Strive for Mediocrity
And other advice you should probably ignore. Twenty years of leadership, from the guy doing the McDonald’s run.
I spent twenty years in the Army, from Patriot missile crews to counterintelligence, and I heard every piece of leadership advice you’ve heard. Leaders eat last. Failure is not an option. Be brutally honest. It all sounds wise, and some of it even is.
This book lines it up and makes it stand inspection. What holds, stays. What doesn’t gets sent back to the barracks.
The Books
Strive for Mediocrity
And other advice you should probably ignore.
Most leadership books are written by executives theorizing from a corner office. This one was written by the sergeant hauling their advice up for inspection. Twenty years of stories about what actually held when it counted, told by a man who interrogated claims for a living and never once got the corner office.
Coming when it clears government prepublication review. The Army taught me not to promise timelines I don’t control.
The Frugal Sergeant and His Thrifty Wife
Military family finances from two people who lived them on an enlisted paycheck. What we did right, what we paid tuition on, and what nobody briefs you at the reception station.
Fall in before the book does
About once a month I send out a story from the book, a report on how it’s coming, and the occasional platitude standing inspection. No formulas, no dramatic line breaks, and I will never sell your address to anybody.
Unsubscribing is one click and I won’t take it personally.
About the Author
Preston Trotter spent twenty years in the Army. He started out fighting air battles from a green radar scope in a box on the back of a five-ton truck, and finished in counterintelligence, where he was paid to figure out whether a confident claim was true or garbage. This book applies that skill to the leadership shelf.
He was never the officer. He was the sergeant who kept the officer fed, which is its own chapter. He’s retired from the Army now and works a civilian job he’s not going to tell you much about.
He lives in Washington State with his bride Lynda, their kids, and a strong opinion about pickled herring.