Chapter 10

Everything You Need to Know about True Teams (in about an Hour)

The greatest compliment one SEAL can bestow on another is to call him a teammate. In the sea underwater at night when it is the darkest, it is your teammate who swims beside you, always ready to provide you air if you run out, untangle your line if you’re caught under a ship . . . In the air, it is your teammate who checks your parachute before you jump . . . [and] lands beside you in enemy territory. On the land, it is your teammate who walks your flank, covering your six . . . And sometimes it is your teammate who lays down his life for yours.

—Admiral William McRaven, honoring SEAL Lt. Michael Murphy1

YOU ARE A SMART, AMBITIOUS PERSON with ideas, talents, unique life experience, and a fire in your gut that’s greater than your fear of trying. This makes you UnStoppable.

Now imagine you times four.

Think of how the four of you could brainstorm solutions, overcome obstacles, and take on risk and fear on any mission if, indeed, you all still acted as one.

You’d be making yourself into a new organism (something, as you’ll learn, like a SEAL team). An engine with just one cylinder could be made from the most advanced components in the world. Yet all you’d have is a lawnmower. But put four or more cylinders together and you have a Ferrari, a powerhouse that goes 180 mph. All you did is multiply 1 times 4 and make a team that will work in concert to fulfill one mission: to turn that crankshaft.

As a team you ...

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