What 24 Hours in Afghanistan Taught Me | Simon Sinek

What 24 Hours in Afghanistan Taught Me | Simon Sinek

An experience recounted by Simon Sinek teaches valuable lessons that everybody must learn in order to lead a fulfilled and successful life.

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Transcript:
I'm now stuck in Afghanistan
for at least four days
and no way to reach my family and say that I'm gonna be,
I'm gonna ride for home four days after I told them I was gonna get home,
they just won't hear from me.

I was invited to go with the airforce to Afghanistan
and everything on my trip went wrong
and profoundly changed my view
on trust and cooperation and how the world works.
So, I didn't tell my family I was going, so I didn't want them to worry.
I told them I would be out of touch,
I told them I would be on a bunch of planes, all true,
told them I was gonna be in Germany, true,
I just didn't tell them I was going to Afghanistan.
We landed in Afghanistan in the middle of the night.
It was me and two escorts, two officers who flew with me.
We landed in the middle of the night
and the big side door in our KC-135 was open, but
we haven't gotten out of the plane yet,
like I said we've been on the ground for 10 minutes.
And the base came under a rocket attack.
We had three rockets hit 100 yards off our nose.
And for anyone who's ever been in a war zone will know,
you have all the feeling you're supposed to have
but you probably don't have them at the same time.
So, I was strangely relaxed when it happened, the panic came later.
We're eventually given the all-clear
and we got off the plane
and the goal was to try and get on an airdrop mission while we were out there
which are not regularly scheduled.
So we found one that was leaving first thing in the morning
and so we got about three, three and a half hours of sleep
and woke up at the crack of dawn and went for this
airdrop mission.
Which was amazing. Got on this big C-17,
flew out about an hour and a half, two hours,
dropped down to 2,000 feet,
the backdoor opens
and we sat there when all this cargo slid out the back,
parachute down to supply
an army fort operating base.
Amazing experience,
amazing experience.
Flew back to base
and now the goal was to get out of dodge,
to go back home.
So we look for a flight that we can jump on
and it's up to the discretion of the pilots
and things aren't regularly scheduled.
And we found
an outbound air medical evacuation,
so taking wounded soldiers, marines out of theater.
And they told us we could join them
and they told us to wait,
we waited and waited...
and finally all-clear. We're sitting on the plane, we're all strapped in
and literally five minutes before we're about to leave,
they tell us we have to be bumped, cause they need more room for stretchers.
And if there's ever a good reason to get bumped, that's the one.
Doesn't really inspire, it's inspiring in the meeting.
And that's it.
That's what I was going through.
And so I laid there, tried every trick I had
and I gave up.
I just, I gave up. I ran out of options and I ran out of choices.
And
resigned myself to the fact that I was stuck.
And so, I figured that if I was gonna get stuck,
I might as well make myself useful.
Cause I got four days and nothing to do.
So I decided that I would volunteer.
I decided that I would
offer to speak wherever and whenever they wanted me to.
I decided that, I'd met some amazing people,
that I would volunteer to help them.
I would sweep floors,
I would carry boxes,
I didn't care how menial the labour was,
as long as I could be of use.
As long as I could serve those who are serving others.
If there's one practice I could recommend,
I guess it goes back to the trip to Afghanistan,
which is
to wake up in the morning and consider what we can do for others.
Even one friend.
We're kind of a narcissistic society.
There's a whole section of the bookshop called self-help,
but there's no section of the bookshop called help others.
And I know people say to me,
“well, you have to help yourself before you help others!”
I have empirical evidence that shows that it's the opposite.
Cause when I was about myself,
it wasn't going so well.
I think it's the total opposite
which is when you commit yourself to serving others,
you will find yourself.
It's not that you have to find yourself first.
Help others is what,
it's not how can I lose 10 pounds,
how can I help somebody else lose 10 pounds?
How can I find the job that I want?

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