0:00 spk_0

I learned this as a young refugee. I think most of America are rooting for us. I think when you’re an underdog, then your first feeling is the world’s against us, you know, it’s like the the other dog in sports, right? You know, it’s us against the world, we’re gonna shock the world. Now, most Americans are supportive of

0:16 spk_1

you.Hey, welcome to Warrior Money. The show devoted to supporting our brothers to veterans. I’m Patrick Murphy, and

0:26 spk_2

I’m Dan Kons.

0:28 spk_1

This week we have a phenomenal show. We’re going to talk about from the battlefield to the boardroom, what it is like to start a small business, but we also have a phenomenal marine pilot who started his own business, uh, was in the pharmaceutical industry, and then became an author, but more on that later. Let’s get to it. Then, bottom line up front, what are the skills.needed that soldiers have to start a small business. Patrick Patrick,

0:53 spk_2

you look great in a tie. You look so good in a tie. What what doves need to do? They, the first thing they need to do is actually not to execute a business, like run a business. And more importantly, like, what do you, what is your business actually gonna do? Like, what problem are you gonna solve?So I think that’s the, that’s the question, right? It’s like, what, what problem for what person for what organization are you going to solve? And like, I want to start a business, I want to go work in a business, but at the end of the day, you got to figure out what it is that you’re actually gonna, what problem you’re gonna solve or what gets you out of bed in the morning to go do. I think that’s the, that’s the starting place. We often don’t think about.We often don’t think about um.Like business is a nebulous term, like this blah blah blah, but it’s, it’s really at the end of the day solving somebody else’s problem, and, and you say that pretty well. It’s just kind of getting into it and doing it.

1:41 spk_1

Yeah, I listen, you and I both start businesses. We own a business together. Um, you know, you look in America right now, there’s over 33 million small businesses out there, but the reality of it is, for folks out there, you know, it might look sexy from the outside, but most will not make it 5 years. Most will not make it, um, and but veterans are more likely to make it, so.You know, when I look at that, it’s also, as you mentioned, what pain are you solving, you know, what are you selling and are people, you know, customers gonna buy it, but just the beginning of becoming an entrepreneurs, sometimes, you know, you have a, you’re a founder, you have an idea to do it, but other times you can have become an entrepreneur through acquisition and be a kind of the operating economy or or an operator economy.

2:26 spk_2

Everybody thinks that they need to go be a technologist or something like they’re gonna have to do something, but people still have to put up fence fences. People still have to mow lawns, people still have to do work and they have to do trucking, and they’ve got to still do things that move things from one place to the other. And in this whole like age of artificial intelligence where we’re all worried about the jobs they’re going to get taken away and there will be jobs that are taken away.Like the things that aren’t going to go away, I don’t think, and I haven’t figured out how they’re going to do this yet, are the jobs that do the day to day like last mile services and delivery. Like, so if you’re thinking about if you’re an enlisted soldier, or you’re trying to figure out what you’re going to do, like maybe you should transfer in your first job in business, doing something with your hands that lets you kind of replicate your military experience and go do that in the civilian side.And whether it’s being a mechanic or mowing lawns, like there’s no shame of putting a good day’s work in, because all of a sudden that stuff starts to snowball on itself over time.

3:22 spk_1

Yeah, yeah, and then do something on the sideor like

3:26 spk_2

Patrick, you could be the security guard in the 700 section of the Veterans Stadium and then all of a sudden your your life kind of cascades from there.

3:33 spk_1

Yeah, yeah, that was the toughest duty, by the way, being a guard for the Eagles was tougher duty than the invasion of Iraq. We lost guys in in our unit, but, uh,

3:42 spk_2

that was, uh,

3:44 spk_1

by the way, I got my first battlefield promotion. I picked I stopped the supervisor from getting his head kicked in, uh, as a security guard, but, um, what I also don’t, I look at, you know, when you look at the 33.5 million small pits across America.The majority are owned or 40% are owned or run by baby boomers. So when you look at that, a lot of them are about to retire, and the majority of small businesses, they don’t have a succession plan. So Dan, I remember we had Patrick Flood on, you know, Owners and Honor about a month ago, you know, talking about, hey, we’re helping folks get in because a lot of veterans want to go back to their home of record, but the majority of them don’t.You know, so are you seeing some of that, you know, ownership through acquisition happening out there or or we say entrepreneurship through acquisition?

4:31 spk_2

Yeah, you know, the first, uh,The first thing you got to look for is a good product, or a good service, or a book of business, right? So like, do you have customers or do you have a good product, kind of what you got to look at. And um I know you and I have talked about this before, like, your baby boomer, you’re getting really close to retirement, you don’t have a session.You keep working past 60, 65, 70, you’re like, what do, what do I do? What do I do now? I don’t have somebody to succeed this to. A private equity firm doesn’t want to buy me for what I think this is worth, so like, I’m kind of stuck in this whole situation.Uh, I, we’re seeing actually last week I had a conversation with somebody in Westchester, Pennsylvania about this exact same problem, and they’re just trying to figure out how to find somebody to step into the business to help him succeed and retire. Like that’s, that’s all he’s looking to do. And that’s a perfect opportunity, I think, to put a little sweat equity, uh, do a little earn out over time, or some sort of acquisition using the SBA loan. Those are the sorts of things that I think we need to be creative about and talking about to the veteran community as well. Like you’ve already earned.Education credentials. You’ve already earned VA credentials. Why not use the SBA to buy out a business? And there’s just, there’s just a lot of different opportunities to do that, but at the core of it is like, do you have a book of business? because that’s the hardest part to get, and do you have a good product because that’s the other hardest part to get. And if you can get those two things started, or you inherit something that’s already started, that’s a way better starting place than trying to start from zero, because starting from zero is really hard.

5:59 spk_1

Yeah, yeah, and I think part of that is that folks say, hey, I want to be a small business owner. I want to be an entrepreneur, OK, but that doesn’t see your clients don’t pay, you’re sitting behind a desk someday. And we’ve had, we’ve been doing this show for over a year. I mean, even the Marine who was a T-Mobile CEO that, you know, they, they’re, they’re, you know, bought out, um, USA seller, but even he said I had to get out there. I had to go out to the field. I had to see what was going.On, but some of those fundamental principles of, yeah, you might not be doing obviously sales in the military, but you are communicating and you’re inspiring people. I mean, the whole point of leadership is inspiring people to do something they otherwise wouldn’t do. You wouldn’t otherwise be a salesman, sell goods, sell products, sell services, but if that is your job, that’s what you have to do. You have to do the hard job and, you know, what we say, embrace the suck of that.

6:50 spk_2

Yeah, actually I kind of looks so, so I don’t think it’s sucky at all. It’s like I enjoy doing that quite a bit. Um, I think the, the suck of it is when things don’t go the right way. I think that’s the part where you and I are like, we have to, that’s the conversation, right? Like you’re going to get into this and your first job might not work, your second job might not work, the first thing might not work, the second thing might not work. You just keep doing the things until you finally get to a place where you’re OK, and that, that I think in my mind means that youYou’ve taken care of and we talked about this in previous episodes, like, you’ve taken care of your four walls, so you’re not living out of your skis, uh, you’re in some sort of community or relationship that grounds you and where you need to be, and your work, uh, can be work. It doesn’t have to be everything, all encompassing, cause it it’s really, I think, important to have outlets beyond just judging your worth by what you what you make and how you do your work. So I think I agree with you on everything. I like selling.If I had to do operations all day long, I probably wouldn’t like that quite as much as I like selling and give it to an operations person. So like that’s that’s where I found my my piece and my space at, and I think you just got to find your piece in space every time.

8:00 spk_1

Yeah, and I would say, you know, part of it is there’s in business it’s, it’s like the military, you’re dealing with people all the time and people bring problems, they’re in set skill sets and you know, you don’t necessarily have the 6 month support form or the NCOER, the OER. You don’t have like you have to be able to either create that or use the systems in place to effectually change to drive them to do better, to have more sales, to be more efficient, not to waste money.

8:26 spk_2

And you also, you’ve also said this a million times. I agree with it. Um, you’ve got to meet more people. So like if you’re if you’re an introvert, you got to figure out a way to navigate your introversion to go do it. If you’re an extrovert, uh, be extroverted, but be intentional about it. Um, I don’t, I don’t know a lot of people that have succeeded by themselves without having to talk to anybody else. And I think what, what we’re talking about is how do you, how do you become successful and how did I become successful?I became successful, started becoming when I had my first paper route, and I was forced to, I was forced to, I was forced to meet people because they were my customers were on my paper route. And then those customers became my landscaping customers, and then those landscaping customers became the next thing, but I didn’t, I didn’t get started until I started meeting somebody.And at the end of the day, it’s like thank you actually for teeing this one up because I wrote a subse about a couple weeks ago. Like the work happens between people. I wasn’t planning that, but it worked. It happens between people. It doesn’t happen like on strategy decks. It doesn’t happen because you wish it to happen. You got to engage and get in the mix with people. Like that’s, that’s just what you got to go do.

9:31 spk_1

Yeah, and you and I, you subscribe that your network is your net worth and using social media, using LinkedIn, using it for force for good, but also you can’t just leave behind a keyboard. You can’t be a keyboard warrior. It’s good. Get in, get out, put stuff out there, but you got to meet people one on one. You got to meet people in person. We tell people whether they’re transitioning out for the first time or looking to.up in the corporate world, we tell them, hey, listen, get a mentor, get someone to you aspire to be. Ask them to meet for coffee or a meal and ask to do it in person. Don’t just ask for a Zoom and if begin a Zoom, get a Zoom, if you can’t get a Zoom, get a call. Uh, but just don’t, you know, just don’t settle, get a hustle and get out there and meet more people and be deliberate and frankly,You got to plan your work and then work your plan. And that’s what I think a lot of folks, they think it’s just going to come. You got to be aggressive and and just getafter it. Yeah,

10:25 spk_2

and I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with bootstrapping your way through the early years. Like a lot of people want to take other people’s money or capital. Um, I, I, I want to know that I have a business that has traction first before I accept somebody else’s risk as well, somebody else’s pressure, frankly, um.And the way that I would do that again is by starting some pilots or some prototypes and asking people if I, if they want to buy what I’m selling. And, and or even like, hey, would you buy what I’m selling and then get them to give me a dollar, just prove to me that this is worth your worth something for you. And I think um I think that’s also kind of part of this broader journey is how do you get started? If you’re gonna to take funding, I really hope you take funding for something that already has an idea, um, that actually has some traction.But if you’re not going to take funding, and it’s totally fine to be gradual about it, and at the lowest level, you’ve got to solve somebody else’s problem, like whether it’s, it’s putting up their Christmas lights, cause people pay for that now, like putting up Christmas lights, like you meet one person putting up a Christmas light that works likes your work ethic, all of a sudden you’re in some other room because that person is uh he can afford to put up his Christmas lights here and executive, here’s some executive’s office someday anyway, so like, it’s just a matter of meeting more people and then the other part, and I’ve stolen this from Patrick, um.I get my phone number out all the time now. Like I have no, like I’m, I used to feel a little weird about that, but like I just give my number out now. If you want to be weird to me, like I’m just gonna block you, but like nobody’s ever weird and everybody people just reach out and then all of a sudden you hear from somebody six months later, you probably don’t even know who they are anymore, and all of a sudden they’re in your phone and you chat with them about something.

12:00 spk_1

Yeah, yeah, listen, I think, you know, under the guys of your network, your net worth. When I meet them, I put them in my contacts, but I also say, I went to this college or this is their wife’s name or how many kids they have, uh, just, you know, so I can remember, you know, when I, when I’m talk to them again, um, you know, I think when it relates, you know, when people are listening, uh, whether they’re private first class right now or 5 years out of the military.The reality of it is, is those entrepreneurial skills that entrepreneurs utilize every day building a business are the scheme skills basically you had in the military, but you know, the corporate America wants to hire you enough because the charity because you’ll kick ass for them, but also, you know, you’re more likely to be successful in a small business, but it is not for everybody, and don’t worry about it. There are books about it. There’s things like Bunker Labs, which isPart of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families. There are folks out there in all the major cities for mentorship to get after it, if that’s what you choose to do. But Dan, I gotta tell you, I’m pumped. We have a re-pilot code name, call name uh call signal Q. uh Quan Fa, he has a phenomenal book, uh, Underdog Nation. He’s going to be joining us with more money just after this break.

13:12 spk_0

Looking forward to it.

13:18 spk_1

All right, welcome back to William Money. It’s Patrick Murphy and Dan Koons. We have a phenomenal author, marine combat veteran, Quan Fa, we call him Q. That was his, that was his, uh, call sign in the Marine Corps. Uh, he is an entrepreneur, uh, an author, and just a great American. Q, thanks so much for joining us on Warrior Money.

13:40 spk_0

Patrick, Dan, great to be with you here near the Marine Corps’s 250th birthday and Veterans Day 2025. There you go. There you

13:48 spk_1

go. There you go. And the Marine Corps was founded in the great city of brotherly love, Philadelphia PA in Tongues Tavern, so not, not a shock.We start off every interview with uh bluff, right out front, uh, you’re an entrepreneur. What were the skills that you learned as a marine pilot that you took as an entrepreneur and what could other veterans relate to?

14:14 spk_0

Uh, as a 2nd lieutenant, every Marine is a rifleman at the basic school. They taught us to make a decision, right or wrong, make a decision and go forward. That’s #1. Uh, #2 is assess risk.And move forward or move back, move sideways, but assist risk all the time. There’s no 100% certainty. The biggest takeaway for me transition wise was when I got to Mark after the Marine Corps was, be proud of your service, but remember you’re part of a new organization, OK? So you can’t run around yelling uh rah, because they’ll tell you if you love it so much, why did you leave? And so a lot of veterans are too much uh ra to begin in that transition, includingmyself.

14:53 spk_2

That’s, that’s really, really great. Hey, when you were in the Marine Corps, you, uh, you were a helicopter pilot. You did some interesting, um, interesting missions both in Iraq and in, um, Somalia. Can you tell us a little bit about what your military experience looked like and how you got your commission?

15:09 spk_0

Yeah, I, I was, uh, you know, I was a refugee kid from Vietnam, came out during the evacuation, had dreams of being a pilot, like my big father, South Vietnamese pilot, that didn’t happen. Um, 10 years later, I got the citizenship, and I felt like I owed the country, you know, the Vietnam War was long, it was bloody, controversial, but I felt I owed the country a payback for my citizenship. So I went into the OCS program on platoon platoon leaders class.And was given a commission, went to the basic school and got it winged.And immediately after I got Wing trained, Desert Shield kicked off. I went over, um, late in 1990 and flew a self support mission in a very brief war. Desert Stor was very brief, but, uh, got to Kuwait City, did a bit of act for the first breed division, came home a year later, came out, uh, USS Tarawa, went back to the Gulf and then into Mogadishu, uh, just for a few weeks in October 1992 during the peacekeeping mission and the famine food relief effort.

16:10 spk_1

That’s good.Judy, that’s awesome. Hey, we know your congratulations on your Los Angeles Dodgers. Dan and I are to fill up the area, so you, you broke her heart and beginning the playoffs, but congrats. It was a hell of a world series. I

16:22 spk_2

know, I know, we know, we know, we know, we know.

16:25 spk_1

But let’s talk about your transition, right? Obvious Marine Corps OCS pilot, uh, but every year is 200,000 veterans, uh, and military spouses that transition out every year and become veterans. You know, what were, what was your transition like and what were some of the lessons learned from your perspective?

16:45 spk_0

Yeah, yeah, first of all, I think as an officer, I think our transitions was easier, OK. Corporate America we’re looking for young officers, lieutenants, captains to join.You know, the ranks, uh, salesmen, and logistics operations, um.I think for the troops, the young.You know, corporal sergeants, I think they have the toughest time, really no benefits, just a transition period, uh, maybe some services at the VA and boom, they’re back in college or back in their hometown. So I think let’s focus on that. We can do a better job of helping young veterans transition, those without benefits, those who require medical services, and those who require education. I think, I think the focus should be on the young troops, um.

17:31 spk_2

Yeah, I totally, I totally, I totally, no, I totally agree with you. And I was going to ask you a whole lot more about your corporate experience. We’re gonna try to go down that path. That’s so nicely aligns the underdog nation that’s impossible for me not to kind of bring that up. So underdog Nation, the idea that um it doesn’t necessarily matter where you start, it’s resilience, great, all your sort of background and and efforts can accumulate into amazing success, right? How do you see that that transition happens for young service members and, and what are the skills from Underdog Nation that can apply to them?

18:00 spk_0

Well, I think first of all, I think there is this, um, I learned this as a young refugee. I think most of America are rooting for us. I think when you’re an underdog, then your first feeling is the world’s against us, you know, it’s like the uh the other dog in sports, right? You know, it’s us against the world, we’re gonna shock the world. Now, most Americans are supportive of you. There are a handful of haters, maybe dozens or hundreds, butThey want you to succeed, OK? They love underdog, but you gotta win. You gotta put in the effort and result. I talk about is the ER, not the emergency room, but you gotta put in the effort, the right effort to get the results. So, I think young Americans come out of the military, uh, be proud of your service, OK? Give it all you got, you know, I think you’re, you’re wearing the veteran badge. There aren’t many of us out there, right? It’s less than 1% serving these days, so the eyeballs are on you.OK. What are you talking about? What did you learn in combat and how can you help us grow our top line, be more profitable, customer service. Um, it’s a hard transition, but I think you have to go in it to be a part of a new team. In a way, you have to shed that military skin, OK, unless you go to a defense contractor where 100% our veterans. If you’re going to a place of pharmaceutical, Wall Street, uh,You know, there there are hardly any, so you have to adapt, get over that transition period, be proud of your service, and be part of the new team and bring the new skill set.Through the table.

19:26 spk_2

Yeah, uh, one of the uh Pat, one more thing, because you said one thing in there that I think was really great. You said the right effort, like you apply the right effort to a priority, and then you listed in the last of that conversation like sales, marketing, product management, program management, those sorts of things, right? How, how do you think a transitioning service member should find what those right efforts are based on the experience they’ve had? Like how do you, how do you differentiate the right effort from like busyness or energy expended?

19:52 spk_0

You know, I, I, I think, you know, I think service members in general, we’re risk taker, right? We know as young men and women, we could be deployed.Uh, but I think financially, uh, job, I think we’re more conservative in general. So I think making the making the right bet, and I think a lot of service members that have come out and contact me over the years, they focus so much on that first job when they get out, you know, it’s either make it or break it, I mean, they’re either.And retired start major or a retired tech colonel, they think they’re gonna step into this thing, but I tell them, focus on where you want to live and spend some time with your family. You’ve been deployed and you’ve traveled all over the world, OK? Once you are living where you wanna live, things kind of fall into place because if you areYou know, working in Seattle and your family’s in Virginia, it’s like being deployed, right? You can go to work for Microsoft, but if all your family is on the on the East Coast, it’s like being deployed. So figure out where you want to live. And so the first job, I think is a lot of pressure. Uh, my first job didn’t turn out the way I, you know, I invented it. It was the 2nd and 3rd job. So I try to tell them, be patient, don’t be so hard on yourself, but that first job after the military.

20:59 spk_1

Yeah, it is what people don’t understand, like, this is, it’s not like the military have to give a 3 year commitment. Now listen, we don’t want you to go job to job to job, right? But if it’s not the right fit, it’s not the right fit. Um, and you mentioned, uh, you know, you were proud that you were, you know, a Vietnamese refugee and you feel you had to earn your citizenship here in America. People forget that our military has been founded by immigrants since the revolutionary War, frankly, right? And so,You know, what did that did that give you like a little bit of a chip on your shoulder, meaning that you had to prove yourself, uh, and was that like a net positive or, you know, how, how did your family most people that were more diverse than the rest of America, those who were the clouds of our country.

21:40 spk_0

Well, I, I joined the Marines at a very um interesting time, right? It was the mid 80s. It was 10 years after the Vietnam War, a lot of the divisiveness, bitterness, and it was a time when all those Hollywood movies came out, and that created perception, the Rambo, Full Metal Jacketto. So when I went to Oca school, you know, all my classmates saw those movies, so that was their impression of the Vietnam War. But I had a father who was the South Vietnamese i did you both serve, you have, you know, Iraq Iraqi allies, Afghani allies.You know, my father served and went to prison for 12 years after the fall of Saigon, and there was the perception that the South Vietnamese were inept and they didn’t do their part. So that was more of a chip on shoulder than being a minority, right? Because I knew the Japanese Americans served in World War II and proved themselves and the African Americans eventually did great things, right, uh, in World War II in Korea. So it was more the portrayal of the South Vietnamese and my late father, that was more the chip, but I thinkA few years in, all that went away because our new enemy now was focused on the Middle East and not fighting, you know, all the war problems were all Vietnam focused until 1990, then everything shifted to another partof the world.

22:51 spk_2

Yeah, just like the Dodgers, you are no longer an underdog though, because of the, the very successful business career you’ve had. Can you talk, you know,

23:01 spk_0

uh, but you know one thing, hey, Otani speaks English now, right?He’s

23:06 spk_2

the best English speaker in the world.

23:09 spk_0

Exactly. No, no

23:10 spk_2

more

23:10 spk_0

interpreters.

23:11 spk_2

No, no more for a lot of reasons. That’s a whole different conversation. Hey, 8

23:18 spk_0

years in

23:18 spk_2

America. Hey, so you, you just said that it’s not the first job or the second job, it’s the 3rd job, and it seems like all your jobs have done pretty damn well and can you talk a little bit about your career progression out of the military and then how, how you eventually got to kind of a successful IPO? What did that look like?

23:34 spk_0

Yeah, so when I left the military, the pharmaceutical industry was really growing, and, you know, the myth was there was a senior vice president of human resource at Pfizer, and he loved young officers. He hired so many young marine captains lieutenant, they call it semper Pfizer. OK, that was a myth. I never went to Pfizer, but I was at the other company, Merck, um, but I think thousands of us were hired. So I think for young officers to transition, obviously there were more opportunities, but I think I made a decision that I, I didn’t want to be.In a military environment. I wanted to prove myself where there were no defense contractor military, not that I did enjoy it. I just wanted to go somewhere where I could just start over without that background. And it was the pharmaceutical biotech industry. So 5 years uh finished off at Genentech, which then and now is one of the top biotech companies in the world, and it was around 1999 when that dotcom era came around, and I took a risk.I used my savings. I wrote this business plan called My Drugrib.com, and next year I know, I raised about 14 million and I never raised funding before. I didn’t have a Harvard or Stanford MBA. I didn’t know any venture capitalists. I was just a young marine.Um, and, you know, I just, just go, go do it. I, I think we got funded like 3 months later. And now the marine experience being a top biotech sales rep and doing a pharmaceutical.com online business all made sense and it was a line and then that kickstarted my entrepreneur career.

25:00 spk_2

That’s a

25:00 spk_0

funraising, starting companies. Yeah,

25:03 spk_2

one question, um, Merck, were you in Jersey or Pennsylvania? Where, where did you work someplace across the US? Where, where were you from Merck?

25:11 spk_0

Yeah, I was in field sales in uh Southern California, so I was with a joint venture of Merck and Astra called Astro Merk, and at that time they had this drug, you may have heard of it, Prilosec, the purple pill. Yeah, I heard a huge GI you know uh proton pumping here Blockbuster. So, you know, I, I joined an organization with a great product already, so I was, I was trained by the corporate of how to sell.How to present, how to speak to physicians, and so all of those skills transferred into raising money to do it online pharmaceutical database marketing company. And so I think back then I didn’t know what I was gonna do, and I, I would tell young veterans, right? There are skills you’re gonna learn that’s gonna stay with you. One is always be ready when your number’s called, 2 is speaking.OK, you learn how to brief, you know, a 9 line, you learn how to brief a flight, you learn how to brief it from your platoon, hone it, OK, and know how to work a PowerPoint Excel. You don’t have to be an expert at it, but yeah, you gotta be able to present it and tell the story and and don’t take two hours like a general officer, OK? People, people only give you 5, just a few minutes, that’s it.

26:17 spk_1

Yeah, how about as far as as we say in the army, you know, you have to shoot move that indicates, right? So you communicate. I mean, think about what you did to be able to, to publish a book, you know, as an author. What advice I mean, cause, you know, these are viewers, you know, some of them were like, man, I would love to write a book today, like, what was that process like and why did you do it?

26:37 spk_0

So, Underdog Nation, my second book is a more business motivational effort results. 20 years ago, I wrote a book called Sense of Duty, Our Journey from Vietnam in 2005 on the 30th anniversary of the Vietnam War uh ending, and Random House published that, and once again, first time out, you know, English was my third language after French and Vietnamese, um, some of the rejections were, you know, your story is great, but your writing is like your military too stiff.So after about 25 rejections, you know, one day I got a call. I was playing golf, you know, yeah, I was in between jobs, writing a book. No, no acceptance and Merc, yeah, you know, call my I mean, uh, Redom house called my agent and say, hey, we, we want to talk to Kwan. I think, you know, what we like to publish the book and then I sat down and wrote it. So, uh, veterans have great stories. There, there are thousands of books now because of the wars the last 25 years. I think I would advise any veterans to write. Just write your story, but if you want the master to read it.Make sure you tell certain parts of story that hasn’t been told before, and trying to find a unique angle. And my unique angle was a father and son, one was allied to the United States, the son was a US Marine Corps, reuniting after 17 years, and that angle caught the attention obviously after the dozens of rejections.

27:53 spk_1

Yeah, yeah, well, that, that underdog nation at it at this and that you’ve lived your life, you uh doing exactly that, and we appreciate you not just your service to the Marine Corps, uh, but your continued service for our brother and sister veterans and their communities out there. Thank you so much for joining us on Warrior Money today.

28:11 spk_0

It’s my distinct honor to be here and uh just want to wish all the veterans a happy Veterans Day 2025.

28:18 spk_2

Thanks you.

28:19 spk_3

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