Transition: Lessons Learned in My Evolution from U.S. Marine to Civilian

by Hank Brown

This book is a collection of anecdotal lessons learned over the past seven years since I transitioned off active duty in the Marines. All of the lessons are generalizations which naturally have exceptions – I hope you can learn from them and apply to your or your military member’s transition process.

I’ve had the privilege of speaking to thousands of veterans in transition over the past seven years, working to help them as others helped me. In one class a student asked with a skeptical tone “why are you doing this?”. My answer was easy, “to continue to serve”. This book is framed in my experiences but captures the experience of numerous other veterans I’ve spoken with and observed in their own individual transitions.

This draft is not where I want it to be and not what veterans deserve. But I have a day job and a family and a farm – I’m busy – yet for every month that passes without publication, thousands of veterans who might have benefitted from my experience begin their new lives as civilians and will probably not look back – the utility of this is temporal in nature. I want veterans to be able to apply what I, and other veterans, have learned through our experiences today in order to have a smoother transition and ultimately live more diverse and fulfilling lives.

For all of the book’s errors and oversights, I ask for your grace and for you to assume they were made with the best of intentions limited by my own shortcomings and time constraints. There’s a lot of work to be done to the book and I’m committed to continual improvement on it over time.

If you have negative comments, please message me through LinkedIn so I can apply them to the book in an update. Negative comments on Amazon will push the book down in ratings reducing the opportunity to serve veterans in transition. Please feel free to ask questions and provide other comments on LinkedIn as well.

Any profits from this book will be used to improve the book and serve veterans in transition through networking, coaching, or classes.

Semper fidelis, Hank

Paperback

Published January 16, 2022