Craig Martelle

High school Valedictorian enlists in the Marine Corps under a guaranteed tank contract. An inauspicious start that was quickly superseded by excelling in language study. Contract waived, a year at the Defense Language Institute to learn Russian and off to keep my ears on the big red machine during the Soviet years. Back to DLI for advanced Russian after reenlisting. Deploying. Then getting selected to get a commission. Earned a four-year degree in two years by majoring in Russian Language. It was a cop out, but I wanted to get back to the fleet. One summa cum laude graduation later, that’s where I found myself. My first gig as a second lieutenant was on a general staff. I did well enough that I stayed at that level or higher for the rest of my career, while getting some choice side gigs – UAE, Bahrain, Korea, Russia, and Ukraine. Major Martelle. I retired from the Marines after a couple years at the embassy in Moscow working arms control. The locals called me The German, because of my accent in Russian. That worked for me. It kept me off the radar. Just until it didn’t. Expelled after two years for activities inconsistent with my diplomatic status, I went to Ukraine. Can’t let twenty years of Russian language go to waste. More arms control. More diplomatic stuff. Then 9/11 and off to war. That was enough deployment for me. Then came retirement. Department of Homeland Security was a phenomenally miserable gig. I quit that job quickly enough and went to law school. A second summa cum laude later and I was working for a high-end consulting firm performing business diagnostics, business law, and leadership coaching. More deployments. For the money they paid me, I was good with that. Just until I wasn’t. Then I started writing. You’ll find Easter eggs from my career hidden within all my books. Enjoy the stories.

Martelle’s Motivation: Bending the Universe to Your Will

Craig Martelle

Dominate! Master the process. Work hard. 

One hundred percent of your effort must go to winning, but the only battle you’ll win is the same one fought within each of us. You win against yourself—not others.

As an author, it’s inevitable that your readers will compare you to their favorites and that you will compare yourself to your peers. Readers comparing you is simply marketing. Your reputation is how your readers see you because they are the ones paying your salary.

It’s a long and slippery slope if you battle other authors, no matter what they say about you or do in their careers. 

Each one of us can bend the universe to our will, but in the universe of ourselves, we are the one and only resident. How we respond to challenges and how we work today to set ourselves up for a better tomorrow is completely up to us, no matter the situation we face.

Don’t risk what you can’t afford to lose. Every day is a calculation of energy to expend toward a goal, and whether it gets you one step closer or twenty, all that matters is that you keep moving forward. That’s you taking charge of your destiny. When you refuse to let the noise hold you back, that’s the force of your will.

There’s only so much fight in us. Don’t waste it on things that don’t get you to your goal. Your energy is limited. Your force of will gets stronger with use but weakens with misuse. Apply it liberally to those efforts that keep you moving forward. You’ll find your energy quickly wanes when you try to fight all the battles, which leaves you nothing for the greater good of your own existence. 

Fight the good fight, but fight it for yourself.

Let your force of will move the mountains that are in your way. You don’t have to move the whole range, only the obstacles before you. Surmount them one by one, and keep going.

We lose when we stop, even if we feel like we’re not making any progress. 

Have you fought battles that didn’t help you? How much energy do you have left? 

Don’t waste it.

Craig Martelle