From Paratrooper to PM: 4 Fundamentals That Will Enhance Your Skills

Michael is a technical project/program management manager.

  Leadership  

Long before I had even heard of project management or thought much about my future outside the very near term, I was a soldier in the United States Army. Being quite undisciplined in my youth, a dramatic change was required to set me on a path to success.

It seemed the Army would assist me with my lack of discipline—and it did just that. After joining, it didn’t take me very long to notice that motivation, discipline and leadership was strong within the Army—and just what I needed in my life at that time. This held even more true in the airborne units (which makes sense, as you are jumping out of airplanes).

It took just over a year of pleading and submitting requests to my chain of command before I was approved for Jump School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Once approved and graduated, I was to report to a unit in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. However, I noticed this was not an active airborne unit, so I quickly channeled my undisciplined youthfulness to take initiative and made a detour to Fort Bragg, North Carolina (aka home of the Airborne).

The first door I knocked on was the reception of the 82^nd Airborne Division. As a lower-ranking soldier, I learned it wasn’t difficult to have my orders changed—and within two days, I was welcomed into the legendary division.

Over the next three years, I balanced my time between beginning college and …

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