David Novak 0:04 

Welcome to How leaders lead where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world, I break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Today's guest is Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney, a highly decorated Air Force fighter pilot, and the founder and CEO of Folds of Honor. Now Folds of Honor is an amazing nonprofit that gives scholarships to family members whose loved ones have died or become disabled while serving in the armed forces. And get this, they just expanded their mission to include first responders as well. You know, Dan is just the perfect person for us to talk to you this week. As we're reflecting on Veterans Day and all the incredible sacrifices our military servicemen and women have made for our freedom. Dan's got the kind of leadership wisdom you can only earn when you're flying through a dust storm in Iraq, going 1000 miles an hour, with the wing of your aircraft, literally six inches away from your buddies. I mean, the stakes are high and the challenges are nonstop. But hey, that's where great leaders shine. We're defined by how we respond when we face tough moments. In this conversation, Dan shares how we can actually be ready for those difficult times, embrace them, and come through them even stronger. So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney.

Then you're a fighter pilot. So I got to ask you this. Before we get started? Have you seen the sequel to Top Gun? Have you seen Maverick?

Dan Rooney 1:51 

So I've never had more interview requests in my life than since this movie has come out? Yes, I have seen Top Gun too. And it's an extraordinary movie. Have you seen it?

David Novak 2:02 

I wasn't gonna go before I got your review of which one's better Top Gun one or Top Gun two?

Dan Rooney 2:07 

Well, I'll tell you making a sequel is hard. I think they're both extraordinary in different ways. You have to go see it. We'll get into this. But you know, I'm blessed with five daughters. You got one. So you're a girl, dad. They've watched me, David for 21 years, you know, go off around the world as a fighter pilot, but never really kind of understood what it felt like what it looked like. And the awesome thing about Top Gun two is just the leap in technology that they were able to put in they fly Super Hornets. Right. So you got a real Navy pilot in the front. And in the backseat, you have an actor, you got Tom Cruise and the cast in the back. But you can't tell that they're not flying. But all the G forces all the air to air formation photography that they execute in this movie. It is phenomenal. I walked out a movie, it was like the first time my kids thought I was cool and 20 years or like, you actually do that I'm like, Yeah, but even cooler than what it is on on TV. And the other thing I loved about Top Gun too, is there was no agenda. Man, it was just it was awesome. I mean, the language was good. There wasn't a bunch of you know, fooling around, it was like you walked back into 1986 and just made you proud to be an American, walking out of the saying you will love it.

David Novak 3:31 

And I understand and that you're actually a Top Gun recipient in the Air Force. Tell us about that.

Dan Rooney 3:37 

We have within our squadrons, the Top Gun competition every year and everything is graded the bombs you drop the air to air missiles, you shoot. And at the end of the year there, you know 25 extraordinary accomplished individuals. But there's one person that gets the trophy and I was blessed to back in my day be pretty darn good at flying. And I've gotten the Top Gun trophy a couple of times. And it's extraordinary when to when you think about being a fighter pilot, David, that there's a discrepancy in skill considering that all of us go through the same program. It's two and a half years long. The government Thank you very much spends $8 million per pilot training us. Only 4.8% of the people will make it through. And so it's the most expensive highest attrition rate of any training in the US military but then when you get to your squadron, there's still a you know, huge pecking order and guys that are really good and kind of the middle and kind of the average I guess it's not unlike the PGA Tour. But yeah, I was blessed to you know, have a couple of Top Gun trophies in my shelf behind me gathering dust at this point in my career.

David Novak 4:47 

You know, in addition to being a fighter pilot, you found it in our the CEO Folds of Honor, which provides scholarships to spouses and children of Americans fallen disabled service members. You started this in 2007. And the story behind Folds of Honor you told me this as a friend in the past, share with our listeners.

Dan Rooney 5:08 

Yeah, you know, I think in this world where I figured out if you can tell someone a fact they might learn it, but if you tell them a powerful story, that's what lives in people's hearts and minds, and I call them moments of synchronicity chance with purpose. I do not believe in coincidence, I do not believe in serendipity or blind luck. I'm a man of Providence, right? Every person, every experience is placed in your path for a reason. And it's really up to you what you do with that. And for me, and I'm incredibly proud to share it. I was super average person at this point in my life, not a bad person, but I think in conflict with who I wanted to be who I could be in life, but I'd combined this ultimate job description of being a golf pro and a fighter pilot. And so I was busy doing both of those. And God interrupted my walk. This time not in a fighter jet but on a commercial airliner going from Chicago O'Hare to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Finally get on this airplane in as I walked through first class, David, there's a corporal and dress army greens. I don't think much of it right press on back coach. But an hour and a half later at this point, it's about midnight, the captain comes over the PA and makes an announcement as we're pulling into the gate that we're carrying the remains of corporal Brock Buckland who had been killed in Iraq. And his identical twin brother, Corporal Brad Buckland is in first class and brought him the 7000 miles home. Never I've I've told the story, you know, a bunch, never not without emotion here. Because I've seen a lot of terrible stuff. In combat man, I understand that freedom is not free. There's a half a percent of this country that wakes up every day, willing to give their lives for the United States of America. But I've never seen this side of war. And I watched that family on the darkest night of their lives, including his wife and his four year old son is Brock's American flag draped coffin kind of inch down from the cargo ramp. And that's when it hit me is is a father, that this little boy would never play catch with his dad again, or go play around the golf or out to dinner, all the things that we hold so sacred on this short journey of life. And as the ceremony finished itself up, I grabbed my backpack. And I'm shocked that despite the captain's request, more than half the people have gotten off the airplane, right, nowhere to go, except that blanket of freedom will all sleep under courtesy of corporal rock Buckland and the 1.1 million veterans who pay the ultimate sacrifice. And I felt a hand on my shoulder walking off the airplane. In amongst a lot of emotions. One of them was I was incredibly disappointed to be an American at that point in my life, which I'd never experienced before. And the only thing I know for certain was the hand of God, he picks the least among us. But he gave me a mission on that night. And I called my wife Jackie. And I said, Man, this is not going to sound like the guy that you know. But I know. This is what I've got to do with my life. And from that moment of synchronicity, we would start Folds of Honor above our garage. in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma man with nothing right, I got no influence, no money, not very smart. But the very first day we wrote down our mission, honor the sacrifice educate the legacy. And I'm really proud and 14 years we have not wavered from that giving scholarships, as you mentioned, spouses and children, who've had someone killed or disabled, defending our freedoms and been on this incredible journey that would connect us in a moment of synchronicity at Valhalla, you were just there as a member playing around a golf when our paths connected for the first time and you believed in this guy above his garage.

David Novak 8:45 

I'm very honored to be able to help people who have served in you know, I never had the privilege of serving and that's one of my good friends. Jimmy Dunn says it's almost like a hole in your resume. So if you've been blessed, it's great to be able to give back and like so many in our country do which I think is really great. I want to talk more about Folds of Honor and how you lead it, Dan, but first, I want to go back a little bit and talk more about the fighter pilot part of your life. You mentioned about how much money is spent training fighter pilots. What's that experience like to go through that kind of intense training and what's it take to beat the odds? In two

Dan Rooney 9:25 

and a half years? I learned three lessons that changed me for the rest of my life in this training. And the first one day one the commander's a colonel walks into this class and he said, Hey, man, welcome to your boyhood dream. There's 45 people in here and you're doing the inventory like we all do. It's like the first tee on the golf course. You know, who's who, who's the competition and he stuns us with the fact that you know, four or five of us are going to make it through to become a fighter pilot. And I remember going home that night to Jackie and saying, Hey babe, you may not need to unpack check all those boxes. I'm a college golfer from Kansas, and everybody else is from the Air Force Academy Naval Academy. And I started a routine the next morning. And I haven't stopped in 22 years, and I've set my alarm 30 minutes early and figured beat the world out of bed. And that's a routine, the greatest gift the Air Force ever gave me was starting this process of discipline routine. That's the first thing I learned started that second day haven't stopped and 22 years. Next thing I learned was the second day of training, we sit down and they basically briefed us on all the way people kill themselves flying these airplanes. It's a very dangerous business, it's called Road to wings. The guy at the end of the day said, hey, the way that you avoid or give yourself the best chance of avoiding becoming a statistic is stay ready. So you don't have to get ready. Which is very prophetic for life. In general, these high achievers aren't like cramming for the test, and then doing it is incrementally every day sharpening that spear. And for us, when you know, we have a bad thing happened in the jet, you don't have time to think we have what's called boldface. And these are things that we write once a week that we know what we're gonna do when an engine fire, a tire fails a hydraulic failure, all these things, you're not fumbling through the checklist trying to figure out how to deal with it, you know how to deal with it, because seconds are the difference between being alive or potentially not being alive. And the third thing that I learned was, once you make it to the F 16, you get four rides with an instructor. And to understand this machine to ride, they're $65 million apiece, there's more horsepower and one fighter jet than the entire starting grid at a NASCAR race. The top speed of the F 16 is about 2.4 Mach, which is about 1800 miles an hour, zero to 50,000 feet and under one minute accelerating the entire way there. So I'm sitting in this jet, right after four rides, when the instructor my fifth run, I'm looking around, and I'm all by myself. And I gotta go where I wash out of the program. So I put the canopy down, I go take off, come back and land it as I'm on strapping from the ejection seat, it hits me, they hit this hand on my shoulder again, and I've experienced so often in my life. And it's go before you're ready. And I was going to tell you like one strand of DNA that ties the greatest people together. It's that in this belief, inherent that it's going to work out, you're never going to have it all figured out. But you go and I think we would all agree that regardless, life goes way too fast. And nobody's figured out the solution to that man, it is at Mach 2.4 for all of us. And in order to live the fullest life, you can't sit around and plan it all out, brother, you have got to go. And that changed me for the rest of my life. And I'm at the point now David, like where the more reckless the idea is, the bigger the more unknown it is, the more convinced I am. I just gotta go. There's a difference between not being prepared. I'm not saying I'm a very prepared guy. But there gets to be a point in time where man you gotta go chase life because it's moving fast. So that's the biggest lessons I learned. Flying the F 16. That really were foundational. And I would say even transformational for the rest of my life. And I'll tell you the next two lessons, because I went straight to combat. You had three tours in Iraq, right? Yeah, three combat tours in Iraq. And I put it in perspective, I got a buddy. That's fine. 21 years as a fighter pilot, he's on his first combat tour. So my whole life has just been compressed. Right? So I'm getting ready to launch on a night mission. I was an alert pilot, and we were supporting a squadron of Navy Seals and special operators. And there were two ground battles raging one in Fallujah, one in Ramadi, and there's a big dust storm that had rolled through Iraq is called a Shamal. There's virtually no visibility, we would never fly under normal circumstances. But there was a tick, which is troops and contacts, which means people are fighting for their lives in close proximity. And they need us and they need us now. And so this big horn sounds and we run to the Jets. And as I'm on the way to the jet, this next one hits me. It's like courage and comfort can never exist in the same place. Bro, you got to pick one of them. And it's these courageous moments that we grow in a world that's trying to make everyone comfortable all the time. And you do such a great job of this, by the way is fighting complacency because people get to a place where they've achieved and it's like, oh man, I can chill out. I don't have to use my gifts to the maximum extent Have any more. So that was one and the next one is I pulled the jet out onto the runway and I literally can see the door on the other side of my office, I've got no visibility, it's night, there's dust everywhere, and I'm sitting there and this f 16 is rumbling underneath me. My ears just lit up and I'm typing in all these coordinates in the jet to where we're going to go to support the ground troops in this next one hits me is and probably the most empowering lesson of my life. Honestly, if you were talking about leadership and just succeeding or being significant was that no one is going to come to help you. No one is coming. Right. And when you can get to that place, and I'm not downplaying your team, your spouse, your friends, but at the end of the day, your life is up to you. And I'm a single seat fighter pilot sitting in the $65 million jet lives are on the line. And I just burst through, you know, this bubble in my life that would never be there. Again, when I just realized I could count on myself. And you get it you're a golfer when you have to hit that golf shot, you have to make that putt, but this night was I'm going life or death and I've got to drop this bomb on time on target, I gotta go turn bad guys into pink mist, or our guys are going to die, I cannot choke. And it's up to me. And that was another moment flying the F 16 that everything changed for me in my life.

David Novak 16:32 

Now I'm sure you'd agree you can't get better as a leader without a plan to help you develop. It's why send out a weekly leadership plan. This weekly plan gives you practical steps you can take to develop leadership skills that will help you grow. Each week focuses on a different leadership topic. Topics like culture control, innovation, and handling conflict. Now you might know a lot about these things. But how often are you taking time to actually get better at them? This free weekly leadership plan will help you do just that it will improve your leadership skills and give you simple ways to navigate any leadership challenge you'll face. Sign up for the plan today at how leaders lead.com/plan. It's such a challenge what you went through and you know, I've seen fighter jets and what I think you guys call fingertip formation where it looks like you're no more than a couple feet away from each other

Dan Rooney 17:33 

were three feet vertical and horizontal. How do

David Novak 17:36 

you build trust with your teammates to be able to pull something like that off?

Dan Rooney 17:41 

You know, you all get through the training. And I think that's the the ultimate filter that you know, once you make it through the training, which is, as you heard earlier, the attrition rates are ridiculous that once you get through that you trust everyone to take care of their contract. And it's deeper than a contract. It's a covenant, right that ties military together. And especially when the guys you're with if they don't do what they're supposed to do, they can kill you. And that's what's just so unique about the military. And probably the reason, you know, I'm still serving and could have retired a couple of years ago. But that covenant in that trust and that fellowship that is so unique to the military. That's why the military is the greatest team on Earth. And I will tell you, I've never fought an enemy in my life, which sounds kind of crazy. I've always fought for the person on my left or my right.

David Novak 18:42 

Why do you guys fly so close to each other anyway? I mean, what is the purpose of that?

Dan Rooney 18:46 

The so it is there's a very tactical reason. If our landing system navigation systems go out and we're in the weather, we can put someone on our fingertip and actually bring them in to land before if you even look back before we had radars and now we keep track of each other with radars. But in order to take formations through the weather and look at a 10 for instance that doesn't have a radar. That's the only way you can stay together and know where you are in the weather is on somebody's wing like that. And I'll tell you we go through some of the thickest darkest clouds on Earth and you think three feet is scary. Six feet is a lot scarier because you start to lose visual on the guy you're next to and the weather we call it tucking in tight. It sounds crazy but it's is my great friend and fighter pilot buddy you punched out over a rack he was an all American at the Air Force Academy. Spike Thomas's but you get to a point where it's just like you tuck it in there and it's just smoke lucky. I mean, you're, it's it's autonomous. You're one of the best short range putters I've ever met. You don't think about it. You just go up there and you punch in that five footer to win the pet and And it's that same kind of learned effectiveness that we get as fighter pilots to be able to do it. But you trust your teammate and you trust yourself. But it takes a lot of learning. And it's certainly not natural. Until you get to that point,

David Novak 20:14 

you say that sudden change is a constant in the fast jet business? What advice would you give the leaders who feel like they're caught in the thrust of change right now.

Dan Rooney 20:25 

So it's inevitable. And I'm a huge believer, David, that our lives are defined by what we do when it doesn't go our way every day. And when you can accept that it's going to be a turbulent and difficult ride. I think that is step number one, like you're not fighting against that man, this is going to happen. I'm a leader, in my job as a leader, above all else is a problem solver. And to accept these challenges these problems and use the skills that obviously, you were given that got you into this leadership position. We have a saying in the fighter pilot world Flexibility is the key to airpower. I took off on every mission, and it was going to be an 11 hour mission. And I knew it wasn't gonna go my way I'll use an analogy for Folds of Honor. I mean, COVID hit Folds of Honor, and literally are giving was 50% off we were cut in half, within three months. And we sat around and I'm like, we didn't woe is me, oh, man, I can't believe this is happening, like, what do we do? What do we do to survive this moment, and for us, it was, we had to let go 35% of our staff, and figure out a new battle plan. But we didn't sit there and feel sorry for ourselves and worked our way out of it and are an extraordinary place. But sudden change is inevitable. How you react to it is completely within your control.

David Novak 21:55 

Then you wrote a great book called fly into the wind, and what was the motivation for you to write the book itself.

Dan Rooney 22:03 

I went through a very challenging 10 year period in my life, David, and I say this in the most humble way. But I had never set a goal and hadn't achieved in my life and whether that was going to play college golf. And you know, I duel with this guy, Tiger Woods and bested him a few times, and you know, married the beautiful girl and said, I'm gonna be go be a fighter pilot and ran this gauntlet to be a fighter pilot, I'd been very successful. And I had a moment after my second combat to her and I came back from Iraq and I made a mistake. And it's like a half a second mistake. And I raised the gear a little bit early on my F 16. About a half a second, the jet actually settled back down on the runway on a 360 gallon fuel tank. And if it's a nother half a second, I'm probably did. And this was the beginning it was like the wick that was lit on my life just coming apart. And I'd been fast burner bests in the squadron started having a lot of performance issues after this as a fighter pilot reengaging getting back in the cockpit. I built a golf course in Tulsa called The Patriot in 2008. And woke up every day, my life going bankrupt for six years, I was starting folds and face and all kinds of headwinds there and it just kind of spilled everywhere into the relationships that mattered. It was really hard on my marriage. And we say it in the military beatings will continue until morale improves 10 years, I had this storm, that just was a remedy. It was just nonstop. And you know me, I'm a pretty positive guy. And I put on a good face. But I did not want to get out of bed in the morning. And I was at a point in my life that I didn't care if the airplane landed anymore. I was in a really dark place. And during this period, I created a process or routine of things that I could control in an uncontrollable world. And I was like God, if I can't get a vector out of this storm, it must be purposeful that I am here. And I really drill down. I think if you look at this book, there's two distinct parts. The first one is what's really important in your life. And is that house in order? And it's amazing how few people ever stop because life's just this inertia and identify what is your essence in your life? And are your choices congruent with what you just said? The next piece of this beginning is as a fighter pilot, I think there's one skill we have that is unique is our ability to prioritize. We take in copious amounts of information at very quick speeds, right? But we figure out what's important so it's about prioritizing. And then what I wanted to share were the 10 things I do I call them lines of effort Eloise everyday A without fail to become the best person hopefully at the end of the day. And what I found out during all this Dave and I would not want to go live at all, again, is we're so quick to put labels on what's good and bad, what success and failure in life. But I find myself now you know, without fail religiously sticking to the same process that I created within the storm. Regardless if the day that you were given appears to be a loss or a win, it's about being true to yourself and executing a discipline code of living every day, and without the storm of my life, that would have never happened. And I'll finish discussing this as I go back to the title, which is very intentional.

David Novak 25:47 

Now I love the title flying to the wind break that down for us, I fly the most

Dan Rooney 25:51 

powerful jet in the world, at least one of them, and we take off into the wind because we need resistance to ascend. And our lives are no different. And when you can come to terms with that, and I would discover in this what I perceived as a storm. And this resistance was there to help me ascend. And I've been amazed where this book has gone and 10 or 11. Vets now that have reached out that were going to kill themselves. And this book got to them in time,

David Novak 26:25 

your book definitely does reach into your soul and your heart. And it's a fantastic read and has all kinds of insight in it. And I want to go back to this idea of needing resistance to ascend what's been one of your biggest challenges with Folds of Honor, and how did you navigate through it,

Dan Rooney 26:42 

the greatest challenge was learning to go from a single seat fighter pilot, a doer to a leader. And for us to scale this and you know, you've seen me, you know, I'm all over, I go to every event and I'm all over the place, and you hit this kind of terminal spot where you can't grow any more. Because you can't be more places yourself. How do you effectively lead people. And that was the transformational piece that really happened during COVID. But learning how to lead. It's ironic, right? Because the military spent millions of dollars teaching how to lead flights of men into combat and in squadrons, but leading in the military is a lot different than leading in the civilian world. Because it was do it because I say I do it as opposed to being influential, and getting people to do it. Because of the why we all hear about. And for me, I look at leadership. And my personal evolution is you have to be humbled to be an effective leader that unites people.

David Novak 27:56 

Let me ask you about that. Because, you know, people talk about humility, and you know, I talk about it a lot myself, but I also feel like you got to have a uncanny combination of confidence to go with that humility. You know, because nobody's gonna follow somebody unless they think that they can get them there. How do you balance being confident enough in your own ability and humility? What's that mean to you?

Dan Rooney 28:22 

Someone that is starting from zero that hasn't done anything, that's the greatest challenge to be a leader because nobody's going to follow you. Right? We talked about it in the military all the time. It's the status that comes from being someone that someone wants to follow, and you don't want to follow someone unless they have done it, right. So to have that status of executing, I put that in the fighter pilot world. The squadron commanders ago lead the toughest missions, no place else in the military, does that exist, right? And because that is the status of being able to get out there and get it done. But also combining that to your point with humility.

Speaker 1 29:08 

We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Lieutenant Colonel Dan Rooney in just a moment. But if you want to really dig into how great leaders act in challenging situations, you can learn a ton from Dave Calhoun, the President and CEO of Boeing. Dave had to lead his company both through COVID. And when the 737 Max was banned from flying passengers due to two plane crashes. Now that's a challenge. And when you listen to his episode, you'll get a real lesson in how to restore stability in the face of a crisis. In one of my great experiences at GE I worked for a great leader by the name of Larry biocity. Larry conducted a meeting every meeting ended with an end game and every meeting ended with a How does GE win that end game? So all of the crunching and grinding that was going out in the marketplace at the moment, everyone had a chance to step back and think about the end game we're all working for. I like to practice that as much as I possibly can. We're going to take the time, we need to rebuild our relationships with the customers and our regulators, and most importantly, the flying public, we're going to take our time we're going to be disciplined about it. But if we do it, right, we're gonna get right back on top of this world, I see that in game every day all day I think about it. And my job is to make sure that we position ourselves as well and as disciplined as we can to realize that future and we will go back and listen to my entire conversation with Dave, Episode 65 here on how leaders lead.

David Novak 30:52 

You know, Golf has played a major role in Folds of Honor. You know, how does golf connected all of this?

Dan Rooney 30:59 

Every significant moment in my life is connected to the game of golf, I went to Kansas met my wife there playing golf, was on the flight on the way to my PGA club pro job up in Michigan with the bucklins. And I would turn to the game to start Folds of Honor, I had approached the PGA of America with this idea called Patriot golf days from about my garage, right? There's no way they ever say yes, there's no way they ever call me back. But they did. And Brian Widdecombe said Man, I love this idea of letting America tee it up for golf most heroic round and donate at least an extra dollar when they play golf. And the PGA Championship was coming to Tulsa. So David Farid, he shows up at the front gate for a ride and an F 16. And this is the launch to everything folds. And if this guy doesn't show up, and I don't take him through an F 16. I'm telling you, nothing ever happens. But we have a D model. It's a two seat model. And it goes out to lunch and he orders a double jalapeno cheeseburger french fries and a chocolate malt and I'm like, this is a bad order, you're probably gonna get air sick. And he's and he's Irish. He says I know how it's going to end. So when it seems good when it comes back up. So we go out on the runway, I like to afterburner, you go from zero to 200 knots, and about four seconds, by the time you hit the end of the runway, we're doing 500 miles an hour. And then I pulled the jet up straight into the vertical and we'll go to 20,000 feet in about 35 seconds. And on this particular day when I pull the jet up into the vertical and you pull them at eight G's when you do this, so David, you're one gravity is holding you in your seat right now eight G's is about 2000 pounds of kinetic energies feels like an elephant dropping on you. And it sounds like fairly like there is a leprechaun dying in the backseat of this aircraft. And I get to altitude and I roll inverted roll right side up. And it's complete silence and I'm like, oh my god, I just killed this guy on CBS Sports. Not saying a word behind me. And I would later find out that as we're going down the runway, he starts getting air sick. And I'd given him an air sick bag all the way down by his left chi su pocket. And remember, I talked about synchronicity at that exact place at that exact time that he leans forward to get this vomit bag that I pulled vertical. So 2000 pounds, just crushes him, on top of his manhood writes, and I'm like, David, do we need to land and he says Noonan, he says, I have no idea what the hell just happened to me. So we launch for the PGA Championship Patriot golf days, and we'd sign up 3000 courses, we raised $1.1 million. And I would argue that 95% of the significant relationships in my life have occurred through this great game of golf. Now,

David Novak 33:45 

you also have a television show, as I understand it, is called fly into the wind, same title as your book where you interviewed successful people about how they come out of some of their darkest places. What's the story from the show that's most memorable to you, at this point, something that one of your guests really had to overcome our world.

Dan Rooney 34:05 

There's such a crisis of mental health out there, right? It just seems to be so isolating now for people and that was the intent of the show was, hey, guess what, just because you see Dara Torres, or Dirks Bentley, or whoever you see them up on stage doesn't mean that they don't struggle. And so I sat down with each of these individual I said, Hey, what was your fly into the wind moment? What was your most difficult moment in your life? But what did you learn and looking back on that moment? What's the advice that you can give people who are struggling and most successful people in life, they realize this resistance wasn't there to keep them down, but rather to raise them up? You seem

David Novak 34:51 

to be Dan less interested in people's accomplishments and more interested in what they've overcome. Is that fair to say?

Dan Rooney 34:59 

Oh my god. You have the ability to put things together like few people I've ever met in my life. And I'm always say, Man, I would love to sit down to have a beer with you. But I do not care what you accomplished. But I would love to hear what you've overcome. That is the level three conversation. The one I just adore having with people,

David Novak 35:20 

you have all these concepts. You talk about quintessence, finding your Quintessence. You talk about drag, you know, the drags on leaders, you know, like the ego that can get in the way you talk about go before you're ready, you know, you sit back and think about all these leadership concepts, I'm gonna How did this come to you, all I did was

Dan Rooney 35:41 

sit back, and I put it in the context of my own life. And you hit on one of my favorite things, because it's the paradox of life, David for all of us. And I talked about parasitic drag, which is a fighter pilot term, and that when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, they had to reduce the parasitic drag on the bill x one to break through. And all of us have parasitic drag in our lives. And I think that's the only thing that holds us back. And to honestly look at yourself every day in inventory, the stuff that's holding you back from breaking through. And it can be relationships, it can be not forgiving people, it can be egos, it can be shopping, alcohol, pornography, I mean, the list goes on and on, right. But if you can really be honest with yourself, identify that parasitic drag in your life and then understand the science. To get rid of something in your life, you have to replace it with something else. And so I systematically and I still I attack this stuff every day and some days are good. Some days aren't as good. But if you can get rid of this parasitic drag in your life, and you can break through and do anything on this journey.

David Novak 36:57 

Dennis has been so much fun to connect here and I'd like to have a little bit more fun with you with some rapid fire questions. My lightning round. What are the three words that best describe you?

Dan Rooney 37:08 

Resilient, fearless, loving? What is your

David Novak 37:13 

biggest pet peeve?

Dan Rooney 37:15 

egos?

David Novak 37:17 

How long does it take to get from Los Angeles to San Diego in an F 16.

Dan Rooney 37:23 

Top speed. I'm doing the math. Two minutes and 45 seconds.

David Novak 37:30 

Your lowest score in golf

Dan Rooney 37:33 

61. I broke Scott verplanck course record at Alomar. All right,

David Novak 37:39 

tell us something about you that few people would know.

Dan Rooney 37:44 

I have a motivating but debilitating fear of failure.

David Novak 37:49 

Tell us a term only a fighter pilot would understand.

Dan Rooney 37:53 

This is a fun one dead bug. So when anybody says the term dead bug, wherever you are, all fighter pilots fall on the ground with their arms and their legs up in the air doesn't matter where you are.

David Novak 38:09 

And I'll remember that the next time around you. What's your unfinished business? And what's something you've not accomplished that motivates you to do all that you do?

Dan Rooney 38:19 

What motivates me is just the unfinished business of being the best version of myself and specifically, getting to a place where I can lose my selfish wants and needs on a daily basis just to go out and be a vessel impact and have a positive impact on the people in the world around me. And there's a lot of goodness left to be done on on that front.

David Novak 38:46 

Last question. What's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone who wants to improve as a leader?

Dan Rooney 38:52 

My motto is this. Work hard, be nice. And I think leaders so often you come up with these convoluted mission statements and purpose statements and they're all good. But Can people remember that walking in the front door? And it folds in in our squadron? It's Work Hard, Be nice.

David Novak 39:12 

How can people who want to learn more about Folds of Honor and donate to fold zone? Where can they go

Dan Rooney 39:18 

folds of honor.org is the website 91 cents of every dollar we raise goes directly to fund scholarship program and we have a perfect rating on Charity Navigator and GuideStar. So know that when you listen to this and you're considering a donation that it will go directly to support a military family and change the life by given the gift of an education and I'll wrap with this David about you know my greatest fear as an aviator my takeoffs don't match my landings and I don't come back. I've got five daughters and making sure that they get an education is my greatest concern. I think I speak for the majority of Our military that ensuring that their children and their spouses are set up for success in life. And I don't think there's any better way to do that than through the gift of an education. So thank you,

David Novak 40:11 

thank you for your service. And thank you for the creativity and drive that you've had to start Folds of Honor from scratch and turn it into this powerful organization that is highly regarded by everybody in the United States these days. So thank you very much for your leadership.

Dan Rooney 40:28 

Thank you, David, I'm honored that you would include me in your show, you have no idea. It's just one more chapter of you believing in me that pushes me forward and lifts me up brother.

David Novak 40:49 

I'm so grateful that Dan Rooney and I cross paths. It's not every day you meet someone who can fly an F 16. And play golf with the best of them and start an incredible nonprofit like Folds of Honor. But it hasn't all been easy. Dan has been up against impossible odds and dark times. But he's persevered through them. And like every great leader, those challenges have been jet fuel for his growth and development. If you want to do the same, Dan says, You've got to start by accepting the reality of the tough spot you're in, then you've got to rely on the routines and habits you've developed. And most importantly, you've got to lean into those challenges when they come because it's your job as the leader to solve those problems. So let me ask you, what challenging situation are you facing right now? Maybe it's something in the state of your business. Or maybe it's more personal. This week, lean into that problem. Don't try to avoid it or minimize it. Remember that you're defined by how you respond to challenges, like Dan said, remind yourself of the skills that have gotten you to where you are, then trust that you got what it takes to embrace this challenge and come out even stronger. So do you want to know how leaders lead what we learned today is the great leaders embrace challenges. Coming up next week on how leaders lead is Gail Troubleman, president and CMO of iHeartMedia.

Speaker 2 42:20 

Doing what you've always done is an easy way to not get fired. Doing the new big innovative things that could get you fired is usually how you do the best work of your career.

David Novak 42:31 

So be sure to come back again next week to hear our entire conversation. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of how leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be