This is the Life on Target podcast. I’m your host, Nathan Spearing, and you’re listening to Episode 0. I’m excited to have you here and wanted to take this opportunity to tell you who I am, what I’ve done in life so far, why you should listen to me and what direction we’re going to take with this podcast, or at least where I kind of see this podcast going from this point. But who knows what’s going to happen? I am 38 years old, been married 15 years, have five kids and was homeschooled all the way through high school.
After high school, I worked a congressional campaign. And then joined the military where I served for 14 years in special operations, including first and third ranger battalion. Have 12 combat deployments. And when my son was seven years old, I found myself deployed to the middle east and watching the entire family open their Christmas presents on Skype while I was getting micromanaged by the commanding general of special operations.
To that point in my military service, I’d kind of always been able to blame other government agencies for inefficiencies and felt like I was able to be effective. But at this point in my career, the micromanaging and ineffectiveness was not due to other government agencies. It was due to inefficiencies within the department of defense. If I was not going to be effective, then I was going to get out and try to build something that I would own at the end of it and not miss my kids growing up.
Leaving the Military and Paying Back $40K
I left the military in December 2016. Just prior to my out-processing. My wife and I closed on a 8,300 square foot historic mansion. It needed complete renovations, and we still had about $80,000 cash in the bank that I felt was a pretty good financial cushion to allow me to fix this historic property up and also pursue some different startup ideas. Then we got a curve ball. A few days prior to getting out, or I think it was about the day or two after we closed on that property, I found out that the government was going to tax a portion of my reenlistment bonus that I hadn’t earned.
So I was getting out early in a five year commitment. And so the government wanted that money back. I knew I was going to have to pay it back. And I was planning on using it as a small business loan for kind of what I was pursuing after the military. But the reality that they were going to tax it was a little bit too far or me. So my wife and I decided to write a $40,000 check on the last day and be free and clear and almost broke. So I immediately started a construction company so that we could start to earn some money.
And I split my time between working on this historic renovation and starting a new construction business. Several years after leaving the military were the hardest years of my life. And also, were the most rewarding. And I was able to learn a tremendous amount about my own personal character, about how to run businesses and be profitable, about how to manage family along with that. And that’s what I kind of want to talk about in this podcast. Also, I am a Christian and this is not going to be a podcast about look at how awesome I am.
Why am I doing all of this?
I am going to acknowledge that I am obedient to what I believe God has called me to do and pursue it with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, give it everything I got and can trust the yield to him. Living this way, taking a jump of faith and leaving the military and continuing to do what we felt like is right has led to my construction business being thriving. We have financial independence via our real estate portfolio alone. We are closing on a 20 acre plot of land tomorrow and starting a farm and have a ton of things planned to do in life to continue to grow and to serve other people.
So I want to take you along for that ride and also share all my experiences that I’ve learned along the way. I’ve had an extremely atypical life to date and has given me a lot of unique perspective on a lot of things. And I want to provide you the listener content that enables you to have personal agency. Here’s a couple definitions of personal agency that I like if it’s something that you’re not really familiar with that concept. But it’s your ability to express your individual power or your ability to act independently and make your own free choices, also to act independently and choose to affect change.
I was first introduced to this concept of agency by the author C.R. Wiley. And he encourages us to forget that adage Jack of all trades and basically makes the case that general competence is required for freedom. And that’s been my personal experience with the general competency that I’ve kind of gained through an atypical education than a pretty crazy experience in special operations in dozens of countries.
And just kind of that general competence and that mindset, taking that into the small business sector and also trying not to lose focus on why we have small businesses or why we actually work. It’s to provide and to encourage and bless other people out of what we’re able to build. So that’s what I’m going to share here. I also want to warn you that I’m not going to be nice on this podcast at times. This world is in the mess that it’s in because people are too nice.
I do not like that man. I must get to know him better.
Abraham Lincoln
I am, however, going to try to be kind and tell you the things that you need to hear so that your life can get better. Abraham Lincoln once said, “I do not like that man. I must get to know him better.” That’s what I’m asking you to do. If anything I say at this point rubs you the wrong way, stick it out with me for a little bit and see where it goes. I’m going to be very intentional about what I bring to you and to make sure it’s good stuff that challenges your perspective and makes your life better. Also, in the early stages of this podcast, I’d really love to hear your feedback via any medium of your choice.
If you go to my website, www.spearing.co, you can find links to all my social handles, and there’s also contact forms, email address that you can send stuff to me. I have a pretty clear path to find ahead of me, but it’s always good to hear from listeners what is encouraging to them, what they like, what they hate. But just keep in mind that I can take it. Grenades have been thrown at me, AK bursts have been fired off in my face. Bring the criticism if you got it. So anyway, that is all I have for now. In the interest of time, we’re going to end it. But be sure to subscribe and welcome to the ride!
