05/06/2026
One of the many lessons from my mentor the late Chief Clif Styles
One of the teaching tools we use with assistant engineers is something we jokingly call:
“Don’t let somebody else take your glory.”
The idea is simple.
I’ll give someone the problem first. Maybe it’s a seized filter, a failed system, or a brutal troubleshooting job that already has people frustrated. They work the problem for a while, and eventually many newer people hit the same point:
“I give up.”
And that’s when I step in.
Afterwards, I’ll tell them:
“You just let somebody else take your glory.”
We joke about it, but the lesson behind it is serious.
The person who gets the win is usually the person who stays engaged with the problem long enough to solve it.
Not the smartest person.
Not the loudest person.
Not even the person who worked on it first.
The person who refuses to mentally leave the fight.
What people also misunderstand is they think the person stepping in is fearless.
That’s not true at all.
When I get called to a problem that multiple people already gave up on, I feel pressure too. I feel uncertainty. Sometimes there’s a huge amount of anxiety walking into it because now the problem carries weight:
“If I can’t solve this either, now what?”
That fear is real.
But courage isn’t the absence of fear.
It’s continuing to engage with the problem anyway.
A lot of people mentally lose before they physically lose. The second the brain decides:
“This is impossible.”
“There’s no answer.”
“I’m done.”
…problem solving stops.
That’s why mindset matters so much.
The goal is not to never struggle.
The goal is not to magically know every answer.
The goal is to refuse to accept defeat before every possible option has been explored.
Sometimes solving the problem means:
- Changing tactics
- Finding the actual root cause
- Modifying the tool
- Using resources differently
- Slowing down and thinking instead of forcing it
That mindset compounds over time.
Eventually people start realizing:
“If I quit, someone else is going to come in, solve it, and take the W.”
And that’s when persistence starts becoming part of their identity.
In engineering, leadership, ships, and honestly life in general, raw talent matters far less than most people think.
The people who consistently win are usually the people who refuse to mentally exit the fight.
