YouSaid · the spoken record

David Gurfein

lines on the record: 74
first: 2017-06-05
most recent: 2017-06-05
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“I am so glad that we did this. I am so glad to be included in your network of relationships, and I'm so excited to see what will come next for you and next after that and next after that and on and on and on. So thank you so much for taking the time.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And sometimes the reunions in New Jersey and sometimes it's in Fiji, but wherever it is, they make sure that every single person attends. And so some people who have done really well financially on Wall Street subsidize those people who perhaps went and did more social work or did more academic type work to make sure that not only does every person attend, but their spouse and their children, everybody attends these amazing reunions, all but six. And he said there were six people in his section that never participated in any of the socializing. They focused purely on themselves, purely on academics, purely on making sure that they were the Baker scholars. And those six are never invited to any of their reunions. So I would say the long story short is that focus on the relationships, build the relationships, make sure they're meaningful relationships. And at the end of the day, that's really what's going to be most important.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When we first stay at Harvard Business School, one of the former deans came in and he asked, what do you think the most important number is that you should focus on while you're here at business school? And of course, people like, oh, ones, we should all focus on getting ones, the best grades. And no, wrong. Well, threes and fours. We don't get those. Those are bad grades. No, wrong. And oh, the top 10%. No, no, you're all wrong. You're all wrong. And he said six. We're like six. What the heck does six mean? And he went on to tell a story about how his section was an extremely close section of 80 people and they would celebrate everybody's birthday. And if there was a choice, you know, do we study extra for the test or do we go out celebrate this anniversary or birthday? They would always go and celebrate the anniversary and the birthday. And there was just, there was a focus on people first and constantly building this relationship. And to this day that they get together every other year for a reunion, their section.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“that you have people that you can rely upon throughout your career. He said, the academics, you'll pick up. But he went to Stanford to be the academic honor graduate because that's sort of the rule of thumb in the Marine Corps is that whatever school you go to, you should be number one, especially if you go to another service component. If you go to an Army school, you should certainly be the honor graduate from the Army school. He tried to do it and he failed. He fell short. He still did very well. But he said he failed worse than not becoming the academic honor graduate in that he spent all of his time studying academically by himself and he didn't build the networks and he didn't build those relationships to where after he had certain challenges in his career he didn't have people to turn to and he actually helped he had to tack into the networks that I had developed but it was because he told me to focus on that to marry that up with”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do it all over again. The good, the bad, and the ugly, it's been an amazing ride, the importance of friendships, of networks. That's to me the most important thing. And again, to give a short story here, I had a roommate, academic honor graduate from the Naval Academy, brilliant, super person who went on to go to Stanford to get his MBA. And when I was thinking about going to have the Marine Corps the first time, he convinced me to go get my MBA and really didn't know what that meant at the time, but it was sound guidance. And he gave further guidance, which was even more insightful. He said, when you go, the most important thing is going to be developing your relationships and developing your networks and making sure”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Partner in life is so important. So I'm married to an amazing woman right now, Beth, who, I mean, just incredible in every single aspect of my life. And I go out of my way to try and be supportive of her. So I think the guidance that I would share with my daughter, and I share with other people is make sure you pick your partner right. Pick the right friend.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We'll take it that personal relationships impact business significantly. And I made some calls personally about 10 years ago that impacted my life significantly. And without going into great details, I destroyed my marriage. And it was by selfish acts that I perceived as victimless crimes that had tremendous impact. And it left me as a single father trying to raise a daughter. And by learning from that and recognizing the sanctity of life and recognizing the importance of relationships and valuing those things which are most important where you spend your time, I think that recognizing the importance of picking the right”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, that's a good question. My favorite book. I'm reading a lot of political stuff right now, and I just reread the clash of cultures, which is one of those things that's really perspective, give me a lot of perspective on what's happening right now in the East versus West world. And business book, I would say good to great. Love that. And I would also say, I love reading the Bible. I think you can go back and find plenty of insightful stories there. And you can even take it further and say reading the Talmud. What's very interesting is that you can go out and you can, the Talmud right now is like one of the number one red books in Korea. They actually have as a part of their standard education. There's not many Jews there. However, the perspective is that there's such great insight. And same in China as well. So you can find insight in books that you wouldn't that will help in life, certainly or in business that you wouldn't necessarily perceive.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“that's worthwhile is not going to come easy. And too many times we see success. We're like, oh my gosh, that guy is so lucky. That Gal is so lucky. Nobody's lucky that they haven't set themselves up for luck. And there's been plenty of failures and there's been plenty of hard work whenever someone else is going to sleep, someone else is staying awake and working an extra hour. So that's where I'd say those are the two. Nobless oblige and you've got to pay the price.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I guess there's two. And one we hit upon, which is noblesse oblige, which is, you know, if you have the ability, you have an obligation to use that ability to help others. The other is you've got to pay the price. And this is one that my father, you know, who again, he went on to be an NIT championship, captain NIT championship basketball team. And it was something that was taught to him by his coach, Claire B, is that, you know, success doesn't come easily. You have to pay the price. Well, that means working extra hours, whether that means giving up something else that you like, self-discipline is just about pushing those things away that you might want now for something greater that you want later. And that's something that whenever things get tough, I remember my father saying, hey, you have to pay the price. And anything.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I guess that had to be our senior year in high school being the quarterback of an undefeated football team. And I remember our coach pulling us together and we had this on video. And we're all jumping around cheering and we're all happy. And he pulled us together. And he said something that was very insightful that I don't think really sunk in at the time. And he said, savor this moment because you may never have one like this again. I think, you know, as a 18, 17, 18 year old kid, you don't realize that great success doesn't happen all the time. And I was very fortunate that I've gone on. I've been a part of great teams, but I know there's a lot of kids on our football team. That was the highlight of their life. Those are glory days. And so that was definitely the greatest sports moment of my life. And I love that one. And I love, you know, reuniting with old classmates and, you know, reliving the glory days.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, my favorite thing to do that I guess depends on how you define it as a complete waste of time is just playing with my daughter. And I would say it's not a waste of time because I've got a great relationship with my daughter. But like yesterday, my daughter wanted to figure out how to make slime. So we went online and we figured out how to make slime. She loved it. The fact that she actually created this thing was admit. But I remember as we were doing this, like, oh my gosh, this is wasting so much time. And the reality is it wasn't. And so I think in general, whenever you do something with someone else, it's not a waste of time. I think doing things by yourself, if you're not developing yourself, reading or something like that, that is a waste of time. So I try to always do things with my daughter. So I'm not wasting time. It's an excuse for not wasting time. My wife will say we're”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I really enjoy developing teams, working with, like right now there's an organization that I'm going to be helping out where they a lot of times organizations misunderstand their business strategy versus their execution and that they'll develop to find a great business model based upon financial success. But the implementation and the execution with the personnel escapes them. And it's because a lot of times when people who are in the financial world, they're great crunch in the numbers and building out the pro formas, the execution piece is the challenging part. And so I'm coming in to help build out world-class teams to actually facilitate success for these different organizations that do have great business models. And that's really, I would say where I've been able to add the greatest value.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, right after the failure of the election, we were approached by quite a few people that talked about getting me into the administration, and I was very excited about that, had people putting my resume in front of a lot of key players within the transition team and was looking forward to working within the Department of Defense, perhaps as an undersecretary or an assistant or a deputy assistant, perhaps focused on special operations. And the reality is that the administration just has not appointed a lot of people into the Department of Defense. I think General Mattis is the only person, the Secretary of Defense, and all the other seats are being held by acting personnel. And so right now I'm consulting and trying to help out other organizations as best I can. And we'll see how that plays out over the next couple of months.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The morale of the organization, and we have to be careful of perceptions as well. But ultimately, if everybody understands, like, hey, that person is the best at whatever it is, keep them there.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Bureaucracy, it says, well, this is what we do. And this is a part of our challenge as leaders to say, why? And the thing is we fall prey to this, you know, well, that's the rules. And again, one of the things we learned in the Marine Corps is that the Marine Corps has all sorts of rules and standing operating procedures like this. And there's just, you know, you can find pretty much something to answer every single question. But the first thing you learn is that all rules can be changed. There is that flexibility for success. And again, the peacetime bureaucracy versus the combat environment where you have to be recognized, like, yes, the rule is here, but we can make exceptions for whatever reason. Now, the exceptions, we have to be careful, though, that they shouldn't be based upon nepotism or other reasons that would ultimately destroy”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Ted, I think you're hitting on something that's really near and dear to my own heart because I'm seeing a few close friends that they're in situations where they love what they do. And especially in the consulting world. And because they are so good, they're now being elevated into positions where a lot more focuses on business development, which they hate. They just hate the business development aspect. Some people, it's just not their thing, but they're the best at whatever it is they do, whether it be auditing, whether it be strategic analysis, whatever it is. And it's our job as leaders to really put the best players in the right positions and recognize that, you know what, there isn't a cookie cutter stamp for everybody. And not everybody's like, well, this is what you need for progression. And it's very tough within organizations that have this model.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“casualties. That means every other person was either going to be shot killed, wounded, or something, and every Marine sat here and looked at each other and said, well, sucks to be you. But the reality is we didn't even take but 1% casualties going through. And a lot of it is that will to win, the desire and the focus and confidence breeds confidence. There is no Troy. You can't do anything half speed. You have to go 100%. If you fail, you fail and accept it.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Quarterback, and I knew nothing about quarterback. I was a fullback. I was a guy take the ball and just crash into the line. Well, by our senior year, we had an undefeated team and we destroyed everybody by 30 points per game. And we weren't the fastest. We weren't the strongest, but we had the will. And that's where I learned early on that the will to win, the drive, the desire and everybody giving 100% really that can dictate what's going to happen at the end of the day. And that's carried through into the Marine Corps where as we're talking about that first Gulf War, as we're about to go into, I don't know if many people remember, Kuwait was just this burning Hades, you had these burning oil wells. You had the smoke. You couldn't see daylight in the middle of the day because of all of the flame trenches they had set fire to. And we were told by the analyst, they told the Marines, our lead unit, 1st Battalion 6 Marines, they said, you will take 50.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's one of those things that it's the only way to play. Number one, you can't do something half in. And this is many people, they do this half in, and then their excuse is, well, I really didn't try. And I knew we were going to lose. That's not acceptable. You go in 100% or you don't play at all. And it's a lesson that I learned early on actually as a little kid playing football in high school where I came from a non-football world where great ex-South liberal New York, we were not a football school at all. And we had a bunch of great kids and we were really enthusiastic and we loved each other. We were like brothers and we still are to this day. And early on, I said, you know what? When we're seniors, we're going to have an undefeated team. We're going to be number one. And my own team laughed in my face. And they said, look, we don't even have a cornerback. And so I was like, good point. So I decided to be the”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Very challenging. It's interesting because you have these different poles that sort of tell you how each state will play out. And it's sort of like odd makers. And going against the odds is really tough. And we were definitely going against the odds. I think we had like a five to one Democrat or Republican registered voters. And so people didn't really think we would even get more than 20% of the vote. And so the sad thing was afterwards large donors were saying, wow, we didn't realize how well you were going to do. The fact you got, you could have actually won had we supported you. Thanks.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I for one was not pleased to see that the outcome didn't turn out. And, you know, it's funny, another one of our classmates, Terry Wilson, had run for Comptroller of New York, and he's now, I guess, considering a run for governor and had the same experience. He was a Republican in New York running on a ticket where I don't remember the numbers in a seat the comptroller that nobody really knows anything about. And he did much, much better than the ticket did. This is when I guess when Cuomo won. It's really, really hard to overcome sort of a red and a blue state in that blue district in that case.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Communication to where our opponent that spent $3.5 million compared to our 400,000 was able to communicate a lot better than we were and to get the word out to where on the day of the election when I was out with big signs and shirts and everything were shaking hands some woman came out and said, you know, I just voted Republican across the line. But who are you? And I explained to what it was. And she goes, oh, I didn't recognize your name, so I voted for your opponent. So you're somebody that should have voted for me but didn't know who I was, which is not acceptable. She could have come out and said, I know who you are. I hate you. That's okay. At least you know who I am. But to not even know. And so people are like, wow, you did great. And you should be very proud. I explained to them, look, this is a binary effect. You either win or lose. There's no second place medal. We lost. And I accept that. But it was a great experience. And it was one that, again, I thought it was someone that was necessary.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The second piece is the air war, and the air war is getting on the radio waves, getting out there on television and making sure that you have television commercials. At the end of the game, we crush the ground war in that we did extremely well in areas that people thought we would gain no traction. I was running, had the support of five parties. I was on the Republican ticket. I had the independent ticket, the conservative ticket, the tax revolt, and the reform line. We had five parties supporting us, and we got 41% of the vote compared to Trump, who got 37 in our district. So this was not a very Republican-friendly district, but we crossed over the lines and we met into other districts that we were told we would get absolutely no support. The challenge was we never had the funding to get up on the air. We didn't have the television commercials. We didn't have the community.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And we had a lot of promises from big donors as well. And this election cycle was very interesting in that when people were watching who was running and what was happening, people would say, yes, we're coming behind you. Then next second, we're not putting a penny into any of these races. And it was just very bizarre from the financial standpoint. There's two parts of it. There's the ground game and then there's the air war. The ground game we crushed. We were out five in the morning. As you said, my mom was out there with me, my wife, my dog, my daughter. I mean, we had a blast going out early in the morning, welcoming people to the train stations, really trying to shake as many hands as possible, communicate with as many people as possible. And it was really brand recognition, trying to get people to know who I was, because most people didn't. And that was really the challenge.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'll tell you that. The first question everybody asks when you decide to run for Congress is do you have the money? Will you have the money to get this done? I don't think as a first-time candidate you realize the impact of the money and how important that is. It's really the ammunition to fight the fight. And those people who understand this game realize that the majority of your time really has to be on the phones begging for money. And it's a painful process. And fortunately, I had people like yourself and others who were just very supportive and people who would contribute. I had classmates and section mates who were unbelievable in their support. And then other people just because of family circumstances, all the rest that just weren't able to.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was just before 2008. My daughter was on the way and I decided as much as I loved being a Marine that being a father was going to be a greater challenge. So I retired to be a father.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then talk to a lot of the other former service people and our class had, I think, about maybe 20% who had actually served and said, hey guys, time to head back. And everybody sort of laughed like, come on, what impact are we going to have? We're going to go back. We're going to be handing out volleyballs out at some base in the middle of the United States. They're not going to pick us. And so when all of a sudden I communicate with some of them from Afghanistan, they're like, seriously, you're actually over there making a difference. And, you know, this is where, you know, you have to take that chance. Again, you have to do the right thing at the right time. And my perspective at the time was the Marine Corps was going to be, you know, spooling up. We were going to be bringing in a lot of subordinate junior enlisted and subordinate officers. We were going to need field grade officers, whether it be majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so I actually came back to the States and was working in the States when 9-11 happened, just outside of New York when we were hit. And before the Pentagon was even hit, I immediately called up my old command, who was out in California, First Marine Expeditionary Force, and talked to a duty officer. And I said, you know, get me back on active duty. And this was 6.30 in the morning, their time, and they had no idea what I was talking about. I said, turn on the news. And they turned on news and they said, stand by for orders and hung up. And then within a couple of months, I was right back on active duty. And within, immediately, I sort of class president, I immediately started going out and trying to identify who was in New York, who was injured, if we had lost anyone. Fortunately, we hadn't, although we had a lot of people in and around the site at the time.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And who's interesting? I was in Israel when the first blow, we should say, to the high-tech world where I was working was the Intifada in Israel, where all of a sudden I was in Jerusalem working with this high-tech startup and sort of like in a combat zone without a weapon. And it was a very bizarre situation. And all of the private investments dried up. And shortly thereafter, we end up seeing the internet bubble.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. Well, look, I only spent a very short time with Goldman. And truth be told, I ended up punching out very quickly and ended up going to a high-tech startup. And the reason was Goldman, great organization, super people, really brilliant people. Everything about it, I didn't have anything bad to say about the organization as a whole or the people. you know, so much time in a combat environment I saw myself more aligned with the entrepreneurial startups and really going into more of an environment that was a little bit more volatile, uncertain, and complex and ambiguous. And so I didn't stay at Goldman Long. Just did a quick summary associate and then bam, I was out. But I don't really have anything bad to say about Goldman.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's hamstringing their success or the leaders just come around and say, all right, that's not happening. I'm taking your best. And so the key is to try and manage this and say, you know what? I've got two really great guys. I'm going to give one of my greatest guys over here because it's that important for success of the organization as a whole. And personally, it's going to hurt you, but it's important for the greater good. So I think that's, and hopefully that gives you some perspective on that.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“that the organization must succeed. And for the organization to succeed, this one group has our priority of effort. And if it's in business development and you're seeing that, okay, we're going after B2B corporate sale. Like that's the priority, then everybody has to recognize that that's where we provide our support. And we see this a lot of times where if a new organization or a new division is being developed, a lot of times they're like, all right, we need some people for this. And all of a sudden you're like, wait a second guy, these are my people. No, they're not your people. This is the organizations. And so a lot of times a poor leader who doesn't understand the greater perspective of the team succeeding will throw away one of their weakest performers. And so now all of a sudden you've got this focus of Everett, this group that's supposed to be the greatest. All of a sudden you have a bunch of weak performers. And so it's”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Marine Corps has something, as we do our planning, that's referred to as the focus of effort. And it's a concept similar to prioritization in basically it says, let's say we have three companies of Marines that are advancing. One company is designated as the focus of effort, which means that if you only have limited amounts of resources, whether it be artillery, firing and support or naval gunfire or airplanes or any other aspect of what's happening on the battlefield, that the priority goes to that unit that is the focus of effort or wherever we must see success. And so other parts of the organization recognize that, hey, we may not get what we need at the time because we're the supporting effort. And this is rarely important to communicate.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“to do something but we as leaders didn't communicate clearly sort of the boundaries that were acceptable and the importance of the initiative so it's it's something that develops over time and it's something that starts at the top because a mid level manager will destroy a subordinate because they're afraid of how the senior leadership is going to view them so it has to start at the top communicate it down to embrace the risk embrace change not have a zero defects mentality but a lot of times it's lip sync or lip you know you just have these these senior leaders like saying hey oh it's okay if you make a mistake and then you make a mistake and you lose x amount of money and all of a sudden you're fired i was doing exactly what you told me to do yeah but you screwed up time to go”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Every time they make a mistake. So in general, I've had plenty of subordinates who've made mistakes, and certainly you have to correct it and pull them aside. And assuming it's not a criminal action or something that's a war crime, you just give them that rudder correction because that's how they learn and that's how they move forward. And then you constantly, we always have this saying, hey, good initiative, bad judgment. So you want to keep reinforcing the initiative, but hey, let's think this through a little bit better. And that's where being an active leader and manager is something where we don't see that a lot. And a lot of the organizations that I work with, especially the entrepreneurial organizations where they just get frustrated. Somebody's made a mistake and all of a sudden they dismiss them. Or, you know, there's the cold shoulder or they fire them. And it's like, well, hold on a second. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. This is a great person. The fact that they made that mistake means they were thinking they were trying.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's great. The general rule within the Marine Corps is, and it's even written in our FMFM1 leadership warrior Bible, if you will, is that our subordinate leadership should never be punished for making a mistake. They should be counseled. They should be brought aside, but never punished because it does limit taking risk or chances or advancing going forward. The only time that a subordinate should be punished is for a lack of action because in the Marine Corps, we have to have a propensity for action. And just as in an entrepreneurial organization, you can't have somebody come back and you say, hey, did you get X done? Well, well, no, because of this. Well, what did you do? Well, nothing. You can't do nothing. You must do something, even if it's wrong. You have to do something. And this is where the momentum and everything can be stalled if you're crushing someone.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Made a better effort to communicate to the command ahead of time and whether that would have made a difference, we don't know. But it's one of those things where, again, you make the right, and we end up advancing and attacking with the new ammunition, where my unit was highly successful, did exactly what they were supposed to do, and we didn't have any fratricide incidents. So in the end run, it was the good call and I sacrificed my position for that.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“had gone out from the highest ranks that anybody who was stealing our own goods from our supply camps would be relieved the battalion commanders would be relieved and so although i hadn't actually stolen anything it was one of those things where the battalion commander just didn't want to get relieved and said you know what it's in my best interest not to take a chance and so he relieved me so i was fired from that position which as one of those senior lieutenants was it had a shockwave throughout the organization But the battalion commander decided to keep me within the battalion because he wanted my skill set and I still attacked with the battalion, but it was heartbreaking for me. And it was a failure in a sense. And it's one of those things where, again, I made what I felt was the right call and it was deemed as not the right call. And I look back on it. What could I have done better? Well, perhaps I could have.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“unload every piece of ammunition load it up onto our vehicles and bring it up with us and as we got up it was right at what we call ENT end of evening nautical twilight the sun was setting and I immediately ordered my marines set up all of our guns to prepare we had heard that there might have been a preemptive strike coming against us the Iraqis were going to get in set up the guns break out the new ammunition get ready to fire and we were all fired up we had this new ammunition we got all the guns up everything was ready I talked to my executive it was the second in command of our company told him what we did he goes great job make sure you tell the company commander as soon as you can very well I will got the guns up everything was ready and then we set in for the night nothing happened the next morning the company commander heard that I had stolen ammunition and brought me in to see the battalion commander and the word”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We then were picked to be the lead battalion going into Kuwait to spearhead the attack into Kuwait, and we still had this old ammunition. And as we were repositioning, we came across this abandoned truck on the battlefield that was bringing resupplies up front, pre-positioning them that had broken down and was full of this 800 series ammo. I immediately tried getting on the radios, contacted my commanders. No communication. What now, Lieutenant? What do you do? Do you leave that ammunition unsecured on the battlefield and move up to this attack position knowing that within days you're going to be a part of the lead unit attacking? Or do you take this ammunition? What do you do? Or do you, I guess there was a third option. Do you leave security on there, breaking up your unit and hoping that nobody takes this abandoned ammunition? I made the call to...”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. So the failure, then one of the things we were a mortal platoon and our job was to provide indirect fire close in indirect fire for our supported unit, which was the infantry line units. And the challenge was we had this old ammunition that hadn't been restocked in years. It was what's called 300 series ammo that we knew had a great propensity to fall short. That means we had to offset, which made it really tough for us to support our advancing infantry because”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I recognize there was nothing I was going to say, but it was one of those things where I knew or I perceived that my credibility was shot, that these guys just were not going to trust me. And whenever they could get away with something, they'd be like, you know, this lieutenant doesn't know what he's doing. He's doing things by the book. He's not doing the right things. And I was really questioning myself. I trusted in the leaders who had trained me, the mentors who had trained me. I guess it was just luck that we were strafed. I mean, if you can put it that way, because it created the cohesion and support of our unit. But I don't know that there would have been anything to say at that time. I think they recognized my position and that was it.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And everybody's going to hate me. And now we're going into combat and are they going to frag me? I mean, and then all of a sudden, we got strafed. We got a thousand pound cluster bombs dropped on our position. The world just turned upside down. Dash two came through. Bombs going off. Everything's going everywhere. Shrapnel's flying over our positions. Long story short, no one was injured. We all survived because everybody was in their holes. And the next morning, they were down digging even deeper because once you get hit by indirect fire, that's a wake-up call. And Sharon came and brought me coffee that morning, which basically meant, all right, good call, lieutenant. So that one worked out well. But what if it hadn't? And so I'll give you the next situation was...”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lieutenant at the time, and I said, we dig in now because that's our standing operating procedure and that's the right thing to do. And that's what I've learned from combat warriors before me. When you stop, you dig because that's the only thing that will protect you from indirect fire. And he said, look, the Iraqis are out of range of their artillery. They can't hit us. They don't have any air up. I said, dig. And I start digging. And he went out, got the word out, being a good platoon sergeant. He told everybody to start digging in about 100 Marines or so. And they're all digging. And I could hear everybody bitching and cursing and everybody hated me. And normally at the end of the day, the platoon sergeant would always bring me a cup of coffee and we'd sit and talk. That evening, he did not, which was very clear. He was upset with me. And I remember sitting down and turned to radio operator and said, okay, go get some sleep. I'll take the first watch. And I'm sitting in my hole. And, you know, I'm thinking, did I make the wrong call? Like, I really screwed up.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, you bring to mind two stories from the first Gulf War, where I made two calls, two command decisions, and one played out well and one did not. The first one was the Iraqis during the First Gulf War, when we were in Kuwait providing a secure position in Kuwait, decided to attack into the city of Kafchi, which is in Saudi Arabia. They had now expanded into another country. Our unit responded along with another unit, and then we dug in that night. We had been up for, I don't know, 48 hours. Our Marines retired. They were hungry, and we were digging into this one defensive position. And my platoon sergeant came and said, hey, sir, look, everybody's tired. We haven't eaten. Let's get everybody just let them go to sleep tonight, tomorrow morning. We'll dig in. And I said, no. And I was a young second.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, yes, sir. No, that was great initiative on his part. Yes, sir. We will tell all units in country to tear down all posters, all statues of Saddam Hussein. And it was because General Conway got it. He understood the message that was being communicated, whereas this other individual did not understand. And this colonel was, he told me to turn in my weapons. He was ready to throw me out of the country. Fortunately, I was saved by the bell with this general who then put me into doing more special ops throughout the country. I guess the lesson learned is you do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons and be able to communicate why you've done all of that.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Plane hangar and proceeds to start screaming. You know, you've got German on the line for you, picks up the line, and he tells me just to stay right there. He goes, yes, sir. No, yes, sir. He's right here. Yes, sir. I saw all that on TV and I got to.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was on the front page cover of every newspaper across the world. My brother in Israel picked up a newspaper and saw it, was like, what the heck? And the communication that came out was America here is to remove Saddam Hussein, not to harm the Iraqi people. And that spread throughout the Arab world and was a very positive message. Now, your question was about failure. The interesting thing is we have a saying in the Marine Corps, no good deed goes unpunished. After that incident, I collected up some of the senior officers that we captured and some of the classified information, all the rest of it. We went back to the rear command, which was still in Kuwait. And we came in, everybody's cheering, everybody saw what happened. Of course, some colonel who was not able to make that shift from the bureaucratic world into the combat world pulls me into his office, which was just sort of like a partitioned area of this giant air.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All these posters Saddam Hussein and the people were just looking at me like, oh my gosh, this guy's crazy. And slowly though, they start coming out and chanting and cheering and we start gaining the support of the locals. Of course, the media came in, they videotaped it, they took photographs of it.”
2017-06-05 · Capital Allocators · David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source