Editor’s note: This Chester County Leadership profile of Michael Duncan was originally published on August 9th, 2015.

Mike Duncan’s calm demeanor betrays a steely resolve forged when he was a teenager struggling to overcome a challenging home life to qualify for an appointment to the Naval Academy and then excelling in one of Academy’s most challenging majors. As a young man and into his 30’s, he hated feedback and wasn’t happy unless everything was perfect.

That all changed when a persistent supervisor wore down his resistance eventually convincing him there was a better way to run his life.

Michael Duncan, President & CEO of Chester County Hospital, spoke with VISTA Today recently about growing up poor in Fort Worth, getting into Annapolis, meeting his wife on a blind date and how he envisions the role he and Chester County Hospital will play ensuring Chester County stays healthy.

Where did you grow up, Mike?

I grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, the oldest child in a relatively poor family with not a lot of resources.  My father was a school teacher and then a salesman who sold industrial products to the aerospace industry.  My mom was a Second-grade teacher. My grandparents ran a little café / beer joint called the “Garden of Eatin.” After school, I would head there where my grandfather would cook me something on the grill.  As a kid, their grill was a happy place for me.

Did you have any jobs when you were growing up?

I mowed yards for a quarter or fifty cents when I was a teenager.  My first real job in life was a nuclear engineer on a Navy submarine.

You didn’t have a job. How did you use your time when you were in high school?

In high school, I was consumed with my studies.  In eighth grade, my parents made it clear that when I graduated from high school I was on my own.  At the time they suggested I look at the Naval Academy.  The day after that big talk, not knowing what the Naval Academy even was, I went to the junior high guidance counselor, asked her for the Naval Academy catalog and read it cover to cover.  I was mesmerized by the place.  I spent the next four years of my life building up the qualifications I needed to qualify.  If the catalog said I needed two years of a language to qualify, I got two years of a language.  If it said I needed to be a Boy Scout, I became an Eagle Scout. If it said I needed to be involved in my school, I was an officer in four or five organizations.

What motivated you at such a young age to drive yourself like that?

I was neurotic! I had to have straight A’s.

Did your parents pressure you?

I felt some pressure from my parents, particularly from my mom.  I remember one conversation when I didn’t do too well in a test.  She told  me all she expected was my best, and I know your best is straight A’s. That fueled my fire.  I did whatever I could to get the best possible grade in every class.

What life lessons did you take from your high school years?

Except for one area, I never compared myself to anyone else.  If I saw someone working harder than me, I knew I wasn’t working hard enough.  I’ve never been satisfied.  In everything that I did, I wanted to do better.  Fear of failure drove me and was my primary motivator.

Fear of failing made me successful until my mid 30’s when I figured out that approach had its limits and could be destructive.  I had a boss who gave me a lot of feedback.  Up to that point, I hated feedback!  I saw feedback as an indicator I didn’t get straight A’s in something.  He kept at it, irritating me until I gave in. In a 12 to 18 month period in my mid 30’s, I flipped my script from ‘I have to be perfect’ to ‘I want to get better every day.’ Now I want feedback!  The more feedback I get, the better I can be.

Did you look at other colleges other than the Naval Academy?

The Naval Academy was the only school I applied to. I didn’t have a Plan B.  In high school, I was at the top of my class. I was the captain of the tennis team and ran track, poorly I might add. I was a leader, albeit a reluctant one. I had checked every box. Congressman Jim Wright, the Speaker of the House at the time and Senator Lloyd Benson both gave me an appointment, but I think I went in on Jim Wright’s appointment.  My parents couldn’t afford a college tour so the first day I saw the Naval Academy was induction day.

What was  your first day at the Naval Academy like?

Not being from a military family nor knowing what to expect, that first day was more than a little unsettling. I felt like I was on a high wire by myself with no safety net.  They lined us up against a wall and told us to look to our right, and to our left, that one of the three of us was not going to be there in four years.  Fear absolutely drove me.  I was not going to fail.

Was the Naval Academy a good choice for you?

My experience at the Naval Academy was the best thing that ever happened to me. While I had done well prior to the Academy, I was doing it largely by the seat of my pants.  What the Annapolis did for me was taught me how to rise above myself, first by teaching me how to be an officer and gentlemen, then by pushing me physically and academically beyond where I would ever push myself.  I remember picking my major Freshman year and thinking I needed to major in the hardest thing.  So instead of picking political science or history as some others did, I settled on engineering physics. That choice nearly brought me to my knees.  It was really hard.

What kept you from throwing in the towel and dropping out?

My second year at the Naval Academy, I almost quit. I was studying every night until one or two in the morning and then getting up at 6 AM and doing it all over again. I didn’t appreciate the path I was on would lead me to burnout.

That summer I went on a church retreat with other midshipmen and West Point cadets.   Air Force Colonel Waldrop, on the retreat, told me I had to get more disciplined about how I used my time and suggested another approach.  I became extremely disciplined that next semester. Even though I was taking quantum physics and engineering mathematics II, some of the toughest courses offered at the Naval Academy, I got a 4.0 GPA. It was a great transformation for me.

What did you do after graduation?

I graduated in 1978 and had a five-year commitment to the Navy.  I did a year of postgraduate training to be a nuclear engineer and then was assigned to submarine duty.  Tom Clancy’s Hunt For Red October was a good description of life on a United States nuclear sub at the time.  It was the height of the Cold War, and we were following Russian submarines around, capturing their sounds and signals. After that tour of duty, I took a position teaching submarine tactics in Groton, Connecticut. When it came time to go back out to sea however, I had been away from home for ten months out of the year and didn’t want to do that again.

Were you married by this time?

Yes, I married a West Chester girl immediately after graduating from Annapolis.

How did you meet your wife?

In my second year at Annapolis, one of my friends set up a triple-blind date for the Army-Navy game. He knew one of the girls, I didn’t know any of the girls and they didn’t know me. I didn’t want to go on the date because I was behind on my studying.  He twisted my arm, and we went out to dinner after the game.

At dinner, my date was on my right and my future wife, my friend’s date, was on my left. My friend was a Plebe, one year junior to me.  Midway through dinner, I pulled my friend aside and informed him he needed to get back on the bus, that I would take care of his date from there. That was forty years ago this fall. After that night, I started coming to West Chester every weekend I could get away.

After the Navy, who gave you your big break that got you to where you are today?

When I was considering getting out of the Navy, someone recommended I read, What Color Is Your Parachute. Being neurotic, I read every page and did all the exercises. The essence of the book is to look back on what I had done and analyze anytime I had been successful and experienced excitement about that success. The objective is to end up with the ideal job on one page at the end of the book.  For me, my ideal job centered around motivating influencing and persuading people, solving complex problems, and doing something important for society.

Was that an easy transition to make?

I was a nuclear engineer.  I had no idea what motivating, influencing and persuading people was. I started asking anybody I spoke with if they knew of a job or career with those five elements. At a church meeting one night, I asked the group to include my search in their prayers.  One of the guys in the group was running an HMO in Texas.  HMO’s were a new concept back then, and he needed someone with good math skills and interpersonal skills to do the underwriting.

A couple of weeks later I was selling HMO’s for Prudential Healthcare. I loved it. I felt like I was operating from my strengths. I was in my element. Two years in they made me the number two guy in operations and fifteen months later gave me my own HMO to run.

How did you do?

Not well.  I didn’t have the depth. I learned a lot, but at the end of the day, I really failed. I lost $6 million dollars of Prudential’s money in the first year. Being neurotic, I analyzed the heck out of it and eventually came to the conclusion I didn’t deal with people issues as fast as I should have.

I love people.  I like to be encouraging and upbeat and be a cheerleader.  When I had key leaders who weren’t doing their job well, my mindset was to keep telling them where we were heading, and they would figure it out. What I realized in hindsight was, that was the chicken way out. By not taking action to correct underperforming people, I was punishing both those who were performing well as well as those who were underperforming.

I determined what I needed to engage with those who were underperforming and help them get into something they would do well. Since that realization, I’ve gotten progressively better at dealing with people issues quickly.

Looking forward, what are the challenges and opportunities?

I look at the healthcare needs of the county broadly and am asking what role can both I, Chester County Hospital and Penn Medicine play to meet those needs. Whether or not Chester County Hospital or Penn Medicine is the direct caregiver is immaterial.

For instance, one of the areas where we won’t be the direct caregiver, until the patient hits the emergency room, is in mental health services. Three to five people a day hit our emergency room with a mental health crisis. In almost every situation, if those people received the right treatment they wouldn’t end up in the emergency room. Personally, I don’t know how to patch the holes. But I know if, as President of Chester County Hospital, I call a meeting of key people in the county, they’ll come.

I’m working with Frances Sheehan at Brandywine Health Foundation in Coatesville and Joe Pyle at the Scattergood Foundation to determine which organization is providing which mental health services, where the funding is coming from and what does the ideal mental health coverage in Chester look like.

Finally Mike, what’s the best piece of advice you were ever given?

It was the advice I received to keep my priorities straight from that Air Force colonel in the summer between my second and third year at Annapolis. If I keep my relationship with God first, my family second and my work third, it’s amazing how well I do at work.  First thing I do in the morning is read my Bible.  On my way to work, I listen to a Jesuit podcast.  By the time I get here in the morning, I’m pretty Zen-ed out.

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Top photo courtesy of Willowdale Chapel.