william mcraven speech

The Full Admiral McRaven Speech Transcript

O n May 17, 2014, Former Admiral William. H. McRaven advised the graduates of the class of 2014 at the University of Texas. He served in the Navy for many years.

The former Admiral McRaven’s speech is very motivational, and the whole purpose of the speech is to show that anyone can change the world. In his speech, he gives ten suggestions on how anyone can see the world.

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What is the theme of admiral mcraven speech.

The general theme of his ‘make your bed speech’ is that anyone can change the world; all you need is the courage to do it. He also explains how giving up isn’t an option no matter what you’re going through. Eventually, it will pass, and you will win.

Admiral McRaven also explains how it isn’t necessary to change everyone’s lives for the world to change. All you need is to change the lives of only a few people, and the generations to come will feel the effect. You would have changed their entire lineage’s lives.

Watch and Listen to this motivational video of the Admiral McRaven Speech on YouTube

What advice did navy admiral william.h.mcraven give in his commencement address and well known 'make your bed speech'.

• Make your bed . Making your bed means that you’d have accomplished the first task of the day. It might seem small and mundane, but even after a long miserable day, at least you’ll come back to a made bed.
• Find someone to help you paddle . You can’t change the world on your own; you need a support team, people to cheer you up and help you change the world. We all need help.
• Measure a person by the size of their heart, not their flippers’ size . The physical aspects of who someone is don’t necessarily make up for a lot. What’s on the inside is what matters the most.
• Get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward . Sometimes the universe just doesn’t recognize your efforts no matter how much you’ve put in. This shouldn’t make you lose hope, get over it and keep pushing.
• Don’t be afraid of the circuses . Some situations will wear us down, but they are meant to strengthen your resolve by the end of the day.
• Sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first . Even in the hardest of situations, you have to take a risk and face your problems head first. Sometimes that’s the only way to win.
• Don’t back down from the sharks . Sharks are obstacles that you might face in your journey. Even when those obstacles show up, don’t back down. That’s the only way you’ll win.
• If you want to change the world, you must be the very best in your darkest moment . During the darkest moments, it gets hard to see what lies ahead, but be hopeful because, after that darkness, there can only be light.
• Start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud . In your darkest moments, be the person who stands up and gives others hope. Giving others hope will mean preventing them from giving up during those difficult moments.
• Don’t ever ring the bell . Ringing the bell is the easiest thing to do. But for you to succeed in life, you will have to assume that giving up isn’t an option, and that’s when you can concentrate on winning.

The Full Admiral McRaven Speech

It’s been almost 37 years to the day that I graduated from UT. I remember a lot of things about that day. I remember I had a throbbing headache from a party the night before. I remember I had a serious girlfriend, whom I later married (that’s important to remember, by the way), and I remember that I was getting commissioned in the Navy that day.

But of all the things I remember, I don’t have a clue who the commencement speaker was, and I certainly don’t remember anything they said. So, acknowledging that fact, if I can’t make this commencement speech memorable, I will at least try to make it short.

The University’s slogan is, “What starts here changes the world.” I’ve got to admit. I kind of like it. “What starts here changes the world.”

Tonight there are almost 8,000 students (there are more than 8000) graduating from UT. So, that great paragon of analytical rigor, Ask.Com, says that the average American will meet 10,000 people in their lifetime. That’s a lot of folks. But, if every one of you changed the lives of just ten people and each one of those people changed the lives of another ten people,(just ten people) then in five generations 125 years, the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people.

Eight hundred million people — think about it — over twice the population of the United States. Go one more generation, and you can change the entire population of the world — eight billion people.

If you think it’s hard to change the lives of 10 people, change their lives forever, you’re wrong. I saw it happen every day in Iraq and Afghanistan: A young Army officer makes a decision to go left instead of right down a road in Baghdad, and the ten soldiers with him are saved from a close-in ambush.

In Kandahar province, Afghanistan, a non-commissioned officer from the Female Engagement Team senses that something isn’t right and directs the infantry platoon away from a 500-pound IED, saving the lives of a dozen soldiers.

But, if you think about it, not only were those soldiers saved by the decisions of one person, but their children were saved. And their children’s children were saved. Generations were saved by one decision, one person.

But changing the world can happen anywhere, and anyone can do it. So, what starts here can indeed change the world, but the question is — what will the world look like after you change it?

Well, I am confident that it will look much, much better. But if you will humor this old sailor for just a moment, I have a few suggestions that may help you on your way to a better world. And while these lessons were learned during my time in the military, I can assure you that it matters not whether you ever served a day in uniform. It matters not your gender, your ethnic or religious background, your orientation, or your social status.

Our struggles in this world are similar, and the lessons to overcome those struggles and to move forward — changing ourselves and changing the world around us — will apply equally to all.

I have been a Navy SEAL for 36 years. But it all began when I left UT for Basic SEAL training in Coronado, California. Basic SEAL training is six months of long torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep, and always being cold, wet, and miserable.

It is six months of being constantly harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Navy SEAL.

But the training also seeks to find those students who can lead in an environment of constant stress, chaos, failure, and hardships. To me, basic SEAL training was a lifetime of challenges crammed into six months.

So, here are the ten lessons I learned from basic SEAL training that hopefully will be of value to you as you move forward in life.

1. Make your bed

Every morning in SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room, and the first thing they would do is inspect my bed. If you did it right, the corners would be square; the covers would be pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard, and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack.

It was a simple task, mundane at best. But every morning, we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that we were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle-hardened SEALs, but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.

If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never be able to do the big things right.

And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

2. Find someone to paddle with

During SEAL training, the students are broken down into boat crews. Each crew is seven students — three on each side of a small rubber boat and one coxswain to help guide the dingy. Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surf zone and paddle several miles down the coast. In the winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet high, and it is exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in.

Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain. Everyone must exert equal effort, or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously dumped back on the beach.

For the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle. You can’t change the world alone — you will need some help — and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the goodwill of strangers, and a strong coxswain to guide them.

If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.

3. Measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers

Over a few weeks of difficult training, my SEAL class, which started with 150 men, was down to just 42. There were now six boat crews of seven men each. I was in the boat with the tall guys, but the best boat crew we had was made up of the little guys (the munchkin crew we called them) no one was over about five-foot-five.

The munchkin boat crew had one American Indian, one African American, one Polish American, one Greek American, one Italian American, and two tough kids from the midwest. They out-paddled, out-ran, and out-swam all the other boat crews.

The big men in the other boat crews would always make good-natured fun of the tiny little flippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior to every swim. But somehow, these little guys, from every corner of the nation and the world, always had the last laugh, swimming faster than everyone and reaching the shore long before the rest of us.

SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed. Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education, and not your social status.

If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.

4. Get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.

Several times a week, the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection. It was exceptionally thorough. Your hat had to be perfectly starched, your uniform immaculately pressed, your belt buckle shiny and void of any smudges.

But it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into starching your hat, or pressing your uniform, or polishing your belt buckle — it just wasn’t good enough. The instructors would find “something” wrong.

For failing the uniform inspection, the student had to run, fully clothed into the surf zone, and then, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every part of your body was covered with sand. The effect was known as a “sugar cookie.” You stayed in the uniform the rest of the day — cold, wet, and sandy.

There were many a student who just couldn’t accept the fact that all their effort was in vain. That no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right, it was unappreciated. Those students didn’t make it through training. Those students didn’t understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed. You were never gonna have a perfect uniform.

Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform, you still end up as a sugar cookie. It’s just the way life is sometimes.

If you want to change the world, get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.

5. Don’t be afraid of the circuses.

Every day during training, you were challenged with multiple physical events — long runs, long swims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics — something designed to test your mettle. Every event had standards — times you had to meet.

If you failed to meet those standards, your name was posted on a list, and at the end of the day, those on the list were invited to a “circus.” A circus was two hours of additional calisthenics designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit.

No one wanted a circus.

A circus meant that for that day, you didn’t measure up. A circus meant more fatigue, and more fatigue meant that the following day would be more difficult, and more circuses were likely. But at some time during SEAL training, everyone, everyone, made the circus list.

But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. Over time those students — who did two hours of extra calisthenics — got stronger and stronger. The pain of the circuses built inner strength and physical resiliency.

Life is filled with circuses. You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core.

But if you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.

6. If you want to change the world, sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first.

At least twice a week, the trainees were required to run the obstacle course. The obstacle course contained 25 obstacles, including a 10-foot high wall, a 30-foot cargo net, and a barbed wire crawl, to name a few.

But the most challenging obstacle was the slide for life. It had a three-level 30-foot tower at one end and a one-level tower at the other. In between was a 200-foot-long rope. You had to climb the three-tiered tower, and once at the top, you grabbed the rope, swung underneath the rope, and pulled yourself hand over hand until you got to the other end.

The record for the obstacle course had stood for years when my class began training in 1977. The record seemed unbeatable until one day; a student decided to go down the slide for life head first. Instead of swinging his body underneath the rope and inching his way down, he bravely mounted the TOP of the rope and thrust himself forward.

It was a dangerous move — seemingly foolish and fraught with risk. Failure could mean injury and being dropped from the course. Without hesitation, the student slid down the rope perilously fast. Instead of several minutes, it only took him half that time, and by the end of the course, he had broken the record.

If you want to change the world, sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first.

7. If you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks

During the land warfare phase of training, the students are flown out to San Clemente Island, which lies off the coast of San Diego. The waters off San Clemente are a breeding ground for the great white sharks.

To pass SEAL training, there are a series of long swims that must be completed. One is the night swim.

Before the swim, the instructors joyfully brief the trainees on all the species of sharks that inhabit the waters off San Clemente.

They assure you, however, that no student has ever been eaten by a shark — at least not that they can remember. But, you are also taught that if a shark begins to circle your position, stand your ground.

Do not swim away. Do not act afraid. And if the shark, hungry for a midnight snack, darts towards you, then summon up all your strength and punch him in the snout, and he will turn and swim away.

There are a lot of sharks in the world. If you hope to complete the swim, you will have to deal with them.

So, if you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.

8. Be your very best in the darkest moments.

As Navy SEALs, one of our jobs is to conduct underwater attacks against enemy shipping. We practiced this technique extensively during training. The ship attack mission is where a pair of SEAL divers is dropped off outside an enemy harbor and then swims well over two miles — underwater — using nothing but a depth gauge and a compass to get to their target.

During the entire swim, even well below the surface, there is some light that comes through. It is comforting to know that there is open water above you. But as you approach the ship, which is tied to a pier, the light begins to fade. The steel structure of the ship blocks the moonlight, it blocks the surrounding street lamps, it blocks all ambient light.

To be successful in your mission, you have to swim under the ship and find the keel — the centerline and the deepest part of the ship. This is your objective. But the keel is also the darkest part of the ship — where you cannot see your hand in front of your face, where the noise from the ship’s machinery is deafening, and where it is easy to get disoriented and you can fail.

Every SEAL knows that under the keel, at the darkest moment of the mission, is the time when you must be calm when you must be composed — when all your tactical skills, your physical power, and all your inner strength must be brought to bear.

If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moments.

9. Start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud

The ninth week of training is referred to as “Hell Week.” It is six days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment, and one special day at the Mud Flats. The Mud Flats are area between San Diego and Tijuana where the water runs off and creates the Tijuana slues, a swampy patch of terrain where the mud will engulf you.

It is on Wednesday of Hell Week that you paddle down to the mudflats and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive the freezing cold mud, the howling wind, and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors. As the sun began to set that Wednesday evening, my training class, having committed some “egregious infraction of the rules,” was ordered into the mud.

The mud consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads. The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit — just five men — and we could get out of the oppressive cold. Looking around the mudflat, it was apparent that some students were about to give up. It was still over eight hours till the sun came up — eight more hours of bone-chilling cold.

The chattering teeth and shivering moans of the trainees were so loud it was hard to hear anything. And then, one voice began to echo through the night, one voice raised in song. The song was terribly out of tune but sung with great enthusiasm. One voice became two, and two became three, and before long, everyone in the class was singing.

The instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singing, but the singing persisted. And somehow, the mud seemed a little warmer, the wind a little tamer, and the dawn not so far away.

If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope. The power of one person — Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandela, and even a young girl from Pakistan, Malala — one person can change the world by giving people hope.

So, if you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.

10. Don’t ever, ever ring the bell.

Finally, in SEAL training, there is a bell. A brass bell that hangs in the center of the compound for all the students to see. All you have to do to quit is ring the bell.

Ring the bell, and you no longer have to wake up at 5 o’clock. Ring the bell, and you no longer have to be in the freezing cold swims. Ring the bell, and you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle course, the PT — and you no longer have to endure the hardships of training. All you have to do is ring the bell and be out.

If you want to change the world, don’t ever, ever ring the bell.

Why does Admiral McRaven say to make your bed?

He emphasizes making your bed first thing in the morning because by doing that, you have accomplished your first task of the day. Making your bed means; you have already won something even before you’ve begun. And even if your day ends up being not perfect, at the end of the day, you will come back home to a well-made bed to rest on.

Making your bed in the morning will give you a sense of pride and accomplishment and help you get through the day. Having accomplished your first task in the morning will give you the encouragement needed to accomplish the other tasks ahead of you, making it not just one task but a couple of others that followed.

When did Admiral McRaven make his speech?

Admiral McRaven, the ninth U.S. Special Operations Command, made his speech at the University of Texas commencement on May 17, 2014.

Final Words

The Admiral’s speech is the most memorable speech ever given due to the amount of wisdom and advice. It is an encouragement to everyone that making a change in the world doesn’t require much except for will and drive. Never giving up is a very great tool that he shares multiple times in his speech.

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Luke Ocean is a writer, self-proclaimed bio-hacker, wellness advocate and yoga expert. Luke grew up on a small ranch in Montana and enlisted in the Navy to study and become a cryptologist. He later graduated from the US Naval Academy with a Minor in Mandarin and a Bachelor's of Science for General Engineering and a Major of English Literature. Luke's interests and career span multiple industries and various disciplines.  Luke resides in San Antonio and is a Certified Yoga Instructor, a student of Zen Buddhism, practitioner of Holistic Psychology and has completed his CYT-200 and is studying for his 300-hour yoga teacher training.

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Admiral McRaven “Make Your Bed” Commencement Speech Transcript

Admiral William H. McRaven gave a commencement speech at the University of Texas often referred to as the “Make Your Bed” speech. It’s considered one of the best and more inspirational commencement speeches. Read the full transcript of McRaven’s May 19, 2014 speech right here at Rev.com.

Admiral McRaven: ( 00:00 ) Thank you very much, thank you. Well, thank you president Powers, Provost Fenves, deans, members of the faculty, family and friends, and most importantly, the class of 2014, it is indeed an honor for me to be here tonight. It’s been almost 37 years to the day that I graduated from UT. I remember a lot of things about that day. I remember I had a throbbing headache from a party the night before. I remember I had a serious girlfriend who I later married. That’s important to remember by the way. And I remember I was getting commissioned in the Navy that day, but of all the things I remember, I don’t have a clue who the commencement speaker was and I certainly don’t remember anything they said.

Admiral McRaven: ( 00:59 ) So acknowledging that fact, if I can’t make this commencement speech memorable, I’ll at least try to make it short. So the university slogan is, what starts here changes the world. Well, I’ve got to admit, I kind of like it. What starts here changes the world. Tonight there are almost 8,000 students or there are more than 8,000 students graduated from UT. So that great Paragon of analytical rigor ask.com says that the average American will meet 10,000 people in their lifetime. 10,000 people, that’s a lot of folks. But if every one of you change the lives of just 10 people and each one of those people change the lives of another 10 people and another 10 then in five generations, 125 years, the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people, 800 million people.

Admiral McRaven: ( 01:59 ) Think about it, over twice the population of United States go one more generation and you can change the entire population of the world. 8 billion people. If you think it’s hard to change the lives of 10 people change their lives forever, you’re wrong. I saw it happen every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. A young army officer makes a decision to go left instead of right down a road in Baghdad and the 10 soldiers with him are saved from a close in ambush. In Kandahar province, Afghanistan, a noncommissioned officer from the female engagement team senses that something isn’t right and directs the infantry platoon away from a 500 pound IED saving the lives of a dozen soldiers. But if you think about it, not only were those soldiers saved by the decisions of one person, but their children were saved and their children’s children, generations were saved by one decision, one person.

Admiral McRaven: ( 02:59 ) But changing the world can happen anywhere and anyone can do it. So what starts here can indeed change the world. But the question is, what will the world look like after you change it? Well, I’m confident that it will look much, much better. But if you’ll humor this old sailor for just a moment, I have a few suggestions that might help you on your way to a better world. And while these lessons were learned during my time in the military, I can assure you that it matters not whether you’ve ever served a day in uniform, it matters not your gender, your ethnic or religious background, your orientation or your social status. Our struggles in this world are similar and the lessons to overcome those struggles and to move forward, changing ourselves and changing the world around us will apply equally to all. I’ve been a Navy SEAL for 36 years, but it all began when I left UT for basic SEAL training in Coronado, California.

Admiral McRaven: ( 03:53 ) Basic SEAL training is six months, a long torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacle courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable. It is six months of being constantly harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Navy SEAL. But the training also seeks to find those students who can lead in an environment of constant stress, chaos, failure and hardships. To me, basic SEAL training was a lifetime of challenges crammed into six months. So here are the 10 lessons I learned from basic SEAL training that hopefully will be a value to you as you move forward in life.

Admiral McRaven: ( 04:44 ) Every morning in SEAL training, my instructors who were at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they do is inspect my bed. If I did it right, the corners would be square, the covers would be pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack. It was a simple task, mundane at best, but every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection.

Admiral McRaven: ( 05:13 ) It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that we were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle-hardened SEALs. But the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over. If you made your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. And by the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter.

Admiral McRaven: ( 05:51 ) If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right. And if by chance have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made, that you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better. So if you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. During SEAL training the students, during training the students are all broken down in a boat crews. Each crew is seven students, three on each side of a small rubber boat and one cox and to help guide the dinging. Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surf zone and paddle several miles down the coast. In the winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet high and it is exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in.

Admiral McRaven: ( 06:45 ) Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain. Everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously dumped back on the beach. For the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle. You can’t change the world alone you will need some help and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the Goodwill of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide you. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle. Over a few weeks of difficult training, my SEAL class which started with 150 men was down to just 42. There were now six boat crews of seven men each. I was in the boat with the tall guys, but the best boat crew we had was made up with little guys, the munchkin crew, we called them. No one was over five foot five.

Admiral McRaven: ( 07:42 ) The munchkin boat crew had one American Indian, one African American, one Polish American, one Greek American, one Italian American, and two tough kids from the Midwest. They out paddled outran and out swam all the other boat crews. The big men in the other boat crews would always make good natured fun of the tiny little flippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior to every swim, but somehow these little guys from every corner of the nation in the world always had the last laugh sewing faster than everyone and reaching the shore long before the rest of us. SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed. Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education, not your social status. If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not by the size of their flippers.

Admiral McRaven: ( 08:38 ) Several times a week the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection. It was exceptionally thorough. Your hat had to be perfectly starched, your uniform, immaculately pressed, your belt buckle, shiny and void of any smudges, but it seemed that no matter how much effort you’re put into starching your hat or pressing your uniform or polishing your belt buckle and it just wasn’t good enough. The instructors would find something wrong. For failing uniform inspection, the student had to run fully clothed into the surf zone, then wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every part of your body was covered with sand, the effect was known as a sugar cookie.

Admiral McRaven: ( 09:22 ) You stayed in the uniform the rest of the day, cold, wet, and Sandy. There were many of student who just couldn’t accept the fact that all their efforts were in vain. That no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right, it went on appreciated. Those students didn’t make it through training. Those students didn’t understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed. You were never going to have a perfect uniform. The instructors weren’t going to allow it. Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform, you still end up as a sugar cookie. It’s just the way life is sometimes. If you want to change the world, get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward. Every day during training, you were challenged with multiple physical events, long runs, long swims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics, something designed to test your metal.

Admiral McRaven: ( 10:15 ) Every event had standards times you had to meet. If you fail to meet those times, those standards, your name was posted on a list and at the end of the day those on the list were invited to a circus. A circus was two hours of additional calisthenics designed to wear you down to break your spirit, to force you to quit. No one wanted a circus. A circus met that for that day. You didn’t measure up. A circus meant more fatigue and more fatigue meant that the following day would be more difficult and more surfaces were likely, but at sometime during SEAL training, everyone, everyone made the circus list. But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. Over time those students who did two hours of extras, calisthenics got stronger and stronger. The pain of the circuses built inner strength and physical resiliency. Life is filled with circuses.

Admiral McRaven: ( 11:15 ) You will fail. You will likely fail often it will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core, but if you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses. At least twice a week the trainees were required to run the obstacle course. The obstacle course contained 25 obstacles including a 10 foot wall, a 30 foot cargo net, a barbwire crawl to name a few, but the most challenging obstacle was the slide for life. It had a three level 30 foot tower at one end and a one-level tower at the other. In between was a 200 foot long rope. You had to climb the three tiered tower and once at the top you grabbed the rope, swung underneath the rope and pulled yourself hand over hand until you got to the other end. The record for the obstacle course had stood for years when my class began in 1977.

Admiral McRaven: ( 12:10 ) The record seemed unbeatable until one day a student decided to go down the slide for life head first. Instead of swinging his body underneath the rope and inching his way down, he bravely mounted the top of the rope and thrust himself forward. It was a dangerous move, seemingly foolish and fraught with risk. Failure could be an injury and being dropped from the course. Without hesitation, the students slid down the rope perilously fast instead of several minutes it only took him half that time and by the end of the course he had broken the record. If you want to change the world, sometimes you have to slide down the obstacles head first.

Admiral McRaven: ( 12:52 ) During the land warfare phase of training, the students are flown out to San Clemente Island, which lies off the coast of San Diego. The waters of San Clemente are a breeding ground for the great white sharks. To pass SEAL training there are a series of long swims that must be completed. One is the night swim. Before the swim the instructors joyfully brief the students on all the species of sharks that inhabit the waters of San Clemente. They assure you, however, that no student has ever been eaten by a shark, at least not that they can remember. But you are also taught that if a shark begins to circle your position, stand your ground, do not swim away, do not act afraid. And if the shark hungry for a midnight snack, darts towards you, then summons up all your strength and punch him in the snout and he will turn and swim away. There are a lot of sharks in the world. If you hope to complete the swim, you will have to deal with them. So if you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.

Admiral McRaven: ( 14:02 ) As Navy SEALs, one of our jobs is to conduct underwater attacks against enemies shipping. We practiced this technique extensively during training. The ship attack mission is where a pair of SEAL divers is dropped off outside an enemy Harbor and then swims well over two miles underwater using nothing but a DEF gauge and a compass to get to the target. During the entire swim even well below the surface, there is some light that comes through. It is comforting to know that there is open water above you, but as you approach the ship, which is tied to appear, the light begins to fade. The steel structure of the ship blocks the Moonlight. It blocks the surrounding streetlamps. It blocks all ambient light. To be successful in your mission, you have to swim under the ship and find the keel, the center line, and the deepest part of the ship.

Admiral McRaven: ( 14:56 ) This is your objective, but the keel is also the darkest part of the ship where you cannot see your hand in front of your face or the noise from the ship’s machinery is deafening and where it gets to be easily disoriented and you can fail. Every SEAL knows that under the keel at that darkest moment of the mission is a time when you need to be calm, when you must be calm, where you must be composed. When all your tactical skills, your physical power, and your inner strength must be brought to bear. If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moments.

Admiral McRaven: ( 15:38 ) The ninth week of training is referred to as hell week. It is six days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment and one special day at the mudflats. The mudflats are an area between San Diego and Tijuana where the water runs off and creates the Tijuana slews, a swampy patch of terrain where the mud will engulf you. It is on Wednesday of hell week, which you paddle down in the mudflats and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive this freezing cold, the howling wind and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors.

Admiral McRaven: ( 16:12 ) As the sun began to set that Wednesday evening, my training class, having committed some egregious infraction of the rules was ordered into the mud. The mud consumed each man until there was nothing visible but our heads. The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit. Only five men, just five men, and we could get out of the oppressive cold. Looking around the mudflat it was apparent that some students were about to give up. It was still over eight hours till the sun came up. Eight more hours of bone chilling cold, chattering teeth and shivering moans of the trainees were so loud, it was hard to hear anything.

Admiral McRaven: ( 16:54 ) And then one voice began to echo through the night. One voice raised in song. The song was terribly out of tune, but sung with great enthusiasm. One voice became two and two became three and before long everyone in the class was singing. The instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singing, but the singing persisted and somehow the mud seemed a little warmer. And the wind a little tamer and the dawn, not so far away. If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope. The power of one person, a Washington, a Lincoln, King, Mandela, and even a young girl from Pakistan, Malala, one person can change the world by giving people hope. So if you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck and mud.

Admiral McRaven: ( 17:51 ) Finally, in SEAL training there is a bell. A brass bell that hangs in the center of the compound for all the students to see. All you have to do to quit is ring the bell, ring the bell, and you no longer have to wake up at five o’clock ring the bell and you no longer have to be in the freezing cold swims. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle course, the PT, and you no longer have to endure the hardships of training. All you have to do is ring the bell to get out. If you want to change the world, don’t ever, ever ring the bell.

Admiral McRaven: ( 18:33 ) To the class of 2014 you are moments away from graduating, moments away from beginning your journey through life, moments away from starting to change the world for the better. It will not be easy, but you are the class of 2014 the class that can affect the lives of 800 million people in the next century. Start each day with a task completed. Find someone to help you through life. Respect everyone. Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often. But if you take some risks, step up on the times, you’re the toughest face down the bullies. Lift up the downtrodden and never ever give up. If you do these things, the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today. And what started here will indeed have changed the world for the better. Thank you very much, hook ’em horns.

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• William McRaven's Commencement address

William McRaven's Commencement address

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Below is the text of the Commencement address, as prepared for delivery, by Admiral William H. McRaven, retired U.S. Navy four-star admiral and former chancellor of the University of Texas system, for the Institute's 2020 Commencement, held online May 29, 2020.

Thank you very much for that kind introduction. President Reif, distinguished guests, members of the faculty and of course, the MIT graduating class of 2020. It is truly an honor for me to have the opportunity to address you today.

I had an entirely different speech prepared for this afternoon. It was a nice little speech. It was about how you, the brilliant men and women of MIT are like the Navy SEALs of academia. I made some good analogies. I had some cute little anecdotes and some lessons from my career. But somehow, that speech just didn’t seem right in light of all that has happened in the past five months. The fact that I am standing here alone, and that you are isolated somewhere at home, is proof enough that the world has changed.

But there is a part of the speech that I retained. It was the part about heroes and how after all these years I came to realize that the heroes we need—are not the heroes I had been looking for. When I was a young boy growing up in the 50s and 60s, I always envisioned myself as the hero. I always wanted to be Superman, with his powers to fly, with his invulnerability, with his super strength. A hero who saved the world every day from some catastrophe. Or Batman, Spiderman, the Black Panther, the team of the X-men and the Fantastic Four and my favorite of all—Aquaman. I so wanted to ride on the back of a seahorse and fight evil underwater.

But as I grew up and travelled the world, and as I saw more than my share of war and destruction—I came to the hard truth that Captain America isn’t coming to the rescue. There is no Superman, no Batman, no Wonder Woman, no Black Widow, no Avengers, no Justice League, no Gandolf, no Harry Potter, and no Aquaman. If we are going to save the world from pandemics, war, climate change, poverty, racism, extremism, intolerance—then you, the brilliant minds of MIT—you are going to have to save the world.

But, as remarkable as you are—your intellect and talent alone will not be sufficient. I have seen my share of real heroes, on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the hospitals fighting COVID 19, on the streets keeping America safe and open—and I know that there are other qualities necessary to be today’s hero. So, if you will bear with this old sailor for a minute or two, I would like to offer some thoughts on the other qualities you will need to help save the world.

First, you must have courage. Winston Churchill once said that courage was the most important quality of all because it guaranteed all the rest. He was not just talking about the physical courage to charge the hill, run into a burning building, or stop a madman with a gun. He was also talking about moral courage. The courage to stand up for your convictions. Physical courage has long been the hallmark of a great warrior, but I would offer that the moral courage to stand up for what’s right has an equal place in the pantheon of heroes.

If you hope to save the world you will have to standby your convictions. You will have to confront the ignorant with facts. You will have to challenge the zealots with reason. You will have to defy the naysayers and the weak-kneed who have not the constitution to stand tall. You will have to speak truth to power.

But if your cause is good and decent and worthy and honorable and has the possibility of saving even one of God creatures, then you must do what all heroes do. You must summons the courage to fight and fight hard for your convictions. You must yell them from the mountaintop. You must shout them from the lectern. You must write in bold, cursive and underlined phrases. You must bring your convictions out from the darkness and the subtly of your heart—into the light of day. They must be made public and challenged and confronted and argued.

There will always be those who don’t want to hear your convictions. Particularly if they are true.

Speaking the truth can be dangerous at times. But those that came before you, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Madam Curie, Grace Hopper and Katherine Johnson—those brilliant minds, those tellers of truth, who made the world a more knowledgeable place, a more compassionate place, a more livable place, they had courage. If you are going to save the world, you will need courage.

If you are going to save the world, you will need to be humble. In my career I have been blessed to be around some great minds. I have seen how the brilliant men and women have helped eradicate disease, reduce poverty, create technological masterpieces but, conversely I have seen how the misguided geniuses, filled with conceit and convinced of their own righteousness have tampered with nature, built apocalyptic machines, dehumanized social interaction and tilted toward tyranny. If you do not approach the world with humility, it will find a way to humble you quickly.

I found in my time in the military, that no experience on earth was more humbling than combat. The crucible of war teaches you everyday that you are not invincible—that the enemy in bare feet and carrying only Kalashnikovs can sometimes defeat the best soldiers and the best technology in the world.

And if you believe for a moment that you are superior, you will be humbled quickly. But if you approach every mission with a decent respect for the mountains, the rivers, the oceans and the enemy—you are more likely to succeed.

In Plato’s great rendition of Socrates Apology, Socrates defends the charges against him by telling the jury of Athenian nobles that he is the wisest man in the world—far wiser than any of the robed men sitting in judgment. When questioned about how he could be so bold as to make this statement, Socrates says, that he is the wisest because he knows so very little of the world. To solve the world’s problems you will have to realize how little you know. You must be able to look to the stars, peer through a microscope, gaze at the ocean—and be humbled.

To believe for even a moment that you have all the answers, that you know the truth of the universe, that you are wiser than all the men and women who came before you is the tale of every great man and woman—who amounted to nothing. Only when you are humble, only when you realize the limits of your understanding, the shortfalls of your knowledge, the boundaries of your intellect—only then can you find the answers you are seeking.

If you are going to save the world you must persevere through the difficult times. Life as a SEAL is all about perseverance. Can you make it through SEAL training without ringing the bell? Can you make it through the long family separations, the exhausting deployments, the loss of a fellow warrior in combat? Sometimes saving the world is just about holding on. Never quitting no matter what obstacles face you.

A good friend of mine and a fellow Longhorn from the University of Texas, graduated in 1969 and pursued a career in medicine. His mother had died of Lymphoma when he was eleven and he was obsessed with finding a cure. For decades he pursued an idea that most in the medical field dismissed as fantasy. Could the human body really use its own immune system to fight cancer. He never gave up on his pursuit and in 2018, Dr. Jim Allison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

There are the occasional great men and women of science who changed history at an early age, but most discoveries, most achievements, most triumphs are the product of a long and painful process and only the most resolute, the ones that can persevere through the failure, the rejection, the ridicule, the emotional and physical strain of time—those are the ones most likely to save the world.

If you hope to save the world, you must be prepared to sacrifice. The special operation forces are filled with memorials of remarkable men and women who gave their all in the defense of the nation. Medal of Honor recipients like Mike Murphy, Mike Monsoor, John Chapman and Robby Miller. Remarkable women like Ashley White and Jennifer Moreno. The heroes of helicopters Turbine 33 and Extortion 17—SEALs and soldiers who answered the call and never returned. All great Americans who sacrificed their lives so that their teammates might live.

But, there is a more mundane, yet still essential sacrifice, that is required if you want to want to save the world. As SEALs we train every day. Long tortuous hours of hard physical pain, ruck sac marches, open ocean swims, miles of running and hours of calisthenics. They are all sacrifices necessary to be ready—when the world needs you.

In his time, Thomas Edison developed 1,500 patents. From the electric light, to the phonograph, to the movie camera, to the vacuum diode and the carbon microphone. He saved the world from darkness. But in doing so it required him to work 20 hour days, his home front was often strained, his other business ventures struggled to survive and his health always seemingly in jeopardy.

It would be easy to stand up here and tell you that there is wondrous place where you can be great at both work… and life, where your efforts to make a difference in the world come easy—but I have never found that place. In the end, if your goal is a noble one, then your sacrifice will be worth it. And you will be proud of what you have accomplished.

To save the world, you will have to be men and women of great integrity. Always trying to do what is moral, legal and ethical. It will not be easy and I dare say, you will fail occasionally. You will fail because you are human. You will fail because life often forces you into a seemingly untenable position. You will fail because good and evil are always in conflict.

And when you fail to uphold your integrity, it should make you sick to your stomach. It should give you sleepless nights. You should be so tortured that you promise yourself never to do it again. You see, being a hero will not be easy. It will not be easy because, you are not men and women of steel, you are not cloaked in a suit of armor, you are not infused with unearthly powers—you are real heroes. And what makes real heroes are their struggles and their ability to overcome them.

But no matter how mightily you might struggle, the world will believe in you, follow you, allow themselves to be saved—if they know you to be honest, trustworthy, of good character and good faith. Men and women of integrity.

Finally, to save the world, you must have compassion. You must ache for the poor and disenfranchised. You must fear for the vulnerable. You must weep for the ill and infirmed. You must pray for those who are without hope. You must be kind to less fortunate. For what hero gives so much of themselves, without caring for those they are trying to save.

As we sign off from this virtual commencement, I want you to promise me one thing.

Promise me that you will be the last class—the last class to miss a commencement—because of a pandemic. The last class—to miss a commencement—because of war. The last class—to miss a commencement—because of climate change, unrest, tyranny, extremism, active shooters, intolerance and apathy.

Batman and Superman are not coming to save the world. It will be up to you. But never, never in my life, have I been so confident that the fate of the world is in good hands. Go forth and be the heroes we need you to be.

Thank you and congratulations!

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Watch CBS News

Life lessons and war stories from Admiral William H. McRaven

May 12, 2019 / 10:12 AM EDT / CBS News

Admiral William McRaven, now retired, thought commanding the operation that killed Osama bin Laden , the leader of al-Qaida, would be the crowning achievement of his 37 years as a Navy SEAL. "I remember thinking to myself, 'Well, that, maybe that's why I was put on Earth, to bring justice to bin Laden,'" he said. "But I was wrong.

"It had almost nothing to do with bin Laden. What bin Laden allowed me to do was to get an invitation from the president of the University of Texas at Austin to be the commencement speaker in 2014."

In that speech, he recounted to graduates the ten lessons he'd learned from basic SEAL training, "that hopefully will be of value to you as you move forward in life."

McRaven made it through the notoriously brutal training, which had an 80 percent dropout rate. Ringing a bell was all it took to quit.

"All you have to do is ring the bell to get out," McRaven said. "If you want to change the world, don't ever, ever ring the bell."

And the secret to making it begins with one improbable act. He told his audience, "If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another."

The speech went viral, viewed millions of times, and became a bestselling book, "Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life ... and Maybe the World."

"I'd bump into people all over the world, they know nothing about the bin Laden raid, but they know that I told 'em to make their bed!" McRaven said.

Correspondent David Martin asked, "I gotta know, did you make your bed growing up?"

"Absolutely!"

McRaven grew up on a military base in Texas where his father, a veteran of World War II, was a fighter pilot. In a new memoir called "Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations" (Grand Central), McRaven tells of being too small to be a standout football player, so he went out for the track team.

He had a chance to break his school record for the mile: "The night before my final race I got a call from an old coach, Coach Jerry Turnbow," he recalled.

What happened next would change his life. "He says, 'Well, Bill, you can do this. You can break the school record. You just have to run hard. So Bill, you get out there and you run hard' And I said, 'Okay, Coach, I will.'"

And he did.

"Coach Turnbow helped me achieve that goal, and I attribute a lot of my future to him," McRaven said. "Had I not broken that school record, one, I'm not sure I would have ever tried to be a SEAL, because in breaking the school record I knew there was a chance that I could go on to be a Navy SEAL."

Being a Navy SEAL is not just tough; it's dangerous, even in peacetime. In 1995 he was in a small boat trying to make it out through heavy surf when it hit a 35-foot wave: "And it just picks that boat up and dumps it right on top of itself."

McRaven was tangled up in the boat's lines and trapped underwater.

"And I remember at that time thinking to myself, 'So this is how it ends.' And then all of a sudden, I'm free from it. How that happened, I don't know."

"You really don't know how you got out of that boat?" Martin asked.

"I think there was some divine intervention that pulled me out from under that boat," McRaven replied.

After 9/11, he was assigned to the White House to work on counterterrorism, when a man named Richard Reid was discovered wearing a bomb in his shoe on a flight from Paris to Miami. To thwart any other shoe bombers, McRaven came up with an idea that changed all of our lives.

"I think we need to have people take their shoes off going through security, and we also need to start checking their laptops," he said.

"There are a lot of people who have been looking for you," said Martin.

"Yeah, I'm afraid of that!" he laughed.

"Here's your chance to seek forgiveness from the American people!"

"I will tell you, in my defense, I only thought we would put this in place for a couple of months."

In 2003 he was in Iraq commanding the task force which captured Saddam Hussein. For 30 days, McRaven was his jailer. "He came in and he was arrogant, and he was pompous," McRaven recalled.

Did he talk to him? "I did. I was hoping that he would agree to tell his people to lay down their arms, to do something good on your way out. He chose not to do that, and I told him, 'Then this is the last time you're going to see me.'"

McRaven spent much of the next eight years shuttling back and forth between Iraq and Afghanistan, commanding and sometimes going on night raids. "We were probably doing 20, 25 missions a night in Iraq, 10 to 12 missions a night in Afghanistan."

Then, on the night of May 1, 2011, as the president and his national security team monitored from the White House, McRaven commanded the daring raid against Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. 

Just before the mission, McRaven gathered his SEAL team, and channeled Gene Hackman and his small-town team going to the state championship in the movie "Hoosiers": "My message to the guys was, 'All of you have been on hundreds of missions. Just do this mission the way you have done every other mission and we'll be just fine. Another night, another raid."

McRaven ran the mission from his command post in Afghanistan. "And then we get the call from the ground force command, and he said, 'For God and country, Geronimo, Geronimo.'"

"'Geromino' meaning?" Martin asked.

"We had gotten bin Laden."

Leaving behind a stealth helicopter which had crashed-landed during the initial assault, the SEALs brought out the body, which McRaven inspected to make sure that it was bin Laden.

"I knew bin Laden was about 6'4".  So there was a young SEAL nearby. I said, 'Hey, son, how tall are you?' He goes, 'Sir, I'm 6'2".' I said, 'Good, come here. I want you to lie down next to the remains.'"

Not exactly scientific, but good enough to report to the president. McRaven recalled: "The president says to me, 'Okay, Bill, let me get this straight: You had $60 million for a helicopter and you didn't have $10 for a tape measure?'"

A few days later, President Obama presented McRaven a momento of the raid. "He says, 'Bill, I got something for you.' And he reaches around behind his desk and pulls this out": a plaque bearing a Stanley 25' Powerlock tape measure, with the inscription, "If we can afford a $60 million helicopter, I think we can afford a tape measure."

The raid was, of course, a sensation memorialized on front-page headlines around the world. But how does it compare to the thousands of other missions McRaven commanded? "I saw guys going on missions that will never make the history books, that were more complicated, that were more challenging, that cost more lives and had more sacrifice," he said.

Since 9/11, 430 members of the Special Operations Command have been killed in action.

He said, "There were a lot of dark moments, and I saw people rise up in those dark moments, you know? Families when they lost loved ones, soldiers that were taking care of the families of the fallen, entire towns that came out to pay their respects."

The warrior grew quiet.

But somehow, McRaven writes in "Sea Stories," "War challenges your manhood. It reaffirms your courage. It sets you apart from the timid souls and the bench sitters. It builds unbreakable bonds among your fellow warriors. It gives your life meaning. ... War would never lose its allure.

"Peace was meant for some people, but probably not for me."

He told Martin, "I found myself at war. You try to make the best of it. You hope what you're doing is for something that is noble and honorable, and if that's the case, then I'm proud to be a warrior."

"Did you get enough war?"

"I got enough war," he replied.

       READ AN EXCERPT:   "Sea Stories" by Admiral William H. McRaven

        For more info:

• "Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations"  by Admiral William H. McRaven (Grand Central), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio Formats, available via  Amazon

        Story produced by Mary Walsh.

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Celebrated Navy Seal Shares How to Change the World in Viral Motivational Speech (VIDEO)

"if you wanna change the world, start off by making your bed.".

Everyone has the power to change the world .

Admiral William McRaven — arguably the most famous Navy Seal in U.S. history — stood in front of a packed auditorium of nearly 8,000 graduates at his alma mater, the University of Texas in 2014.

He was there to deliver the commencement address.

What he would give instead was a powerful motivational speech to the students and the world.

You have the power to become a better person and to impact the world. And it all starts with your shifting your mindset.

Who is Admiral William H. McRaven?

Most famous for bringing down Osama Bin Laden, McRaven spent 37 years in the Navy Seals . Now retired from military life, the highly decorated US Navy admiral and former commander of US Special Operations Command fought in the Persian Gulf War and Afghanistan.

He has faced off against Somali Pirates, survived a horrific parachuting accident, worked on numerous covert operations with the CIA, and commanded hundreds of night raids on suspected terrorist targets.

RELATED: David Goggins: Half Navy SEAL, Half Superman, All Too Human

But it was the lessons that he learned during basic SEAL training that really stuck with him and helped to shape his life.

And it is these lessons that he shared in his now-viral speech. A speech that has garnered hundreds of millions of views online and inspired people all over the world. And one that he has since turned into a best-selling book, entitled Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe the World.

The Speech that Would Inspire Millions of People to "Make Your Bed"

According to McRaven, basic SEAL training consisted of 6 months of "long torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable."

However, it wasn't just about testing the body's limits, it was about testing the mind's as well. And in order to survive the grueling challenges, you first had to set your mind right.

So, every morning, the instructors (all Vietnam veterans) had the recruits make their beds to perfection.

While this may seem like a small and insignificant task, McRaven argued that it can set the tone for the rest of the day and give you a sense of accomplishment.

"If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another," McRaven shared.

"By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right."

By doing the little things, you empower yourself to do the big ones.

More Guiding Principles to Help You Change the World

Throughout his nearly 20-minute speech, McRaven emphasized the importance of setting goals, persevering through adversity, facing fears, and never backing down.

He also urged the students to focus on character and integrity and to "measure a person by the size of their heart, not by the size of their flippers."

"If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle." - Admiral William McRaven

McRaven also shared that during the ninth week of training, known as "Hell Week," he learned the most valuable lesson of all: the power of hope.

Hell Week consists of "six days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment, and one special day at the Mud Flats." For 15 hours, recruits are up to their necks in freezing cold mud, howling winds, and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors. It is enough to break even the strongest of men.

All it takes, the instructors informed them, is five men quitting for the misery to end. Turns out, all it took was one.

With 8 hours left to go, amidst the "chattering teeth and shivering moans of the trainees," one voice shattered the darkness. And that one voice was everything.

"And then, one voice began to echo through the night, one voice raised in song. The song was terribly out of tune, but sung with great enthusiasm," McRaven shared. "One voice became two and two became three and before long everyone in the class was singing. We knew that if one man could rise above the misery then others could as well."

One voice made all the difference.

The Power of One

It is a lesson that McRaven has witnessed throughout his life. "If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope. The power of one person," he said.

He summed up his speech on how to change the world in just a few words, "Start each day with a task completed. Find someone to help you through life. Respect everyone," he said.

He went on to remind the audience that failure is inevitable. But it's how you come back from it that matters most.

"But if you take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up — if you do these things, then the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today." - Admiral William McRaven

So often we think that one person can't make a difference, however, McRaven tells us otherwise. And history proves it with the likes of George Washington, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, and even a young girl from Pakistan, Malala.

And one Admiral William H. McRaven.

All it takes is changing the life of one person, who changes the life of another, and so on. That's how real change happens. That is how the world becomes a better place.

And it all starts simply, just by making your bed.

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Retired Navy SEAL commander who led the Osama bin Laden raid tells MIT 2020 graduates: "To save the world, you will have to be men and women of great integrity."

• William H. McRaven is a retired four-star admiral in the US Navy where he served for 37 years, former chancellor of the University of Texas system, and former foreign policy advisor to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
• In his commencement address to MIT's class of 2020, he shared what he believes to be the most important qualities to nurture in today's world: courage, humility, perseverance, and compassion.
• McRaven said that above all, in order to be great and do your part to save the world, you have to be willing to sacrifice everything.
• Read the full transcript of McRaven's speech below.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

Thank you very much for that kind introduction. President Reif, distinguished guests, members of the faculty, and of course, the MIT graduating class of 2020. It is truly an honor for me to have the opportunity to address you today.

I had an entirely different speech prepared for this afternoon. It was a nice little speech. It was about how you, the brilliant men and women of MIT are like the Navy SEALs of academia. I made some good analogies. I had some cute little anecdotes and some lessons from my career. But somehow, that speech just didn't seem right in light of all that has happened in the past five months. The fact that I am standing here alone, and that you are isolated somewhere at home, is proof enough that the world has changed.

But there is a part of the speech that I retained. It was the part about heroes and how after all these years I came to realize that the heroes we need are not the heroes I had been looking for. When I was a young boy growing up in the '50s and '60s, I always envisioned myself as the hero. I always wanted to be Superman, with his powers to fly, with his invulnerability, with his super strength. A hero who saved the world every day from some catastrophe. Or Batman, Spiderman, the Black Panther, the team of the X-men, and the Fantastic Four, and my favorite of all — Aquaman. I so wanted to ride on the back of a seahorse and fight evil underwater.

But as I grew up and travelled the world, and as I saw more than my share of war and destruction — I came to the hard truth that Captain America isn't coming to the rescue. There is no Superman, no Batman, no Wonder Woman, no Black Widow, no Avengers, no Justice League, no Gandolf, no Harry Potter, and no Aquaman. If we are going to save the world from pandemics, war, climate change, poverty, racism, extremism, intolerance — then you, the brilliant minds of MIT — you are going to have to save the world.

But, as remarkable as you are, your intellect and talent alone will not be sufficient. I have seen my share of real heroes, on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the hospitals fighting COVID-19, on the streets keeping America safe and open — and I know that there are other qualities necessary to be today's hero. So, if you will bear with this old sailor for a minute or two, I would like to offer some thoughts on the other qualities you will need to help save the world.

First, you must have courage. Winston Churchill once said that courage was the most important quality of all because it guaranteed all the rest. He was not just talking about the physical courage to charge the hill, run into a burning building, or stop a madman with a gun. He was also talking about moral courage. The courage to stand up for your convictions. Physical courage has long been the hallmark of a great warrior, but I would offer that the moral courage to stand up for what's right has an equal place in the pantheon of heroes.

If you hope to save the world you will have to standby your convictions. You will have to confront the ignorant with facts. You will have to challenge the zealots with reason. You will have to defy the naysayers and the weak-kneed who have not the constitution to stand tall. You will have to speak truth to power.

But if your cause is good and decent and worthy and honorable and has the possibility of saving even one of God's creatures, then you must do what all heroes do. You must summon the courage to fight and fight hard for your convictions. You must yell them from the mountaintop. You must shout them from the lectern. You must write in bold, cursive, and underlined phrases. You must bring your convictions out from the darkness and the subtly of your heart — into the light of day. They must be made public and challenged and confronted and argued.

There will always be those who don't want to hear your convictions. Particularly if they are true.

Speaking the truth can be dangerous at times. But those that came before you, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Madam Curie, Grace Hooper, and Katherine Johnson — those brilliant minds, those tellers of truth, who made the world a more knowledgeable place, a more compassionate place, a more livable place, they had courage. If you are going to save the world, you will need courage.

If you are going to save the world, you will need to be humble. In my career, I have been blessed to be around some great minds. I have seen how the brilliant men and women have helped eradicate disease, reduce poverty, create technological masterpieces but, conversely I have seen how the misguided geniuses, filled with conceit and convinced of their own righteousness, have tampered with nature, built apocalyptic machines, dehumanized social interaction, and tilted toward tyranny. If you do not approach the world with humility, it will find a way to humble you quickly.

I found in my time in the military that no experience on earth was more humbling than combat. The crucible of war teaches you everyday that you are not invincible — that the enemy in bare feet and carrying only Kalashnikovs can sometimes defeat the best soldiers and the best technology in the world.

And if you believe for a moment that you are superior, you will be humbled quickly. But if you approach every mission with a decent respect for the mountains, the rivers, the oceans, and the enemy — you are more likely to succeed.

In Plato's great rendition of Socrates Apology, Socrates defends the charges against him by telling the jury of Athenian nobles that he is the wisest man in the world — far wiser than any of the robed men sitting in judgment. When questioned about how he could be so bold as to make this statement, Socrates says that he is the wisest because he knows so very little of the world. To solve the world's problems you will have to realize how little you know. You must be able to look to the stars, peer through a microscope, gaze at the ocean — and be humbled.

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To believe for even a moment that you have all the answers, that you know the truth of the universe, that you are wiser than all the men and women who came before you, is the tale of every great man and woman who amounted to nothing. Only when you are humble, only when you realize the limits of your understanding, the shortfalls of your knowledge, the boundaries of your intellect — only then can you find the answers you are seeking.

If you are going to save the world you must persevere through the difficult times. Life as a SEAL is all about perseverance. Can you make it through SEAL training without ringing the bell? Can you make it through the long family separations, the exhausting deployments, the loss of a fellow warrior in combat? Sometimes saving the world is just about holding on. Never quitting no matter what obstacles face you.

A good friend of mine, who graduated from the University of Texas in 1969, pursued a career in medicine. His mother had died of Lymphoma when he was eleven and he was obsessed with finding a cure. For decades, he pursued an idea that most in the medical field dismissed as fantasy. Could the human body really use its own immune system to fight cancer? He never gave up on his pursuit and in 2018, Dr. Jim Allison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

There are the occasional great men and women of science who changed history at an early age, but most discoveries, most achievements, most triumphs are the product of a long and painful process and only the most resolute, the ones that can persevere through the failure, the rejection, the ridicule, the emotional and physical strain of time — those are the ones most likely to save the world.

If you hope to save the world, you must be prepared to sacrifice. The special operation forces are filled with memorials of remarkable men and women who gave their all in the defense of the nation. Medal of Honor recipients like Mike Murphy, Mike Monsoor, John Chapman, and Robby Miller. Remarkable women like Ashley White and Jennifer Moreno. The heroes of helicopters Turbine 33 and Extortion 17 — SEALs and soldiers who answered the call and never returned. All great Americans who sacrificed their lives so that their teammates might live.

But, there is a more mundane, yet still essential sacrifice, that is required if you want to want to save the world. As SEALs we train every day. Long tortuous hours of hard physical pain, ruck sac marches, open ocean swims, miles of running, and hours of calisthenics. They are all sacrifices necessary to be ready — when the world needs you.

In his time, Thomas Edison developed 1,500 patents. From the electric light, to the phonograph, to the movie camera, to the vacuum diode, and the carbon microphone. He saved the world from darkness. But in doing so it required him to work 20 hour days, his home front was often strained, his other business ventures struggled to survive, and his health always seemingly in jeopardy.

It would be easy to stand up here and tell you that there is wondrous place where you can be great at both work… and life, where your efforts to make a difference in the world come easy — but I have never found that place. In the end, if your goal is a noble one, then your sacrifice will be worth it. And you will be proud of what you have accomplished.

To save the world, you will have to be men and women of great integrity. Always trying to do what is moral, legal and ethical. It will not be easy and I dare say, you will fail occasionally. You will fail because you are human. You will fail because life often forces you into a seemingly untenable position. You will fail because good and evil are always in conflict.

And when you fail to uphold your integrity, it should make you sick to your stomach. It should give you sleepless nights. You should be so tortured that you promise yourself never to do it again. You see, being a hero will not be easy. It will not be easy because, you are not men and women of steel, you are not cloaked in a suit of armor, you are not infused with unearthly powers — you are real heroes. And what makes real heroes are their struggles and their ability to overcome them.

But no matter how mightily you might struggle, the world will believe in you, follow you, allow themselves to be saved — if they know you to be honest, trustworthy, of good character and good faith. Men and women of integrity.

Finally, to save the world, you must have compassion. You must ache for the poor and disenfranchised. You must fear for the vulnerable. You must weep for the ill and infirmed. You must pray for those who are without hope. You must be kind to less fortunate. For what hero gives so much of themselves, without caring for those they are trying to save.

As we sign off from this virtual commencement, I want you to promise me one thing.

Promise me that you will be the last class — the last class to miss a commencement — because of a pandemic. The last class to miss a commencement because of war. The last class to miss a commencement because of climate change, unrest, tyranny, extremism, active shooters, intolerance, and apathy.

Batman and Superman are not coming to save the world. It will be up to you. But never, never in my life, have I been so confident that the fate of the world is in good hands. Go forth and be the heroes we need you to be.

Thank you and congratulations!

Watch: Former Navy SEAL commander Jocko Willink shares the best gear he got to use

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Admiral william h. mcraven, usn, global war on terrorism.

Listen to this achiever on What It Takes

What It Takes is an audio podcast produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: public service, science and exploration, sports, technology, business, arts and humanities, and justice.

One person affecting the life of one other person or ten other people can over time change the world.

William H. McRaven was born in Pinehurst, North Carolina. His father, a career Air Force officer, was stationed at Pope Air Force Base, now known as Pope Field, part of Fort Bragg. The family — including his two older sisters — moved to Texas while William was in elementary school and settled in San Antonio. His mother was born in Texas, and McRaven identifies strongly with the Lone Star State.

Young Bill McRaven was drawn to the sea at an early age and began scuba diving when he was 13. An enthusiastic athlete, he competed in as many sports as possible. He played football for the Theodore Roosevelt High School Rough Riders and particularly excelled at track. He has often cited his high school track coach, Jerry Turnbow, as a positive influence. Given the military background of his father and his family’s friends, a career in the military was something he had always considered. After graduating from high school in San Antonio, he entered the University of Texas, Austin on a track scholarship and joined Navy ROTC. After exploring pre-med and accounting courses, he found a congenial major in journalism. He enjoyed writing and found the training in concise communication extremely useful in his military career. He met Georgeann Brady in college. The couple married shortly after graduation and have raised three children. Their marriage has lasted through a 37-year military career requiring constant relocation and deployments around the world.

On entering active service in the Navy, McRaven sought and achieved admission to the training program of the Sea, Air, Land Teams (SEALs), the Navy’s elite special operations force. SEALs are trained to operate in all environments (Sea, Air and Land) including the most extreme climatic conditions. The athletic McRaven took to the exacting demands of SEAL training, a process he likens to “a lifetime crammed into six months.”

After completing Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL Training, McRaven was assigned to the newly formed SEAL Team Six. The young lieutenant was given a squad to command, but soon ran afoul of the team’s controversial commander, Richard Marcinko. Their leadership styles clashed and McRaven was relieved of his first command. Faced with this setback, the young lieutenant might have sought to continue his Naval career outside of the SEAL program, but he was determined to prove himself. He was assigned to SEAL Team Four, where he was given command of an entire platoon. McRaven succeeded in his new position and began his ascent through the ranks. In the mid-1980s, the administration of President Ronald Reagan supported a major buildup of U.S. military forces, including an expansion of the SEALs and other special forces. As the special operations community grew, McRaven’s career advanced with it.

During the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91, McRaven served as a task unit commander in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Following the war, he was task group commander in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. He would later return to the SEALs as commander of SEAL Team Three.

McRaven earned his master’s degree at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. He had entered as a student of the National Security Affairs program, but soon saw the need for a graduate level program in special operations limited warfare, not just for the Navy, but throughout the armed services. He helped create the school’s Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict curriculum and became the program’s first graduate. His master’s thesis, The Theory of Special Operations , was published in 1996 as Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice . It has been reprinted numerous times, has been translated into several languages, and is studied around the world.

In addition to his command experience and academic work, McRaven compiled an impressive record of service in administrative positions, as chief of staff at Naval Special Warfare Group One, with the Chief of Naval Operations, and as assessment director at Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). McRaven’s reputation had spread beyond the Navy and throughout the special operations community. He was named deputy commanding general for operations at the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

As commander of Naval Special Warfare Group One, Captain McRaven was leading a 1,000-foot freefall exercise in the summer of 2001, when an accident occurred that could easily have cost him his life. While freefalling, the man ahead of him deployed his parachute too soon, and McRaven collided with the chute as it opened. Stunned, he opened his own chute as well, but the lines wrapped his legs separately, wrenching his legs in opposite directions. Immediate surgery was able to repair his broken back and pelvis, but McRaven faced many months of sedentary recuperation. He was lying on a hospital bed in his own home on September 11, 2001, when he saw the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. With that and the attack on the Pentagon on the same day, McRaven was immediately aware that the United States was entering a new era of armed conflict and that special operations would be needed as never before.

When he had recovered sufficiently to report for duty, he returned to Washington to serve as Deputy National Security Advisor and director for strategic planning in the National Security Council Staff’s Office of Combating Terrorism. The remaining ten years of his military career would focus almost entirely on counterterrorism operations and strategy. He was the principal author of the government’s 2006 National Strategy for Combating Terrorism .

In 2006, he was tapped to lead the Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR), based in Stuttgart, Germany. He served simultaneously as the first director of the NATO Special Operations Forces Coordination Centre, enhancing and integrating the efforts of all NATO Special Operations Forces. In 2008, now a three-star admiral, he became the 11th officer to serve as commander of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), with responsibility for leading coordination of techniques, equipment, exercises, training and tactics for joint operations among the special ops community. Although JSOC is based at Fort Bragg, McRaven spent much of his time in Afghanistan, where operations intensified on his watch. In the decade following the attacks on the United States, McRaven commanded hundreds of night raids on suspected terrorist targets.

In the first months of 2011, CIA Director Leon Panetta summoned McRaven to a meeting at CIA headquarters to describe the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan that Panetta believed might be harboring Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader who orchestrated the attacks on New York and Washington. Director Panetta asked McRaven to prepare plans for an attack on the compound. The effort was dubbed Operation Neptune Spear. President Obama promoted McRaven to four-star admiral in April and nominated him to serve as the ninth commander of the USSOC, with responsibility of the entire special operations community. While the Senate considered the appointment, McRaven quietly proceeded with plans for the operation to eliminate Bin Laden.

During this period the SEALs, Rangers and other special forces units under McRaven’s command at JSOC were carrying out as many as 15 missions a night in Afghanistan, but Operation Neptune Spear presented difficulties unlike any other. Bin Laden’s compound lay within the territory of Pakistan, ostensibly a U.S. partner in the war against Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies. The target was less than a mile from Pakistan’s national military academy. A failed mission would not only permit America’s most wanted enemy to escape but ran the risk of antagonizing an essential ally.

Secrecy and surprise were paramount, and President Obama concluded that the Pakistan government and military could not maintain operational security. The president and his advisors considered and rejected the options of a Drone missile strike or of bombing the compound. One had limited chances of success, the other ran the risk of damaging neighboring houses and injuring the occupants. McRaven applied the principles he had outlined in his book Spec Ops and proposed the plan that would delay any chance of discovery until the last possible moment. McRaven had the SEALs rehearse the mission at a full-scale replica of the compound at Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan.

On the night of May 1, 2011, helicopters carried Seal Team Six from their base in Afghanistan into Pakistani air space. Admiral McRaven, linked by secure video from Jalalabad to the White House, briefed the president in real time as the operation progressed. Within 15 minutes of the SEALs’ arrival in Abbottabad, all resistance had been overcome and Bin Laden was dead, along with three of his companions. In the next 23 minutes, the SEALs completed a search of the premises, moved all survivors outside, destroyed one helicopter that was damaged during the landing, removed Bin Laden’s body and were on their way back to Jalalabad, two minutes ahead of schedule.

News of Bin Laden’s death was greeted with nearly universal relief and approval in the United States, and as McRaven’s role in the operation became known, the Senate moved to unanimously confirm his appointment as commander of USSOCOM. Headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, USSOCOM ensures the readiness of all special forces and directs their operations worldwide. Although most of these operations, by their nature, must remain confidential, in 2010 the command reported that special forces were deployed in 75 countries. Special forces conduct counterterrorism operations, long-range reconnaissance, intelligence analysis, foreign troop training, and counter-proliferation operations to arrest the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

In 2014, Admiral McRaven announced his retirement from the United States Navy after 37 years of service. In May of that year, he delivered a commencement address at his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin. When posted on the Internet, the address drew millions of viewers in a matter of weeks. McRaven was invited to apply for the position of chancellor of the entire University of Texas system. The Board of Regents announced his appointment in July 2014, and retired Admiral McRaven assumed his duties the following January. As chancellor, he presided over a system comprising nine university campuses and six medical centers, employing 87,000 faculty and staff, with an enrollment of 216,000 students.

Chancellor McRaven expanded on the themes of his celebrated commencement address in his 2017 book,  Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life… and Maybe the World .  In this book, McRaven applied the lessons of his career as a Navy SEAL to the challenges of everyday life and work. McRaven retired from the University of Texas in 2018, having served four years as chancellor. The following year, he published a memoir, Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations .

Admiral McRaven’s new book, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple (But Not Easy) , coming out in April 2023, is his treatise on the leadership qualities that separate the good from the truly great. The title “Bullfrog” is given to the Navy SEAL who has served the longest on active duty. Admiral McRaven was honored to receive this honor in 2011 when he took charge of the United States Special Operations Command. The Wisdom of the Bullfrog draws on these and countless other experiences from Admiral McRaven’s incredible life, including crisis situations, management debates, organizational transitions, and ethical dilemmas, to provide readers with the most important leadership lessons he has learned over the course of his forty years of service.

On May 1, 2011, President Obama and his national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room to watch a commando raid taking place half a world away. As the mission unfolded, the president was in continuous video contact with the senior military officer directing the operation from a base in Afghanistan, Admiral William McRaven.

To this task, Admiral McRaven brought three decades of experience in special operations. The first officer to graduate from the Special Operations and Limited Warfare program at the Naval Postgraduate School, he has held commands at every level of the special ops community, from leading a single SEAL platoon, to his final post as commander of U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). His experience includes commands in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, leadership of SEAL Team Three, and of NATO’s special operations command (SOCEUR). At USSOCOM, Admiral McRaven oversaw and coordinated elite forces from all branches of the nation’s military, including such storied outfits as the Navy Seals, the Army’s Green Berets and Delta Force, and the Air Force Special Tactics Squadron.

The success, that night in 2011, of the raid that eliminated Osama bin Laden without a single American casualty was due, in no small part, to the unique expertise of the man who organized and executed the plan, Admiral William McRaven. Since retiring from the United States Navy in 2014, Admiral McRaven has served as chancellor of the nine-campus University of Texas system.

We know there are many things you can’t tell us about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011, but maybe you can give us the big picture of your thoughts about it.

William McRaven: What I’m always happy to tell folks is the phenomenal work of the CIA. Our part of the mission was really pretty straightforward.   I mean, it’s kind of viewed as the sexy piece. We flew from Afghanistan into Pakistan and got Bin Laden and came back. And there was an attractiveness to that aspect of it. But that was a pretty straightforward mission for us. In fact, I would tell you that it was — I mean, it had a political aspect of it and an angst aspect of it that was higher than the rest of the missions we do — but from a standpoint of a pure military operation it was pretty straightforward. What I have said before is the credit really belongs to the CIA, who in fact located Bin Laden, and the President and his National Security team, who made the decision; the President, who made the decision to go after Bin Laden when our intelligence really at best had us at about 50/50.   So the President made a decision to risk American lives and frankly to risk his political fortune, I think, to do the right thing for America. And I’m always very appreciative that he did that. And I think those are the big takeaways that the American public ought to have is that the President and his National Security team did the right thing. The CIA — the best intelligence organization in the world — along with the National Security Agency, which was part of their ability to figure out where Bin Laden was, those were the real stars of this mission. I’m very proud of what my guys did, but that’s the sort of things we do pretty much every day.

Looking at some of the tenets you outlined in your book  The Theory of Special Operations , a lot of it applies to Operation Neptune Spear, as the Bin Laden operation was called.

William McRaven: Absolutely. I went right back to the book, because we had such tight security.

I had to do the planning for the mission. And I looked at being creative in a number of different fashions, and I won’t go into detail on those, but suffice to say I looked at a lot of ways to get to the target. But at the end of the day, I looked at the point of vulnerability, and I realized that if we did, if we attempted to do some of those other approaches, we were potentially going to be vulnerable hours out. Now we may not have been, but the potential for the Pakistanis to identify us hours away from the target was there. With the helicopters, I knew we could get in and we would probably only be vulnerable about two minutes out, and I felt that was good enough. So I absolutely looked at the point of vulnerability, relative superiority, keeping the plan simple. I mean, we kept the plan as simple as we could. Get onto some helicopters, go to the target, take care of the objective, get back on the helicopters and come back home. Now we came back short of one helicopter, but we had a backup plan for that. So it absolutely followed the model, and I made sure that I went back and looked at my own research.

A lot of people may not realize that there were more than a dozen other operations going on simultaneously. That is just incredible.

William McRaven: This is kind of what we did in Afghanistan. We normally had anywhere from ten to 15 missions a night in Afghanistan where you had Army Rangers or Navy SEALs or other Army Special Operations forces out conducting raids on Taliban targets with the same approach.   Helicopters going from a forward operating base to an objective, taking care of business on the target, getting back on the helicopters and coming back. So one, we didn’t want to change what we were doing for fear that people would know. So when we got to Afghanistan, my force had no clue that I had a separate force that was preparing to go conduct the raid, because we didn’t stop them from anything else that was going on that night.

Because it was important that they not know the details.

William McRaven: Absolutely.

Not just the American public and the enemy.

William McRaven: We were trying to keep it as close to hold as possible, and fortunately we were successful in doing that.

You were taking risks, but they were educated risks.

William McRaven: We had, again, done the planning. I knew where all the risks were, and we had planned around those risks to mitigate the risks. So understanding that we wanted to fly in undetected, we knew what the Pakistanis had in the way of defenses. We understood what the compound looked like in Abbottabad.   So we knew all of that information. We had very good intelligence that, again, the CIA and NSA provided us. And so with that good intelligence you were able to figure out where the difficulties in the mission were going to lie, and then take the opportunity to, again, buy down that risk to the point where, when I had the opportunity to brief the President, I was very confident that we could do the mission the way we had outlined it.

He took risks too, political risks.

William McRaven: Absolutely, he did. He took tremendous risk. I am very proud of what my guys did, but the real risk and the burden was borne almost solely by the President.

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Admiral william mcraven to keynote 2024 bio convention.

Retired U.S. Navy (SEAL) Four-Star Admiral and the Former Chancellor of The University of Texas System, William McRaven , to Discuss Leadership, Global Events, and the National Security Importance of Biotechnology  with BIO CEO , John Crowley

WASHINGTON , April 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- As recent global events have demonstrated, the world has become more challenging and American leadership is needed more at home and abroad than ever before, and that includes maintaining U.S. dominance in biotechnology innovation. Retired U.S. Navy four-star admiral, Navy SEAL, University Chancellor, best-selling author and world-renowned authority of leadership, William McRaven , will keynote the 2024 BIO International Convention, Wednesday, June 5 , in San Diego . Admiral McRaven will be interviewed by John Crowley , CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) about the challenge of global events today and the implications for biotechnology as a national security imperative. McRaven will also share his insights on essential elements of leadership in managing complex organizations.

Over the course of his distinguished military career, McRaven gained first-hand insight into the numerous threats facing the United States . "For more than a century, the United States has been the medicine chest to the world, providing life-saving vaccines, antibiotics, and therapeutics, saving millions of lives. In the face of diverse global threats, maintaining a robust biotech industry is paramount for safeguarding both the nation and our allies," said McRaven.

"We are on the cusp of a golden age of biotechnology, and Admiral McRaven will highlight why it is a strategic imperative for the United States to bolster our biotechnology capabilities and foster innovation in order to safeguard our nation and global society," said Crowley. "He brings unparalleled expertise and experience to the discussion on the intersection of biotechnology and national security."

Listed as one of the world's greatest leaders by  Forbes Magazine  in 2015 and author of a #1  New York Times  bestseller, McRaven is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral who served as the ninth commander of the United States Special Operations Command. In 2011, he received the title "Bullfrog," an honor given to the Navy SEAL who has served the longest on active duty. McRaven dealt with every conceivable leadership challenge, including commanding critical combat operations that spanned the capture of Saddam Hussein , the rescue of Captain Phillips, and the successful raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan .

When McRaven retired in 2014, he had 37 years as a Navy SEAL under his belt, leading men and women at every level of the special operations community. He served as Chancellor to the entire University of Texas System, one of the nation's largest and most respected systems of higher education, in the ensuing four years.

McRaven is also the author of several books including New York Times Bestsellers Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life and Maybe the World and The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple (But Not Easy) .

The BIO International Convention is the largest global event for the biotech industry, gathering more than 15,000 leaders in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial, and environmental biotechnology products. The Convention will take place at the San Diego Convention Center from June 3 – 6, 2024.

Complimentary registration is available for media. Click here to register.

Admiral William H. McRaven

Admiral William H. McRaven is a retired U.S. Navy Four-Star admiral and the former Chancellor of the University of Texas System. During his time in the military, he commanded special operations forces at every level, eventually taking charge of the U.S. Special Operations Command. His career included combat during Desert Storm and both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He commanded the troops that captured Saddam Hussein and rescued Captain Phillips. McRaven is also credited with developing the plan and leading the Osama bin Laden mission in 2011.

As the Chancellor of the UT System, he led one of the nation's largest and most respected systems of higher education. As the chief executive officer of the UT System, McRaven oversaw 14 institutions that educated 220,000 students, and employed 20,000 faculty and more than 80,000 health care professionals, researchers, and staff.

McRaven is a recognized national authority on U.S. foreign policy and has advised Presidents George W. Bush , Barack Obama , and other U.S. leaders on defense issues. He currently serves on the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the National Football Foundation, and the Board of Directors of ConocoPhillips.

McRaven has been recognized for his leadership numerous times. In 2011, he was the first runner-up for TIME magazine's "Person of the Year." In 2012, Foreign Policy magazine named McRaven one of the nation's "Top 10 Foreign Policy Experts." In 2014, Politico magazine named McRaven one of the "Politico 50," citing his leadership as instrumental in cutting though Washington bureaucracy. In 2015, he received the Intrepid Freedom Award for his distinguished service in defending the values of democracy. In 2016, McRaven was named the recipient of the Ambassador Richard M. Helms Award by the CIA Officers' Memorial Foundation and in 2018, he received the Judge William H. Webster Distinguished Service Award for a lifetime of service to the nation.

McRaven graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1977 with a degree in Journalism and received his master's degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey in 1991.

McRaven is the author of several books including, SPEC OPS: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare, Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life and Maybe the World, based on his 2014 UT Commencement Speech that received worldwide attention, and Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations, The Hero Code: Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived. In 2023, he released The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple (But Not Easy). An instant #1 New York Times Bestseller, the book draws on countless experiences from Admiral McRaven's life, including navigating crises, management debates, organizational transitions, and ethical dilemmas, to provide readers with the most important leadership lessons he has learned over his forty years of service.

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) is the world's largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the  BIO International Convention , the world's largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. Good Day BIO  is the only daily newsletter at the intersection of biotech, politics and policy.  Subscribe here.

Contact: Theresa Brady

View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/admiral-william-mcraven-to-keynote-2024-bio-convention-302130679.html

SOURCE Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO)

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Episode 193

Are you as conscientious as you think you are.

Is it really that important to make your bed? What’s the benefit of hiring a lazy person? And how many cups of spinach can Mike fit in a red Solo cup?

Take the Big Five inventory: freakonomics.com/bigfive

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Episode Transcript

 DUCKWORTH: “That’s not a vibe.”

*      *      *

DUCKWORTH: I’m Angela Duckworth. MAUGHAN: I’m Mike Maughan. DUCKWORTH + MAUGHAN: And you’re listening to No Stupid Questions.

Today on the show: Is grit just a souped-up version of conscientiousness?

MAUGHAN: Did you make your bed this morning? DUCKWORTH: I did not make my bed this morning. 

DUCKWORTH: Mike, today we are in conversation number two on Big Five personality traits. And I know you know the acronym, so I will let you, Mike, say which personality family we are discussing today. MAUGHAN: The acronym is OCEAN, of course. And today we are discussing conscientiousness. DUCKWORTH: Full credit, excellent. We have this question from a listener named Kylie, who says in her email that she and I are “soul sisters.” That is not the only reason I chose this question. But it asks: “Is grit just a pseudonym for conscientiousness?” And Mike, as you know, I wrote a book on grit. I study grit. I have been thinking about this very question for maybe 20 years, depending on how you count. I think the answer in one syllable is: “No.” MAUGHAN: Well, Angela, that was a great conversation. It was very short, very efficient — just like the question. DUCKWORTH: You’re like, “Good.” Yeah, I do have more to say. Do you want to hear more? MAUGHAN: We can do more. DUCKWORTH: Well, first of all, we both took the Big Five personality inventory that was on — and that still is on — the No Stupid Questions website, yes?  MAUGHAN: Yes, absolutely. DUCKWORTH: There were six questions about conscientiousness. So, first I’m going to read you three that are what are called “positively scored.” So, the more you say, “Yeah, totally like me,” the higher your conscientiousness score. So, first: “I am someone who is reliable, can always be counted on; I am someone who keeps things neat and tidy.” And: “I am someone who is persistent, works until the task is finished” — which, Kylie would remind me, sounds a lot like grit. There are also three reverse-scored items, and they are: “I am someone who tends to be disorganized; I am someone who has difficulty getting started on tasks.” And finally: “I am someone who can be somewhat careless.” So first, I should just ask, how’d you do? I got a 4.83 out of 5. MAUGHAN: Wow, I got a 4.67. DUCKWORTH: Still pretty high. MAUGHAN: Yeah, not a 4.8. DUCKWORTH: Well, the mean score for our No Stupid Questions listeners was, drumroll, a little lower than ours: 3.63, and that’s a little lower than the national average, which is 3.81. MAUGHAN: This is so fascinating that our listeners have an, on average, lower conscientiousness score than the national average. DUCKWORTH: It makes us sound like a community of slovenly slackers. Like, wait what’s up? So, remember when we were talking about openness and I gave myself scores that were below the No Stupid Questions listener average, and also below the national average? When I told Jason, he was like, “That’s because you primarily hang out with people who have won the Nobel Prize,” and he wasn’t kidding. He was like, “I think your idea of what it means to be an intellectual is warped.” In fact, there’s a technical term for this and I’ve studied this extensively. It’s called reference bias. So look, I believe in taking personality questionnaires as kind of psychological selfies. I think it’s very interesting to compare scores and to think about the items, but I also think that whenever you answer questions, you’re always comparing yourself to a standard. So, I’m not excusing wholesale, like, anybody who has a low score and saying like, “Oh, you must just have high standards.” But, the fact is we don’t all have the same standards. So, are we a bunch of slovenly slackers? Maybe, but maybe No Stupid Question ers —. MAUGHAN: Maybe they just have really impressive friends. DUCKWORTH: Maybe NSQ listeners have the highest standards of all. So, Big Five conscientiousness is a family of traits that includes grit, and also impulse control, and also reliability, and also orderliness, and responsibility, and the list could go on. They’re siblings, right? Reliability is the cousin of orderliness. That’s probably Jason’s favorite. He was a very orderly little boy, apparently. Were you an orderly little boy? Jason was the kindergartner who was putting all the Legos in bins by color and size. MAUGHAN: No, that was not me at all. Here, here’s —. DUCKWORTH: It was not an endearing trait to other children, apparently. MAUGHAN: Yeah, I was going to say that wouldn’t make for an easy childhood maybe in some ways. DUCKWORTH No. So, how gritty are you? MAUGHAN: Well, I think I’m very gritty at things that I have, you know, passion for. DUCKWORTH: And I would say — and who am I to say? But actually, maybe I am the person to say. I was like, wait a second! I say that grit is passion and perseverance for long-term goals. But I do not think that grit is passion and perseverance for all long-term goals. On the contrary, really gritty people are single-minded. They let all kinds of things go by the wayside while they are pursuing this obsession that they have. I mean, in the extreme, it is usually one goal for your life. So, when you say, “Well, I’m gritty about the things I care about,” to me, that is what grit is, is having this laser-like focus. Like, for me, I let a lot of things go by the wayside too, but psychology and my work, super focused on that. And that’s different from just being like, oh, in general, somebody who’s good at, um, eating healthy, and flossing, and doing their taxes. And that’s different from, like, wanting to color code all the Legos. So, I think grit is a proud member of the conscientiousness family. But I think that family has many family members, all of whom you could say have the last name “conscientiousness.” MAUGHAN: Yeah. Let me ask you a question. Did you make your bed this morning? DUCKWORTH: I did not make my bed this morning. Oh, I feel like this is a trick question. And, furthermore, I usually do not make my bed. MAUGHAN: Okay, so, I did not make my bed this morning either. But here’s what I thought was interesting, as I was thinking about this and the idea of orderliness — there was an article in CNBC by a reporter named Kathleen Elkins called “7 Rich Habits of Highly Successful People from a Man Who Studied Them for 25 Years.” And she references this socio-economist, Randall Bell, and he talks about the fact that people who make their bed in the morning, in his studies, are 206.8 percent more likely to be millionaires than people who don’t. DUCKWORTH: What? I don’t know if I believe this study but keep going. MAUGHAN: That is totally fair. He surveyed 5,000 people across the world, “including professional students, retirees, the unemployed, and multi-millionaires.” And so, they looked at dozens of rituals, from writing thank-you notes, to eating together, you know, as a family, and statistically correlated them. And the correlation with making your bed was huge. Charles Duhigg, you know, wrote about this as a keystone habit. He said making your bed every morning is correlated with better productivity, a greater sense of wellbeing, and stronger skills at sticking with a budget. That was in his book, The Power of Habit. DUCKWORTH: I think Charles Duhigg was just a guest on our sibling show, People I (Mostly) Admire , yes? MAUGHAN: Yes, absolutely, and he was amazing on it. But I think the most version came from Admiral William McRaven.  DUCKWORTH: Bill McRaven.  MAUGHAN: He went viral, you’ll remember, for a speech —, DUCKWORTH: I know. I read it. I listened to it. MAUGHAN: Yeah, it has 19 million views on YouTube. DUCKWORTH: I think when he spoke about learning how to make his bed as — um, what do you call it when you just start in the Navy? Are you an “ensign”? MAUGHAN: I don’t know. It was during Navy SEAL training, was what he talked about in his speech, at least. A “plebe” maybe? DUCKWORTH: Maybe Bill McRaven will let us know. So, Bill McRaven spoke eloquently about how when you make your bed, you’ve done one good thing for the day. You’ve already developed some momentum. But here’s the thing about personality. It’s not only that Big Five conscientiousness is more than one thing. It’s not only that. Let’s take orderliness. Like, Jason Duckworth color-coding the Legos. It’s not that he makes his side of the bed, which he doesn’t. So even when you think about a facet — that’s what they’re called, the “facets “of personality families, it’s not only that, but even within a facet, it’s not always that people who are orderly are orderly about everything. It’s that there is a “vibe.” You know, there is a kind of tendency. So, that’s the complicated thing. Like, even if somebody’s like, “Oh, I’m five out of five on orderliness,” it doesn’t mean you can predict with 100 percent accuracy what they’re going to be orderly about. I don’t know if that would fly with Admiral McRaven. Like, I’m very orderly about other things. But I don’t make my bed. MAUGHAN: I do really appreciate that you said it’s a “vibe.” That’s very Gen Z of you. DUCKWORTH: I know, I probably misused the word “vibe.” I think my daughter is going to be like, “That’s not a vibe,” and I’ll be like, “Hashtag vibe.” MAUGHAN: And then they’ll throw up. DUCKWORTH: Yes, exactly. MAUGHAN: I do love McRaven’s concept that it’s — then you did one thing for the day, no matter what else goes wrong. I’m very organized in most ways, but sometimes because I’m so task-oriented, I forget to be conscientious on things that maybe matter more long term, but with a less immediate outcome, like health. I’ve talked on here before about my nutritionist Megan Lyons and what we’ve agreed for my life and my lifestyle that what we’re going to do every morning is drink a green smoothie. It’s 10 cups of spinach, half a banana, half a cup of fruit, protein powder, whatever. Because then whatever else happens in the rest of the day — if I’m entertaining people at a sports game at night, if I’m in all these meetings, at least I got five servings of vegetables, two servings of fruit, and protein. DUCKWORTH: By the way, that sounds enormous. Are you drinking this out of a toilet bowl? MAUGHAN: It’s just a red Solo cup. DUCKWORTH: One red Solo cup can contain ten cups of spi —. MAUGHAN: I mean you blend it. DUCKWORTH: Yeah. Wow. That is fascinating. Okay. Right. But that is your bed.  MAUGHAN: And again, I can’t say I’m perfect at it, but most days, I start the day with that green smoothie, because then it’s the idea — and I think this is sort of where McRaven was going — whatever else happens in the rest your day, at least you made your bed. And maybe that’s where Duhigg has these keystone habits that he’s talking about. If you at least get the keystone right, then you’re maybe more likely to make better decisions throughout the day. DUCKWORTH: I think the idea that you would build your life around certain keystone habits is very good advice, but I think what those habits are is where you have to say, “Which one for me?” Because to me, I don’t think, like, making my bed in the morning would have quite the same effect as it did for Admiral Bill McRaven, for whom that also is connected to his time as a Navy SEAL and all of those experiences. And I don’t want to drink that smoothie that you drink. MAUGHAN: No, I don’t either. DUCKWORTH: In the morning? I’m like, oh my God. I mean, for me, my most recent Big Five conscientiousness hack — and I would say this is becoming a keystone habit — is morning pages. MAUGHAN: I don’t know what that is. DUCKWORTH: So, I was on Guy Kawasaki’s podcast, and you probably know Guy Kawasaki, right? MAUGHAN: Yeah, I don’t know him. I know of him. I’ve read his, his material.  DUCKWORTH: So, he was the chief, uh, evangelist for Apple under Steve Jobs. I think it was a title that they made up. MAUGHAN: Welcome to tech. DUCKWORTH: I know, right? I guess you just make things up. They’re all a little sensational. So, he has this podcast. And he was telling me about this famous self-help book called The Artist’s Way . I, of course, had never heard of it, and he said, “Wait, what?” And the advice that he was passing along to me from the author of this apparently extremely famous self-help book, which was written by and for artists, so it was sort of like a creative way to approach your life, was that you wake up in the morning, and if you’re Bill McRaven, maybe you make your bed. But if you’re an artist, what you do is you grab a hard-copy journal, and you write — I think it’s four pages. And that’s the rule. It’s not about time. It’s not about what you write about, but it’s just that you write four pages in the morning. And I was initially kind of skeptical, but I was like, “I don’t know. I’m having difficulty writing this book. Let me try getting up in the morning and instead of checking my phone, and instead of opening my laptop and answering email. And even before I make a spinach and cheese omelet, which I would vastly prefer to a spinach smoothie, I don’t know, I’ll try this.” So, I started doing it and I told Jason, my husband, and I got skepticism. He’s like, “Yeah, you’re going to be doing that for, like, two days and then you’re going to miss a day and then you’re not going to do it again.” And I was like, “I don’t know, it seemed to be really useful to me today.” And I’m guessing, but I think I’ve been doing morning pages every day for I think over a month, maybe two. And it’s awesome. It’s not your keystone habit, apparently. It’s not Admiral McRaven’s keystone habit. But I think this is a keystone habit I could build my life around. And actually, I think it will enable me to do the things that I have passion and perseverance for. MAUGHAN: As you’re telling this, the line I keep thinking of comes from Hamlet , and you’ll know it. It’s very famous. Polonius to his son Laertes, “This above all: to thine own self be true.” And I think when it comes to personality, or conscientiousness, or any of these things, one of the biggest things is we have to just figure out ourselves. Some people are the most creative or productive late at night. Others are the most creative, productive first thing in the morning. If everyone’s like, “Oh, you have to wake up at 5 a.m. and exercise first and do that,” it’s — I think we spend too much time trying to figure out what everyone else’s hacks are and maybe not enough time saying, “How do I work? How am I going to be able to maximize who I am, my personality, and my approach to conscientiousness?” That’s why I love this idea you’re talking about. You find out what works for you. DUCKWORTH: Exactly. So, Mike, I think you and I would love to hear the thoughts of our listeners on this topic of conscientiousness. What aspects of conscientiousness come easily to you and which parts do you struggle with? Record a voice memo in a quiet place with your mouth close to the phone and email us at [email protected]. Maybe we’ll play it on a future episode of the show. Also, if you want to learn more about your own personality, head to Freakonomics.com/BigFive. Join the thousands of listeners who have already taken the Big Five inventory and you’ll get an immediate personality profile. Your results will remain completely anonymous. And if you like this show and want to support us, the best thing you can do is to tell a friend. You can also spread the word on social media or leave a review in your favorite podcast app.

Still to come on No Stupid Questions : is it possible to be too conscientious?

DUCKWORTH: “If you want something done, give it to a lazy person.”

Now, back to Mike and Angela’s conversation about Big Five conscientiousness.

MAUGHAN: So Angela Duckworth, there are negative sides to being really, really high on some of these scales as well. And I’d love your take on this: I think that conscientiousness, maybe taken too far, lacks some level of spontaneity? DUCKWORTH: I mean, this question of whether you can be too conscientious is so interesting. It’s like this assumption that people who are, like, really orderly and really industrious and maybe even really gritty and responsible, that they’re no fun. But I did do this study once called, like, “Too Much Self-Control?” And we took a bunch of datasets. When we looked at all kinds of outcomes, we did not find that there was such a thing as too much self-control, and in particular, we were really focused on happiness. We were wondering whether, like, people who are at the top, top, top of the scale on self-control, whether they were living lives that were a little less happy, but we did not find that. But also, I did this study called, “Who Does Well in Life?” And the next part of the title gives it away. “Conscientious Adults Excel in Both Objective and Subjective Success.” And that was a national sample of nearly 10,000 American adults. They had taken a Big Five inventory, and we had their income, and we had their wealth. And we had how much positive emotion they reported having, their measures of self-reported life satisfaction. And we found that conscientiousness went hand in hand with all of the positive outcomes that we studied. So, I guess you could imagine a person who is too conscientious, but I think mostly more is more. MAUGHAN: I guess where my mind went — I went back to, to Jason organizing the Legos by color and maybe shape, or size, whatever, right? DUCKWORTH: He may kill me for telling you that, but I think, according to my mother-in-law, that is a completely true account. MAUGHAN: And I’m not picking on little Jason Duckworth, but if you’re so married to that, then at some point maybe the orderliness —. DUCKWORTH: Which I am married to him. MAUGHAN: Okay. If you’re literally married to that — no, but if you’re so intent on all the blues, and the reds, and the yellows, and the greens have to be together, and then it gets messed up, and then it ruins your whole day. Obviously, I’m taking it to the extreme of, of where that could go to obsessive-compulsive disorder or things like that, but I just think that it’s important to recognize that while conscientiousness — and I believe everything you said, that’s who has a good life, that’s who is the happiest and all those things — anything taken to excess is too much. DUCKWORTH: I want to say that the extreme of conscientiousness is not obsessive-compulsive disorder. Like, I know people are like, “I’m so O.C.D.” And oftentimes when people say that, they don’t really know that what O.C.D. is, is actually an impulse control disorder. MAUGHAN: And I want to be clear, I obviously don’t know. DUCKWORTH: Well, okay, so just mini sermon on O.C.D. It has these two parts. So, obsessions are these intrusive thoughts that you don’t want to have, but you do. You know, “If I don’t check the stove, then the house is going to burn down and everybody in it.” And by the way, with these intrusive thoughts, you know at some level that that’s irrational, but you’re having these thoughts anyway. And then, the compulsions are behaviors like: check the stove and make sure it’s off or, like, make this square with my finger 64 times. And oh, if I go over one, then I have to do 128 times. I mean, the consensus on O.C.D. is that it’s an impulse disorder. So, the thing about conscientiousness, because if you ask the question, like, why are these personality traits, you know, grit, orderliness, it’s like, what, why are they in the same family? What is it about the last name “conscientiousness” that holds everything together? And here, I will say, scientists don’t agree, but it seems that these are all about: “I am trying to achieve a goal.” These are all goal-directed personality traits. Now grit is about very long-term goals. Self-control is about goals where there’s, like, a real tradeoff between something that feels good now versus feels good even, like, five minutes from now. Orderliness is furthering goals through order, and through organization, and so forth. But the thing about O.C.D. is you are not in control of those thoughts and not in control of those behaviors. So, I know we kid around like, somebody’s, like, alphabetizing their spice cabinet and you’re like, “Oh, sorry, I’m so O.C.D.” But that’s not O.C.D. So, I’m not saying you’re not making a really good point that maybe you can have too much conscientiousness or anything else. But it’s not O.C.D. And it’s not anorexia. People are like, “Oh, you know, if you’re, like, really self-controlled, then you have anorexia.” And I’m like, “No.” MAUGHAN: I guess to go back though to your question, it’s this idea of: if you’re, at some point, and I know I’m picking on the orderliness piece of the family, if you’re so, uh, you know, have to have your spice cabinet alphabetized and someone messes that up and it throws you off, to me, that’s an extreme of maybe one aspect of conscientiousness that is not helpful. And, at that point, it’s ruined kind of any value that it could have on, on the other side. I also think about the idea of conscientiousness, not surprisingly, in terms of work and, and companies. DUCKWORTH: Yeah, what are your thoughts as somebody who actually runs a business — instead of studying one? Maughan: So, reliability, to me, is one of the most absolutely essential things in anyone that you work with. I value reliability more than almost anything because it says if I hand you a task, then I don’t ever have to think about it again. So, I think that that is incredibly important and also somewhat rare. And I think that there is something about the idea of conscientiousness as well, that you handle hard tasks and you just dive in. DUCKWORTH: So, you will not be surprised, I think, Mike, that of all the Big Five — openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism — the one family that is most correlated with job performance is conscientiousness. Employers are, like, not looking for unreliable people, nor are they looking for slovenly, disorganized people, lazy people, you know, people who want to break rules or have real problems with impulse control. So, conscientiousness, for all the reasons that you mentioned, I mean, maybe reliableness in particular, but just in general, this whole family, it is the single most predictive factor of how you’re going to do in any job of the Big Five. And then, you could make arguments about other things that are not personality. But, I think then it even raises the question: why are some people not high in this very adaptive family of traits? Like, where does laziness, messiness, impulsivity, taking the easy way out — like, where does that come from? Didn’t Darwinian forces of natural selection cull all of the low-conscientiousness people? I don’t think anybody, including evolutionary psychologists, have a complete answer to why there are individual differences in this extremely adaptive family of traits. MAUGHAN: Well, that’s depressing that we don’t have any answers. DUCKWORTH: We have speculation. What do you think? MAUGHAN: Well, look, there are all the kind of false anecdotes about if you want something done, give it to a lazy person. But they say —. DUCKWORTH: Wait, I’ve never heard that. Does anyone say that? “If you want something done, give it to a lazy person.” MAUGHAN: The joke or idea behind it is that the lazy person will figure out the easiest, most efficient way to get it done, whereas other people might overcomplicate, because they want to minimize the amount of work that overall it would take, and so —. DUCKWORTH: Okay. I think you’re onto something. I’ve hired some extraordinarily conscientious young people in my time that were, in a way, too conscientious in the following very specific sense. They were so willing to work hard. I had this one young person, her job was to, like, file my expenses which meant, like, you have to use this computer system, take a photocopy of the receipts, and upload them. And she was so conscientious, that unbeknownst to me until later, I think she had, like, a triplicate extra system. So, she made a binder of all the original receipts that she, like, you know, kept in time, date order. But then also made a photocopy of that binder, just in case. And then, also had on the computer an Excel spreadsheet where she also — and I was like, what are you doing? I was like, “Why?” “Well, just in case.” I’m like, “Why? Because there, there are going to be three fires and a server crash?” MAUGHAN: Also, it’s okay. This is not life and death if we lose my expenses. DUCKWORTH: It’s okay if I don’t get reimbursed for the —.  MAUGHAN: These are not nuclear codes. DUCKWORTH: Yeah, exactly, for the lab meeting that we had and the pizza I bought. Look, I don’t have the answer, but I do think there is on one hand, all this data that says, like, conscientiousness is good. But at the same time, I do think there is maybe a cost, if you will — and maybe it’s not obvious what that cost is, but maybe for any virtue, right, this is Aristotle, it can be detrimental or not a virtue anymore when it’s at the extreme. So, I don’t know, but I think your intuitions — I think they’re onto something.  MAUGHAN: I think there are obviously a, a subset of people who maybe are overly conscientious. To the point you made earlier, that’s probably not most people. Most people are saying, how can I become more conscientious, especially given how it impacts the rest of life. And so, maybe that’s the question. What are ways that one can work on their personality to maximize the benefit of conscientiousness? DUCKWORTH: So, what would you do differently if you could, you know, wave a little conscientiousness magic wand in the life of Mike Maughan? And then, I will give you free professional advice.  MAUGHAN: Okay. I’ll just give you one example. Sometimes there are a few emails that will sit in my inbox because I know they’re going to take time and be an unpleasant task. And so, a truly conscientious person would, I think, recognize that I am a really important aspect of the work of many other people, but I know it’s just, like, not that pleasant of a task. So personally, I don’t really want to do it, but if I’m more conscientious of its impact on everybody else, then I would be much more likely to dive into the more difficult, if unpleasant, tasks that I sometimes leave unfinished for way too long. DUCKWORTH: So, would the right descriptor of this be “procrastination”? MAUGHAN: Probably, I guess, yeah. Out of sheer unpleasantness. That’s why I’m a 4.67, not a 4.8, whatever you were. DUCKWORTH: Well, I wasn’t perfect either, and I don’t remember exactly how I answered these questions, but I know I’m not a five. So, procrastination is actually a anti-member of the conscientious — you know, people who are high in conscientiousness in general procrastinate less. And by the way, I have studied teenagers for a long time, and I have not yet met the teenager — or frankly the adult — who does not procrastinate about something. And so, you seem to think that the reason why you procrastinate on these emails — as opposed to most things where you don’t procrastinate — is that there’s some unpleasantness, either emotionally or it’s just a lot of work, I guess? Like, can you tell me more about what you’re avoiding? MAUGHAN: Yeah, I mean, the other day I had to read a very long legal document and provide a ton of comments. I have never woken up my life saying I want to read a really long legal document. DUCKWORTH: So that one wasn’t emotional, right? It was just, like, tedious. MAUGHAN: Correct, just tedious. DUCKWORTH: I mean, boredom is also an emotion, but I think you recognize that, well, if you’re going to eventually get to it, you may as well get to it sooner because that’s just so much more efficient for everyone concerned. Is that right? MAUGHAN: Right, and there were literally dozens of people waiting on the review of this one thing. So, I probably should have been more conscientious of them. DUCKWORTH: Okay, so Mike, I’m going to ask you, if you had to give yourself advice, what would your advice be about how to reduce, if not eliminate, the procrastination problem with emails? MAUGHAN: I know that powering through this one unpleasant task will actually make my life way better. Because one, I won’t have the anxiety of it hanging over my head because I haven’t done it. And all these people waiting on my review are also working on something that I need done. So, it’s helpful to me in all of these ways. DUCKWORTH: So, you can try that and you might have success in framing them differently and reminding yourself of how many other people depend on you. But I’ll give you another tip from the land of conscientiousness research, which is that you might want to draw your attention to any part of the task or aspect of the task that doesn’t fill you with dread. So, for example, writing the book that I’m writing is so hard that I don’t think I’m going to live as long as I otherwise would — I think it’s shaving years off my life. And there are many times where I bring to mind, like, “Oh, I have to write chapter eight” that I’m just like, “Ugh.” It’s like, you know, putting a 40-pound weight on my shoulders. But I could draw my attention to something on the task list that is either fun, or easy, or otherwise appealing. It’s like a trick. Or I could do what some of my friends do, which is they don’t focus on the task. They focus on the time. They’ll be like, “I’m going to spend an hour doing emails.” Not like, “Oh, I have to go through that legal email that is going to require 150 lines of my replies.” Or you could try morning pages. That isn’t exactly an antidote to the email problem, but for me, it is a kind of easy and fun thing to do that’s like an on-ramp to my book. It’s kind of like what you were saying about the keystone habits. MAUGHAN: The phrase I love that you just said the most, and that I think is what I’ll take away, is: find the “on-ramp.” We all have to do these tasks that may be unpleasant, but they have to be done, so find the on-ramp. Whatever your on-ramp is. DUCKWORTH: Well, Mike, this is the way I would like to end this conversation. I want to say to Kylie, my soul sister, that I think maybe one of the most important things to know about grit and all of its siblings and cousins in the conscientiousness family is that you can change them if you want to. But I think the idea that you can become more conscientious, which research suggests you can, like, there are people, like, trying random-assignment trials and, you know, helping people break big tasks into small ones, helping people reframe things, you know, making plans. I don’t know. You might try any of the things that I just suggested. And if you see that that particular way of being conscientious might work for you, then maybe that’s your on-ramp. MAUGHAN: And maybe, Angela, you and I could start by making our beds.

And now, here’s a fact-check of today’s conversation:

In the first half of the show, Mike and Angela struggle to recall the name of the lowest-enlisted rank in the United States Navy. The correct answer is “seaman recruit,” formerly known as “seaman third class.” An “ensign” is the lowest-ranking commissioned officer; this is the rank that Admiral William McRaven held at the beginning of Navy SEAL training when he was first learning how to make his bed to perfection. A “plebe” is a new student at the United States Naval Academy.

Later, Angela talks about her positive experience with “morning pages” — a stream of consciousness exercise from author, poet, songwriter, filmmaker, and playwright Julia Cameron’s 1992 self-help book The Artist’s Way . Angela says that activity involves writing four pages of anything each morning — but Cameron actually suggests writing just three. Also, Angela misremembers the title of a 2018 paper that she co-authored in the Journal of Personality, which concluded there is no apparent downside to “too much self-control.” She says that it was titled “Too Much Self-Control?” but it was actually called “Too much of a good thing? Exploring the inverted-U relationship between self-control and happiness.”

Finally, Mike and Angela wonder why some people have low levels of conscientiousness. We should note that many people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (or ADHD) struggle with executive functioning skills and often have difficulty planning, organizing, scheduling, and completing tasks — all activities related to Big Five conscientiousness. Interestingly, new research by University of Pennsylvania philosopher and neuroscientist David Barack and colleagues suggests that traits associated with ADHD, like distractibility and impulsivity, may have been an evolutionary advantage for early humans when it came to forging for food. So, to our listeners who scored low in conscientiousness — you may have difficulty getting your work done today, but you wouldn’t have starved if you lived 12,000 years ago.

That’s it for the fact check.

Before we wrap today’s show, let’s hear some thoughts about last week’s episode on openness to experience and stepping outside of your comfort zone.

Allison ZELKOWITZ:  Hi, Angela and Mike. My name is Allison, and I’m an international aid worker and behavioral scientist. Back in 2011, I was living and working in Pakistan, and some friends of mine asked me if I wanted to go on a holiday with them to Spain and we would rent motorcycles and take a skydiving course. And I already knew how to ride a motorcycle and enjoyed that, and so I said yes, and I actually didn’t think that much about the skydiving course until we ended up in Empuriabrava, Spain and we had finished our one day of ground school, and I was in the plane more terrified than I’d ever felt in my entire life. And I don’t remember that first jump. I just remember sitting on the ground afterwards and feeling so much adrenaline and feeling so much terror. And I couldn’t believe that my friends and I had already bought a package of 18 jumps and I needed to skydive again 17 more times. I ended up falling in love with skydiving. I now am kind of a lower intermediate skydiver with about 220 jumps, and it brings me so much joy. And it’s also kind of a spiritual experience where I feel awe. So, I’m so grateful I stepped outside of my comfort zone and outside of that airplane door the first time.  Colin ALSBRO:  Hi, Mike and Angela. I’ve never considered myself afraid to step out of my comfort zone. However, for many years, there was no one challenging me to do so. And all that changed when I met Francine. I was in Minneapolis working as a teacher. I was struggling with where I wanted to go in life, but I saw myself living there indefinitely. Then one day, Francine, a volunteer at my school, came into my classroom, sensing my doubt, and she started to ask me questions like goals I hadn’t accomplished, experiences I hadn’t lived, and privileges I’ve never been challenged to work through. She asked me if I’d ever been in a room where no one else looked like me, or if I’d ever been to a doctor, or gotten a taxi and not been able to communicate with the person. And upon answering no, she said to me, “That’s privilege!” That night I went home, thinking about everything she said and had what you could consider a quarter-life crisis. I immediately signed up for an international teaching fair, and two weeks later, I left the fair with a signed contract to move to and work in Taiwan. The three years I had in Taiwan were incredible. Truly life-changing. And in the spirit of trying new things, I moved to Germany around two years ago, where I currently live. I haven’t spoken with Francine since. However, if I were to see her again, I’d say thank you to her, and I’d tell her that my eternal thought process for experiencing life since that day that we met has been: “W.W.F.S. What would Francine say?” Blake SCHMIDT:  Hey NSQ, I’m Blake. I actually wanted to offer another avenue to increasing our openness that comes from astronauts on the International Space Station, where apparently inhabitants become increasingly open to using hot sauce. Lots and lots of hot sauce. Kim Binstead at the University of Hawaii is sorting it out with some amazing experiments, and it appears that one really important driver of this increased openness is boredom. So, if you’re trying to increase your openness, give boredom a go and hopefully you’ll score that five next time.

That was, respectively, Allison Zelkowitz, Colin Alsbro, and Blake Schmidt. Thanks to them and to everyone who shared their stories with us. And remember, we’d love to hear your thoughts on conscientiousness. Send a voice memo to [email protected], and you might hear your voice on the show!

Coming up next week on No Stupid Questions : Why does society prefer extraverts — and do we need introverts?

MAUGHAN: My back was just about broken from the weight of carrying that conversation.

That’s next week on No Stupid Questions .

No Stupid Questions is part of the Freakonomics Radio Network, which also includes Freakonomics Radio , People I (Mostly) Admire , and The Economics of Everyday Things . All our shows are produced by Stitcher and Renbud Radio. The senior producer of the show is me, Rebecca Lee Douglas, and Lyric Bowditch is our production associate. This episode was mixed by Greg Rippin. We had research assistance from Daniel Mortiz-Rabson. Our theme song was composed by Luis Guerra. You can follow us on Twitter @NSQ_Show and on Facebook @NSQShow. If you have a question for a future episode, please email it to [email protected]. To learn more, or to read episode transcripts, visit Freakonomics.com/NSQ. Thanks for listening!

MAUGHAN: Should we speak in accents for a bit? DUCKWORTH: Shall we? MAUGHAN: That’d be delightful. 

• David Barack , philosopher and neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Randall Bell , socio-economist and C.E.O. of Landmark Research Group.
• Julia Cameron , author, poet, songwriter, filmmaker, and playwright.
• Charles Duhigg , journalist and author.
• Guy Kawasaki , author and Silicon Valley venture capitalist.
• William McRaven , professor of national security at the University of Texas at Austin and retired Admiral in the United States Navy.
• “ Attention Deficits Linked With Proclivity to Explore While Foraging ,” by David Barack, Vera U. Ludwig, Felipe Parodi, Nuwar Ahmed, Elizabeth M. Brannon, Arjun Ramakrishnan, and Michael L. Platt ( Proceedings of the Royal Society B,  2024).
• “ Large Studies Reveal How Reference Bias Limits Policy Applications of Self-Report Measures ,” by Benjamin Lira, Joseph M. O’Brien, Pablo A. Peña, Brian M. Galla, Sidney D’Mello, David S. Yeager, Amy Defnet, Tim Kautz, Kate Munkacsy, and Angela Duckworth ( Nature: Scientific Reports, 2022).
• “ Too Much of a Good Thing? Exploring the Inverted-U Relationship Between Self-Control and Happiness ,” by Christopher Wiese, Louis Tay, Angela Duckworth, Sidney D’Mello, Lauren Kuykendall, Wilhelm Hofmann, Roy Baumeister, and Kathleen Vohs ( Journal of Personality,  2018).
• “ 7 ‘Rich Habits’ of Highly Successful People, From a Man Who Studied Them for 25 Years ,” by Kathleen Elkins ( CNBC, 2017).
• Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World ,  by William McRaven (2017).
• “ University of Texas at Austin Commencement Address ,” by William McRaven (2014).
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business ,  by Charles Duhigg (2012).
• “ Who Does Well in Life? Conscientious Adults Excel in Both Objective and Subjective Success ,” by Angela Duckworth, David Weir, Eli Tsukayama, and David Kwok ( Frontiers in Psychology,  2012).
• The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity ,  by Julia Cameron (1992).
• Big Five Personality Inventory , by  No Stupid Questions  (2024).
• “ Personality: The Big Five ,” series by  No Stupid Questions  (2024).
• “ Angela Duckworth: The Gritty Road to Growth ,” by  Guy Kawasaki’s Remarkable People  (2024).
• “ How to Have Great Conversations ,” by  People I (Mostly) Admire  (2024).
• “ Do You Need a Routine? ” by  No Stupid Questions  (2024).

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The 2024 Asembia Meeting is Underway

GLP-1s, artificial intelligence and the Inflation Reduction Act are among the topics featured in the education sessions of the specialty pharmacy meeting in Las Vegas. The keynote speaker is William McRaven, a retired four-star admiral and former chancellor of the University of Texas system.

More than 7,000 people are expected to attend the 2024 Asembia specialty pharmacy meeting in Las Vegas that is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

The meeting offcially started yesterday with continuing education sessions but begins in earnest this afternoon with education sessions on the specialty drug pipeline, a “rookie camp” for people new to the meeting and the “prescriber intent.”

Held in the Wynn and Encore Las Vegas hotel on Las Vegas’ famous Strip, the Asembia meeting is not connected to any professional group or medical subspecialty. No research is presented, and many of the attendees focus on networking and meeting with business partners, past, present and future. A series of 40-minute education sessions \cover business and other topics related to specialty pharmacy. This year there are sessions on tried-and-true topics such as biosimilars, value-based care and understanding the patient perspective. There are also sessions on newsy subjects, such as implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act, the 2024 elections, the application and implications of artificial intelligence and, of course, the GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. The meeting’s app lists about 200 exhibitors and sponsors, including MJH Life Sciences, the company that owns Managed Healthcare Executive.

William McRaven

The scheduled keynote speaker at the general session tomorrow morning is William McRaven, a retired four-star U.S. Navy admiral and former chancellor of the University of Texas system. McRaven had a decorated military career that included leadership roles in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is credited with overseeing the raid that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. He also gained some measure of fame for his “ Make Your Bed” speech about accomplishing small tasks to reach larger goals, delivered as the 2014 commencement address at University of Texas, Austin. The speech has been viewed millions of times and is used for motivational and leadership training purposes. McRaven also became well known for speaking out against former President Donald Trump. In December 2019, he wrote an strongly worded opinion piece published by The New York Times that accused Trump of undercutting American values.

The other scheduled speakers at the general session are Nick Webb, a best-selling author of books on leadership and healthcare; Doug Long, MBA, vice president, industry relations, IQVIA, whose rapid-fire slide deck presentations about healthcare and pharmacy trends are a staple of this and other pharmacy-related meetings; and Pat Lupo, MBA, group vice president, trade & specialty, at Walgreens.

Asembia, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, supplies specialty pharmacies with a variety of services related to patients, contracting and technology.

The full name of the meeting is the Asembia's AXS24 Summit, but the meeting has become well-known in pharmacy circles and is referred to mainly as the Asembia meeting.

The Debate About Ending Interchangeability Designation for Biosimilars | Asembia 2024

In a discussion with Managed Healthcare Executive, Cate Lockhart, Pharm.D., Ph.D., executive director, Biologics and Biosimilars Collective Intelligence Consortium, talks about whether or not she favors ending interchangeability designation for biosimilars.

The IRA One Year Later | Asembia 2024

Cencora’s Corey Ford says after the IRA’s out-of-pocket cap goes into effect next year, Part D plans are expected to put in place more narrow drug coverage and pharma companies will likely face a more competitive environment.

Tasmina Hydery of Cencora Talks Collaborative Approach to Boost Uptake of HUMIRA Biosimilars | Asembia 2024

Tasmina Hydery, Pharm.D., MBA, associate director, digital solutions, Cencora, spoke with MHE editors about the slow uptake of HUMIRA biosimilars despite there being 10 approved options on the market.

GLP-1s: Patients Shed Pounds, Payers Gain Problems | Asembia 2024

The way the drugs have taken off, combined with the number of people in the U.S. who are obese, have made the GLP-1s "an acute problem for every U.S. payer,” says George Van Antwerp, MBA, a manager director at Deloitte.

Defining ‘Specialty Lite’ | Asembia 2024

The GLP-1s and some of the migraine drugs are included in this category of drugs that are priced to cost between $5,000 and $15,000 a year and are dispensed at a retail pharmacies, George Van Antwerp, MBA, a managing director at Deloitte, explains.

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Adm. McRaven Urges Graduates to Find Courage to Change the World

Naval Adm. William H. McRaven, ninth commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, delivered a memorable speech at the University-wide Commencement on May 17. See the full transcript.

View 10 Life Lessons from Admiral McRaven .

The following are the remarks by Naval Adm. William H. McRaven, ninth commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, at the University-wide Commencement at The University of Texas at Austin on May 17:

President Powers, Provost Fenves, Deans, members of the faculty, family and friends and most importantly, the class of 2014. Congratulations on your achievement.

It’s been almost 37 years to the day that I graduated from UT. I remember a lot of things about that day. I remember I had throbbing headache from a party the night before. I remember I had a serious girlfriend, whom I later married — that’s important to remember by the way — and I remember that I was getting commissioned in the Navy that day.

But of all the things I remember, I don’t have a clue who the commencement speaker was that evening, and I certainly don’t remember anything they said. So, acknowledging that fact, if I can’t make this commencement speech memorable, I will at least try to make it short.

The University’s slogan is, “What starts here changes the world.” I have to admit — I kinda like it. “What starts here changes the world.”

Tonight there are almost 8,000 students graduating from UT. That great paragon of analytical rigor, Ask.Com, says that the average American will meet 10,000 people in their lifetime. That’s a lot of folks. But, if every one of you changed the lives of just 10 people — and each one of those folks changed the lives of another 10 people — just 10 — then in five generations — 125 years — the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people.

800 million people — think of it — over twice the population of the United States. Go one more generation and you can change the entire population of the world — eight billion people.

If you think it’s hard to change the lives of 10 people — change their lives forever — you’re wrong. I saw it happen every day in Iraq and Afghanistan: A young Army officer makes a decision to go left instead of right down a road in Baghdad and the 10 soldiers in his squad are saved from close-in ambush. In Kandahar province, Afghanistan, a non-commissioned officer from the Female Engagement Team senses something isn’t right and directs the infantry platoon away from a 500-pound IED, saving the lives of a dozen soldiers.

But, if you think about it, not only were these soldiers saved by the decisions of one person, but their children yet unborn were also saved. And their children’s children were saved. Generations were saved by one decision, by one person.

But changing the world can happen anywhere and anyone can do it. So, what starts here can indeed change the world, but the question is — what will the world look like after you change it?

Well, I am confident that it will look much, much better. But if you will humor this old sailor for just a moment, I have a few suggestions that may help you on your way to a better a world. And while these lessons were learned during my time in the military, I can assure you that it matters not whether you ever served a day in uniform. It matters not your gender, your ethnic or religious background, your orientation or your social status.

Our struggles in this world are similar, and the lessons to overcome those struggles and to move forward — changing ourselves and the world around us — will apply equally to all.

I have been a Navy SEAL for 36 years. But it all began when I left UT for Basic SEAL training in Coronado, California. Basic SEAL training is six months of long torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable. It is six months of being constantly harrassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Navy SEAL.

But, the training also seeks to find those students who can lead in an environment of constant stress, chaos, failure and hardships. To me basic SEAL training was a lifetime of challenges crammed into six months.

So, here are the 10 lessons I learned from basic SEAL training that hopefully will be of value to you as you move forward in life.

Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed. If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack — that’s Navy talk for bed.

It was a simple task — mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle-hardened SEALs, but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.

If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.

And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

During SEAL training the students are broken down into boat crews. Each crew is seven students — three on each side of a small rubber boat and one coxswain to help guide the dingy. Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surfzone and paddle several miles down the coast. In the winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet high and it is exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in. Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain. Everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously tossed back on the beach.

For the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle. You can’t change the world alone — you will need some help — and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them.

If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.

Over a few weeks of difficult training my SEAL class, which started with 150 men, was down to just 35. There were now six boat crews of seven men each. I was in the boat with the tall guys, but the best boat crew we had was made up of the the little guys — the munchkin crew we called them — no one was over about five-foot-five.

The munchkin boat crew had one American Indian, one African American, one Polish American, one Greek American, one Italian American, and two tough kids from the midwest. They out-paddled, out-ran and out-swam all the other boat crews. The big men in the other boat crews would always make good-natured fun of the tiny little flippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior to every swim. But somehow these little guys, from every corner of the nation and the world, always had the last laugh — swimming faster than everyone and reaching the shore long before the rest of us.

SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed. Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status. 

If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.

Several times a week, the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection. It was exceptionally thorough. Your hat had to be perfectly starched, your uniform immaculately pressed and your belt buckle shiny and void of any smudges. But it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into starching your hat, or pressing your uniform or polishing your belt buckle — it just wasn’t good enough. The instructors would find “something” wrong.

For failing the uniform inspection, the student had to run, fully clothed into the surfzone and then, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every part of your body was covered with sand. The effect was known as a “sugar cookie.” You stayed in that uniform the rest of the day — cold, wet and sandy.

There were many a student who just couldn’t accept the fact that all their effort was in vain. That no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right, it was unappreciated. Those students didn’t make it through training. Those students didn’t understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed. You were never going to have a perfect uniform.

Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie. It’s just the way life is sometimes.

If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.

Every day during training you were challenged with multiple physical events — long runs, long swims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics — something designed to test your mettle. Every event had standards — times you had to meet. If you failed to meet those standards your name was posted on a list, and at the end of the day those on the list were invited to a “circus.” A circus was two hours of additional calisthenics designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit.

No one wanted a circus.

A circus meant that for that day you didn’t measure up. A circus meant more fatigue — and more fatigue meant that the following day would be more difficult — and more circuses were likely. But at some time during SEAL training, everyone — everyone — made the circus list.

But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. Over time those students — who did two hours of extra calisthenics — got stronger and stronger. The pain of the circuses built inner strength, built physical resiliency.

Life is filled with circuses. You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core.

But if you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.

At least twice a week, the trainees were required to run the obstacle course. The obstacle course contained 25 obstacles including a 10-foot high wall, a 30-foot cargo net and a barbed wire crawl, to name a few. But the most challenging obstacle was the slide for life. It had a three-level 30-foot tower at one end and a one-level tower at the other. In between was a 200-foot-long rope. You had to climb the three-tiered tower and once at the top, you grabbed the rope, swung underneath the rope and pulled yourself hand over hand until you got to the other end. 

The record for the obstacle course had stood for years when my class began training in 1977. The record seemed unbeatable, until one day, a student decided to go down the slide for life head first. Instead of swinging his body underneath the rope and inching his way down, he bravely mounted the TOP of the rope and thrust himself forward.

It was a dangerous move — seemingly foolish, and fraught with risk. Failure could mean injury and being dropped from the training. Without hesitation the student slid down the rope perilously fast. Instead of several minutes, it only took him half that time and by the end of the course he had broken the record.

If you want to change the world sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first.

During the land warfare phase of training, the students are flown out to San Clemente Island which lies off the coast of San Diego. The waters off San Clemente are a breeding ground for the great white sharks. To pass SEAL training there are a series of long swims that must be completed. One is the night swim.

Before the swim the instructors joyfully brief the trainees on all the species of sharks that inhabit the waters off San Clemente. They assure you, however, that no student has ever been eaten by a shark — at least not recently. But, you are also taught that if a shark begins to circle your position — stand your ground. Do not swim away. Do not act afraid. And if the shark, hungry for a midnight snack, darts towards you — then summon up all your strength and punch him in the snout, and he will turn and swim away.

There are a lot of sharks in the world. If you hope to complete the swim you will have to deal with them.

So, if you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.

As Navy SEALs one of our jobs is to conduct underwater attacks against enemy shipping. We practiced this technique extensively during basic training. The ship attack mission is where a pair of SEAL divers is dropped off outside an enemy harbor and then swims well over two miles — underwater — using nothing but a depth gauge and a compass to get to their target.

During the entire swim, even well below the surface, there is some light that comes through. It is comforting to know that there is open water above you. But as you approach the ship, which is tied to a pier, the light begins to fade. The steel structure of the ship blocks the moonlight, it blocks the surrounding street lamps, it blocks all ambient light.

To be successful in your mission, you have to swim under the ship and find the keel — the centerline and the deepest part of the ship. This is your objective. But the keel is also the darkest part of the ship — where you cannot see your hand in front of your face, where the noise from the ship’s machinery is deafening and where it is easy to get disoriented and fail.

Every SEAL knows that under the keel, at the darkest moment of the mission, is the time when you must be calm, composed — when all your tactical skills, your physical power and all your inner strength must be brought to bear.

If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.

The ninth week of training is referred to as “Hell Week.” It is six days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment, and one special day at the Mud Flats. The Mud Flats are area between San Diego and Tijuana where the water runs off and creates the Tijuana slues, a swampy patch of terrain where the mud will engulf you.

It is on Wednesday of Hell Week that you paddle down to the mud flats and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive the freezing cold mud, the howling wind and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors. As the sun began to set that Wednesday evening, my training class, having committed some “egregious infraction of the rules” was ordered into the mud. 

The mud consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads. The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit — just five men — and we could get out of the oppressive cold. Looking around the mud flat it was apparent that some students were about to give up. It was still over eight hours till the sun came up — eight more hours of bone-chilling cold.

The chattering teeth and shivering moans of the trainees were so loud it was hard to hear anything. And then, one voice began to echo through the night, one voice raised in song. The song was terribly out of tune, but sung with great enthusiasm. One voice became two and two became three and before long everyone in the class was singing. We knew that if one man could rise above the misery then others could as well.

The instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singingbut the singing persisted. And somehow the mud seemed a little warmer, the wind a little tamer and the dawn not so far away.

If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope. The power of one person — Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandela and even a young girl from Pakistan, Malala — one person can change the world by giving people hope.

So, if you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.

Finally, in SEAL training there is a bell. A brass bell that hangs in the center of the compound for all the students to see. All you have to do to quit is ring the bell. 

Ring the bell and you no longer have to wake up at 5 o’clock. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the freezing cold swims. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle course, the PT — and you no longer have to endure the hardships of training. Just ring the bell.

If you want to change the world don’t ever, ever ring the bell.

To the graduating class of 2014, you are moments away from graduating. Moments away from beginning your journey through life. Moments away from starting to change the world — for the better. It will not be easy. 

But, YOU are the class of 2014, the class that can affect the lives of 800 million people in the next century.

Start each day with a task completed. Find someone to help you through life. Respect everyone.

Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often. But if take you take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up — if you do these things, then the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today.

And what started here will indeed have changed the world — for the better.

Thank you very much. Hook ’em horns.

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10 Life Lessons From Navy SEAL Admiral McRaven's Amazing Commencement Speech

AP Photo/The University of Texas at Austin, Marsha Miller

Naval Adm. William H. McRaven

Below is an abbreviated transcript of his speech:

The University's slogan is,

"What starts here changes the world."

I have to admit-I kinda like it.

Tonight there are almost 8,000 students graduating from UT.

That great paragon of analytical rigor, Ask.Com says that the average American will meet 10,000 people in their lifetime.

That's a lot of folks.

But, if every one of you changed the lives of just ten people-and each one of those folks changed the lives of another ten people-just ten-then in five generations-125 years-the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people.

800 million people-think of it-over twice the population of the United States. Go one more generation and you can change the entire population of the world-8 billion people.

If you think it's hard to change the lives of ten people-change their lives forever-you're wrong.

I saw it happen every day in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A young Army officer makes a decision to go left instead of right down a road in Baghdad and the ten soldiers in his squad are saved from close-in ambush.

In Kandahar province, Afghanistan, a non-commissioned officer from the Female Engagement Team senses something isn't right and directs the infantry platoon away from a 500 pound IED, saving the lives of a dozen soldiers.

But, if you think about it, not only were these soldiers saved by the decisions of one person, but their children yet unborn-were also saved. And their children's children-were saved.

Generations were saved by one decision-by one person.

But changing the world can happen anywhere and anyone can do it.

So, what starts here can indeed change the world, but the question is…what will the world look like after you change it?

Well, I am confident that it will look much, much better, but if you will humor this old sailor for just a moment, I have a few suggestions that may help you on your way to a better a world.

And while these lessons were learned during my time in the military, I can assure you that it matters not whether you ever served a day in uniform.

It matters not your gender, your ethnic or religious background, your orientation, or your social status.

Our struggles in this world are similar and the lessons to overcome those struggles and to move forward-changing ourselves and the world around us-will apply equally to all.

I have been a Navy SEAL for 36 years. But it all began when I left UT for Basic SEAL training in Coronado, California.

Basic SEAL training is six months of long torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable.

It is six months of being constantly harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Navy SEAL.

But, the training also seeks to find those students who can lead in an environment of constant stress, chaos, failure and hardships.

To me basic SEAL training was a life time of challenges crammed into six months.

So, here are the ten lessons I learned from basic SEAL training that hopefully will be of value to you as you move forward in life.

Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed.

If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack-rack-that's Navy talk for bed.

It was a simple task-mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection. It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle hardened SEALs-but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.

If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.

By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.

If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.

And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made-that you made-and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

1. If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

During SEAL training the students are broken down into boat crews. Each crew is seven students-three on each side of a small rubber boat and one coxswain to help guide the dingy.

Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surf zone and paddle several miles down the coast.

In the winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet high and it is exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in.

Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain. Everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously tossed back on the beach.

For the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle.

You can't change the world alone-you will need some help- and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them.

2. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.

Over a few weeks of difficult training my SEAL class which started with 150 men was down to just 35. There were now six boat crews of seven men each.

I was in the boat with the tall guys, but the best boat crew we had was made up of the the little guys-the munchkin crew we called them-no one was over about 5-foot five.

The munchkin boat crew had one American Indian, one African American, one Polish American, one Greek American, one Italian American, and two tough kids from the mid-west.

They out paddled, out-ran, and out swam all the other boat crews.

The big men in the other boat crews would always make good natured fun of the tiny little flippers the munchkins put on their tiny little feet prior to every swim.

But somehow these little guys, from every corner of the Nation and the world, always had the last laugh- swimming faster than everyone and reaching the shore long before the rest of us.

SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed. Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status.

3. If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.

Several times a week, the instructors would line up the class and do a uniform inspection. It was exceptionally thorough.

Your hat had to be perfectly starched, your uniform immaculately pressed and your belt buckle shiny and void of any smudges.

But it seemed that no matter how much effort you put into starching your hat, or pressing your uniform or polishing your belt buckle-- it just wasn't good enough.

The instructors would find "something" wrong.

For failing the uniform inspection, the student had to run, fully clothed into the surfzone and then, wet from head to toe, roll around on the beach until every part of your body was covered with sand.

The effect was known as a "sugar cookie." You stayed in that uniform the rest of the day-cold, wet and sandy.

There were many a student who just couldn't accept the fact that all their effort was in vain. That no matter how hard they tried to get the uniform right-it was unappreciated.

Those students didn't make it through training.

Those students didn't understand the purpose of the drill. You were never going to succeed. You were never going to have a perfect uniform.

Sometimes no matter how well you prepare or how well you perform you still end up as a sugar cookie.

It's just the way life is sometimes.

4. If you want to change the world get over being a sugar cookie and keep moving forward.

Every day during training you were challenged with multiple physical events-long runs, long swims, obstacle courses, hours of calisthenics-something designed to test your mettle.

Every event had standards-times you had to meet. If you failed to meet those standards your name was posted on a list and at the end of the day those on the list were invited to-a "circus."

A circus was two hours of additional calisthenics-designed to wear you down, to break your spirit, to force you to quit.

No one wanted a circus.

A circus meant that for that day you didn't measure up. A circus meant more fatigue-and more fatigue meant that the following day would be more difficult-and more circuses were likely.

But at some time during SEAL training, everyone-everyone-made the circus list.

But an interesting thing happened to those who were constantly on the list. Over time those students--who did two hours of extra calisthenics-got stronger and stronger.

The pain of the circuses built inner strength-built physical resiliency.

Life is filled with circuses.

You will fail. You will likely fail often. It will be painful. It will be discouraging. At times it will test you to your very core.

5. But if you want to change the world, don't be afraid of the circuses.

At least twice a week, the trainees were required to run the obstacle course. The obstacle course contained 25 obstacles including a 10-foot high wall, a 30-foot cargo net, and a barbed wire crawl to name a few.

But the most challenging obstacle was the slide for life. It had a three level 30 foot tower at one end and a one level tower at the other. In between was a 200-foot long rope.

You had to climb the three tiered tower and once at the top, you grabbed the rope, swung underneath the rope and pulled yourself hand over hand until you got to the other end.

The record for the obstacle course had stood for years when my class began training in 1977.

The record seemed unbeatable, until one day, a student decided to go down the slide for life-head first.

Instead of swinging his body underneath the rope and inching his way down, he bravely mounted the TOP of the rope and thrust himself forward.

It was a dangerous move-seemingly foolish, and fraught with risk. Failure could mean injury and being dropped from the training.

Without hesitation-the student slid down the rope-perilously fast, instead of several minutes, it only took him half that time and by the end of the course he had broken the record.

6. If you want to change the world sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first.

During the land warfare phase of training, the students are flown out to San Clemente Island which lies off the coast of San Diego.

The waters off San Clemente are a breeding ground for the great white sharks. To pass SEAL training there are a series of long swims that must be completed. One-is the night swim.

Before the swim the instructors joyfully brief the trainees on all the species of sharks that inhabit the waters off San Clemente.

They assure you, however, that no student has ever been eaten by a shark-at least not recently.

But, you are also taught that if a shark begins to circle your position-stand your ground. Do not swim away. Do not act afraid.

And if the shark, hungry for a midnight snack, darts towards you-then summons up all your strength and punch him in the snout and he will turn and swim away.

There are a lot of sharks in the world. If you hope to complete the swim you will have to deal with them.

7. So, if you want to change the world, don't back down from the sharks.

As Navy SEALs one of our jobs is to conduct underwater attacks against enemy shipping. We practiced this technique extensively during basic training.

The ship attack mission is where a pair of SEAL divers is dropped off outside an enemy harbor and then swims well over two miles-underwater-using nothing but a depth gauge and a compass to get to their target.

During the entire swim, even well below the surface there is some light that comes through. It is comforting to know that there is open water above you.

But as you approach the ship, which is tied to a pier, the light begins to fade. The steel structure of the ship blocks the moonlight-it blocks the surrounding street lamps-it blocks all ambient light.

To be successful in your mission, you have to swim under the ship and find the keel-the center line and the deepest part of the ship.

This is your objective. But the keel is also the darkest part of the ship-where you cannot see your hand in front of your face, where the noise from the ship's machinery is deafening and where it is easy to get disoriented and fail.

Every SEAL knows that under the keel, at the darkest moment of the mission-is the time when you must be calm, composed-when all your tactical skills, your physical power and all your inner strength must be brought to bear.

8. If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.

The ninth week of training is referred to as "Hell Week." It is six days of no sleep, constant physical and mental harassment and-one special day at the Mud Flats-the Mud Flats are an area between San Diego and Tijuana where the water runs off and creates the Tijuana slue's-a swampy patch of terrain where the mud will engulf you.

It is on Wednesday of Hell Week that you paddle down to the mud flats and spend the next 15 hours trying to survive the freezing cold mud, the howling wind and the incessant pressure to quit from the instructors.

As the sun began to set that Wednesday evening, my training class, having committed some "egregious infraction of the rules" was ordered into the mud.

The mud consumed each man till there was nothing visible but our heads. The instructors told us we could leave the mud if only five men would quit-just five men and we could get out of the oppressive cold.

Looking around the mud flat it was apparent that some students were about to give up. It was still over eight hours till the sun came up-eight more hours of bone chilling cold.

The chattering teeth and shivering moans of the trainees were so loud it was hard to hear anything and then, one voice began to echo through the night-one voice raised in song.

The song was terribly out of tune, but sung with great enthusiasm.

One voice became two and two became three and before long everyone in the class was singing.

We knew that if one man could rise above the misery then others could as well.

The instructors threatened us with more time in the mud if we kept up the singing-but the singing persisted.

And somehow-the mud seemed a little warmer, the wind a little tamer and the dawn not so far away.

If I have learned anything in my time traveling the world, it is the power of hope. The power of one person-Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandela and even a young girl from Pakistan-Malala-one person can change the world by giving people hope.

9. So, if you want to change the world, start singing when you're up to your neck in mud.

Finally, in SEAL training there is a bell. A brass bell that hangs in the center of the compound for all the students to see.

All you have to do to quit-is ring the bell. Ring the bell and you no longer have to wake up at 5 o'clock. Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the freezing cold swims.

Ring the bell and you no longer have to do the runs, the obstacle course, the PT-and you no longer have to endure the hardships of training.

Just ring the bell.

10. If you want to change the world don't ever, ever ring the bell.

To the graduating class of 2014, you are moments away from graduating. Moments away from beginning your journey through life. Moments away from starting to change the world-for the better.

It will not be easy.

But, YOU are the class of 2014-the class that can affect the lives of 800 million people in the next century.

Start each day with a task completed.

Find someone to help you through life.

Respect everyone.

Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often, but if you take take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up-if you do these things, then next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today and-what started here will indeed have changed the world-for the better.

Thank you very much. Hook 'em horns.

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• June 3-6, 2024
• San Diego Convention Center, California

Keynote: Admiral William H. McRaven, U.S. Navy Four-Star Admiral (Retired)

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Admiral William McRaven to Keynote 2024 BIO Convention

Retired U.S. Navy (SEAL) Four-Star Admiral and the Former Chancellor of The University of Texas System, William McRaven, to Discuss Leadership, Global Events, and the National Security Importance of Biotechnology with BIO CEO, John Crowley

WASHINGTON - (April 30, 2024) – As recent global events have demonstrated, the world has become more challenging and American leadership is needed more at home and abroad than ever before, and that includes maintaining U.S. dominance in biotechnology innovation. Retired U.S. Navy four-star admiral, Navy SEAL, University Chancellor, best-selling author and world-renowned authority of leadership, William McRaven, will keynote the 2024 BIO International Convention, Wednesday, June 5, in San Diego. Admiral McRaven will be interviewed by John Crowley, CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) about the challenge of global events today and the implications for biotechnology as a national security imperative. McRaven will also share his insights on essential elements of leadership in managing complex organizations. 

Over the course of his distinguished military career, McRaven gained first-hand insight into the numerous threats facing the United States. “For more than a century, the United States has been the medicine chest to the world, providing life-saving vaccines, antibiotics, and therapeutics, saving millions of lives. In the face of diverse global threats, maintaining a robust biotech industry is paramount for safeguarding both the nation and our allies,” said McRaven.

“We are on the cusp of a golden age of biotechnology, and Admiral McRaven will highlight why it is a strategic imperative for the United States to bolster our biotechnology capabilities and foster innovation in order to safeguard our nation and global society,” said Crowley. “He brings unparalleled expertise and experience to the discussion on the intersection of biotechnology and national security.” 

Listed as one of the world’s greatest leaders by Forbes Magazine in 2015 and author of a #1 New York Times bestseller, McRaven is a retired United States Navy four-star admiral who served as the ninth commander of the United States Special Operations Command. In 2011, he received the title “Bullfrog,” an honor given to the Navy SEAL who has served the longest on active duty. McRaven dealt with every conceivable leadership challenge, including commanding critical combat operations that spanned the capture of Saddam Hussein, the rescue of Captain Phillips, and the successful raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.   When McRaven retired in 2014, he had 37 years as a Navy SEAL under his belt, leading men and women at every level of the special operations community. He served as Chancellor to the entire University of Texas System, one of the nation’s largest and most respected systems of higher education, in the ensuing four years. 

McRaven is also the author of several books including New York Times Bestsellers Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life and Maybe the World and The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple (But Not Easy).

The BIO International Convention is the largest global event for the biotech industry, gathering more than 15,000 leaders in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial, and environmental biotechnology products. The Convention will take place at the San Diego Convention Center from June 3 – 6, 2024.

Complimentary registration is available for media. Click here to register.

Admiral William H. McRaven Admiral William H. McRaven is a retired U.S. Navy Four-Star admiral and the former Chancellor of the University of Texas System. During his time in the military, he commanded special operations forces at every level, eventually taking charge of the U.S. Special Operations Command. His career included combat during Desert Storm and both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He commanded the troops that captured Saddam Hussein and rescued Captain Phillips. McRaven is also credited with developing the plan and leading the Osama bin Laden mission in 2011.

As the Chancellor of the UT System, he led one of the nation’s largest and most respected systems of higher education. As the chief executive officer of the UT System, McRaven oversaw 14 institutions that educated 220,000 students, and employed 20,000 faculty and more than 80,000 health care professionals, researchers, and staff.

McRaven is a recognized national authority on U.S. foreign policy and has advised Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and other U.S. leaders on defense issues. He currently serves on the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the National Football Foundation, and the Board of Directors of ConocoPhillips.

McRaven has been recognized for his leadership numerous times. In 2011, he was the first runner-up for TIME magazine’s “Person of the Year.” In 2012, Foreign Policy magazine named McRaven one of the nation’s “Top 10 Foreign Policy Experts.” In 2014, Politico magazine named McRaven one of the “Politico 50,” citing his leadership as instrumental in cutting though Washington bureaucracy. In 2015, he received the Intrepid Freedom Award for his distinguished service in defending the values of democracy. In 2016, McRaven was named the recipient of the Ambassador Richard M. Helms Award by the CIA Officers’ Memorial Foundation and in 2018, he received the Judge William H. Webster Distinguished Service Award for a lifetime of service to the nation.

McRaven graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1977 with a degree in Journalism and received his master’s degree from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey in 1991.

McRaven is the author of several books including, SPEC OPS: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare, Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life and Maybe the World, based on his 2014 UT Commencement Speech that received worldwide attention, and Sea Stories: My Life in Special Operations, The Hero Code: Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived. In 2023, he released The Wisdom of the Bullfrog: Leadership Made Simple (But Not Easy). An instant #1 New York Times Bestseller, the book draws on countless experiences from Admiral McRaven’s life, including navigating crises, management debates, organizational transitions, and ethical dilemmas, to provide readers with the most important leadership lessons he has learned over his forty years of service.

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