so I know it’s I know it’s traditional
to read from the book but that’s boring
so I figured what I would do is just
share some stories and I can answer some
questions on how this book came to be
and and why there’s even another book
and this book was very very very
difficult the book was actually due
September of 2012 and I knew that I was
going to be late and I remember sitting
down I had lunch with Adrian and I had
to tell him I was gonna miss my
contractual deadline you know where if
you missed the deadline you give all the
money back and nothing you know and this
is what I said to him these were exact
words I said the time it’s taking me to
understand this idea does not correspond
with the arbitrary date you put in my
contract so he said I can have until
December and ten months later I had it
in the book and the reason this book was
difficult is because it took three
significant turns the book that I set
out to write is not the book that ended
up writing because I cannot learning
more and more and more that was
profoundly impacting me the way I lived
my life the way I saw the world the way
I perceived the way organizations
functioned and I had to try and capture
that in pass pass on what I was learning
here’s where the book came from I’ve had
the great privilege of spending time
with our United States military
they’re pretty special human beings and
I got to meet what we call heroes
and people who did risk their lives to
save others I got to meet some of them
and I’ll tell you one story and it’s the
it’s the it’s the opening story of the
book so if you buy the book you can just
get the date was August 16th 2002 and
there was a team of special operations
forces 22 special operations forces
working their way through a valley in
Afghanistan they were extracting what
the government calls a high-value target
it was very cloudy dark night no stars
were out the clouds were thick and these
special operations forces in the ground
felt nervous they could sense something
bad was gonna happen they could just
feel it in their bones high above the
clouds were two a-10 warthogs which are
slow flying heavily armored aircraft
designed to provide low ground support
for the troops on the ground
they basically fly around and you know
help out the troops on the ground one of
the pilots in one of the a-10 that night
has a cosine Johnny Bravo yes he stands
like this
Johnny Bravo
the only contact he had with them was
over the radio he could sense their
nerves not sure he made a decision to go
down below the clouds to have a look you
told his wingman just hang out up here
I’m gonna go down and take a look and so
he points his plane down into the clouds
turbulence it throws him about and when
he just sees he’s been through the
clouds the call came over the radio the
troops radioed up to him troops in
contact and that’s what they say when
they come under effective fire in other
words bad things are happening so now
there’s no question Johnny Bravo had to
get down there he makes his way down
through the clouds when he eventually
pops out beneath the clouds he’s less
than
thousand feet off the ground few hundred
feet off the ground in the valley that’s
maybe a mile mile and a half at its
widest this is only 2002 and we didn’t
yet have ground-hugging radar and so he
had to his old Russian Maps that’s what
we were using back then old Russian maps
he knew his speed and he knew his
distance and traveling at about 400
miles an hour counted out loud to
himself before he hit a cliff he trained
his guns and where he saw this tracer
fire coming from it and the sight that
greeted him is such thing like he’d
never even seen in the movies he’s just
so much fire raining on these guys in
the middle he just picked a point just
tried to suppress the fire and counter
that loud one one thousand two one
thousand three one thousand four one
thousand before he pulls hard on his
stick and goes around again one one
thousand two one thousand three one
thousand four one thousand again closes
haiji turn and goes around again one one
thousand two one thousand three one
thousand four one thousand runs out of
ammunition fuel is good runs out of
ammunition points his plane up goes to
the top of the clouds and tells his
wingman you need to get back down there
then the wingman says ok Johnny Bravo
says follow me the two of them go back
down again they’re flying three feet
apart from each other wing to wing three
feet back into the valley
Johnny Bravo counts and his wingman down
lays down the suppressive fire one one
thousand two one thousand three one
thousand four one thousand five others
and again one one thousand two one
thousand three one thousand four one
thousand five hundred that night twenty
two Americans went home with zero
casualties
somebody told me the story as I was
driving across Hulbert field down in
Pensacola Florida redneck Riviera now we
get to where we were going to tell us we
were going to and we walk in and there’s
a guy standing at the coffee machine and
my friend goes oh I want you to meet
somebody
this is Johnny Bravo I literally met him
five minutes after I heard this story
coincidentally I got to talking to
Johnny Bravo and I asked him why why why
would you do that like why would you
risk your life to save others and his
answer is the same as everyone who risks
their life to save others it’s the same
in the military they all say the same
thing because they would have done it
for me he goes on to tell me that there
are fates worse than death one fate
worse than death
exacts it ugly killing your own men
another fate worse than death is going
home alive 122 don’t do the question I
asked myself getting to spend the time
with these and remarkable human beings
is why are they like that like where did
these people come from you know in the
military they give medals to people who
are willing to sacrifice themselves that
others may gain in business we give
bonuses to people who are willing to
sacrifice others so that we may gain
that every single one of us has the
capacity to be like Johnny Bravo better
every single person with whom we work
has the capacity to be like Johnny Bravo
in other words when you’re struggling
when you’re in pain when you don’t think
you can do well you’re not sure you can
make the deadline when you’re when you
have something going on at home that’s
distracting you that someone sitting
next to you says I got your back and the
only reason they do it is because they
know you do the same for them and that’s
what this book is about that’s what I
found out about it’s about the
environment
and leaders set the tone and by the way
leadership has nothing to do with rank
either you can be the head of the
organization and not be a leader and you
can be at the bottom of the organization
I just noticed something I’ll tell you
in a minute tell you two things and you
can be at the bottom of the organization
to absolutely be a leader leadership is
a choice and is the choice to look after
the person to the left of you and the
person to the right of you that’s all it
is the closest thing the closest example
I can I can give you to what a leader
truly is it’s like a parent every parent
wants to see their kids grow up to be
strong they want to provide education
and opportunity discipline them
unnecessary and they would always feed
their children before they feed
themselves that’s what leadership is
it’s the commitment to put others before
yourself that’s all it is and when it
matters being willing to give up the
perks you afforded as a leader so that
others may prevail that’s all it is this
experience and writing this book is the
hardest thing I’ve ever done and my my
fear is that I haven’t captured what I
learned in the book accurately you know
the full capacity so I hope you get out
of it as much as I did in writing it so
thank you very very much
you get done you stand like this Johnny
Bravo
it’s people like this that I’ve had the
great honour to meet that they inspire
me
touch there
to read from the book but that’s boring
so I figured what I would do is just
share some stories and I can answer some
questions on how this book came to be
and and why there’s even another book
and this book was very very very
difficult the book was actually due
September of 2012 and I knew that I was
going to be late and I remember sitting
down I had lunch with Adrian and I had
to tell him I was gonna miss my
contractual deadline you know where if
you missed the deadline you give all the
money back and nothing you know and this
is what I said to him these were exact
words I said the time it’s taking me to
understand this idea does not correspond
with the arbitrary date you put in my
contract so he said I can have until
December and ten months later I had it
in the book and the reason this book was
difficult is because it took three
significant turns the book that I set
out to write is not the book that ended
up writing because I cannot learning
more and more and more that was
profoundly impacting me the way I lived
my life the way I saw the world the way
I perceived the way organizations
functioned and I had to try and capture
that in pass pass on what I was learning
here’s where the book came from I’ve had
the great privilege of spending time
with our United States military
they’re pretty special human beings and
I got to meet what we call heroes
and people who did risk their lives to
save others I got to meet some of them
and I’ll tell you one story and it’s the
it’s the it’s the opening story of the
book so if you buy the book you can just
get the date was August 16th 2002 and
there was a team of special operations
forces 22 special operations forces
working their way through a valley in
Afghanistan they were extracting what
the government calls a high-value target
it was very cloudy dark night no stars
were out the clouds were thick and these
special operations forces in the ground
felt nervous they could sense something
bad was gonna happen they could just
feel it in their bones high above the
clouds were two a-10 warthogs which are
slow flying heavily armored aircraft
designed to provide low ground support
for the troops on the ground
they basically fly around and you know
help out the troops on the ground one of
the pilots in one of the a-10 that night
has a cosine Johnny Bravo yes he stands
like this
Johnny Bravo
the only contact he had with them was
over the radio he could sense their
nerves not sure he made a decision to go
down below the clouds to have a look you
told his wingman just hang out up here
I’m gonna go down and take a look and so
he points his plane down into the clouds
turbulence it throws him about and when
he just sees he’s been through the
clouds the call came over the radio the
troops radioed up to him troops in
contact and that’s what they say when
they come under effective fire in other
words bad things are happening so now
there’s no question Johnny Bravo had to
get down there he makes his way down
through the clouds when he eventually
pops out beneath the clouds he’s less
than
thousand feet off the ground few hundred
feet off the ground in the valley that’s
maybe a mile mile and a half at its
widest this is only 2002 and we didn’t
yet have ground-hugging radar and so he
had to his old Russian Maps that’s what
we were using back then old Russian maps
he knew his speed and he knew his
distance and traveling at about 400
miles an hour counted out loud to
himself before he hit a cliff he trained
his guns and where he saw this tracer
fire coming from it and the sight that
greeted him is such thing like he’d
never even seen in the movies he’s just
so much fire raining on these guys in
the middle he just picked a point just
tried to suppress the fire and counter
that loud one one thousand two one
thousand three one thousand four one
thousand before he pulls hard on his
stick and goes around again one one
thousand two one thousand three one
thousand four one thousand again closes
haiji turn and goes around again one one
thousand two one thousand three one
thousand four one thousand runs out of
ammunition fuel is good runs out of
ammunition points his plane up goes to
the top of the clouds and tells his
wingman you need to get back down there
then the wingman says ok Johnny Bravo
says follow me the two of them go back
down again they’re flying three feet
apart from each other wing to wing three
feet back into the valley
Johnny Bravo counts and his wingman down
lays down the suppressive fire one one
thousand two one thousand three one
thousand four one thousand five others
and again one one thousand two one
thousand three one thousand four one
thousand five hundred that night twenty
two Americans went home with zero
casualties
somebody told me the story as I was
driving across Hulbert field down in
Pensacola Florida redneck Riviera now we
get to where we were going to tell us we
were going to and we walk in and there’s
a guy standing at the coffee machine and
my friend goes oh I want you to meet
somebody
this is Johnny Bravo I literally met him
five minutes after I heard this story
coincidentally I got to talking to
Johnny Bravo and I asked him why why why
would you do that like why would you
risk your life to save others and his
answer is the same as everyone who risks
their life to save others it’s the same
in the military they all say the same
thing because they would have done it
for me he goes on to tell me that there
are fates worse than death one fate
worse than death
exacts it ugly killing your own men
another fate worse than death is going
home alive 122 don’t do the question I
asked myself getting to spend the time
with these and remarkable human beings
is why are they like that like where did
these people come from you know in the
military they give medals to people who
are willing to sacrifice themselves that
others may gain in business we give
bonuses to people who are willing to
sacrifice others so that we may gain
that every single one of us has the
capacity to be like Johnny Bravo better
every single person with whom we work
has the capacity to be like Johnny Bravo
in other words when you’re struggling
when you’re in pain when you don’t think
you can do well you’re not sure you can
make the deadline when you’re when you
have something going on at home that’s
distracting you that someone sitting
next to you says I got your back and the
only reason they do it is because they
know you do the same for them and that’s
what this book is about that’s what I
found out about it’s about the
environment
and leaders set the tone and by the way
leadership has nothing to do with rank
either you can be the head of the
organization and not be a leader and you
can be at the bottom of the organization
I just noticed something I’ll tell you
in a minute tell you two things and you
can be at the bottom of the organization
to absolutely be a leader leadership is
a choice and is the choice to look after
the person to the left of you and the
person to the right of you that’s all it
is the closest thing the closest example
I can I can give you to what a leader
truly is it’s like a parent every parent
wants to see their kids grow up to be
strong they want to provide education
and opportunity discipline them
unnecessary and they would always feed
their children before they feed
themselves that’s what leadership is
it’s the commitment to put others before
yourself that’s all it is and when it
matters being willing to give up the
perks you afforded as a leader so that
others may prevail that’s all it is this
experience and writing this book is the
hardest thing I’ve ever done and my my
fear is that I haven’t captured what I
learned in the book accurately you know
the full capacity so I hope you get out
of it as much as I did in writing it so
thank you very very much
you get done you stand like this Johnny
Bravo
it’s people like this that I’ve had the
great honour to meet that they inspire
me
touch there
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