I will admit that I have a predisposition to like Erik Prince and his approach to things. He came from a Midwestern city that I like (but did not live in), his family lineage is an American success story, and he went to Hillsdale College.
I read his book and liked it.
But I have to admit that he also seems to be full of it at times. Cheating on his wife never sets well with me, and frankly, he doesn’t really seem to think it was a big deal. He quit Annapolis “because reasons.”
I know members worked with Blackwater, and one thing I always note is how people speak of their former boss or employer. Overall, I have heard good things.
Either from firsthand or secondhand (didn’t Jack Carr call him a ****nut?) knowledge, what is the assessment? Traitor, hero, or just a successful businessman?
His assessment of the Naval Academy at Annapolis is spot on. The service academies don’t turn out leaders, and they don’t turn out officers who can wage and win wars. They should be abolished quite frankly.
Few people are either all good or all bad, even with the best intentions people still F up from time to time.
Never examine your heroes too closely or you might find ordinary men.
And honestly, while I admire those who try and live honorable and noble lives, if you live your entire life to satisfy the expectations of everyone else, you didn’t really live your life. Not saying it’s a reason to do things the wrong way, but to me the people that are really impressive are those who have the same character flaws and failings as everyone else but still manage to do extraordinary things from time to time.
In a perfect world, everyone would be perfect, but that doesn’t exist.
I attempt to live by two philosophies: “right action” (do the right thing or do unto others) and a Japanese concept called “giri” (obligation) which means doing the right thing without expectation of reward or even recognition.
There is also the reality that if any of us ended up running something like Blackwater, we might have all compromised ourselves to an even greater extent, even if it was mostly unintentional and we attempted the right thing. So glass houses and all that.
Interviews I have watched he seemed pretty switched on, if not a tad arrogant. Person who told me about this forum many moons ago who does not post here any more, did a fair amount of work for him, said generally good things also.
My boss, now retired, worked at the Blackwater compound for a while when our company was partnered with them for a proposal. He had nothing but great things to say. I am sure he met Eric, sat in meetings, etc but what impressed him was that everyone who worked there was happy, friendly, competent, and armed :). He is pretty liberal and it didn’t bother him because it was simply the culture.
You don’t build a company full of dedicated employees without understanding leadership.
I don’t know Eric, but I grew up in Holland MI and new some of the Prince family. I had friends who worked for his family as well. I went to church with some of them for a time. I can’t say anything about him, but he came from a good family. Yes they were “rich” but they didn’t act like it.
So I guess I am biased, but I tend to dismiss most of the negative things said about him because it seems like they have an agenda.
I have worked with a lot of old school BW guys. Everyone is them loved working for EP. He took care of his employees and because of their opinions I would have no problem working for him.
I was there from the beginning, late 1997 to 2020(AL C. invited me in), technically still active but I’m done. Times were great during EP’s day’s and it was a steady decline once he was gone. All everyone wanted was EP back, always the rumor every time a sale was announced that he was buying it back. Place is a shell of it’s former self, very sad indeed. Numerous stories of corporate blunders in regards to day to day operations and contracts-or lost ones.
It was pretty much heaven to work there, things one learned and opportunities were mostly endless. Plus it was great to go down anytime, jump in a class, use a range, shoot house, etc.
And yes, anytime you ran into EP, super down to earth and treated everyone great.
The BW facility was nice as hell, and everyone I knew who worked for him loved him. I was around some BW contractors and they were all pretty cool. I worked for a very small competitor when I got out of the mil and some of the guys wo worked at that company were former BW contractors and every one of them had good things to say about BW and EP.
Didn’t know that either, pretty sad. Total scumbag move. Definitely not defending him or that behavior, but on an other episode of the Shawn Ryan Show DJ Shipley stated cheating was pretty common in the community.
