Making people and ideas findable
Changing the Veteran Stereotype
The media (and even recent politicians) really paint a sad picture of what it's like to be a Veteran nowadays. There's the one picture of a Veteran sleeping under a bridge, and there's the other picture of a veteran stuck at the local VFW drinking beer all day.
I'm pretty open about my service because I know how driven, intelligent, and dedicated veterans are in this country. We run honest businesses and we treat others with respect. "Sir" and "Ma'am" are still part of my daily vocabulary when I speak to others today.
You've already joined Smaller Indiana so you've already proven that you're early adopters with respect to technology and you wish to change the landscape of Indiana business.
My question is this... how do we change the stereotype of 'the typical vet' and show folks that we're nothing like what they think. Indianapolis, as a city, has dedicated a lot of history, land, and art to honoring Hoosier Veterans. We now have a mayor who served with distinction.
How can Smoosier Veterans make a difference?
I'm pretty open about my service because I know how driven, intelligent, and dedicated veterans are in this country. We run honest businesses and we treat others with respect. "Sir" and "Ma'am" are still part of my daily vocabulary when I speak to others today.
You've already joined Smaller Indiana so you've already proven that you're early adopters with respect to technology and you wish to change the landscape of Indiana business.
My question is this... how do we change the stereotype of 'the typical vet' and show folks that we're nothing like what they think. Indianapolis, as a city, has dedicated a lot of history, land, and art to honoring Hoosier Veterans. We now have a mayor who served with distinction.
How can Smoosier Veterans make a difference?
Tags: business, hoosier, indiana, indianapolis, veteran
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Shawn Hurt on -
I think politicians tend to show case the worse case scenarios in everything for political gain (especially in election years). These things get picked up by the media because they follow the politicians.
This is not a bad thing if it mobilizes people to help those in need. The reality is that individuals in the military are a cross section of the nation as a whole (mostly good, a little bad and sometimes on rare occasions - the ugly). When we move on after the military our lives take many paths.
Both of my parents are veterans and have lead successful post military lives. I built a business after leaving the military and attribute a lot of my success to the leadership and skills I developed on active duty.
I think the best thing each of us can do as individuals is to do our best in all things and when people ask "Why have you been successful?" Tell them that your experience in serving your country helped make you better person (Husband, Wife, Parent, Business Owner, Employee, etc).
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Permalink Reply by Luke Barringer on -
This topic is something that is very meaningful to me. I joined because the service wanting to make a difference and be part of a team of the elite men and women of the United States. Well, as we all know this wasn't a reality. There are many people in the armed forces that don't take life seriously and will do things that show very poorly on the rest of us.
I am still proud of my service and wouldn't trade it for any schooling or civilian job. The loyalty and devotion that you learn are like nothing else that you will find in life. My resume has my military experience on it and never once have I gone to an interview where that wasn't a huge factor on why they wanted to talk to me.
I do wish the media would showcase more of the successful veterans and not the ones that don't do anything with themselves after the service. In the end of the day, we all know what the media thrives on and can't do much about it.
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Permalink Reply by Darrell Clevenger on -
Just keep being out good nature selves and it will finally come back around, things come and go, military was king in WWI and WWII but then fell apart in Vietnam, now we just have to wait out turn for things to come back around.
Just keep up the great jobs we are all doing to make good inpressions and being great citizens.
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1. Please use your real name (first and last) when you sign up, or we cannot open your account
2. Please do not use logos or commercial images for your profile photo
3. Events should be posted in the events calendar
4. You can post pretty much anything you want on your own personal page (self promotion, etc), and you can change the style of your personal profile page to reflect your corporate identification if you so choose.
5. Please keep all comments civil and polite. It's OK to feel strongly about a subject, and it's OK to be critical of ideas, but please refrain from personal attacks of any kind.
If you witness or experience any issues, please contact admin@smallerindiana.com and we will look into the matter.
6. "Blatant self-promotion" is discouraged on SI, and "spam" is not welcome. Please be considerate of your fellow members.
Smaller Indiana is supported by its members, and by corporate sponsors. If you're interested in learning more about sponsorship, please call Pat Coyle at 317 332 7878.
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