While serving in the Marines I had the honor of being selected to serve the President of the United States at Camp David from 2005-2007. President Bush frequented the retreat in those years coming on most Fridays, and staying the weekend. I will say the name is a little deceiving because more executive business is handled there than anywhere else at that time. It was a humbling experience to go from a rural Ohio farm kid to literally talking with the President on a regular basis. George Bush was an exceptionally personable and genuine person who regularly talked to us person-to-person, not as a photo op or in some other public fashion. I quickly learned our concerns were the same as his concerns, and regardless of position and power; people are people. One evening at Evergreen Chapel President Bush had a small sit-down with a few of us Marines as he usually did in the evenings. The war in Iraq was losing public support, and there were the usual host of problems a second term President faces. One conversation led to another, and eventually we arrived on the topic of how strategy should play a role in every decision you make. President Bush demonstrated this in a very simple yet effective story about his first day in office. He said “I was a little disappointed on the first day in the Oval Office when I learned the furniture could not be rearranged, so I asked my Chief of Staff what can I change to make this room a little more personable.” The Chief of Staff replied “you can change the rug and that’s all according to White House Historical Society rules so what color would you like?” The President stated “I’m not going to pick a color, that is an operational decision. Just make sure the rug is an optimistic color because that is a strategy!”
What about you? Is there a strategy for your life, career, family and company? Or are you just going on, making one operational decision after another guided by nothing but the winds.
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