Larry Sharpe: The Marine Mindset—OFF THE CUFF

Updated on June 15, 2020

During trying times like the COVID-19 lockdown, it’s important to have a strong mindset. We went off the cuff with Larry Sharpe to learn about his experience as a Staff Sergeant in the US Marine Corps, and the lessons he learned. Larry was a candidate for governor of the state of New York in 2018, where he earned about 100,000 votes. Today, he uses his leadership experience to train C-level executives at companies of all sizes, and splits his time between executive coaching, podcasts, and political activism. In this first part of our ongoing series with Larry Sharpe, he gives advice on developing mental strength to power through the toughest of times.

Watch the Video Interview on YouTube

Larry Sharpe and other US Marines — Larry Sharpe, Staff Sergeant, USMC 1986–1993

Be Prepared

Larry loves going off the cuff and considers it one of his main strengths. In order to be spontaneous, Larry says you have to train hard so you can be prepared to work hard. Furthermore, be smart and build your mental toughness in order to anticipate which tasks you may be called upon to perform.

During Larry’s gubernatorial race, he campaigned for an 18-month stretch without any significant breaks. During this time he did over 30 events per month. Every event was live and unscripted and he never used any notes. That’s more than 550 events in a row, day in day out, with no breaks. Larry had to call upon his Marine mindset to manage such a heavy schedule.

Everything is Temporary

In boot camp, Larry learned just how far he could push his body. It was a grueling experience that felt endless. However, he knew that it would be over in three months, and this gave him the confidence to see it through to completion.

Understand that you are a Marine

Like any other growth mindset, a Marine mindset is good when you work at it. When you are a Marine, everything you do matters. You are an integral part of a group. You represent not just yourself but the entire Marine Corps, and the United States. Larry believes that this lesson has value for everyone, not just the Marines. Your successes will help you rise and your failures will drag you down. Remember who you are and what you stand for, and you will be able to build the mental toughness you need to succeed.

Build Your Mental Strength

Larry loves helping people, and in tough times he gets excited because he knows he can make a difference. Marines run toward trouble and accept the consequences. Building and maintaining mental strength helps Larry as he fights impossible odds to find success.

But, even the joys of victory are temporary. You should enjoy it while it’s there and embrace it fully and mindfully because tomorrow it will be gone. There will be another battle, more hard work, more setbacks, and even better victories waiting for you. You can achieve success when you prepare and build yourself into someone willing to put in the work.

Watch the full video with Larry Sharpe and find out how you can adapt the Marine mindset for your own life!

Find Larry Sharpe Online

Watch the Video Interview on YouTube

All right, Mister Larry Sharpe it’s truly a pleasure to have you.
Please call me Larry, please.
Oh, Larry I’m sorry, my football background I just…
I’m not Coach Sharpe, slut.
I’m super excited to have you, we’re starting a series called Off The Cuff for one on one.
I like Off The Cuff, that’s my favorite thing.
Yeah, yeah, I love it. Off The Cuff just kinda felt good for what this is and I think that’s…
I don’t know if you aware but when I ran for office in 2018, I ran for about a year and a half and I did over 30 events every single month I did all of them Off The Cuff. Everyone had no notes, everyone was live.
No, I love that and that’s kind of our goal here. It’s like, there’s so much information that a guy like you can provide that we really wanna get out to as many people as possible. We love your message and we love what you’re about so I’m excited for today. We’ll jump right into it. You obviously have a background in the Marines. I would just love for you to provide some insight on mindset and mental strain but especially during these times that we’re in as a society, right? With this COVID-19 I feel really strongly about trying to help people get their mindsets right. Without a positive mindset, it’s gonna be hard to progress forward.
I think there’s three takeaways that I still keep from the Marine Corps. There are many takeaways. I’m gonna try and pick three big ones. And the first one was the idea of understanding that you are a Marine. What does, what does that mean to you and to others? Well there’s a saying in Marine Corps, “if there are two Marines, one of you is in charge.”
Yeah.
And the concept is, always know people are looking up to you. Always to know that what you do matters, always know you represent the Marine Corps. I have a Marine Corps tattoo right here. So yeah, because we always want people to know and we wanna know and remind ourselves that we are Marines. I feel like I’m still Marine in my heart, I still feel it. So that idea of what you do matters, you represent others internally if you believe that you’ll act accordingly whether people are around or not. But there’s second piece and that is, everything ends. When I was in bootcamp it was tough as bootcamp is right? So how does someone handle bootcamp? Well, you have to remember something three months from now it will be over and three months from now you will be Marine. Very often when a person gets into a bad situation, it’s common for them to believe this is forever. Whether it’s the loss of someone you love you think the pain will never end.
Whether it’s losing your job, you think your economic difficulties will never end, right? Everything ends and if you just think of what you’re dealing with and look through a prism of time, will this still matter six months from now but what will I be fit in a year from now? If you start thinking that way, it changes your mindset but not just that, remember two other things in the same frame, life is a series of joy and pain and boredom in between. Some people have more joy, different joy, more pain, different pain, but that’s what life actually is. If you accept that as true and you realize that again everything ends, your boredom will end. But also your joy will end. So take that joy when you get it and be in the moment when you’re in the moment because that joy is going to end. And when you get that pain realize if you can just, you know, push through that pain, that pain will also end, everything ends. If you get that peace, you can handle your day to day life a whole lot better.
I understand you have a lot of digital courses on.
Yeah if you wanna check me out on YouTube, you can easily go to The Neo Sage, N E O S A G E. The Neo Sage, Neo-sage.com for the website. You can go to The Neo Sage YouTube page lots of stuff up there please enjoy. If you care about any of my political aspirations, go to Larry Sharpe with an e.com. Please it’s all there you can enjoy that also, of course I do have a podcast, the Sharpe way. It’s all there if you wanna enjoy, I’m an open book, come on in.

By Larry Sharpe

About the author

Larry Sharpe, founder of Neo-Sage® and Executive Coach, has a rich background from a US Marine to entrepreneur, now enhancing leadership and emotional intelligence across industries. With a BA in Anthropology, he’s also a guest instructor at Columbia and Yale, offering global training and consulting. Larry’s work spans from corporate to political strategy, underlined by his commitment to emotional wellness.

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