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Benjamin Powers IV

@four_example

1.5K

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1496

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- God, Family, Country
- Retired Green Beret
- Director of Eagle Alliance @teamrwb
- https://waterboys.org/benpowers

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Back to school!? Read the caption before congratulating us, one of my children is already developing an exit strategy 🤣

My daughter still absolutely LOVES school.

She loves seeing her hard work pay off, helping others do well, and absolutely running the field on the playground. Her favorite snack, hugs, and bedtime reading keep her at 100% capacity 🤍

My son is considering whether school still aligns with his long term strategic objectives. It’s been an interesting conversation 😅

There is plenty of success to be had outside the traditional route through higher education. I was medically licensed to perform general anesthesia AND surgery with ZERO college. I can’t dismiss that logic without losing credibility as someone he can safely explore it with.

In my military experience, strong leadership isn’t arguing or proving your point. It’s guiding someone through alternatives until they ask their own questions and see the larger picture. That requires self regulation and patience.

He has an entrepreneurial mind, always scheming, plotting, and figuring out how he’ll succeed on his own terms. But entrepreneurship takes more than ideas. It requires research, discipline, time management, and systems thinking.

So I posed a challenge:

Getting good grades isn’t the challenge. Understanding and operating within the larger system of public school is.

Treat school like your first business.

Learn the rules, incentives, deadlines, and expectations. Manage the parts you enjoy and the parts you don’t. Then use it to produce the output you want: grades.

Not every part of business or school is enjoyable. Studying is basically unpaid startup labor.

Systems are systems, and people are people. If you can unpack one, manage your time, push through the boring parts, meet the requirements, and produce results, you can apply that mindset when your own money is on the line.

Show me you can master this business system, and I’ll happily support what you build later, with my time, guidance, connections, and potentially loans.

My daughter is excited to go back to school.

My son is conducting a cost benefit analysis on the entire institution 🤣 taken in Southern Pines, North Carolina by @four_example

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2 months ago

10/10 @natgeo documenting our dating failures

Badass hats -> @tangocharlieapparel taken in Raleigh, North Carolina by @four_example

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2 months ago

Join the experiment: kindness neurochemical warfare 🏴‍☠️ taken in Somewhere on Earth by @four_example

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2 months ago

So I keep getting stronger 🖤
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#girldad #fatherdaughter #dadstrength #dadswholift #makingmemories

Shorts/shirt @tangocharlieapparel taken in TruFit Gym by @four_example

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2 months ago

This morning, before the doors opened on the VA’s VetResources Community Network Conference in Columbus, Georgia, Team RWB teamed up with Wear Blue: Run to remember and Ryan Taniguchi to host a remembrance and community workout. We honored some of our fallen, then spent twenty minutes sweating through partner circuit training in the Georgia humidity and the gnats. Great turnout, and the best way I know to start a day spent indoors.

Like nearly every convening I have been part of this year, the through-line was collaboration. No single organization does this work alone. We grow, and we last, by putting the mission ahead of ego and connecting our work to the wider ecosystem. The organizations that choose that path are the ones who will define what comes next.

That is exactly why the VRCN matters, and why it is underused. It is the VA’s front door for community engagement: a place for organizations to break down silos, share events and resources, join the monthly Connect sessions, and reach Veterans through a newsletter that goes out to more than 17 million of them a week. For an individual Veteran, it is a direct line into the vast world of VA services and benefits. If you serve Veterans, or you are one, get familiar with it: https://department.va.gov/veterans-experience/vetresources-community-network-vrcn/

Thank you to Dr. Lynda Davis, Tammy Spinnu, Avalon, Boulder Crest, the Bob Woodruff Foundation, and the entire team who poured so much into a successful conference. Relationships and progress come out of this kind of authentic work, every time.

And if you are a Veteran, reach out and see what is available to you. How you served does not matter. The fact that you stepped up to serve at all is what counts. You are not taking a seat from anyone by asking for your benefits. There are more resources out there than there are people asking for them. This is not a carnival ride. In the words of Melissa Corneau, you do not need to be this “hurt” (tall) to ride the ride.

Learn more -> @teamrwb

#teamrwb #eaglenation @vabenefits @wearblue taken in Columbus Civic Center by @four_example

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3 months ago

The pull-ups at the end tho

I “guess” I did a good job 💀

RIP dad 🪦😅

🔥 Dope shirt and hat @tangocharlieapparel

Back Day:
Wide Grip Cable Pulldown
Iso-lateral Low Row
Supported High Row
Pull-ups
Dumbbell Shrugs

#girldad #parentinghumor #familyfitness #workoutmotivation #veteran taken in Raleigh, North Carolina by @four_example

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2 months ago

My fellow Patriots.. 🇺🇸🏴‍☠️

Happy Fourth of July 💥🦅 taken in Fayetteville, North Carolina by @four_example

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Every line on that screen is real
So is the pain

Survived the IED. Still getting humbled by burpees

But pushing myself in exercise isn’t the hard part

Still the father my kids can count on
Still ready as a loving partner
Still training to maintain the capacity to deliver death if duty ever demands it

Never eager
Never unprepared

That capability stays in reserve
Love, patience, and presence get used every day

The injuries changed the plan
They did not change the mission

Strength isn’t pretending the limitations aren’t real
It’s adapting without abandoning what still matters

Comment #htmh with the mission you refuse to abandon and the constraint that changed the plan. I’ll help you think through the next adaptation.

@tangocharlieapparel gym shorts 🔥

#militaryfitness #tacticalathlete #specialforces #adaptivetraining taken in Charlotte, N.C. by @four_example

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3 months ago

All good. I needed that bench anyway

🔥 Hat -> @tangocharlieapparel

#gymhumor taken in Raleigh, North Carolina by @four_example

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3 months ago

Should I be proud of the confidence or concerned about the empathy?

#toddlerlife #dadlife #parentinghumor taken in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center by @four_example

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3 months ago

The day is coming either way taken in Outer Banks, North Carolina by @four_example

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3 months ago

Barbell Banger #005 🎧
Tears of Scarlet - XZARKHAN

🔥 Shorts @tangocharlieapparel

Shoulders (lower joint impact day):
Seated Machine Overhead Press
Seated Machine Lateral Raise
Seated Machine Rear Delt

De Oppresso Liber 🏴‍☠️

#gymmusic #fitnessmotivation #veteran #greenberet taken in Raleigh, North Carolina by @four_example

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3 months ago