uh back to the book war fighting also instructs that the quote military profession is a thinking profession end quote this means that marines must practice mental the mental discipline necessary to challenge our assumptions as professionals we need to dispassionately assess the environment and make certain we are setting the pace for our competitors i was on with a client the other day and well you know the lead into the question that i got asked was well you know in the military of course it’s a it’s a very hierarchy uh structured thing and what you want is people that all think the same way you know that was the lead into the question so when he asked the question then i had to start with well let me just tell you that the last thing i want on my team is a bunch of people that think the same way i do actually i want a bunch of people that push back and think different thoughts and see different perspectives than me and so here’s the marine corps quoting from their their their manual number one which is called warfighting military profession is a thinking profession and it takes discipline to challenge our own assumptions again it’s totally the complete opposite of what everyone thinks the marine corps is everybody thinks everyone wants oh we want every marine to think the same no you don’t we want them to actually it’s actually we’re being instructed to challenge our own assumptions yeah i like that connection too you were talking earlier about wanting to see this thing connect back to humility which was that sentence kind of started this and that there is there is an undeniable connection there the mental discipline necessary to challenge our own assumptions the who the humility that it takes to go and look at your own guess your own assumption and go i might be wrong the humility inside of that and they’re calling it mental discipline but those two are completely linked and even if you just think about the things you say that the self-discipline it takes for you to do the things that you do as disciplined as you are the reason you do it is that you don’t want to get complacent you don’t want to get comfortable you don’t want to get weak so you have the mental discipline to do that and that is that is humility because if you don’t have like i can skip a day yeah i can skip a couple days whatever either either a lack of mental discipline or a lack of humility will lead you to not challenge your assumptions and just think that everything’s going fine and we’ll just go through with it my plan’s good to go [Music] yeah next section is education but before before we go into this next section let me ask you this do you remember when i was talking about diving and not wanting to be the buddy yeah totally so that was i think when we were talking about and i was just you know the single seat mindset of of my experience you know this is this is it a similar thing where if you’re in the back seat you’re just kind of not in control and you’re not much to do and you’re sort of yeah i mean that was for me and there were guys just like me that had no problem sitting in the back seat if if if you lined up like 10 fighter pilots today like hey do you want to go fly in the back seat of an authentic p51 from world war ii nine of them would be in there like this and i would say no thanks so it could even be a hundred or 99 of them would say i’ll be in there just about everything i want to get in there i’m not i’m not even a freaking pilot yeah and and i understand that the historical significance of it and i’m not even sure it’s rational to even think that but i i never ever ever even even wanting to fly a two-seat airplane i didn’t want to do that because i didn’t i didn’t want people looking at me like hey what are you like i got this you know and that great that’s all young stuff i mean everything outgrown that in some ways but there is an absolute menta a uniqueness of being alone in an airplane there’s a there’s a there’s something about that there’s something unique about that you know i got a big smile on my face right now so there’s a um i i i’m not even 100 sure about this but i’m 99 and this is why i describe every time you say single seat every time you’re like well it’s a single seat there’s a i there’s a ferrari sports car which is one of the most expensive ferraris that you can get it’s nuts you know it’s got 10 million horsepower and it can do the whatever and it’s a single seat car and i we’re gonna i’m gonna have to fact check this the name of the car is ego east that’s the name it’s like it’s like something ego that’s the name of the car totally i’m in this thing by myself there’s not even anyone else coming in here it’s not possible this is all about me well think of the ego i mean if you want to think about even just me think of the ego of um flying from the military not good enough flying helicopters not good enough flying cobras not good enough flying jets not good enough flying f-18s not good enough flying single seat f-18s okay that’ll do like the criteria of what i had created in my mind of what success was like what success was was just that and and i don’t i don’t mean to like presume that i know what you you know what you were thinking but hey do you want to just be in the navy that’s not enough for me uh you could be a a diver or like and you could go through the criteria like and even and i’m i’m implying like it’s kind of crazy like green beret that’s not what i want to do like joggo you know how many people would kill to say their green bridge like yeah you know i understand that but that’s not what i want and i had created a scenario in my mind like if it’s not a single seat hi-lot f-18 in the marine corps i’m not gonna be happy which is kind of it’s insane it’s crazy but that is that is what that’s what i wanted to do and i don’t maybe if i ended up in a two-seat squadron would i somehow go hey you know what i was an idiot this was this is totally awesome this is great maybe but you won’t you know the ego the power of the ego going and that’s i think not to defend myself too much but i think it’s a little bit different than arrogance the ego and the arrogance you know the flaunting of i’m better than you against the more like no that to me is the hardest that’s the highest peak you can get to that’s where i want to be and i had created it that that’s what i wanted and other guys like they didn’t i don’t care i’ll fly whatever oh really yeah yeah cool whatever i’ll fly that cool go go fly that if you don’t have that how far do you make it not where i wanted to go i mean okay so there might be some small tiny minuscule part of the population that is just so talented that they can kind of just cruise by and they’re going to get it right yeah there are and there’s some people that are like guess what i’m doing this weekend i’m sharpening my knife i’m polishing my boots yeah that was me in seal training you know me and teal training was oh guys are going to go to whatever you know go to the mall go try and meet girls or whatever i’m going to sharpen my knife the whole weekend right and get ready for inspection because i want to make sure i get through this thing because i’m not sure i see pitfalls all over the place and i don’t need any more pitfalls than they’re already in resistance and you’re not going to feel like you’re missing out either you’re not like man i wish i was out at the bar or at the club like you’re not thinking that at all you’re like this is what i should be doing that’s what i should be doing i don’t care about anything else so you don’t even feel like you’re doing it even though you don’t want to you wouldn’t want to do anything else as a matter of fact if you did the other thing you’re like you know what i should be doing right now i should be back home prepping that’s what i should be doing so the the i think that’s the difference well maybe not the difference but when you talk about when you talk about ego and you cross-section some humility in there guess what that equals that equals someone that’s working as hard as they possibly can and holding themselves the highest possible standards so that they can achieve what they want to achieve when someone’s just arrogant guess what they don’t do that extra studying they don’t stay and sharpen their knives they don’t and and look there’s a tiny minuscule percentage chance that they have the natural talent and it’s probably well it’s i’ll tell you it’s a lot easier in the sea to get through basic seal training just based on the fact that you’re a really good athlete and you’re decently tough and if you have that you can be pretty arrogant and still make it through because you don’t really need to do anything extra because you can do a rope climb and you can carry a log around and it’s like okay you know you played whatever you you did track and field and you played football and you you know you show up and you’re 21 years old and you’re in really good shape you can be pretty arrogant and not really have to do anything extra and make it through the program i bet that’s a little bit more challenging there’s probably less people that would fall into that category in pilot school because you get hit with the academics you get hit with the the fine motor skills you get hit with the the the natural ability to like i remember when i took the test for officer candidate school and they’re showing you pictures and what is this is this plane they showed like you know i wasn’t even oriented yeah i wasn’t even going into aviation or anything they’re showing you a plane is this thing coming or going is this that and so you’re getting hit with those kind of tests as well so there’s got to be there’s there’s there’s different types of screening that’s taking place that are more there’s a there’s a broader modality of screening as opposed to seal training it’s like be cold do pull-ups that’s that’s not a huge how much autonomy do you have over your schedule and stuff in in seal training as well i’m sure at some point you have zero but do you have a bunch of free time do you surprisingly what’s surprising to a lot of people is you do have a lot yeah you do have a decent amount of free time and that is part of the test because part of the test is oh you want to go get drunk and get in a fight cool you’re not here anymore right because you just got in trouble we don’t need you in the seal teams oh you did you just went and didn’t prepare this weekend and now you’re failing your third inspection cool we don’t need you in the seal team sec so there is a they have to give you some opportunity they have to give you enough rope that you can hang yourself and you certainly can and there’s plenty got plenty of guys that did yeah plenty of guys that got in trouble in town didn’t come back from mexico in time for muster and you know you hit a couple of those things and you’re gone so they give you enough rope if you’re a knucklehead you’ll hang yourself with it but other than that if you can do pull-ups and you can suffer you can do some rope climbs like you can kind of just grit through it and that’s why i think you that’s why i think i would venture to say that we have a higher percentage of arrogance in the seal teams because you don’t because you’re not gonna get humbled quite as much as as you are in such a selective scenario as going to flight school well going to ocs going to the basic school you know getting down selected down selecting to get in down selected at ocs down selected at the basic school down selected at flight school and then down selected to go to top gun like that’s that’s a bunch of very narrow uh very narrow funnels that you got to get through if you’re going to make it all the way to top gun instructor we don’t that’s that’s a bunch of very narrow things to pass yeah even with that it’s not a flawless system i mean even with that there are guys that are that are there that maybe shouldn’t be there i i equate and i’m probably wrong about this it’s just my perception i equate the seals being a navy seal is as even inside the community of these highly highly capable special operations organizations throughout the different services that the seals i elevate them in my own mind that there’s just something unique about that and if i take a step back and i think like okay flying f16s for the air force or flying f-18s for the navy the marine corps look man it’s the same and there’s probably people say hey greenberry and abc like you could account a couple of that are that’s not what i had in my mind that there was a piece that would just set up a tiny bit compared to everything else that’s what i think when i think from the outside of seals or at least can understand someone in your shoes going that one and i would say when i was 18 and i was raising my right hand to enlist in the navy that’s what i was thinking once i was in and i work with the i work with the marine corps i work with the army special force i work with the totally soldiers from the 101st airborne i realize there’s guys here that are 10 times better than me and they’re they’re a ground pounder in an infantry unit yeah
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