked to and from her crossing-guard stop. She did this every day so that I could stay in dance lessons which were the same price as my rent during college.
This also is what made it so easy to accept hard work as an easy choice. I ended up in a recruiter's office by accident when my mom told me about an opportunity that could take the place of my paper route. Even better, it was only once a month. At that time I had been delivering 425 newspapers every Saturday with my mom... Who, no matter how mean I was to her during puberty, took almost 2 hours every single Saturday to take me.
Only after we were in the recruiter's office, she realized the opportunity someone put in her ear was enlisting in the Army National Guard.
Lol.
But... I heard 100% college tuition and it had my attention. I knew college was next but I was also very engaged in the idea of doing some push-ups and skipping the $65k in debt as a 24-year-old.
A month after I graduated high school in 2015 I left for Fort Leonardwoord Missouri for basic training.
On September 11th, 2016 I graduated as a United States soldier.
So proud of myself for that one.
I always thought “Cool. Glad other people are willing to do the military because that never could be me.” Yet here I was... happy tears because I really did that shit and only cried like once.
I left with my parents after graduation for a few hours. Remember this was the first time in 10 weeks I:
had more than like 4 minutes to eat
My nervous system could finally just relax
Had the opportunity for a silly goose afternoon on a sunny Sunday after a milestone moment
Obviously, we got Mexican and split a pitcher of margs, drinking was a huge no-off post.
What were they gonna do... fire me?
Fast forward through 36 weeks of active duty training and a 6-month humanitarian deployment to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
I now found myself in an advisor's office. A very insistent Italian lady was insisting I study abroad. More on that later I'm sure.
It was two weeks before I was to be stationed somewhere in the humid, sticky, flat, midwest Summer in July... unless I was going to study abroad.
I had less than 24 hours to get a scholarship that would pay for most of my travel. Also, thanks to your taxpayer dollars, I had a tuition scholarship. So spending a summer in Italy and Switzerland even while taking classes was vastly superior to this 90-degree dirty summer situation I had come to realistically anticipate from the military.
It was about this time while explaining to my advisor why I was a marketing major I blurted out “well, I want to own my own business one day.", and "I know if I can market a product I can sell it!” that she asked, “why aren't you in the Entrepreneurial Program? It's brand new!”.
