When I was the leader of the SWAT team, I had to be prepared for the worst when I executed a search warrant. Whenever I entered a zone or a building, I couldn’t just walk up and open the door. The training started weeks, months earlier in preparation for that specific event, the planned event…and the unplanned event, that unfortunate moment when things suddenly go sideways. With officer safety a top priority, nothing could be assumed. Not one shred of information that came in was beyond scrutiny. We learned early on how to prepare for a hypothetical situation in the event something happened.
It was all of this preparation experience while serving our country that came to serve me and Paul to be prepped for success as businessmen…and to deliver on the ultimate hypothetical situation—an $81 million contract that changed our lives and our business.
So how exactly do you prepare for a hypothetical situation—essentially for something that may or may not happen?
You train and plan for it as if it is definitely going to happen. Preparedness is the key in any and all situations. When I was assigned to a Dignitary Protection Team in Iraq, I had to make sure no harm came to the two-star, three-star, or four-star generals while on my watch, or the Secretary of Defense when he visited. When Paul and I were deployed to Germany and a general officer came for a visit, we were ready because we had prepared weeks in advance for the event, walking through every detail and expecting that every single thing possible was going to happen. We found out where the general wanted to go, who he wanted to talk to, and what his agendas were. We did an advance recon before the general ever stepped foot in theater. We visited every single place the General wanted to go. We looked every person in the eye that he wanted to meet with. We researched emergency egresses and identified the hospitals in case things went sideways. The level of detail in preparation for such an event is beyond imagination. Speaking to the surgical nurse, the doctors on staff, determining the level of hospital care, alternate hospitals nearby, and alternate routes to get to the alternate hospital. We knew we had to prepare for a hypothetical event, even if that event never happened.
Take the sports world, for example. Can you imagine if the Patriots showed up on the field Super Bowl Sunday and said, “We haven’t practiced in a year, let’s try to put something together here and win the game.” How many drills do they go through at that level? How much game tape do they watch? How many practices do they have?
Every single event in life is a Super Bowl if you really want to be successful. The key to mastering the art of preparation is practice, and learning how to prepare for the hypothetical by visualizing it.