Start Everything Finish Nothing

By Rolfe G Arnhym

Rolfe G. Arnhym has spent his professional life creating a method of leadership that has proved to be incredibly effective. From his time in the Army, to positions of leadership within various Chambers of Commerce, Arnhym's experiences, trials and tribulations helped form this unique, somewhat unconventional leadership style. These tips and tric

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digalign, LLC
• Release date: Jul 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9780990979838

Book preview

Start Everything Finish Nothing

A Tried and True Methodology of Leadership From a Long and Varied Career

Rolfe G. Arnhym

Publisher

Power On Marketing, LLC

5005 W Laurel St Suite 210

Tampa, FL 33607

For further information please visit www.rolfegarnhym.com

Start Everything Finish Nothing

©2022 Rolfe G. Arnhym

ISBN, print ed. 979-8-9864395-0-1 (Paperback)

ISBN, downloadable audio 979-8-9864395-1-8 (Audio)

ISBN, electronic book text 979-8-9864395-3-2 (Mobi)

ISBN, electronic book text 979-8-9864395-2-5 (EPUB)

Cover Design: Scott Harpster

Photos by: Ryan Gautier

First Printing: 2014 – Second Printing 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from Rolfe G. Arnhym.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.  No warranty may be created by sales representatives or written promotional materials.  The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. The publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services, and you should consult a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damaged incurred as a result of using the techniques contained in this book or web site(s) it references.

Dedication

To my wife, June, for her love, patience, and unwavering support as we lived the experiences that led to never ending lessons learned.

To our daughters, Kathy (Husband Fitz Conner, Grandsons Jamie and Reid. and Granddaughter Kristen) and Carolyn (Husband John Johnson, Grandson Daniel, and Granddaughter Jennifer), for their unquestionable love and encouragement.

To my Vistage Associates, who not only urged me to start and finish this book, but who also inadvertently provided me with even more situations that gave substance and clarity to the need for the chapters that lie ahead of you.

To the US Military Academy at West Point, for molding me and giving me a compass that has guided me through multiple careers following over 20 years as an Infantry Officer.

Finally, to those of you that will read this book - learn from it and carry the torch!

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Barry Powers, Brett Cook, Scott Harpster, Jourden Faircloth, and the entire team at Power On Marketing for their work on this book. Without them, this would have been something to add to my start everything, finish nothing pile. We all know how much I would have hated that.

Table of Contents

Prologue: A Massive Peacetime Troop Movement    1

Chapter 1: Why Is Finishing so Hard?             24

Chapter 2: It Can’t Be Done                   38

Chapter 3: Decide to Decide                         50

Chapter 4: Accountability                         61

Chapter 5: Delegation                         71

Chapter 6: Working with People                   78

Chapter 7: In Conclusion…                         94

Chapter 8: Networking and Relationship Building 103

Chapter 9: Managing Your Time                   113

Chapter 10: Now Firing?                         125

Chapter 11: Dealing with Change                   132

Chapter 12: Changing Careers                   146

Chapter 14: Getting It Done                         161

Afterword:  An Insider’s View of the Army-Navy        180

Game

Appendix:    In the News                         183

Prologue

A Massive Peacetime Troop Movement

Yogi Berra once said, When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

With that, he gave Joe Garagiola directions to his home in New Jersey, but the aphorism is a profound meditation on time management. On any given day you are faced with a fork in the road - one path seems clear, the other has an obstacle. You look at the obstacle and decide, All right, I'll pause here and do something that might be a little easier and give me the satisfaction of having accomplished something today.

You promise yourself that tomorrow you will return to the fork and look at the other branch.

You started your work with good intentions, but something got in the way. It does not make much difference what that obstacle is. It could be that you just do not have enough time to get the work done and you put it off for another day. It could be that you just do not know what to do next or how to do it. You might lack financial or material resources. You might have the wrong people. All of these are potential obstacles that will keep you from moving forward.

But if you have ever served in the Army, you know the obstacle course where failure, as they say, is not an option. You must overcome each obstacle and move on to the next. Nothing gives you greater satisfaction than overcoming the obstacles one by one until you finally finish and accomplish what you set out to do, which is to finish the obstacle course.

We all see obstacles differently. The question is whether we have the mental and physical strength to overcome them and move on - or whether we will take the fork in the road.

If you take the fork every time, you will find that you start everything and finish nothing. You may have small satisfactions in your daily everyday life, but you will never experience the deep and lasting fulfillment that comes from finishing the obstacle course.

I have overcome a few obstacles in my life, but the biggest one that sticks in my mind was the one that led to what can only be called a massive peacetime troop redeployment. I am talking about the relocation of the Army-Navy game from Philadelphia to Pasadena in November 1983. I am going to tell you this story because I believe that every obstacle has been- and there were many- seemed insurmountable. But every time one of those obstacles came up, I ignored the voice that told me to take the fork in the road and overcome the obstacle. That was a great life lesson for me. I hope it is for you too.

When Failure Is Not an Option

Look at the obstacles you have faced in life. When you were a child, someone told you, No. When you entered school, you had to do homework and take tests. Then, for some of us, every grade in school was an obstacle, and then came middle school, then high school, and finally college. With such obstacles, it's no wonder they put a cap and gown on you and played Pomp and Circumstance every time you graduated. Finally, you faced the hurdle of getting your first job, and you learned what it meant to face an obstacle that you could not overcome with your best efforts because someone else decided the outcome.

Here is an obstacle of a very different kind. I have served two one-year tours of duty in combat in South Vietnam. Combat is like the obstacle course. Failure is not an option. You must make a decision and move forward. You have two commandments: You must win, and you must take care of your men. The only way to do that is to see every obstacle as an opportunity.

The lesson I learned in South Vietnam was the one I learned most often in moving the Army-Navy game to Pasadena.

At the time, I was the CEO of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. My job was to improve the business climate and opportunities for business growth. The Army-Navy game project began in 1981 when I was watching the Army-Navy game on TV in my living room in California with my wife and a few friends, it occurred to me that the game should move around the country. After all, the military academies belong to the entire nation. Moreover, Philadelphia as a community seemed largely indifferent to the game being played there, along with attendance and revenues going down.

When I inquired about this, I learned that west of the Mississippi River, recruitment of cadets and midshipmen are slow. Bringing the game to Pasadena might help with the recruiting problem.

It could also mean a lot for the business climate and business growth in Pasadena.

I tried my idea of moving the game to Pasadena on the nearest person: my wife. She said it could not be done. I shared the idea with other people. They said it was not feasible. Red flags like that scare off normal people, I guess, but I have always seen a red flag the way a bull sees a red cape-as a signal to attack.

I realized that some of my initial obstacles would be people. The Board of my Chamber of Commerce, the City Council in Pasadena, not to mention the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Navy, the superintendents of the respective academies and their staffs, the athletic directors - they all had to be convinced that this was a good idea.

At West Point, the cadets run a famous indoor obstacle course that involves 11 obstacles. The first is a crawlway about 20 feet low, where you must crawl on all fours as fast as you can under a barrier of regularly spaced horizontal boards. The first time you face this obstacle, it looks a bit daunting. Remember that each step of your crawl is about a foot, and the only thing in your way when you start is the first step of your crawl.

Then the next step is in front of you, and the next, and so on. The point is that even the biggest obstacle can be reduced to many small obstacles. If you just keep overcoming the small obstacles, you will make it.

Knowing that I had a large population to convince, I decided to begin with the first step and start making calls and visiting with the key decision makers in Pasadena. On the whole, I thought everyone liked the concept, but they looked at me a little puzzled and said, "You know, there are just too many obstacles here.

You must figure out a way to transport the cadets and midshipmen across the country. You must figure out how you are going to feed and house them. Where are you going to house them? Where will the money come from?" Most importantly, everyone feared being at risk in some way, financially or put at risk, if it did not work. Many simply thought it was a lousy idea, while most were simply overwhelmed by the enormity of the task.

That led me to my next obstacle: building an organization. I would need team members, I would need to find leaders, and most importantly, we would need to raise an enormous amount of money. I took it day by day, morning to night, meal to meal, meeting after meeting, and eventually, interest began. Finally, interest grew in the idea of moving the Army-Navy game from Philadelphia to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

After generating interest in Pasadena, I was ready to tackle the next and much more difficult obstacle: I had to convince the academies. I began a dialog with the athletic directors, the Commandant of the Cadets, the Commandant of the Midshipmen, and the respective

superintendents of the two academies to determine if they were willing to move the game from Philadelphia to the Rose Bowl. Likely an important factor in the case of the staff and executives of the two academies was the fact that attendance in Philadelphia had declined in recent years. That, of course, means a loss of revenue for the two sports academies

Aided by Philadelphia’s Complacency

Then there was the city of Philadelphia. In a sense, Philadelphia was in some ways my ally - it had become complacent about hosting the game. Philadelphia is halfway between the two academies and had hosted the game almost every year since 1890 (with the exception of the travel-restricted years of World War II) on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. By the 1970s and 1980s, people in Philadelphia that the game was happening, but it did not have the level of support and interest that would reflect the true energy of the host city. Granted, there were a number of people in the city of Philadelphia who saw this as the event of the year, and their efforts are to be commended. But by and large, it was just another event on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and participation from people in the Philadelphia region was down. Of course, this was exacerbated by the fact that the academies' soccer season has not looked this good in a few years.

Still, it was America’s game and a major tradition - a spark was missing, and something clearly had to be done. Obviously, from my seat in Pasadena, California I was not in a position to ignite fires in Philadelphia. What I could do, however, was to get their attention by proposing that the game move. In July of 1982, I wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Army and to the Secretary of the Navy. In that letter, I specifically proposed that the 1983 Army-Navy game be played in Pasadena’s 106,000-seat Rose Bowl. I noted that we had been in contact with the Athletic Directors at West Point and Annapolis, as well as officials in the Department of Defense, Department of the Air Force, and the White House staff.

While we did not have direct personal contact with the service secretaries, I was very fortunate to establish a personal relationship with the Secretary of the Air Force, who was from Pasadena and opened the necessary doors for me. A very important lesson here is the importance and value of relationships and relationship building. My partner in all of this was Bob Finch, the deputy governor under then-Gov. Reagan, and through him I was able to meet Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger and several key White House officials. Opening doors that are themselves obstacles is admittedly not an easy task, but when you build on relationships, those doors open one by one; at least we had the opportunity to make our case known.

Here are some of the points we made in our proposal:

The athletic departments of the two academies did not generate the kind of revenue they should from the game.

Recruiting and admissions efforts in the western half of the United States for the respective academies had slowed.

The largest numbers of active and retired soldiers lived in California and Texas.

Moving the game to the Rose Bowl would give the program a tremendous boost in terms of potential viewership and media attention.

Finally, moving the game would be a tremendous public relations benefit by directly addressing the cadets and midshipmen interaction with the Los Angeles area.

Honestly, that was a sales pitch. If you have ever sold, you know that the most important success factor is how well you focus on the customer's needs. Accordingly, we needed to focus on the needs of the academies, not the needs of Pasadena. In addition, Pasadena's needs were implicitly addressed. It was about another soccer game in the Rose Bowl, with substantial revenue and, of course, the prestige of having hosted the Army-Navy game in our city. A win for Pasadena, because it means significant support for the Chamber of Commerce; a win for West Point and Annapolis because attendance and revenue from the Army-Navy game itself would improve. Greater interest west of the Mississippi River from potential Cadets and Midshipmen was also a benefit, as you will learn later - it worked!

A Massive Troop Movement

Obviously, the need to send nearly 10,000 cadets and transport them across the country and back at no cost to the academies was, of course, a challenge. It goes without saying that housing and feeding some 10,000 cadets and, as well as keeping them in the city of Los Angeles to events and activities, presented major obstacles that had to be overcome. There was another obstacle: the one-year get-out clause in the contract with Philadelphia had expired, so it was too late to move the game without breaking the contract. We proposed to Philadelphia to extend the contract for two years on the condition that they would allow a one-year absence.

If we couldn’t get Philadelphia to agree, we would have to wait until 1985, when the current contract expired. By virtue of multiple negotiations at every level, we overcame this obstacle and the City of Philadelphia graciously agreed to the contract extension, which allowed a one-year escape clause, and that escape was to take place in the fall of 1983, specifically the first Saturday in December. While we waited for a decision, we put together a budget, which estimated that the cost of the move would be approximately $6 million. Our team also began to look at how we were going to house and feed the Cadets and Midshipmen. All of this would need to happen with the timing and precision of a close-order drill, for the Academies would not consider the possibility of missed classes.

While waiting for decisions from the Academies, from the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretaries of Army and Navy, we built our team and created an organizational structure that almost looked like the invasion of Normandy. I already had an administrative assistant onboard, but I also had to put some other people in place. They included people responsible for plans and operations, public relations, and media. We had to anticipate TV, housing, data processing,