Episode 514 Andy Dietrich From Deutschland to Devil Dog Transcript
This transcript is from episode 514 with guest Andy Dietrich.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Do you ever feel like you’re constantly paying the tab for the decisions that your younger self made? Imagine someone taking all of these moments, the hilarious, the painful, the eye-opening and turning them into a brutally honest, no punches pulled book. Andy Dietrich, our guest today did just that. Uh, he went from being a German kid who was dropped.
Into Alaska of all places to becoming a Marine. And, uh, he talks about some of the difficulties, uh, that he encountered, including learning some of the American slang the hard way. Um, and talking about his book writing. Uh, uh, play stupid games, win stupid prizes, and um, Andy’s stories. They’re just raw, funny, and.
Unexpectedly powerful. So this episode takes you inside those moments, uh, both the, the laughs, the gut checks, and it talks about the mindset behind owning your [00:01:00] story no matter how ridiculous it gets. I. But before we get into this episode, I do wanna take a quick moment here to raise awareness for something deeply important to our community.
The Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. This organization is working to build a permanent national memorial in Washington DC to honor the service members, families, and civilians who were impacted by the global war on terrorism. This memorial serves as both a tribute to those who served and a way to ensure that their sacrifices are recognized and remembered for generations to come.
So if you want to learn more or find out how to support the mission, visit GWOT memorial foundation.org. Now, let’s get into today’s episode.
Scott DeLuzio: Andy, welcome to the show. I’m really glad to [00:02:00] have you here.
Andy Dietrich: Thanks for having me.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. to get a little bit into your story and your background. You know, and, and, you’ve wr written a book. It’s called Play Stupid Prizes. I wanna get into that in, in just a minute. Could you bit about your, you and, your background, kind of your, uh, your, your military history, that
Andy Dietrich: Sure.
Scott DeLuzio: of thing, then we can jump into
Andy Dietrich: I’ll give you my paragraph version
of how I started and how I ended up here.
So, uh,
I was born in Berlin, Germany lived there for a good part of my adolescence. Um, and then at 14 my mother and I moved to Alaska of all places. There’s a little side story that goes why that happened and, and, you know, the experiences that one gets living up there. Then at 19, uh, I decided to join up. Uh, I enlisted in the Marine Corps. Uh, spent four years, uh, stationed in Camp Pendleton. There was some interesting stories, maybe some unsavory
moments. I can share from that time as well a little bit later on.
Um, and then in I decided to move to Vegas and I’ve been here for about 20 plus
years now.
And yeah, I don’t see myself leaving anytime
soon. And, um, yeah, that’s me in a nutshell.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:03:00] Excellent, excellent. So,
Yeah, definitely not the place I would’ve thought. You know, most Europeans would, would think of as like the first stop for a America.
Andy Dietrich: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: You know, coming over here that’s a.
Andy Dietrich: we, we, you know, we, I, I would
tell my friends that, oh, we’re, we’re, we’re moving to America because
Alaska was, you know, part or still is part of
America.
As I then found out pretty quickly. Alaska is kind of seen as the, the ugly redhead stepchild of the United States, but a very rich, loaded, ugly redhead
stepchild of the United States. That’s why we keep ’em around. Right.
Um, it definitely, there definitely were some, uh, growing pains, right? Culture shocks, you know, language barriers and, and you know, just, just a lot of things that go with. Being a 14-year-old and trying to fit in and being the kind of like the outsider, because Fairbanks, where I lived, is a very small town.
The high schools are even smaller, so I was the the new
kid, the German kid, right? So trying to fit in while you’re a sore thumb
sticking out wasn’t exactly the easiest task.
Scott DeLuzio: Did you speak English when you, when you got here, or did you have to learn when you got here?
Andy Dietrich: Yeah, some. So they taught us British English, like [00:04:00] proper school English, uh, from the fifth grade on up in Germany. So I was, I
had a good, uh, starting base of the language.
but, you know, having a, learning a language for a couple years from a traditional British. Ger,
well, he’s a German that spoke British English with his, with his
thick German accent.
And so did all, all of us. Uh, learning a language out of a
book is much different from conversational English, which is then much different from
like, say a technical language, technical English. Right. So there’s a lot of things that that I have to learn pretty quickly just to. Keep up in school and to keep up with, with, you know, the kids my age because slang and, and other sayings, things like, you know, uh, knocking on
wood or the, the phrase, and then
some I always thought, and then some what?
You’re missing a word here. Like, and then some
what, what’s happening? Right. Right.
Don’t leave me hanging.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s funny.
Yeah, no, it’s, it.
I was just asking ’cause it’s, it’s interesting you know, when people go from one cul culture to another, I was talking to somebody just who moved to Japan, had to learn and it, it was a culture shock for him
Andy Dietrich: Sure.
Scott DeLuzio: from [00:05:00] United States to
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: so just interesting to hear the, the. The stories and how you get there and, and I’m sure there were some,
some words that you fumbled and made, made, uh, some mistakes along the way, but, um, you know, I think that’s how we all learn anyways. Not, not just language, but with anything in life. We, we learn through the mistakes that we make
Andy Dietrich: Absolutely.
Scott DeLuzio: I don’t wanna make that mistake again, so I’m gonna not mess.
Especially gonna learn how not to do that
Andy Dietrich: Yeah,
I’m reminded that as you said that learning words, I’m reminded of a, of a quick story where I was working at a coffee shop and one of my first jobs, I was 15, 16 years old. And, uh, and the boss called up and she says, Hey, are we out of anything? Do we need anything? Do we need to go to the store and buy stuff?
And I said, yes. We’re out of, uh, anos. She goes, excuse me, what? And I said anos. And she goes, what are you talking about? I said, you know, the, the spicy green things with the seasoned side. She goes, oh, you mean I go, hold on a minute. How is it starts with a j? It’s how is a J Sound? Sound like an H sound, right?
So to me, as a native German speaker, that complete me
threw, threw me for a [00:06:00] loop, but I didn’t know that jalapenos is
not even, you know, it doesn’t have English roots.
Right? So the j.
Doesn’t sound like a J. Right. Stuff like that. So,
Anos, fajita Right. Fajita, right.
Words like that kind of,
you know, there were some growing pains along with that.
Scott DeLuzio: Well, that’s even harder ’cause you’re throwing another language the mix too, when you get Spanish in there and
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: it, it, just makes, makes things so much harder. But anyway, so that’s, you know, I, I love, I love hearing people’s backstories and their, their background and everything like that. I’m sure we’ll get more into your
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: military, career in, in, in some of the, the, uh, adventures that you might, might’ve had through that career.
But. Let’s talk about your title of the, book Play Stupid Games, win Stupid Prizes. Where’d come from? I’m, I’m judging the book by its cover
Andy Dietrich: as well, you should. right And I, I think the, the, which is, uh, short stories about Friendship Growth. social misdemeanors. I up or kind of gives you an idea of, of the, the book is, all about, right? They’re short
stories, talks about my personal mishaps, things I’ve gotten myself into and, and mostly of using, you know, using my, my big mouth.
And then also stories that are a lot more. Uh, [00:07:00] sincere. Not that my other stories aren’t sincere, but they’re, you know, they’re supposed to be with, uh, you know, with a, with a lighthearted attitude. I’ll also talk about some friends, you know, that, that we’ve, we’ve shared moments together, right? So there’s some, there’s some more touching stories along my other shenanigans. Um, and the, the title really came from, uh, well, one, I like the phrase, I’ve used it for a long time. It’s kind of like, it’s the, it’s kinda like the, uh, the well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of, my own Right. I’m a big believer that, that you’re ultimately responsible for dealing with your issues.
Now, you may al, you may not always be, you know, uh, at fault. You may not always be responsible for things that
happen to you, but you always have to take ownership of it, right? You
always have to deal with it. Nobody else
will deal with your life for you.
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm. Yeah, that that is absolutely true. And that.
goes with everything. You.
learn that real quick when you join the military.
Andy Dietrich: yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Um, that’s, maybe day one in basic training. If you mess up, they’re gonna let you
Andy Dietrich: that’s right. They’ll let you know
Scott DeLuzio: you’re going,
to, uh, have to deal with those consequences. um, sometimes the whole group’s gonna have to [00:08:00] deal with
Andy Dietrich: Yeah. And the worst one, And I think our veterans can agree with, with us on this, the worst one is when you messed up in bootcamp and, and the entire platoon is
then punished. Yet you are the one standing there
getting to watch everyone doing their, doing their pushups and such.
It’s that said, sense a message and
that that weighs on you pretty heavily.
I’m not saying that I ever did that. I’m not saying I was ever on the
receiving end of it. But you know, I can, I can only imagine
the, uh, the kinda weight that puts on you.
Scott DeLuzio: I I remember being one of the ones pushing and doing the pushups and
Just looking at the guy who screwed up and it’s like, man.
What were you thinking? It was like such stupid stuff but then, you know, we all, we all make mistakes along the way, and so it, like, I get it. It’s, it, it’s all part of the game. worst though, for, for us during basic training, talking about playing stupid games and winning stupid prizes during basic training, we were there for April Fool’s Day was one of the days that
Andy Dietrich: Okay.
Scott DeLuzio: and. The drill sergeants came running into the, the [00:09:00] barracks in the morning still sleeping. And they, they flipped on the lights and they started screaming at us. We, we we’re like, what the hell went wrong? Like
Andy Dietrich: Right.
Scott DeLuzio: was up at, at this
Andy Dietrich: Right.
Scott DeLuzio: could we possibly have done wrong? And they started telling us that, that one, one of the the. Recruits must have written some graffiti in the the hallway on the wall.
And it was something about one of the drill sergeants and, and they were like, we’re gonna figure out who it is and we’re gonna smoke
Andy Dietrich: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: out who it was. They had us out in the, the PT field. This was an all day thing. From the time we woke up to the time we went to bed,
Andy Dietrich: My
God.
Scott DeLuzio: us.
It got to the point where people were. accusing other people of
Andy Dietrich: just yeah, Just to yeah. It’s like North Korea all over again. Right?
Scott DeLuzio: exactly.
And it got, it got so bad
and there were fist fights that were breaking out amongst the the recruits
Andy Dietrich: Damn
Scott DeLuzio: it’s like, no, I didn’t do it.
Andy Dietrich: right.
Scott DeLuzio: yes you did. No, I didn’t.
Turns out the whole thing was an April [00:10:00] stroke.
Andy Dietrich: Not so funny on you guys
though.
Scott DeLuzio: so far. The drill sergeants were having a blast with it though. They were laughing so hard
and the next day. It was as if nothing happened and they didn’t mention it again until like, I think like the day or two before graduation, one of the, one of the recruits just had the, got the courage up and he was like, what was that all about?
And they’re like, oh yeah, April Fools. By the way, I, so,
Andy Dietrich: You’re like, great, like you’re just,
just great. There’s nothing you can say or do. just,
just
Great.
Scott DeLuzio: Great. Yeah, thanks. You know,
and
you know, although like a few months later it’s like, okay, fine. That was kind of funny actually. But
Andy Dietrich: Looking back,
right? I mean most of, most of, most of, basic
training, while you’re in it, you hate every minute of it. Then
you look back, you’re like, yeah, it was a
good time. I would never wanna do it again. But I had a good time.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. Yeah, I, I remember, I remember thinking, they’re actually paying me to shoot these guns right now. Like,
Andy Dietrich: Yeah. And you get a workout,
Scott DeLuzio: And you gotta, you gotta, you know, work out. No, no big deal.
Andy Dietrich: Right.
Scott DeLuzio: So
getting back to the book what motivated you [00:11:00] to write this book? Like, what, where did this come from what’s the, the, uh,
Andy Dietrich: Yeah,
so it’s always been a bit of a passion project. I think everyone has like that labor of love, the passion project that they want to get done, whether it’s rebuilding an engine right for a, you know, 68 Chevy. Or it’s writing a manuscript or I dunno, making a sculpture or whatever. It’s, I think everyone has this,
this one thing that they want to get done. And, you know, people always think
about it. They always maybe sometimes talk about it
and,
you know, and then I think, you know, I, I. I realized that I was telling the same 20 stories over and over and over. And just like a comedian on stage, once you kind of rehearse the same story for for long enough, you, you get the timing right, you get the punchline right?
You, the, the story turns into a flow instead of a, you know, instead of sentences. And, and I thought, you know, maybe I have enough here to, to put it, you know, on paper. And my, one of my biggest worries couple months of work into it and I’m only, you know,
only come up with say, 40 [00:12:00] pages worth of
material, well that’s not a book, that’s a pamphlet. Right.
And I didn’t wanna publish a pamphlet. Um, but then I, I went at it and started, you know, putting more and more text on paper and I came up, end up being about 160 pages and I said, we got something here. and And, I’m, I’m, you know, I’m happy with the result. I, it took me about about two, two and a half years, finish.
Now, keep in mind that also was with like three months off here and four months off there. The, the definitely in spurts. It came in waves. and then there was times when I’m like, look, I, I’m, I’m 80% there, and that I just dragged my feet for the last 20%. So it, like I said, it was a labor of passion project. And I, I didn’t, I literally told nobody about this until it was done. I did not want to be one or girls that talks about their, their project and nothing ever gets done with it. Right? They remind people every two or three months of it and people give them that, oh yeah, great.
We can’t
wait to see, you can’t wait to see it. And then that person gets it all dopamine drip from it. I don’t wanna be that guy like I
want to.
Have [00:13:00] the proof be in the pudding and Have
it be done and published,
and then I could tell people, Hey, I did something.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. And you know, there’s actually a, like a psychological thing that happens when
you do what you just were
Andy Dietrich: Hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: When you go and tell someone, Hey, I’m, I’m writing a book, and everyone’s, oh, wow, great. Good for you. And that’s, that’s wonderful when you get that sort of feedback, the, the feedback is actually almost the same thing as if you actually did it and completed it.
Andy Dietrich: Hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: Cross that finish line. so to you, you, like you said, you got that dopamine hit. If you were to have done that You get the dopamine hit. and then you don’t really have the motivation because the motivation is the dopamine hit
Andy Dietrich: mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: crossing that finish line. If you say, I’m gonna go run a marathon, and I’m like, oh, wow.
Good for you, you know that, that, that sounds amazing. It’s probably not exactly the same
Andy Dietrich: Interesting. No, I can see that.
Scott DeLuzio: a marathon, but if I, if I said that you, you’re like, oh, wow. Well, you know, I, I already have that. I already got
Andy Dietrich: [00:14:00] Yeah. Okay. Why do I need to
bother putting the work into it? Sure. Okay. I could see that.
Scott DeLuzio: Hey, by the way, I’m building a rocket ship and I’m
Andy Dietrich: Oh, oh, good for you. I can’t wait to see it
Scott DeLuzio: good, good. I’ll be i’ll. I’ll let you know when it’s done.
Andy Dietrich: teach, put a camera on it and
then send it to the flat
earthers and they’ll still tell you it’s fake. right. You must be working for nasa. You’re part of the big conspiracy to
now. One thing I’ll get about complete segueing for a
second.
I, I, I’m totally fine with skepticism. I’m fine with people asking questions, but why and can we test it?
This, that, and the other. One big hole that I can easily poke into flat earthers flat, the flat earth belief. I can’t even believe that it’s, it’s becoming a, or has become small, yet very outspoken, very vocal group of, of misinformed people. I was gonna say something else, but let’s, let’s just go with misinformed people. If there truly was a flat earth, let’s go over it for a second. If there truly was a flat earth. We would have no sunsets. The sun would just get smaller and smaller and smaller in the sky, and they would come bigger and bigger and bigger during the day.
Like they, it would not [00:15:00] set under a horizon or behind a horizon.
It
wouldn’t make any sense.
Scott DeLuzio: Unless it just went under us.
Andy Dietrich: But then
Scott DeLuzio: Right. But then, then
Andy Dietrich: see, see now you’re thinking like a flat earth
right now. You, now you’re
poking holes in
my theory, right? That’s right.
Scott DeLuzio: but it,
yeah.
Anyways,
Andy Dietrich: Yeah. I can’t,
with some people anyway.
Scott DeLuzio: No,
some, sometimes it just doesn’t make any sense. But anyways.
tell us a little bit dive a little bit more into this book. You, you, you, kind of told us a little bit about the, little bit about kind of the, inspiration behind
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: the title But
talk to us a little bit about kind of like how it’s broken out and uh, you know, what people can expect
Andy Dietrich: the format is a short stories again about myself, my shenanigans. The first half is broke. The first half consists of. I call them silly stories, right? Uh, we will, we can go into some, some samples here in a but basically just silly shenanigans, right? Lighthearted, Tom ies things I’ve gotten myself into just using, you know, questionable decision and then the second introspective. opinions. I have some [00:16:00] rants. I reflect on some more serious happenings that, uh, have my
life. Uh, I talk about briefly about
you know, the, the reality of, of my military service. Um,
so it’s the first half is, is to, is to kind of like, you know, you’re supposed to enjoy the thing from start to finish, but the first half is supposed to be a lighthearted.
The second half is supposed to be a little more somber, little more serious topics, and hopefully, you know, give you a
little bit of room to think about, you know, my thoughts and my opinions and.
Yeah, go from there.
Scott DeLuzio: So
what are some of, some, maybe some examples of, of maybe a little bit of the lighthearted, a
Andy Dietrich: Sure.
Scott DeLuzio: the, the kind of maybe some of your pieces from your military service, and
Andy Dietrich: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: maybe we can get into that a bit.
Andy Dietrich: absolutely. So I think for your, for your veteran audience, uh, you, you would probably appreciate this. Okay. So I was stationed in Pendleton,
camp Pendleton, Southern California. And I had a
Alaskan driver’s license. You know, like I said, I was, spent some time in Fairbanks. So I went to the px one day, and I decide some booze. I go to the the counter and the young woman said, you know, she asked me for idea. I said, sure. [00:17:00] And I gave her Alaskan driver’s license. And she looked at it and
she goes, huh, Alaska. Now mind you, you know, you don’t see a lot of
Alaskan driver’s licenses down in Southern California, especially
not on the px, right? Or rather on base. So this young woman, bless her heart, she looked at this idea and she goes, huh, Alaska, it must be pretty warm down there. I’m going to let you noodle on that for a second, right? Like, what, what in the world could you possibly have meant,
right? So I, I was kind of dumbfounded for a second, and I said,
down, down there, she goes, yeah, you know,
down there, okay, you probably clicked.
Okay.
Alright. And I, and, I, and and I and I was like, I don’t, I don’t understand what, where do you believe Alaska is? And she goes, oh, you know, down by Hawaii. And I go, where do you see Alaska down by? And she goes, well, you know, the weather forecast when they have, you know, the Alaska and, and Hawaii next to it.
And I go, oh, okay. I could, oh, oh,
no honey. No, no. I said, no, Alaska is, is way up north next
to Canada and you know, we get negative
[00:18:00] 40, you know, in, in the wintertime. And then she, she kind of pauses for a second. She looks at me, kind of weird and she goes, are you sure? I’m like, no bitch. I just lived there for four years.
Of course, I’m
sure. Like, what, what, do you want me to tell you? Of course it’s all the way
up there. Bless or heart.
Okay. So,
so that’s one. And then the other one I’ll share is, uh, so we had a, uh, a company commander his name was Captain Morrison. Now mind you, I was a young enlisted man, you know, I was, you know, 19, 20 years old Lance Corporal or private first class whatever the hell.
I’m E one, E two, E three, you know, rank. And this, this captain, his name was captain Morrison Abraham. Abraham Morrison, a Jewish descent. Okay. out kind of early on that, that I had, you know, that I was of German heritage and I still had a fairly thick German accent back then. So, and he had a good sense of humor and we kind of, kind of. Joke back and forth, but, you know, very arms distance. Again, I was, you know, I was a, you know, e three ish, enlisted rank, and he was a captain, so I had to be mindful about, you know, his rank and, and, and my, uh, my behavior towards him or rather [00:19:00] around him. So one day I was, I was sitting at my desk and we worked pretty close to each other, and he came over and he said, Dietrich. And I said, yes, sir. And he says, he goes, you probably ancestors,
didn’t you? And I, you know.
I, I sat there for a second. Of course, he was joking around, right? But I knew there were other people in ear within earshot, so I had to be very, very mindful. So I. You know, part of me said, you know, be very, very careful. You know, he’s a captain, you know, you’re, you’re nothing but a, but a lance Corporal. Be very mindful what you’re about to say. Tread with caution, right? That’s what my, my shoulder angel said, right on the right hand side. My, my other side said, Hey, when you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.
So I said, well, sir, apparently not the
right ones because you’re still here, sir,
Scott DeLuzio: God.
Andy Dietrich: we had a good time. The other one I’ll share real quick about the, about my, my German heritage and in conjunction with my military background. So we go, we go through basic training, go through bootcamp, [00:20:00] and I flew under the radar for, for the longest time, like a good, you know, loaf buffer PI pilot from Germany.
I flew under the radar, right? Nobody could see me. And about halfway through the cycle, our, one of our drill instructors found out that I was from Germany. I dunno how we found out, but he did. from that point on forward, my nickname was Germany. He would just address me as Germany. Right. So, fast forward to, we did field training and then we did the gas chamber.
So we’re all standing in, in, you know, information, had our gas masks on, we got the training, we knew what to do. Um, and we’re all lined up facing the little, you know, little hut with, with the, the smoke coming out of it. And, um, said, drill instructor comes running outta the left field and he goes, Germany. Germany, where are you? Where the hell are you? Germany, raise your hand. And goddammit, where are you? And I’m like, fuck, fuck. I, I can already hear it coming. I, I can see where this is gonna go. So raise my hand and I go Here, sir. And he comes running over. And the, the drone instructors, they’re, they’re their campaign covers, right?
Their brims are like, what, four inches? Right? 360 [00:21:00] around there, their head. So he comes over, he pushes the brim into my forehead, pushes me over by about two inches, and he starts whispering. I say whispering. He said it just loud enough for everyone around me to hear it. He goes, all right, now Germany, Germany, we’re about to go into the gas chamber. Now you’ll know what it feels like and what do you say? Right? What do you
do? I, I just, you know, you sit there and go, yes, sir. You just.
You can’t say or do anything, you just take it.
Right.
Scott DeLuzio: you sort of had to see that one coming though. I mean,
Andy Dietrich: It was
probably the only time he would ever get the chance to say that.
Right.
So.
Scott DeLuzio: You know,
and if, if he didn’t take that opportunity to say, I kind of would look at him a little bit differently, I would
Andy Dietrich: right. right.
It was a perfect opportunity and I gave it to him and I, you
know, it was win-win.
Scott DeLuzio: that.
That, a drill instructor is gonna have
a German a person of German descent coming through the, uh, uh, the training
Andy Dietrich: Yeah. I can, I I he tells
his that he
tells this story from his side of or his point of
view to his friends. To
this day, that’s the only thing I can hope for.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Well, you know, I, I see every once in a while. [00:22:00] Like this wasn’t a thing when I went through ’cause, and, and probably not. You either. ’cause this was, we were. I think a little, little too old for this, but you see drill sergeants now, we see videos posted on like TikTok and Instagram and things like that where, uh, they’re, they’re taking videos of, with their cell phones of
Andy Dietrich: Mm
Scott DeLuzio: coming out of the gas chamber with
Andy Dietrich: mm Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: dripping down their face and they’re just a train wreck.
And it’s funny to watch.
Andy Dietrich: it is.
Scott DeLuzio: all were there and we
Andy Dietrich: Of course.
Scott DeLuzio: looked that terrible too. Ar drill sergeants actually had us, drink a glass of milk before we went
Andy Dietrich: Oh, no.
Scott DeLuzio: the
Andy Dietrich: Oh, no, man.
That’s. I mean, it’s funny now, kinda shitty.
Scott DeLuzio: it was pretty shitty, but it, I mean, it, it didn’t work too. It, it was not pretty.
Andy Dietrich: I’m sure it wasn’t
Scott DeLuzio: was, an awful that was an awful experience,
Andy Dietrich: Yeah, I bet.
Scott DeLuzio: they they, they figured out ways to just us and it was fun for and looking back at it like, I get it. I probably would’ve done similar or the same things, at least, you [00:23:00] know. it’s, you know.
I guess they, they have to, they have to have their fun too, and, and it’s kind of hard yelling and screaming all the time
Andy Dietrich: Sure. Yeah, I, uh, yeah,
I end up meeting up with, uh, uh, a drone instructor when I was, you know, stationed in Pendleton. And then, buddy of mine, we went out to somewhere in Pacific Beach or San Diego, somewhere down there to drink and, and be, be silly. And he brought a friend friend of, you know, he brought a friend out and said friend was a drone instructor at the time.
And I said, Hey man, how, how is it
like from your point of view? And he goes, man, you think you
recruits had at heart like we get no sleep.
We have barely enough time to just eat something. When I say eat something, you just like, you just inhale it down ’cause you have so little time. You have to look sharp all the time.
You have to be on it all the time. You can’t be tired. You always have to be, always has to be, always have to be presentable. And he is right. Like we’ve never seen a drone instructor ever be out of it’s almost like they, they just took him out of the,
Wrap. Right. Their, Their,
clothes were always perfectly ironed and tailored and everything.
They’re always perfect, always right?[00:24:00]
And
it’s, that way. At the end of the day, they’re just, they’re just guys or gals, right? That, that have to do a job and they have to put on their pants one leg at a time. And it’s, it’s gotta be looking from seeing from their point of view. It’s gotta be, it’s gotta be a hard freaking job. And he, and he, he put it very, he, he made an
excellent point. He said, like I said, you think you had it
hard? We get it
like 10 times worse.
Scott DeLuzio: And they had to be perfect.
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: All the time.
It was like, that’s tiring
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: to be perfect.
Andy Dietrich: A hundred percent.
Scott DeLuzio: moment of every single day. Not fumbling your words.
Andy Dietrich: right.
Scott DeLuzio: not, uh, your uniform has to be perfection. If you’re
Andy Dietrich: Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: perfection from your recruits, your uniform also
Andy Dietrich: A hundred percent.
Scott DeLuzio: perfect. Yeah.
What, like that, that does have to be hard. I, I didn’t have that opportunity to go that route in, in but I. I’ve known some people who have, and they, they had it rough too.
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
I bet.
Scott DeLuzio: So talking about military, uh, we talked, kind of funny [00:25:00] stories here.
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Anything else from your military service, like how it maybe kind of helped kind of form your your,
outlook on life direction in life or anything like that?
Andy Dietrich: Yeah, so I, I’ll always say about my, as, a veteran. I’ve never regretted joining
up, but I’m glad I got out when I did.
Um,
I, I can’t even say I had, I had a hard, you know, military career I was in for, for four years. I had a. I had an office job, you know, in an air conditioned area. I was, I was working on computers the entire time. I was with the schools unit. We didn’t deploy. The most interesting thing is we threw a live grenade on the, you know, on the range. Um, I ended up pulling some strings and I was able uh, do spy rigging, right? The special purpose insertion extraction where they, you har or you go get into a harness and they. Hook you onto a rope dangling off of a helicopter. Right? And that was a good time. It was, it really was fun. That was an experience. But I got lucky. I just happened to pull some strings and I happened to be at the right place at the right time. Other than that, my, my military service was extremely unremarkable.
Right. [00:26:00] Um, you know, nine 11 happened. We all, we all remember where we were when it happened, and if you were in the military, I think we all agreed we all knew that something was gonna happen. Like
we were gonna respond with something
right. And we did. And like I said, I was with the schools unit. We didn’t deploy the, the, the most we did is we, we pushed students through quicker so they can get deployed. So on one hand, I feel slightly guilty about not having done my part, you know, quote unquote everyone else over there. On the other hand, I, I didn’t have a choice and I am lucky and fortunate. That I, I got outta my service in one piece, mentally and physically. Um, I, I don’t envy anyone who had to go over there.
I give them all the respect in the world because it just, again, I, I feel like I missed out and I feel a bit of survivor school because of it. Um, on the other hand, like I said, I thank my lucky stars that, that,
I came out of it unscathed.
Scott DeLuzio: For sure. And one thing I
tell people who are in your [00:27:00] shoes who have they served during that time period but didn’t actively deploy, or, you know, do those things ’cause it’s not uncommon. for people like yourself to feel that they didn’t do enough, or they, you know, weren’t as good of a soldier or marine
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: sailor, whatever, because they didn’t
deploy or whatever.
But, uh, what I tell everybody is that you volunteered, up, and you did country asked you to do, and that’s, that’s all that you can ever possibly do.
Andy Dietrich: Fair.
Scott DeLuzio: And I, I, there’s no shame in that. You, you shouldn’t, you know, feel, you know, guilty or, or anything like that because somebody else went and you didn’t, or, or any of that stuff.
You did what the Marine Corps asked you to do, and you got out you know, at the end of your contract and you, you were done and, and you. They fulfilled their end of the deal. They, they provided you the [00:28:00] training you with a job and, and income and all the other benefits that go along with it.
And you provided them with, a Marine who, who could do whatever it was that they asked you to do and, and trained you to do And so there’s, there’s no shame in that. They’re, that, that’s like best you can, you can hope for
Andy Dietrich: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: just doing your job.
Andy Dietrich: thanks for the
that that actually does mean,
I mean that That makes sense. I appreciate that.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah,
No, absolutely. And, and I, I think that’s, that’s not just for you, but that’s, that’s for, you know, listeners too, because I know, I know that’s, I, I’ve, I’ve talked to many people who’ve had that same type of mindset and you know, I did deploy to Afghanistan, but like, had I not deployed, I would’ve thought to myself, well, I what I was supposed to do,
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: I couldn’t like just go sneak on a plane and. myself over there like that doesn’t happen. So I did what I, I did what I could and, and you know, even over there may, maybe you, you can have so many different [00:29:00] degrees because yes, I did deploy, did I have as
Andy Dietrich: Hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: as other people?
And so now, now we’re starting to
Andy Dietrich: Sure.
Scott DeLuzio: like which, whose deployment was worse
Andy Dietrich: right. Who had the worst? Right. Right. It’s
like, it’s like a, like
a suffering Olympics. Right.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Right. Exactly. And, and nobody wins in that. Like,
you suffer. You
Andy Dietrich: Facts. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: And that’s there’s no winning in that.
it, it’s almost like saying you know, if, if someone is in 10 feet of water and they drown it, or someone’s in a hundred feet of water and they drowned, which one drowned, worse?
Andy Dietrich: Right.
Scott DeLuzio: they won’t
Andy Dietrich: Fair. Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: they, it sucks for both
Andy Dietrich: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: So, you know, I, I, but I, I see, you know, lots of veterans struggling with things like that. Finding a sense of purpose uh, getting outta the service. You know, I,
I, you know, it’s, tough, but
you know, it, it’s stuff that you kind of have to, You know, I, could tell you what I, just said, and I, you know, the listeners can hear that and you can take that for what it’s worth. But. you have to kind of do something with that yourself and, [00:30:00] and that your own, you know, may maybe what I you’re like,
Andy Dietrich: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, yeah, I did all I could and, and I’m good to go now.
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: but maybe not maybe, maybe you need a little extra twist on it to make it your own and, and cool, well you need to do that to to figure it out help yourself. and, that
Andy Dietrich: Hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: with finding a sense of purpose. You know, some people get out and they immediately find what their, their next thing is, and they’re, they’re good. And they, they don’t have any. Troubles with, with moving on to that next thing
Andy Dietrich: Hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: the military did you have any, uh, issues with that after getting out?
Like were you, that identity tied into the Marine or, or were you loose with that?
Andy Dietrich: Yeah, I, I, I was fortunate in, in having placed a job pretty early on after me getting out. I moved to Vegas, like I said, and then about two months into it, I was still on terminal leave. So I was still paid, getting my, my paychecks, uh, while I was burning my, my leave, my PTO time. Um, so I was still financially stable.
And then I thankfully, you know, uh, scored a job that. Then supported me moving forward. There were times though when I, I [00:31:00] missed the, the military lifestyle just for the structure, right? Because military, I’m not saying it was but it was, it was on a cadence, right? You get up, you go to work, you do your pt, you go home, you clean your
room, and you know, there, it’s all done on a, on a fairly simple, you know, 10 step checklist,
right?
And as long as you can follow those steps, you’ll be okay. And I did have, I wouldn’t say a problem, but it was, it took a bit of time getting adjusted to civilian, to, to civilian life. is, I guess the feedback I got from, from an old boss is she told me you were cussing like a sailor, like every other word out of you was, was four letters.
And I go, yeah, that, that sounds about right. But thankfully I had patient coworkers and a lot of my coworkers were military as well. But had I not had. a job lined up and had I had I not skill set that I could carry over into civilian life, I, it Um, I don’t, I, I did toy with the idea of going back into it, but then I, I, quickly abandoned that once I realized that. No, I like having my being able to go out
and do silly things, especially living in Vegas.
So the structure definitely is one thing I [00:32:00] did miss. Another thing too. My Lord. Civilians can be so freaking, we always use the term nasty civilians, right? the When we’re in when we’re in, the service. And sometimes these freaking civilians can be so disorganized and unprofessional, right? And then all those, all those adjectives that, that,
You know, fit, fit civilian lifestyle. So that took a little bit of getting used to,
but I’m one of those
civilians now too, so that’s okay.
Scott DeLuzio: So you kinda let it slip a bit, right?
Andy Dietrich: Yeah. A little bit. little bit adjustment, A little bit. of meat in the middle, right.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, sure. And,
and that, that’s probably a healthy way to look at it though, is, is that meeting in the middle Because there’s, there’s some things from the military that you can take with you, like being on time and being organized and, and a lot of those other. Qualities that you might take away that those things are good.
Like if, if you’re on time, like no one’s gonna be like, oh my gosh, look at this guy. He’s
Andy Dietrich: Right. This dork always showing up 15 minutes early.
Hell no. That’s how we get you promoted,
you know?
Scott DeLuzio: right. Like the, those are good things, so, so yeah, do more of that.
But there’s [00:33:00] other things that. other, you know, some people in the military might be taken away like.
I don’t know, like a swer. It is like
Andy Dietrich: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: sailor and, uh, you know, not,
Andy Dietrich: being
Scott DeLuzio: to uh, you know, turn that off. That might be a problem in some civilian jobs.
Andy Dietrich: being a little too direct and giving people verbal encouragement is civilian
sector. Okay.
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
And could you imagine being a boss in the civilian world and
making your subordinates do pushups or, or something ’cause they, you know, missed a deadline or something like that, that
Andy Dietrich: I mean, I mean,
maybe we’ll give some better results. I,
You, mentioned coworkers.
Scott DeLuzio: you might actually get a, a, a visit from HR
Andy Dietrich: That’s right.
Scott DeLuzio: if you do that.
Andy Dietrich: Like, hey, they lost five pounds. I’m just saying, you know,
Scott DeLuzio: You know?
Andy Dietrich: I, you know,
me the other day, they were Like, how is it dealing with veterans? you know,
when you at, you know, at the workplace, I. And by and large, with some really great veteran veteran coworkers no matter what, what branch
they’re in. I’ve also dealt with a lot of shit birds, right? So
just because you’re a veteran does not automatically [00:34:00] mean that, that you are a good worker, coworker, what have you. But one thing I will say about veterans by and large is that no matter, like say what rank you are or what title you have in the company or what title they have, for the most part, when it comes down to crunch time and you get work done, you can tell if you’re, line worker, and you need to tell a director, Hey, so and so, I need you to do X, Y, Z. Right there. There’s a certain amount of respect between or amongst veterans that you know, when it’s time to do work, title and rank
largely goes out the window
and you take the other person’s word for, you’re like,
all right,
you, you know, I’m on it.
You
got it.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Right. And, and that’s a maybe a bit of a culture shock to you know, between military and civilian where you know, yes, sure. In the military, there is a structure, like. where the lower you know, stuff rolls downhill
Andy Dietrich: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: ends up getting down to, to them. But,
like you said, when, when it’s crunch time and, and [00:35:00] stuff needs to get done, people just work together. rank you’re wearing on, on your, your shirt,
Andy Dietrich: that’s right.
Scott DeLuzio: it, you work together
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: it’s teamwork that, that gets the job done.
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: And we, I think we. understand that team, how teamwork works.
Of course, like you were saying before, of course you wanna be respectful to those who are superior to you.
You wanna be respectful to everybody, but, um, have the, the right military bearing
Andy Dietrich: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: people who are placed above you. But time you gotta let them know, need help in order to accomplish this.
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: they’re, there to make sure that you have all the resources
Andy Dietrich: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: you need.
And if you take that out into the civilian world, sometimes it’s like, well, I’m your boss. You don’t take it to tell me what to do.
Andy Dietrich: that’s
right.
Scott DeLuzio: And, and that it’s a, little different way of, of looking at it. And it might actually be shocking to some civilians to realize that like, it’s kind of okay in, in certain circumstances to your superiors know.
follow [00:36:00] the, the chain of command. You’re Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. know, directly to your captain. If you have a, you know, a, a squad leader or something that you can go to you’ll, you’ll go to that person first. But you know, you, you do what you need to do to get the
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: and, and, and work together as a
Andy Dietrich: a little, A little courage and a
little assert assertiveness is not a bad thing.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Yeah. And, and you have a bunch of alpha personalities together. There’s, there’s gonna be a lot of assertiveness and you have
Andy Dietrich: Sure.
Scott DeLuzio: learn how to really assert yourself
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: you don’t end up getting trampled on, um, because everybody is gonna be asserting themselves in one way or another.
Andy Dietrich: I, I agree with that. I, I
also believe that the, the mark of a truly good leader is
that a leader can also be a good follower, right? So
your point, if you have a room full of alphas and they all want to be the, the
chief, right? That’s fine. But there, there can only be one
chief and everybody else has to be, you know, workers. Um,
and like I said, the, the, I think a, a telltale sign really, really,
good leader is a leader can say,
cool, tell me what to do. Tell me where you need
me.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:37:00] Yeah. There, there’s that.
And, um, there’s also
the, the other side of that too, where even if you’re a junior person. Knowing that you, you have the ability to step up into a leadership role. If
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: dictates, you know,
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: you can just jump right in and say, I see that there’s something wrong here.
I’m, I’m not gonna wait to be told to go fix it. I’m
Andy Dietrich: Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: jump in and fix it.
Andy Dietrich: Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: there’s a story that was, uh, one of the guests told, uh,
couple months ago on, on the show, and, uh, it was about private. his platoon sergeant was pinned down, uh, by enemy fire. And so the platoon sergeant couldn’t give to anybody else in the platoon he, if he lifted his head up, he was gonna get shot.
And so he couldn’t do that. So, uh, this private, I. Saw what was going on, and so he took it upon himself to say, Hey, you know what? I need to move myself over here so I can go return fire and, you know, cover, provide cover for my platoon sergeant so he can get out of [00:38:00] there. Nobody had to tell him what to do.
He just took it upon himself to
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: it. If he waited for the, the order to go do that. A guy might not have made it
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: and that would’ve been a tragedy, but, but he did. And so
Andy Dietrich: Hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: took it upon himself and he went and did it. But it’s the same. I mean, anything in, in life, you can, you can just take charge, you see garbage on the floor.
Like you don’t have to wait for someone to come and clean it up like the janitor or something
Andy Dietrich: I was gonna say, I literally was gonna say, it’s funny you mentioned
picking up garbage. Our boss, I work in it. I’ve always been an IT professional. Our boss, our, you know, our C-level executive, he has this phrase, you pick up digital trash when you see trash hang around right? We all work on computers and stuff. When you see digital trash, you pick it up to your point, right? When you see trash on the, on the, on the ground, you pick it up. Same thing in it
right? So same thing about being self-motivated
and
just doing
the right thing, right?
Scott DeLuzio: Well, and a, a different different way of thinking about it too. But it’s still important because that digital trash, whether it’s old files that [00:39:00] nobody’s know, they doesn’t, you don’t need to accumulate these files that, that are outdated.
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: uh, you know, a software that. No one’s using anymore.
Andy Dietrich: Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: un uninstalled. You don’t need it
Andy Dietrich: yeah. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Or, whatever. Like things just take up room on a computer and they could slow things down. They could cause all, all sorts of other problems too. And like, yeah, get rid of it and may, maybe it’s a, a piece of physical trash. Maybe it’s a piece of digital don’t need that thing anymore.
And
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: but you don’t have to wait to be told. No.
Or, or, yes. Go, go that,
that, issue or whatever.
Andy Dietrich: Right, right, right,
Scott DeLuzio: it’s, it’s interesting though, just, it’s, just a, a mindset that, we have, um, that.
You know, it, it’s to be able to
sort of impart some of that onto other folks like in, in the civilian world because it seems like not enough of them really have that kind of mindset.
And so it’s, it’s nice when we’re able to work with them and and show them, and, and sometimes [00:40:00] the, you see the, the light bulb go off with them and then they. Understand, like, oh wow, that’s, sense. Maybe I should do things that way myself.
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: You know, so it kind of helps, helps everybody out.
But so you,
you got out of the military got, got right into the civilian world. you have kind of like a, a goal in mind when you Did you, did you know what you wanted to be doing? Or stumble around until you figured it out? What was, what did success look like when you were, were getting out?
Andy Dietrich: Yeah, it’s kinda like the, uh, the interview question. Right. Where do you see
yourself in five years? Right? What, how do you, how do you
measure
success? I, you know, I was 24 years old. I was coming out of, you know, living in, or being stationed in, in Southern California. And even back then in uh, you know, San Diego is, and a general area was way too expensive for a single dude like myself who didn’t have a job lined up. To make it down there. financially speaking, I didn’t have a job lined up. didn’t have a place to live, so I decided to pack my stuff and move to Vegas. There’s a little story along with that involved a girl I was dating and, and a, and a Hispanic couple that I lived
with, [00:41:00] uh,
until things
went south there.
I can
tell you that story some other time. It takes about half an hour from
Finish.
Scott DeLuzio: when you said there’s a story involved, I knew it had to do with a a girl at some point
Andy Dietrich: a hundred percent.
Scott DeLuzio: that, went without saying.
Andy Dietrich: Absolutely. No, I, I moved to Vegas and, and like I said I, got lucky that, that I that I scored kind of early on in my, uh, into me just being me, right?
Living, living my life outside the military. I, you know, going back to the, the interview question, what does success look like to you?
What do you want to be in five years? I don’t have, answer to say, well, I wanna. Do this or, or have this much money or drive this kind of car or have these kind of friends? All I can say confidently is that I don’t know what it’ll look like, but I know I’ll be happy doing it. And I think that really is a, um. Those lessons learned the hard way
that at the end of the day, you have to do what makes you happy right? Obviously within, you know, legal, But at the end of
the day, your happiness is ultimately the most important thing in the world, and nobody else will, will do it for you. Um, I don’t know.
I, again, going back to what I said [00:42:00] earlier, you’re responsible you know, you need to take ownership for everything that happens to Um,
I was in a fraternity at at ULV, of Nevada Las Vegas here, uh, many years ago. And a lot of the military, you know, kind of, ways of thinking and, and, and the ways of doing things are brought into it. Because there’s a lot of similarities between, you know, uh, military lifestyle and dealing with a bunch of, you know, 18, 19-year-old kids who want to a fraternity. Right.
Dealing with a bunch of boys that have a lot of bravado, but very little brain
power. Right. And I was there too. We’ve all been there.
Right. Um, I would tell our, our pledges, I think of them as like recruits in, in bootcamp. I would tell our pledges be like, look. Whatever you make of yourself here is up to you. You may have been the quarterback in high school, you may have been the, the, the captain of the whatever team, you know, in high school.
That doesn’t mean a damn thing here. You all start at square one. And whatever you make of yourself here is up to you. If you, you know, uh, look back and, and your life, say two years from now, and you, you’re realizing having the life that you want, it’s up to [00:43:00] you. No one’s gonna give this to you, right?
So you have no one to blame but yourself. I think that goes, you know, the same with, with, with, you know, civilian life or real life.
You are ultimately responsible for everything, right? Your path.
Um, of tying it back around to what I just said earlier, your happiness should be the very first thing that you that you cater to and work towards.
Scott DeLuzio: I
I don’t think I
Andy Dietrich: I
Scott DeLuzio: that better. Uh, absolutely. You know,
Andy Dietrich: thank you.
Scott DeLuzio: the, um, the happiness is definitely important and there’s, there’s so many job just to
Andy Dietrich: Yeah. Go through the motion. Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: go through the motions. Exactly.
then they end up hating it and
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: even last a year or two, you know, and that’s not the best way to get your career started by.
Jumping out within the first couple years and you know, people do it and they, they do eventually get into something that they, uh, enjoy. But I think that, that maybe introspective look [00:44:00] in into like, what really I want?
Andy Dietrich: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: what’s gonna make me happy? Where do I wanna live?
What do I want to be doing? Do I want to be married? Do I want to have kids?
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: a house? Do I want, you know, an apartment? What, what is it that I want from life and how do I get there? And you know, I was talking to somebody else the other day and, and it’s kinda like the, the military you, you kind of sandbox it you know, plan out like, what, what do I need to do to accomplish this mission
Andy Dietrich: Yeah. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: is. And, and let’s, let’s get there.
figure out how do I make this happen? Maybe I need to go back to school. Maybe I need to you know, get some additional training or certificate degree, you know, something, whatever it is. figure it out. Go, go do those things.
There’s, available to help you out with that if you need it. But there know, go, go do those things. And then, um. You know, you’re not gonna be working your dream job right off the bat, but you know, eventually you’ll, you’ll get there, you know, by, by working your way up. You know, and, and figuring out what those, [00:45:00] those steps are.
Andy Dietrich: I, agree. Sorry to cut you off. I, I was, Um,
when you mentioned, I, jogged my is a, a piece that I write about in the book changing your lifestyle to, to that. You’re not, when you want something, you have two ways of going at it. You can either go after it and put work and time and effort into pursuing that,
or you can build a lifestyle that
naturally attracts those things towards you.
Right? So
whether it be jobs or relationships, friendships you know, it’s, it’s, it’s one thing to pursue it, it’s another thing to have those things attract, be
attracted to you because of the lifestyle that you’ve built for yourself.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Both. Both. Yeah. That’s exactly right.
Man, these are, these are some, these are some good topics and Buy my book, right?
I know.
Andy Dietrich: right now? Is now a good time
for the plug.
Okay. So if you go to andy’s book.com, uh, there is a picture of me holding it up. There’s a link to the Amazon page. You welcome to click on that and buy it. However, if you go to andy’s book.com/gift punch in your information and I’ll copy. I have a couple [00:46:00] copies left here. Um, I’m happy to send you one, right? If you go on Amazon, right? You spend bucks, I get $4 and 80 cents. It really is negligible, right? I’d rather you have, I’d rather me send it to you and then you enjoy
reading it, and then if you wanna leave me a review afterwards, a genuine
review, right?
And I always, I’ll tell people genuine, if you liked it, say that. If you didn’t like it, say that too. Like, it’s perfectly fine. Like, I have thick skin, I can handle it. Please leave me a genuine review of, of, of the, uh, of the writing.
And I hope you enjoyed, as I hope you enjoy reading
it as much as I did writing it.
Scott DeLuzio: Well in,
you know, talking to someone like yourself, I Got to know a little bit about your story and the, the passion that you had for it that you were, the way you were talking about it, it just seemed like, it’s, definitely, like you said, it was a passion project. It definitely, the passion kind of through as you were talking about it.
And, uh, for, if you’re you’re interested, definitely go, go get a copy of the book and. And check it out. Um, I, I think it’ll, it’ll definitely be, uh, an interesting read and I you’ll [00:47:00] get a lot out of it and. And definitely enjoy it So, you know, Andy, I, I really do, do appreciate you coming on the show.
I appreciate you sharing your you know, every, your time in you know, growing up in Germany to coming Which God only knows why. Um, he chose
Andy Dietrich: Yep. God only knows why.
Yep.
Scott DeLuzio: exactly.
And, uh, you know, your time in the Marine Corps and you know, to where you are today you know, sitting, sitting pretty I’m guessing probably, little Andy, there in Germany, probably wouldn’t be expecting that you’d be here, uh, in, in Las Vegas, at this point. But who knows? You know, life life a lot of, uh, different curves at you and you never know where you’re gonna end up.
Andy Dietrich: I always think about what
would’ve happened had I, you know, like the,
the choices you make, the paths you take
in
life, right? There was a, there was an opportunity for me to go to Japan instead of, instead of Pendleton, right? There was, I could’ve just stayed in Fairbanks, you know, doing. Whatever the hell I was gonna do there. I go to college and get, you know, whatever I always wonder how my life would’ve, [00:48:00] would’ve kind of unfolded had I take one of those other paths. You know, maybe that could be like a Black Mirror
episode. Maybe when you die you get to see all the different choices you didn’t make and you could live through those paths.
I don’t know. Right. But I always kind of wonder what would’ve happened to me. Like I wouldn’t live the life I’m living right now. I hope I’ll be living a, a comparable life
but. What would’ve happened had I just not made that
one decision, my whole life would’ve been changed.
Scott DeLuzio: it’s amazing how many things could change from just one decision.
Andy Dietrich: Mm-hmm.
Scott DeLuzio: You think about the, the number of decisions that had to be made in order for us to even exist is pretty amazing.
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Where would I be in life? Just, just for us to exist. Talking back hundreds and hundreds of years, Sure.
and the people that needed to meet in order for that to happen.
you know, it’s pretty incredible,
Andy Dietrich: There, there was a really interesting, uh, it was a topic on Reddit. It was, you know, can you, someone said, I have a, you know, can you give me your best butterfly effect [00:49:00] story? And, and it was the guy tied together, the Kardashians fame. With a football game of some, like, I don’t remember the details of
how it started, but basically there’s a football game that was one that got
OJ to be famous and then his
fame catapulted him to get.
Married and, and Mead, what’s her, whatever,
Nicole whatever it
was. Right.
And that whole story unfolded. And then of the, the, murder and then the, the lawsuit and then the Kardashians and the, you know, the lawyer and then all these things kind of unfolded together and they’re like, had this one football game not ended, or had it not ended in this kind of a way or that one pass wouldn’t have happened, then the Kardashians wouldn’t be who they are today.
’cause they never would’ve gotten famous ’cause their
their dad was never did end of the whole just. Brings it all
back, like butterfly effect style. And I go, I think about that and I go, how weird
is that? that? one little thing like that
God knows how many years
ago, just then makes this
happen. It’s just, it’s the most bizarre thing when you think about it.
Scott DeLuzio: And, and, and there are
so many [00:50:00] people out there who probably can attribute something in their life to something like that.
Andy Dietrich: Sure.
Scott DeLuzio: I. But they may not even know what that thing is. But if, if you peel back the onion, you go back on and look through all the layers that, that make them who they are, uh, eventually you, you might be able to find that thing that had that one thing not happened.
had Andy not shown up in Alaska. would not be sitting here talking today probably.
Andy Dietrich: There was a really good like Star Trek Voyager from many, many years ago. If you’re, if you’re a Star Trek fan. And the premise was there was a ship that, I don’t know, the, the guy who was the captain, his, his people were obliterated because of an asteroid or whatever, how the, the storyline was.
And the ship was able to change historical events so that then the future would be shaped in a different way and had the ability to jump in between or, or act in a certain way that it could shape the different paths that the future will take. And. I remember from the bits and pieces, I do remember it [00:51:00] showed in a very visual way all the different storylines and story paths that a single action would then have effects on.
And it says, well, if you do this
one thing here, then in a thousand
years, this other thing will be
affected. Which is, which is what you don’t want. Right? So
it just, the concept was very interesting.
Scott DeLuzio: that is an interesting concept and, uh,
you know, I think we’ve,
we’ve covered quite a few interesting concepts in this, uh, this episode, but
Andy Dietrich: many more.
Scott DeLuzio: I’m sure you do, and I’m sure there’s a bunch of ’em in the, in the book. So,
Andy Dietrich: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. The link The show notes for the listeners.
Definitely go check it out. Andy, again, thank you so much. You know, and, uh, you know, I, I do appreciate you coming on the show
Andy Dietrich: Thanks
talking to you. Let’s do it again.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah,
Andy Dietrich: Yeah, I’m talking to you. Let’s do it again.