A Day at Sea – HMAS Ballarat

Fundamentally I oppose war. The notion of killing doesn’t sit well with me on any level. I can’t even kill a cockroach…

That aside, I am open minded and yesterday I boarded the HMAS Ballarat at 8am and was fortunate enough to sail with a company of 177 of Australia’s navy on a training mission from Sydney to Jervis Bay. I was offered this unique opportunity and like most things in life, I’ll do anything once, and I threw myself at it. A once in a lifetime opportunity it certainly was and I feel fortunate and grateful that the Australian Navy were gracious and accommodating in taking some 20 entrepreneurs from YPO and EO on board.

In the 10 hours we were on the ship, the navy showed us every nook and cranny – from the gun room to the flight deck, the bridge, the opps room, the mess, the heads and the sleeping quarters. We witnessed firearms training, helicopter landings and simulated “breakdowns”. It was high energy and fascinating to witness.

Whatever our personal opinions on war and weapons, I took away a few things from the CEO (Commander Jonathan Earley), his officers and his sailors. Everyone we came into contact with was efficient, motivated, professional and enthusiastic. We talked to many of them and to me the personal sacrifice they all make on a daily basis is a huge payoff for lifestyle choice. I admire them for their commitment and stickability. They live and breath in each others personal space for often literally weeks at a time without leaving the ship. They sleep in quarters with up to 15 people. Most of the time they are just undertaking “training” and simulated missions maintaining operational readiness and capability and for an adrenalin instant gratification junkie like me, absolute hats off to them! It can’t be easy.

As one of them said, Big Brother is nothing compared to this – and from what I can see, I tend to agree. Although for much of the day I did feel like I was in some kind of surreal movie set.

How many people truly get to witness first hand what I did yesterday! Commander Jonathan Earley had some powerful and inspiring philosophies and I was surprised in this world largely unknown to me, just how many parallels we could draw between how he runs a ship and how we, as entrepreneurs, run our companies. An enduring theme throughout his tenure was “look after the ship and the ship will look after you”. He goes on to say, This statement does not merely refer to the physical or material state of the platform. Although these aspects are important, my theme applies equally to protecting our reputation, our administration, our security and most importantly our people.

So, hats off to the Australian Navy. We all have a job to do and from what I can tell, they are certainly doing theirs with a passion and proficiency unrivalled in most organisations I have seen.