EverydaySpy Podcast - The Covert Op Lifecycle Advantage

Episode Date: February 16, 2021

Intel operators do not see time the same way as everyone else. Some people think time is a resource. Others think it is a tool for trade. Operatives view time as something completely different. In this episode, Andrew walks you through the lifecycle of a covert op to give you a unique advantage that only field operators understand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My name is Andrew Bustamante, and this is everyday espionage. Chihi and I took the kids to spend a month in Chattanooga, Tennessee this past fall. Now, if you're wondering what's in Chattanooga, I honestly had the same concern before we left. But by the end of the month, Eastern Tennessee had me just totally smitten. My three-year-old daughter, Alai, was totally inspired by the outdoor life that she saw. all over the Tennessee River Valley. My wife, Ji, loved the hiking trail network that spread through the whole area, and she had the kids outside and on trails almost every day. Sina, my seven-year-old son, made friends by the handful chasing bugs and climbing trees and running through mud pits.

The trip was really just a great excuse, a great way for our family to get out together and unwind after spending the previous year in the Middle East. I was the only one really focused on work during the trip, which is typical and also unfair, but I had a U.S. government contract in the region and a couple of new clients that I was meeting with at the same time. So I was really particular about how I chose to spend my free time and who I would spend that free time with. Now, the kids in Ji, of course, got the biggest chunk of my time, whether they liked it or not. But the way that I spent my time after them, after family and after work, that is what I want to talk with you about today. You see, most people share their time as a form of exchange, right? At work,

many people exchange their time for a paycheck, especially in the world of hourly or billable hours. Some people make $8 an hour, other people make $800 an hour, but they both make $0 if they don't clock that hour of time. Then you have early and mid-careers that invest their time in networking, and they hope that the time spent shaking hands and laughing at lame jokes is somehow going to turn into a future promotion opportunity. In the business world, it has always been understood that time is money. So when business owners sit down together, it's almost like there are these unwritten laws that govern how much time they can spend on small talk or how much time they spend on new ideas. And there always seems to be some kind of follow-up task that entrepreneurs like to give each other before they say goodbye. If you're listening and you're a startup or a business owner, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Now, in covert intelligence operations, we see time a little differently.

Instead of seeing it as a currency or a commodity for trade, we treat time more like a living thing. It's almost like a biological stopwatch, if that makes any sense at all. So, for example, a mayfly is a living thing. It is conceived, born, it matures, it bears offspring, and then it declines and it dies. And it does it all in less than 24 hours. Now off the coast of Greenland, there's a shark, and that shark is also a living thing. It's called the Greenland shark. This predator takes nearly 100 years before it is even able to reproduce. And then another 200 years after that, before it starts to decline from aging. Can you imagine? I mean, that's 300 years of life before it starts to decline from aging. Even worse, it's like 50 years of adamant. Adolescence. Fifty years of middle school. That sounds absolutely horrible. My point is that time is something that these two animals both have in common. Not only in terms of seconds and minutes and hours, but also in terms of a life cycle. Birth, reproduction, decline. Every covert human intelligence operation also has three parts, three phases. that almost exactly mirror a biological life cycle, just like these two animals.

We call our cycle kickoff, production, and decline. Now, the first phase of an Intel mission is called the kickoff. Lots of activity goes into the kickoff, but the most critical for the field operative is called surveillance detection. During surveillance detection, the operator has to determine whether they are free of surveillance, which we call in the black, or if they are under surveillance, which we call being hot.

If the operator is in the black, the mission is safe to move into the second phase. But if the operator is hot, they have to abort and go straight to the final phase. So already you can see how we measure time according to a life cycle, not according to an exchange. It is possible to go from birth to decline,

from mission kickoff to abort mission quickly. There is no guarantee that the second phase production will ever actually happen. It's all up to the one person operating in the field. That operator has to determine if they are in the black and able to move forward or if they can take some kind of action to get themselves into the black by ditching their surveillance. Now, for some operations, phase one can be done in just. a couple of hours. But for other ops, it can take days or weeks before an operator can confidently say

that they are in the black and ready to execute phase two of the op. Now, here's the rub. This is the learning point. The thing that Intel does right, that the everyday world messes up. Consider everyday life as compared to an operation. Everyday life, your career, your business, your marriage, it has three logical phases that mimic that operational life cycle. There's a kickoff, there's production, and there's decline. Today, you are on one of those phases. I'm in the same place. But which phase are you most focused on?

Which phase from day to day are we most focused on in that operational life cycle? Is it kickoff? Is it production? Is it decline? It's the second phase. It's production. Of course. you look forward to phase two or you look back on phase two or you feel like you've been robbed of

phase two. Whatever the case, you're always focused on phase two because you have been primed your whole life for phase two. That is the great gift our culture has given us. It has made us almost obsessed with being productive with just that second phase of our operational life cycle. your parents lectured you about phase two when you were a kid you went to school you went to college you went and got a graduate degree for phase two you lost sleep you gained weight you've hurt friends all for phase two i know it's true because i have been there we have all been there no matter what your success level no matter what your income level or your age the pressure to produce and to produce fast is real.

And it took CIA six months to break down that barrier for me and teach me the truth. The truth is that phase two, the part where you devote your energy and your resources to being productive, will never be as successful as you want it to be unless you finish phase one first. You must know that you are in the black and ready to operate successfully, or else your entire mission is at risk of being compromised, by an outside threat, by a competitor, or even by some kind of unforeseen accident. Wherever you are in your business, education, or relationship life cycle, don't fall for the lie that phase two is the most important phase. If you are still in the kickoff phase, your focus should be on securing your environment, finding the threats and the vulnerabilities around you. Who can be trusted?

Who can't? What resources do you have? Which resources do you need? What skills come naturally to you? Which skills don't come naturally? Because guess what? You will need them both to succeed. So you have to own phase one completely.

Only after you understand your operating environment, Whether that is your workplace, your market segment, or career ambition, only then should you focus your resources and energy into phase two. Moving into phase two of an operation before you secure phase one leaves you vulnerable to threats, errors, and accidents. That is why people fail. It's why marriages fall apart, why businesses go under. It's why hopeful students become burnouts and dropouts because we skip phases. We rush through the kickoff, we get compromised before we can produce, and then we go directly to decline. It's just like a field operator who rushes through surveillance detection, makes a mistake, gets captured by hostile forces, and then fails to complete the mission. Not because there is anything wrong with you, but because our culture emphasizes phase two as the most important phase in the life cycle.

when it isn't. It is just one of three equal phases in a life cycle that's common to all people. No mayfly, no Greenland shark can skip the first phase of their life cycle. Biologically, neither can human beings. And when you view your time as a life cycle instead of as a commodity for trade or exchange, it is clear that real productivity, real value, the kind that create, something out of nothing that can double or triple or quadruple your wealth, your impact, and your worth, that is only possible when you complete phase one of your operational lifecycle before moving into phase two. Your operation is like every other operation. It has three phases, kickoff, production, and decline. Wherever you think you land in that life cycle,

Don't get distracted into thinking that phase two is the most important phase. Let your competition, let your adversaries believe that lie and rush headlong through the first phase of their operation. That will leave them vulnerable. They will make mistakes. And their mistake will become your advantage. 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.