"If this is the art you must do—on the road, in a dive bar, with your friends, for crowds big and small, when no one is looking, and it’s all you care about—you’re a professional.”

The Rule of the Garage is this question: Can what you do in your garage become the way you earn a living?

Think about side hustles & hobbies. Some people transform their hobbies into hugely successful businesses. They scratch their itch, then categorize their success to help others scratch theirs. There's also people who never leave their garage.

Consider this: Roger Goddell just asked for a $50 million salary. To do what 10,000 fantasy football league commissioners do in their garage every Saturday for 16 weeks.

The original idea came from this post by Bob Lefsetz, Hollywood's conscience: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2012/12/11/hobbyistprofessional/

And the next few episodes will cover the four levels of success Lefsetz notes.

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There's five general values guiding veterans in their choise of when to transition: Respect, Resolve, Honesty, Identity, Clarity. For me, it was Identity & Clarity that originally drove me to pursue early retirement from the Coast Guard.

Unfortunately, the opportunity for early retirement closed.

While I'm humbled to continue service in the uniform, what I realized was my choice to serve isn't where my values come from. It's the other way around--I find the highest & best opportunity to live based on my values. Uniform or not.

How do your values factor into your choice to stay in the military or leave?

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One thing helping businesses keep to their Hedgehog Concept is their inner circle. Whether a Board of Directors, Shareholder meeting.

You need the same board of directors & confidants to help you win your transition.

I talk about collecting people into five supporting categories: Mentors, Advisors, Masterminds, Accountability Groups, & Coaches. Having one or two from each group helps you reaffirm your own Hedgehog Concept, and keep clarity towards what you want to do after serving.

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Passion is the last thing to worry about in your transition. Not the first.

The odds of you finding something new you're as passionate about as something old you're leaving (the uniform) is slim. And holding out for passion risks you missing out on anything less passionate, but doable.

Cal Newport talks about the "Passion Hypothesis". But Good to Great frames the hedgehog concept questions in the exact same way, a decade earlier.

After deciding your number one-five skills & determining how to converts those skills to profit, THEN you can worry about passion. Then you can decide if it's something you want to do & you would find enjoyable. Try to answer the questions in reverse, you never get to the core strengths & skills you bring out of the uniform.

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When you transition--it's not solely about salary you have to worry about. It's the conversion ratio of your work for a wage or price you command.

We're fortunate in uniform to have a fixed, clear payscale. That said--it's challenging to easily compare our skill value as out of uniform.

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There's a phrase in Jim Collin's "Good to Great" that's stuck with me: Egoless Clarity.

Egoless clarity is a powerful term. It focuses me to see how successful or lacking I've been in my work.

It's humbling and empowering to know what you're in the best in the world at. What you can be best in the world at. And to know that without sunk cost, expectations, or emotion--what can you truly command?

How can egoless clarity help you?

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Getting back to the Hedgehog concept. The concept focuses on the intersection of three core questions:

What skill can you be the best in the world at?

What drives your economic engine?

What are you deeply passionate about?

Today, let's talk about the first skill.

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Before we get into the Hedgehog Concept, let's go to the bedrock: Choice. You chose to enter the uniform; you choose to leave. The difference in the answer to those two questions will tell you a lot about what you value, & the career you truly want to pursue.

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The Hedgehog & The Fox is an old Greek parable, but informs today the work you need to do to command your transition.

The fox does a great many, disconnected things.

The hedgehog does the one thing that means success.

It can feel exciting to be a fox. And the military rewards multitasking, multiple skills, having multiple specialties. But that's only one way to win--hedgehogs win more often after the uniform.

This is the first of a four skill series, focusing on the Hedgehog Concept as coined by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great. Applied to businesses in his book, how can the Hedgehog Concept work in your life & career choice?

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There's always that quote in PCS Orders when you can deny Orders, & be a civilian in six months. There's always these moments when you can be free.

That's not just getting out of the uniform, but being in uniform as well. Discipline is freedom. Execution is freedom. Accepting a choice is freedom.

What if you found your freedom now, but not waiting for it later?

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