Nick Tobin

Stepping onto the Stanford campus after a military career that included undergrad work at West Point, counter-terrorism work in Afghanistan, and high-altitude mountaineering and commando training, Nick Tobin experienced a familiar shock.

“I did two schools with the French Army: mountaineering school in the Alps and commando school in the Pyrenees. Both were challenging,” Tobin says “A lot of it involved sorting through the ambiguity of what was going to happen next. I had to trust my training to get through it. Since then, I’ve been comfortable entering spaces I find intimidating, and I know I can put one foot in front of the other and figure it out.”

What were your goals in coming to Stanford?

Coming to the GSB was about developing myself holistically as a person and taking the necessary time and training to transition successfully out of the military into a private sector career. That encompassed everything from identifying the opportunities and developing the skill sets to compete in that space. I wanted to develop my leadership style from that which is appropriate in a high-intensity special operations environment to what’s going to be most effective in a business environment, and more tangible hard skills such as accounting or financial modeling or knowledge about how specific business models work. It’s a mix of soft-skill development and hard-skill augmentation.

Any notable cultural differences between West Point and the GSB?

West Point was an extremely rigid and structured environment designed to give young people a transition into a very disciplined and specific space. Stanford is entirely different because it prepares people for a broad set of predetermined goals. You’re encouraged to choose your path at Stanford, explore divergent thinking, and develop soft skills and leadership styles that don’t depend on military hierarchy or authority. And the classroom culture is much more conversational and iterative when it comes to learning. In contrast, at West Point, you’re younger and have less knowledge and experience to bring to a conversation. Also, many of the things you’re learning are military skills and doctrines to which there are right answers. At Stanford, there are more nuanced answers depending on the personalities involved, the setting, or the specific set of variables you face at that moment.

Do you have any thoughts about the two cultures in terms of learning?

To compare the two would be misleading. Stanford is certainly more fun, but that’s not to say the structured environment I faced when I was 18 wasn’t appropriate and exactly what I needed at that time.

What might Stanford learn from West Point that you think might be helpful to GSB students?

There was strength in the deference paid to those with experience and knowledge at West Point. We probably over-indexed on experienced military officers and professors having the right answers, and at Stanford we probably overindulged in the conversation between Nobel Prize-winning professors and 25-year-olds with four years of industry experience. In reality, the truth is that you can learn a lot by listening. There are things both schools can take from each other.

So, then, anything you’ve learned at the GSB that you think might help West Point students?

Stanford does a really good job of preparing you to engage with people on a human level, acknowledge their emotions, and build connections with them. I don’t think West Point’s curriculum has much room for that, and it gets overlooked. The leadership style taught and experienced at Stanford would be useful in the Army.

Did you have any influential mentors during your military career, and what specifically about them do you admire?

My boss in the Ranger Regiment was a 2018 GSB graduate. He was an Arbuckle Fellow, and put a lot of effort into developing me and coaching me through what I wanted out of my life. He helped me practice for my business school interviews. He wrote a letter of recommendation and helped me think through which school would be the best fit. He inspired me to want to be that kind of boss for someone someday, putting effort into helping the next generation of workplace leaders be the best version of themselves. He’s the reason I became an Arbuckle Fellow at the GSB.

What did you learn about the importance of partnerships during your time in the Army?

When you can bring partners into a team and leverage their specific expertise about a culture, a language, or an area, you not only avoid several potentially catastrophic mistakes from blind spots about the culture, but it also allows you to play on the same level playing field as your opponent. Because if they have the home-field advantage in everything from language, culture, and terrain, you will always be fighting an uphill battle. But if you partner with someone on the ground whose future is invested in that place, there’s a value-added effect. You get richer conversation, saving time and effort going down unproductive roads.

Did you ever consider making the military your career?

I loved the military, especially the Rangers. It was everything I wanted the Army to be. I worked alongside my best friends and people I admired. We worked out together every day, and we worked on stuff that mattered. It was exciting and fast-paced. But the truth is, I had a different plan for the future. The global war on terror had largely ended by the time I got out, especially with the end of Afghanistan, and I didn’t feel the same pull that was ever-present in my childhood. It’s a different world now.

What was the biggest adjustment you made during the transition to school?

When I was in the Rangers, it was a very homogenous population of hard-charging Type A personalities. Everyone at Stanford is highly accomplished, but the personalities and experiences are much more diverse. They lend themselves to different types of engagement and motivation. One of the things I’ve loved about Stanford GSB is getting to know different types of people and figuring out how to work with them. Finding more diverse ways of human connection has been a big growth point for me at Stanford GSB.

What’s more treacherous, Afghan counter-terrorism or the New York real estate world in which you interned during the summer of 2023?

I certainly knew more about counterterrorism than I knew about real estate. Both require deep sector expertise built over decades. I was 27 when I was doing counterterrorism, with at most a few years of expertise to rely on. There were certainly people who I worked for who had decades, and I relied on them a lot. Similarly, the real estate game in New York is so esoteric and relationship-dependent. You have to commit to it for decades. So I learned in both experiences that to be the best at something, you must dedicate time and focus on being the best.

Anything you do for fun that you’d like to mention?

I love snow skiing. It’s the coolest thing in the world to be in the mountains, enjoy the views, and speed down the slopes. I skied a little as a kid but rediscovered it as an adult. At the GSB, I’ve rediscovered how much I love getting on a new mountain and trying out new runs. Lake Tahoe is close, and my classmates and I hop in the car and drive to the slopes after class on Friday.

What classes will stick with you as you move your career forward?

I took a class called I’m Just a Bill with instructor Keith Hennessey. It simulates the legislative process and has taught me all the nuances of legislative policy. It also taught me the importance of listening to a counterparty and working with them on a collaborative solution, even when you have a huge number of voting members who are not aligned. You have to find a way through that and a path to compromise, and that’s important both for personal growth and reaffirming faith in our system.

Photos by Elena Zhukova