Admiral Bill Owens, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Red Bison Advisory Group
Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais
Dr. Michael Gervais
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 21 March 2018
⏱️ 118 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week’s conversation is with Admiral Bill Owens on leadership, courage, and relationships.
Bill is currently the executive chairman and co-founder of Red Bison Advisory Group, a company which identifies opportunities with proven enterprises in China, the Middle East, and the United States and creates dynamic partnerships focusing on: natural resources (oil, gas and fertilizer plants), real estate, and information, communication and technology.
He was previously chairman the board of CenturyLink Telecom, the third largest telecommunications company in the United States and was also on the advisory board at SAP USA.
The list goes on and on of important businesses that Bill has been involved with.
Bill began his career as a nuclear submariner. He served on four strategic nuclear-powered submarines and three nuclear attack submarines, including tours as commanding officer aboard the USS Sam Houston and USS City of Corpus Christi. Owens spent a total of 4,000 days (more than 10 years) aboard submarines, including duty in Vietnam.
He was appointed to vice chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff, the second-ranking military office in the United States, by Bill Clinton in March 1994.
It’s through these experiences – serving both in combat and in Washington that has given Bill a unique perspective on the world.
What’s become a common theme in these conversations is the guests have clarity. They know where they came from and what they stand for.
Bill sees himself as a utilitarian. A person who seeks the greatest good for the greatest number.
In this conversation, Bill discusses how he came to live by those principles and shares some incredible stories from serving abroad and beyond.
It takes courage and conviction to make many of the decisions Bill has been faced with and we dive into what being courageous comes down to.
We also discuss what it will take for companies to be successful in the rapidly evolving digital world and why having a mindset that embraces change will be vital going forward.
It was truly a treat getting to spend time with Bill.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | When you take things for granted that we live in a world that is linear or that's going to have 3% change a year and yet the real changes in the business world are exponential in many cases. |
| 0:16.0 | They are a J-curve of some kind that we may not even know unless we see that future. |
| 0:22.0 | And so we have to try to gaze into the future |
| 0:24.6 | with people who are knowledgeable about these things. |
| 0:27.6 | And when we see the future, |
| 0:29.5 | we will make the changes to make that happen. All right, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery Podcast. |
| 0:34.0 | I'm Michael Jerwin. All right, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery Podcast. |
| 0:44.4 | I'm Michael Jervay. |
| 0:45.7 | And by Trade and Training, I'm a Sport and Performance Psychologist, spending time of the trenches |
| 0:49.9 | with people who are the tip of the arrow, the best in the world, working to better understand |
| 0:55.9 | the science and the art and the practices |
| 0:58.2 | that help them explore the potential. |
| 1:00.0 | And in some return, end up shaping the way that we understand what is possible. |
| 1:04.0 | It's a fascinating art. |
| 1:05.3 | If you're interested in the science, like I absolutely encourage it. |
| 1:09.3 | It's been a wild and wonderful ride. |
| 1:11.9 | Hard, but wonderful. |
| 1:13.7 | And that was the impetus to set up this podcast, |
| 1:16.4 | which is to have conversations with people |
| 1:20.0 | that are on the path of mastery, |
| 1:21.2 | to better understand what they're searching for, |
| 1:23.2 | to understand the psychological frameworks that they're using, |
... |
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