EverydaySpy Podcast - A Victory Worth Celebrating

Episode Date: June 22, 2021

Not every spy lesson is equal, and not every spy looks they way you might expect. In this episode, Andrew shares a spy story about a covert CIA operative that you should have been able to see a mile away. And a shop that you'd never think would come to the rescue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My name is Andrew Bustamante, and this is everyday espionage. Choosing to leave CIA was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make in my life. I had amazing friends and colleagues serving undercover along with me, and leaving CIA meant also having to leave them. And one of the closest friends I had to say goodbye to was a guy who worked a sensitive case with Ghi and I. let's call him Tom. Now, Ji and I served as a tandem operational couple for a long time, and we knew each other's opse tempo, we knew each other's preferences, our attitudes.

We could almost predict one another's next thought, and it wasn't easy when Langley assigned us to work with a new guy. It was especially hard when they told us that we had to meet this new guy for the first time in the field, in alias, and then take him somewhere private to authenticate. and break cover and set up shop. But those were the orders, and we were sworn to follow them. I remember my first thought when I met Tom was, damn, he is tall.

Now, he was huge. Standing 6'6 foot 6 may not be that rare in the U.S., but it's super awkward once you get outside of the Western world, and our op was thousands of miles away from the nearest American farm. But despite his painfully American height and skin, his accent, his American attitude, Tom was a born operator. When it came time to do the work, that dude knew how to disappear. And I learned quickly why headquarters had chosen to put us all together.

Tom was a welcome blast of fresh ideas and new talent for both Ghi and me. Now, I learned a lot from Tom, but one lesson resonates louder than all the rest. Tom loved to celebrate. I mean, he really loved to celebrate. No matter how small or seemingly silly the reason, you could always count on him to have something positive to say and some kind of crazy idea to celebrate it. He used to call it celebrating the victories.

Now, sometimes he celebrated victories in a classic way, with a glass of good scotch or a cigar or maybe going out to a nice dinner. But where we were operating made all three of those things impossible to get, or the quality would be so bad that it wouldn't really feel like much of a celebration if you had them. So most of our celebrations actually involved local candy or fresh food, or just taking a short break from work. I remember the first time that Tom suggested to Ji that we celebrate, By taking a break from work, the look on her face was priceless because Ji doesn't stop working.

She's sick in the head, if you ask me. She somehow sees work as a joy. It's hard enough just getting her to stop working so she can go to sleep. So a midday break was absolutely ludicrous in her mind. But Tom kept on her and somehow eventually it worked. By the end of the op, Ji was the one calling for the break and really, for the Candy Bowl when we were celebrating victories. Now, I was reminded of Tom this past week in Maine,

when Ji and I took the kids to a playground in Bangor for the afternoon. Now, little did I realize, but most shops and restaurants in Bangor, Maine, close at 4 p.m. on weekdays. A few of them open back up around 6 o'clock for dinner, but the majority do not. The whole city is built on the back of small business, and the owners themselves run their own shops. And since they have families and lives to get back to, they shut down early and everyone knows to do their shopping and chores before 4 p.n.

Well, everyone that is except me and jee. Now, at 4 p.m., at 405, my 3-year-old daughter tells me that she has to go potty. And it's not the type of potty that you can easily do in the woods. Now, she's three years old and potty trained, which, trust me, is a blessing we count every day. But like all parents, we also know how devastating an accident can be to a child's progress when they're that age, especially when those accidents happen in public. But the park that we were in had no public restrooms at all. So we had to scoop up our bag of stuff, grab my son, Sina, who thankfully understands that you've got to go when you've got to go, and jumped into Google Maps to try to find an open business with a bathroom for the baby. And that's how we learned that Bangor closes at 4 o'clock.

We were seven minutes too late. We were a mile from where we parked the car, and we made the baby hoof herself down the sidewalk, and she walked every step like a champ. I was in full-on dad mode. I was wondering whether or not this was the right time to pick a tree and just teach the baby what bears do in the woods. My wife, Gihi, was in mission mode.

She was collecting data and prioritizing options, trying to find a way that we could still be civilized, but take care of the baby's needs. Alai, my daughter, was the coolest and collected of all of us. She just kept calmly reminding us that she had a pressing need for a bathroom. My son, Sino, was just along for the ride. Now, about halfway to the car, we finally found a storefront with the lights on inside and the open sign still flashing, even though Google Maps told us it was closed. It was a chain store called Family Dollar.

Now, in my entire life, I can tell you with certainty, I have never been so happy to see a family dollar as I was at that time. Now, we rushed in, and right there on the front entrance was a huge sign that said no public restrooms. I was so annoyed. By this time, I was ready to just let the baby do her business anywhere she pleased. She had held her stuff together longer than you could reasonably ask any three-year-old to do. One of the store clerk saw us come in and greeted us and my son took over.

Can my sister use your bathroom? he asked. She has to, you know, understanding dawned on this lady's face. And she took me and a lie right to the back, right through an employee-only entrance to the employee-only bathroom in a hurry. She even apologized to us that the bathroom wasn't as clean as it could be. I didn't care, and trust me, a lie didn't care either. I was able to sit her down just in time for success. And as I stood there waiting for my daughter to finish her number two in a family dollar's dirty employee bathroom, my mind went back to Tom.

Because on the wall in this bathroom was a faded printout, of the family dollar leadership principles. And principle number eight said, we celebrate the big and little wins. The day was full of wins. It was a beautiful day. We had a fun time at the park. The baby told us when she had to go.

Every step of the entire ordeal from Google Maps telling us everything was closed, thank goodness we had a signal, that's a win. all the way to my son asking the clerk to use the employee bathroom. It was win after win after win. But we weren't celebrating those wins. We were just rolling right through them.

This was classic Andy and Jehe tandem CIA couple. What we needed was a little more Tom. So that's exactly what we did as soon as the baby was done in the bathroom. We celebrated. We must have put $30 of new business into that family dollar, which goes a long way in family dollar. We bought coloring books and matchbox cars. We bought toy sunglasses and silly putty. We bought a candy bar for every one of the ladies that was on shift that day just to say thank you. We told a lie how awesome she was. We told Sina how awesome he was because without both of their hard work, we would have failed the day for sure. And as we checked out, I reminded Jehi that I was thinking about Tom, and she had a big old smile come across her face too. He'd be proud of us. I took a picture that day of that faded family dollar printout, and I shared it on Instagram.

So if you are on Instagram, check out my profile at Everyday Spy, and you can see what that faded old printout looks like. Now, you have more victories every day than you realize. Some are big, some are small, but they all happen because you took some kind of action. Take credit for the effort that you put in, own it, and then celebrate the outcome because every celebration will lift you up to a bigger challenge and a better outcome. You may be a long way from what you're trying to achieve, but I promise you that you aren't that far from your next victory.

And when you realize that and you act on that, you are celebrating like spies in the field. And more importantly, you are outpacing, outperforming, and outgrowing your competition who let their victories pass by ignored. Celebrating small and big victories is your path to success. And that is everyday espionage. Everyday espionage is dedicated to one thing. educating everyday people. I know that not everyone will listen, but those who listen will learn.

If you learned something new today, click subscribe, review, and share the podcast with a friend. Find me on social media at EverydaySpy or on my website, Everydayspy.com. If you are up for a special challenge, visit Everydayspy.com forward slash operations, and join me for an authentic spy training mission. And above all else, remember that knowledge. is freedom.