An unusual path? "all gas and no brake"
This week on the Lion 40 Podcast, I speak to Chris Sims, who is a Christian, husband, father, entrepreneur, and a Marietta, GA business owner with ClearVue Glass and Mirror Company. Chris spent 23 years in the Army on active duty and in the national guard. The majority of his time was spent as a green beret.
“Because Special Forces is really it’s an olders man game, an older soilders game, a thinking soilders game. It’s not like being in ranger battalion or being a navy seal where you got a bunch of young kids. You just have a different mission, so it requires a different level of wordly being and knowledge. When I went nobody thought I would get selected because I was, I think I just turned twenty at the time…November of 2001…the thought of getting selected it hadn’t really occured to me.”
In addition to this quote, here are some points of conversation that resonated with me most deeply.
Chris Sims talks about the importance of being around better people. He says that when you're with people who are better than you, it gives you a drive to be better yourself—and not just for them, but for yourself. He cites his time in the army and working with those individuals really helped shape who he is today.
Travel gives you invaluable people skills. It's important to be able to work with people who are different from you, in a variety of contexts. Traveling has taught Chris that respect is important, especially when it comes to being open-minded about other ways of thinking and doing things. The point is: life is full of challenges—and so are people.
Military service is a unique experience. You spend time with people from all over the world, working together to accomplish a common goal. In the military, you learn how to be part of a team, and how to work together with people who have different backgrounds and perspectives.
This kind of experience can translate well into the business world. It teaches you that there are many ways of looking at things, and that each person has their own way of doing things that can be beneficial for everyone else on the team.
I've always been a believer that purpose can find you later in life. You don't always know what your purpose is early on, but it can hit you later, and then you'll be like "Oh! This is what it is!"
I think a lot of people feel lost when they're younger, but the thing is that even if you don't know what you want to be when you grow up, it's okay. It wasn’t until all his experiences culminated that Chris figured it out – or it hit him.
Networks + showing up = amazing opportunities and pivotal life moments that you don’t want to miss. When you show up and meet people, amazing opportunities and pivotal life moments can happen. This is because you never know who will be there. It could be anyone: the person who's going to change your life or career path. Show up and be open to whatever might happen. Take Chris talking about the Story of him, Adam, Blaine, and Curtis. What if he just had not gone that day, how different things would be and what he would have missed out on.
Learn More About Chris Sims
Chris is a Christian, Husband, Father, soldier and entrepreneur. Married to his wife Jessica of 14 years with a 13 year old daughter Naomi, 12 year old son Samuel and 2 Cane Corso's Gaia and Bella. Chris has lived in Marietta since 2011 (and grew up there) and attends Northside Church in Roswell.
As a business owner: Chris owns Clearvue Glass and Mirror Company. This is a specialty construction company we bought in 2016. They have gone from 400k in gross revenue to 15mm in revenue and 8 employees to 63. They primarily do work in Atlanta but will work all over the South East. Chris also co-owns Mindset 1st. They are a licensed armed and unarmed security contractor in the State of Georgia. They provide medical and security personnel, and do Threat Vulnerability Assessments (TVA's), and write/rewrite Emergency Operations Procedures for companies.
As a Soldier: Chris spent 23 years in the Army both on Active Duty and in the National Guard. The majority of his time was spent as a Green Beret but he did start as a light Infantryman. He attended and graduated from lots of advanced courses including Ranger School and Jump Master School, has had multiple trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, spent about a year in Colombia, SA and multiple other trips to South East and South West Asia and Europe training other nations Special Forces. He officially retired on June 29, 2022.
As a Humanitarian: Chris has had the honor and pleasure to work with the E3 Ranch Foundation not only helping support other special operations combat veterans but also deployed to the Balkans with them to help set up logistic sites for incoming refuges when Afghan fell and went to the Ukraine days after the Russian invasion to help support local refugees and children that could not move on their own to get out of the country.
When not with Family or working Chris spends as much time as possible hunting and fishing, giving some public talks on leadership (4-5 year) and am currently applying to U Penn, Cornell, Northwestern and MIT for business school.
Follow Chris Sims
Author Information
Natasha Ganem, PhD, serves as principal consultant and organizational psychologist at Lion Leadership, an executive education firm dedicated to helping company owners design world-class leadership teams. To learn more about Lion Leadership coaching services, management training, and off-site retreat facilitation, contact us at info@lionleadership.com.
Lion Leadership – an executive education company.
We coach and train leadership teams and mid-level managers so that people don’t quit because of bad bosses. Whether you need 1-on-1 coaching for yourself, a custom leadership academy for your company, off-site retreats for your teams, or just a few hours of morale building, we are here to get your organization ready for what’s next. Natasha Ganem, Ph.D., is the founder and principal consultant.