you feel like your life is gonna last a
long time
and if I was to talk to my 26 year old
self I would tell that kid that you
don't have time and and you really you
don't know when it's gonna end and so
get out there and do the things you want
to do get out there and get after them
now don't wait another second take
advantage of it get out there and live
and strive to be better because the life
you've got which I just said was a gift
it is a gift so live it
yeah I always want to be a commando ever
since I was a little kid and I heard
that the seals were really tough and
that the training was really tough and
then you know once you get in everyone
makes a big deal out of buds that's but
it sits in the SEAL Teams it's no big
deal everyone goes through it you get
cold you get wet
whatever you do a bunch of push-ups and
pull-ups and dips
anyone that gets to the SEAL Teams and
does deployments overseas and has a real
career if they're not talking about bugs
training doesn't mean this doesn't mean
HIDA guy that was you know n-c-double-a
water polo team captain champion
equipped and I had a guy that was an
Olympic ultimate gymnast and he quit
just because someone's a good physical
athlete it doesn't mean that they're a
good seal because being a good seal is a
lot more than just being a good athlete
being a good athlete is like the
baseline and it's everything that you've
learned to do after that a good leader
or guy that's tactically sound the guy
that makes good decisions a guy that's
good under pressure a guy that doesn't
ever give up on trying to accomplish
submission those are the things that
makes good seal
so you're always learning and growing
and I was always learning until the day
I retired because it's not a boom this
happened and everything changes it's a
constant addition of skillset and
repetition of situations where you
become competent at your job
the fear of getting shot or killed is
not on your mind when you're in the
moment you know it'll build up when
you're waiting to go out you know
there's times you're waiting to go out
and do it thinking yourself okay there's
a lot of bad things going on out there
and someone would happen to me but I
think at some point you you realize that
there's nothing you can do about that I
mean other than just quit and and just
resign yourself to a life or cowardice
but if you opt to not do that and you
step up and say okay I'm ready and if I
die I die and once you overcome that
then nothing else to be afraid of
there's no one that wishes for peace
more than people that have been to war
because when the war drums sound it's my
friends that are going to fight that's
that's who's gonna fight it's my friends
that are going to to put their lives on
the line so when the when the war drums
sound the people that have been to war
are the ones that actually say let's
think about this first
because like I said before and like
everyone says all the time and they say
it like it's no big deal about war as
hell when you take a 18 year old kid and
you're gonna go put him in a situation
where he's gonna have to kill people and
possibly get wounded or possibly get
killed himself that's traumatic
experience and so before you do that you
should think about why you're doing it
and understand if if the people have the
will to fight and the will to fight as
I've said many times before the well the
fight is the will to kill that's the
world to die and those are some pretty
big wills that you need to have
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almost immediately we're going to
memorial services for army guys Marines
that are killed which you know was a
rude awakening so that's that's the
welcome to Ramadi the welcome to Ramadi
is you know you're gonna go and pay your
respects to some guys that were just
killed and and there's firefights in the
city so we're we're just across the
river from the city those firefights in
the city all day
there's firefights in the city all night
we're on the rooftop of our building you
sit there and watch tracer fire go back
and forth we're shot at from you know
across the riverbank
there's yeah it was it was legit it was
legit combat it was a legit bad scenario
with all sustained combat operations how
do you lead your men through that when
you know they're dealing with not only
the funerals which definitely take a
psychological toll but then even that
just constant firefighting over there I
mean do you have to switch up your gear
and think okay I got a lead stronger or
maybe a little easier in certain
scenarios are changing yes you do have
to modulate your your leadership and you
have to do that if you're in the
business world you have to do that if
you're leading any kind of team you've
got to modulate and you got to recognize
when your guys need to be pushed and
when your guys need to be not pushed and
given arrest so you're constantly doing
that regardless of what kind of team
you're leading and in combat like you
know I say all the time it's amplified
because if you push your guys too hard
in combat they're gonna break you know
whereas in business so maybe they make
errors on something or maybe they do
snap I mean it does happen the business
world where people like can't take it
anymore
but in combat it'll happen very quickly
and and so you know you do you're
constantly modulating and and taking
measure of where your guys are at and
you know sometimes I didn't do a great
job of that
sometimes I went a little far and said
oh well I just saw the look on that
guy's face he needs a rest and I should
have recognized that earlier
and you know you make mistakes no doubt
what I had on my side was I had
experience and I had paid attention to
my elders when I was a kid and when I
was getting trained and there was no war
going on and it was the 90s and I'd hear
a guy you know someone whose name you'll
never hear but a guy that if you're in
the SEAL Teams you know who that person
is because they were a legit badass
Vietnam war hero you hear them say
something I would hear them say
something and I would collect that and I
would hang on to it
that's what prepared me was that
experience of growing up with listening
to my elders the SEAL team doctrine
wasn't written down anywhere it was all
word of mouth and and passed down from
generation to generation that way and
making sure that you're not being cocky
making sure that you don't have the
attitude that you talked about earlier
of you know we're always gonna be better
than the enemy we're always gonna win
because you're not always going to win
and especially if you think you're
always gonna win then you're not gonna
prepare that the way you should you're
not gonna give everything you can to
your training to making sure that you
aren't prepared for that moment when it
comes and it might come once on a
deployment it might not come on a
deployment and it might come on a daily
basis
the centuries that are trying to hold
down the fort and protect would take
cover from all this all this enemy fire
that was coming at them in would come a
big suicide vehicle-borne IEDs truckful
truck loaded bomb and they would just
drive right into the compound and
detonate themselves and kill dozens of
people and they did that on multiple
occasions they did it times where they
did it to multiple areas at the same
time so that's how coordinated the enemy
was they were they knew what they were
doing were you impressed by them will
you ever like I didn't expect that to
happen or did you ever have a respect
for their tactics absolutely always had
respect I respect the enemy absolutely
and the minute you're not showing
respect to the enemy in their
capabilities is again that's a lack
humility and it's gonna get you killed
you know they you you have to respect
your enemy at all times
and whether your mission is go out and
capture kill bad guys or your mission is
to produce something or sell something
or manufacture something or designed
something trying to get that team to be
unified behind the plan and execute it
efficiently it doesn't matter what the
mission is you're still dealing with
human beings you're still dealing with
people whether you're in the SEAL Teams
or whether you're in the army or the
Marine Corps the people that are working
for you are not robots they're people
and you cannot give them orders and
expect them to just execute like a robot
would if the military is like that then
military leadership would be the easiest
thing in the world you know my guys
wouldn't just do what I told them
because I outrank them and they I kind
of get that funny look I don't let me
ask you this I'm here cuz your employees
aren't doing what you want them to do
right
can you just fire them don't they work
for you aren't they supposed to follow
you because you're in charge and you
write their paycheck but all of a sudden
they're not doing what you tell them to
do why is that it's the same exact
reason because they're people and guess
what people want to own their own
destiny they want to be in charge of
what's happening they want to take
ownership they want to create the plan
that's how they want to go through life
they want to go through life being
treated like a robot they want to be
treated like a human so don't talk to me
about what was easy for you because you
had these highly trained highly
disciplined you know
Terminator robots that work for you not
true in fact the opposite I had a bunch
of hard-headed you know the guys that
you talked about a bunch of hard-headed
very determined thick-skulled guys that
you know I had to get them to do what I
wanted them to do had to get them to
want to do what I wanted them to do I
had to make them think that it was what
they wanted to do that's the goal that's
what leadership is and the worst year
plan is thought out the less response
you're gonna get and just like in
business world the less input I get from
you as we create this plan the less apt
you are to execute it correctly so when
when it comes time when you have to go
execute something I want you to plan it
I'm not gonna plan it for you I want you
to plan it now I'm gonna come and check
out your plan and we'll collaborate to
make sure it's the best plan because
maybe I have more experience than you or
maybe I have some strategic vision that
you don't have but I want you to plan it
that way you own it and if you own it
when you go to execute it you're gonna
put that much more effort into it that
that's hard to quantify but that's real
that is real if you come up with a plan
you're gonna put more effort and more
pride in executing that plan then if I
come up with a plan and I give it to you
to tell you to execute it that's just a
reality I don't I don't care who you are
that's a reality
ordering people to do things does not
work you actually have to meet them and
that's another buzzword out there is
this is accountability you know you
gotta be accountable you gotta be you
gotta hold your people accountable and
and to me accountability is a tool it's
a it's a it's a tool of leadership but
it's not the primary tool of leadership
it's actually a crutch it's actually a
tool to use when you don't pull off
leadership correctly so what you wanna
do I you know III talk about this all
the time hadn't hold my guys accountable
I didn't you know walk down the line and
inspect what they were doing and no I
didn't have to hold them accountable
they wanted to do the right thing they
wanted to do what was aligned with the
mission I had to hold them back never
mind make them do it and that's what
leadership is
it's not about accountability it's about
leading and getting them to leave
themselves and getting them to take
ownership of things that's what that's
that's when you know you've succeeded as
a leader when you're just about out of a
job
when you're sitting back and you don't
have to do anything because your
frontline troops and your subordinate
leadership is making things happen with
almost no effort from you and the only
time you have to step in is when
something's going sideways or you see
something getting off-track you got to
step back in there but the ideal is that
you can sit back observe start looking
at what the other strategy is what what
to do next
other problems other parts the world but
you can just let your people do what
they want to do because they want to do
it not because you have to breathe down
their shoulder and hold them accountable
not the way to leave into that same
young man that wants to be a CEO you
know the guys that want to be like Jack
oh one day what do you tell that that's
one year-old that sees this thing and
says I want to go do that
well first of all don't try and be like
me be better than
crushing me make me look like a baby
that's what you that's what you do and
and don't don't talk about it don't mow
it over don't plan for it just get after
it you get after it make it happen
use your force of will to make it happen
as a human being the strongest thing
you've got is your force of will
so take that force of will and make that
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