Hard work + Determination = Opportunities

Hard work + Determination = Opportunities. No better example than Shannon Sentell, PhD who was born in rural South Carolina under modest conditions. He learned from his family an amazing work ethic that he took to West Point. There he majored in engineering (where we met for the first time in Mahan Hall in 1989).

We connected years later at Fort Knox and then our families got to know each other when he was at MIT while I was studying at HKS. It was there our wives and kids hit it off and I was a witness to his rare ability to combine people skills with engineering talent. All the while, our toddlers played in the courtyard.

We spent the next three years together where he was teaching at the United States Military Academy at West Point in the Physics department and I was in Sosh. All the while, our kids would disappear into the neighborhood for hours of play.

Two assignments later I found myself again alongside Shannon at the Pentagon working for the Army CSA George Casey. This time he was a policy wonk working Capitol Hill for the boss in OCLL. All the while, our kids got older.

Finally, when an Austin start-up, Stealth Power, needed a polymath who had the engineering, strategy, and people skills to help grow the company, Craig Cummings and I knew who to call. All the while, our kids went on to college and they too grew closer.

This weekend, his son, Gray, married my daughter, Hadley. While standing for photos, I got to reflect on 35 years of friendship and hard work together that resulted in the most unexpected outcome — our children were married.

At the wedding we went from being Army family to actual family.

That is a wonderful byproduct of hard work and determination — the opportunities it creates can exceed all expectations.

I remind audiences all the time — you are the average of the five people you hang out with the most…. Choose wisely.

In this case, when our kids got a chance to choose, they chose wisely.