Watch: How Military Skills Translate to the Tech World

When Don Faul, head of operations of Pinterest, first went from serving as an Infantry and Reconnaissance leader in the U.S. Marine Corps to seeking opportunities in Silicon Valley, he nearly gave up.
“I didn’t get too many calls back. I didn’t get too many interviews. I didn’t get great feedback from the companies that I was interviewing with,” he says.
The self-described gadget geek nearly came to the conclusion that the tech world might not be for him, but one opportunity led to another, eventually putting Faul in a position to lead. He points to several charts in his talk, speaking about what it takes to go from a flat line to an upward curve. Having joined Facebook in early 2008 before going on to help Pinterest become of the leading social networking companies, Faul knows a thing or two about growth.
“It took me a long time to realize that those skills and experiences that I learned in the Marine Corps were just as relevant at Facebook and Google and Pinterest as they were on the battlefield,” he says.  
Watch his talk to learn why leadership is so central is to building a successful company around a culture of sustained innovation.

Veteran Storytellers Take the Mic and Change the Conversation

Got Your 6, a campaign working to change the conversation about veterans and military families, is hosting its Storytellers event in New York City today.
By bringing together service members who continue to pursue careers as change makers and problem solvers, Storytellers represents one way Got Your 6 is bridging the military-civilian divide by uniting the government, the entertainment industry and nonprofits.
The Storytellers that will deliver short presentations include Greg Behrman, founder and CEO of NationSwell; Becky Kanis, who led the 100,000 Homes campaign and is now working on a new project called the Billions Institute; and Don Faul, head of operations at Pinterest. Each of their talks will be filmed, released and promoted widely with the help of partners including MTV and The Huffington Post.
NationSwell will feature these videos in the weeks and months ahead so that this celebration of veterans can continue well past Veterans Day. You can take action in support of the Got Your 6 mission by joining the conversation on social media using the hashtag #wagegood then sharing the videos with six of your friends.
In the meantime, here is a glimpse at highlights from the 2013 Storytellers event.
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