Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alic Giles. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alic, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?
I am currently, and have been, a police officer the last 10 years. During that time I have learned many lessons that have applied across several aspects of life, not just business. The most important of which, I would boil down to 3 key things. 1. Appreciate everything you currently have. 2. Constantly strive for improvement and growth. 3. Time in this life is short so do not delay action and chase your dreams.
Appreciating everything you have was immediately impressed upon me from day one on the job when I saw just how quickly you can lose everything. It was quite literally the first day of field training when I witnessed a fatal rollover accident right in front of me while working on another traffic accident. This poor female victim was essentially scalped during the violent rotations of the vehicle and the image of finding her in that vehicle will be with me forever. This incident would not be the last and set the tone early on for what I could expect in my career.
I believe that for us to be happy in this life we must exercise gratitude regularly, but that we must also progress in life. That is why I say constantly strive for improvement. We will thrive when we have some task that challenges us. That challenge enables us to set goals and grow. Growth only happens after the challenge. The easiest example is found in the gym. The muscle only grows after it has been pushed and challenged. The same principle applies to mental strength and I would need both for the things I would be called to as a police officer.
Maybe not the most notable, but one that still stands out clearly to me is helping a victim of a mental illness. A man fighting an internal battle wanting it to stop by attempting to take his life. He chose to attempt this by jumping from a bridge onto a highway. Fortunately, myself and my brothers were there in time to grab him as he jumped. Clinging to his wrists, three of us fought to keep him from falling, but he was so determined to end his life that he hooked his toes under the structure and attempted to pull us over with him. There are often lots of good natured jokes between firefighters and police officers, but I was never more grateful for the firefighters that day because they saw us struggling and rushed to help. With our combined effort we pulled him back up and got him to the medical professionals.
Lastly, my most vivid memory and lesson of why time in this life is short so do not delay action is because of what I witnessed on a warm night in the middle of an intersection some time ago. A motorcyclist had been hit and was lying on the ground with arms and legs twisted and broken, but still alive. A bystander came to help me do CPR, but after a few minutes it was like we could see his life leave his eyes. We kept working furiously until the ambulance arrived and took over, but he did not make it. You never know how much time you have left so do not delay action and chase your dreams.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I come from a family full of individuals who chose service, myself included. My last 10 years have been spent as a police officer. Our family also has many who have served, or are currently serving, in law enforcement and the military. Seeing the things I have seen made me realize 2 important things. 1. Everyone has it in them to become a warrior. 2. The ways to become a warrior are many and varied, but the principles to achieve this are essentially the same. This led my lovely wife and I to look at what does make a warrior and start our company, Storm Warrior Tactical, with inspiring messages for our lifestyle & apparel brand. We offer a variety of custom and inspiring apparel options that seek to give our customers not only comfort and style, but inspiration to overcome the challenges in their life. One of our most important messages is right out front on our website and is…
“Life has thrown challenges my way plenty of times & it’s not done yet. This will happen to all of us. We will have to weather the storms. This does not mean they will defeat you. On the contrary, they will make you stronger.
Mine & my family’s time has been spent in law enforcement and military service. During that time I have encountered true evil, true good, & learned invaluable lessons. One of the most important of which has been that anyone, in any career, can become a WARRIOR. You do not have to be in military or law enforcement. Rather it is determined by your will & your spirit to overcome your challenges. Fight through the storm & you will come out stronger than ever. I have seen it in domestic violence survivors, those fighting cancer, the exhausted parent doing anything for their children, & our brave men & women selflessly serving in our law enforcement & military. All of them have a WARRIOR spirit & like the metaphorical PHOENIX, have risen to overcome & become more.
My desire is to show anyone that they too have it in them to become a WARRIOR. Face your challenges, rise above them, & conquer your storms.”
We chose our symbol and logo, the Phoenix, deliberately with deep meaning behind all aspects including our name. We have a deep belief and mission statement that reads…
“Storm Warrior Tactical is founded on the belief that everyone faces challenges or storms in their life, but have the power & warrior spirit needed to triumph over those storms. You are a WARRIOR that can not only walk through your storms with strength & resilience, but RISE above them. Our PHOENIX is the symbol of enduring hardship like a WARRIOR & rising above it with extreme fortitude, becoming stronger than you were before. Your storms may be enemies abroad or domestic, depression, addiction, affliction or illness, but you are a WARRIOR & force to be reckoned with.”
These things are important to us and we believe they resonate with people from all walks of life. We have boiled our mission statement down even further and have an ethos that reads…
“I tread a difficult path through storms & darkness, but am a WARRIOR with power to rise above & triumph over the challenges & adversaries that would dare try to conquer me.”
Perhaps the simplest form of what we want to help people accomplish is our motto that reads…
“Conquer The Storm”.
As our company grows we are striving to give back to as many charities and individuals in need as possible. This was one of the inspirations for our Women Warrior Breast Cancer Awareness T-shirt. We plan and hope to do many more like this in the future as well as we help more and more people conquer their storms.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Resilience is of the utmost importance in my view and one of the symbols in our logo is actually represented as a spear that stands for resilience. Our logo is a Phoenix holding 2 spears. One spear represents discipline and the other resilience. As you may have guessed much of my resilience has come from and been required by my time in law enforcement. The job demands physical and mental resilience, but what came as my greatest test was something outside the job.
My wife and I don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t party, are deeply in love with each other after 13 and a half years, and only need each other to be happy. One thing we always wanted more than anything was to raise a family. Little did we know how hard that would be. We had to endure countless tests, surgeries, procedures, staggering bills, and disappointment for 4 years. This was all during my day to day grind at work that often involved fatal crashes, domestic violence situations, arresting DUIs, and much more. I say “day to day”, but it was actually at a time when I had to work graveyard shifts. All of this culminating in us being told we would not be able to have children after nearly 4 years. Of course my struggles were nothing compared to what my beautiful wife had to go through. But the story does have a happy ending. Our resilience paid off and we were blessed with a baby girl and against the odds two years after that we were blessed again with a baby boy. It is the lessons of life learned with family that can teach us the most and if applied correctly to business lead to success.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
I am constantly trying to learn and improve. Through that process I have gone through several books, but the absolute best and most impactful principles I learned that carried over into my life were from David Goggins. His books Can’t Hurt Me and Never Finished provide a very simple principle to understand, but difficult to execute…Discipline. If you can learn to execute discipline in your daily life you will be so far ahead of everyone else because very few can actually exercise discipline regularly. This is a core principle required for success in anything you do and especially business. Discipline is doing what is required even when you don’t want to and why I came up with a personal motto I’ve been using for years now, “Motivation lets you down, Discipline picks you up.” This is because motivation comes and goes and rarely shows up when you need it, but discipline will always get the job done.
The next most important thing came from Jocko Willink and his books Extreme Ownership and The Dichotomy Of Leadership. These are absolute gold mines with several beneficial principles. What stood out for me though is to check your ego. You must always have a willingness to learn and you can even learn from a negative source or person, but if you have an ego you won’t be willing to learn anything from any source. You are not going to grow if you aren’t willing to learn so check your ego and learning will come so much easier. And here again, the more you learn, the further ahead you will be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.stormwarriortactical.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stormwarriortactical/ https://www.instagram.com/alicgiles/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550247842832 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550297972681
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/storm-warrior-tactical-503b7b27b/