that I graduated from UT I remember a
lot of things about that day I remember
I had a throbbing headache from a party
the night before I remember I had a
serious girlfriend who I later married
that’s important to remember by the way
and I remember I was getting
commissioned in the Navy that day but of
all the things I remember I don’t have a
clue who the commencement speaker was
and I certainly don’t remember anything
they said so acknowledging that fact if
I can’t make this commencement speech
memorable
I won’t least try to make it short so
the university slogan is what starts
here changes the world well I’ve got to
admit I kind of like it what starts here
changes the world tonight there are
almost 8,000 students there more than
8,000 students graduated from UT
so that great paragon of analytical
rigor ask.com
says that the average American will meet
10,000 people in their lifetime 10,000
people that’s a lot of folks but if
every one of you change the lives of
just 10 people and each one of those
people change the lives of another 10
people and another 10 then in five
generations 125 years the class of 2014
will have changed the lives of 800
million people 800 million people think
about it
over twice the population of the United
States go one more generation and you
can change the entire population of the
world 8 billion people if you think it’s
hard to change the lives of 10 people
change their lives forever you’re wrong
I saw it happen every day in Iraq and
Afghanistan a young army officer makes a
decision to go left instead of right
down a road in Baghdad and the 10
soldiers with him
are saved from a close-in ambush in
Tenderheart province Afghanistan a
noncommissioned officer from the Female
Engagement Team senses that something
isn’t right
and directs the infantry platoon away
from a 500-pound I Edie saving the lives
of a dozen soldiers but if you think
about it not only were those soldiers
saved by the decisions of one person but
their children were saved and their
children’s children generations were
saved by one decision one person but
changing the world can happen anywhere
and anyone can do it so what starts here
can indeed change the world but the
question is what will the world look
like after you change it well I’m
confident that it will look much much
better but if you’ll humor this old
sailor for just a moment I have a few
suggestions that may help you on your
way to a better world and while these
lessons were learned during my time in
the military I can assure you that it
matters not whether you ever served a
day in uniform it matters not your
gender your ethnic or religious
background your orientation or your
social status our struggles in this
world are similar and the lessons to
overcome those struggles and to move
forward changing ourselves and changing
the world around us will apply equally
to all I’ve been a Navy SEAL for 36
years but it all began when I left UT
for basic SEAL training in Coronado
California basic SEAL training is six
months a long torturous runs in the soft
sand midnight swims in the cold water
off San Diego obstacle courses unending
calisthenics days without sleep and
always being cold wet and miserable it
is six months of being constantly
harassed
by professionally trained warriors who
seek to find the weak of mind and body
and eliminate them from ever becoming a
Navy SEAL but the training also seeks to
find those students who can lead in an
environment of constant stress chaos
failure and hardships to me basic SEAL
training was a lifetime of challenges
crammed into six months so here the 10
lessons I learned from basic SEAL
training that hopefully will be of value
to you as you move forward in life every
morning in SEAL training my instructors
who at the time were all Vietnam
veterans would show up in my barracks
room and the first thing they do is
inspect my bed if you did it right
the corners would be square the covers
would be pulled tight the pillows
centered just under the headboard and
the extra blanket folded neatly at the
foot of the rack it was a simple task
mundane at best but every morning we
were required to make our bed to
perfection it seemed a little ridiculous
at the time particularly in light of the
fact that we were aspiring to be real
warriors tough battle-hardened seals but
the wisdom of this simple act has been
proven to me many times over if you make
your bed every morning you will have
accomplished the first task of the day
it will give you a small sense of pride
and it will encourage you to do another
task and another and another
and by the end of the day that one task
completed will have turned into mini
task completed making your bed will also
reinforce the fact that the little
things in life matter if you can’t do
the little things right you’ll never be
able to do the big things right and if
by chance you have a miserable day you
will come home to a bed that is made
[Music]
that you made and a made bed gives you
encouragement that tomorrow will be
better so if you want to change the
world start off by making your bed
during seal training the students during
training the students are all broken
down into boat crews each crew is seven
students three on each side of a small
rubber boat and one Coxon to help guide
the dinghy
every day your boat crew forms up on the
beach and is instructed to get through
the surf zone and paddle several miles
down the coast in the winter the surf
off San Diego can get to be eight to ten
feet high and it is exceedingly
difficult to paddle route through the
plunging surf unless everyone digs in
every paddle must be synchronized to the
stroke count of the Coxon everyone must
exert equal effort or the boat will turn
against the wave and be unceremoniously
dumped back on the beach for the boat to
make it to its destination
everyone must paddle you can’t change
the world alone you will need some help
and to truly get from your starting
point to your destination takes friends
colleagues the good will of strangers
and a strong Coxon to guide you if you
want to change the world find someone to
help you paddle over a few weeks of
difficult training my seal class which
started with a hundred fifty men was
down to just 42 there were now six boat
crews of seven men each I was in the
boat with the tall guys but the best
boat crew we had was made up of little
guys the Munchkin crew we called him
no one was over five foot five the bunch
can both crew had one American Indian
one African American one Polish American
one Greek American one Italian American
and two tough kids from the Midwest they
out paddled out ran and out swam all the
other boat crews the big men and the
other boat crews will always make
good-natured fun of the tiny little
flippers the munchkins put on their tiny
little feet prior to every swim but
somehow these little guys from every
corner of the nation in the world always
have the last laugh sewing faster than
everyone and reaching the shore long
before the rest of us
SIL training was a great equalizer
nothing mattered but your will to
succeed not your color not your ethnic
background that’s your education that’s
your social status if you want to change
the world measure a person by the size
of their heart not by the size of their
flippers several times a week the
instructors would line up the class and
do a uniform inspection it was
exceptionally thorough your hat had to
be perfectly starched your uniform
immaculately pressed your belt buckles
shiny and void of any smudges but it
seemed that no matter how much effort
you put in the starch in your hat or
press in your uniform or polishing your
belt buckle it just wasn’t good enough
the instructors would find something
wrong for failing uniform inspection the
student had to run fully clothed into
the surf zone then wet from head to toe
roll around on the beach until every
part of your body was covered with sand
the effect was known as a sugar cookie
you stayed in the uniform the rest of
the day cold wet and Sandy there were
many a student who just couldn’t accept
the fact that all their efforts were in
vain that no matter how hard they tried
to get the uniform right they went
unappreciated those students didn’t make
it through training those students
didn’t understand the purpose of the
drill you were never going to succeed
you were never going to have a perfect
uniform the instructors weren’t going to
allow it sometimes no matter how well
you prepare or how well you perform you
still end up as a sugar cookie it’s just
the way life is sometimes if you want to
change the world
get over being a sugar cookie and keep
moving forward every day during training
you were challenged with multiple
physical events long runs long swims
obstacle courses hours of calisthenics
something designed to test your mettle
every event had standards times you had
to meet if you fail to meet those times
those standards your name was posted on
a list
and at the end of the day those on the
list were invited to a circus a circus
was two hours of additional calisthenics
designed to wear you down to break your
spirit to force you to quit no one
wanted a circus a circus meant that for
that day you didn’t measure a circus
meant more fatigue and more fatigue
meant that the following day would be
more difficult and more circuses were
likely but at some time during seal
training everyone everyone made the
circus list but an interesting and
interesting thing happened to those who
were constantly on the list over time
those students who did two hours of
extra calisthenics gets stronger and
stronger the pain of the circuses built
inner strength and physical resiliency
life is filled with circuses you will
fail you will likely fail often it will
be painful it will be discouraging at
times it will test you to your very core
but if you don’t if you want to change
the world don’t be afraid of the
circuses at least twice a week the
trainees were required to run the
obstacle course the obstacle course
contained 25 obstacles including the
10-foot wall a 30-foot cargo net a
barbed wire crawl to name a few but the
most challenging obstacle was the slide
for life
it had a three level 30-foot tower at
one end and a one level Tower at the
other in between was a 200-foot long
rope you had to climb the three tiered
Tower and once at the top you grabbed
the Rope swung underneath the rope and
pulled yourself hand over hand until you
got to the other end the record for the
obstacle course had stood for years when
my class began in 1977 the record seemed
unbeatable until one day a student
decided to go down the slide for life
headfirst instead of swinging his body
underneath the rope and inching his way
down he bravely mounted the top of the
rope and thrust himself forward it was a
dangerous move seemingly foolish and
fraught with risk failure could be an
injury and being dropped from the course
without
stationed the students slid down the
road perilously fast instead of several
minutes it only took him half that time
and by the end of the course he had
broken the record if you want to change
the world sometimes you have to slide
down the obstacles headfirst
during the land warfare phase of
training the students are flown out to
San Clemente Island which lies off the
coast of San Diego the waters off San
Clemente are a breeding ground for the
great white sharks to pass seal training
they’re a series of long swims it must
be completed one is the night swim
before the swim the instructors joyfully
brief the students on all the species of
sharks that inhabit the waters off San
Clemente they assure you however that no
student has ever been eaten by a shark
at least not that they can remember but
you are also taught that if a shark
begins to circle your position stand
your ground do not swim away
do not act afraid and if the shark
hungry for a midnight snack darts
towards you then summons up all your
strength and punch him in the snout and
he will turn and swim away there are a
lot of sharks in the world if you hope
to complete the swim you will have to
deal with them so if you want to change
the world don’t back down from the
Sharks as Navy SEAL is one of our jobs
is to conduct underwater attacks against
enemy shipping we practice this
technique extensively during training
the ship attack mission is where a pair
of SEAL divers is dropped off outside an
enemy harbor and then swims well over
two miles underwater using nothing but a
depth gauge and a compass to get to the
target
during the entire swim even well below
the surface there is some light that
comes through it is comforting to know
that there is open water above you but
as you approach the ship which is tied
to appear the light begins to fade the
steel structure the ship blocks the
moonlight it blocks the surrounding
street lamps it blocks all ambient light
to be successful in your mission you
have to swim under the ship and find the
keel the centerline and the deepest part
of the ship this is your objective but
the keel is also the darkest part of the
ship where you cannot see your hand in
front of your face
where the noise from the ship’s
machinery is deafening and where it gets
to be easily disoriented and you can
fail every seal knows that under the
keel at that darkest moment of the
mission is the time when you need to be
calm when you must be calm when you must
be composed when all your tactical
skills your physical power and your
inner strength must be brought to bear
if you want to change the world you must
be your very best in the darkest moments
the ninth week of training is referred
to as hell week it is six days of no
sleep constant physical and mental
harassment and one special day at the
mud flats the mud flats are an area
between San Diego and Tijuana where the
rat water runs off and creates the
Tijuana sloughs a swampy patch of
terrain where the mud will engulf you it
is on Wednesday of hell week but you
paddle down and the mud flats and spend
the next 15 hours trying to survive this
freezing cold the howling wind and the
incessant pressure to quit from the
instructors as the Sun began to set that
Wednesday evening my training class
having committed some egregious
infraction of the rules was ordered into
the mud
the mud consumed each man till there was
nothing visible but our heads
the instructors told us we could leave
the mud if only five men would quit only
5 mins just 5 men and we could get out
of the oppressive cold looking around
the mud flat it was apparent that some
students were about to give up it was
still over 8 hours till the Sun came up
8 more hours of bone-chilling cold a
chattering teeth and shivering moans of
the trainees were so loud it was hard to
hear anything and then one voice began
to echo through the night one voice
raised in song the song was terribly out
of ten but sung with great enthusiasm
one voice became two and two became
three and before long everyone in the
class was singing the instructors
threatened us with more time in the mud
if we kept up the singing but the
singing persisted and somehow the mud
seemed a little warmer and the wind a
little tamer and the dawn not so far
away if I have learned anything in my
time traveling the world it is the power
of hope the power of one person a
Washington a Lincoln King Mandela and
even a young girl from Pakistan Malala
one person can change the world by
giving people hope so if you want to
change the world start singing when
you’re up to your neck and mud finally a
seal training there’s a bell a brass
Bell that hangs in the center of the
compound for all the students to see all
you have to do quit all you have to do
to quit is ring the bell ring the bell
and you no longer have to wake up at 5
o’clock ring the bell and you no longer
have to be in the freezing cold swims
ring the bell and you no longer have to
do the runs the obstacle course the PT
and you no longer have to endure the
hardships of training
all you have to do is ring the bell to
get out if you want to change the world
don’t ever ever ring the bell to the
class of 2014 you are moments away from
graduating moments away from beginning
your journey through life moments away
from starting to change the world for
the better it will not be easy but you
are the class of 2014 the class that can
affect the lives of 800 million people
in the next century start each day with
a task completed find someone to help
you through life respect everyone know
the life is not fair and that you will
fail often but if you take some risks
step up on the time through the toughest
faced down the bullies lift up the
downtrodden and never ever give up if
you do these things the next generation
and the generations that follow will
live in a world far better than the one
we have today and what started here will
indeed have changed the world for the
better thank you very much welcome horns [Applause]