Goldfein: Character and Military Success

By Jim Garamone
DoD News, Defense Media Activity

It isn’t often the ends of the spectrum meet, but it happened at the Pentagon last week.

At one end of the spectrum was Air Force Lt. Gen. David L. Goldfein, the director of the Joint Staff and soon to be promoted to four-star rank to become the Air Force vice chief of staff. The other side was Army Cadet Savannah C. Murray, a “rising cow” – junior – at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

Air Force Lt. Gen. David L. Goldfein

Murray is working at the Joint Chiefs of Staff public affairs office for the summer, and sat in on an interview with the general.

“What made the biggest contribution to your success as an officer?” she asked the general.

Goldfein, who was not expecting the question, still didn’t hesitate. “Humility as a function of character,” he said.

Here is the rest of his answer.

“You are going to succeed in your career as an Army officer, at the end of the day, by how much time you spend developing your personal character. It’s the how you act when no one is looking. It’s not getting overly focused on reputation, because sometimes people think about reputation and they forget about character.

“Character is about who you are every day, decisions you make, things you do, how you present yourself, how you make people feel who are around you, the environment you create for others so they can do their best work. That’s all part of your character.

“If you ever feel like you’ve arrived, then call me, because I’m not there yet, and I will want to know how you got there so quick.

“This journey you are on is for a lifetime. Part of that character is you have to acknowledge that as you get more and more rank and responsibility, certain things happen. All your jokes get funnier the higher you go in rank. There are some that forget why that happens, and they actually end up falling off the edge and end up taking our uniformed business with it.

“You know, there have been plenty of examples of uniformed senior leaders who have fallen off the edge because of their character. And we all suffer, because the nation holds us to an incredibly high standard, and it should.

“I’m going to get one more of these (he fingered the stars on his collar) in a couple of weeks, and I’m not going to be any smarter the moment that gets put on me. My jokes are not going to be any funnier. I will have an opportunity to contribute at a higher level. Doing that with a focus on what’s best for others, and not for yourself, is probably the most important thing you can do, and the earlier you can start thinking about that, the more successful you will be.”

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