“On September 11th I was on a telephone pole in Queens, NY. I went to the World Trade Center I pulled a deal police officer out of the rubble. I was completely changed forever. ”
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Why Listen:
If you listened to my conversation with Stacy Bare or my recent conversation with Dan Cnossen and you liked the flavor of those conversations, you’ll love this episode. I shut up as much as possible during my time with Micah - he is a force to be reckoned with. On 9/11 he was in New York when the towers fell. He ran into the towers, dragging out whoever he could, and swore in that moment to kill whoever was responsible. He wanted to be an Army Ranger, he ran into a Navy recruiter on the way to enlist, and signed up to become a Navy SEAL instead.
After ten years as a Navy SEAL and 4 years as Paramilitary, he moved to Montana. Wackiness ensued. It led him to start a non-profit called Heroes & Horses. I’m betting money that you will donate to this organization before the episode is over. It’s incredible. In the show notes we have a link to Micah’s TedX talk - in it, Micah talks about how important struggle is. This is something he learned in his 1,110 days - 13 deployments - in which he was deployed to combat zones, but even more so when he returned. We talk about Micah’s struggles, and how we’re doing that to the Veteran community by often coddling them - doing the work for them - prescribing them medications, trying to keep them from the very pain that will heal them. And so, Micah and his team take a different approach. They take 30+ Veterans into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights where they face austerity and challenge. They have water, coffee, meat and veggies… not a whole lot else. They ride 400-500 miles on horses. They learn to shoe horses. They take philosophy courses. They wake up at 4AM to workout, and work all day until 10PM. They provide tools so that each individual can mine who they are.
Strap in for an energizing ride, check out the show notes at BeyondTheUniform.org, and please consider donating to Heroes & Horses at HeroesAndHorses.org.
About Micah:
Micah Fink is the CEO of Heroes and Horses, where for the last five years he has offered combat veterans an alternative solution for defining and approaching their physical and mental scars – a solution that does not include the overprescribing of medication, or traditional psychotherapy, but rather the opportunity and tools to redefine their purpose, rediscover their inner-strength, engage in a practice of self-responsibility, and maximize their potential. He started out in the Navy, where he served for ten years as a Navy SEAL and four years in paramilitary service. Since then he has also worked as a professional speaker for Free Matter, as well as the Executive Producer of the film, 500 Miles.
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Partners:
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Selected Resources:
Transcript & Time Stamps:
3:55
Joining me today from Manhattan, Montana is Micah Fink. Micah Fink is the CEO of Heroes and Horses, where for the last five years he has offered combat veterans an alternative solution for defining and approaching their physical and mental scars – a solution that does not include the overprescribing of medication, or traditional psychotherapy, but rather the opportunity and tools to redefine their purpose, rediscover their inner-strength, engage in a practice of self-responsibility, and maximize their potential. He started out in the Navy, where he served for ten years as a Navy SEAL and four years in paramilitary service. Since then he has also worked as a professional speaker for Free Matter, as well as the Executive Producer of the film, 500 Miles.
5:20
Is there anything else you’d like listeners to know?
I look back on my life and I laugh because I was just a small-town kid from Upstate New York. I was pretty poor growing up. As an adult, I had my own business as a lineman climbing telephone poles. On September 11th I was on a telephone pole in Queens, NY. I went to the World Trade Center and pulled a deal police officer out of the rubble. I was completely changed forever.
I never wanted to be a victim of my circumstances. I never took no for an answer. I just think I was born to be a resilient person. On Sept 11, I crawled inside the World Trade Center and what I saw was just complete devastation. After that, I vowed to kill whoever did that to our country. We all have those moments in our life. But a lot of times we become a victim of circumstance. We could have done something in a pivotal moment but didn’t. So that was what drove me to be a Navy SEAL. I wanted to do something.
I served ten years on active duty and the Reserves. I ended up getting recruited over to the para-military side of the house where I was for five more years. For the most part, I got to do everything I wanted to do. I was humbled by the experience and the people that I was able to serve with.
16:00
I really admire how you’ve been able to turn the struggles in your life into a positive.
I tell the participants in the Heroes & Horses program that the program will teach them to be better at failing. I had a pretty difficult upbringing. My family would have to get food from the foodbank. But I saw how hard my parents worked and that was inspiring to me. I feel sorry for people that have never had adversity in their life. They’ve never had the opportunity to build resilience.
I don’t want to minimize people’s struggles but life is traumatic. Life is PTSD. Nobody’s obstacles should be minimized but I think as a society we don’t encourage people to really lean into their personal obstacles and overcome them.
23:53
Can you tell us more about Heroes and Horses?
I spent over 1100 days deployed to various combat zones. After all of that I was exhausted. I called my wife from Afghanistan and told her that we should move west when I got back to the States. So right after I got home, we moved to Montana. The first year in Montana was difficult because I didn’t know anybody. But I felt that I was becoming a lot more focused.
I started a garden but wasn’t able to really get anything growing. After a while, I figured out that I had over cared for the plants. I was constantly moving dirt off them. I thought I was helping them but I realized that the plants needed adversity to grow.
During this time, I realized that I was a cause of a lot of my own problems. I was trying to over control certain situations. A few of my veteran friends came out to Montana and we went camping. One of them was in a really bad mental space. We really bonded over that time though. I realized that a lot of veterans were struggling but I knew that struggle was giving us value. I saw that a lot of society wanted to help veterans but it was almost helping them to their own detriment. That’s what drove me to start Heroes and Horses in 2014.
I filed the paperwork from my living room. I created a really crappy website through a platform called National Builder. It looked like a military website, it was really bad. I didn’t understand why we weren’t receiving donations. But then I did some research and realized that there were 45,000 veteran non-profit organizations across the United States. $8 billion was spent last year on veterans but 12.5% of veterans are unemployed which is significantly higher than the national average. Veteran suicide is also a major issue.
Native Americans across the country are given various subsidies from the government but a lot of times I think this is detrimental because you’re taking away their sense of purpose. You can’t live without struggle.
The first year that I did a horseback trip with veterans, there were 24 veterans participating. One of the participants never made it to the trip because he committed suicide the week before. Another participant was addicted to heroine. Others were alcoholic or had traumatic brain injuries.
My aim with Horses and Heroes is to put struggle into the lives of the veteran participants. It’s 40 days and 40 nights long and it’s all whole food eating. It’s water, coffee, meat and vegetables the whole time. We read books, do philosophy courses, and take care of the horses. It’s all to give them the tools to really confront who they are. They have to find purpose on their own two feet.
The horses, environment, and constant barrage of new challenges shows the participants that everything they need to overcome obstacles is within themselves. I have challenges in my own life. I’ve had my ups and downs but nothing stops me from growing.
The easy way in life can be very enticing but it kills you. It absolutely destroys you.
47:05
How can listeners support you?
It costs us $19,000 to put each guy through our program. It’s the 40 days of the outdoor program with a follow-on internship. The thing that is most helpful to us is donations because it helps us put more guys through the program.
You can go to our website to learn more.
48:55
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
One thing I’ve realized is how much I want to grow this program. Our ultimate goal is to create more data about the benefits created for the people that come through this program. I want to do that to start changing things at the policy level.
Last week, I realized that social media was wasting my time. I deleted all of my social media accounts. When you fill yourself up with other people’s ideas, that creates negativity in your own life. That distracts you from learning who you are and what you want to become.
What good is truth if you do nothing with it? Truth becomes another time waster if you do nothing with it. So I’ve decided to do something with my truth. Life is a special occasion and it’s up to you to make what you want of it.