people want to know how to stop the
laziness and they won’t know how to stop
the procrastination and you know they
have some idea in their head you know
some kind of a vision what they want to
do but they don’t know where to start
and in order start it you know they
don’t know where to start and say they
say hey where do I start
and when’s the best time to start and I
have a very simple answer for that here
and now that’s it you you want to
improve you want to get better you want
to get on a workout program or a clean
diet you want to start a business you
want to write a book or make a movie or
build a house or a computer or put
together some mobile application where
do you start you start right here and
when do you start you start right now
you initiate the action aggressively you
go because the idea isn’t gonna execute
itself and the book isn’t gonna write
itself and the weights out in the gym
they’re not gonna move themselves you
have to do it and you have to do it now
and that means you gotta stop thinking
about it and stop dreaming about it and
stop researching every aspect of it and
reading all about it and debating the
pros and cons of it just start doing it
take that first step and make it happen
get after it
and get after it here and now
war is a nightmare or is awful it is
indifferent and devastating and evil war
is help the war is also an incredible
teacher a brutal teacher and it teaches
you lessons that you will not forget in
war you are forced to see humanity at
its absolute worst and you are also
blessed to see Humanity in its most
glorious moments war teaches you about
sorrow and loss and pain and it teaches
you about the preciousness and the
fragility of human life and in that
fragility war teaches you about death
but war also teaches you about
Brotherhood and honor and humility and
leadership and unfortunately war teaches
you the most when things go wrong and
for me one of the most impactful lessons
that I learned from war was in the
spring of 2006 in the city of Ramadi
Iraq which at the time was the epicenter
of the insurgency where brutal and
determined
terrorists ruled the streets with
torture and rape and murder and it was
in one neighborhood of that city during
an operation that I was in charge of
when all hell broke loose we had
multiple units out on the battlefield
fighting the enemy we had friendly Iraqi
soldiers we had US Army soldiers and US
Marines
along with small elements of my SEAL
team and then the fog of war rolled in
with its confusion and chaos and mayhem
and with its gunfire an enemy attacks
and screaming men and blood and death
and in that fog of war through a series
of mistakes and human error and poor
judgment and Murphy’s Law and just plain
bad luck a horrendous firefight broke
out but this firefight it wasn’t between
us and the enemy this firefight
tragically was between us and us
friendly forces against friendly forces
fratricide the mortal sin of combat and
the most horrific part of war and when
it was over and the fog of war lifted
one friendly Iraqi soldier was dead two
more were wounded one of my men was
wounded the rest of my seals were badly
shaken and it was only through a miracle
that no one else was killed and it was
reported up the chain of command what
had happened that we had fought and
wounded and killed each other and when
we got back to base things didn’t get
much better there was a message waiting
for me from my commanding officer and it
said shut down all operations it said
that the commanding officer the Master
Chief and the investigating officer were
inbound to my location and they told me
to prepare a debrief to explain exactly
what had happened on the operation and
what had gone wrong
now I knew what this meant it meant that
somebody had to pay it meant that
somebody had to be held accountable
it meant that somebody had to get fired
for what had happened so I began to
prepare my debrief and in it i tailed
every mistake that was made and who made
it and I pointed out every failure in
the planning and the preparation and the
execution in the operation and I pointed
out who was responsible for that failure
there was plenty of blame to go around
there were so many people that I could
incriminate with guilt but something
wasn’t right but for some reason I just
couldn’t put my finger on who was at
fault and who specifically I should
blame for what had happened and I sat
and I went over it again and again and I
struggled for an answer and then when I
was about ten minutes from starting the
debrief that answer came and it hit me
like a slap in the face and I realized
that there was only one person to blame
for the confusion only one person to
blame for the wounded men and only one
person to blame for the dead Iraqi
soldier and I knew exactly who that
person was and with that knowledge I
walked into the debriefing room with my
commanding officer and the Master Chief
and the investigating officer were
sitting there waiting for me along with
the rest of my men including my seal
that had been wounded who’s sitting in
the back
the room with his head and his face all
bandaged up and I stood up before them
and I asked them one simple question
whose fault was this one of my seals
raised his hand and he said it was my
fault I didn’t keep control of the Iraqi
soldiers I was with and they left their
designated sector and that was the root
of the all these problems and I said no
it wasn’t your fault
and then another seal raised his hand
and said it was my fault I didn’t pass
our location over the radio fast enough
so no one knew what building we were in
and that’s what caused all this
confusion it was my fault and I said no
it wasn’t your fault either
and then another seal raised his hand
and he said boss this was my fault
I didn’t properly identify my target and
I shot and killed that friendly Iraqi
soldier this was my fault and I said no
this wasn’t your fault either and it
wasn’t yours or yours or yours I said as
I pointed to the rest of the seals in
the room and then I told them that there
was only one person at fault for what
had happened there was only one person
to blame and that person was me I am the
commander I am the senior man on the
battlefield and I am responsible for
everything that happens everything and
then I went on to explain to them some
new tactics techniques and procedures
that we were going to implement to
ensure that this kind of travesty never
happened again
and I will tell you something it hurt it
hurt my ego it hurt my pride to take the
blame but I also knew I knew that to
maintain my integrity as a leader and as
a man I had to take responsibility and
in order to do that I had to control my
ego so that my ego did not control me
and you know what I didn’t get fired
in fact my commanding officer who had
expected excuses and finger-pointing
when I took responsibility when I took
ownership he now trusted me even more
and my men they didn’t lose respect for
me instead they realized that I would
never shirk responsibility and I would
never pass that heavy birdie of command
down the chain and onto them and you
know what they had the same attitude
unlike a team where no one takes
ownership of the problems and therefore
the problems never get solved with us
everyone took ownership of their
mistakes everyone took ownership of the
problems and when a team takes ownership
of its problems the problems get solved
and that is true on the battlefield it
is true in business and it is true in
life
so I say take ownership take extreme
ownership don’t make excuses don’t blame
any other person or any other thing get
control of your ego don’t hide your
delicate pride from the truth take
ownership of everything in your world
the good and the bad take ownership of
your mistakes take ownership of your
shortfalls take ownership of your
problems and then take ownership of the
solutions that will get those problems
solved take ownership of your mission
take ownership of your job of your team
of your future and take ownership of
your life and lead lead lead yourself
and your team and the people in your
life lead them all to victory
laziness and they won’t know how to stop
the procrastination and you know they
have some idea in their head you know
some kind of a vision what they want to
do but they don’t know where to start
and in order start it you know they
don’t know where to start and say they
say hey where do I start
and when’s the best time to start and I
have a very simple answer for that here
and now that’s it you you want to
improve you want to get better you want
to get on a workout program or a clean
diet you want to start a business you
want to write a book or make a movie or
build a house or a computer or put
together some mobile application where
do you start you start right here and
when do you start you start right now
you initiate the action aggressively you
go because the idea isn’t gonna execute
itself and the book isn’t gonna write
itself and the weights out in the gym
they’re not gonna move themselves you
have to do it and you have to do it now
and that means you gotta stop thinking
about it and stop dreaming about it and
stop researching every aspect of it and
reading all about it and debating the
pros and cons of it just start doing it
take that first step and make it happen
get after it
and get after it here and now
war is a nightmare or is awful it is
indifferent and devastating and evil war
is help the war is also an incredible
teacher a brutal teacher and it teaches
you lessons that you will not forget in
war you are forced to see humanity at
its absolute worst and you are also
blessed to see Humanity in its most
glorious moments war teaches you about
sorrow and loss and pain and it teaches
you about the preciousness and the
fragility of human life and in that
fragility war teaches you about death
but war also teaches you about
Brotherhood and honor and humility and
leadership and unfortunately war teaches
you the most when things go wrong and
for me one of the most impactful lessons
that I learned from war was in the
spring of 2006 in the city of Ramadi
Iraq which at the time was the epicenter
of the insurgency where brutal and
determined
terrorists ruled the streets with
torture and rape and murder and it was
in one neighborhood of that city during
an operation that I was in charge of
when all hell broke loose we had
multiple units out on the battlefield
fighting the enemy we had friendly Iraqi
soldiers we had US Army soldiers and US
Marines
along with small elements of my SEAL
team and then the fog of war rolled in
with its confusion and chaos and mayhem
and with its gunfire an enemy attacks
and screaming men and blood and death
and in that fog of war through a series
of mistakes and human error and poor
judgment and Murphy’s Law and just plain
bad luck a horrendous firefight broke
out but this firefight it wasn’t between
us and the enemy this firefight
tragically was between us and us
friendly forces against friendly forces
fratricide the mortal sin of combat and
the most horrific part of war and when
it was over and the fog of war lifted
one friendly Iraqi soldier was dead two
more were wounded one of my men was
wounded the rest of my seals were badly
shaken and it was only through a miracle
that no one else was killed and it was
reported up the chain of command what
had happened that we had fought and
wounded and killed each other and when
we got back to base things didn’t get
much better there was a message waiting
for me from my commanding officer and it
said shut down all operations it said
that the commanding officer the Master
Chief and the investigating officer were
inbound to my location and they told me
to prepare a debrief to explain exactly
what had happened on the operation and
what had gone wrong
now I knew what this meant it meant that
somebody had to pay it meant that
somebody had to be held accountable
it meant that somebody had to get fired
for what had happened so I began to
prepare my debrief and in it i tailed
every mistake that was made and who made
it and I pointed out every failure in
the planning and the preparation and the
execution in the operation and I pointed
out who was responsible for that failure
there was plenty of blame to go around
there were so many people that I could
incriminate with guilt but something
wasn’t right but for some reason I just
couldn’t put my finger on who was at
fault and who specifically I should
blame for what had happened and I sat
and I went over it again and again and I
struggled for an answer and then when I
was about ten minutes from starting the
debrief that answer came and it hit me
like a slap in the face and I realized
that there was only one person to blame
for the confusion only one person to
blame for the wounded men and only one
person to blame for the dead Iraqi
soldier and I knew exactly who that
person was and with that knowledge I
walked into the debriefing room with my
commanding officer and the Master Chief
and the investigating officer were
sitting there waiting for me along with
the rest of my men including my seal
that had been wounded who’s sitting in
the back
the room with his head and his face all
bandaged up and I stood up before them
and I asked them one simple question
whose fault was this one of my seals
raised his hand and he said it was my
fault I didn’t keep control of the Iraqi
soldiers I was with and they left their
designated sector and that was the root
of the all these problems and I said no
it wasn’t your fault
and then another seal raised his hand
and said it was my fault I didn’t pass
our location over the radio fast enough
so no one knew what building we were in
and that’s what caused all this
confusion it was my fault and I said no
it wasn’t your fault either
and then another seal raised his hand
and he said boss this was my fault
I didn’t properly identify my target and
I shot and killed that friendly Iraqi
soldier this was my fault and I said no
this wasn’t your fault either and it
wasn’t yours or yours or yours I said as
I pointed to the rest of the seals in
the room and then I told them that there
was only one person at fault for what
had happened there was only one person
to blame and that person was me I am the
commander I am the senior man on the
battlefield and I am responsible for
everything that happens everything and
then I went on to explain to them some
new tactics techniques and procedures
that we were going to implement to
ensure that this kind of travesty never
happened again
and I will tell you something it hurt it
hurt my ego it hurt my pride to take the
blame but I also knew I knew that to
maintain my integrity as a leader and as
a man I had to take responsibility and
in order to do that I had to control my
ego so that my ego did not control me
and you know what I didn’t get fired
in fact my commanding officer who had
expected excuses and finger-pointing
when I took responsibility when I took
ownership he now trusted me even more
and my men they didn’t lose respect for
me instead they realized that I would
never shirk responsibility and I would
never pass that heavy birdie of command
down the chain and onto them and you
know what they had the same attitude
unlike a team where no one takes
ownership of the problems and therefore
the problems never get solved with us
everyone took ownership of their
mistakes everyone took ownership of the
problems and when a team takes ownership
of its problems the problems get solved
and that is true on the battlefield it
is true in business and it is true in
life
so I say take ownership take extreme
ownership don’t make excuses don’t blame
any other person or any other thing get
control of your ego don’t hide your
delicate pride from the truth take
ownership of everything in your world
the good and the bad take ownership of
your mistakes take ownership of your
shortfalls take ownership of your
problems and then take ownership of the
solutions that will get those problems
solved take ownership of your mission
take ownership of your job of your team
of your future and take ownership of
your life and lead lead lead yourself
and your team and the people in your
life lead them all to victory
Please follow and like us: