Exactly 80 years ago today, General Dwight D. Eisenhower led the invasion of Normandy that turned the tide of World War II.
Which makes today (June 6th, 2024) the 80th anniversary of D-Day (June 6th, 1944).
As we’ve discussed many times, over the last year I’ve been blessed to spend time with some of THE most elite military officers AND some of THE most junior Warriors serving our families and protecting the freedoms on which our flourishing are so dependent.
Which makes this D Day especially meaningful for me.
Although I’m typing this from a hotel room in Chicago, I get goosebumps imagining the bust of Dwight D. Eisenhower that would be staring at me if I was typing this at my desk.
I received that gift from Captain “Chowdah” Hill after having the opportunity to spend time with his 5,000 Heroic Warrior Sailors on the USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER.
That gift will ALWAYS be a reminder of ALL of the anonymous human beings who make my life possible—not just the Warriors but the farmers and the road maintenance guys and the Instacart delivery folks and EVERY OTHER human who helps me flourish.
As I type that I’m thinking about a chat I had two days ago while visiting the Chicago Bulls.
I’m in Billy Donovan’s office with Arturas Karnišovas and Michael.
We’re talking about a bunch of stuff.
Then Billy asks me what it was like to visit the IKE in the Red Sea.
I told him it was a SACRED HONOR and a (tears in my eyes) life-changing experience.
From the moment I received and accepted the invitation to the moment I left the carrier.
First, Alexandra asked me: “You’re going out to the carrier when they’re firing missiles and drones at it?! 😳!!”
To which I said: “Yah. I can leave my !@%*& bubble wrap for 5 days and be with the men and women who have been out there for over 5 MONTHS in harm’s way 24/7.”
Then I told Billy that, as amazing as it was to land on the carrier and see Top Gun pilots take off and land in their F-18s right in front of me, THE MOST POWERFUL experience (goosebumps) was a moment I turned from filming the F-18 taking off to capturing the ANONYMOUS Heroes decked out in different color jumpsuits who made that pilot’s job possible.
THOSE men and women (and ALL THE OTHER ANONYMOUS people who make our lives possible) will NEVER get the credit they deserve.
And, from my vantage point, the only way that I, being a man of extraordinary privilege, can POSSIBLY be in integrity with my philosophy is to follow Albert Einstein’s wisdom that I have often quoted:
“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received an am still receiving.”
Back to Billy’s office.
I told him about The Reenlistment and how much that moved me. A guy making next to NOTHING recommitting to serve me and you and our families for FOUR years—no bonus, no raise, prison if he decided he doesn’t “feel like” honoring that commitment.
Then I got emotional as I told him WHY I IMMEDIATELY flew out to serve.
I flew out there looking for my 18-year old dad.
Every time I give a talk to the folks in the military I ALWAYS start by telling them how much I appreciate their service and sacrifices.
Then I put up THIS slide:
That’s my dad on the left. He’s 18. He enlisted at 17 and barely made the weight requirement because he was so skinny. I always joke that I clearly got his legs. 😆
My grandfather (my mom’s dad) is on the right. He was a PFC Marine in World War II.
Then I tell them that I wish I could somehow go back in time and meet my 18-year-old Navy Sailor dad and teach him a lesson or two he was never taught.
Maybe that would have helped him avoid a life of struggling with alcohol and depression—which was the life HIS father (who struggled with alcohol and killed himself!) ALSO experienced.
Or…
Maybe…
If I could rewind time but couldn’t actually meet my dad, maybe I could meet a man or woman who might have been his commanding officer. Maybe that man or woman could share something with him that might have changed his life.
By this point in my chat with Billy, Arturas and Michael, I’m crying—just like I was when I shared the same story on the IKE and during the SOCOM talk.
But…
You know what the craziest thing is?
On the IKE, I led five workshops. I started with Captain Hill and his command team and then systematically worked my way down the chain of command.
My very last talk the night before I left was in the mess hall for the most junior Sailors. Maybe 100 people were there. And another couple hundred got to hear the talk because I was blasting it on a microphone. 😉
At the end of the talk, this young Sailor comes up to me. He’s maybe 19 or 20.
He’s awesome.
He tells me: “That was THE most inspiring thing I’ve EVER heard.”
(Tears in my eyes typing that.)
Then he asked if he could take a picture. I said: “Of course! I’d be honored.”
Then I asked him where he’s from. He told me he was from Eugene, Oregon.
Then I told him: “That’s where my grandfather was from!”
Then I looked a little more closely at him.
And I’m telling you…
He’s the SPITTING IMAGE of my grandfather. They look like brothers.
Then I asked HIM if I could take a picture with him so I could share it with my mom and memorialize the moment as I thought to myself…
“I guess I flew out here to meet my GRANDFATHER.”
And…
That’s WAY MORE than enough from me.
Actually…
One more thing.
Right after I told Billy that story and wiped away the tears, I told him and Arturas why I just spent so much time with him and the Bulls.
As fun as it is to spend time with SUPER ELITE coaches and athletes and as proud as I am about how Heroic can take them to the next next next level, they don’t need me/us.
They have plenty of people helping them.
The REAL reason I’m excited to work with the Bulls (and other elite sports teams) is because I want to find my dad.
I want to find a way to reach the version of my dad who, after leaving the Navy and working in a grocery store for nearly 40 years, would look to his sports teams for inspiration.
When I look forward from today to 2030, I see past the next steps of bringing out the best in world-class athletes and coaches to BRINGING THE SAME HEROIC tools to everyone WATCHING their games.
I want to find my dad. And YOUR dad/brother/uncle/etc. and show THEM that they can be the heroes of their own lives.
THAT, my dear Heroic friend, is one of the primary reasons why I work as hard as I do and why I tattooed my body with a 25-year goal that I will NEVER (!!!) give up on.
And THAT is now officially WAY more than enough from me.
Wiping away some more tears, I say…
With love and gratitude and wisdom and courage and all those virtues…
Here’s to celebrating D-Day by going ALL IN on winning the battle between vice and virtue in our own minds so we can win it out there in the world.
I love you.
I appreciate you.
I am grateful to be on the same Mission with you.
Day 1. All in.
Let’s go.
🫡!!
B
P.S. One of my new, dear friends is out in Normandy right now. He and I traded texts about how he was thinking about the French paratrooper's prayer—a prayer a young special forces operator wrote right before he sacrificed his life for the future generations (US!!) he’d never meet.
Here’s how General Jim Mattis put it in Call Sign Chaos:
“I remembered a poem written by French lieutenant André Zirnheld in 1942, as German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was sweeping across North Africa. Knowing the odds against him were overwhelming, Zirnheld volunteered to parachute in behind German lines near the British-held port of Tobruk. He was killed. Zirnheld had remained loyal to his sense of duty. He had chosen to be a soldier. That didn’t change because the Battle of Tobruk was lost. His poem was discovered when his body was recovered. Today it is known as ‘The Paratrooper’s Prayer.’
The war was lengthening. But that wouldn’t change who we were or sap our fighting spirit. The Marine motto is ‘Semper Fidelis’—always faithful, not just when things go your way. Nobody had forced us to be where we were; we had all volunteered to fight. My troops had kept faith, thanks to their will and discipline, and I said good-bye to my rambunctious and undaunted Marines by reading the French ‘Paratrooper’s Prayer’:
I bring this prayer to you, Lord,
For you alone can give
What one cannot demand from oneself.
Give me, Lord, what you have left over,
Give me what no one ever asks of you.
I don’t ask for rest or quiet,
Whether of soul or body;
I don’t ask you for wealth,
Nor for success, nor even health perhaps.
That sort of thing you get asked for so much
That you can’t have any of it left.
Give me, Lord, what you have left over,
Give me what no one wants from you.
I want insecurity, strife,
And I want you to give me these
Once and for all.
So that I can be sure of having them always,
Since I shall not always have the courage
To ask you for them.”
P.P.S. On this 80th anniversary of D-Day, I’m also thinking about the very first Navy SEALs and what THEY did to help win that pivotal battle on the beaches of Normandy.
Check out this +1 on a chapter in my book called: “Overload: When in Doubt, Do This.”
And…
Here’s that story…
Admiral William H. McRaven is one of my heroes.
As a Four-Star Admiral, his final assignment was as Commander of all U.S. Special Operations Forces.
You may have seen his commencement speech at the University of Texas at Austin called “Make Your Bed.”
He’s written a number of great books including one based on that talk (Make Your Bed), a memoir called Sea Stories, and another great book called The Hero Code.
In his most recent book on leadership, The Wisdom of the Bullfrog, Admiral McRaven shares eighteen military aphorisms that have guided his life.
One of them is called “When in Doubt, Overload.”
Let’s set some context and then we’ll connect the wisdom from that book to the structure of this book.
As you may know, when aspiring U.S. Navy SEALs want to see if they have what it takes to join one of the most elite military forces in history, they have to go through what’s known as BUD/S.
BUD/S is short for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training.
Of course, that training is an extraordinarily challenging mental and physical trial. Only twenty percent of those who start finish.
Now… A little more context…
On June 6, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower led the invasion of Normandy that turned the tide of World War II.
According to the Eisenhower Library: “The invasion force included 7,000 ships and landing craft manned by over 195,000 naval personnel from eight allied countries. Almost 133,000 troops from the United States, the British Commonwealth, and their allies landed on D-Day.”
Pause for a moment and imagine the extraordinary commitment of all those troops AND their families—willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect the freedoms that we enjoy today.
And, if you feel so inspired, pause for another moment and feel into the equally extraordinary commitment of military servicemen and women AND their families who are currently protecting the freedoms that we enjoy today.
Note: It’s easy to take those freedoms (and the warriors who protect them) for granted rather than as granted.
As we’ll discuss, the wisest among us (and each of us in our wisest moments) appreciate the sacrifices these loving and courageous men and women make for us as we strive to give back in equal measure.
Now… Before the troops could get their three thousand landing craft on the five beaches of Normandy, you know who showed up in the darkness of the previous nights to clear the way?
Some of the very first U.S. Navy SEALs. They were underwater demolition experts who found and destroyed the underwater barriers that had been set up to prevent that landing.
All of which leads us to McRaven’s sixteenth leadership principle from his great book and one more question…
You know what U.S. Navy SEALs are taught as they calculate how much explosives they need to use to blow up the underwater obstacles they’re tasked with destroying?
As McRaven puts it: Whenever they were in doubt about the amount of explosives to use, they were told to “always overload. Always put more energy, more focus, more power into the situation than seemed necessary. It was the only way to guarantee success in the face of uncertainty and doubt.”
That’s what I had in mind as I decided how I would structure this book.
I could have delivered a standard 200- to 300-page book with a few dozen (or even one hundred) potentially life-changing ideas. I decided to OVERLOAD and give you a 1,001+ page book with 451 potentially life-changing ideas.
I want you to FEEL the explosive power of the ideas in this book as we get to work blowing up everything that may be in the way of us actualizing our potential so we can win the ultimate war between vice and virtue we are ALL waging all day every day.
Remember: When in doubt, we overload.
It’s time to activate our Heroic potential.
