refer to the purpose that brought everybody together. Making purpose clear helps keep everybody aligned and able to make mini course adjustments along the way.
The bottom line is that for purpose to find fulfillment, it needs to lead to effective action. In special warfare, the ability to shoot, move, and communicate as one fluid unit is what turns uncertainty into something palpable—which also means that it’s manageable and measurable. Effectiveness comes from being grounded in what you do and why you do it; from creating a solution, rather than one day hoping to find the answer. There is a purpose for everything we do in specwar, and everything you do in your company. Every critical information node, meeting, job assignment, employee selection, mission set, sale, or training schedule serves a purpose. The question is: does that purpose create its intended value?
I am a firm believer in having a meaning for everything, a reason for why things happen—not framed in a spiritual or religious light, but instead understood rationally. Without a belief to point us toward “right,” the temptation to yield to inferior rationale grows stronger. If this snowball of temptation grows too large, it becomes easier to make decisions based upon emotion rather than reason. Without purpose, the drive to sustain superior performance dwindles away, because there is no significance for what you do or why you do it. You can only go so far on self-discipline or willpower alone because, at some point, you just get tired of pushing yourself. The metaphorical-emotional gas tank eventually runs empty. To be purpose-driven, however, is to be pulled in a direction that ignites the craving for even more discoveries, and is a theme that will be revisited often throughout this book.
For SOF, our purpose is to affect change. We do so by carrying out the strategy that allows us to constantly adapt our capabilities and win in uncertain environments. Dead bad guys just happen to be the result.
Purpose brings meaningfulness that fuels the fire for even greater intellectual curiosity and Sustained Superior Performance (SSP). I like to define SSP as steadfast execution amidst frequent uncertainty. People who can perform in the face of ambiguity—those who can conceptually build a mental and emotional bridge and safely maneuver across it without setback—are the ones who ultimately discover their high performance status.
The principles outlined in this book are what I believe lead to success whether on the battlefield or in the boardroom. Identifying a purpose and being passionate about what you do; possessing the character and competence to trust and be trusted; having a strong family or support network; and being humble enough to shut up, learn, and serve others all combine to create what I believe to be an indestructible human machine. A person who is highly motivated to learn and has the support network to do so is a dangerous adversary, because there is nothing over which the heart and mind cannot collectively triumph. Fighting with values and principles will always outweigh weapons and munitions. A rifle will run out of bullets, but the source that fuels an individual’s reason for being will never cease. Hell, look at Afghanistan. No single nation has ever conquered that godforsaken country despite technological and military advantages up the behind. I have seen the aforementioned sense of purpose firsthand by means of suicide bombers and barricaded shooters who knew they were going to die, but just didn’t care, because their sole mission in life was to take us with them. It is extremely difficult to defend against an enemy who only cares about one thing and will do anything to achieve it, including martyr himself.
The above elements are by no means the only components that contribute to sustained superior performance; they are simply what I have found to create meaningfulness, passion in life, and individual and team success.
High-demanding jobs demand high performance ideals, and to be considered tier one in any industry requires tier one people. Jobs that require you to constantly travel and be away from your family, to face danger more than the average Joe, or to deal with significant financial risk necessitate more than just a step-by-step process of how to do these things. Replicating “best practices” simply won’t cut it because what works for Company A may be a horrid idea for Company B.
Purpose was the guiding light that allowed me to persevere through uncommon challenges, as purpose offers clarity on what is to be expected and what is to be achieved. In no particular order, the other elements in this book helped me feel more obliged to carry on when the power of choice became a test against temptation.
Ohio State University, 1998
One of my first how-bad-do-you-want-to-be-a-SEAL? tests came my sophomore year in college. Every morning I would wake up at five o’clock to run four miles, then afterwards make a ridiculously oversized breakfast. My dad used to sarcastically joke that instead of opening the refrigerator door to eat, I should just stick the entire fridge between two slices of bread because it would save time. Breakfast was actually more a question of what I didn’t eat rather than what I did.
I would run to the gym to run on the treadmill, which makes absolutely no sense now that I see that sentence. On this particular morning in college, though, after doing the first mile on the treadmill, I started to see black spots.
Instead of ending the workout right then and there, like a normal human being, I decided to press on. But the harder and longer I ran, the more the dark spots would intensify and the greater my vision would constrict. Finally, I had to stop. I figured that if I stopped, then the blurriness would go away, and if the blurriness went away then I’d be able to finish the workout (I never claimed to be a genius). But as I walked away, the situation just worsened. In fact, my vision disappeared, as did my balance. I found a bench to lie down on outside when, coincidentally, a medical school student happened to be walking by and noticed that something was not right with me. She called an ambulance that took me to the hospital, only to discover my blood pressure at a “healthy” sixty over forty.
Not good.
At this point, there was still no clear indication as to why this event occurred because sports, exercise, and healthy eating had all been significant and consistent parts of my life through that point.
Like an idiot, I told my then–SEAL recruiter about the incident and he said it would preclude me from volunteering for the SEALs, but to let the situation develop a little more, talk with the doctors, and wait to see if anything changed. All I heard, though, was, “You’re fucked.”
I was devastated. I had envisioned becoming a SEAL since high school, and I was now being told that my dream was impossible. The search for doctors began—intensely—and after talking with multiple MDs who tried to identify the root cause of my adverse reaction, it came down to one final heart doctor, who also happened to shatter my dreams.
This cardiologist essentially said that I could never exercise and, therefore, could definitely never be a Navy SEAL since the incident was clearly a heart issue as it involved elevating my heart rate. I broke down in tears right there in his office with my dad right next to me. It was embarrassing, but I couldn’t control it because just a year earlier a skin irritation that prevented me from enlisting after high school had finally cleared up, and a letter from a dermatologist had cleared my entrance for the Navy. But now all those dreams were gone. In telling me “no,” this heart doctor had brought me down to a reality that I didn’t want to accept. He made me question my passion of how badly I wanted to go to BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training).
My mom, ever so supportive, always ingrained in me not to worry about things I could not control, and that “things will work out as they should.” Her patience and optimism have carried me through to this day and have helped shape my resiliency.
Meanwhile, over the same time period of my college career, my dad had been seeing a doctor friend of his own1, but not for medical reasons. Gwen was awesome, and incredibly supportive. She had been with me every step of the referrals, made new introductions, and she was there that day in the heart doctor’s office. More importantly, she didn’t believe the shit that the cardiologist
