How Veterans Are Uniquely Prepared to Thrive as Entrepreneurs

Most people think military service is about following orders. March here. Salute there. In reality, the best leaders in combat are trained for something entirely different: making decisions with incomplete information, earning trust fast and keeping teams aligned under extreme pressure. If that doesn’t sound like entrepreneurship, I don’t know what does.

When I was a young officer in Baghdad, I didn’t have the luxury of waiting until every fact was in. A mortar could land on our base, or a convoy could stall in the middle of the city, and in those moments, seconds mattered. You had to assess, decide and act. And your soldiers were watching every move. Did you project calm? Did you trust them to execute? Did you give them clarity when chaos reigned?

Not every veteran leads troops in combat, but all of us are trained for that dynamic. We learn to act when the ground shifts beneath our feet. We learn to communicate clearly under stress. And we learn that trust is earned through action, not words. Those habits stick for life — and they map perfectly onto what it takes to start and grow a business.

Entrepreneurs face the same pressure, just in a different theater. You’ll never have perfect data. The market shifts, investors waffle, competitors come out of nowhere. Waiting for certainty is a losing strategy. Veterans are trained to move with conviction in uncertainty, to take responsibility for the decision and to bring others with them.

Related: 5 Things Being a Marine Taught Me About Being an Entrepreneur

Trust is at the heart of it. In the military, rank gives you authority, but real commitment comes when people believe you’ll share risk, take responsibility and put the mission ahead of your ego. That same dynamic exists in a startup. When employees believe their founder will shoulder the weight with them, they’ll go further than any stock option or motivational speech can carry them.

Too many founders miss this. They chase product-market fit or fundraising strategy and forget that culture is fragile. A single crack in trust can undo months of progress. Veterans understand this instinctively. In combat, credibility isn’t built through charisma or slide decks. It’s built through consistent action under stress.

That same environment teaches something else entrepreneurs will recognize: resourcefulness. In Iraq, we rarely had the exact tools or information we wanted. You make do with what you have, you improvise and you keep the mission moving. Startups face the same reality. No company ever has enough capital, staff or time. The difference between success and failure often comes down to who can turn constraints into creativity — and keep morale intact while doing it.

Operating that way naturally demands flexibility. In the Army, we had a concept called “commander’s intent.” You set the big goal — secure this route, protect this convoy — but you trust your team to adapt to conditions on the ground. Business works the same way. Founders who try to script every move suffocate their companies. The great ones set a clear north star, then empower their people to improvise their way there.

That balance of clarity and adaptability is harder than it sounds. I’ve seen brilliant entrepreneurs crash because they clung too tightly to a plan that wasn’t working. Veterans are trained differently. We know that no plan survives first contact. What matters is holding onto the mission while adjusting the tactics.

And here’s the part people often overlook: These aren’t just combat lessons. They show up in every corner of service. The mechanic who keeps helicopters flying in the desert learns how to work under pressure with limited resources. The medic who treats casualties in a remote village learns how to stay calm when the stakes couldn’t be higher. The logistics officer who gets supplies across half a country learns how to adapt when plans inevitably fall apart. Different jobs, same training ground. Veterans come out of it with a toolkit that is built for entrepreneurship.

Related: I’m a Former U.S. Army Captain — This Is the Military Secret You Need to Know to Build High-Impact Teams

I’ve seen those skills translate everywhere: construction, finance, healthcare and technology. The industries may be different, but the underlying habits are the same — decisiveness, accountability, resourcefulness, adaptability. Veterans don’t wait for the perfect conditions. They make progress in imperfect ones.

And that’s exactly the kind of leadership we need right now. The world is only getting more volatile. Supply chains shift overnight. AI rewrites entire industries. Capital markets swing wildly. In that environment, the leaders who succeed aren’t the ones who wait for certainty. They’re the ones who can step into chaos, bring order and keep their teams aligned on the mission.

Veterans are uniquely prepared for that challenge. They’ve already proven they can act under extreme pressure. They know how to unite people around a mission. They’ve learned to lead with conviction even when the path forward isn’t clear. Those aren’t just military skills. They’re entrepreneurial ones.

It’s easy to think veterans succeed as entrepreneurs because they’re comfortable with risk. That might be true. But the bigger reason is this: We’ve trained for it.

Most people think military service is about following orders. March here. Salute there. In reality, the best leaders in combat are trained for something entirely different: making decisions with incomplete information, earning trust fast and keeping teams aligned under extreme pressure. If that doesn’t sound like entrepreneurship, I don’t know what does.

When I was a young officer in Baghdad, I didn’t have the luxury of waiting until every fact was in. A mortar could land on our base, or a convoy could stall in the middle of the city, and in those moments, seconds mattered. You had to assess, decide and act. And your soldiers were watching every move. Did you project calm? Did you trust them to execute? Did you give them clarity when chaos reigned?