Loss of a mentor.
Recently an old mentor and former high school teacher passed. I've thought a lot about crucial moments in my life, single points that cascade and create your life and my experiences with Sergeant Major Gunter is such a point.
Over twenty-six years ago a frightened young man walked into a class room on his first day of high school. There stood a man who may have only been five foot six actual feet but commanded a full seven feet in presence. A Vietnam War veteran and Green Beret who wore his class A uniform with a pair of jump boots that shined like liquid glass.
I learned so many valuable lessons from him over the next twenty six years of my life. He taught me more about leadership in three years of high school than I have learned since. Leadership is self control; how true this seemingly simple sentence is. I've learned as a leader that control, external control that is, is largely an illusion. As leaders we allow ourselves to believe we are in control but it is a lie we tell ourselves. In fact all I can ever control is myself.
As a supplemental lesson he would tell us, "relax to the point of self control". I used to have an incredible fear of heights and part of our class involved rappelling. The act of hanging onto a pair of strings and hang off the side of a rock or building and jumping down to the bottom. Learning to rappel was about more than just tying knots and Swiss seats. It was about learning how to relax to the point of self control.
Rest in Peace Sergeant Major.
