Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2014. Titles are as of that month, with McRaven as head of US Special Operations Command and 36 years as a SEAL. He retired from the Navy later in 2014.
William H. McRaven, commander of US Special Operations Command and the man who organized the raid on Osama bin Laden, was the guest of honor at the University of Texas commencement ceremony, where he shared some lessons for success in life with the graduates, whatever profession they go on to choose.
It does not matter what your gender, ethnic or religious background, orientation or social status is. That is how he began his speech. McRaven has spent 36 years in the SEALs, the toughest, best-trained and most disciplined combat force in practically the whole world, where there is no room for weak minds and where more than half of the candidates are turned away in the final tests because they cannot get through the training. The lessons McRaven gives us are simply impressive.
William H. McRaven’s lessons for success
1. If you want to succeed… it all starts with making your bed every morning
This is not an analogy. McRaven recounts that when he joined the Marines, his instructors, all of them Vietnam veterans, would show up in his room every morning, and the first thing they did was inspect the bed.
The bed could not have a single wrinkle, the pillow had to be perfectly centered at the head of the bed, and the blanket neatly folded.
Making the bed perfectly seemed ridiculous to me at the time, especially for those of us who were training to be great warriors. Over time I learned the lesson: if you make your bed perfectly every morning, you will have successfully completed the first task of the day, and as the day goes on you will have other small tasks to do.
Completing them perfectly will encourage you to do another task, and another.
By the end of the day, it all adds up to many small tasks completed successfully. That reminds you that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.
2. You won’t succeed alone, so you need to find people to help you paddle
There were 150 men in my class. A few months later only 35 of us were left. Those 35 people were willing to go the distance with you, and the hard exercises demanded that comradeship.
One tough exercise involved leaving us in the middle of the ocean in a rowing boat. We had to reach the shore, so each of my classmates had to row together with the others. If the boat reached the shore, it was the work of the whole team.
It did not matter what color your classmate was or where he came from. You knew he was worth it when the boat reached the shore, or when he gave everything he had trying, together with the rest of the group.
3. If you want to succeed, accept that life is going to be very hard
McRaven describes how the instructors always found an excuse to punish you for anything, for the most trivial faults. Whether it was a wrinkle in your uniform or a belt buckle that had not been polished properly, the instructor would make you run along the beach on a course that left you covered in sand, cold and wet. The trainees ended up looking like what is known as a “sugar cookie”.
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Many trainees quit because they could not accept the fact that, whatever they did, they should always have done it much better, until they came to believe their effort had been in vain. Whatever you do, it will never be acknowledged.
Life lesson:
You will never fully succeed. You will never have the perfect uniform or the perfect bed. As in life, it does not matter how well you prepare or how well you do things. You will always be criticized for something. You just have to be ready to be that “sugar cookie”.
4. If you want to succeed, don’t be afraid of life’s circuits
Every day of training was a new challenge, with multiple tests of physical endurance, obstacle courses, grueling exercises and so on. Just when you thought you were more than ready, you could always stumble on one of the tests.
Making the tests harder and harder had only one purpose: to wear you down physically and mentally until you quit, to break your unbreakable fighting spirit and send you home. You knew every day would be harder still, with even tougher circuits.
Life lesson:
Life is full of circuits. You are going to fail, probably often. It will be very painful and discouraging, and at times life will test your physical, mental and emotional endurance. Quitting or carrying on fighting is a choice people make. Cowards tend to quit because they will not accept that life is a constant endurance test.
5. If you want to succeed, don’t be afraid of the sharks
In life you will meet many sharks: usually people far more powerful than you, with more means and resources. In this case, though, McRaven is talking about sharks literally.
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He explains that there was an exercise off San Clemente, in waters that are a breeding ground for large sharks, and part of the training took place in those waters.
McRaven says that no shark has ever eaten a trainee, at least not recently. One of the most feared animals can be beaten by a single man if you know how the shark behaves.
The shark starts by watching you and circling your position. At that moment you have to stand your ground, not swim away and not act afraid. The shark is actually a very lazy animal looking for easy prey.
As soon as it comes in to attack, punch it on the snout several times with all your strength, and it will probably lose interest in eating you and swim away.
Life lesson:
There are many sharks in the world. To get through successfully you will have to deal with them, but above all, you must not be afraid. Defending yourself from a shark is useless, so you must attack it firmly as soon as there is an imminent threat.
6. When you’re up to your neck in muck, sing!
The ninth week of training is known as “Hell Week”. It is six days without sleep, constant physical and mental harassment, and the crossing of terrain where the mud can swallow you. To top it all off, the last 15 hours consist of surviving completely covered in that cold mud, practically frozen.
The instructor tells us that for us to get out of the mud, only five trainees have to quit. In other words, if just five trainees decide to quit, training will be over for good for the rest.
Clearly some trainees cannot bear it and give up. Others think about it but wait for someone else to quit first. Every single bone in your body starts to ache. The hours are endless. Time seems to stand still. What do you do when you can’t take any more and there are still 10 unbearable hours to go? You start singing as a group. The song comes out off-key, but in the end we sing it together.
If one man can sing, another can, and if they can, we all can.
Life lesson:
When you think you can’t take any more, when you are going through unbearable moments, just sing. Don’t let it finish you off.
7. If you want to succeed, never ring the bell
Throughout this grueling training there is always a bell. When you think you can’t go on, all you have to do is ring the bell, and the early mornings, the sleepless days and the cold are over; you will not have to run obstacle courses or go through any of these hardships.
Ring the bell and all the suffering will be over.
Of course, by ringing that bell you will go back to your comfortable life, but you will have given up your dream of becoming a SEAL. Clearly, if you ring the bell, you were not really cut out to be a SEAL, because this force is made of special stuff.
Life lesson:
Success is for people who are made of special stuff. They do not give up, and they face up to difficulties. The rest just ring the bell to go back to their comfort zone. Success is not for that kind of person. It would be unfair.
This article is based on the speech by William H. McRaven, originally published and transcribed on the University of Texas website, and has been edited and adapted. The quoted passages are paraphrases, not a verbatim transcript.
Further reading
Featured image: United States Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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