 and welcome to Fignance, The Power of Imagination, episode five of season one. And I'm glad you're here with me. I hope you're here with me. I know a few people are like my family. Today we're gonna talk about mission effects in celebrating and how you celebrate big creating your mission. So why, how did this come to mind? The on reality format gives me a lot of freedom about what I choose. And this came to me as I was cleaning the house. I was on a mission. Why was that a mission? It was because my family just returned from six weeks in Chile. And so last week I had to be on a mission to complete six weeks of house cleaning in three days. And by golly, I did it. So I'm pretty happy about that and very happy to have them back. I think it is important that we set the stage for this episode, the way we always do by talking about the nature of on reality. This is not a political commentary, it never is. And I want to avoid the vitriol of politics and just comment on things that I think are of value. Not because I know everything or not that I want to preach to you but I think I've learned a few things in my long life some through doing things right and many through doing things not so right. And that's what led me to want to talk about being on a mission. What is being on a mission? What is a mission? Well, there are multiple definitions of a mission. It can be a specific task or objective, a definitive military task in my 33 years in the Air Force. I've had a lot of definitive military tasks. And it can be a calling or vocation. Your mission in life can be that calling or vocation. And the religious mission. What I like to think about is a pre-established often self-imposed objective or purpose that whole mission thing. I think it's very important to us. I think it sometimes becomes an obsession. It's what your life is centered around. And it can be self-serving or self-less. I've had several missions. My first real mission in life, other than staying somewhat out of trouble was to fly. I wanted to fly and you've seen in previous episodes of figments, the power of imagination, how that all happened. That led to being on a mission to serve honorably in the military. That led to adjusting that mission as I rose into leadership positions, not to achieve personal success. That was still an ambition, but to create successful subordinates. And I found that far more rewarding one, one of my principal goals rather, was to go to work every day, trying to achieve the unit mission by creating successful subordinates. Because if the people who work for you are successful in their own right, guess what? The organization is going to be successful. Children are a mission. They often facilitate their own mission success more than the parents do, certainly in my case. But they can be a mission. Personal happiness is a mission for some. It's been a mission for me. And I'd like to go back to the notion that some missions can be selfish and some can be selfless. And personal happiness I've found can be a very negative mission to have. If all you're seeking is your own happiness and you don't tie your own happiness to a higher calling, a better outcome, serving others, then first of all, you'll never achieve it. You won't be really happy. Happy and secondly, you'll do some things in life that you later regret and I certainly have. Material possessions or a big bank account can be a mission. Again, I don't see how that can be a good thing. And I've picked my vehicles, for example, my motorcycle and my Mustang, but that can't be your mission. It can be window dressing if you will for your life, but it's not enough to sustain you and make you truly happy. Community service and service to others is something that can be a very positive mission to have and something to seek. And that leads me to what the real inspiration besides the six weeks of cleaning in three days, well, the inspiration for this episode of Figments on Reality was. I had a chance to have lunch with an Air Force fighter pilot whom I had worked with but never met, thanks, Zoom. And we met and had lunch and got to know each other. We'll call him Slider because he goes by Slider. Well, that's a good reason. That's a great Air Force fighter pilot nickname and I'll share the origins of that if we have time at the end, but I found him to be bright, funny, irreverent, sort of a typical fighter pilot, but he also had a compelling sense of purpose and focus that certainly isn't unique, but it was compelling. As we spoke, as we got to know each other, he talked about a church mission that he'd been on as a young man. And that mission had clearly impacted him and had lasting positive effects. And I'm not a huge fan of organized religion. Certainly there are pluses and minuses, but I think church missions, when they're service-oriented and not conversion to the faith-oriented, I can be a second-order objective, I guess, our positive and legal-lasting effect on the young person who completes it. I also reflected on people I've known who have been in the Peace Corps and I've known quite a few. Many of them were diplomats and I would just say this. They, and I'm generalizing, but they, if their first job was serving in the Peace Corps overseas, often in a remote and impoverished environment, seem to have something special about them. A selflessness, a commitment, an adaptability to changing circumstances that just makes them better people, makes them better at whatever mission they've gotten in the diplomatic community. And I think about that a lot because I've known so many of them and it always strikes me that they are special folks. So let's talk about being on a mission and choosing your mission wisely. Those who have missions that matter or maybe even that don't matter are affected by the pursuit of that mission, how they executed and the outcome. They're often affected by second-order consequences and this is a concept that I think a lot about and I'd like to give you the definition there. Second-order effects are defined as something that is a consequence of the original consequence. So to the first order, every action has a consequence and to the second order, every consequence has its own consequence. Changing some aspect, this is a quote that I found online, found of all wisdom, the internet, changing some aspect of a complex system and life is full of complex systems, always introduces second-order effects, some of which may be antithetical to the original intent of the change. In other words, if you embark on a mission, achieve your original objectives, then there have got bound to be second-order effects and sometimes those are not good and they're not helpful. For example, we're witnessing tragic second-order effects of our original military mission in Afghanistan. Now I was in Pentagon on September 11th and supported Operation Enduring Freedom, the Afghanistan mission early on, not in country, in other parts of the Middle East and South Asia and we needed to be there. We needed to deny a sanctuary, I believe to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but the way it was pursued created some really tragic second-order effects. The latest approach to improving vaccine rates is another one where we might consider the second-order effects now, getting more people vaccine and if you're not, I encourage you to get vaccinated against COVID-19, especially with the Delta variant in the mix is a good objective. It's a mission worth pursuing and I hope we succeed in that pursuit. But one of the ideas that has been put forth has been the use of cash incentives for those who get vaccinated currently, not those of us who already did it early on. I don't care about that. It isn't so much about who gets the incentive or who doesn't to me. It's about what's the second-order effect of making people wait for an incentive to get vaccinated? What happens with the next pandemic or outbreak? Are people going to delay getting vaccinated in their self-interest to get some form of compensation? That would be a pretty normal human response and it would be a negative second-order effect of incentivizing vaccines. So when you choose your mission, it's not enough simply to make it selfless and to make it a matter of serving others. You've got to consider what next and really third and fourth order what next and what next and what next because I'm pretty sure that's where we are in Afghanistan. So when you choose your mission, consider your objective, make it something of service, you'll be happier says me from my own experience, good and bad and then consider the sequels if you will. Once you achieve your mission, it's a natural thing to want to celebrate and I've been lucky enough to celebrate a successful mission. And for example, in the air war over Serbia where we were trying to stop ethnic cleansing of Kosvar, Albanian Kosvars, Muslim people in the province of Kosovo, that was a worthy mission and I got to stand on the stage with the president of the United States after we achieved it and celebrate what? My role, no, I felt good about my role but that's not what we were celebrating. Celebrate the victory over tyranny and oppression and the role that the folks who worked for me at Aviano played in that victory. And that was a good celebration worth doing. Once again, second order comes into effect because nothing was simple after disrupting if you will the complex system in Serbia that had led to the original oppression and we're still not done. I think we have a moral obligation to see those things through when we initiate the change. So that's one way to celebrate. I don't often look to sports figures to see an example of how to celebrate but there's one worth looking at I encourage you to take a look at this if you haven't already. I'm a Wisconsin native, a cheesehead and so of course I was avidly watching the Milwaukee Bucks in six as they won the NBA championship. So already big sports fan of Yanis Hanan and Kumbo originally from Nigeria, then Greece, now Milwaukee. He's a compelling personality. He's imminently likable and if you see any video interviews, anything, Yanis I'm pretty sure you'll agree. He's also extraordinarily articulate and he's likable and articulate not for an athlete, but for a human being. He really is a compelling person in the pursuit of this championship in Milwaukee which hadn't won one for 50 years he talked repeatedly about doing it for the team and more importantly for the city of Milwaukee and the community that he'd become part of. He signed a contract extension when he could have gone to super team and made more money and stayed in Milwaukee with the team that drafted him and did so because of his mission to bring that championship to Milwaukee and it wasn't easy or arguably the best team in the NBA for two years and then fell short in playoffs and this year they did it. And when they did it, Yanis celebrated in a unique way and this is something you just have to go. Yanis went as hopefully you saw in the graphic to Chick-fil-A, wanted some food, hungry the morning after the victory and he went there with his wife, girlfriend actually and with the two trophies, the NBA championship trophy and the finals most valuable player trophy. He pulled up to the window filming it live on Instagram and Chick-fil-A, I guess they have somebody who takes your order in person out at the car, they don't make you walk into the speaker. I think it's a matter of efficiency, not personality. And he said to the young lady who's taking service, say you don't mind if I put you on my Instagram live on camera, do you know? He said, oh, there are 150,000 viewers right now and that was probably an understatement. Certainly many, many more have seen it on YouTube or Instagram since then. And he ordered 50 chicken minis, 50 years and he scored 50 points in the final game. He said, not 51, not 49, 50 chicken minis. And then he drove up to get his order and his car was surrounded by fans. He let one of them reach in the window and touch the trophy. But this was a celebration that he shared with others and I'm sure he was personally happy and proud that he achieved it. But he wasn't selfishly happy that he had achieved it. And it is worth watching. There's also an interview where he talks about ego, pride and humility and how ego is about the past and pride is about the future. Humility is about doing your best in the moment. Yana Sanan and Kumbo is somebody we should look to for how to find a mission and execute it. You know, he's just an athlete but I think he's a special guy with a compelling story and I hope he'll take a look at it. And the reason I tie a mission and the effects of your mission to celebration is because I'm troubled by one notion of celebration in our society. Many of you know that one of my missions has been inclusiveness and diversity especially with regard to women, peace and security. And I'll let my record stand for that. I've walked up and it's very important to me but when I look at some of the discussion and coverage of inclusion activities and efforts, I'm all for them. A phrase that's often used is celebrate who we are. Well, who you are doesn't matter. I mean, you're a human being. There are only billions of them on the planet. And as an individual, your personal humanness, to me is not very important. What would you do with your humanity? I think is very important. What you do with your mission is really important. So I'd like to talk about somebody that during my military service, I felt was worth celebrating. And his name was Bob LeBlanc. I was the squadron commander of the world famous triple nickel fighter squadron, America's greatest fighter squadron at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona. We had some awesome fighter pilots, other great members of the team. And during the time I was the commander, the team, the squadron did very well. Guess who's fault it wasn't? It wasn't my fault that we did very well. And I think the person that had the most impact of all of the great people I served with there was a retired Air Force senior non-commissioned officer named Bob LeBlanc. He had a really important role. He drove the squadron truck. Doesn't sound very important, does it? When I say the squadron truck, Bob LeBlanc drove the truck that took the pilots to and from the airplanes because the parking ramp was a ways away from the squadron. And of course, being Arizona, it was kind of warm there. But Bob didn't just drive the squadron truck. He made it his mission. And he executed with passion and total commitment every day. And I hadn't known him before I came to be the commander. I came from another squadron. But Bob would drive us out to our jets. We'd be focused on the mission and probably not particularly warm or communicative with Bob. But every time he dropped every pilot off at his F-15, Bob would say, have a safe flight. And he meant it. And he reinforced the emphasis on flying safety that we had. When he picked us up after a mission, remember it's hot in Arizona. And for those of you who've never flown a 9G capable jet fighter, it's pretty hard work physically. You really have to be an athlete to some degree. So we'd land and Bob would give each pilot a cold ice cold towel to wipe down with. And it was awesome. His mission was the squadron's mission. One day, Bob came back from taking some pilots back from the jets. And he came to my office, the squadron commander's office. He said, Colonel Leaf, I was Lieutenant Colonel's time. I'm worried about Colonel So-and-So. Colonel So-and-So was an officer, a senior officer, a real Colonel, going through an F-15 re-qualification course, as they do if they've been in a non-flying job. Said he didn't look, Bob said. He didn't look good getting out of the flight, out of the jet. He looks a little shaky and his color wasn't good. Bob's the truck driver, not the flight surgeon, but he's committed to the squadron mission. So I trusted Bob by then. I knew well enough that this is not something you'd overreact to or make up, certainly. And so we got Colonel So-and-So to a flight surgeon, a real doctor. And it turned out he did have a medical issue. It wasn't a major thing, but probably shouldn't have been flying. And they got him treated and he returned to the flying program and got re-qualified and went off to be a senior leader in a Air Force fighter wing. That was striking to me. Bob's just a truck driver, but he was so much more. And he embodied how I wanted people in the squadron to be in terms of their commitment to the mission, regardless of their job. So we celebrated it, celebrated Bob the Block, gave an award in front of the whole squadron, explained to people the role he had. And that's really when the squadron took off in terms of overall unit performance. Bob the Block had far more to do with that than I did. And it was worth celebrating. And that's the kind of thing we should celebrate, not our simple existence or the details of our existence whether they be any thing we use to define a human being, but what we do with that. And so my advice to you, not that you asked for it, but you did tune in, so you're gonna get it anyway, is to have a mission and understand what that mission is. Think about it and be committed to it. Make sure you choose your mission wisely and that it's something that serves more than only you. I think that's important. Fortunately, we have time to talk about Slider who got his nickname when he was on a mission, on a combat mission on his first combat deployment, is a brand new flight lead, or I'm sorry, wingman in the F-15E. And they were flying over Iraq, I believe if I remember the story correctly. And there were some friendly troops in big trouble being attacked by insurgents and at great risk. There was a ground controller guiding them to the target so they could expend their bombs and eliminate the threat. And this lets war folks to a dirty business, that's a tragic business, but friendlies were in trouble and Slider was wingman on a two-ship that had to take care of business. Slider heard the controller clear him to drop all of his ordinance on the threat. Unfortunately, Slider's flight lead, knowing that he had a brand new wingman, flying with him, did not hear that. And so when Slider rolled in on the target and expended all of his ordinance and eliminated the threat, the flight lead thought he had dropped without clearance to do so and basically went berserk on the radio. Eventually it was all cleared up, they reviewed the tapes, recognized that he dropped with clearance and did a really good job on a very early combat mission for the then young aviator. Slider is an acronym. It stands for screw lead, I'll drop everything regardless. He was on a mission in difficult circumstances and he achieved that mission. Nah, let's not ignore the second and third order consequences, but Slider inspired me to think about my missions, to reflect on others I've seen and have missions that were worth pursuing. And I'll use that and make sure that my missions aren't just six weeks of house going in three days. So I would like to thank you for tuning in. I hope you have found this thought provoking and maybe inspiring, that'd be great. Our next thing tech presents figments, the power of imagination, a week from today on the 9th of August will be with my niece, Julie Wade. She's also on a mission. She also says she's hilarious and she's going to have to prove it, but what I know she is, is a good person who's made her mission helping others. And she describes herself as ordinary normal, regular, I don't think you'll find her that way at all. I think you'll find her awesome inspiring and I hope hilarious. So thanks to Think Tech for allowing me to do these shows. I'd like to remind you that Think Tech Hawaii is very like totally relied on donations to produce this in the 30 talk shows a week that they put on their website and you can find something about almost anything on Think Tech Hawaii. So please go to their webpage, consider donating and I will see you in seven days on figments, the power of imagination with my niece. Mahalo and Aloha.