Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Tucker.
Scott, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My name is Scott Tucker, I’m an author, speaker and I’m an entrepreneur. I like to help the military community, whether its military members coming out of the military, veterans or military spouses, try to figure out what they really want to do with the rest of their lives. I was like many of them. I struggled when I came out of the military after serving in Germany after graduating West Point just after 9/11, doing a tour in Iraq. I got stationed in Germany and found myself a dating a German opera singer and realized that there’s no opera singing in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. So I got out of the army and stayed in Germany. I had no plan. I had no real goals, and I was just going through the motions of, “Well, I guess I just need a good job and career after the military.” So I understand what it feels like to be lost after serving a country for so long.
I got out, I joined a financial services firm and did what we’re all supposed to do in that career, which is help people plan for “retirement.” After years of struggle and then a few more years of success, I realized there was no real mission behind this – trying to help people when they don’t know what they need help for. It was a very difficult thing, and I lost all sense of purpose and integrity with what I was doing with my career. If it’s all supposed to be about money, then why are we talking about things that are 40 years away and hoping the stock market goes up? It didn’t seem right. We need to be focusing on the real problem that all veterans face, which is a transition – not retirement. How do we financially plan for transition?
I realized once I got to San Diego that in this massive military community and all of these big financial firms, nobody, not even the most well known of financial gurus or financial companies, were actually helping to solve the problem. When we think of transition, we normally think about finding somebody a job. Finding a job is not an answer and really finding a career isn’t an answer. We need to help people find a calling. So I set out to find a new way of doing things and a new way of using money to create opportunity, not to just save for the future. Rather we should put money in storage and use it when it’s ready when we’ve figured out who we’re meant to be. So I went on a journey of finding out who I was meant to be. And luckily I was in a position that I could do such a thing.
I had been self-employed. I didn’t have the typical financial responsibilities that most people in my position have. I had seen a different worldview after 11 years of living in Germany. I realized that we’re not seeing things with the correct historical perspective in America and as I started to apply the things I’ve learned in my life, by teaching others, I saw whole new opportunities to create. I realized that the majority of the financial industry, and in the military and veteran community for that matter, is living in this 1960s, 70s and 80s old world mentality of “go to college, get a good job, save for retirement and die.” Seriously? What is the fun in that? It’s 2018. We’re veterans in the United States of America. There’s no better opportunity in all of human history for one to figure out a huge opportunity to create more abundance not only in their own lives but in those of others. Also, there’s no better opportunity to seek pure liberty, which America used to do. America was founded on entrepreneurship, not working for somebody else. It’s not okay to continue to follow orders for the rest of your life.
The solution is to seek opportunity before help. The solution is to find others who can collaborate with and grow abundantly. And there’s a whole new world in military community using the Internet, finding like-minded people. We can grow together, and it’s happening rapidly. Unfortunately, the systems are set up to send people down the old path. We need to wake them up and say, “Hey, look, we’re here. Come join us!” As more and more of us do that, we can learn to use tools such as LinkedIn, for instance. LinkedIn is not just a resume. That’s the biggest mistake: most military are not being taught the proper way to join the sharing economy. It’s nobody’s fault. There are new ways to use tools such as LinkedIn. It takes some time to figure it out. My job is to help people expedite that process so that they don’t have to go through 10 years of struggle and depression like I did to get there.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No, it has not been a smooth road. Among the obvious struggles are: spending a lot of time and money thinking you’re going down the right path, trying out lots of ideas and almost wanting to give up. But I think the biggest struggle I had was joining an industry that is all about money. It gets confusing trying to understand what is the purpose of money in life. I got to a point where I just didn’t have integrity with how we were making money and teaching people how to use money because the bottom line is in the financial services industry, if you hit some semblance of success, you’re making an easy six figures.
But the problem is in our industry when they recruit military and veterans, they don’t tell them that 95 percent will fail. That is a well-known statistic. But they say, “no, we’re hiring veterans. We’re doing good things for them.” Sure, we’re giving people a chance to join a new industry, maybe create a career. But the chances of success are extremely slim. When I hit success and didn’t think I did much to deserve the amount of money I was making, I didn’t understand what the purpose was. So I quit. I quit trying to get new clients because I needed to find a better way to help them. Along the way, my father passed away.
Even though I had served in the military, I was fortunate enough not to lose somebody very, very close to me.
While I lost many classmates, none of them were my best friends. So my father passing away was the first time I lost somebody that was close to me. He was a football coach for a division for Ohio state. When I saw his players come back for his funeral, I realized that he had helped people in ways that I had never realized. It made me realize that I didn’t know what I was doing on this earth. It got to the point where I hit a major depression, a lack of purpose, a lack of sense of meaning. This isn’t about a career; this isn’t about a job. This is about finding your calling. Finding that calling is very difficult. I was lucky enough that I had been searching for years. I knew there was something more. I ended up spending time with a shaman in Mexico to completely rewire and fix my outlook and view of the universe.
Since that time, things have drastically shifted and come together to allow me to connect to veterans, to create opportunity, to rebrand individuals to create true abundance and wealth for themselves and their family. This is what US Vet Life is all about. It’s about creating not just financial stability, but creating the life, you were meant to lead. We’re all sent on this earth for a reason. We deserve to know there’s a truth that’s not just about following orders. It’s wonderful to serve our country. But we need to continue to serve, not just our country, but also humanity. That’s what America gives us. Throughout all the history of the universe, there’s no better time; there’s no better place, there’s no better system. It’s not perfect. But the struggle, the biggest struggle we have right now is the way our society is imploding on itself for no reason.
For those of us that have been overseas, for those of us who have seen what it’s like to be in a tribe… We have an opportunity to step up. But if we just end up in job fairs and behind cubicles, that’s the biggest struggle. Not finding our true selves. My mission in life is to create that opportunity for anyone.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about US Vet Life – what should we know?
So for all of these reasons is why we created US Vet Life. Our mission is to help veterans and active duty military understand that they have not been told the whole truth about how to use their service, how to use the amazing financial benefits that serving our country offers, but to recognize that these are coming from the taxpayers. We’re not serving the government, we’re serving our country, and we deserve to know how to be stewards of those assets and use it to create amazing opportunity because our country needs us now more than ever to be leaders. So our mission is to educate and provide services and opportunities for those getting out of the military. Unlike other financial services firms, we’re not stuck in the past of just saving money for this long-term future, or hoping the stock market goes up with absolutely no control of what we’re doing.
We empower military and veterans to understand that the opportunity is in front of them. We make it very simple and easy for them. It’s 2018. We all have these magical mobile devices in our hands. We don’t need to spend tremendous amounts of time being confused and going to a financial planner like it’s going to the dentist. What I struggled with as a financial advisor was if I’m advising somebody on their money, I shouldn’t ask, “how’s your portfolio?” I should be advising on how to create more money, more wealth and abundance. I should advise on how to tap into this opportunity that is America.
When you bring it down to liberty, you can break it down to simple things like you don’t hurt people, you don’t take their stuff, and you seek allies before enemies. Man, does the world change. From a financial advisor’s perspective, you can teach people to use the concept of money, as it is just a tool anyway, and to get out of this scarcity mindset of “hoping for one day” or “I need to live frugally and save and have our emergency funds, and I need life insurance in case I die.” These are all worst case scenario things.
At US Vet Life, we look to the future. Our Future-based cause is the chance for veterans to stand up, to be empowered, to have influence. There’s an opportunity, and it’s not just about money. That’s the biggest problem. People think they need to be rich. Well, there are different types of wealth. Sure money’s a part of it, but it’s just a tool. We show them how to use this tool better. At the end of the day, bank accounts look bigger because of it.
What’s your favorite memory from childhood?
My favorite memory from childhood probably wouldn’t align with most people’s favorite memories because it had to do with me being arrested. I got into a lot of trouble, and my parents weren’t so happy. But it showed that I was different. I was exploratory, I was creating new ideas. And what I had done is when the internet came out I learned how to phone tap in people’s backyards. I went to radio shack, and I bought some stupid equipment.
In the middle of a snowstorm with a foot of snow and negative sub-zero temperatures in small-town Ohio, I tested the equipment out. Well, it worked. Because of the snowstorm, there wasn’t any crime that night. So the entire police force was chasing me around my town, unsuccessfully trying to catch me as I was very confused at why all these men in giant black suits with flashlights were screaming at me. I was a very confused, 15-year old who didn’t quite get that I had done something illegal. It didn’t prevent me from getting security clearances or entering in West Point, and frankly, it allowed for some great storytelling.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.usvetlife.com/
- Email: scott@usvetlife.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/usvetlife/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/usvetlife/
- Yelp: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottrtucker/
- Other: https://www.messenger.com/t/usvetlife
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