Marine Officer - Nathaniel Fick

Leadership

<span> <p> <img style="float: none;" src="http://assets2.marines.com/assetmgr/image/disp/inline/size/460x259/id/4158" alt="Nathaniel Fick <br /> Author and Former Marine Officer" /><h2>Stepping Up to the Challenge</h2>Fick1Becoming 1:24<br /> <br /> Nathaniel Fick:<br /> I started looking at the Marine Corps because I wanted to lead, I wanted to test myself, I wanted to do something different every day. I wanted to think, but I also wanted to be physical and, you know, outside with other people doing exciting things. And the Marine Corps has the Platoon Leaders Course, which is a great opportunity because as a college student, I could show up at Quantico, Virginia, for 10 weeks in the summer between my junior and senior years.<br /> <br /> I was like the worst candidate whoever showed up at Officer Candidates School. I thought I was gonna be on the next bus home. I just didn´t get it. The instructors at OCS are Marine NCOs, noncommissioned officers, and there were plenty of days when I thought that they were put on earth for the sole purpose of making my life miserable. But what I didn´t appreciate, what took me a little bit of perspective to understand, was that they were looking at the candidates as men and women who would perhaps one day be leading them in combat. And when you look at it that way, you begin to understand this standard by which they´re evaluating people.<br /> <br /> My father, he got it from the start. He said, "The Marines will teach you everything I love you too much to teach you." And I didn´t get it at the time. I don´t think I even understood it in my training. I finally understood it after a couple of combat tours.<br /> <hr /><h2>Learning to Lead an Infantry Platoon</h2>Fick2MOS 1:48<br /> <br /> Nathaniel Fick:<br /> I knew that I wanted to be an Infantry Officer because I wanted to be outside; I wanted to be shooting, I wanted to lead a platoon. I wanted to do all the things that we think about when you think about the Marine Corps, out there on the ground with a rifle in my hands. I knew I could read a map, I knew I could call in an air strike, I knew I could shoot a rifle and talk on the radio and coordinate my platoon and all that. The thing I didn´t know, the thing I couldn´t know, was how would I perform when the chips were down, and that you can only learn from experience.<br /> <br /> The most important relationship I think for any young officer is the relationship that develops between you and the senior enlisted leader in your platoon. My first was Staff Sergeant Keith Marine. He understood that his job was half-training the platoon and preparing the platoon, but half-training and preparing me. We reached an agreement pretty quickly where I learned that I could use my rank and my authority to get things that the platoon needed: training and support, time with the commander. I could be their advocate and I could get things done and that gave me the time to learn, to grow into my role.<br /> <br /> A big moment for me actually was our first mission in Pakistan just after 9/11 when we had to make a choice about who was going on the mission. And the commander had dictated that I was going. We had a limited number of seats on the helicopter and so Staff Sergeant Marine didn´t come. And so, that night flying off the ship, you know, that was kinda, you know, I was leaving the nest. It was okay. You know, now that´s it. You´re the commander, you alone. And I was grateful to him `cause I think that he got me to the point where I could do that.<br /> <hr /><h2>Applying Lessons to Life</h2>Fick3Benefits 1:58<br /> <br /> Nathaniel Fick:<br /> I´m the Chief Operating Officer now of a small company in Washington called The Center for a New American Security, and I use things I learned in the Marine Corps every day. So, leadership by example-if I need something done over the weekend and somebody has to be in the office, then I´d better be here, too. You can´t tell somebody to do something you´re not willing to do yourself.<br /> <br /> When I was in college and I was making the decision to join the Marines, I had peers and professors who questioned my decision; said, "Why are you gonna go throw away this education." And I didn´t at the time have an answer for them. I needed the perspective of having done it. If I could go back I would say, what, having the best leadership training I could possibly get, the most intense leadership experience I could ever have, learning viscerally about foreign policy all over the world, understanding ethical decision making in a very heartfelt way because I´m confronted with these choices every day, learning more about myself, pushing myself. These are the things that you think I´m throwing away my education to do? Anything but. <br /> <br /> You learn that indecision is a decision and you have to make decisions. You have to be decisive. You can muddle your way trying to avoid the decision right into bankruptcy. Then there´s the whole credibility issue. So, this is a foreign policy think tank. I spend a lot of time at the Pentagon. I spend a lot of time working with the National Security Council, going to embassies around town and the fact that I´m a former Marine, even though I got out as a captain. I mean, I was just a junior Marine. I don´t have any great strategic insight, but, but it´s sort of a binary issue for them. Either you did it or you didn´t. And, and the fact that I did gives me the ability to talk with people and to connect with people that I never would have had otherwise.<br /> <hr /><h2>Leading by Serving</h2>Fick4Serving 1:13<br /> <br /> Nathaniel Fick:<br /> The Marine Corps is in my opinion, the finest institution in American life. It has an ethos that is unbeatable. It has a collection of supporters and alumni that can´t be defeated. The Marine Corps has a mission in the United States and in the world that people understand. They make Marines and they win battles. They take young American citizens and they give them a lot of responsibility and teach them something about what it means to live in a society where everybody has a vested interest in the outcome. And then when you go out in the world, you´re accomplishing a mission. You´re doing something for the United States.<br /> <br /> It´s certainly not for everyone but I think most people could benefit from giving it a shot. I think a lot of people are deterred because they think that it´s not going to help them get where they wanna be in some kind of conventional sense. And I don´t buy that. I think you learn more about leadership as a Marine than you do doing almost anything else. This is pure public service. You´re swearing an oath to obey the Constitution.<br /> <hr /> </p> </span>

The Marine Corps, in my opinion, is the finest institution in American life. It has an ethos that is unbeatable
—Nathaniel Fick

Commissioned: 1999
Years of Service: 5
Commissioning Program: Platoon Leaders Class
Education: Dartmouth College, Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Current Title: Chief Operating Officer, Center for a New American Security

In 1999, while most Ivy League graduates headed for Wall Street or dot-com ventures, Nathaniel Fick sought a greater challenge and purpose. He found it when he earned a commission in the Marine Corps.

Fick’s experiences as a Marine Officer have been documented by Rolling Stone and dramatized by HBO, but the story is best told in his own words. The New York Times bestseller One Bullet Away is his detailed account of his Marine Corps career, including The Basic School, deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, and the decisions he made at each phase.

Today, he runs a prominent Washington think tank and is frequently called upon for his leadership and insight as a former Marine.

Marines. The Few. The Proud.

Nathaniel Fick
Author and Former Marine Officer

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Marines. The Few. The Proud.

Nathaniel Fick Author and Former Marine Officer

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Nathaniel Fick
Author and Former Marine Officer