Influence: 10 things you can learn from Retired Navy SEAL Admiral William H. Mc Raven

In 2014 in Austin Texas, retired?Navy SEAL Admiral?William H. Mc Raven gave one of the?most famous commencement speech?ever. At the time I write this article, it has been viewed on Youtube?more than 50 million times. Rivaling and maybe even?surpassing Steve Jobs?commencement speech at?Stanford University?in 2005.

Admiral William Mc Raven has served in the US Navy as a?Navy SEAL?and gradually went up the ranks to finally be?in charge?of the coordination of?all Special Forces units?of the US Army, Navy and Air Force…He was responsible of the?SEAL team Six?unit that?killed Ousama Bin Laden?in 2011.

In his 2014 commencement address, William H. Mc Raven gave?10 advices?to “influence others and change the world”.

Whether you want to change the world, influence others or simply live a better life, I am sure you will find here below something that can help you or help people around you.

Enjoy the read and comment here below what you think is the best advice for you!

Wanting to change the world is an aspiration that a lot of young people have. This strong motivation is often linked to the energy that is needed to leave their parent’s home and the positive attitude that is required to create a life for themselves.

But is that realistic to want to change the word when you can barely take care of yourself?

Here William H. Mc Raven offers the suggestion that if you can influence 10 people in your lifetime, which will happen for sure, these 10 people will themselves influence another 10 people, who themselves will influence another 10 people…And by Mc Raven calculation will lead to the influence of 800 million people in 100 years…

So, a first message here is that you have a responsibility. Even if you don’t have big plans for yourself and the world, you are the center of a network and people will be influenced by your attitude and actions.

Let’s see here below through the stories gathered by William H. Mc Raven in the selection process to become a Navy SEAL how you can become a positive influence in the world …

1???????Make your bed every morning

As Mc Raven explains it, the first task that is asked of you in the selection course to become a Navy SEAL is to make your bed properly every morning. This task seems mundane and “not really sexy”, especially if you are dreaming of action, of having an impact on the world, of changing things around you… But how could we trust you with big things if you can’t do the small things properly first? Big accomplishments are the result of small and simple actions repeated every day.?

Jim Rohn use to say: “Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.”

Make sure that the little things you repeat every day lead you in the right direction.

2???????Work as a team

A big part of the selection process to become a Navy SEAL operator involves runs and races on or under small, inflated rubber boats. These things are heavy as hell and tired candidates tend to reduce their participation to the group effort as they fatigue. But this does get noticed quickly. It takes the whole team paddling in the same direction to pass through big waves or to carry these sand filled boats over their heads. SEAL candidates not carrying their fair share of the load will be rejected by the group.

Sure you need to be strong and self-reliant, but it takes a village to make one of us successful…Be a team player!

3???????The will to succeed is the only differentiator

At BUDS (Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL training), boat teams are organized by height.

There is always a team gathering the smallest candidates, generally men around 5,5 feet tall.?

They are called different names, one of them being the “Smurfs team”. Men being men, jokes fly around about the height of the smallest candidates. But it is not too rare, despite the smaller size of their fins for the Smurfs team to win races or swims…

At BUDS, what matters is not the size of your feet, the color of your skin, or your religion but the intensity of your will to win…

4???????Life is unfair, get over it!

During selection, weekly inspections of the barracks by “out of control” instructors are common. Young recruits often sacrifice a week-end with their family and friends to spend extra time to clean their room the best they can. They have been briefed regularly on how to do it best and they know that a room not clean enough will result in additional punishment.

What they don’t always know is that, it does not matter how clean the room is, they often will be punished anyway…

Is that out of cruelty? Sadism in the part of the instructor? No! It is a way to teach an important lesson…

Life is unfair! Sometimes you do everything right and it still does not work…Get over it!

5???????Work hard, be resilient

When recruits don’t perform at the right standards, or simply can’t follow the rest of the group, they often receive extra punishment sessions called “Circus sessions”. They consist of 2 hours of extra calisthenics exercises that will get them even more exhausted. This is of course adding pressure and often results in recruits dropping out because they can’t keep up with this added pressure. But this can also be the opportunity to get better. The ones who can finally go through these additional sessions develop a stronger resistance and endurance than the other recruits that finished their days earlier.

Facing difficulties is not always a curse, it is often an opportunity to make you stronger. Welcome these difficult periods when they invite themselves into your life.

6???????Take risks and be innovative

Obstacle courses are an important part of any military trainings. As you can read in the name, it is a collection of obstacles that candidates must pass trough in a limited amount of time. For years, there was an established time record for the BUDS obstacle course, and it was believed that no one could do better. One day though, a young recruit decided to try another approach on the “slide for life” obstacle. Instead of hanging under the horizontal rope that goes from one tower to the other, he decided to go over the rope and to slide downward head first. Needless to say that with the height of the rope, falling would have meant serious injury and being expelled from the selection. But the approach was successful, and the candidate even broke the time record.

Sometimes you need to take risks and be innovative if you want to win…

7???????Face the problems

During the 3rd?phase of the selection, SEAL candidates are stationed on?

Saint Clemente island to learn land navigation and explosives. During this 3rd?and last phase of the selection, they continue doing long swims in the ocean. Instructors seem to find funny to remind the participants of all the various species of sharks swimming in these waters. Telling them that “nobody had ever been attacked”, from what they could remember at least??

But if a shark would show interest in taking a bite, they should face the shark and confront it instead of swimming away.

In life, you will face difficulties and bullies. Don’t run away from these challenges, but confront them head on!

8???????Stay calm and be the best in the worst situations

One of the skills that Navy SEAL operators have to develop is the ability to sneak at night under an enemy boat in a harbor to attach a bomb. In the dark of night, under a pale moon light, Navy SEAL divers swim in pairs and reach the lowest part of the boat. This is the place where it is the darkest. They can’t see their hands in front of their faces. And yet they have to remain calm and execute the mission.

When the times are hard, when it is dark around you, you have to stay calm and be at your best!

9???????Stay hopeful, one person can make a difference

“Hell week” is one of the worst phase of the selection process of Navy SEALs. It usually starts on a Sunday night and finishes on the following Friday afternoon. During this 5 days period, young recruits will sleep a maximum of 3 hours and will be constantly required to perform physical challenges and group exercises. The group of applicants will be taken to “the mud fields” of San Diego Bay and will be stuck in there for hours with just their heads sticking out of the mud.

At night, this punishment is designed to isolate the weakest men and to invite them to quit. The instructors tell the group that all they need is to have 5 quitters to get the others out of the mud to enjoy the comfort of a fire that awaits them on the side of the mud pits.

What happens sometimes is that one of the recruits will start singing. Slowly, others will join the improvised choir and this little song will warm up the hearts of these exhausted men…and none quits…

Sometimes, all it takes is one person to take the initiative. Others will follow…Be that guy! Don’t wait on the side…

10???Don’t quit, don’t ring the bell

All through BUDS, applicants have the opportunity to quit. All they have to do is to ring the bell 3 times. Wherever they go, the bell follows. So if they don’t want to take the punishment anymore, all they have to do is to ask the instructor to ring the bell and lay down their helmet and they are out of this nightmarish situation. Everybody will think about quitting at some point. Most candidates will go through a phase of discouragement. But the ones who become Navy SEALs simply don’t act on that doubt, they simply don’t quit…

Life is hard…you will be challenged…just don’t quit!

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