The Weld Principle - When a break is properly repaired, the scar makes you stronger.

By Rick Van Arnam

Northfield, Vermont

In the summer of 1976, my parents did something cool to our house. They started an addition large enough for an indoor swimming pool. Back then, a house with a swimming pool was as cool as any flat screen, home theater set-up available today and the fact that it was indoors made it an over-the-top project. I have fond memories of our pool, which was really a lengthy do-it-yourself project that was the vision of my dad, an architect. One early memory of the construction involves an excavator used to both build a road to the site and to dig the actual hole that would become the pool. In maneuvering the excavator in a tight spot, Fred the operator snapped the front-left steering rod making the tire swing freely and out of control. The excavator was inoperable. At that point, Fred hopped down off the seat and colorfully announced the obvious and optimistically declared that it could be repaired and made better than new. And that is exactly what he did. He brought in his welding torches on the same road that he had made and quickly repaired the break. It was the first time that I had ever heard that steel repaired by a weld is stronger at the weld than before the break. Welding can be a pretty sophisticated science, but it is true that if done correctly, a weld can be stronger due to the intense heat required in the process.

The idea that something can be made stronger through a healing or fixing process provides hope and that may explain why so many people choose to persevere through adversity and tough situations. Fred’s welding repair is the inspiration for the fifth of my eleven character principles titled, The Weld Principle, and states that, “When a break is properly repaired, the scar makes you stronger.” More important than the principle is the accompanying question, “How will you learn from mistakes or failure?”

Especially in the world of sports, who doesn’t like a good comeback story? Each of the major sports actually recognizes a Comeback Player of the Year with an award. It doesn’t really matter why a player was eligible for consideration – most fans respect and often pull for, a player who has undergone a major challenge, whether self-induced or not, and returns to excel.

This week, flying under and behind the radar of College Basketball’s Final Four, is College Hockey’s Frozen Four. Like the personal interest stories that emanated from basketball’s March Madness, there are stories associated with the hockey’s Frozen Four. The Fighting Irish may have a difficult time reaching College Football’s BCS, but the hockey program is strong and their fans hope that Notre Dame will reach the finals as they did in 2008, and win, for the first time ever. For fans who love to cheer against Notre Dame, they can hop on the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s bandwagon. The Bulldogs, of such famed alumni as Mark Pavelich (1980 Olympian) and Hockey Hall of Famer, Brett Hull, will also be looking to secure their first-ever national championship. On the other side of the semi-final bracket are Michigan and North Dakota. No school has won more national championships than Michigan and combined they have appeared in forty-three Frozen Four tournaments.

But The Weld Principle storyline that comes out of the Frozen Four this year rests with North Dakota senior Matt Frattin, who is a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award – college hockey’s premier award recognizing the year’s top player. A 2007 draft pick of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, he had been dismissed from the team by head coach Dave Hakstol prior to the start of the 2009 season after separate incidents resulting in two arrests. Skeptics will say that the coach’s decision in early 2010 to re-instate Matt Frattin was more about winning than anything else. Comeback enthusiasts, though, want to believe that Frattin learned from his mistakes and has matured his character in the process of becoming a dominant college hockey player as a senior – a year in which he led the nation with 36 goals and developed into a NHL-ready player. Either way, there is plenty to learn for all of us who face a point at which we have scratched, dented or broken our character.

First, coach Dave Hakstol cracked the door for Frattin’s re-instatement when he said in dismissing the player that, “But we also care about Matt Frattin and would like to put him in position to be able to lead a healthy lifestyle and resume his hockey career.”¹ Hakstol went on to say, “Frattin’s status with the team might be revisited.”² I have written before that the real need for purposeful character development is to close a gap that exists between skill, which can be developed in people younger and younger, and the maturity of their character, which takes much longer. Providing a chance to re-visit a player’s status provides hope and some mild encouragement without the promise of anything.

Second, Matt Frattin appears to have taken the more difficult road to the Frozen Four. A few of college hockey’s top underclassmen opt to leave school early for the pros. Frattin likely could have done just that. Had he done so, our last memory of him in the college ranks would have been his dismissal press release, not his appearance at the Frozen Four. There were conditions Frattin had to meet in order to be considered for reinstatement which points to the greatest learning related to The Weld Principle. When something in our character breaks, we need to have a plan – and follow it. Common components of any plan would include accepting responsibility and any punishment, seeking professional help for an area that may be at the core of the problem, avoiding all circumstances that could slow repair or create more damage, and establishing accountability by sharing the plan with a person or an organization that has genuine interest.

Why do fans enjoy comeback stories so much? I’m not sure there is a scientific answer to that question. But I think it has to do with the most important character trait of all – humility. Humility can grow out of humiliation and I think in most cases, an athlete who recovers from a character break, feels humiliated when he reads his name in the paper portrayed in a poor light. And facing the media at the Frozen Four and the Hobey Baker Award ceremony, you can bet that Matt Frattin will face at least as many questions about his past as he will face about his future. I’m hoping that under that stress, Matt Frattin will show us signs of being stronger reminded by the scars of his past – that is The Weld Principle.

RVA

Credits

¹ Junior Forward Matt Frattin Dismissed From Men’s Hockey Team, FightingSioux.com, August 19, 2009

² Ibid

UMD, Notre Dame hope to join NCAA elite, by Bob Snow – NHL.com Correspondent, March 30, 2011, NHL.Com

CHN Player of the Year: Matt Frattin, by CHN Staff Report, College Hockey News, www.collegehockeynews.com, April 1, 2011

Want To Be A Leader? Be An Old School Thinker.

By Rick Van Arnam

Northfield, Vermont

On a Thursday night in Afghanistan back in 2003, a friend of mine stumbled across an inexpensive way to entertain Afghan recruits – he would show a movie on the outside of a building. It was not uncommon to have upwards of 700 recruits sitting on the ground, leaning forward fully engaged with a movie in a language that they did not understand. The challenge, knowing they wanted to see an American film, was discovering what movie we could offer respectful of Afghan culture and that could be generally followed without understanding the language. Arnold Schwarzenegger proved perfect – specifically, the movie True Lies. Other than one seductive scene involving Jamie Lee Curtis, the movie’s action could be characterized as a collection of stunts rather than believable violence with enough of an American backdrop to satisfy the curiousity of our Afghan partners who wondered what America looked like. But if you recall the movie, you will remember that Arnold is really an American spy who leads a double life. He can’t tell his wife what he does for a living so juxtoposes a thrill-a-day life with that of a yawner careerist living in a white-collar suburb.

As an Intelligence officer, I can somewhat understand his predicament. I don’t have to lie to my wife about what I do, but I can’t tell her the specifics of how intelligence work is conducted. So I was a bit encouraged to watch my family eargerly form around me when I offered to show them what I did as an Intelligence officer in Afghanistan. Exciting curiousity quickly turned to disinterest as I described the amount of reading and notetaking I did daily perusing intelligence reports, significant activity data and story-boards as well as following news from all media sources. It was if they thought I was going to show a 3D movie and instead opened book. The reality is that intelligence work is often defined by reading, analyzing, reaching conclusions and making recommendations that end up in print or depicted on a busy powerpoint slide. And that is the point in reminding leaders that a lot of the most effective work requires thinking and solving what I call complex problems – those problems that have second, third and fourth order effects. While the Army does deploy techno-gadgets to protect our soldiers and has even cooler techno-gadgets that can find bad guys, most of today’s intelligence work remains rather old-school. Leaders balance, or effective leaders should balance, time spent in solitude reading, thinking and forming thoughts and ideas with time spent around a table with others working in groups to solve problems that do not have a math-like, scientific answer.

“Working Group” is a relatively new Army term that I encountered overseas and is used as often as any staff planning term or acronym. Working Groups have replaced many traditional meetings and the title is self-describing. Early on in our deployment, our Commander reminded the staff that our meetings were our work – that unlike a lot of meetings that all of us attend and sometimes dread, we should look forward to Working Groups because it is in these groups where we engaged others who could help solve big problems. Some Working Groups, just like meetings, were more effective than others. But what I found to be different about Working Groups and that impacted effectiveness, was the degree to which participants prepared and arrived with formed ideas that could only be arrived at through some old-school reading, note-taking and thought.

I recently read a lecture given by author, essayist and former Yale Professor William Deresiewicz given to the Plebe class at West Point about a year ago. His lecture is titled, Solitude and Leadership, and it explores the irony that leaders who are often surrounded by people and rely on others for their effectiveness, need to find quality time alone in which to think. Deresiewicz’s audience was young –the average age of the freshman class at West Point is likely nineteen – and so his listeners, and especially anyone who has been deployed, take pride in being able to muti-task, receive volumes information from various sources and communicate simultaneously with multiple devices. The problem with this, to which he alludes, is that original thoughts can’t be formed in noise-filled environs that today we casually accept as normal life. Deresiewicz says, “…and for too long we have been training leaders….who can answer questions, but don’t know how to ask them. Who can fulfill goals, but don’t know how to set them. Who think about how to get things done, but not whether they’re worth doing in the first place.”

So while I think some of today’s most complex problems are challenging AND exciting on which to work, the methodology to solve problems can be boring. Single-tasking in lieu of multi-tasking, forming ideas on paper or white boards in lieu of a screen and pausing to assess ideas in lieu of launching to action can seem pedestrian. It is this discipline that often finds the solution – which is really the ulimate prize. This approach requires not only thinking, but our best thinking. And our best thinking, like the work of an Intelligence analyst, is done the old fashion way – in a quiet place without distractions and perhaps using simple tools such as paper and pen.

We are today experiencing an overwhelming amount of Earth moving, global change. Since just the start of 2011, we have been witness to catastrophic and policitically fracturing events in Japan, Egypt and Libya that will hasten change throughout the world. These new events have moved in front of simmering interests in Iraq, the upcoming summer fighting season in Afghanistan and a globabl economy that may or may not be improving. These events are huge – they dwarf any technological leap forward no matter the hype or coolness available in an iPhone or iPad. And I have to agree with William Deresiewicz that solutions will require leaders who are able to think deeply. Among the leadership skills developed over time, don’t pass over the need, and discipline, to become an effective thinker.

RVA

Credits

Solitude and Leadership, Lecture at The Untied States Military Academy at West Point, by William Deresiewicz, Spring 2010, Posted March 1, 2010, www.theaermicanscholar.org/solitude-and-leadership.

Saying Thank You In Afghanistan

By Rick Van Arnam

Bagram, Afghanistan

There are certain habits leaders should master which require a sense of timing and an empathetic heart. One of these habits is acknowleding the end of uncommon experiences helping those involved to see a future made brighter because of a challenging journey. I’ve been fortunate this year to participate in two such acknowledgements one as an observer and one as the leader.

While on mid-tour leave back in June, I joined the graduating class of Cardigan Mountain School as they climbed the mountain from which the school took its name. This tradition took place at the end of the day and the headmaster seized a few moments to reflect on the significance of their pending graduation and reminded the boys that it may be the last time that every member of the class together shared the same sunset. Pictures were taken, hugs were had and parting words passed between classmates, teachers and family members to become permanent memories sure to long outlast the final rays of the day’s light.

Fast forward to November 30^th when I asked my Intelligence team to assemble in the commander’s conference room in our headquarter’s building located on Bagram Airfield. It would be the last time that this group would assemble as a team and I wanted to thank them for making this mission successful and let them know how significant their service has been. Like the now widespread Cardigan Mountain School students, this group was about to re-deploy scattering across the country and back to hometowns making perfect attendance at a future reunion near impossible. They needed to drink in the full weight and measure of what I was about to say.

There is likely not a Soldier today who hasn’t been told, “Thank you.” Ordinary and unknown citizens extend thanks in airports and public places with comfortable frequency. General Officers and Command Sergeant Majors are very good at thanking Soldiers often giving out their coin – a nice tradition unique to the Army. And VIPs, including the President of the United States, always request an assembly in large part to say, “Thanks.” Especially since the end of the Vietnam war, there is one characteristic that is distinguishing about this country. Americans are free to withdraw their support of American policy and sometimes do. Americans are also free to withdraw their support of American soldiers and, I believe, never again will. I think that is why being thanked for serving has become so common – and sincere.

But I wanted to thank the soldiers with whom I served because I had shared this uncommon experience with them and knew, better than anyone, that their excellent work was done amidst struggles and sacrifices. I’ve had the advantage and privelege of position most often serving as a quiet listener and as their interested leader. I overheard challenges with kids, struggles with schedules under a single-parent roof and saw tears of sadness when a loved one passed and no leave or plane or plans could get someone home in time to pay one’s respects. There were days when a Soldier came into my office, shut the door and asked for some time off to get through something that was upsetting or unsettling. There were stretches of long hours brought on by harasssing rockets and even one complex attack. May 19^th, the day of the “BAF attack,” will always mean something for those in that conference room. No award, no evaluation report, no public recognition really, in my estimation, means as much as sincere appreciation from someone with whom you have served and have shared so much. So I looked into the eyes of those assembled and jokingly thanked them for assembling at a mandatory meeting. And then I thanked them….as sincerely as I knew how. As a group – one last time.

As much as I hope my Soldiers felt my sincerity, it is even more important that they understand how significant their serivce has been. So I shared with them some of the same language Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been using in speeches to highlight a few remarkable statistics describing our all volunteer force. On September 30, 2010, Mr. Gates spoke to students at Duke University and said that, “The Iraq and Afghan campaigns represent the first protracted, large-scale conflicts since our Revolutionary War fought entirely by voluteers.” This volunteer force represents less than one percent of our Nation’s population based on approximately 2.4 million men and women in uniform of nearly 300 million countrymen and women. It is not even true to suggest that anyone could serve by raising his or her hand to become a volunteer which would suredly mean a deployment to a combat zone. According to a survey conducted by Mission: Readiness, a Washington-based non-profit organization, three out of four people between the ages of seventeen and twenty-four years old are ineligible due to poor education, obesity or other physical ailments. Even among those who have a high school diploma, many fail the military’s entrance exam known as the Armed Forces Qualification Test. A majority of Soldiers, I suspect, are unaware of their historic statisitical significance volunteering to join a minority tasked with securing a nation’s freedoms. I thought that hearing this message from me, someone with whom they have persevered daily since late 2009, would be a lasting claim to carry with them as they enter airport hangars and terminals arriving to a grateful reception.

There was one final point I made to my Soldiers and it focused on the responsbilitiy of their significant service. Despite terrific benefits for those who serve, I wanted my Soldiers to think about not being entitled, but being enabled. I told them to never let the deployment, as disruptive and sacrificial as it may have been, to become an excuse not to do something that you really want to do. Rather, view your significant service as an enabler – each one of my Soldiers has grown and developed over this deployment. It is especially pleasing to see the self confidence and self esteem in young Soldiers rise because they embraced an uncommon experience. It will be enjoyable to learn about Soldiers who return or enroll in school, pursue Officer Candidate School or ROTC, or attend Army schools to further their skills or leadership.

The Army is far from perfect and, like any organization, I observed performance, discipline and attitudinal behaviors derailing a Soldier’s potential. But like any adverse opportunity embraced well, most of these Soldiers grew and matured all the while serving something larger than self. To thank them wasn’t required, it was simply my honor.

RVA

Credits

Lecture at Duke University (All-Volunteer Force), As Delivered by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Durham, North Carolina, Wednesday, September 29, 2010, www.defense.gov/speeches/secdef.aspx

Girding for an Uphill Battle for Recruits, by Christian Davenport and Emma Brown, Washington Post Online, November 5, 2009

The Pricelessness of Hindsight

By Rick Van Arnam

Bagram, Afghanistan

Time is a powerful asset. Even compared to money, which is regarded as time’s sibling asset, time has advantages that cannot be matched. For instance, even as time passes there is pricelessness in dissecting past decisions with specific consideration given to when and how a decision that has already been made, is then made public. While there is likely a range of opinions on LeBron James’ decision to leave his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat, there is far more negative consensus regarding how he ostentatiously publicized his decision.

Even LeBron, it appears, has come to realize that. Michael Wallace, who covers the Heat and the NBA for ESPN, recently covered James’ reflection on his decision to sign with Miami. Writing in the wake of the start of the NBA regular season, James is quoted as saying, “If I had to go back on it, I probably would do it a little bit different.” Implied in this statement is that James would not announce his decision in a one-hour, primetime made-for-sports-TV show.

One of my eleven character principles is the Three Decisions Principle which states, “Making a single decision requires you to make two more.” These latter two decisions address the when and how surrounding a single decision and are summarized by asking the question, “When and how will I act on the decision I made?” In hindsight, I think LeBron acknowledged that his actions associated with when and how to announce his decision to sign with Miami has negatively impacted his public perception probably more than the actual decision.

For LeBron, as is the case for many young athletes, time remains on his side. He has both the value of passed time to look back on his decisions as well as the assumed future time to put that wisdom in action. That really is how he, or any of us, accelerates the maturing of our character.

RVA

Credits

For LeBron James, hindsight 20/20, by Michael Wallace, ESPN.com, November 1, 2010.

Hazing, Shoulder Pads and a $54,000 Dinner

By Rick Van Arnam

Bagram, Afghanistan

The views and opinions are mine and mine alone and should not be interpreted as shared by others with whom I serve or the United States Army.

Roger Staubach was my first sports hero. He was the last service academy player to win the Heisman Trophy doing so in 1963 when Navy finished second in the country with a 9 – 1 record. I doubt that a service academy will ever again finish ranked so high or that a Heisman Trophy will ever again be awarded to a Cadet or Midshipman. Most all know that Staubach is a Hall of Famer and spent the 1970’s playing quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. You may have guessed this introduction is really not about him, but rather an issue generated by current Cowboys who, in my opinion, are fostering a very un-Super Bowl like chemistry and reputation. I admit to being old school, but not to being old. So I won’t apologize for saying that the only thing large about Dez Bryant’s $54,000 dinner bill is the gap between the obvious athletic skill of the players involved and lack of collective wisdom in the recent decisions that could be characterized as hazing and described as gluttonous.

This whole fiasco started when rookie Dez Bryant refused to carry the veteran Roy Williams’ shoulder pads. That is one of the rights of passage by which a rookie apparently becomes a full-fledged member of the team. It is also called hazing even if, I admit, there is likely no physical or emotional harm for not doing it – only financial so it appears. The punishment for a rookie not carrying a veteran's shoulder pads was dinner and Bryant recently treated Williams and several teammates making up for his rookie oversight - the bill came to more than $54,000. Public reaction ensued, not surprisingly. Bryant termed the public disapproval over the $54,000 dinner as ‘funny’ further separating his understanding from reality.

Roy Williams, talking after the $54,000 dinner, hinted that he sort of gets it when he observed, “But he's still out there as a punt returner, catching balls and doing things he needs to do, and I'm doing things I need to do to make this team better.” I always thought that was the best way to become part of the team.

Soldiers are not in the entertainment business so I can’t admit to fully understanding the perspective of the two athletes seated at the center of a $54,000 dinner table. And neither have those athletes served overseas so it may be easy for them to dismiss my perspective, but here are three things to consider.

1. Privates and Lieutenants are not expected to carry body armor for First Sergeants and Lieutenant Colonels. If you visit any unit, you will find veteran soldiers not only carrying their own equipment, but taking full responsibility for cleaning personal weapons and maintaining their gear. It just works better that way.

2. $54,000 is about what an E5 (Sergeant) earns including base salary, housing allowances and other benefits. That is an annual amount. And the job can be dangerous. Very dangerous.

3. The best way to become part of a team is to work hard, do more than what is expected of you and always work to improve your skills. You could be really good at hazing others, or really good at being a hazed victim, and still be a non-factor on game day. Hazing does not improve anyone’s performance.

To be fair, I hope that something positive will emerge from all of this – for the players and fans. It is unlikely to occur until the players involved accept a timeless truth about a gap that exists between athletic skills and a fully mature character. The talent that enables a player to become a professional draft pick is likely more mature than the character necessary to handle the responsibility that comes with being a high performing and highly visible athlete. Closing that gap is where time, money and energy should be spent.

Update

In the days that have passed since I wrote my first draft, the Cowboys lost to the Tennessee Titans 34 – 27 dropping their record to 1 – 3.

Acknowledgements

Roy Williams pays back Dez Bryant

By Calvin Watkins

ESPNDallas.com
September 29, 2010

Dez Bryant: Dinner bill 'funny'

By Tim MacMahon
ESPNDallas.com

8 October 2010

Why Character, Why Now - The Adversity Principle

By RICK VAN ARNAM

Bagram, Afghanistan

About three years ago, I asked my daughter what her most painful memory was. I don’t recall much about the day – whether it was a sunny or rainy, warm or cold – the details escape me and will never be reclaimed, but I remember her answer. We were somewhere alone, likely driving. We were having a serious conversation absent an iPod or a texting cell phone. I thought she would reply recounting the story about her bike accident that happened on August 19, 2005. She was nine years old and riding down Turkey Hill Road on her way to the municipal pool. There is a stretch on our dirt road that gently slopes downward with a field on the right and woods on the left. Trailing her brother, she heard something down and to the left-rear of her bike, like something catching in the chain, and looked back to investigate. Her movement had the unintentional consequence of steering the bike to the left toward the woods. Her front tire fell off the road and into a ditch immediately stopping the bike and breaking her right wrist and her left upper arm as she launched forward, helmet and headfirst into a maturing maple tree. My cool-headed son, who was eleven at the time, provided comfort and aid and sped off on his bike to call me from our home. I arrived on the scene within minutes. The next couple of hours were scary. The helmet, now cracked, had done its job preventing serious injury, but she was broken, literally. Her wrist needed a cast and her upper arm needed a pin inserted surgically. It broke my heart to see her hurt, shaking and looking so frightened. So when I asked her about her most painful memory, like an attorney, I thought I knew the answer. But I was wrong. Her most painful memory, as it turned out, was watching me go to Afghanistan in 2003 – for the first time.

Surprised by her reply, I quizzed her. “Elana,” I asked, “how come your bike accident isn’t your most painful memory.” Her insightful answer was without pause as she explained, “The bike accident hurt, but only for a little while…it was just physical pain. But watching you deploy hurt my heart and lasted much longer.”

What these two experiences do not have in common is the type of pain – physical versus emotional – and where the pain was felt – upper arms versus the lower heart (ache). But what the two experiences do have in common is that neither was chosen. If you ask yourself, “What is the most painful thing that has happened to me?” chances are good that you will arrive at something that you did not choose. In these answers, and reflection, is the inspiration for my second of eleven character principles titled, The Adversity Principle, and states that, “Sometimes you choose adversity, but more often adversity picks you.” More important than the principle is the accompanying question, “How will you respond?”

Appreciating the onset of adversity is not an instinct that comes naturally, but could become the start of an opportunistic response if thought of as the first-step in a character shaping process. The Roman poet Horace suggested that in one of his reflections on life, “Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which, in prosperous circumstances, would have laid dormant.”

Chuck Swindoll, in his famous quote sometimes attributed to Lou Holtz, made it even easier – he simply called adversity ‘life’ saying, “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it.” Sandwiched between Horace and Holtz is Paul writing to the Romans nearly two thousand years ago that we “should rejoice in our sufferings,” which is not a conversational phrase often heard over coffee at a Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts. But it is true – adversity has a way of shaping our character, for better or for worse, based primarily on our first response. The character developing steps that follow – to persevere, the formation of specific character traits and the confidence found in true hope – lay out the entire process.

The 10% of things that happen in life are not age discriminatory. Jackie Robinson, for example, experienced a lifetime’s worth of adversity in 1968 and none was chosen. Approaching fifty years old, 1968 was a year likely more difficult for Robinson than a year two decades earlier in which he broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier. I was a little too young to remember the details of 1968, but it was a year set apart from 1946 – the first full year of peace following WWII and a year that John Updike once suggested was the best year of the 20th century. If 1968 was difficult for our country, it was more so for Jackie Robinson. In that year, his eldest son, Jackie Jr., was arrested – twice. A Vietnam veteran, he led a wandering life upon his return fighting war demons by indulging in drugs and getting to know the police for all the wrong reasons. Also that year, both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated. If Robinson’s impact on Civil Rights is best contained in the history of baseball, King’s impact on Civil Rights is best expanded upon in the history of mankind. Robinson and King were dogged in their purpose and shared a special camaraderie. And although he sparred with Senator Kennedy, Robinson was growing warmer to the former Attorney General, whose Civil Rights record was noteworthy. The tragic death of mainstream leaders was hard on Jackie Robinson, like losing teammates while in pursuit of a championship. 1968 was also the year in which Jackie Robinson’s mother passed and his only daughter was married despite her father’s reservations (it would later end in divorce). And if he did not suffer enough heartache in 1968, Robinson also learned that he had real heart issues signaling the start of his final, three year decline. For an exceptional athlete who once persevered through adversity reliant in large part on physical giftedness, it was faith and hope that carried him through 1968 when his physical condition could no longer keep up.

In sixty or so days, I’ll be home from my second deployment to Afghanistan and at some point will find myself again alone and in serious conversation with my daughter. I’ll likely ask her about this period of voluntold* adversity curious to determine its impact. I won’t, though, assume to know her answer as I did a few years ago. She is fourteen now and a veteran of seeing me go away. Somehow, I suspect her positive response to my first deployment shaped character traits in her that made this deployment less painful. But I’ll let you know what she tells me.

RVA

* Vol·un·told
 –adjective
Asked without the ability to say no. An Army word frequently used to describe a Soldier’s notification of deployment.

Acknowledgements
Jackie Robinson: A Biography, By Arnold Rampersad

Why Character, Why Now – The YouTube Principle

By Rick Van Arnam

Bagram, Afghanistan

YouTube uploaded its first video on April 23, 2005 and, in what approximates a long military deployment, was sold about eighteen months later to Google for $1.65 billion. You would think such valuation resulted from explosive revenue, but it was not. In fact Google, which runs YouTube as a subsidiary, reports that “we have yet to realize significant revenue benefits from our acquisition of YouTube” (Google, Form 10-Q, 5 May 2010). To put that purchase amount in perspective, consider a couple of figures in the news recently related to the Kabul Bank in Afghanistan which may be near collapse if not insolvent. Afghanistan’s President Karzai, trying to reassure the international community, stated that the country’s foreign currency reserves stood at $4.8 billion (New York Times, September 2, 2010). And according to the CIA Factbook, government revenues for all of Afghanistan in 2009 amounted to approximately $1 billion. So why is it that YouTube, a start-up company began by three former PayPal employees, commanded such a purchase price despite an absence of profit?

The answer, in large part, is due to the insatiable human appetite to watch last minute’s action from what is a considered a replay through its maturity as a current event to something that eventually endures as history. YouTube entertains – perhaps the largest purpose of video – and its founders capitalized on the confluence of technology and this human demand. The popularity of YouTube inspires the first of my eleven character principles which I have named, The YouTube Principle, and states that, “All of your life is recordable.”

Following entertainment, education may be the second most popular purpose of video and both entertainment and education provide context for the process of character development. History will make room for both – people of character and those described simply as characters. Deciding between becoming a person of character and becoming a character is at the heart of the question that accompanies The YouTube Principle which is, “What will comprise your culminating sixty-second highlight?” Think of it as an ESPN SportsCenter exercise. If your life were to become an ESPN SportsCenter highlight, what would you want it to include? In a virtually transparent world, how you answer that question has never been more important.

Earlier this year, Faisal Shahzad drove a SUV into Times Square, parked it and walked away. The SUV contained a crude bomb that was intended to detonate causing massive casualties. Fortunately, no one was injured and the ill performing device was detected before it could cause its intended harm. Within a short period, Shahzad, a naturalized citizen born in Pakistan, was rounded up at Kennedy Airport. Among the first investigative instincts toward apprehending Shahzad was to look at surveillance footage from up to eighty cameras scanning one of the busiest areas of New York City. Not surprisingly, he was quickly found on video. But police had enough on him without the video by associating him with the vehicle’s registration which was tracked from the SUV’s vehicle identification number.

I realize that the terrorist caught on a surveillance camera in Times Square is an exception. Most all of us don’t have character traits that drive our behavior outside of the law. But it is a high profile example of how effortless is it to trace steps in a person’s life. It is not an overstatement to say that a person’s life today is almost completely traceable with every step or transaction recorded by camera, video or ATM.

Like it or not, we all may as well have a bar code scanned on our foreheads that would allow us to be tracked like a FedEx package. This fact makes the Leave No Trace program better suited for outdoor enthusiasts than a mantra for living life. Leading a life without trace is not only impractical, it would be tragic and begs for answer The YouTube Principle accompanying question, “What will comprise your culminating sixty-second highlight?” In that answer is found the real incentive associated with The YouTube Principle: knowing our lives are recordable should not be a deterent to act, but rather an incentive to act well. That incentive will fill a personal library with replays, some held privately and many more held publicly, that tell a story accurately of who a person really is. And for the same reason that instant replay has been used more and more to adjudicate sports plays, video doesn’t mislead.

Video serves two leading purposes – to entertain and to educate. Wisdom in action, my definition for character, has much to do with both entertainment and education. For example, video has much in common with a sports industry dominated by players serving dual roles as athletes-entertainers. As athletes, players take advantage of cameras that circle arenas and fields to make in-game adjustments, prepare for the next game or discover skills that need further development. As entertainers, the camera lens reveals character in celebration, in interviews and in off field decisions. There are other dual roles in the world today – citizen-soldier, student-athlete – even the line between professional and amateur is blurring writes Megan McArdle a noted writer on business and economics (theatlantic.com, June 24, 2010) suggesting one could either be a professional-amateur or an amateur-professional.

Of the eleven principles of character, I’ve placed The YouTube Principle first to call attention to the transparency of our culture – not to deter action, but to remind us that by placing acquired wisdom in action our character is shaped. After all, a life lived is both transparent and reviewable. But it is not both reviewable and re-livable.

RVA