Kavan Lake: The Leader

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A Marine recruiter told him, “it’s going to be hard. Just expect that.” Those words turned out to be truer than the 17-year-old Kavan Lake ever imagined. Example: Years later when Lake received his first taste of combat, he was in Iraq for the first time, part of a helicopter crew in Al-Qa’im, a particularly dangerous area. “We heard that a huge IED hit an army unit near us,” he recalls. “We knew we had to help these guys because the medevac chopper would take 20 minutes to get there.”

When they landed, Lake suddenly realized that he was the extra guy in the back of a very small chopper. It was a hard moment–the recruiter had been right. “We had to make room, so I had to get out. No armor, just a flight helmet and an M-16. Lock and load, baby; it just got real.”

 

Kavan Lake is real. At 39, he’s a major with a 22-year Marine Corps career. He’s a husband, father of two daughters, and head coach of the Naval Academy’s sprint football team. (“You have the big guys everybody sees on TV,” he says, grinning. “My guys have the same heart but are just a little smaller.”)

Lake is also a self-made man who’s determined to present a defining example to all those around him. He grew up on the island of Jamaica and later in New York City, with no father and very little money. Sometimes he had no shoes. He had two sets of clothes, which he hand-washed himself and wore on alternating days. “High school kids can be mean about that,” he says. “They laughed. But that stuff builds character.”

 

When Lake joined the Marines, he told his mother he would pay for college himself. “That might sound silly when you’re 17,” he says, “but I’ve never asked for anything from my mom to this day.” Flash-forward two decades, and that raw private is an officer and a combat veteran with a master’s degree.

Treating the women in his life like gold is part of the job for Lake. For example, ask the active-duty Marine if he ever has off days, or days when he doesn’t feel 100 percent, and you’ll get a grin that asks you back, “Seriously? My girls are counting on me to provide them with a safe environment and to be their protector,” Lake says. “I want them to be as proud of me as I am of them. They’re not going to quit, because I’m not going to quit.”

All of these events and accomplishments reflect Lake’s core leadership philosophy as he plays father to his girls and mentor to some of the United States Naval Academy’s best and brightest. “I tell kids that when it’s difficult growing up, you learn to be a survivor, to become flexible. If option A isn’t going to happen, how do I get to option B? I always make sure I have a backup plan. And I always tell people: Never tell yourself no. If you don’t try, then you’ve told yourself no.” So Kavan Lake is a yes man.

He’s also learned that a leader must watch how others watch him. “If you keep yourself together, they’ll never know what you’re thinking. There have been plenty of times when I’ve been afraid. But if you’re like, ‘Hey, let’s calm down and think about this,’ then everybody is like, ‘That guy’s got it together. We should listen.’ ”

Lake entered the Ultimate Men’s Health Guy competition on a whim, but he now sees it as another way to set the example. He refers to himself as “the leader of my pack.”

“I work out at least four days a week, rain or shine,” Lake says. “If I can’t make it to the gym, I find an alternative in the neighborhood, backyard, or basement, or I just have my kids climb all over me while I do pushups. It’s important to me because I’m a Marine, football coach, husband, and dad.”

Lake has a good idea what makes an MH guy: “You don’t have to be number one at anything. But a Men’s Health guy is always trying. Life puts you on your ass sometimes. As a man, you take a lesson from that and get back up. There is no other option. Even if I’m able to help just one person change something negative to something positive, I’m okay with that.”

 

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Kavan Lake: The Leader