Tim Kennedy on “Only The Strong Survive”
For many, Tim Kennedy needs little introduction. However, for those unfamiliar with the name, Kennedy is a former UFC fighter, New York Times best-selling author, decorated Green Beret sniper and founder of multiple successful businesses. He also created Save Our Allies, an organization that works to rescue American allies in war-torn environments and aid Americans in need. Starting with the goal of rescuing one Afghan interpreter, Save Our Allies has expanded operations to places such as Sudan, Ukraine, and, more recently, Florida and North Carolina.
Beyond Save Our Allies and continuing to serve in the military, Tim is a self-described serial entrepreneur. He has launched or helped to create an almost endless stream of businesses, including well-known ventures like Ranger Up, Sheepdog Response, Apogee Cedar Park, Relentless, Noble Defender, 4 Pillars Fitness and a host of others. On this episode of the “Only The Strong Survive” podcast, Tim discusses with host Dan Kahn the hard-fought lessons he has learned about what it means to be a leader and what it takes to run a business (or, in Tim’s case, multiple ones).
Click on the play icon above to listen to the entire discussion and subscribe for new episode updates. Here are our top five takeaways:
Leaders should constantly be evolving and learning.
Humility is an asset for a leader and not a negative
Doing what you love makes both life and business easier.
Failure and the pain that comes with it should be a catalyst for change.
Nothing worthwhile is easy.
Leadership Requires Constant Work
According to Tim, a fallacy about leadership is that it is something that you ultimately master. However, that is not the case, as leadership requires constant work and evolution. Being a leader is an ongoing process of learning and admitting that you don’t know everything. There isn’t a single moment when you suddenly become a competent leader.
“I do not have it all figured out, and I don’t know everything,” says Tim. “I will put everything I can into this (being a leader) and make the best decision I can with the information I have. We can all succeed together or fail together, but I will do the best that I can. There definitely wasn’t a moment. It has been an ongoing thing that I am still in the refiner's fire of learning how to do it better.”
Don’t Let Your Ego Get in the Way
It takes a lot of humility to recognize that you don’t know everything about leadership. However, that level of humbleness can be hard to achieve for anyone with a big ego. If you let your ego constantly get in the way, you will miss opportunities to learn anything. Evolving in leadership and life requires letting your ego get bruised and bashed. For Tim, it was a lesson he learned early in his MMA career, taking a beating of both body and ego in the octagon.
“My ego has taken a licking since the beginning. I have never been as smart as I thought I was. I have never been as strong as I thought I was, and I have never been as good as I thought I was,” says Tim. “It is a hard thing for the ego when the thing you can never call me is the former world champion because I was a two-time title contender who lost both times. That ego gets put in check often.”
Doing What You Love Makes Life (and Business) Easier
There is busy and then there is Tim Kennedy busy. With his hand in 10 brands and counting, along with his work with Save Our Allies and being in the National Guard, it is safe to say that Tim’s life can be complicated. However, he sees all his NGO work, military service and multiple ventures as reflections of his core values and passions. Doing what he loves makes juggling his multiple endeavors seem less complicated and labor-intensive.
“If you look at it like a wagon wheel, every one of these businesses represents a spoke in the ecosystem that is Tim Kennedy Operations, which is the parent company. Each of those spokes in that wheel that keeps turning, at the very center of it is the nucleus, which is like who I am as a person,” says Tim. “This identity of mine is that I want to preserve freedom, protect human life, enable people to provide for their families and expand freedom. That is what I believe in.”
Be Prepared to Fail
Social media can skew reality by showing us the “shiny” moments of everyone’s lives. That warped view can make success seem easy to attain without much effort. However, that is not reality, as there are also lots of failures and hardships. If you want to succeed in business or life, you must put in the work and be ready for things to go wrong.
“Everybody looks at what somebody has, but nobody looks at what they did to get there. Everything that I have comes from failure, suffering, struggle and mostly pain,” says Tim. I have failed, I have lost businesses, I have been in debt, I have been up against the ropes, I have lost title fights and I have gotten in trouble in my military career. The work is the thing you’re going to have to subscribe to, the discipline is the thing you are going to have to subscribe to and the failure is the thing you are going to have to subscribe to. I’m not saying you have to rush to failure, but there is a purpose to pain. Pain is the catalyst of change.”
There is No Easy Button
One lesson Tim has repeatedly learned is that few worthwhile things come easy in life. You can choose to do something hard or take the easy route and decide not to. However, achieving your goals takes lots of effort, pain and suffering. There is no “easy button” when it comes to life or business.
“You’re going to raise your kids with value and integrity, or you are not. This applies to literally everything you do. Sure, you can hand your kids off to somebody and see how that turns out. Sure, you could hand your company to someone else and see how that turns out. You can drop ship and think that you are going to get rich, but you’re not,” says Tim. “You are either going to do it, or you’re not. There is no easy button. The purpose of pain is real. Believe in the process of struggling through the refiner’s fire to ultimately have something beautiful on the back side of that.”
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