985 Jenn Donahue: Dare To Rise

Mentorship and Military Tactics for Entrepreneurial Growth

So, the saying goes, if you want to make God laugh, show him your plans.

Entrepreneurs tend to double down on Plan A with relentless focus and tenacity, avoiding thinking of all the contingencies until a pivot is forced by circumstance. There’s a need to be in massive action yet also prepping for myriad scenarios without falling into analysis paralysis.

It’s on that livewire that Jenn Donahue has operated as a former US Navy Captain leading battalions of 800 people in high stakes combat zones and as a seismic engineer who has built a global engineering firm. Today she shares what entrepreneurs can learn from military precision and uncertain data about leadership, resilience and adaptability.

When you’re building a bridge across the Euphrates in the middle of an active war zone, or constructing combat outposts in deserts filled with insurgents, you have to think on your feet – but it also pays to have some contingencies up your sleeve.

Jenn’s journey started at 8 building Legos, and she’s led earthquake and tsunami reconnaissance missions in Samoa and Japan, designed the seismic plans for a bridge over the Panama Canal, built roads by blasting and drilling in the coldest climes of Ketchikan, and served as the seismology expert at no fewer than five nuclear power plants. A commodore in charge of 1,800 Navy personnel and 3 battalions, Jenn retired to build JL Donahue Engineering. It’s roster of clients includes PG&E, Duke Energy, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bay Area Rapid Transit.

She’s also the author of The Warrior Framework, founder of Dare to Rise, and an in-demand public speaker, focused on mentoring others to become great leaders and thrive with resilience in uncertainty. Today she shares why great mentorship and investing in relationships is key to success.

🔑Key Takeaways🔑

🎖📈 From Battalions to Boardrooms: What military leadership can teach us about entrepreneurship, and why entrepreneurship is a lonelier, more uncertain journey. Plus, how Jenn uses her experience as a commanding officer to shape multiple contingency plans in her successful business: “You need plans B through L”, she says.

💡🤝 Finding Your Mentor: Why mentorship is vital to success, and how to muster the courage to simply ask for help from those at the top of their game makes all the difference. Hint: The most successful are often the most generous.

🚀💪 From Combat Zones to Fault Zones: How to handle uncertainty and make decisions when the data is unclear or contradictory, and what the military and assessing seismic engineering risk taught Jenn about the necessity to gather all perspectives, rely on your own experience and never let fear paralyze you.

More about Jenn Donahue at www.jenndonahue.com

Jenn Donahue

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More about Jenn at Jenn Donahue

Jenn Donahue PhD is an entrepreneur, civil engineer, author, and retired US Navy Captain whose company JL Donahue Engineering works on large scale, high profile geotechnical projects for clients ranging from PG&E and Duke Energy to the Tennessee Valley Authority and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). Over her military career, Jenn has built a bridge across the Euphrates River in the midst of the Iraq war, commanded an 800-personnel Battalion in Afghanistan, and constructed combat outposts in the middle of deserts filled with insurgents. Jenn has designed the seismic plans for a bridge over the Panama Canal and built roads by drilling and blasting in Ketchikan. She’s the author of The Warrior Framework and the founder of Dare to Rise.

Get Jenn’s free book of inspirational quotes.

Read her new book, The Warrior Framework also available on Amazon

 

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