Every moment of a SEAL’s life is geared toward the Team! The word Team encompasses everything from the platoon to our entire country. In the Teams, men work relentlessly with their Teammates and face incredible odds to accomplish their missions.

What would you think if your boss told you that you were going to push a boat out of an airplane at night and then jump out after it, deploying your own parachute and chasing the boat to the water with seven other people and without the help of any lights? Next, you’ll need to maneuver out of your parachute and get the boat operational in ten minutes, because you have to pick up eight more men who are about to jump into the water. Then you’ll have to paddle for several hours and rendezvous at a predesignated meeting point—all under the cloak of one night’s darkness. A sixteen-man Team—two officers and fourteen enlisted men—complete all the planning, preparation, coordination, supervision, and execution of such a mission.

That mission is just the one you’ll be doing this week. Every day of this week and the next, and the next after that, you will be responsible for the lives of your Team members, either in training or in combat. The only way you can survive is to trust your Team and be trusted by them. You can’t think only of yourself. Everyone’s life depends on each member thinking as a Team. This is my life, and this is how I survive. The principles of SEAL Team leadership and cohesiveness apply to all Teams; and strong Teams, in business and in life, are ruthlessly effective in achieving their common goals.

I am an active-duty Navy SEAL and will not use my real name or that of any of my brothers. Many of my closest friends are also still on active duty, and it would be inappropriate to proffer their identities as well. I have built this book, however, with stories from my own experience. Lead by example, build a stronger Team, and over time you will create a successful business and career.

To get a shot at SEAL training, you must exhibit initiative and determination. It isn’t easy to get into BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL), which is the initial training prospective SEALs must go through. Determination is the key. Out of about every three hundred men who say they want to be SEALs, probably one hundred mean it and only about twenty actually make the necessary effort. The day I tested, only five of seventeen sailors passed the initial screening for BUD/S. And even then inclusion was not guaranteed. It took me over eight months to convince my command to let me go and secure orders to BUD/S.

Over a year after my initial screening I arrived in sunny Coronado, California, to attend BUD/S at the Naval Special Warfare Center. My class started with 129 men who swore they wouldn’t quit. After seven months, 114 couldn’t keep their word.

The daily BUD/S schedule was part of the reason. In First Phase, the initial aspects of Team building weed out those who do not belong. The days and nights are filled with a series of physical challenges, called evolutions, performed in a continuous rotation. During the right of passage called Hell Week, a man might get an hour and a half of sleep from Sunday morning to Friday evening, all the while working nonstop.

In Second Phase, the physical standards get tougher and an intense diving curriculum begins. The underwater aspect of SEAL operations is extremely serious, and those who don’t have the physical stamina or can’t keep their wits about them underwater in the pitch dark tend to volunteer to leave the program here.

Third Phase demands that sailors reach the highest physical and mental standards. Not many men are lost during this time, however, because those who would prefer another profession and those who could not meet the strength requirements have already quit.

Throughout this training, SEAL instructors never let you forget that you are seeking membership in a volunteer organization. They realize that they may someday work with you and that their lives will depend on your competence. They have a vested interest in the quality of their students. In the meantime, they continually monitor those who are wavering and offer to help these men find a niche in the Navy if it turns out that being a SEAL is not their priority.

If you have been assigned a task, you had better seriously evaluate your ability to complete it. There is no honor in accepting a remarkably daunting task if you can’t get it done correctly. Lives depend on you. You should not shelter yourself in menial tasks but should carefully assess all situations and take on any challenge you feel able to accomplish. Moreover, remember that once you have committed, you are in. If you suddenly find that you’re in over your head, you had better sprout gills and come up with a way to finish the job.

The point to the intensity of any training program is, and should be, to identify those who are going to work when it counts. Job titles may sound glamorous, but you need to know who is going to be there when the Team needs them the most.

“Weakest” may simply refer to the Team member carrying the heaviest load. In a SEAL platoon, the communications man usually carries the most weight, because of his radios and extra batteries. He is not weak, but he will most likely be the slowest and most encumbered member. If the point man (usually the person with the lightest load) leading the Team maintains a rapid pace, he will likely exhaust and unnecessarily wear out this important “Comm Guy.”

A Team leader will have a reason for picking each member of the Team. Recognize the attributes on which you based your choices. Make sure that all Team members know that others depend on them and that they are expected to act accordingly. You must surround yourself with “operators”—those who perform—always being mindful of the difference between the man you’d like to have around and the one you and your Team need. Job assignment is not a popularity contest; you should always choose the best person for each job.

One important thing to remember: Just because someone is new doesn’t mean he will not be able to improve upon the way business is conducted. I have noticed that at times “old guys” will ignore the “new guys” simply because they are new. Never underestimate the value of a fresh, innovative, and perhaps even abstract point of view. Diversity is good and can strengthen the Team.

SEAL instructors stress the Team concept from the beginning. Everything is done as a class. Men eat as a class, train as a class, work out as a class, learn as a class, and “pay the man” as a class. If one man screws up (the weak link for that evolution), everyone joins him in performing the assigned penalty, thereby motivating the entire Team to mend the weak member’s ways. You fall as a Team and succeed as a Team.

A BUD/S class is broken down into Boat Crews of six or seven men, fewer when several people quit. As the name suggests, each Team has the charge of a boat. An IBS (inflatable boat, small) resembles a white-water raft. Two of the most memorable Team-building exercises are Log P.T. (physical training) and surf passage. Log P.T. is done as a Boat Crew with a fifteen-foot section of a telephone pole. The instructors run the men through a series of exercises with the log, each requiring the efforts of the entire Boat Crew. If one person slacks off from his job, the others will feel how they are required to labor under the added weight.

For example, in such exercises as sit-ups, each man cradles his section of log in his arms, holding the log over his head until the instructor gets tired of watching them. My personal “favorite” was the foot races in soft sand with the log on the men’s shoulders. In order for the entire crew to “get on the log,” they’d have to turn their bodies forty-five degrees to one side, which made it even harder to run. The crew was jammed on the log and it took maximum Team coordination to prevent feet from entangling and bringing the crew to the ground in a pile of limbs followed closely by the three-hundred-pound log. Oftentimes the entire Boat Crew had to hold the log overhead, arms extended, for one minute. Arms and shoulders would be depleted of strength and many crews would fail this test repeatedly. Crews could not leave until they completed this task. I can remember occasions when it took my crew a dozen attempts before success—we would wonder how we got it the twelfth time but couldn’t do it the first time. That is what BUD/S and Team building is all about—persevering until success!

In surf passage, the Boat Crew is required to paddle its boat through the pounding surf zone to the relative calm of the waters beyond. One man calls the cadence while the rest paddle in unison to attain this common goal. This is a difficult evolution during the winter months because the waves are huge and can easily mangle the boats. If one man stops paddling while tackling a wave, the entire crew will pay as the powerful wave tosses them about like rag dolls.

Certain evolutions in BUD/S pit the Boat Crews against one another in healthy competition, commonly in the form of races, where the men run while carrying either the boat or the log as a crew or paddle to designated points. The winning Boat Crew is usually rewarded by an early release from the exercise or the chance to sit out the next race.

In Naval Special Warfare, officers and enlisted men endure the exact same training. Team members can’t help but form ties when they work closely together. All members of the Team have the same training, and though some men hold positions of leadership, they are, first and foremost, members of the Team.

Through these activities, the Teams inevitably shed some weight. As members of the Boat Crews drop out, new Teams form. It is imperative that the new crew members adapt and learn one another’s strengths and weaknesses, and prepare to face the instructor’s next labyrinth of trials. It’s all business—the individual does not have the luxury of mourning his buddy who decided to quit. At every turn, each man is reminded that he is there because he wants to be. A man can stop the pain and stress whenever he wants to, simply by telling the instructors that he has had enough and wishes to quit.

As a professional, you have a job to do. The previous examples of Team building may seem like excessively harsh training that results in staggering attrition, but such culling is necessary if you want to select only those who will not quit when it counts. The purpose of weeding out the unfit is strikingly evident when you proudly sit among those who’ve decided to stay and work for the Team.

If you make it through all the trials, you join a Team made up of life-long friends, with a “sea bag” full of confidence, an enhanced appreciation for the human spirit, and an unrivaled sense of what a true Team is.

Personal accountability is the next important lesson. If you have built a good Team, you are expected, as are the rest of the members, to be of the highest caliber. Hold yourself to these standards as you would anyone else … no excuses.

A member of an operational SEAL platoon can figure that about 60 percent of the men on his Team and those around him are experienced SEALs. The rest are new members, affectionately known as “meats.” Each platoon’s objective is to complete a yearlong workup to prepare for a six-month deployment. And, just like a Team of professionals building through development in their particular specialty, a platoon will participate in several phases of training, learning and honing their skills and tactics in several areas. Each block, or phase, will follow the same basic pattern: Learn, apply, review, evaluate, reapply, reevaluate, and then set SOPs (standard operating procedures).

Getting a job done fast is fruitless if it isn’t done right. Individuals and Teams must constantly evaluate their progress. If an individual or Team starts to lose focus, they must take a step back and review.

As a Team member, you can’t be afraid to admit that you don’t grasp a concept. If the Team is only as fast as its slowest man, you cannot hang in thinking, “I can catch up.” You must honestly evaluate your own ability and communicate forthrightly about it—for your own good and for that of the Team. When Team members are unaware of a weak link, they cannot repair it. Unnoticed, the weak link will break, costing time, money, and perhaps even lives.

One block of training for a SEAL platoon is land warfare, which consists of combat tactics and, often, live-fire drills and exercises using live explosives. Particularly dangerous are IADs (immediate action drills), designed to teach a platoon tactics and methods of breaking contact with an enemy force. These involve shooting and moving through different kinds of terrain to evade enemy fire.

In this loud and chaotic environment, the trainers keep the pressure on by setting off explosives to let the Teams know that the enemy is still out there. As the platoon sustains fire, the platoon OIC (officer in charge) looks for a way out. He must, in a matter of seconds, identify and utilize a safe escape route, or the training cadre will start “killing” his men.

The platoon also has the burden of carrying their “dead and wounded” out with them. In addition, each man needs to be aware of the condition of his firearm at all times. When a man gets his turn to jump up and run, he must flick on his safety and be careful not to sweep his buddies with his rifle muzzle, as a hot gun can “cook off” a round at any time. (A cook-off is when the chamber of the gun is hot enough to cause the round sitting in it to combust, inadvertently firing the weapon.) Since everyone is deafened by the noise of gunfire and explosions, each man screams to pass the “word” (instructions) to the next man. This is not the time to play catch-up. When a man doesn’t know what’s going on or where his people are, he can end up shooting someone or getting shot himself. What’s worse is when a man asks someone to explain a concept again, or has to make excuses for why he didn’t know where Jim was and why he shot him in the back. When SEALs train with live ordnance, they play for keeps.

In short, what’s important to the SEAL Team is important to any Team of professionals in business: Stay informed, stay alert, and stay alive.

The unwillingness or inability to think creatively will not only hinder you but will stifle the young and creative untapped innovators in your organization.

Make an anonymous suggestion box available. Let people get rankling details and complaints off their chests. As a Team leader, invite Team members to identify themselves when they drop off suggestions, pointing out that if they do, you can get in touch with them for further discussion.

You may find that most messages are nothing but empty complaints. Stress that no issue will be addressed unless the submitter also includes a viable solution. This will foster an atmosphere of ownership among the Team and innovative and fresh thinking among Team members.

If someone comes to you with a new idea, you must consider it. Barking, “We’ve done it this way for years and it works fine!” will do nothing but stifle those around you.

From time to time, go to others for their ideas. People like to be challenged. Give them the responsibility and some latitude to be creative for you.

Finding the bright side of a bad situation is better than losing your motivation. I can recall several instances when I huddled in a tiny hideout in the woods in miserable conditions. Shaking from the cold and soaking wet, I would turn to my platoon mate and whisper, “Damn, this sucks.” He’d reply, “Yeah, but it will make a great story later.” If you can find humor in a bad situation and joke about it, you will have a better chance of salvaging your attitude and coming out on top.