Green Football

When I was a kid, somebody told me I couldn’t be an athlete. I couldn’t be in the military. Why? Because I had big, flat feet. That was it. My future was supposed to be limited by the shape of my damn arches.

That story could have ended right there. But it didn’t.

Instead, I played college football as an Offensive Lineman. I attended the Dallas Cowboys rookie combine. I played rugby. I boxed. And eventually, I became a US Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Technician, one of the most physically and mentally demanding jobs in the military. Even inside the Navy, people told me I couldn’t make it.

After exiting the military, I started my career in finance. Within six weeks, I was recruited to UBS, the world’s largest private bank, because I was fearless about knocking on the doors of the most affluent homes in Nashville.

Then I told corporate to kiss my shiny ass. I left the suit behind and traveled the world, training and conducting EOD operations for the US State Department. And eventually, I started EOD Gear.

When I started EOD Gear, I was working on active bombing ranges and running the business out of my garage between contracts. The big companies said I wouldn’t make it. Bankers wouldn’t talk to me because they said, “You’re scary,” and we didn’t have government contracts yet. My neighborhood HOA lost its mind over the semitrucks and employee cars lining the street.

Every step along the way, I was told, “You can’t.” And every time, I proved them wrong.

Today, EOD Gear is more than a supplier of tools. We’re a manufacturer, shipping EOD, Special Operations equipment, and armor around the world.

Here’s the truth: I didn’t succeed because I was flawless. I didn’t succeed because I had the perfect plan. I succeeded because I was willing to fail forward, again and again, and I refused to quit.

Failing forward isn’t a good plan in academia. In school, failure is punished. In real life, failure is practice. It’s reps. It’s how you get strong. In the gym, you don’t get stronger by lifting the weight you can already handle. You get stronger by pushing into the reps that burn, the ones you fail on, the ones that force you to adapt.

Life works the same way. Business works the same way. Combat works the same way.

I took my beating in the pool at Navy Dive School. I’ve failed in the weight room. I’ve failed in business deals. But the refusal to quit and the insistence on setting outrageous goals and chasing them relentlessly, that’s what stacked into success.

That’s what this book is about.

I call it Green Football.

What Is Green Football?

At its core, Green Football is about getting More, Faster.

• More progress, more results, more rewards
• Faster than the safe, slow, predictable path everyone else takes

My first Green Football drawing was created when I was asked by a parent to share some of my military experiences with their son, Michael, who was talking about joining the military. He was looking at the US Air Force Combat Airman. Specifically, he wanted to be a Combat Controller. I have worked with several Combat Controllers, and they are all solid dudes.

I drew out a horizontal line to represent his possible twenty-year career path within the military. I then drew the vertical line and ticked off 9 lines to represent the enlisted ranks from E-1 through E-9.

Not everyone does twenty years. Many Special Operators do less than twenty, but some do as many as thirty-five years. I personally made it ten years, three months, and seventeen days. Not that I was counting.

I showed Michael this graph and explained that he would be working with people who have zero interest in Special Operations, and that was great for them. Raising your right hand and swearing in to defend your country is a big deal, no matter what your path is.

I explained that non-Special Operations personnel make up the vast majority of those serving, meaning they all had to compete against each other to advance in rank, trying to climb to E-9. I showed how the majority share a common track, showing up to work, being told what to do as they move through their timeline, slowly gaining rank, responsibility, and pay.

With a Blue marker, starting at the lowest left corner, Year Zero and E-1, I drew across the horizontal line, gradually increasing the curve to hit at Year 20 and E-9.

I then explained how Special Operations candidates all start out at the exact same place, but their lives are very different. Not only are they given much more difficult tasks within training, demanding requirements in physical fitness and academics, but they also have a much better quality of life. The big one for me was the fact that when you are in a Special Operations platform, the normal military people, including the typical “by the book” leadership, leave you alone. It’s difficult to get in trouble.

With a Green marker, I drew this Special Operations line, showing how much more quickly you climb up the rank scale from E-1 to E-9 and end in the same place as the low-and-slow line, creating the shape of a football.

He understood the concept, but his eyes were fully opened when I explained all the benefits that fell within the Delta of the two lines. As I explained these benefits, I shaded in the area with the Green marker, creating the first Green Football.

Seeing how this way of explaining things clicked for Michael made me realize I was on to something and could help other people set goals and plan their futures. No matter what you want to achieve, whether it’s in business or life, the same principles apply.

That’s why I wrote this book.

To get your thinking going, get a sheet of paper and start drawing:

• Bottom left corner: the starting point, your first day of a career, mission, or project
• Horizontal axis: time, a twenty-year career, a business venture, or even a personal mission
• Vertical axis: achievement, rank, pay, prestige, fulfillment

Most people take the slow, safe path. Their curve is gradual. This is the Blue Line. Eventually, they arrive at the top right corner, retirement, promotion, completion.

But the Special Operations way, the Green Football way, is steep, fast, and direct. You hit higher levels sooner.

Overlay the two curves, and the area in between forms the shape of a football.

That football represents everything you gain by moving faster:

• More pay
• More prestige
• More experiences
• More camaraderie

That’s the Green Football: Get More, Faster.

When you go all in and are laser-focused on your goals, you collapse timelines. What takes others decades, you can do in years. And because you move faster, you reap more rewards, more pay, more experience, more opportunities, more camaraderie, not just at the end, but along the way.

That shaded area inside the Green Football curve? That’s the extra life you get to live because you moved fast. That’s Get More, Faster.

You can move faster, climb higher, and achieve more, even when you’re scared, even when you fail, even when people tell you that you can’t.

You’re going to read phrases in these pages that I have used to get through tough spots in my life and career. Some are blunt. Some will offend. All of them were forged in the real world, on the football field, in EOD, in the boardroom, and on the shop floor at EOD Gear. Each one is a tool to help you move past limits you’ve put on yourself or ones others have placed on you.

This book isn’t theory. It isn’t a “10 Steps to Success” checklist. It’s a playbook built from failures, reps, and outrageous goals that somehow got accomplished.

If you’re willing to fail, adapt, and refuse to quit, you’ll fill your own Green Football. And when you do, you’ll realize what I learned a long time ago:

Everyone who told you “You can’t…” was wrong.

How to Use This Book

Green Football isn’t a textbook. You’re not getting graded. There’s no test at the end, but you will be tested. If you actually do the work, your life will look different on the other side. Period.

At the end of every chapter, you’ll see three sections:

• Reality check
• Drill
• Get to work

Those aren’t suggestions. That’s the work.

You can read this whole book and skip them if you want, but that puts you on the Blue Line:

• Average
• Comfortable
• No real movement

The ones who win? They do the reps. They write it down. They draw it out. They commit and put their name on it.

That’s how you start filling your Green Football.

If you’re serious about this, not just interested, but serious, get the companion workbook. It gives you the structure to execute, chapter by chapter, with the X-Y grid built in.

That’s the difference between watching film… and stepping on the field and running the play.