Latest / Be the Bison / When Rejection Becomes a Proving Ground
Transcript
- Andrew Rauch: Hey, welcome to ⁓ Be the Bison ⁓ podcast, where I get to do weekly interviews with leaders. and they get to share an amazing story about a time that they've led through a storm, how they got through it, and then maybe leave a nugget or two. So this afternoon I'm joined by Randy Miller. I won't do ⁓ the lengthy introduction, but ⁓ I'll let Randy just take a minute or two to introduce herself before we jump into our conversation. So Randy, welcome. Randy Miller: Thank you very much. Appreciate it, Andrew. Andrew Rauch: No, you're welcome. So Randy, ⁓ you and I have ⁓ had a chance to connect recently. I know a little bit about you, but ⁓ if you don't mind, just take a minute or two and share some highlights with ⁓ those that would be listening. Randy Miller: Yeah, I was lucky enough, because I had a fairly low draft number back in the seventies, that kinda ages me a little bit, to decide, make a decision that I'd rather fly in the Air Force and be on the ground in the infantry. So, ⁓ I was able to go to the Air Force and Navy and I said, Whoever can get me into the the flying the soonest after graduation, I'm yours and they ⁓ I Air Force came back with we can get you in officers training school 12 days after graduation. ⁓ but you'll have to be a navigator. ⁓ they said you can always be a pilot. so broke, had paid my own way through college. I jumped on the opportunity, went to OTS, then went to nav training, which I really did love. It was ⁓ fabulous training, and got ⁓ assigned to my first assignment in Taiwan flying C 130s. It was a great opportunity. I loved it there also. And I was fortunate enough after that to get in the F four, which was quite a transition. Most people didn't get to do that, where I actually had a stick in the back, which unlike the Navy where you didn't have it, I got to fly about half the time. So the one lie that they told me, of course, was transition from navigator to pilot. That never happened. But I still really enjoyed my career, got to fly about twelve years. retired after twenty one years and just loved the opportunity. we started my wife and I started our first business today. I retired. We started three businesses over the next five years, the last one being ⁓ most successful. we had set a ⁓ goal to be on the Inc. 500 first time eligible and we were 40th on the list five years later. We had grown it that fast. We were 3,332% in that five year run. So I s retired a second time, about fifteen years later. And my wife allowed that to s happen and and be retired for about seven months and she literally pointed across the kitchen table and said, You need to go find something to do and that landed me in my current role as a Vicky chair, 'cause I was a member as ⁓ I ran my previous company, and now I've been a chair will be fourteen years ⁓ next month. Andrew Rauch: What a what a beautiful ⁓ journey. Thank you for sharing that. ⁓ and ⁓ thank you for your service. So we ⁓ we appreciate that. But curious, what was the ⁓ what was the business ⁓ of of the the ones that you started? You said was ⁓ kind of how you got maybe the vistage. What which one was that? Randy Miller: Well, the first one was ⁓ the haunted hayride. We bought a franchise which out of Syracuse, New York. My wife's favorite, second favorite holiday actually was Halloween, and we ran that for five years in San Antonio during October, just scaring kids, basically. kids had a ball. They were our best actors and actresses. Our daughter started at four, and did all kind of stuff, and our boys loved it. It was just a fun activity. We got to make money Doing it, but had fun at the same time. I also ⁓ purchased a franchise ⁓ carpet dye and cleaning company. I had read a lot of articles about being in the service industry. Well, I started dreading Monday on Saturday doing that because my plan was to be kind of like a Fox, have 10, 20 trucks out there. But hiring managing blue-collar workers turned out to be a real headache. ⁓ And I didn't love the work. So I sold that. We were the actual fastest growing franchise ⁓ at the time, but it was just more headaches than I was willing to accept basically. then ⁓ the one that was most successful was an IT staffing company. Okay. And we that several times. So Andrew Rauch: Fantastic. Yeah. Well, what a great journey. Well, thank you for sharing that. So good context. Let's jump into sharing your story. so you know, as I've shared with you, I love you know, the the idea of the be the bison going into the storm. You know, God created an amazing creature, an animal that doesn't run away from the storm, but runs into the storm. So tell us a little bit about your bison story moment, if you will. Randy Miller: Well, I was ⁓ while I was in the Air Force, had been in Germany for six years, had what I thought a very storied career, I'd done really everything that I could do to continue to get promoted, and ⁓ off to ⁓ being a of cadet at the University of Maryland in ROTC. And I had when I'd gotten ⁓ word of that assignment, I went to my boss and my boss's boss, who were both colonels at the time. And talked to them. I No, you really don't want to go there. You're going to be out of the mainstream. It's not really great for promotions. And so I went back to the military personnel center point of contact I had and said, I really don't want to do it. He goes, Well, you really didn't understand the question. You have no choice. so ⁓ to the University of Maryland I go. And so that was in ⁓ August of 1986, come around to ⁓ late nineteen eighty seven. And my boss calls me in and hands me a letter that I had been passed over from Lieutenant Colonel. ⁓ he was shocked. I definitely shocked. My wife was shocked. She cried for a month afterwards because we thought we had done everything that that I physically do to be promoted. and Air Force a very, I would say, somewhat sophisticated promotion process. They ⁓ have a panel and they j ⁓ evaluate your personnel records. If there's more than a point difference from any two of the people on the panel, I bring it back and talk about it until they can work it out. But I think what it was was the the title, the job I was currently in had a perception of not being very mainstream, you might say. So anyway, we were upset for several days and I decided I wasn't gonna let it pull me down had a couple projects that I was doing with the house and worked on those, bound pounding a lot of nails, kind of get the rid of the frustration, but also went back to work thinking ⁓ I overcome this. And so I think ⁓ God worked in mysterious ways, because it gave me some opportunities. we had a military inspection where the inspectors come from the outside headquarters and evaluate the your job as well as the unit's job and ⁓ got outstanding for ⁓ our area. and then I had an opportunity to be a ⁓ commandant of cadets for a summer camp and I was only one of two majors that got that opportunity and my boss, the Who was supposed to be coming in to be the the boss, got a DWI in the first hour he was there and got fired and removed. And so for the first week I was running the whole operation, and again, that was a blessing ⁓ because I got to do it my way. And when my new boss came in, who I knew, ⁓ he said, Looks like you got everything under control. I'll stay out of your way, and you got it. And I went, Okay, sir, thank you. Thank you. And Really great ⁓ ROTC summer. ⁓ my boss recommended me for a promotion, and that promotion is less than 0.5% if you had passed over in Air Force. So his recommendation and then his bosses supported it, and I got a definitely promote, which meant that I was guaranteed promotion. And I still didn't believe it until I got the word from my boss that I was promoted. It was a kind of a neat thing. I was every day pretty much during the week I'd run around the golf course. It was three miles. that day I'd knocked three minutes off my fastest time. I don't think my feet hit the ground. ⁓ was ⁓ on air the whole time. ⁓ Andrew Rauch: Awesome. What ⁓ what was that like? ⁓ you you said ⁓ you know, you got passed over for a lieutenant colonel. obviously if you're in the military and you're moving up in the ranks, sounds like that was pretty difficult for you. ⁓ Mentioned your wife and a lot of people being surprised, but w what did that that what did that rejection ⁓ do to What did what did it feel like? Randy Miller: Wow, this felt terrible. never a guarantee that you're gonna get promoted in the Air Force and there's always unknowns, but I again I thought I did everything, got all the schools, got, you know, all the j different jobs. I was changing jobs about every eight months 'cause I was really good at fixing things and coming in and doing what needed to be done to improve it. so it was just it was one of the lowest times in my life up to that point. Yeah. Just felt defeated, you know. Andrew Rauch: Yeah, I I don't know if you've experienced this or do experience this, but as as men, sometimes, you know, we put a lot of identity in our work and what we're doing. I know sometimes when I've had setbacks, all of a sudden I feel kind of like my identity or, you know, my self worth ⁓ takes a takes a little bit hit. Were were you experiencing something like that at that time? Randy Miller: Absolutely. I agree with you. I think most men, especially professional men, they are who they where they work and what they do, right? That's probably the first thing most men ask another man is, Well, what do you do? Well, what do you do? Andrew Rauch: But yeah, it's a beautiful thing because ⁓ if we look back to the Genesis story, right? ⁓ with the creation and Adam, he was given some amazing responsibilities and stewardship and he was called to work in the beginning and it was good. So ⁓ you know, we we know that that's an important part of ⁓ you know, our identity and who we are. So ⁓ well, thank you for sharing a little bit about that. Tell tell us ⁓ a little bit, okay. So how'd how'd you get through that season? ⁓ what were some of the things Maybe that you did ⁓ kind of get realigned in terms of your identity and what was next. Randy Miller: Well I I I basically decided that I wasn't gonna let it define me. we all probably all know people that ⁓ for something happens to them and they become very negative, and that their life and usually it ruins their life, ruins their relationships with their family, because they on that defeat, whatever it is. And I just made up my mind I wasn't gonna make that allow that to happen, basically. That one way or another I was gonna overcome it. And so I didn't really expect to get promoted because I knew how difficult that ⁓ was and so I was just stayed as positive as I could and didn't let it affect me in a a visual way, let alone an internal way. Andrew Rauch: Yeah, thank you. And I I just kind of a visual what you're describing. It's like ⁓ you know, when I think of the bison, you know, several thousand pounds, you know, strong. you know, unless they're kind of running with the herd a little bit, you know, they they're just kind of steady in their walk in. And you know, they could be walking for a long time, but they just have this attitude or it seems to me they have this attitude or kind of approach that I'm just keep. Walk in strongly through the storm. I'm gonna get through it. It's okay. Call me later. Don't worry about it. Right. So it's it sounds like you had that mindset or mentality of, hey, I'm I'm gonna get through this, you know, from the beginning. Randy Miller: Yeah, if you equate it to a bison, you know, and we w we've been to Yellowstone several times and seeing those lone buffalo that are away from the herd, I didn't want to be that lone buffalo, you know. Andrew Rauch: Yeah. Well, yeah, that's beautiful analogy because the community, the brotherhood ⁓ military and air force, I I haven't haven't been there, but I would imagine, you know, that community, that ⁓ that desire to be you know among brothers and sisters is is is pretty compelling. Randy Miller: It really is. And kind of the rest of the story is I'll never forget from I was walking across Tai Chung, which was ⁓ where I was stationed in Taiwan as a second lieutenant, thinking the job I want is to be a squadron commander someday, 'cause that everybody I talked to said that was the job in the Air Force, the best job. Well, when I was passed over, I thought that goal was ⁓ So I got here at Berkstrom, still is a major, got to pin on the next month, and I actually ⁓ was chosen to be a squadron commander here at Berkstrom, my last official job in the Air Force before I retired. And it was the best job I've ever had. Andrew Rauch: Wow. so tell tell me a little bit about okay, Squadron Commander, Bergstrom Air Force Base, Austin, Texas. How how many people? What did that leadership look like? Randy Miller: had two hundred and fifty people. it was a communications squadron and I ⁓ millions and millions of dollars of communications, sat ⁓ com VHS, all of communications, 'cause ⁓ our job was produce the what they call the ops order, ⁓ which is ⁓ the order that out to ensure there's all the communications, all the bomb runs and all things are deconflicted so everybody gets what they need to be successful, but we don't basically kill each other by doing it. Because one of the worst things can happen to you if you're in a fighter is fly into a place where another fighter just dropped a bomb and and be there a little early, you know. so our job was to deconflict all the operations and then make sure that everybody that had a piece in it got the off order So it was all deconflicted across and you do that every day. It was a twenty four hour operation. Andrew Rauch: Thank you for sharing that not a lot of margin for error. So passed over, persevering it, having an attitude from the beginning of like, hey, it's going to be okay, just one step at a time, ⁓ one at a time. what would you say? What's the the life lesson or what did you learn, you know, getting through that storm, working through it, and then coming out on the other end? What what's the lesson? Randy Miller: Well, I I can remember my chair Vici's chair when I was a member saying ⁓ when but one of us in the group were having great years and one member was having a t a tough time. And he said you just remember you're all going to have your turn in the barrel. ⁓ We all have struggles. And how we handle those struggles will determine the rest of our life. Yeah. Andrew Rauch: That's great. Yeah, the the reality is a storm will come, or sometimes multiple will come. But what what's your ⁓ perspective about when they do come, right? Yeah, it's good, good message to to leave that on. And so Randy, thanks for ⁓ an awesome conversation. Appreciate you. if you're listening to this and you want to listen to some more stories about leading through the storm, go to solidleaders. forward slash be the bison. ⁓ ⁓ Randy, thanks so much for your time and your story today. Randy Miller: Thanks for having me, Andrew. Appreciate it.