Admiral William H. McRaven

Admiral William H. McRaven is a Retired U.S. Navy SEAL who served for thirty-seven years and commanded at every level. As a Four-Star Admiral, his final assignment was as Commander of all U.S. Special Operations Forces. (During this time, he oversaw the covert mission that killed Osama bin Laden.) In 2014, he gave the commencement address to the graduates of the University of Texas at Austin. Millions of people wound up watching his speech on ten lessons he learned from his Navy SEAL training. This book takes a deeper look at those ten lessons. It’s a super-quick read—packed with simple, yet profound wisdom along with moving stories of moral exemplars. It's FANTASTIC.

I got this book immediately after finishing Admiral McRaven’s first book, Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe the World. That one’s a quick-reading little book on the ten lessons McRaven learned in his SEAL training that we can all apply to our modern lives. It was fantastic. I had a strong feeling this memoir on his “Life in Special Operations” would be just as good. It is. As per the back cover, “Admiral William H. McRaven is a part of American military history, having been involved in some of the most famous missions in recent memory, including the capture of Saddam Hussein, the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips, and the raid to kill Osama bin Laden.” McRaven is a brilliant story teller with, as you can imagine, an incredible array of stories to tell. But that’s not why I loved this book so much. I loved it because reading it made me want to be a better human being. If you enjoy autobiographies and appreciate the military heroes who serve our country as much as I do, I think you’ll love the book as much as I did.

This is the third Note we’ve created on Admiral William H. McRaven’s great books. We started with Make Your Bed—a short, brilliant, inspiring manual all about “Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe the World” that was inspired by McRaven’s commencement address at the University of Texas at Austin that went viral. Then we featured his autobiography called Sea Stories which is all about the wisdom he gained from his nearly four decades in special operations. This is his latest book. Of course, when I saw the title I KNEW I had to read it. And, here we are.

This is our fourth Note on one of Admiral McRaven’s great books. As we discussed in the previous Notes, as a four-star admiral, McRaven’s final assignment was as Commander of all U.S. Special Operations Forces. He served as a Navy SEAL for 37 years. By the time he hit 34 years of service, he was officially anointed as the “Bull Frog”—the longest serving frogman and Navy SEAL on active duty. This book, as per the title, is wisdom from this legendary bullfrog. McRaven distills leadership into its most fundamental components, delivering on the subtitle: “Leadership Made Simple (But Not Easy).” As you’d expect, it’s PACKED with practical wisdom.