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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Proven tools to take your team and yourself to the next level Elite: High Performance Lessons and Habits from a Former Navy SEAL is a practical, no-nonsense guide to elevate your leadership skills and drive your team to their maximum potential. Before you can push your team to the max, you must push yourself--elite teams require elite leaders. This invaluable guide supplies the tools you need to develop effective strategies to motivate, adapt, and overcome. Author Nick Hays combines military training with Harvard education to present a comprehensive program that will unlock the potential in yourself and your team. The business environment has changed dramatically over the last several decades. Volatile market conditions, disruptive innovation, and digital transformations across entire sectors have rendered traditional business methods obsolete. To thrive, businesses must be adaptable, agile, and lean. Policies and procedures may change, but strong leadership and shared goals ensure a source of strength and continuity. Providing real-world methods and effective strategies, this essential resource will allow you to: * Embrace the Warrior Mindset to always be proactive, never a victim * Develop the trust of your team through strength and shared experience * Devise durable and sustainable business strategies and contingency plans that adapt to fluid situations * Promote a culture of innovation and authenticity to deliver a solid foundation for your team Elite: High Performance Lessons and Habits from a Former Navy SEAL is a must-read guide for everyone from aspiring entrepreneurs to established business leaders. No matter the stage of your business--development, exploitation, or disruption--Elite will change your approach to business and unlock the warrior within.
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Seitenzahl: 269
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
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“As Nick’s former Platoon Chief and Senior Enlisted Advisor (SEA), it is extremely gratifying to witness his success in this stage of his life as both a father, scholar, and “mentor.” The professionalism and sincerityexhibited by Nick in his daily quest for the betterment of others is a testament to his warrior ethos and personal maturation from the dynamic experiences of his NSW past. I am blessed to have shared in Nick’s journey.”
—James S. Boa II, SOCS (SEAL) US Navy ret.
“I had the pleasure of serving with Nick during our time in SEAL training. He was and is a great man of integrity, a dedicated father and husband, and a stellar teammate. His wisdom has increased so much over our decade plus friendship, and I must say it’s been a tremendous blessing to watch him grow as a leader. His ability to flawlessly pass on leadership skills acquired during his time in the SEAL Teams to corporations and professional athletes is second to none. If you want to learn how to not only be elite, but also be an elite leader, I highly recommendElite.”
—Remi Adeleke, Former Navy SEAL, author, actor and speaker
“In Nick Hays’ book, Elite: High-Performance Lessons and Habits from a Former Navy SEAL, he does a masterful job of boiling down the long-standing, well-proven secrets to success into simple, actionable steps - a masterful job of reminding us all that it’s the small things that make the difference between success and failure, and that we should never, ever give up.”
—Brian P. Ward, Global Chief Executive Officer, Trimont Real Estate Advisors
“Nick’s passion for helping others succeed is only matched by his drive to share his knowledge and passion with others. Elite is a rare glimpse into the motivation and habits Nick has used to achieve, despite everything that’s stood in his path. If you’re ready to learn how to take your life to the next level, Elite is the book for you!”
—Bryan Black, Founder, ITS Tactical
“Against all odds, a guy who turned to humor to battle his way through some of the most challenging situations on earth. Someone everyone needs in their corner, not only in life but any professional setup that needs that extra magic. Nick Hays has the magic and it’s apparent in Elite. “Taking command of my life” in chapter 13 provides invaluable tools and made me reflect upon past adversity within my own life. I believe, and it is apparent here, that linking this to a positive outlook is what we all should strive for. Remember to take the high road, it’s the road of the Elite.”
—Lysle Turner, Mount Everest Summiteer, Harvard Alumnus, Founder of Turnvest Holdings and the Turner Together Foundation
“This is a book for anyone. Anyone who wants to get better at anything. Whether it’s personal improvement in some area of your life, improvement in your relationships, improvement in your communication with others, or improving your team, this material will help. And it applies to any environment or situation, too. Nick’s training is ultra-discipline, which is crucial when others’ lives are on the line. It is a mindset, a way of conducting one’s life, and he shares this with us through simple language and example. Trust the content, buy the book and study it; don’t just read it. If you choose not to, be content with never realizing your own full potential in life.”
—Tim Anderson, Managing Director Halbert Hargrove Global Advisors, LLC, Long Beach, CA
“Nick Hays does an extraordinary job laying out the recipe to be ELITE. Up your level of self-awareness by learning how to filter your thoughts to win the war in your mind. Be prepared to laugh along the way with Nick and some of his amazing life stories.”
—Chase R. Wise, President, Saginaw Pipe Company
“I’m proud to know Nick and call him a brother and a friend. Nick does a great job in this book to combine his successes, failures and plenty of lessons learned from some of the most difficult and prestigious proving grounds on the planet.”
—Elijah Crane, Founder and CEO, Bottle Breacher, Navy SEAL, entrepreneur.comcontributor, Member of the Advisory Committee on Veterans Business Affairs
“Elite is a captivating book that you will find very difficult to put down, once you pick it up. Hays’ writing comes across as authentic, inspiring and motivating simultaneously. The invaluable secret that is shared with the reader is simple and profound at the same time: discipline and perseverance are the key to excellence and becoming what Hays was trained to be throughout his life’Elite.”
—Tomer Zvulun, General and Artistic Director, The Atlanta Opera
Elite
High-Performance Lessons and Habits from a Former Navy SEAL
Nick Hays
Cover design: WileyCover image: © ShaunWilkinson/iStock.com
Copyright © 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hays, Nick, author.Title: Elite : high performance lessons and habits from a former Navy SEAL / Nick Hays.Description: First Edition. | Hoboken : Wiley, 2019. | Includes index. | Identifiers: LCCN 2018040935 (print) | LCCN 2018057709 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119538127 (Adobe PDF) | ISBN 9781119538141 (ePub) | ISBN 9781119538097 (hardback)Subjects: LCSH: Leadership. | Elite (Social sciences) | BISAC: BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Leadership. | BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Motivational.Classification: LCC HD57.7 (ebook) | LCC HD57.7 .H39133 2019 (print) | DDC 650.1–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018040935
To my parents, Kirk and Suzy Hays.Thanks for all the hard work. I love you very much.
CONTENTS
Cover
Introduction
Joined the Military
Setbacks
A Navy SEAL and Beyond
Formal Education
Carrier Change
Fail Between the Lines
What to Expect
Notes
Chapter 1: Remove the Dead Weight
Creating a Masterpiece
Assets and Liabilities
The Backpack
Evaluate the Weight
Chapter 2: No More Excuses
Fall from Perfect
Take Action
Find Your Optimal Performance
Inverted U and Stress Control
Find Peace in Admitting Your Fear
The Potential of Failure Is Not an Excuse
Chapter 3: Take Control of Your Thoughts
The Confidence Dial
Insecurity
Arrogance
Chapter 4: Be Mentally Tough
Climbing High
Humble Beginnings
A Long Way to Go
The Ascent
In Over Our Heads
Final Stretch
Lessons Learned
Crawl, Walk, Run
Chapter 5: Choosing the Warrior Mentality
Marathon Is Half the Word
Be Better Today Than Yesterday
Almost a Victim
Look Forward, Not Back
My Accelerator Moment
Be 1% Better Every Day
Chapter 6: Be Self-Aware
What Is Your Personality Type?
Know Where You’re Coming From
Play Well with Others
Chapter 7: Surround Yourself with the Right People
It Starts with Authenticity
Relationships: The Expanding Circle
In Practice
Start Building
Chapter 8: Pursue Mentorship
Mistakes Were Made
Learning Curve Cost
Value of a Mentor
Course Correction
Choosing a Mentor
Let Your Mentor Know
Elite Mentors Create Elite Mentors
How to Mentor Others
Chapter 9: Continually Improve Your Situation
The SEAL Delivery Vehicle
A Frogman Story
Maximize Your Upside, Minimize Your Downside
Ownership
Lessons Learned
Chapter 10: Make Decisions That Produce Good Results
OODA Loop
Loop versus Loop
When to Pivot
Train How You Fight
In Practice
Chapter 11: Guard Your Time
Social Media
In the Workplace
Find Your Why
Chapter 12: Guard Your Mind
Hell Week
Protect Your Mental Hard Drive
Localize Your Data
Chapter 13: Whatever It Takes
Taking Command of My Life
A Very Long Day
Be Unbeatable
What’s Next?
Acknowledgments
Family
Childhood/Developmental Influence
Professional Mentors
HBS
Book Process
Book Previews
John Wiley & Sons
Lost Warriors
About the Author
Index
Eula
List of Illustrations
Chapter 2
Figure 2.1
Inverted U, “Arousal Control”
Chapter 3
Figure 3.1
Inverted U, Part 2
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1
Crawl, Walk, Run Benchmarking
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1
Aggregation of Marginal Gains
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1
Four Temperaments
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1
Expanding Circle
Figure 7.2
Root Cause Analysis, “Five Whys”
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1
Learning Curve Cost
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1
OODA Loop.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
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e1
Introduction
Before we get started, I want you to get to know a few things about me. I am, after all, claiming to understand what makes people elite. If you were to look at my resume, you might be impressed. It would read Navy SEAL, independent contractor in a war zone, Harvard Business School student, mental skills consultant for professional sports teams, keynote speaker, active father, loving husband. Of course, the resume of an elite individual speaks only of accomplishment; the other 95% of the story is left to the imagination. My goal is to let you in on that part of the story and what I’ve learned along the way.
In this book, you will find structures and processes that you can easily implement in your life that will take your performance to the next level. To justify these processes, I have used some personal stories that will both demonstrate the effectiveness of the concept as well as provide some entertainment. It will be easier for you to embrace the ideas in this book if you know my history.
This introduction will give you a brief insight into the experiences that have made me who I am today. I have found that being honest about my failures and my successes equally is the best way to connect with people.
It may come as a surprise to you that I have been the underdog, and a little bit of a scrapper, all of my life. One reason for this is that I moved around every two years growing up and found myself in a perpetual state of being the “new kid in town.” The result was that once I earned a spot on an athletic team or built a strong group of friends, it was time to leave and start over. Starting over was not easy. Often the moves were to different regions with their own cultures. There was always a learning curve, but this was not my biggest setback during the transition. The one factor that always leads to an uphill climb was my size. I am a short person. Like, comically short. I am nearly the perfect size to “carry a ring of power to Mt. Doom to return it to the fires from whence it came” (Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring). I’m around 5 feet 5 on a good day.
My first impression with others rarely demonstrates my capability. Fortunately, I had two secret weapons that helped me meet people quickly. The first was the ability to make people laugh; people will always remember someone who made them feel lighthearted and happy. The other was athletics. I could try out for a sport and earn a spot.
Every single time I moved, there was a process. It began with an intense feeling of loss for my friends and lifestyle. Next, there was a feeling of isolation and lack of importance in the new place. Eventually, I would become comfortable in the new environment and make a group of reliable friends. Then I would experience what could be considered success at that age. Sometimes the success was with a sport, responsibility at school, or even playing guitar in a band.
Joined the Military
After I graduated high school I went to college at Ole Miss. Three of my best friends from Arizona had already joined the Navy, and two were already Navy SEALs. I had decided to go to college first but planned on joining up with them just after I earned my degree. I thought that I had a plan, but that changed when the United States went to war.
I knew that training would take a couple of years and feared that if I didn’t join the military immediately, I could miss the war entirely. Please keep in mind that none of us knew that this would become the most extended military conflict in our nation’s history. I felt rushed and didn’t want my friends to be over there without me.
My professional story begins with being a college dropout. I told the university that I would not be returning, and I went to the recruiter’s office for passage into the Navy. Of course, when they saw me – the little guy – walk through the door, they did not take me seriously as a SEAL candidate. The guy chuckled when I told him what I wanted to do and then told me that I should be in a different job. At that time, someone who wanted to go to SEAL training had to choose a job that was called a “SEAL Source Rating.” In the Navy, only a few jobs allowed the sailor to put in a package to become a Navy SEAL. They told me that, if I worked on helicopters, then I could show up to boot camp and take the screen test there.
I signed the papers and agreed to take the trip to boot camp within a month. I remember being incredibly excited when I called my friends in the Navy. One of them told me that the recruiter had lied to me about the job and that if I went into boot camp with those orders that I might never get a chance to become a SEAL. I was devastated. Not only had I been lied to, the recruiter thought that I didn’t even deserve a chance to try – no doubt because of my size.
I went to the recruiter’s office and told them that I knew what had happened and demanded new orders. They said no and claimed that since I had signed the contract, I was now obligated to go to boot camp and be an aircrewman my entire career. Just like any other time in my life when someone tried to outsmart me, I quickly did some research and learned as much about the subject as possible.
The recruiter hounded me over those few weeks – called me regularly, made threats, and was generally unpleasant. I’ll admit that this made me feel better about what I was going to do. The day before I was on the schedule to ship out to boot camp, I showed up to the recruiter’s office with a large, fresh, still-bloody tattoo on my back. I showed it to him and cited the rule that no one can ship out to boot camp within a month of getting a tattoo. I told him that my former orders would need to be rewritten and the only way he would ever see me again was if he followed the directions of my SEAL brother via phone calls. I’ll never forget that look on his face – priceless.
My recruiter worked through my new set of orders with my SEAL buddies holding him accountable via phone calls, and I had the correct orders ready for me within a week. I knew exactly where I needed to be and wasn’t about to let a total stranger decide for me. It was a good start, but I had a long way to go. Within a few months, I was through Navy boot camp and onto the first part of Navy SEAL training called Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) school.
Elite people know when it is time to fight for what they know is right. That fight takes its form in hard work and difficult conversations, but it is worth it in the end. I could have never accomplished my dream had I not put myself in the right position to even have the opportunity.
Setbacks
I was at BUD/S for a few months before I met a girl. She had grown up in Texas and had just finished her master’s degree. She was a musical-theater actress who was doing a show on Coronado Island, conveniently located right next to where I was in training and living at the time. It wasn’t long before I asked her to marry me. I had a graduation date set and was well past Hell Week, so my odds of making it through BUD/S were good. Being a young, confident man, I decided that I could set our wedding date for the week following my graduation date. We booked a beautiful venue in San Antonio located on the famous River Walk. We sent out invitations and booked a honeymoon vacation to Cancun. Everything was rolling along, and I was feeling great.
That would soon change.
In the final weeks of our training, I had to take the last timed evolution in BUD/S. It was a two-mile ocean swim with a pass/fail time of 70 minutes. Throughout training, swimming had been my hardest test to pass. I had already failed a swim and could not afford to fail another one. The standards in BUD/S are set high and strictly maintained – and it is not a popularity contest.
A good friend at the time told me that he wanted to help me pass the swim. He brought along a dog leash to help pull me just in case we needed to make up some time. About halfway through the ocean swim, he knew that we had little hope of passing. I wanted to graduate with my class and keep my dream wedding alive so severely that I swallowed my pride and attached the leash. I fought the water like Rocky Balboa fighting Apollo Creed. I gave it everything that I had. I’ll never forget crossing the finish line with my BUD/S instructor in a kayak staring at his stopwatch. “Hays, Fail,” he said. It turns out that I was 10 seconds behind the time. I had tried to cheat and still failed.
Next, I would have to go before a board of instructors who would decide if I was worth keeping around in the next class. If they decided to drop me, then I would never achieve my childhood dream of becoming a Navy SEAL. Then I would have to go home and tell my fiancée that her future husband was 10 seconds too weak to provide her the dream wedding that she deserved. Never in my life had I felt like more of a failure.
I went to the board of instructors and argued my case. I told them why I wanted to be there and that I would not fail another swim if they gave me another chance. It’s nice to think that my argument was compelling, but it was the authentic look of fear that I might lose my childhood dream that caught their attention. They dismissed me from the room to discuss the matter in private. So I went outside and stood at attention waiting for their decision. Tears welled in my eyes, and I felt a sickness in my gut. A few of my classmates ran past me and saw the tears running down my face, but I was so concerned with what was happening in the office that I hardly noticed.
When I went back inside, they told me that they had decided to give me another chance. I would be rolled back to the next class to go through that portion of training again. I went home to my future wife, and she told me that we would get through it together. Then I spent a month in the pool practicing my swimming technique with the best swimmers I knew. I figured that if I surrounded myself with the most elite swimmers I knew, their ability might rub off onto me. What I learned was that when you fight the water, you are creating more friction and moving slower. If you relax and get long in the water with smooth strokes, you swim faster and have the energy to spare at the end. When I rolled into the next BUD/S class, I delivered on my promise to the instructors and didn’t fail a single swim. No more dog leash for me.
When I tried to cheat, I failed. When I learned from the experts, it made me a better product, and I was able to succeed. Of course, this affected my wedding date, and I had to cancel my honeymoon. There are always consequences for failure. Elite people don’t let those consequences define them; they adapt to their situation, and overcome their challenges in time.
A Navy SEAL and Beyond
I graduated in BUD/S class 255 and went on to become a Navy SEAL. My military orders had me assigned to a SEAL team called SDVT-1 (SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1), where I would learn to pilot a miniature submersible – a small craft that the Navy uses as a deployment platform. While my friends from BUD/S were training with their platoons and eventually deploying to the Middle East, I was spending long hours diving underwater working with submarines. I will discuss this in further detail later in the book, but let’s not forget that I had joined the military to join the war effort. Now, for five years, I would be stuck underwater. I feared that I would be one of the few SEALs who served during a time of war who had never been “down range” (meaning in a combat zone). I did get to do some impressive things, and the Navy awarded me with the Bronze Star, but I was unsatisfied and felt a personal goal slipping through my fingertips.
Later, I would become an instructor in San Diego for all things water. I taught combat diving, over-the-beach operations, ship boarding, and gas and oil platform assaults. Toward the end of that time, I received an invitation to try out for a new thing. The opportunity came from former teammates I had previously worked with at my SEAL team, and the “new thing” was not in the Navy. Some companies were allowing elite operators to work down range, and they were hiring on a referral basis.
I tried out for the program while I was still in the Navy and succeeded. It was quite a process, and about two-thirds of people didn’t make it through the shooting and house-clearing evolutions. As I have been brutally honest about my failures, I can be frank about my achievements as well. I performed very well during the evaluations and passed everything on the first try. Perhaps I can attribute this to the fact that there was no swimming, diving, or water present.
I separated from the Navy after nine and a half years of service with an honorable discharge and a Bronze Star. Two weeks later, I was in the Middle East with a high-caliber unit doing some fantastic stuff. It’s hard to express how deeply satisfying it was to be in precisely the position that I wanted to be in for so long. I found myself working with great friends, having plenty of freedom, as combat zones go, and operating at a very high level. It was intoxicating. I had finally arrived.
It was a great year. I worked multiple deployments and had a lot of fun. Getting to do the work that I had prepared so long for was extremely rewarding. The experiences I gained in the Middle East provided me with a strong sense of purpose. Unfortunately, at the end of that year, I got injured. While practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with my friends on deployment, my L5-S1 disk burst. I was flown home and needed spinal fusion surgery. With the long recovery time and the future risk of further injury, my days of working with a gun were over.
I know now that we can guess at what success might look like, but we will never really know until we are there. I learned that sometimes we do what we have to do and other times we do what we want to do. Elite people will do both to the best of their ability.
Formal Education
Don’t worry, the college dropout aspect of my life was not the end of my educational story. When I had become an instructor in the SEAL teams, I had time to resume taking college classes. I attended an online option provided by the University of Maryland and finished in about a year and a half. I would teach all day and then come home and study at night. I worked through the summer semester to knock it out as quickly as I could. I could afford to do it on a military salary because the Navy offers a tuition assistance program for active-duty service members. I had learned a thing or two about discipline through my time in the military, so my grades were top notch and I was in two honor societies. After earning my bachelor’s degree, I was ready for more.
When I left the Navy to contract in the Middle East, I had applied for business school at the University of San Diego. I found that taking classes while I was home was challenging, since we had a newborn baby at the time. On deployment, my ability to learn new information, read books written by masters of business, and write papers based on what I had learned came quite easily. It wasn’t until I was in my early 30s, in a war zone on the other side of the world, that I realized that I had a knack for learning. I loved business school. I needed more. As soon as I thought I’d had enough and was done with it all, I found myself plunging back in at full force. Surprisingly, I had become addicted.
Right after I was injured, I contacted multiple CEOs on LinkedIn who had businesses in San Francisco. I crafted an email detailing my history and promised that I would not ask for anything. I did not want a job or money. I was honest with them when I asked for as much knowledge as they could give me in a single sit-down meal. I told them that I would probably take notes and assured them that this was not a sales call.
What is crazy about that time in my life is that they believed me. In fact, my return rate was so high from those emails that I was able to set up three meals a day for a four-day span. I drove around the Bay Area from appointment to appointment, soaking up as much knowledge as I could. As I said earlier, I was addicted, and people were handing it out for free.
Having seen the benefit of working with extremely high-quality people in the past, with my experience as a Navy SEAL, I wondered what it would be like to go to the business school with the best reputation in the world. When you hear the word “Harvard,” you can’t help but associate it with the elite of the elite. Fortunately, I knew a guy who had been through Harvard Business School Executive Education. He also happened to be a close friend of mine, a SEAL who I had worked with in the past. I asked him for an introduction to the program director, and a couple of months later I started at Harvard Business School’s Program for Leadership Development.
Harvard is similar to SEAL training. They aren’t lying when they tell you that it is not easy and certainly not for everybody. The program stretched me mentally and culturally. Only 30% of the students in the program were from the United States, so I experienced challenging cross-cultural relations in addition to the challenging lectures. The program had a unique design: the students were responsible for trying out their ideas on everyone else while the professor facilitated the conversation. The students held the responsibility of learning new material, assessing possible strategies, and trying them out on their peers. When you are presenting your ideas to some of the brightest people on the planet, it is stressful. It was humbling, reaffirming, and extremely rewarding.
Carrier Change
Being injured was extremely challenging because I lost a large part of my identity. I had been one thing for a long time, and I saw it ripped away from me in a moment. It is when we are in those dark places of life that we have to make a choice. Will we allow ourselves to become victims or will we be warriors? I knew that I would soon be looking back at how I handled myself in those moments and I would feel one of two ways about it – embarrassed or proud. In determining what would be next for me, I thought about my “why.” I knew that I needed to understand my reason for getting out of bed and working hard. Then, I needed to learn how to apply that reason to another cause in my future. It was clear that I needed a renewed sense of purpose in my life, and I needed it fast.
