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Uncomfortable Truths from David Goggins – Close & Conquer Interview
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[Applause]
Thank you.
Who's going to carry the boats? [Applause]
[Applause]
All right. So, do you know why I demand
that? Not for me. When I come out to
every single audience, which you guys
are one of the best ever. [Applause]
[Applause]
The reason why I demand that from the
audience is because I know what darkness
looks like.
I know what it feels like to be alone
with no motivation, no drive, no passion.
passion.
And what has to come out of your [ __ ]
soul in the darkest of times is what you
just did right there.
So that's what I do. So people always
like for the first 20ome years of my
life it was just darkness. But if you
are able to get up every morning have no
passion, no drive, no motivation, no
[ __ ] and still get up with that kind of
fire, you will be successful in life. I
It was okay.
It was okay.
It was okay. It wasn't great, but it was
okay. One of the best is not the best,
but we trying. I know. I know. All
right. Well, first of all, thank you.
Thanks for being here. Thanks for being
who you are. Seriously. And thanks for
just being straight. No [ __ ]
Appreciate it.
Because And I was saying this Dave
backstage. We've been doing this
together for 10 years now. Some of you
have been here for 10 days. Some you've
been here for three years, 10 years. And
I've probably in 10 years said, "This
book changed my life." Not many. I'll be
honest with you. Um, the only one I read
every day is the Bible. and I read but
but I if you've not read and I'll read
them all now and I ain't bullshitting
either because when I started reading it
hurt me
it honestly it really it really really
screwed me up because I started feeling
the pain right
right
and it was like it was hurting me more
because the whole title is it can't hurt
me we have all these amazing people out
here dude and they're they're they're
great human beings
But it is whatever it is in their life
is hurting them. Whatever it happens to
be. They eat what they kill here. That's
it. Everybody you see out here
commission based sales. Every one of
them. You seeing a bunch up on stage
killing it. They're great. But there's
some right now, David, that are trying
to figure out what to do tomorrow, next
week, month. There's people out here
right now. They ain't going to raise
their hands because you're here. They're
excited. But they're thinking about quitting.
quitting.
They're thinking about it. What would
you say to just about that mindset and
what it takes to do what we're doing?
Because the pain is what I hear about,
man. And you you you ain't nobody talks
about that better than you.
Well, the f Well, first of all, what you
guys got to understand, guys and gals
understand is that I keep it real. I'm
not super human. I'm definitely not
Superman. So when I talk to you all,
understand these are the things that I
had to tell myself. So you know, a lot
of people come up here and start talking
to you and they think they have all the
damn answers and [ __ ] and they kind of
talk down on people. No, no, no. I know
exactly what it feels like to be lost,
to want to quit every day of your life.
And that's kind of what created me. So
on my bad days,
that's where all this taking souls and
[ __ ] comes from. So on my bad days, I
had to imagine a false reality. So for
me, for instance, I was 300 pounds. A
lot of you guys know my backstory.
And a black kid there. I was the only 36
Africanamean Navy Seal in over 80 years.
So think about this though. Think about
how I wanted to quit. I was afraid of
the water.
My favorite meal was chocolate
milkshakes with chocolate donuts.
I didn't run and I was afraid of the
water and I was 300 lbs. And I have a
pipe dream of going to go be a Navy Seal.
Seal.
Yeah, exactly. You should be laughing.
Every morning I woke up and I had less
than three months to lose 106 pounds to
get into the Navy. Every morning I woke
up, I wanted to quit.
During runs, I quit. During my diet, I
quit. During swims, I quit. I quit every
single day during this two and a half
month. But in the day, what kept me
going was I saw a video of 18 men
graduating from Navy Seals training.
And all I thought about was,
what if
what if my black ass can be up there on
that [ __ ] stage one day and I can
pull off this [ __ ] miracle that no
one saw. There were no [ __ ] social
media. There was no watch David Gogggins
lose 106 pounds in two and a half
months. There were no, you know, diet
plan and [ __ ] I No, there was nothing.
No one saw it. My mom, she's here in the
audience right now. [Applause]
[Applause] [Music]
[Music]
She saw it and she's the only one that
saw the transformation.
But I knew it. I saw it. The whole
accountability mirror that I talk about
and can't hurt me. Every morning I woke
up, I had a real conversation with that
dirty mirror. And every day the same
answer came back to me. Do you want to
be on your deathbed knowing that you
could, but you didn't?
And so every day I kept saying that. I
kept saying that and before I knew it,
two and a half months later, I lost the
weight and I was going to Navy Seal training.
training. [Applause]
[Applause] So,
So,
which it sounds so [ __ ] crazy that
you're afraid of water.
Terrified. terrified of water and
decided, "Fuck it, I'm gonna join the
Seals. That's a good idea." The the guy
you talked about in your book, right?
Because you were trying to figure out
what to do. You had that whole like
medical issue, right? And then you went
back. What did that guy see in you? What
did cuz that guy, right, that one was
one like here's what you got to do.
Here's like he didn't he he saw
something. What did he see in you at
that time that you didn't see?
I don't know if he saw anything. Okay.
Okay.
Basically, what he was doing for me was
doing his job. Got it.
No one else. So, when I walked up to
every recruiter, and there was a lot of
them, and I would always go back to my
mom's house like upset, but every
recruiter saw what they saw. And that's
the thing you guys got to get from me
right now. A lot of people see what they
see. Maybe you're out of shape. Maybe
you look lazy. Maybe you look slovenly.
Maybe the maybe your outward appearance
is not what it should be. No one saw
what was inside of me.
And that's the one thing I was afraid to
pull this out because who I was, I was
afraid kid, but something always said,
"Man, you got more in you." And what
this guy did was just did his job.
He looked at me, I said, "I want to be a
SEAL." He goes, "You got to do this,
this, this, and this." Every other
recruiter was like, "You're 300 [ __ ]
pounds, bro.
Like, you walking into my office with a
chocolate milkshake."
So, I don't blame them because what they
saw, I would have said the same [ __ ]
But this one recruiter, Stephen Saljo, I
walked in, he goes, "I'm going to do my
job. I don't think this kid's going to
make it. There's no way, but I'm going
to do my job." And just by him giving me
an opportunity,
I gave the guy a lot of money a couple
years ago. And he's like, "What? What's
this for?" This is like literally 20ome
years ago. I find Steve Saljo again and
I gave him money. He goes, "What the
hell you give me money for?" I go,
"Because you did your [ __ ] job."
And if you didn't do your job, I would
never have found David Gogggins. Wow.
Wow.
So, I gave him a [ __ ] check for doing
his [ __ ] job. Damn.
Damn.
And that's all he did.
Well, I got I got to be honest with you,
David, before you got here. And by the
way, your mom's amazing, but she's like
watching you. You're in the room. You're
like, they watching mother effing
everything that's going on. She looking
over here. I look at David. She looking
at David. I'm like, hell, if this goes
bad, I don't stand a damn chance.
She's got some essay, man. Yo,
Yo,
she's got some essay
for real. So, my man brought in he had a
and this I it gets to a question. It's
real important from accountability
standpoint. So, my man brought in a a a
plate of cookies, 15 sugar cookies. And
I looked I didn't say nothing. He said,
"Oh [ __ ] I got to get rid of the
cookies, right? David's coming.
So, he got rid of the cookies. And I said,
said,
"Dude, why are you more worried about
David seeing the cookies than you eating
the cookies, right?"
right?"
Like, what's you probably ain't going to
see David again after today except for
on YouTube. Like, what's he going to do
to you?
How do people cuz that happens to you.
It's got to people around you like,
"Dude, I was just I thought I was
supposed to start warming up." He went
back. He about nine miles back there. I
said, "Where'd it go?" He goes, "Keeps
walking around." He stood still. Not at
all. And I'm I'm walking. I don't even
know why I'm walking around cuz I feel
bad about myself.
How do we get people to be more
accountable to themselves than they are
everybody else who actually doesn't even
matter. They're not even a stakeholder
in their life. That was the one thing
that I was trapped in. So, a lot of
people don't know this story about me,
but when I was coming up, so I went to
all white school for a while and then I
went to a majority black school for a
short period of time. And I went to
majority black school. See, I always
wanted to be after. So, I wanted to be a
priest first. No one knows that. And
then after that, I'm like, I want to go
be in special operations.
Like I said, there's only 36
African-Americans. So, you don't walk
around a black community talking about,
I want to go be in special operations. So,
So,
I tried to fit in.
And by me trying to fit in with every
group I was in, I lost myself.
And so why I'm so polarizing now is
because either you [ __ ] like me or
you [ __ ] don't. And
And
the reason why I was walking so much backstage,
backstage,
I'm nervous as [ __ ] to be out here in
front of these people. Yeah,
Yeah,
for real.
My mom would tell you a story. When I
was in elementary school, we moved from
my dad's place where I got my ass beat.
I had a lot of toxic stress.
Hair was falling out of my head. I had a
bunch of white splotches. And the
biggest thing was I stuttered like a [ __ ]
[ __ ]
Bad. It's funny now. This [ __ ] wasn't
funny when you were a [ __ ] kid. So
So
Every time I get on stage, I think about
one thing. We had a Christmas play and I
was in
maybe second, third grade, whatever it
was. Didn't matter. I was young, but I
stuttered horribly bad.
And I'll never forget the teacher gave
me the smallest line possible because
she knew this could be a [ __ ] train
wreck. He may get up there and just act
a fool.
So, I got up there and I acted a fool
and I just walked off [ __ ] stage. I
couldn't say the I couldn't say [ __ ] I
just went up there and just started just
doing my [ __ ] Just started break
dancing at the mouth.
So, I walk off and every time I get on
stage, I have to overcome
that one feeling of looking out of the
audience and everybody and saying, "Oh
shit." because I didn't cuss when I said
in my mind there was no cuss words up
there but I says so what happens is you
have to gain this confidence because you
lose yourself because you're always
trying to hide from the stuttering or
you're trying to hide from I wasn't that
smart so I hid there I hid because I was
only black person I hid because I wanted
to be espec I was constantly hiding from
these groups of people because I wanted
to be accepted
and the more I hid the more David
Gogggins became nothing. There was no
David Gogggins. I was you when I was
around you. I was Mary around Mary. I
was John around John. There was no David
Gogggins. And along this journey when I
started losing weight and I had so many
bad days in my life, so many bad days
from growing up even now.
Well, nobody [ __ ] there but David Gogggins.
Gogggins.
God was there,
but God said, "Hey, [ __ ] I'm
testing you today and I'm going to test
you tomorrow. I'm going to test you
again. I'm gonna let you I'mma let you
alone, man. Pray all the [ __ ] you want.
Pray. Get on your knees, boy. Pray.
I'm going still kick your ass."
So, the more I realized this is my
journey and the more I realized where's
all my friends?
They ain't [ __ ] nowhere around. It
was you. So, you better figure out who
the [ __ ] you are on this journey. And
those few people who don't many people
don't like you, so be it. But you first
have to figure out you because a lot of
people die with a lot of untapped
potential because they're trying to be
somebody that they're not. Yeah.
Yeah.
So, I was able to figure out my own
Dude, I was really prepared for you to
be hardcore as [ __ ] but you're [ __ ]
funny. Like really funny. I didn't know
that. Like really funny.
And I want to get to because I was
watching something you posted the other
day which I think was great because what
a lot of the men and women in here work
with David is, you know, we call people
up and sell them life insurance. And
most of the people tend to get a pretty
good grasp on that, right? Everybody's
going to die. You need life insurance.
You asked for it. Most people get pretty
good grasp on that and and are able to
monetize it and make a living and then
they have a choice to build a business
and actually help other people. And I
actually didn't start hiring people
because I thought about spread. I had
friends that had no job. They were broke
and I'm like, "Yo, you should do this."
They're like, "Why?" I'm like, "It's
easy." Like, that was how I started
building business. But a lot of the men
and women we have here are paralyzed.
They want to talk about it. They want to
post. They want to talk to their
friends, their family. They want to post
something on social media, but they're
truly terrified. If we could polygraph
everybody in here, 80% of them would
blow up when we said, "Are you worried
about what people think if you post and
try to recruit?" And you'd post
something recently about how many people
don't even follow you. Like, I didn't
know that [ __ ] Like, they don't even
follow you, but they go on to comment.
Like, they don't follow you.
23 million nonfollowers.
23 million people go on to talk [ __ ]
Don't even follow you. They won't follow
you. They don't want to see your
content, but then they seek it out, see
it, and then talk about it. How do you
help everybody here truly? Because I
suck it a lot. I'm like a lot. And I'm
like, dude, I really just don't care
what anybody thinks at all. Like if I
come up here and do this interview and
and and they're like, "That was
terrible." If you're like, "Dude, that
was awful." I'm like, "Dude, I gave it
everything I got." Like, I'm I did the
best I could and try to screw it up and
give me feedback. I'll get better. How
do we empower everybody in here? How do
you empower everybody in here to just
truly proceed, do whatever the hell they
want with their business? Ask everybody
they run into. There's hundreds of
millions of people in America. We do.
We're we're we're for our business,
we're a good big company, right? But
none of that matters. We could be 10
times the size and still have too many
people out there with no life insurance.
How do we get these men and women to
recruit people and not give a [ __ ] what
anybody thinks or says about them? So, I
have a question for you all, but only
one person can answer it.
What is your biggest fear?
Why are you paralyzed? What what makes
you nervous to just go out there and
just be who you are and do what you have
to do? I want to see one hand raise up
to answer this question. You in the
front, what is it?
Past experience.
So what? So failures. Okay, that's the
perfect answer. And we did not set this up.
up.
So everybody asked me how the hell did I
become successful when abused mindset,
toxic stress, couldn't read and write,
fat, name it, sickle cell, I can't even
be in the military nowadays with cle
cell. How the hell did I become
successful when I had no passion, no
drive, no nothing? And I'm going answer
your question about what are you afraid
of, right?
You thought and you said failure.
Everybody's afraid of failure. It's
embarrassing as [ __ ] So how do you
think I became successful when I failed
every day of my life until I succeeded
which took a long time?
The first thing I did was I all of you
in this room want to be successful as
hell. But the journey to success comes
with a lot of what? Failure.
Failure.
So why the [ __ ] don't you teach yourself
like I taught myself
is how to fail properly.
properly.
It's not saying be a failure. When I was
300 lb people think, oh, you really
thought you could be a Navy Seal? No. I
think I was going to [ __ ] lose the
weight. But what it was was how I was
able to get over all the failure and all
the embarrassment of failing was I told myself
myself
you are going to have to learn how to
get up extremely fast because you are
going to have a million setbacks on this
journey. And that's how I literally
taught myself how to fail first because
I knew that if I was afraid of failure I
would have never been able to be a Navy
Seal. I would have never been able to
get to where I'm at today. So, I went
through and I literally at 300 lbs or
297 to be exact. I sat back and I
visualized how this journey is going to
look in the first several months was
nothing but failure. So, how am I going
to get up the next morning when I failed
the day before? How am I gonna eat this
meal when I failed and I got fries and a
milkshake again when I was supposed to
get grilled chicken and rice? So, I went
through and I taught myself how to fail.
And when you do that, you're able to get
up extremely fast and you no longer care
about the end result because you know if
I want to be way up here, it's going to
take a bunch of small micro failures
along the way. But you have to
understand that that is part of the
process. When you want to achieve the
highest goal of all time,
you are going to have to learn how to
get your ass kicked all the way up that
damn mountain. And then when you get up
the mountain, the oxygen up there is
very thin. It's hard to breathe. So,
it's not a lot of fun up there either.
So, all the way, if you want to be
successful, you got the bottom that
sucks. The middle is extremely hard and
the top it sucks worse than all of it.
So you better learn how to get the
oxygen at the very top. So why do you
care about what people are thinking when
they're not trying to go where the [ __ ]
you're trying to go? And that's the
So, we have in our business, it's not a
typical sales deal, right? Like when I
was in real estate, if I didn't sell you
a house, I didn't sell you a house. You
had a place to live. You know, if I
didn't sell you I stole construction
material, if you're in solar and don't
sell somebody solar, it's all good. In
our business, if we don't make a sale,
somebody dies with zero life insurance
or not enough. That's that's honestly no
[ __ ] I was social worker for 14
years. Found this. I was like, "Dude,
this is social work, but I get paid more
and then I can bring people on." If
these all these men and women work with
you and and you could get them to
because that's what I try to get to. And
I and I'm I need to get a million times
better at it cuz I'm actually people are
like, "How'd you sell a lot?" I didn't
want to leave anybody unprotected and
[ __ ] If I had to piss them off, upset
them, make them uncomfortable, make them
give me [ __ ] make them judge me, make
whatever I had to do, I wanted them. And
and when I got my first death claim,
three months in, 32-y old dude died in a
motorcycle accident, got quarter million
dollars. I was like, "Oh, everybody's
getting covered." How do we how what
what's your advice? What is your advice,
David, on because I always went to
what's the worst thing that could
happen? Well, [ __ ] I can screw this
family up forever. Nobody came to my
mom's apartment when my grandma died. We
had no life insurance. Grandpa, aunts,
uncles, friends. I didn't even know what
life insurance was until I got to be old
and got damn life. I didn't have life
insurance until I got my life insurance
license. How do we get what's your
advice to all of us, me included, on how
we approach that knowing that we can
really screw things up if we don't do
everything we can? We can't make
everybody buy it. But hell, we got to
give more. And and in our deal, like
you're here, clients over here. Until
you're uncomfortable and they're
uncomfortable, there's no freaking sale.
No way. Cuz they sit here, you sit
there, you give them your pitch, but
you've got to get them uncomfortable.
What's your advice for me and the rest
of us on getting people uncomfortable
and understand the consequences of what
can happen if we don't do our job? Well,
this is the thing. He said uncomfortable
about three or four times. You guys
heard that, right?
Your job is to get people uncomfortable.
It sucks. I work with a guy one time
that made $75,000 a year and his job was
very similar to yours and now he makes
over a million. He worked he he called
me up five years ago and said, "I want
you to be my coach." And I taught him
one thing. I had him out here doing all
kind of crazy [ __ ] He goes, "Why are
you doing this?" I go because your main
job is to make people uncomfortable.
But it's hard to make someone uncomfortable
uncomfortable
when you've never been uncomfortable yourself.
yourself.
So a lot of people in this room
aren't pushing themselves to that
uncomfortable place.
And that is the first thing you have.
You have to know what uncomfortable
feels like. So when you're pushing
someone to that place,
you know how to talk them through it.
Because if you haven't experienced it
and you haven't gotten the knowledge
from it, it is impossible to push
someone there because the second they
get uncomfortable, you are now uncomfortable.
uncomfortable.
You are now in your feelings. You are
now feeling bad for this person. You now
feel that they're uncomfortable because
you don't know how to walk them through
the uncomfort.
And that is the most important thing
that you have to learn is there is
theorist and there's practitioners.
A lot of theorists will tell you how
uncomfortable feels.
The practitioners are the ones that have
experienced uncomfortable and they know
exactly the steps on how to get through
being uncomfortable.
So then you now have the science about
it. So while you're talking to this
individual and they're feeling
uncomfortable, you know exactly how to
break them down and find a way in to
their heart so they come out with the
insurance that they need in the long run.
run.
It's amazing.
One of the other things we we struggle a
lot with is and it might be the same
with people that work out competing is
and I was I was talking to a guy earlier
this morning. I said, "What's your
biggest issue?" He said, "I found a way
to make money." And then he said to me,
"But I self-sabotage." Which I think is
[ __ ] in my opinion. I think that's
just a madeup. Like it's an awesome way
to let people off the hook. Oh, you just
didn't do No, dude. You didn't do the
work. You didn't sell You don't wake up
and go, "I'm going to destroy it. I'm
now all of a sudden I'm not
accountable." But the struggle has been
for a lot of folks is I didn't want to
be on the hamster wheel for the next 60
years. When I got my life insurance
license, what scared me the most was I
was going to people's houses that were
75 years old and they like were broke as
all [ __ ] And I'm like, I don't ever
want to like outlive any money and be
able to not support myself.
The complacency that sets in because I
was raised if we had and again, you got
to figure out what your motivator is.
Mine was never money. It was this. I I
don't know that I saw this or didn't see
this, but I'm like, if these idiots,
because I met them, if they can run a
company, and I've met them, [ __ ] I can
do it, too. But a lot of folks get here
and and money's their their their
barometer. I have enough to live, so I'm
good. Maybe the gentleman that you
coach, maybe someone I have enough to
live, so I'm good. What What's your
advice on people actually realizing
there's a hell of a lot more, and
they'll do it. They'll come in here and
they'll work 60 hours a week
and then 40 hours a week and then I got
money. Then they go on vacation for
three weeks, right?
right?
And then they want to know what the
problem is. And in our business, it's an
advanced business. So the money can
charge back. How do you help us
understand to keep freaking going,
especially when it feels good, like it's
getting good. How do we make it great or
not go backwards?
So a lot of you will not agree with
this, which is fine.
So, don't take this literally because
don't ever cap this,
but I cap my success.
I'm not saying cap your money. I'm not
saying any of that. I say this is just
my term. So, every single year, so I'm
I've made millions of dollars,
very well off. I don't need to work ever
again. But every year I go to British
Columbia and I jump out of airplanes and
I'm a smoke jumper
and I lose about $5 million a year
to smoke jump for four to five months a
year. Everybody goes, "Why the hell do
you do that?"
Because on my journey trying to get to
where I'm in today, I found out that all
the knowledge for me came at the bottom.
And how I stay hungry is I literally go
back to the bottom. I go back. I pick up
a shovel. I pick up a pilaski. Someone's
in charge of me. Some 20some year old
kid. I'm damn near 50 [ __ ] years old.
I got some 20-year-old kid still digging
in his nose and digging his ass in
charge of me. But it humbles me because
I want to be the best. And a lot of
people in here,
they might just be okay
with just that money to live. And that's
the thing that I realized a long time
ago in my life is there's some people I
can't motivate. There's some people in
this room that when I speak, they're
rolling their eyes. This guy's [ __ ]
David Gaga is ridiculous [ __ ] His
passion, his motivation, his drive is
all [ __ ] crazy. It is because I found
out a long time ago what I'm supposed to
be in this world
and that hunger is going to stay with me
until I'm dead.
You have to have that kind of want in
your life. If you're fine with waking up
every morning and having just enough to
go on vacation and come back and you
work again, that's good for you. But
you're in this room for a [ __ ]
reason. And a lot of you in this room
will leave this conference and you will
go bust your ass and you'll be motivated
as hell because you heard somebody speak
and the fire is built up. But guess what
happens four months from now?
There's a trend in every single in every
single job. They have a conference,
they're kicking ass, they're kicking
ass, they're kicking ass, and then it's
like, "Ah, [ __ ] I don't have any more motivation,
motivation,
man. Man, I was making I was killing it
last four months. What the [ __ ]
happened? This conference took you and
elevated you to the next [ __ ] level.
But then the real you came out.
The real you might be unmotivated,
might have no determination, no passion,
no drive,
but like I said, why the [ __ ] did I have
you all yell at the top of your lungs
when I came out?
Because on those dark days, you still
have to find more. And if and if you
don't want to find more for yourself,
look to your left and look to your
right. And if you got a mom, a dad, a
wife, a husband, kids,
make sure you may be fine with that
little bit of money you have and you're good.
good.
Try to make generational [ __ ] wealth. Amen.
Amen.
If you're good,
be that person when a [ __ ] fire
happens in a room like this. I guarantee
most you [ __ ] can look at me.
Where is Gogggins going? I'm going to
follow that [ __ ]
You want to be that [ __ ] for
your family that when all hell breaks
loose, they know that even though you're
good by yourself, you got a family to
take care of and you have made enough
for them that they fall on their [ __ ] ass.
ass.
You can pick them up.
So, there's a lot of things out there
that should keep you going in life. And
if if that's not enough,
you need to look at that dirty mirror
again and see why you're really doing it for.
for. Wow.
Wow.
So when you listen and I I'm 10 years
I've been doing this 15
10 years I've been doing the we do these meetings
meetings
and this the first time first of all
I've been sober 23 years but sitting
next Thank you. But sitting next to you
is the closest I felt to being back
smoking crack and sniffing cocaine. And
I'm gonna be I'm just being honest. I'm
not lying. I'm being honest. Sorry. I'm
honest. I feel like we're getting ready.
I'm I'm too old. I'm 51. But I feel like
we're being ready to take the football
field. And I just played around with an
eightball and I'm ready to go and we're
going to kill somebody. Like that's how
I actually feel. Which means the shit's
contagious. And I've never met anybody
that I've sat next to. I met a lot of
smarter people, but I ain't met nobody
had more energy than me. And I'm like,
he's straight as [ __ ] He's sober. It's contagious.
contagious. Yeah.
Yeah.
It's But and and I love what you said,
be that for your family, right? Because
when people come up and go, "My dad, I
was talking to Sean, his kid, Sean Jr.,
he's like, uh, you're I'm" I'm like,
"No, your dad's it, dude. Like, your dad
has his own business. I ain't your dad's
boss. Everybody's independent. I ain't
your dad's boss. Your dad's a boss of
your family."
All these folks
have to understand, and I want you to
speak to this, please. Everybody on
their team's watching them. Every
freaking And by the way, nobody here is
rolling their eyes talking [ __ ] about
you. I promise you. Number one, they're
scared you might see them from here. And
number two, peer pressure is the most
powerful person in the world. Someone
next to him will be like, "Dude, stop
shaking your freaking head or I'll hit
you and it'll keep spinning around.
Guarantee it. Promise you."
Talk to us about that because that's
what kills me. I had a guy tell me one
day, he goes, "You know why that guy's
team don't grow?" I go, "No." He goes,
"Dumps his [ __ ] downhill." He has a bad
day. He dumps on everybody and he
paralyzes them. Everybody. And I watch
these people. Watch them. They're
watching their moves. They're feeling
their energy. Good or bad. I've been up
here on stage doing these things with
people that charge way too much money
that are uber famous. I'd rather be
shoving thumbtacks in my eyeball. It's
so [ __ ] bad. Seriously. Tell help us
understand. Everybody's watching.
Everybody. The thing about it is you all
know everybody's watching and this is
the thing. So, have you have have have
you guys heard of my thing called taking souls?
souls? Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay. For those of you who haven't, I'm
going to give you a short story. So,
everybody's watching.
And so, when I started figuring out what
I want to be in life, I want to be a
leader. I want to be the leader. Like I
said, when a fire breaks out, they look
at you. And what that means is this.
It was Wednesday of my second hell week.
We had been up the whole time. Hadn't
got any sleep. And so there's about
three bolt crews left, which means
there's not many people left. Like over,
I don't know, 80, 90 people are quit.
We're down to just three boat crews. So
we go into the med check
and they go in, they check us out.
Everybody is hypothermic. Everybody's
all jacked up. and Wednesday
you're a zombie. That's what the pass
down. So the pass down is through years
they tell you on Wednesday you're a
zombie. You're walking around like this
because you don't want your clothes to
touch you cuz you're soaking wet. You
got to the ocean and you're and you're
just pissing on yourself to get warm.
So you you like that, didn't you?
So basically what happens is you go to
medcheek, they have these a crates. The
a crates have your nice dry clothes in
them. But what happens is the
instructors are there [ __ ] putting
water in them. So those dry clothes are
now [ __ ] wet. And all the students
are just like poopy pants. Like [ __ ] I
got to put these [ __ ] wet clothes on.
They're putting them on slow and the
instructors are yelling. But now the
instructors know that they're zombies
because that because the instructors
were zombies on Wednesday. So they're
giving us a little bit of leash. This
goes somewhere. So this work with me for
a second. So we got three boats. Boat
crew one, boat crew two, and the Smurf
crew. The Smurf crew is has a smurf on
the front of the boat because they're
the shortest guys in the class.
Smurf crew.
So boat crew one. They're the tallest
guys. Boat crew two, the second tallest
guys and so on and so forth. There's
only three boat crews up here. So,
everybody gets under their boat and
they're standing there with the boat on
top of their head and everybody's doing
this [ __ ] To answer your question,
I look back, I am [ __ ] up. My feet, my
hands, my neck, my whole body is just
messed up. And I'm looking at like
everything slowed down. I'm looking at
all these people under these boats and
they're just sitting there jackhammering
and heads are down and the motivation is gone.
gone.
And I said, "David, this is exactly
where you wanted to. This is your time.
This is your time. You're amongst the
baddest [ __ ] in the world right
now and everybody's [ __ ] up. This is
my internal dialogue right now. What are
you going to [ __ ] do, man? You got
This is your shot, man. and this is your
[ __ ] shot. I'm in the front of the
boat crew. The front of the boat is the
heaviest part of the boat. I'm looking
at my boat crew and they're all just
[ __ ] I want this to end, but it's not
going to end till Friday. We got two
more [ __ ] days of this [ __ ]
So, I'm like in the front of the boat.
I'm like, you know what, man? So, the
instructors at Boat Crew One, they're
saying, "All right, [ __ ] pick
the boat up." and we've been picking
this boat up now forever. But now, for
some reason, no one can pick the [ __ ]
boat up. So, here they are
and it's going back to their head. So,
I'm looking at I go, "Okay, look guys."
So, I turn around my boat crew. There's
five guys behind me. I said, "Look, [ __ ]
[ __ ]
Don't be a [ __ ] punk today.
I want you to look at these [ __ ]
instructors because they were where we
were years ago under these boats
and I want them to think about they
never seen a boat crew like B crew 2. We
are going to [ __ ] take their
[ __ ] souls today.
So I start to juice these mother and so
you get juiced up false re yes false
motivation becomes what? real
motivation. So now they're starting to
feel the juice. So the starters come by.
All right, boat crew too. But right now,
boat crew 2 is said, "Fuck it. We're
going to pick the boat up before you
tell us to pick the boat up." So the
boat's up. Now we're starting to boat
press it. And all we're saying is, "You
can't hurt boat crew, too." And now our
boat crew puts the boat down. They let
us put the boat down because we showed
something that no one else had. So by us
putting out more, we got a chance to
rest. So as we're resting, I turn around
our boat crew. It says all these [ __ ]
instructors, I want to make sure from
Wednesday to Friday, they cannot sleep
with their [ __ ] wives because they're
thinking about broke crew, too. [Applause]
So to answer your question, you want to
be that one [ __ ]
that every day, whether it's raining,
snowing, sleeping, you lost every dime,
your mom died, your dad died, you come
and you bring the energy that it takes
to make a team function at the highest
[ __ ] level every day. And that's the
person you want to be every day of your life.
Wow. [Applause]
So I didn't you you I mean I I I was
reading your biography
on all the races and I got tired just
reading it. Then I read it again. But I
did not know. I knew early that that
mission and these races runs you started
that to raise money, right?
right?
Can you tell us about that?
You want the whole story?
Sure. You do what you want, bro. It's
your stage.
All right. So, basically how this all
started for me. A lot of you may know
the story, but um after I became a Navy
Seal, you guys heard Lone Survivor. Yep.
Yep.
Well, Marcus Latrell is one of my best
friends and so is his twin brother
Morgan Latrell.
So, funny story about Marcus and Morgan.
It's actually in my audio book, Can't
Hurt Me, is that Morgan was not in the
military. Marcus was in the military
first. Long story short, Marcus couldn't
run for [ __ ]
Morgan ran one of his four mile time
runs. They didn't even know it was a
flop of twins and passed it for Marcus.
Anyway, little inside tip. So what
happened was Marcus was on a mission,
mission went bad, a bunch of guys died.
I was in three hell weeks. So damn near
everybody on that op I was in hell week
with. So when I heard the news, I was in
military freef fall school with Marcus's
twin brother, Morgan.
And I got the call telling me that I
have to tell Morgan that his that Marcus
was dead.
Marcus was not dead. They thought he was
dead. So I told Morgan they believe that
Marcus is dead. They can't find him.
Everybody else is dead. They can't find
Marcus. They believe he's dead. Morgan
looked at me and said, "He's not."
I'm like, "What the [ __ ] you talking
about, bro?"
He was right. He wasn't dead. Four days
later, Morgan calls me up. Hey, bro.
They found my [ __ ] brother. Go suck
it. I was like, "All right."
So, at this time,
I weighed 191 when I joined the military.
military.
I went to 250 after I became a Navy Seal.
Seal.
So, that story touched me so much that I
started googling different races. I
wanted to raise money for the Special
Operations Warrior Foundation. It's a
foundation that if your if your dad was
in the military, he's a special
operator, he died, your son or daughter
would get full tuition to go to college.
So, I'm like, I'm going to go do this.
But being a Navy Seal, I couldn't do a
hot dog or hamburger competition, you
know, do something like that. But, so I
looked up the 10 hardest races in the world,
world,
and what came up was the Bad Water 135.
And me not being an ultrar runner, my
workout was literally I hit the weights
every day and Sunday I did the
elliptical trainer for 20 [ __ ]
minutes. No cardio, just that's all I
did for cardio. So I Googled this [ __ ]
and what came up was the Bad Water 135.
So I called the race director up and
said, "Hey man, I want to do this race
to raise money for this foundation." He
goes, "Are you an ultrarunner?" I was
like, "What is that?" He's like, "You
know, do you run 100 mile races or I
go," 100 mile races? I I didn't know
this [ __ ] even existed. So, long story
short, he goes, "Look, man, you got to
run a 100 miles in 24 hours or less to
get into the Badwater,
and if you can do that, I will consider
you in my race." The application process
ended in January. I called the cat up in November
November
and he said, "Well,
if you really want to get in the race,
there is a race in San Diego called the
San Diego One Day." I call him up on a
Wednesday. This race was Saturday.
I had done no running. And he goes,
"Okay, check it out. You get in it. You
run 100 miles 24 hours, I can see you my
race." So, there's a onem track in San
Diego. It goes to San Diego One Day. You
want to run a onem track, see how far
you can get. So I said, "Fuck it." I
signed up for the race. At the time I
was married. I get I go to Walmart, get
a blue lawn chair. I have Rich Crackers
and Milelex.
That's what I have for the whole damn
race. So I realize I want to see this
chair every single one mile loop. And
I'll get some Milelex and a Ritz
cracker. stupid.
I had no idea what the [ __ ] I was doing.
But I'm going to cut to the chase. Here
I am. I get to mile 70
and I never ran past 20 miles in my
entire [ __ ] life. And I'm I'm in this
chair at mile 70. What do you think
happens to you when you are sucking on a
rich cracker ball because your mouth is
dehydrating, all [ __ ] up, and you're
drinking Milelex? We think happens to
you at mile 70 being that you never
trained for this and hadn't gone that
far in your life. Your body starts to
literally die and break down. So I'm
sitting there in this chair and I have
to go to the bathroom. Haven't gone to
the bathroom in 12 13 hours. The
bathroom's from me to the damn wall
right there. So I'm trying to get up but
I can't get up. My blood pressure is all
messed up. And I look over and I look at
my ex-wife. I'm like, "Hey,
I'm going to take a [ __ ] on myself right now
now
because I can't get up cuz my blood
pressure is all [ __ ] up and I'm dizzy
as shit." So, I'm sitting there [ __ ]
up my back and peeing blood down my leg.
I got 30 [ __ ] miles to go and this is
where I'm at right now. And there's one
thing a black man never wants to [ __ ]
hear. She looked at me and she said,
It's a [ __ ] long day.
So, I'm sitting there. I'm looking at
her and this is where the 40% rule came
from. So, I'm trying to raise this money
and I'm all jacked up. So, in life, you
guys are going to come to a point in
your life, maybe not quite this [ __ ]
up, but where you don't want to go on anymore.
anymore.
So, what I do is I quit. I don't really
quit. I let my mind know that we're
going to [ __ ] bag it for the day. 70
miles in, I'm good. But I didn't quit
yet. But I'm telling myself I'm going to
quit. I'm sitting there in this chair.
I'm like, "Okay, I can't get the [ __ ]
up. I'm really messed up. I'm got [ __ ]
everywhere and this is messed up." So,
I'm cleaning myself up and there's an
aid station I haven't been using that
has peanut butter and jelly, salt
tablets, and bananas. Real food that I
[ __ ] need some water and [ __ ] right
now. I need something. So, I have my
ex-wife bring me over some food. I'm
going to sit here because I'm going to
quit pretty soon, but just not yet. Let
me get cleaned up first. Let me get
something to eat. What this does to your
mind is it takes pressure
off of your brain for a second.
30 more [ __ ] miles you don't want to
think about when you got [ __ ] up your
back. So, I'm sitting there and I'm
eating some food. I'm like, "Okay, man.
My blood pressure is a little bit
better. I'm going to walk to the car,
but before I walk to the car, it'd be
pretty badass if I can walk one mile and
then I'll quit."
I walked a mile.
Long story short, that one mile became
And that's the thing that we do a lot in life.
life.
What we do is when we have a goal, my
goal was to raise money for this
foundation. Now, I'm not saying go to my
extent. This is all take what I say with
the great just take it take little bits
of what I say. You're not trying to be
[ __ ] David Gogggins. You're trying to
be the best you possible. But that
requires knowing how to take mental
breaks when [ __ ] gets hard. It's not quitting.
quitting.
Just take a [ __ ] break for a second
and get your breath because your mind is
panicked. You're sporadic. It's called
the one second decision. I saw so many
people who could have graduated Navy
Seal training, but they get in that
[ __ ] cold water during hell week.
Think about hell week. Hell week is five
days, 130 hours of continuous training.
You might get two hours of sleep, but
you go through three to five weeks of training
training
before you get to hell week. So all hell
week is is no sleep. It's the same [ __ ]
you were doing. Nothing different. But
your mind spazzes the [ __ ] out hour one
when they put you in that cold water
that you've been in a thousand times.
You get in that cold water and you freak
out. You don't remember that I've been
this water before a thousand times. You
don't remember I've done this [ __ ]
before. So in that one second decision,
your mind can't process 130 hours. It's
too much. So you quit.
And once you quit, you take that warm
shower. And guess what happens? You have
regret. So you have to learn how to
manage that one second decision. And
what that is is this.
If you do 130 hours,
every second you have to win. If you
lose one [ __ ] second of that 130
hours, you will not be a Navy Seal.
In life, it's the same way. If you lose
one second, not take a break. If you
make a bad decision and just hang it up
in that one second, you will [ __ ]
regret it. You must win every second.
You must be in control of your life
every second of your life or you will
lose. So that's the biggest thing. Never
forget your goals. Many dreams die while suffering.
suffering.
Don't be one of those people whose
dreams die while you're suffering. Learn
to manage your mind. Wow. Unbelievable.
All right, we're wrapping up. I need
your help with something. We wrap up
here after you. You close it out. We
have a dinner break. We got an awards
ceremony. We give out, you know, we got
5,000 people. We probably got 500 people
started get awards. They'll be here.
They're getting awards. The best thing
that anybody ever did to me when I got
in the insurance business, the guy made
me go to the award ceremony. I've been
there for four months. I said, I've been
here four months. He said, I want you to
go to the ceremony. I want you to see
the people get the awards and I want you
to realize that if they can do it, [ __ ]
you definitely can do it. I want you to
sit in your chair and think of what it
feel like when you go achieve it. I went
like you told me to and I watched and I
was like, the dude just tripped over the
stairs. The dude went the wrong way. The
number one guy talked about himself for
45 minutes and a little dude, I'll never
do that when I take that award next year
because that was really egotistical.
Can you help me speak life into the
people that are thinking about going and
getting dinner, going and getting drunk,
going to watch a game, and convincing
them that
coming back here is a great decision for
their family.
All right. There's a phrase I always
say, and this phrase needs to stick with
you for the rest of your life.
There's a lot of people who want to go
back, watch the game, get a drink, bag
it. They want to bag the rest of the day.
day.
But the question is, are you done yet?
Are you truly finished with what you
came to do?
And so my phrase that I've said to
myself for a lot of years, and I say it
in the darkest of times,
don't stop when you're tired,
stop when you're done. So remember that.
Are you done? A lot of you are not done.
So don't sit back and be that bad team member
member
because everybody's watching you and
everybody's going to know you [ __ ]
bagged it. This is all part of being a
[ __ ] leader. Being a leader [ __ ]
sucks. You do everything in life that
you do not want to do. You are unhappy
90% of your life.
But that means that other people
are eating because of you. They're
living because of you. They're achieving
because of you. So, are you really in
that bad a shape? So, make a decision
tonight. Do you want to be a leader or
do you want to be that person who just
bags it and does their own [ __ ] And
then you can ask yourself that question
when you go home after bagging it. Look
in that dirty mirror and ask yourself
one question. Do I really have what it
takes to be a [ __ ] leader? I'll
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