so a couple years ago I was at home late
at night and I got a text message from
Marie in front of mine asking me if I
had time to talk my friend was a Purple
Heart recipient multiple tours overseas
and the nature of the call was his life
worth living is everything that I’ve
been through everything that I’ve
experienced worth the end result why am
I here in why should I continue I’m Pete
Klein executive director and founder of
that motor sports and we take veterans
with service-connected injuries and
place them in the motor sports teams as
a non-clinical therapy program why do we
do it I used to race in that time I
accumulated all these countless
connections and all these amazing
experiences and I thought how can I take
something and make it transformational
how could I take this thing that I’m
doing and make it a springboard or
something that somebody could get
involved in that could change their
lives or even if they didn’t want to be
in motor sports they could see the full
potential of themselves and that’s how
we got started and one of the first
things we needed to do is we needed to
figure out and before I go into this I
won’t let you know I didn’t know what I
was doing I didn’t know anything about
the nonprofit world I didn’t know
anything about the military culture
because I’m a civilian so for me I had
to learn everything so we had to figure
out the parallels between military
culture and motor sports what we found
was that if you put a veteran into a
adrenaline-filled high-risk environment
with teamwork
they thrive because they’re used to it
you want to be there if the end result
if you don’t do your job and it’s going
to be catastrophic or possibly life
ending they’re used to that environment
and they thrive so we figured that piece
out what we didn’t have figured out
was the language the language of trust
on this new pathway that we decided to
take how do we learn trust how do we
learn that language from them and what
we found out over the years of piloting
the program and putting on experiences
for veterans was that if we were honest
and earnest with our intentions if we
let out clear ground rules and
expectations they would thrive
so as we continued through the program
we figured out that trust was an action
it could be words but it was action and
you only had one time to create that
trust moment so in 2014 we were provided
an opportunity to go to Pikes Peak
Colorado for one of the most prestigious
of hill races on the planet and we would
be there for seven days as a nonprofit
taking two Marines that I didn’t know
very well and put him into a team that I
didn’t know at all and I was going to be
there and how did we build that one
moment of trust the team sat down with
the veterans and laid out clear
expectations of their behavior and
actually had them performed the duties
that they were going to be doing on the
mountain in the parking lot of the hotel
and then show them how to do it the
right way
and then the veterans told them their
expectations of what was to happen and
how they wanted to be treated and I was
there to moderate and make sure that the
right words were used and make sure that
everything was copacetic and make sure
he was feeling good about themselves and
so for seven days we went up and down
Pikes Peak 8,000 feet 11,000 feet
sometimes using bottled oxygen to get
the job done 3:00 a.m. in the van with
no windows back down to 10:00 a.m. and
then I was doing their laundry in
getting a meals and being there for them
and they were there for me because if
they were at risk they felt not
comfortable in a situation they would
come to me and they say hey can you can
you remove me from the situation or if
they thought I was at risk they would
come to me and say hey we need to be
around you
this environment right now is not safe
for you we were earning that trust and
building that language with the team
with each other and that’s us on the
mountain towards the end so why did he
call me he called me because he had that
shared experience with us
and with me and he could tell me his
darkest secret so you could tell me the
darkest thoughts and he opened the door
a little bit to the world that he lived
in for me which is a gift that very
rarely we get to have with anybody I can
tell you that he’s still here
that he’s my best friend we talk almost
daily he’s an amazing person but we had
to figure out what trust was the
language of trust and what Trust is is
trust as action it is learning the
vocabulary it is learning and
establishing the rules and clear-cut
communicators but really more
importantly than that it’s being honest
and forthright with yourself and
presenting yourself as somebody that you
are and not somebody that you’re not so
when I leave here tonight I want you to
think about this on your path and on
your journey
the journey that you’ve taken the
journey that you’re on or maybe the
journey that you want to be on I want
you to think about trust and how Trust
has played a part in shaping your path
and how the language of trust can shape your future path
at night and I got a text message from
Marie in front of mine asking me if I
had time to talk my friend was a Purple
Heart recipient multiple tours overseas
and the nature of the call was his life
worth living is everything that I’ve
been through everything that I’ve
experienced worth the end result why am
I here in why should I continue I’m Pete
Klein executive director and founder of
that motor sports and we take veterans
with service-connected injuries and
place them in the motor sports teams as
a non-clinical therapy program why do we
do it I used to race in that time I
accumulated all these countless
connections and all these amazing
experiences and I thought how can I take
something and make it transformational
how could I take this thing that I’m
doing and make it a springboard or
something that somebody could get
involved in that could change their
lives or even if they didn’t want to be
in motor sports they could see the full
potential of themselves and that’s how
we got started and one of the first
things we needed to do is we needed to
figure out and before I go into this I
won’t let you know I didn’t know what I
was doing I didn’t know anything about
the nonprofit world I didn’t know
anything about the military culture
because I’m a civilian so for me I had
to learn everything so we had to figure
out the parallels between military
culture and motor sports what we found
was that if you put a veteran into a
adrenaline-filled high-risk environment
with teamwork
they thrive because they’re used to it
you want to be there if the end result
if you don’t do your job and it’s going
to be catastrophic or possibly life
ending they’re used to that environment
and they thrive so we figured that piece
out what we didn’t have figured out
was the language the language of trust
on this new pathway that we decided to
take how do we learn trust how do we
learn that language from them and what
we found out over the years of piloting
the program and putting on experiences
for veterans was that if we were honest
and earnest with our intentions if we
let out clear ground rules and
expectations they would thrive
so as we continued through the program
we figured out that trust was an action
it could be words but it was action and
you only had one time to create that
trust moment so in 2014 we were provided
an opportunity to go to Pikes Peak
Colorado for one of the most prestigious
of hill races on the planet and we would
be there for seven days as a nonprofit
taking two Marines that I didn’t know
very well and put him into a team that I
didn’t know at all and I was going to be
there and how did we build that one
moment of trust the team sat down with
the veterans and laid out clear
expectations of their behavior and
actually had them performed the duties
that they were going to be doing on the
mountain in the parking lot of the hotel
and then show them how to do it the
right way
and then the veterans told them their
expectations of what was to happen and
how they wanted to be treated and I was
there to moderate and make sure that the
right words were used and make sure that
everything was copacetic and make sure
he was feeling good about themselves and
so for seven days we went up and down
Pikes Peak 8,000 feet 11,000 feet
sometimes using bottled oxygen to get
the job done 3:00 a.m. in the van with
no windows back down to 10:00 a.m. and
then I was doing their laundry in
getting a meals and being there for them
and they were there for me because if
they were at risk they felt not
comfortable in a situation they would
come to me and they say hey can you can
you remove me from the situation or if
they thought I was at risk they would
come to me and say hey we need to be
around you
this environment right now is not safe
for you we were earning that trust and
building that language with the team
with each other and that’s us on the
mountain towards the end so why did he
call me he called me because he had that
shared experience with us
and with me and he could tell me his
darkest secret so you could tell me the
darkest thoughts and he opened the door
a little bit to the world that he lived
in for me which is a gift that very
rarely we get to have with anybody I can
tell you that he’s still here
that he’s my best friend we talk almost
daily he’s an amazing person but we had
to figure out what trust was the
language of trust and what Trust is is
trust as action it is learning the
vocabulary it is learning and
establishing the rules and clear-cut
communicators but really more
importantly than that it’s being honest
and forthright with yourself and
presenting yourself as somebody that you
are and not somebody that you’re not so
when I leave here tonight I want you to
think about this on your path and on
your journey
the journey that you’ve taken the
journey that you’re on or maybe the
journey that you want to be on I want
you to think about trust and how Trust
has played a part in shaping your path
and how the language of trust can shape your future path
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