Anyone can rustle up a sales pitch, spout a few motivational platitudes or talk of winning battles in the boardroom or on a golf course. And we pay them well for their mantras and their war stories. For them teambuilding is a daring afternoon building Lego models, or for the more testosterone inclined, a bout of paintballing at the local activity centre.
Mack is different. “The teams” he worked in were elite Navy SEAL units, and his “missions” were life-or-death encounters of amphibious, alpine and special operations warfare. In the teams, ordinary people achieved greatness – endurance, heroism and self-sacrifice even as so many of his counterparts wallowed in ordinary, suburban lives.
Look past the cheesy title “Unleash the Warrior Within”, which sounds like the literary progeny of Conan the Barbarian and Anthony Robbins. Consider instead the immensely lucid and powerful insights that Richard Machowicz draws from his military career. Then apply them. It is no exaggeration to say that this single book is devastatingly powerful in its insights and has genuine potential to revolutionize the shape of our thinking. It has provided me with more practical tools for personal achievement than any other book in the genre.
Mack’s genius is to focus on the psychology that elite special forces teams deploy. The “Warrior” he speaks of in the title is nothing to do with fighting others, but rather of self-mastery, of personal achievement. The book opens explosively. Mack pitches us straight into Hell Week, the infamous and arduous endurance test that all new recruits to the SEALS must pass. As he is kept awake for days, dragged through rocks and surf and ripped by stones, carrying canoes so heavy they can break necks, he survives by repeating a simple mantra – “The only two ways I can be defeated are if I give up or die”. This is distilled into his core philosophy – “Not Dead, Can’t Quit” TM.
The book is as exciting and gripping as a novel. The action never fails - from his sniper training to his HALO (high altitude low opening) jumps, from his beach landings to his days as a Hollywood celebrity bodyguard. It’s no self-indulgent memoir though. The book is jam-packed not just with wise words but actual, practical techniques such as the CARVER matrix to assess priorities, and the phase diagrams to plan goals. The section on responding to physical threats – hint, always look at the mugger’s hands to see if they have a weapon - is worth its weight in gold.
As one of the world’s elite military forces, the Navy SEALs have no time for soundbites, or ideas that sound good but don’t deliver. Richard Machowicz, who is now a noted TV personality in America in his own right, delivers some fascinating and highly practical ideas in this book. He has further developed this into “Bukido”, a holistic martial arts and improvement philosophy.
Of course, you could dismiss all this as a “Full Metal Jacket”-style banter and instead your ideas from perma-tanned “road warriors” whose idea of struggle is a traffic jam on the M1 and an awkward sales meeting. Take that line if you will. But you’d be missing out on one of the most compelling, exceptional and inspirational personal development books in print today.
