Ryan Miller > Recent Status Updates

Reece meets w/ Prez @ Camp David - President talks history and “the Deep State” (bureaucracy) - shows him more than 19 hijackers involved in 9/11 - gives Reece a list of people involved and wants Reece to tar them out because the job isn’t finished

Reece acknowledges being chosen b/c if caught, they can just say he was rogue again and all a big conspiracy- gives them deniability- tells Prez he will consider

Ali is an Iranian who’s family got devastated in the Iran / Iraq war in 1980s and he blames America for siding with Iraq, bringing devastation to Iranian troops - he works his way through Iranian intelligence and becomes head of research for BioDine - going to infiltrate US and cause some kind of mass devastation

Tom is recruited by Serrano to join the Phoenix program (assassinate N Vietnam leaders basically)

He tracks down Dvornikov in East Berlin and kills him with the same Soviet weapon that killed Ella in Bangkok

Tom & Serrano pursue Dvornikov & his security guy & capture them - tortures the security guy for killing Quinn & Ella - Dvornikov is swapped to secure the USS Pueblo crew and not thePOWs though

GRU asst director is outed by his boss for telling the US about the POWs in Siberia by switching coats with CIA at operas - killed

Ella gets caught trying to drug the GRU spy in Bangkok and they kill her in the hotel room - when she doesn’t appear Tom knows something been wrong - now he’s pursuing her killer down to the docks

Ella is now doing dead drops for Soviets about US troop movements - Tom is going to intercept her

Tom finds a depot in the jungle where Quinn and other Americans are being held - he witnesses Quinn being tortured and starts firing on the Vietnamese there

Tom is back in action and the helicopters picking up his team have crashed (picks up from Prologue of book) - he finds out Quinn is still alive from crash but captured and taken up the Ho Cho Minh trail - Tom follows his barefoot tracks and kills some VC on bicycles and takes their weapons / outfits to buy himself a second if he runs into them

Tom was shot in the base of the skull - successful surgery to remove the bullet and not paralyzed, but will have to stay in hospital for 8wks

Ella shows up and says she can’t see him - this is all the US fault (losing her mom & dad) - says not to come after her

Soviets working to reverse engineer the captured communications gear North Korea grabbed from The Pueblo

Russians hatch plan to kill Gaston DuBois (the importer / exporter playing both sides) for playing both sides.

Ella & Tom head to meet her father Gaston at a restaurant - a waiter gets a shot off at his head just before Tom can kill him, killing Gaston (Ella's father). Tom is shot by an accomplice in the process and starts to fade...

Tom hooks up with Ella (Vietnamese National) whose father is playing both sides - she gives him insight into why US won’t be successful doing what they’re doing - S Cietnamese need to ow this themselves plus the votes for communism in 1946 anyway - NVA willing to sacrifice every man the have

Soviets are excited about psychological impact on America from Tet - huge military failure, but press is creating backlash

Mole sells out Quinn & Reece to Soviets

Russians learn of captured NVA colonel, who knows about upcoming Tet Offensive and that he is being taken back to Saigon for questioning - they don’t want him getting broken and telling of the Tet, so they plan to intercept and kill him first before South Vietnamese can interrogate

NSA worker meets with his sparrow in Baltimore

Tom & Quinn sent to Da Nang with the NVA prisoner - they go to the Delta Club and play a game of poker where Tom wins the famous Rolex watch off an SF guy

North Korea captures one of our listening ships off the coast - pass on secret encryption devices to Soviet GRU who want to figure out the key

Hezbollah operative has high hopes for a big operation in Angola, but one day is given an inhaler to spray in a marketplace which spreads an Ebola like disease in Angola, but he dies himself - disease is contained

Reece getting onboarded into CIA now - fails polygraph but Vic approves him anyway

1) Trust in a bigger plan

2) Find strength in adversity

3) Failure today leads to success tomorrow

4) The worst event in life is often a catalyst for the best

5) Positive or negative - the choice is yours

5 Things to Do Instead of Complaining:

1) Practice Gratitude - 2 thoughts can't occupy your mind at once so you can't be negative while counting blessings
2) Praise Others - focus on what others are doing right - 3x as much praise as criticism
3) Focus on Success - write down 1 great thing about your day each night
4) Let Go - focus only on things you can change
5) Pray & Meditate

The No Complaining Rule:

Employees are not allowed to mindlessly complain to their coworkers. If they have a problem or complaint about the job, their company, their customer, or anything else, they are encouraged to bring the issue to their manager or someone who is in a position to address the complaint. However, the employees must share 1 or 2 possible solutions to their complaint as well."

POSITIVE PRINCIPLES:
* Positive leadership required to build positive culture - it can trickle up & sideways, but it flows from the top down

* Root vs fruit - a lot of companies focus on fruit as signs of success - people deliver the positive numbers, so they should be the focus to get the numbers you want

* Truth must permeate the Org - "Can I trust you and do you care about me?"

No one goes through life untested - every great historical figure, sports hero, etc. had to overcome adversity and challenges to define themselves - overnight success is a myth

staying + is not about a fake smile or believing you have to do it all yourself - rather it's about being optimistic, living w/ hope, and having faith - how you respond to the challenges is what matters

When building a positive culture, you have to let some energy vampires off the bus b/c one person can break a team

However, no matter how many negative employees you let go, there will always be new ones to take their place so have to come up w/ a better way to attack negativity before it attacks you (being proactive vs reactive)

from Fundamentals of Prosperity by Roger Babson:

Prez of Argentina explains why S. America lags behind N. America in prosperity & progress - "I have come to this conclusion, S America was discovered by the Spaniards in search of gold but N America was settled by the Pilgrims in search of God."

What are we focusing on / pursuing?

2 Steps to Quit complaining:
1) a No Complaining Day (a fast)

2) when you do complain, use it to your advantage as a signal that we are on the negative road - every complaint has an opposite - use it as a catalyst to help determine / focus on what we DO want and DO like

We were born to complain - as babies, we cry to get what we want- complaining is adult crying --> just as we learned to stop sucking our thumbs or afraid of dark, we must outgrow the habit of complaining

"Don't complain. 80% of people you complain to don't care & 20% are glad you have problems." - Lou Holtz

Complaining creates a cycle of negativity that feeds on itself & grows