Mike Lamb of Stoic Ventures. Outed as not being a Recon Marine.

[BWT]

I just don't understand what the draw is.

I guess I can it'd be nice to have been a part of something great or heroic.

But as I've gotten older and (brace yourself for Christian talk); I've realized more and more my identity is found in who's approval I care about. I know what's God thinks of me and that's what matters.

Giving people the ability to validate or invalidate you leads to this crazy desire for constant approval.

The Black Belt that does my Jiu Jitsu class is a Gracie black belt (and Relson who he earned his belt from visits regularly).

He and some of the distinguished guys at the gym have regular joe jobs other than that.

I think the trap is... just be happy with who you are and if you want to go do something great. Go for it! Better to be a failure than a never tried.

I'm starting as a White Belt and I'm 29 and out of shape. Sure it's humiliating at times but why not?

God Bless,

Brandon

[HopetonBrown]

It is my understanding that Lamb had no intention of becoming an instructor originally, so the lie about being Force Recon predates that. In the article, it says that he's been living the lie for 20 years; in 1997, the training industry was nowhere near today's state. While his claim of being Force Recon probably boosted his class size, it wasn't the impetus for the lie.

Does it matter?

[Joe in PNG]

Nobody has mad skilz like Space Shuttle Door Gunners

As a rule, if sumdood is lying about his service, there's a good chance he's going to lie about other stuff as well.

An aunt of mine wound up briefly hooked up with a fake Seal, a few decades ago. Dude stole my family's cat, abused my aunt, and wound up facing my Grandpop- an honest to goodness Joisey tough guy, retired Golden Gloves boxer and retired career military. Nary a blow or shot was exchanged- the dude was gone, and gone for good.

[Default.mp3]

Does it matter?

Just dispelling the notion that he did it for the sake of buffing up his instructor credentials, due to students wanting to touch the SOF magic.

[HopetonBrown]

Just dispelling the notion that he did it for the sake of buffing up his instructor credentials, due to students wanting to touch the SOF magic.

Didn't he presumably do it for money?

[Default.mp3]

Didn't he presumably do it for money?

I have no idea; might have been to make his résumé look better for a job, might have been just to look cool in front of other cool guys. Again, I was merely heading off the discussion of the issue of students wanting only to learn from former SOF, as while an interesting topic, was not the impetus for his lie, and is thus arguable off-topic (this line of discussion seems to come up relatively consistently where ever this story is posted).

[octagon]

Von Braun just liked rockets. We(the US) welcomed Mr Braun without punishment for his development of V2 rockets that killed civilians and many Jewish slave laborers. He lied several times about his knowledge and involvement as a Nazi party member, a member of the SS and what he knew about brutal conditions and treatment of laborers for work on his program of rockets for Hitler.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

It is an extreme example but his rewards were great compared to his criminal and repeated actions against innocent people yet we look the other way. I won't defend Mike Lamb's actions but let's keep it in perspective.

[Chance]

It seemed Mike was a good spreader but for whatever reason felt compelled to lie about his background. In this an most industries that is the kids of death. Should it be?

Unquestionably and with no hesitation: absolutely. You're a pilot, right? Would you come to me to learn about handling in-flight emergencies, knowing that I had never soloed?

I think I have a ton of "good ideas" when it comes to handling a deadly force situation. The truth is that the training I have gone through has indicated I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.

So I don't teach defensive handgun skills. Imagine someone that only has experience with snorkeling running a drown-proof SCUBA diver class. That's what Mike was doing.

He needs to be ostracized to the full extent of the Internet's wrath, and banished from the realm of legitimate firearms instructors.

[Eli]

I would say that mostly because there's no reason to. Does he have some secret sauce or teach something that nobody else does?

No?

Then why not take the class from someone that hasn't lied about their background?

This.

The market is absolutely saturated at this point. If Option-A a and Option-B offer a very similar experience, but Option-A has a very blatant negative attached to it...then Option-B is going to be the clear winner.

[John Hearne]

My take is this:

A lot of guys just want to sniff the jockstrap and engage in a little LARPing for the weekend. The stronger the scent on your jockstrap, the better an instructor you are considered to be.

The average person doesn't know what they need, they pay for what they want. Why do you think so few instructors have objective standards?