Jonathan Rue

I’ve spent the majority of my career in public service, and all of it devoted to improving America’s security. It’s defined my career, and I love that I’ve found a new and unique way to continue contributing to this mission here at MVP.

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The words I live by are: “The only way out is through.” Life presents everyone with obstacles and storms — and in many cases, they will ambush you. As a Marine, you’re taught that the worst thing you can do in an ambush is to freeze. To survive, it’s imperative to return fire and quickly maneuver to cover to coordinate the fight through the ambush. That’s the only way out. Pausing or running away from challenges — or even mundane, daily tasks — just prolongs the suffering. Putting your head down and working expeditiously through whatever life has thrown at you won’t necessarily ease the intensity of the suffering, but it will make it shorter. 

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I believe it takes many different attributes to be a great leader, but among the most important are leading by example and caring for the people on your team. If you do those things, then you’re 90% of the way there.

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I love working as part of a team — and I’ve been extraordinarily fortunate to be part of and lead some incredible teams across my career in the Marine Corps, U.S. Senate, and Department of Defense. Within a month of joining MVP, it was crystal clear that this was another mission-oriented, highly cohesive team with all the hallmarks of being extra special. We have tremendous leaders, everyone likes each other, and we’re all rowing at the same tempo on cadence. It’s remarkable, really. 

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I tend to go all in on my hobbies and devote most of my free time to perfecting whatever craft I’ve taken up — and I’ve accumulated quite a few at this point. My latest hobby is teaching myself how to play guitar. I’ve always wanted to play, and it’s so different from anything else. Being able to play songs I’ve grown up loving is awesome, but honestly, what I enjoy the most is the challenge of teaching my body — specifically my hands — to do something so radically different, and the neural pathways I’m building to enable it all! It’s much harder to learn an instrument in your mid-40s, for sure, but I’m finding that I’m overcoming degraded brain elasticity with good, old-fashioned discipline — something I definitely did not have in my teens. 

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You know the old adage that if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life? That’s what it’s like at MVP.

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