All Forum Posts by: Mike Dawson

Have you checked the SkillBridge website for potential opportunities? This might help with contacting companies and learning more about what they do and how you might be a great fit for their organization.

You can also locate a company you like and ask if they are interested in registering for SkillBridge to bring you on.

I’m not much further behind you. I have less than 17 months left on active duty.

I wish you all the best.

Hi Mike,

Thank you for your service. About 1/3 of my life was a submarine officer in the navy so I have a good feel for both sides of the world. 

The best thing you could have from the military, from the business aspect, is your network. Hope you have had made a good impression to your surroundings and people would trust you to do business with you later down the road. If not, not end of the world, just mean you have to build new network. If you left a wrong impression to the persons you've worked with in the military, or even a mediocre one, it would be hard to change that impression. Then just forget it. If you've built a great reputation, then it's definitely in your favor to capitalize that. That's your pool of warm leads for whatever business you do in the future. 

The leadership skills we developed in the military is very different than the one that would worked well in the civilian world. In the military, we are putting in a position where our rank/title matters, and we can be an iron clad and order following machine and that's a favorable trait, both to your boss and your subordinate. That's a great trait for being an employee, but not a good trait to be an entrepreneur. In the business world, title doesn't mean a thing. You would see many people print the title CEO of XXX on their business card. At the end of the day, what matter is, did we have a win-win when we did the deal. Did I make money and did I enjoy working/collaborating with you. 

I do say in general, on average, the mentality of a personnel who work in the military is very different than the entrepreneur spirit required to be a successful business man in the civilian world. The keyword is on average. If you are a go-getter, hard charger, humble and eager to learn, coachable military member with leadership experience, then you could be a successful business person as well. 

As far as building a real estate portfolio to retire comfortably, that's really easy to do. You shouldn't have any problem achieving that part. For most people, the question is how far do I want to go. 

Hope that helps a little. Happy to chat more if you'd like. 
 

What building are you in? Some of the buildings here don't have very good internet and need a booster. I can do some investigating for you if need be.

Kwikset Halo works too