Advice for vets going into business: 'You've already overcome worse obstacles'
Brice Wallace
Chris Fogt has a few words for active or retired military members considering going into business: You’ve already overcome worse obstacles.
That’s what the U.S. Army major, an Olympic silver medalist and coach involved in the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, told the crowd at the recent eighth annual Veteran-Owned Business Conference at Salt Lake Community College in Sandy.
He asked the audience members to recall their military accomplishments and the trials and troubles they overcame.
“This should give you unshakeable confidence in whatever you are doing now,” Vogt said. “Whether you’re still serving now or retired completely, you did something that very few people in the U.S. decide to do, let alone could do.”
He also encouraged them to write those accomplishments and trials into a list. His own “went on and on” as he remembered the times he spent “embracing the suck.”
Physical training in ice-cold weather. Earning a certain badge by doing a ruck march of 18.6 miles with a 25-pound sack in just a few hours. Upon completing the ruck march, Vogt said, he knew he was mentally and physically stronger than most of his friends.
“I was different, mostly in a good way, for having chosen this lifestyle. … Those are the things that set us apart from our peers. It gave me confidence that I will excel at anything I commit to do, not because I’m better than anybody, but I’ve overcome a lot of hard things,” he said.
“I want you all to have this same confidence as you run or start your business, as you network and in whatever you choose to do. Again, it is not arrogance. It’s a confidence that you can and will do anything you put your mind to.”
The trick for aspiring businesspeople is to translate the military experience into a confidence that works in a setting “when men and women we work with may have more advanced degrees than us, more on-the-job experience, more money than us or simply just don’t use as many acronyms as we do,” he said.
Vogt thought back to his experience as an Olympic athlete, including a bobsled crash. Still, he came to realize that every new endeavor will include failures and trials, so the urge not to quit carried him forward.
“If you’re on the fence or wanting to start something now, I want to remind you of how great you already are, and all the great things you have already accomplished in your life,” he told the crowd. “I want you to reflect on some of the great things you’ve done — your triumphs — but also draw strength from the failures and trials that you’ve already overcome.”
He described everyone in the audience as exceptional. “You know how to get the job done and be successful,” he said. “We’ve all experienced some tremendous things in your life.”
Everyone also needs to remember that they belong in the business realm, he added.
“You belong in the room with successful, wealthy, smart, capable business owners. You deserve a seat at the table, and you have what it takes to overcome the challenges,” said Vogt, whose experiences include competing in three Olympic Games, a 12-month deployment to Iraq and two years in a division in South Korea.
In remarks prior to Vogt’s keynote, Gary R. Harter, executive director of the Utah Department of Veterans and Military Affairs, touched on many of the same points.
“The skill sets that you learned being in the military, or for those of you currently serving, have served you well,” Harter said. “And what we’re trying to do with this conference — and that we did at the previous conference and we’ll do at next year’s conference — is to make sure you have the connections you need to be successful in whatever your endeavor is.”
The conference was presented by the Utah Veteran Business Resource Center, the Utah Department of Veteran & Military Affairs, the APEX Accelerators, the Salt Lake Chamber, the Syracuse University D’Aniello Institute for Veterans & Military Families, and The Mill Entrepreneurship Center at SLCC.