The overcoming conquer show is presented by the project. The project is a full immersion 75 our experience designed for men who know in their core. They are not living up to their fullest potential rather than waking up every morning ready to dominate life. The mediocre man rolls out of bed and slides into the same unfulfilling routine. They've unhappily been in for way too long. The project is for men that have lost their internal flame and motivation to conquer. It's for men living an unfulfilling. Life that lacks excitement and purpose sound familiar. Then listen up. The project is specifically designed to challenge you mentally and physically we push you to the ledge of self-limiting beliefs and prove. You've got much more in the tank. We kill the bitch and Unleash the Beast we uncover the demons that hold you back and turn extreme pain and two superpowers to dominate life in the end. We turn mediocre men into modern-day nights. Georgia Brotherhood and bond that levels you up. It's a better husband father and friend, but the project is not for every man. In fact, it's not foremost for men who are okay with being in a rut and achieving less than their fullest potential. The project isn't for you. If you're not willing to put in the work to fix. What is it working? The project isn't for you. However, if you're done white-knuckling it through life living one day at a time with no sense of purpose and our willing to do what it takes to improve the project holds the key to unlocking the next chapter graduates of the project join a Brotherhood of modern-day nights and become the authors of their Destiny. They have their fire reignited and reclaim dominance over their Family Fitness finances and faith if this resonates with you and you want to learn more we encourage you to apply today at www.mwuclinics.com See show everybody wants to be on top of the problem nowadays is people want to get dropped off at the top of the hill. There is that I overcome. Mine said that makes all the difference either way. We're taught is gonna call to scratch going to bite you're gonna dig you're going to do whatever it takes to get to the top of that mountain that unequivocally is how I have managed to keep myself moving forward and finding success. Welcome back to the overcoming conquer show. It is another amazing episode you guys I got to tell you we have an absolutely absolutely incredible guest it as a matter of fact, we may have to go with our official military titles for this show. Yeah. I'm I'm not gonna lie. I'm still fucking nervous. He talked to him before this and I was just I am writing you a question to mean, you know, I don't want to let the cat out of the bag but in the seal Community who I just did, you know, I'm a little nervous, you know, he was like Ranks higher than me. So I'm a little nervous to ranks exponentially my friend. That's why we will we will jump in that. So how you been I've been good. I bet you know, the boot camps are taken off projects kicking ass ltd's, you know, we've been doing some stuff together Life's good, you know, as long as I'm not Six Feet Under the dirt, you know me man. I'm happy. Hey, man. Hey man, we're still breathing right side of the earth and the project overcoming conquers show. Presented by the project. So those are those of you that are looking if you are a man out there and you're looking to push yourself. Hmm. The project is where it's at. I want to know what you're made out of instructor care over here along with some other amazing individuals. Mr. Fit beard. Mr. Matt Snyder the Marine crazy Marine himself Steve a cart. And of course the man the myth the legend himself. Mr. Bader is cool Ian who would be the CEO of it? I'm technically the Mad Master Chief who can I facilitate things? So so technically I instead of being the captain now. I have the I actually consider myself giving myself a promotion. I'm the master chief. I heard that you guys have you guys should put together something great. So for those out there who are looking really to get on to take yourself to a higher level. You definitely need to check out the project the project www.mtbakervapor.com. Check it out. So we are we're Post New Year my Friend, we are into 2020. I know we are getting ready for me to have a birthday coming up soon. What are you turning like? What 61 the fuck this I will be 48 years young. So 48 years young. I'm you know age is a number. It's mindset Babel. Thank God. You look like you're 25. I feel it. You know, it's I marry I married out of my league and that's what keeps me going to the gym. You know her that it on my long hair down do I know you're amazing. So, all right man We're Off to the Races in 2020. No, both of us are out there. My new book over Comm is a land. It has been getting amazing reviews. I've been you know so much great feedback. As a matter of fact. The reason we have the guest on our show today is because he contributed to this book and he gave some amazing Insight on leadership overcoming adversity how we hold ourselves accountable all key things in overcome. Technically. I heard it was a barn burner between you adding what I had to say in him, and I think he beat me. He's not laughing but it was a joke sir. No high. Well, let's Jump Right In we're going to jump right into our guest. I got to tell you we are honored to have him on. He served 37 years with the United States military the United States Navy to be exact. He was the ninth commander of the Special Operations Command. He was the chancellor of the University of Texas. He is a New York Times bestselling author. Our he is a YouTube sensation. Yes. Yeah. He is a father a husband a friend and most importantly most important say it say it he is American UDT SEAL diver a lover a fighter a shooter a Rootin tootin paratroop and scuba dive and demolition double-cap Crippen Frogman. It is our and he was the bullfrog of the community. Yes. He had the most Service as a Navy Seal in the history of our community at that time of his career. So it is our great honor to introduce the legendary teammate and friend Admiral Bill mcraven. Welcome to the overcoming conquer show. Hey, thanks Jerry. Thanks guys. It's great to be here with you. We are honored to have you on as we do with every show. Go ahead. Well, I actually wanted to do something if if I can use your power sir for a second right on it. Wait. All right. Yeah. Well, hold on to this is this is a final gift our start happening too often. So I'm sure you remember me from you know, being me being an E5 but you're definitely actually right here very Unforgettable. So no, but sir Jason, obviously you understand was and No, three. Let's see your 310 doing the math. That's seven levels higher. Okay, so could you or would you for me your high much higher four-star Admiral and I want to make that very clear to everybody. This is the cream cream of the crop. Could you make Jason call me sir? And salute me. Do you have that power? So as I understand it though, you're a five. I was a for he was a 3 so I think we both need this alert you wow. You know what? Greatest mouth I've ever seen done. Well, so hold on if that's going to happen. You know, I just yeah, I'm not so basically the Admiral just told me I need to salute salute me. So you know, what Raymond for you? Wait for me to drop it. Oh, that's a good carry on. All right, thank you. So and we try and have a lot of fun on the show. Obviously the Frogman humor and it was one of the big things that I finish reading the Sea Stories this weekend. I really enjoyed it. There were some amazing stories of your career. But Avril one of the greatest things and one of the things that I love about the community, it's one of the things that Ray and I have in the show, it's the camaraderie. It's the shenanigans that have gone on there were a lot of stories in your book that you brought out the humor. Definitely one of the ones that I thought was hysterical because anybody that has done a lot of Civilian flight flying when you're in the military. I don't know what it is. If there is a direct flight you're going to take six legs to get where you're going and and you are always in the absolute worst seat on the plane and you make that reference. It's in the book that into a yeah. Yeah, always smell everything coming out of the head on 32 a yeah, so I loved I loved you joke about either they either they thought I had a small bladder or just like to always get off the plane last so I mean that's good stuff. So rare you and you and the Admiral have some connections. Yeah. So sir, obviously fellow SD fears. All right, most most of these guys don't know what the hell were talking about because we were the real frog man's that's it. It's like you can read my mind, but there is a story there's legend that has it that you guys were doing something off the coast of Villegas you were doing it with at the time was an E5 who is now it was my Senior Chief. That's that's how old school you are sir. And I was wondering if you could kind of elaborate on that because the word on the street was as you were waiting for an extraction. I'll let you get into it and you guys started telling some stories because like frogmen Do and maybe you can elaborate on that and of what happened what transpired from transponder what transpired from that from that message? Because that's what I think people want to hear is like how you just did the crazy shit that we did back in the day and there was a little surprised. Yeah little surprise double the surprise. Wow, so loyal so the context for here. So this is 1986 and and we are preparing for a very classified mission. Time to go against Qaddafi moammar qaddafi's oil pumping stations up Coast Libya, the remember Qaddafi had been involved in a number of terrorist operation State supported terrorist operations. We have the goods on him. So the plan was to go back and and do a kind of proportional stripe on it. But so so for your audience recognizing what a seal delivery vehicle is so this is a wet submersible. So think of it as, you know, a man torpedo if you will Oh with a shell over the top of it. So you have a pilot in the navigator in the front and you can cram a couple more guys in the front, but they better be small. And then you have a compartment in the back where you can put a couple of seals. So the pilot and Navigator deliver about four seals, maybe to the objective will this particular Mission required us to go in there were a pilot and Navigator and I was the Navy lieutenant in the back of the boat. And and with me I had all the demolition I had all the beacon. And our objective was going to be to launch from a big submarine because these little mini submarines launched from a big submarine at about 40 foot depth and then you go up to about 15 feet. And then we were travel for several hours come to the Libyan oil rigs. If you think it will matter way, we would go down to the bottom of these pumping stations load them with Demolition and then go to the next one there were three of them. So we were rehearsing this Mission off the coast of Villegas, I'll Puerto Rico and so this particular night. And it was a long-ass Mission. I mean these were 12 our missions. So when you think about being under water for 12 hours, you can imagine how challenging that is what this particular night was going to be a search and rescue mission and the idea was going to be that if in fact we were off the coast of Libya and we had problems with our seal delivery vehicle and we have the surface then we would deploy a beacon a radio Beacon a transponder that would initiate a signal to a to a P3 airplane that would signal a helicopter in the Copper would come get us. So that's what we were doing this particular night. So we launched from the big submarine and we travel for about an hour or so and we surfaced and again, this was just a rehearsal but as we are off the coast of Vieques Puerto Rico. This is an island of Puerto Rico we get to the sharpest and I'm in the back. I pull out the sonar buoy and I initiate the Pinger so the sonar buoy start spinning and this ping is both to be sending a signal to the airplane. Well, we are expecting to get picked up and about, you know, 30 or 40 minutes and so War kind of shorty wetsuit, so we were not very warm particular because we didn't think it'd be a long Mission. So as we surface the boat the boat gets buoyant. So the three of us are kind of sitting on top of the pile of the Navigator Dave Roberts as you mentioned was one of them sitting on the on the top of the boat and I'm sitting on a boat we're waiting till an hour goes by and then two hours goes by and then three hours goes by and of course, we are drifting out in the middle of the ocean. We have no safety boat. We know we don't know. Know where we are now because we've been drifting for hours. It is really getting cold. The weather is coming in things are really looking bad. And of course as the officer, you know, the the to the to enlisted guys, you know, they're obviously not happy but there but they are Troopers both great guys. And so I'm thinking well, what can I do to kind of lift their Spirits? So as you tend to do in these situations, I'm looking for a joke now again to set the scene you got three frogmen sitting on the top of this man torpedo. We're in these short wet suits. We are freezing our ass off. We are lost at sea essentially not knowing whether or not the helicopter is picked up the beacon the submarine doesn't know where we are. So I start telling this joke and the joke is a simple one. It's a gorilla walks into a bar and I remember Dave Turin to me going. Hey boss. This had better be good because we're really miserable out here. That's it. I got it. I got it. So a girl walks into the bar. And of course the bartender sees the gorilla and he runs back to his manager and Says Hey a gorilla just walked in the bar. What should I do? And the manager says we'll go see what he wants. So the bartender comes up good Grill and he says yeah, can I help you? The gorilla says like a gin and tonic the bartender goes back to Madrid says Hey the girl that wants to Jen and tonic manager says I tell you I'd get him a gin and tonic but charge him nine dollars for the drink. This is not he'll tell me you're tearing me apart. And he says now grows not very smart. He'll never know the difference. The bartender goes up. There's the magenta tonics is that'll be nice. Dollars drill reaches into his pocket gives him a ten. The bartender gives him a change and the bartender goes back to manager says hey you were right really didn't care. If not, very smart few minutes later. Gorilla pounds on the bar. Bartender comes over says, yes, I'd like another gin and tonic it's image and tonic really gives them 10 gives him a $1 change and and about that time. The the helicopter starts come we can hear the helicopter coming the course. I'm carrying on with a joke. And the the bartender comes up to the gorilla and he says, you know, we don't get too many Gorillas in here about that time. Dave goes. Hey, I hear the helicopter so also and I stopped the joke the helicopter starts to come but it's windy it's bad sees out there. We're rocking and rolling the helicopters having trouble takes us about 45 minutes. Finally we get we get hoisted up into the helicopter and the three of us travel back to Roosevelt roads. Well, I get back to Rosie roads and we're going back through our Barracks area and all the sudden a master chief petty officer a master-at-arms. So like a military police comes to our barracks and says looking for lieutenant mcraven looking for me. He says Commander Mabry wants to see you and the Admiral wants to see you. I said what Admiral? Yes, sir. I was just told to come get you so they grabbed me we go all the way across about 45 minutes and we go all the way across. Across the base an empty parking lot and there in the empty parking lot is Commander Bob Mabry who had been the commander of the the team and this Admiral who I don't know and so they're talking to me and they say hey we need you to come debrief the tonight's Mission. So I walk into this Hangar and there about 200 people in the hangar where the hell these people came from. I don't know who they are. And so the Admiral says, you know, let me introduce you to All the people that are kind of behind the scenes that have been monitoring your mission tonight and I'm thinking monitoring our mission. So as typical with Sailors, we had been sitting on the top. I mean bitching about everybody about the commanding officer in the summary about our own commanding officer. Oh not, you know, go lurid Affairs that these guys have been involved in a way even guys Team guys yet. That's exactly what I'm thinking. You have got to be kidding. Me and so everybody all these 200 people there looking at me. I'm still in my wet suit and and he says well, we'd like you to debrief the 200 folks on the mission. I said, okay sir, he says but before you do that, we want to know what the punch line is the punchline what punchline he goes. You didn't know there was a microphone in that buoy, didn't you? And of course they had been listening to everything we had And so of course, they all start laughing. I'm the brunt of the joke. And so I had to tell the punch line the bus line was the bartender comes up to the grill and says, you know, we don't get too many Gorillas in here and the gorilla said, well Helen for nine dollars a drink. I'm not surprised. It's not a very funny joke what the joke was on me because these folks have been listening to everything. We've been saying all night long. Wow what I tell the story about so the mission doesn't go as you were. Call this was called El Dorado Canyon a couple of weeks later. The Air Force came in and actually bombed qaddafi's headquarters, but about a month or so after that. I am driving into work and no Kiddin. I'm turning on the radio. And this was the old died already. I'm turned on the radio and I hear from the DJ on the radio, you know, we don't get too many Gorillas in here and the gorilla says well for nine dollars a drink. I'm not surprised that is a no-shit true story that. I heard that joke fold over the radio after this this classified event. So somehow that was too good a story to be kept secret. That's not a cent opsec for you. Wow. I can only imagine man sitting there dude. I mean for all of us we've sat there on those long dark hard cold missions and dude all those stories. I would have been cringing so well. Hey, let's jump into the word of the day. You know this show we always focus on what is that? Pivotal word of leadership that sums up the Our Guest on the show and obviously this show is no different. We were church. We reached out to the Admiral ahead of time and he said, you know, what word would you say best describes you and your career that means the most for you and Ray would you do the honor either word that the Admiral chose was persevere and so sir, what I do is I just read it right off of Webster's and then what we like to do is have you elaborate and what it means to you? So right off dictionary right here to persist in anything. Undertaken maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty obstacles and discouragement continued steadfastly. So that is the Webster's Dictionary. I think you're going to have probably a little bit different version of that sir. If you make yeah, I don't know that my version is that much different but the fact the matter is as you guys all know, you know, when you go through Shield training and particularly nowadays. I did a lot of young kids coming up and you know wanting to know what the secret to getting through Shield training is and they'll ask me. You know, should I run more? You know should I do more push-ups should do more pull-ups. And of course the answer is always the same. You just don't quit and they say no. No, I understand that as a no. I'm not sure you do I said the fact that matter is you'll have a thousand opportunities going through Shield training to quit. You. Just don't quit you have to persevere. So, you know, when all you guys think about going through training you think about those nice where you are cold wet and miserable and you just continue to press through and then you get into the SEAL Teams and frankly. For my career and you know knowing your guys background it not a lot different, you know and Jason certainly you had to overcome an incredible amount of challenges. But in my career as a young Lieutenant, I was fired from a job. Yeah. I was an elite East Coast Seal Team. You know, you think you're doing great the next thing, you know, the commanding officer comes up and says hey you are no longer wanted here. You've got to go on and find employment elsewhere. Well, that's a That's a tough thing to stomach and you make a decision right then and there well, okay, my career could be over and I remember, you know, I credit my wife and we've been married for 41 years. But this was one of the first times in my career when you know, I thought about quit and she said to me she said, you know, you've never quit anything in your life don't start now and this was about perseverance. It was about persevering through the failure of not, you know, excelling at that Seal Team. It was a persevering through Whispers that you hear and you know, you know have Team guys are it's like any organization, you know, you screw up. Everybody knows you screwed up and now they may come up to you and say hey Bill how you doing? You know that, you know, you're a great guy and everything and you know what, they're thinking. Are you good enough to be one of my officers. Are you good enough to lead Shields and combat. Are you good enough to be part of these things and you have to persevere through that you have to overcome that and continue to this on and then again throughout the course of your career, you're always challenged with whether it's constant family moves whether it is things that don't go right in the command and then of course after 9/11 every day was kind of a challenge you make mistakes in combat things don't always go well and you have to decide whether or not you're going to kind of persevere through the challenges so I certainly am no smarter no more talented no more heroic no more Brave. No more accomplished than anybody else. I know. In fact, I am well below most of those standards, but the one thing I learned very early on was you just have to persevere through the challenging times and sometimes success comes to those folks the persevere and you know, those folks don't persevere. They go on to do other things Admiral I can definitely relate to that for our listeners that are out there. Obviously. I mean, those are know me know that I leadership failure in my career. Also I talked about it really Ali it's the the basis of the tried and that journey of leadership being able to overcome and Conquer thank you know, those those hard lessons and I go into a little bit of depth in the new book but a question I have for you because I know I've felt a lot people even to this day you find people that want to bring those things up. You made it all the way to the very senior level of your career and we carry these scars. It's one of the things I talked about in overcome, you know, we have His wife ambushes that come along my leadership failure was one of the life ambushes. I went through. I have no doubt. It was one of the ones you went through because obviously you talk about the journey where you know, thank God we have our long-haired Admirals who keep us in check because mine made a big difference for me also, but what advice would you give to the others out there when we're going through these periods when we've had these failures when we've been knocked down and we're driving forward, but we always have the naysayers. We always have the Haters at want to bring it back up and throw it in your face. Even as you climb higher, how do you stay focused on? Hey, I learned from that and this is where what I learned from it. How do you stay focused on that? What advice would you pass on to those out there who are moving up their own leadership ladder and they've got those scars those life ambushers. They've encountered Yeah, you know you can certainly turn the challenges and the failures in the successes and I think you know most of the great men and women I know have had failures they have had, you know failures of leadership layers of management sometimes failures of integrity. And and so you have to be able to overcome these I can't think of a single successful person. I know who hasn't had to overcome some failure. So you have to learn from the failure. So your Really have to be I think so critical and so as I went through this, you know, I look back and said, okay, what could I have done better and but you also have to have confidence in yourself and realize that yeah, you could have done a lot of things better. Now, you have to go out and work twice as hard and the thing that I have learned I think early on in my life. Is it to overcome the challenges you double down on work? So you have to work harder than everybody else? Have to prove I mean and it is proving you've got to prove yourself. I tell a story when I was a Navy Captain a senior Navy Captain. I was working in the white house. As you know, Jay. I had a parachute accident got severely banged up but this was about a year and a half after the parachute accident and I was just starting to kind of rehab and I went from Washington DC down to Virginia Beach and we had a little seal the Commodore down there and invited me down. And so I'm where the bunch of seals and we're doing our usual. Of PT and then we're going to go for a run. Well again, if my parachute accident been pretty severe I busted my pelvis ripped a bunch of muscles out. So so I kind of get through the PT, but then we're going to go for a 10 mile run and so we start off and and I hang for about two hundred yards and then of course the guys leaving and it was a couple of two-mile loops around the one of the parks are in Virginia Beach and I remember at one point in time as I am falling way behind a guy comes up to me and And I'm doing the best I can and he says to me he goes he says cat and I don't understand you says you don't have anything left to prove. Why are you doing this? You know, why are you out here running with the guys after you've been busted up because you know, you were the Commodore you're coming from the White House, you've got nothing left to prove and that guy was absolutely wrong. The fact of the matter is certainly in the team's My Philosophy has been every single day you wake up you I've got to prove that you are good enough to earn that trident own that tried man. If the day comes when you think that you've accomplished everything you can accomplish and that you're as good as you're going to be the new probably need to step aside because you're not there every day is a challenge every single day. You have to prove you are good enough and that failure for me back in 1983 1984 that failure to meet kind of reinforce the fact that hey, you know, you can be on top of the world one day. And then get knocked down the next and that's going to happen. Then you just work twice as hard and get back to proving that you are good enough to be whatever your position is a doctor a lawyer a teacher a policeman a fireman or a seal. I love it. I love it. My I got to tell you I'm not going to tip off the readers because they need to go read your book see stories. But Ray and I affectionately called your skydiving accident the wishbone accident. Yeah. Yeah. I bet you felt like a Unlucky turkey untaxed given what you know Jenna I'm always quick to point out that you know the story while a lot of people kind of focus on that. You know, when I look at the the guys like you and others who really had serious accidents and injuries as a result of combat operations mean my accident paled in comparison the point I tried to make in that particular story. It was it took a whole lot of people to get me up and running again. It took my wife to be my Nurse a Molson kind of made sure. I was able to stay in the Navy, you know, the guys came around and kept my morale up and got me working again. And as you know, if you don't have those those fellow frogmen those comrades those friends to help you through the tough times life can be pretty doggone challenging. So my parachute accident as traumatic as it might have seemed really paled in comparison to what you and so many guys and gals have been through after 9/11. Amen. And I appreciate you saying that and I know for all the other Wounded Warriors that are out there but you know, one of the things ran I've talked about a lot on this show is you know, everybody lives in their own personal hell and it's easy to sometimes take a look at somebody else that may be going through something hard and what it can give you perspective which is a great thing can motivate you but it also can you know make you feel sorry for yourself because you're like God, you know, why should I be? Why should I be struggling through this? So the bottom line is everybody lives in their own person at ha you got to drive. For it, that's all that it comes down to Everyday proving yourself driving forward you did it and you ended up at the you know, just making an incredible contribution to both the seal Community by setting the example. So, I think it's great. Okay. I got my question sir firework here. We go rewinding or Mourns. We're rewinding University of Texas 2014. I was the motivational coach for the UCLA Bruins working under coach salad. OC and Coach Jim Moore and it happened we heard it. There was this epic speech that someone gave the question I have sir is probably one of the most impactful speeches I've ever heard. I looked it up this morning you currently right now 10 million. Hey thousand views. Yeah, but the thing is is the question to have with you sir is let's two part question one what inspired you to give that specific speech and to Did you think you were going to receive the impacted you I mean when I have a bad day and this is a CEO who's my job is I motivate people I'm not gonna bullshit you sir. I listened to this and it's not a short speech but it's I call it my Shawshank Redemption. It's something that once I start once it comes on. I can't put it down. So can you kind of elaborate sir to why you gave that speech and you know, did you think it was going to be as impactful as it was? Yeah, so the I am University of Texas at Austin graduate. So kind of after the bin Laden raid and there were some notoriety behind that. But president of UT asked me to come be the commencement speaker for the the class of 2014 and and I have actually been working on another speech and you know, I haven't day job. I was a commander US Special Operations Command, so I didn't have a whole lot of time to write this thing and it'll around with on the weekend and then finally kind of sat down. The right and it will the winds day before the Saturday. I was supposed to give the speech. I realized it didn't work, you know a good speech is got to have a beginning a middle an end. It's got to have a theme and the speech I had written wasn't working. So I went down to my wife. I was a little bit in a panic mode and light of the fact that I was going to be standing before 30,000 students and parents here on Saturday. And she says to me why don't you write about something, you know thought well, that's uh, Clever idea I said the problem is you know, all I know is how to be a seal and I'm about to you know, step up in front of 8,000 graduates. I'm going to be in uniform. I don't I don't know whether or not you know students want to hear about being a sealed but I realized that I could take the lessons from SEAL training and and maybe turn them into a life lesson. So that kind of became the the approach it was and again as you guys will know this with these are just lessons that you learn going. Shield training and of course we started out every day by making our bed and getting that inspected and and then I talk about the munchkin crew and the number of other things so it really was just a chronology of my SEAL training that I think it would get this kind of traction. Absolutely not and in fact the show you kind of what an old guy I am when I got through giving the speech one of my security guys comes up to me afterwards and says, hey you have a your speech is trending on. On YouTube. Well, I didn't know what the hell trending on YouTube. So I said well, I guess that's a good thing unless it's trending poorly. But but then it just it kind of took off and I you know, I think the reason it has gained so much traction. Is that as you guys can appreciate their simple lessons and we're frogmen, you know, we don't we try not to complicate things. So these are not complicated things, you know, making your bed is not something that's hard to do. But we also know that that can be pretty impactful. It's that it's not about making your bed. It is about doing something every morning that kind of gets you up and get you moving that you take a little pride in that kind of encourages you to do another thing and another and of course the making your bed was also about doing the little things well, and if there's one thing we've learned in the SEAL Teams is you have to be able to do the little things. Well clean your weapon take care of your gear, you know know the Playbook on a mission do the little things well and you'll be able to do the big things well, So so I was pleased that so many folks have have enjoyed the speech. Yeah, if you have not seen this speech definitely just go on YouTube check it out. It is an amazing speech. I mean when I was running my when I was running my organization and one of the we run our overcome Academy the leadership program for Wounded Warriors, we're teaching them how to speak and I actually used your speech as one of the templates to show them the flow of a speech and how well you set it up the use of humor all those things. So yeah, my daughter is she's 11 now Sarah and I showed her that video back in the day and she used to get up and we used to help. Our but now she's 11. She makes her own bed. You know, I always tell our sense of accomplishment. You do one great thing. Let's do something else and something else. So my point is is thank you for that, sir, because it actually changed my life. And I mean it's amazing after all, you know, you talk about doing the little things. Well and first off I just want to tell you once again, thank you so much for contributing to my book the stories. Are you share an overcomer amazing? And it's actually one of these stories that actually relates directly to what you're talking about and it's holding ourselves accountable. It is making sure we do all the little things well and you tell the story of going to skin, which is an outpost on the afghanistan-pakistan border really hard place to be a place where our troops were always coming into contact and you had an individual that basically had been out there too long. He was supposed to provide a brief to you and a more senior ranking officer at the time. I believed you were you were one star at that time and army officer was maybe a two or three star and this individual was not prepared for Brief and pretty much had scrapped all protocol that there was and when you and as a matter of fact, he just didn't do certain things and in the military we always do I don't care where you are, you know, unless you're in the middle of a battlefield. We obviously don't salute there. But other than that, we follow protocol because it's what makes exactly like your speech talks about these little things make the big things work and in you talk about that in the book how in critical it is as a lie. Leader that we have to hold not only ourselves but our people accountable for anybody out there. Can you elaborate just a little more on that? Because I meet so many leaders that have a hard time having those hard conversations when they notice that something's out of alignment, but they're like, I you know, I don't want to be the bad guy. I don't want to hold my pee. You know, I know I should say something but I'm not going to and I think even you and that story talk about for a few minutes you debated whether you're going to say something because of the conditions and then I said, you know what the right thing the right thing. So, can you elaborate a little bit on that and Leadership? We have a lot of leaders that listen to this podcast. I think this point of accountability is such a critical one. Yeah, thanks. And you're right. It is critical is particularly critical for leaders or managers in any position. The fact that matter is everybody that joins an organization wants to join an elite organization. I don't care whether you are working at the pizza place whether you're working at the post office whether you're working at an elite Seal Team. Nobody says gee I want to be part of a mediocre organization. Where's that mediocre organization? That's what I want to go join know you want to be part of a great organization. Organizations are great because you set high standards and you hold people accountable for meeting those standards soldiers in particular what to be good soldiers. They want to make sure that the work they are doing is noble and is Honorable they want to be held accountable because they understand that in order for them to be part of a great organization. You have to have high standards and you want people to achieve those high standards. There's a great book called morale just like it sounds morale by guy named John Baines and I had read the book, you know, probably 20 years before that so hard to find book. I'd read it at the Naval Postgraduate School and and Baines goes back and he does research on the 5th Scottish rifles the fist got his rifles and they were a unit prior to World War One in the British army that was considered one of the worst units in the British Army. And so he details why there was such a bad unit. And they were a bad unit because the commanding officer treated those that performed. Well, no differently than those Slackers. So, you know, he didn't push the Slackers to become better and consequently those guys were busting their hump said why am I busting my hump? Why am I trying to look sharp? Why am I trying to be the best soldier I can when the Slackers are treated just the same way. Well prior to World War One a new commanding officer comes in and he says hey A boys here's the deal. We are going to become the best unit. The British army here is the standards that I expect of everybody and if you can't meet those standards you're going to go somewhere else. So he turns the unit around they go on during the Battle of new shop L and 1915 to be one of the most decorated units in the British army, but the point of the book about morale is just as we all know in the military, if you don't set the standards and hold people accountable then before long that good order and discipline, which is essential for every Cool thing we do particularly on the battlefield, you know, we think of good order and discipline to your point Jason about okay. This is just something you do in Garrison. Yeah. This is where we make sure we have good uniforms that were clean shaven. Yeah, you know that we salute need to that. We have the right military protocol. Let me tell you that is even more important when you are in combat because in combat the soldiers the soldiers Sailors Airmen and Marines if you allow them to kind of get off the reservation to kind of go to the dark side because Combat will do that is you know, when you start killing people on a daily basis when you see your buddies blown up when all the sudden you are living in a place like skin or someplace else and you don't have to shave every day and you don't have to put on a decent looking uniform and you don't have to do these sort of things before long. It affects your own personal morale and before long the good order and discipline starts to decline. I don't know if I mentioned to you when we talked last time, but when I became the commander of jsoc I went over to Afghanistan and I pulled one of the Navy captains in my chief of staff and I said I said Bill I said I want to send out a message. I'm telling everybody to cut their beards shave their beards off and I remember he said me said sir, you can't do that. I mean, you know, we need to we need to have a committee, you know, we need to take a hard. Look at this. We need to we need to do a thorough examination. And I said, okay Bill. I'll tell you what I'll give you one week and then when when you come back in a week, I'm still going to tell them to cut off their beards or stars or that's not intellectually honest. They said we just I said, okay you go talk to the non-commissioned officers and then get back to me. So about two weeks later he comes back and his head's kind of down. He said I said, well what's up, and he said well, sorry you said that I've talked to all the ncos. I've gone to all the Outpost. I've talked all the sergeant majors the mass Chiefs. They think we need to cut the Beards off and so we cut the Beards off except for those guys that truly needed them. The guys were working kind of undercover. And the reason we did that was because as you know, when you grew a beard in Afghanistan or in Iraq it just it took away from a little bit of Of what we know soldiers need the soldiers want to wake up as much of a pain in the ass. It is is you get up every morning just shave you may not have a crisp starts uniform a dog on and you put on something that looks like a uniform because you want to have good order and discipline. You want to have a military bearing about you and when you start growing that big Afghan beard and you can kind of snarl at people through that and everything about it starts to change as soon as we cut off the Beards. I mean the guys all of a sudden you could see Come up you could see they had a change because doggone it they were soldiers again. It's a small thing. It's a little bit like making your bed, but you have to as a commander you have to reinforce the good order and discipline or when you're in the middle of combat. It is easy to go to the dark side to have people start to go down that slippery slope and then they feel bad about themselves, you know, they they get into firefights and maybe shoot people. They shouldn't shoot or they do something that they regret later on because nobody kept them in. The Box my job as a commander was to keep the guys in the moral legal and ethical box as much as you could in a wartime environment. Yeah, that's and that's what it's about as a leader, you know to hold the hold people accountable. I think it's awesome. I think it's so important and so many leaders sometimes are afraid to do that. Not recognizing this long-term impact. I want to flip it around to another story you tell in Sea Stories That I Found fascinating because it's almost the flip side of this in when things go wrong. Sometimes there is an opportunity to capitalize on a bad decision and it is the story you You told about one night. You got a late night phone call and you were told hey, I got bad news. We've got some you were going after a high value Target a guy that had been going into Syria and basically launching his operations out of Syria and then going back across the border and you guys were trying to figure out a way to get this guy and all of a sudden one night accidentally a group of army operators found themselves on the other side of the border, which is a big No-No without high-level approval and You immediately implemented emergency action procedures and then you went to your boss who was General Petraeus at the time and this story fascinated me because you when I read what Petraeus asked you first, which was did you let them keep going and I was dumbfounded by that but it also made me recognize that good leaders recognize. Sometimes we have to make risky decisions. And what is your advice for leaders out there when things are starting to go off the rails? Where can you look for those opportunities to capitalize on a mistake where you could actually turn it into your advantage, you know, because that was a perfect situation where this occurred and I'll be honest. I don't even think you saw that coming when Petraeus said that is for you, but I found that story fascinating and I thought there were so many deep lessons in it as a leader that you know a good leader. Sometimes have to make risky decisions and obviously Times they don't pan out. So well and other times, you know, you walk away looking like the prom King right? It's funny. I was just with General Petraeus last week and we were talking about this story because he read the book and he remembered the event very clearly. So your timing is perfectly perfect on this. Yeah, you know, I think this is the real nature of leadership day is its. Yeah. I tell folks, you know, people ask me all the time are good leaders born or can you make a good leader? My answer is always the same you can absolutely Positively make a good leader. I mean that's what the military does every single day. We take young men and women, you know from all corners of the globe and we teach them good order and discipline. We teach them how to be responsible. We teach them how to how to take the right actions and they can become good leaders. However, I would offer that great leaders the truly great men and women that lead that there is something in their DNA that is just a little bit different. It is their ability to see opportunities as you pointed out in the Where other people may not see opportunities. I have the chance to work for General Petraeus on three separate occasions. I think frankly more than any other army officer. So I work for him when he was in Iraq. I work for him as a centcom commander and then I work for him when he was in Afghanistan and and I have tremendous respect for General Petraeus. And this was one of those times when having worked for him. This was interact haven't worked from you. He's also a pretty Stern guy and he can wire brush or pretty quick if you do something wrong. Wrong. So what what I found amazing about that night was as you point out. So my Army operators had gone across the border into Syria to get this bad guy. They weren't supposed to be there. I like to think that I had handled it. Well on my end by going back to the army colonel and saying I got it. Let's not overreact to this but I still got to notify Petraeus. So when I went to see Petraeus my expectation was that he was going to fire me up and he was going to wire brush me and say WTF. What were you Thinking, you know and instead he kind of paused. I think he realized again because of his experience that we were trying to do the right thing. The guys were trying to do right even if they got a little overzealous and so, you know, he said to me well, you probably should let him keep going and then you know when he found out I said, well, I've already recalled them. They should be back, you know across the board here within the hour. He said okay, you know, I'll we'll keep this between you and me unless something goes south and I really appreciated that and it was a great learning experience for me. So you think you know by that time. I'm a three-star Admiral I've experienced an awful lot of my career, but you can always learn something more and and there were many times in my time as the jsoc commander and the socom commander and frankly I think before that's not it's not that it's a lesson. I hadn't learned but you get a lot of opportunity to implement that lesson in a wartime environment when you see guys that are out there in a combat environment didn't shot at Are trying to do right but they don't always doesn't always come off. Well, and you as the leader. Yeah, you can bring them in you can wire brush em, what you have to be able to do is you bring them in you talk through the mistakes. They made if the mistakes they made were honest mistakes trying to do the right thing. Then you just correct those mistakes and you move forward if now, you know conversely if the mistakes they made we're kind of premeditated bad mistakes that were not kind of upholding the you know what it is. You know moral legal and ethical if they were those kind of mistakes, then you handle it differently. But if it were mistakes that we're trying to do the right thing for all the right reasons, then you have to cut them some slack and move forward. Nice. Well, I know I've had some slack cut in my career. So we all have yeah, we all have self. Well, you know, there's so much. I mean we could probably spend hours. There's so many lessons both that you share in my book. Obviously the lessons you have in your book and make your bed, boo. all these things, you know, but let's fast-forward you now are out there and recently you created a little bit of a firestorm you are you did something that a lot in the military say, oh my God, we should never do this and you wrote an op-ed that basically question President Trump and about some of the recent decision making and some of the division we're seeing in this country and I know you know, I see individuals on both, you know the right and the left, you know, I have some individuals on the right who just are so upset at that op-ed. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. Why you know, where do you really stand right? You know, where what motivated you to write that? Yeah. Well first, you know, I've told folks is as you well know there is this kind of Unwritten rule that is retired senior officers. We don't question the commander-in-chief and I think that is a good Rule and I have told folks, you know, I received a lot of criticism Susan for this and I think it is fair criticism. So when somebody comes up and says, you know Admiral you shouldn't have done that. I said, you know, that's fair criticism having said that you know, my oath was to the Constitution of the United States and and consequently, I've got to wake up every morning and look myself in the mirror and decide is being quiet more more honourable than than speaking out and sometimes you know, you you just have to make the decision that you think think speaking out is it was worth the criticism you're going to take so in this particular case and I've told folks before I said, this is I want the president to do. Well every American should want the president to do well and and frankly, I don't have a lot of disagreements with some of the president's policies. You know, I think we need a strong border. I think we need to engage China on their unfair trade acts. I think you know going Out while I wouldn't have engaged North Korea the way the president has I don't have any problem with with him engaging with kim-jong un you know, should we pull out of Syria? Well, I think these are policy discussions and I have no issues with you know, good folks on both sides of the aisle having an honest discussions about policy decisions my concern and the reason I wrote the op-ed really had to do as much with the president not Not adhering to the process and so in in this really wasn't about Gallagher. I mean Gallagher was the kind of face of the discussion in Syria was about the face of the discussion. But but the fact the matter is let's take Syria to start with because that's kind of what drove the beginning of the op-ed was. This was this idea that you know put the president really didn't engage with his military leadership before he tweeted the fact that we are pulling out of Syria. So if Gone through the process and had a serious engagement with the military and had good discussions with his principles though the secretary of state Secretary defense and the others and said look, I'm thinking about pulling out of Syria. What do you think the military could have come back and said well, mr. President then if we're going to do that we need to do that in a measured passion so that we can take care of our allies that we can do this so that our guys aren't at risk Etc. But of course that is not the way it unfolded unfold it and tweet and it caught a lot of the military. Worship off guard the issue of the Gallagher case of course has been that the president well within his right to Pardon Gallagher or anybody else after the courts martial or after the proceedings. There is a thing called, you know, unlawful command influence unlawful command influence. It is a violation of the uniform code of military Justice for any senior officer in the chain of command to opine. On the outcome of a preceding a tribunal or course Marshall before it is complete. And the reason you can't do that is because you know, when I was the Commodore of Naval special Warfare group one, I was not allowed to go down and tell the commanding officer of Seal Team One how I thought his Captain's Mast should come out that's unlawful command influence or undue influence. You can't do that and of course for the president of states to come out and talk about again. Really not not having anything to do with Gallagher, but the president of states is not supposed to put his position out there before these things are completed now once a jury has you know, come out once a courts-martial is complete once a tribunal or proceeding is over then the president can absolutely make the decision. Now how many problems with that but this really was an issue of the president has come out against the intelligence Community has come out against the law enforcement Community. He's come out against the state. Apartment and now of course, she's beginning to kind of come out against the Deep state that he feels that the military leadership has and I just think this undermines, you know, the important aspects of who we are as a nation. The President should be supporting those institutions rather than trying to undermine them but having said all that I want the president to do. Well, I want all of you know, the American institutions to do well We just need his help and and getting there. Yeah, I'm into that. I mean there's a lot of division in this country right now. I think for all of us. I know I do. I want to see ways that we can bring it back together to bring the American people back together and unified and in understanding the beliefs and the foundation of what this nation is. I mean, that's what I fought for. It's what I signed up for. It's what I'll continue to fight for. So I respect you taking a stance. I know you've gotten a lot of heat for it, but You know, that's what it's about in this, you know, it's about taking a stance, you know men, you know much better to stand by your convictions be heard instead of while I want silence. Hey, man. Amen. So Sarah is we're starting to wrap up. I'd like to kind of give you a brief rundown of what's going to happen first. Let me explain when we wrap up. We like to do what's called the two-minute segment of motivational. Just we like to end with the two minutes of what you know, Our word of the day means each one of us likes to hit on it. And that's where we really like to close home. But before we do that, this is probably one of the most beneficial points that I think people can get away from here especially coming from you is what three pieces of advice. Would you give to a leader? That's that's it. I mean, I can't say junior you leader. I can't say senior leader because your you've been there you've done both. So if you were in an elevator and and you had 30 seconds to tell ya someone you had three pieces of innocent. Yeah, what would you tell me? Yeah, that's pretty straightforward for me. You know, we expect our leaders to be servant leaders. So the answer is you take care of the troops take care of the troops and the truth will take care of you. I mean it is as simple as that now let me expand on that a little bit because taking care of the troops doesn't mean you know, giving them every Friday off and cut them slack when they don't look sure taking care of the troops means, you know, you set high expectations you give them the resources to do the job and then you hold them accountable when they are not. Achieving the expectations in the standards. You expect that is taking care of the troops because again every troop again as I said before whether whether you're working in the pizza place and the post office or the Seal team, everybody wants to be part of a great organization. So to be part of a great organization, you set high standards you give the men and women the resources to do the job and then you hold them accountable when they don't do the job. That's how you move a great organization long. So that would be you know part 1 part 2 is 4 a leader you really have to get down with the troops. There's a great saying from the Pope that the says a Shepherd should smell like his sheep Shepherd should smell like a shoe. I like that because it is about the fact that hey when I was a three-star, I would go out on missions, you know, maybe once or twice a month and part of this was the troops want to see you sharing the dangers. Sharing the hardships with them. They don't want to think that their Admiral is just sitting there in Bagram or and Bellagio drinking a cup of coffee while they're they're getting shot at you have to get down there and find out where the troops are going through. But I know this isn't just about combat. I tell CEOs all the time. Look you need to go down to the mailroom or whatever the equivalent of the mailroom is and do the mailroom job find out what the guys in the Mailroom and the dowels and the in the Mailroom are doing so that you can make better decisions. That are going to affect your organization. One of the best lessons I learned was when I was a Navy midshipmen at the University of Texas in between your freshman and sophomore year. They send you on what they euphemistically call a cruise. So I went as a as a midshipman. I went out to the USS OLED. It was a fast figured out of Pearl Harbor and as a budding officer, they make you an enlisted guy. So you live with the enlisted men, you know down in the in the Exes, I mean you're scrubbing the deck you're cleaning the Hedge, you're working the boiler rooms and it gives you this great sense of the fact that the officers that are above decks, you know on the bridge in the staterooms making the decisions how those decisions affect the Sailor at the deck plate level and it is the greatest lesson I had is that as an officer or a leader when you make a decision you better understand how that decision. It affects everybody in your organization. The only way you will know that is if you share the hardships with them if you share the pain with them if you have been in been there and done that job. Yeah, we're fortunate as seals is that we all go through training together and we know, you know, kind of what we've all been through. That's how the officers and the enlisted I've kind of earned the respect and I think that's important. But at the end of the day it really is about taking care of the troops and then, you know leading from the front and sometimes leading. The front means getting down and doing the jobs with the guys. And then well awesome sir. It's just been an honor to have you on. I mean just a wealth of knowledge a wealth of leadership. I mean your your professional resumes awesome. So thank you for taking the time to you Admiral. Thank you for contributing my book. We're going to we're going to wrap it up two minutes two minutes two minutes. So we're going to you want to go first. I don't know who goes I guess. We let him decide. We'll let it show so the way we do this real quickly. We wrap it up we go back to the word of the day which person Here so just shotgun this and actually how about I'll go just so you can kind of see how we do it. It's really fast our shotgun approach. Okay, then we'll look and then we'll let you have the last word shall L write the word of the day today is persevere are amazing guest Admiral Bill mcraven talked about it was the quintessential thing that really allowed his career to go forward. I got to tell you I feel his pain when we talk about leadership failure. It was what enabled me to drive forward so many times I questioned myself. If I doubted myself, you know, I felt the naysayers and it was my ability to drive forward and persevere and lean on great people around me that social leadership I talk about it was persevering and driving forward when you are down when you were on the X when you add those life ambushes, you have to persevere drive forward. Amen persevere attack the hill ladies and gentlemen, no matter how bad it gets. You've got to keep pushing forward keep pushing upward. You're going to have good days. You're going to have bad days lead. Said levels from the top the bottom bottom to top we're going to make mistakes. My motto is failed to you succeed. But just put a hundred percent of who you are and put that mindset in everything that you're doing. You will overcome and Conquer everything that you set your mind to I am sitting here among two great individuals who I respect very much in the SEAL Teams. I'm in all so sir, excuse me Admiral. I'm going to turn it over to you. They persevere. Never rang the bell. It's pretty simple. Oh, yeah, you'll always have that opportunity to quit and you'll think it's easy. You will think quitting makes things better. It never makes things better. And as long as you're going to go into life for this this attitude that you're never going to ring the bell, you never going to quit then then you'll be successful in life. Amen. Boom. I got nothing. All right, holy smokes. Well, this has been another episode of the overcoming conquer show. I am Jason overcome Redmond and I'm Ray cash care and we are out. Umm, thanks for listening to the overcome and Conquer show tune in next time and please remember to subscribe on iTunes, please visit overcome and conquer.com. The overcoming conquer show is presented by the project. The project is a full immersion 75 our experience designed for men who know in their core. They are not living up to their fullest potential rather than waking up every morning ready to dominate life. The mediocre man rolls out of bed and slides. Into the same unfulfilling routine. They've unhappily been in for way too long. The project is for men that have lost their Eternal Flame and motivation to conquer it is for men living a nun fulfilling life that lacks the excitement and purpose if this resonates with you and you want to learn more we encourage you to apply today at www.mtbakervapor.com /oc show boom.
Admiral William H. McRaven, is a retired U.S. Navy Four-Star admiral and the former Chancellor of the University of Texas System. During his time in the military, he commanded special operations forces at every level, eventually taking charge of the U.S. Special Operations Command. His career included combat during Desert Storm and both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. As the Chancellor of the UT System he led one of the nation’s largest and most respected systems of higher education. As the chief executive officer of the UT System, McRaven oversaw 14 institutions that educated 220,000 students and employed 20,000 faculty and more than 80,000 health care professionals, researchers, and staff. McRaven is a recognized national authority on U.S. foreign policy and has advised Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and other U.S. leaders on defense issues. He currently serves on the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the National Football Foundation. McRaven graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1977 with a degree in Journalism, and received his master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey in 1991. He met his wife, Georgeann, while they were students at UT Austin, and they have three grown children. McRaven stays active with his writing, speaking and board commitments. 