This is the first in a series of guest posts from Ace Castle, a career Coast Guard pilot and MaxDisclosure reader.
Why do I read Maximum Disclosure? Why wouldn’t I? I’m a pilot, recently turned public affairs officer, and I want to be a Rockstar – MaxDis caliber – PAO.
I might have only three to four years in this job before I return to the cockpit, and I need to learn it well enough to make a difference communicating my service’s mission. If I spend a few years giving a mediocre attempt at getting better, I will be transferring out before I am an expert in my field. I don’t know about you, but I do not want to be a mediocre officer who has a reputation of “sort of” getting things done. So, I must take advantage of every opportunity to improve in the most efficient way possible.
Based on my experience, there are four parts to excelling at a job: experience, hard work, confidence, and humbleness. Experience is the most difficult of these to shortcut, or as the millennials say, “hack.” But I’ll share some ideas on how to do that in a future article.
This is the first of a four-part series that will tell you about my experience this past year-and-a-half as a Coast Guard public affairs officer, and how I transferred lessons learned from aviation, to be better at my job. Although we do some things differently than you DOD folks, if you take just one thing from each of these posts, then they were worth my time writing. If nothing else, at least this will be a step toward fulfilling my professional responsibility to write about my career field.
My success has, or should I say, does, rely on this mantra (that I just made up): working hard while remaining confidently humble.
This might seem a little contradictory, but let me explain. I mean, where else are you going? I know you read these in the same room I do each day. Side note: I prefer the second stall from the right. Which is your favorite MaxDis throne? Leave a comment below.
To be continued…
(Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Adam Stanton, DVIDS)
