Military Grit Meets Wall Street Goals

Some stories punch through the noise because they’re built, not branded. Roy Blanchard grew up in a small Arkansas town, joined the Army at seventeen, volunteered for deployment in Europe, and helped train 7,500 Ukrainian soldiers near the border. Coming home, he chased opportunity the hard way, 100% commission real estate, eighty-hour weeks, and a pivot into finance sparked by the numbers behind commercial deals. When the University of Arkansas initially said no, he took the community college route, sharpened his skills, and broke into one of the toughest lanes in finance: investment banking.

We walk through the lessons that uniform and commission checks can teach: integrity that holds when no one’s watching, the power of a long time horizon, and the difference between real progress and algorithm theater. Roy calls out social media’s staged success and the poverty mindsets that keep people stuck, offering a practical alternative built on discipline, technical mastery, and relationships. His take on resilience is simple: success becomes inevitable when it’s your only option and you refuse to wait for permission.

That belief fueled the University of Arkansas Mergers and Acquisitions Club he founded to close a real gap. Instead of broad finance chatter, the club trains students on valuation, modeling, deal processes, and client-ready communication, no gatekeeping, real reps, and a plan for leadership succession. Freshmen who started cold are now building models and mentoring others. It’s a pipeline that challenges pedigree bias and proves high-finance careers can start in Fayetteville.

Expect candid talk on deployment realities, breaking into IB without pedigree, replacing shortcuts with actionable strategy, and using service to amplify success. If you’re hungry to move from intention to impact, whether you’re eyeing Wall Street, the Guard, or your first commission check, this conversation brings the blueprint and the fire to follow it.

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