Chris Voss

Being an FBI agent wasn't even a goal.

Kind of found myself there by the circumstances lined up.

When I applied for federal law enforcement, I originally applied for the Secret Service because that's what I heard about.

And I was told Secret Service traveled all over the world.

I'm like, wow, that's cool.

While I grew up in Iowa, it was a big deal going to another state.

I crossed the river into Illinois.

That was a big deal.

That was a big deal.

So I traveled, and Secret Service wasn't hiring me.

I was.

I put in my application.

I was slated to go to the SWAT team in the police department just before I left.

If the Bureau would have delayed by three weeks hiring me, I'd have stayed with the PD because I was two weeks away from going to the SWAT team.

Got on the SWAT team in Pittsburgh and

I remember an exercise we did, you know, it was this supposed bad guy takeover of a nuclear facility.

We got negotiators inside.

And I can remember being on the outside on a SWAT, knowing that we had somebody in there that was supposedly a negotiator.

And just like, oh, okay, somebody's talking to him on the phone.

That's a negotiator.