My ex-military officer friends tell me the corporate world is considerably harder than the military. Maybe it also depends on where you work / what you do.

I concur with your friends. The reason is due to the fact that in the military, people understand where they fall within the chain of command and that they must follow orders or there will be severe consequences. This strict structure is needed in life and death situations - I wouldn't know personally, but I'd imagine the medical industry (hospitals and such) have a similar respect for chain of command. It's more difficult to lead when employees have little respect for authority or directives coupled with companies that do not enforce chain of command rules.

You can hire a master artist to paint you a portrait, but if you only give them Jello and a steel 'canvas' to work with, your painting isn't going to be so great.

I have a few decades in private sector, 8yrs as a reserve officer, and I recently was publically berated by a junior engineer after simply asking him to explain his work (which was, incidentally, incorrect). He was forced to publically apologize in the face of losing his job, but this was an extreme example. An event like this would virtually never happen in the military, but I see it happen fairly routinely to other senior staff, albeit less extreme cases, with junior employees that do not have a military background.

There is a professional and orderly way to handle dissagrements with authority. The military helps teach you how to handle those situations in a more productive and stable manner.

Just on a side tangent. A lot of great art, comes out in part from the restriction of materials being used. A portrait from Jello and steel would be awesome.

> After the armed services, corporate leadership has got to be a total breeze.

“Total breeze” is probably an overstatement given the culture differences between the military and civilian worlds, but otherwise I agree.

Yeah, its probably harder to get people to follow direction when they can't be court-marshalled if they don't.

Its not surprising, just something I never thought about. It's more like when you notice the wall's of the cage you're in moment. With that said, West Point is a great school.

Isn't the DoD a civilian institution?

The US DoD includes civilian agencies and all of the US armed forces.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_De...