Admiral Bob Harward

It’s not the change that makes it hard for service members to take off the uniform—hell, we’re used to deploying and changing jobs frequently—it’s the change in purpose. Purpose is the engine that drives you.

We fail to balance professional training with the same kind of personal training. And that’s some of why the Gouge is so important. We’re focusing on that personal attention. Those are tools and processes that help you balance that professional training with those personal skills you need to take care of your family, to take care of yourself, and to understand what you’re going to do with your money so that when you do leave the service, you’re in a position where you have choices.

For the Gouge to work, you need a little faith. This isn’t faith in something unseen. It’s taking stock of the man or woman next to you and having faith that they are going to do what needs to be done for the common good. I’ve always had faith in the chain that connects society. That human need for community. It is a building block of the Gouge, but more than that, it is essential because if you don’t have faith in one another, there is no trust, no passing of information or guidance, and the whole system breaks down.

Accountability and confrontation are aligned. If you’re going to avoid confrontation, you’ll never hold anyone accountable, and I see a lot of that in the business world. To really be successful, to reach the gold standard, you need both confrontation and accountability. You need to be able to harness, understand, and leverage confrontation in a constructive, productive manner as part of your accountability.

If the Gouge is a contract with humanity, then that contract extends to every community. Living the Gouge meant finding common ground with all races, creeds, sexes, and classes.

No one loves you more than you. Do all the things that come with that: take care of yourself, invest in yourself, take the adventures, don’t hesitate, and don’t overthink it.

The training [of Hell Week] is as hard on your body as it is on your mind. But at the end of the day, instructors aren’t counting reps or checking times. They are testing one thing—desire. Do you want to be a SEAL? Hell Week will get the answer and if you make it, one thing is certain: you’ll never quit.

If Gouge is about the information that links all of us together, our purpose is the bedrock on which Gouge is built. It determines who you are, reinforces your belief, and ultimately determines your success. In the military, we reinforce that purpose of doing what our nation needs to do to remain a country whose purpose is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is what makes us a great nation, in that we are willing to use our most precious assets—our people—to fight for these same principles anywhere in the world.

An ounce of Gouge is worth a pound of knowledge.