How This Former Submarine Officer Learned to Lead Under Pressure As a young Navy officer, Rick Stollmeyer made some mistakes. Now, as CEO of Mindbody, he's learned to make more considered decisions.

I spent a big portion of my 20s underwater — but not in the emotional sense. Back in the early '90s, I was a submarine officer, serving at the end of the Cold War.

I was 24 when I reported for duty on the USS Chicago, a fast-attack nuclear submarine. I was put in charge of 13 men, and despite my extensive training, nothing could have fully prepared me for the intensity of my role.

A month into a mission, the ship's turbine generators started giving us trouble, and it was my responsibility to get them fixed. The ship's engineer — who was my boss — proposed a solution, but the chief petty officer wanted a different resolution. Wanting to impress my supervisor and resolve the situation quickly, I ordered the chief petty officer to fix it the engineer's way, shutting down the conversation and overlooking the officer's years of expertise.