About
John Fenzel
Founder of Lived Path.
Colonel John Fenzel, U.S. Army (Ret.), is the founder of Lived Path and a former Special Forces officer. John served for 30 years in command and strategic leadership positions around the world.
His career included service as a military assistant to the Secretary of Defense, Special Assistant to the Vice President, and White House Fellow. Following the September 11th attacks, he served on the Homeland Security Council, where he was the principal architect of the Homeland Security Advisory System. John commanded Special Forces units during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm and later served in Bosnia, where his work contributed to the prosecution of war crimes.
A graduate of the Naval War College and National War College, John is also the author of four published books. He is the founder of Heroes’ Path Foundation. Through Heroes’ Path, he continues his commitment to preserving the stories of those who served and developing principled leaders for generations to come.
Why I built Lived Path
Every leader I have worked with gets judged on a handful of hard calls. The facts are thin and the clock is running. The people who will live with the result are watching. Most leaders meet that moment without ever having practiced it.
I spent 30 years in our Army, much of it in Special Forces, and served in the White House before, during and after September 11. Then I spent 15 years in the C-suite, in corporate roles and as the CEO of a nonprofit. I have run my own businesses, and I coach and mentor senior leaders from every sector. I have taken them to Gettysburg, Yorktown, Arlington and Normandy.
Everywhere I have worked, the leaders I trusted most had made hard calls before. They decided on time and owned the result, in front of the people who had to carry it out. I built Lived Path so your leaders get that practice before the call that counts. They stand where a real decision was made and choose before they know the ending. Then they carry that habit into the work they already own. At the end of the year, their team tells you what changed.
Our mission
To develop leaders who decide and act well under pressure, by placing them inside real decisions before the ending is known and measuring what changes in their work.
Our vision
A working world where courage is a trained habit, where the people making the hard calls have practiced making them, and where leadership is judged by what changed for the people who work for you.
On the ground
Lived Path's field days are led by the Lived Path senior executive team. Every year is planned with the company's own sponsor, around what its leaders have to get done.
