CZ Lopez

It's like, all right, so you really have to work harder than the average in order to make it, because there were some guys that were just breezing through the program.

And I was having a tough time.

So what did I do?

I went ahead and parked my car.

I started riding my bicycle everywhere to go ahead and get that leg strength that I needed.

And I started swimming at least five days a week just to go ahead and make up for my shortcomings.

By the time I got back to the training pipeline, the instructors are like, holy crap, what the hell did you do, man?

You must really want this.

And that was success story number two out of adversity.

Then throughout my tenure as a senior enlisted leader and as a pararescue man, there have been many other failures that ended up becoming synonymous with lessons.

I never looked at a failure from then on as something that was gonna hold me back.

I looked at failures as something that was gonna make me stronger, that was gonna give me further drive, more motivation, a chip on my shoulder to just go ahead and keep on pressing forward.

and that became probably like the greatest lesson learned to work in several bouts of adversity i found opportunity to go ahead and prove myself that i was better than who i was the day before i i agree and you and i we've had this conversation right adversity reveals character and failure shows that drive that you have right and i totally believe

I believe that one of the biggest lessons that I have learned is the value of humility.

And I will explain what I mean by that.

When you become a special operator, you get put in a certain pedestal, right?

So you have a certain standing.

You have a specific uniform that is unmistakable.

People expect certain things about you because you have gone through one of the most rigorous training pipelines and crucibles that the Department of War has to offer.

And you have that aura about you that this is the person when the chips fall that is going to make things happen.