Andy Stumpf is a former Navy SEAL with SEAL Team 5 and later joining the most elite counterterrorism unit in the military, SEAL Team 6. He is a 5-star Bronze Star Medal Recipient and Black Rifle Coffee Company sponsored athlete and has an affinity for jumping off tall mountains and airplanes.
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00:01:48.180Man, I have got a great one lined up for you today with a former Navy SEAL and sponsored wingsuit base jumper.
00:01:53.540This one is so insightful, but before I get into that, I do want to thank our sponsor of the show, NetSuite from Oracle.
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00:03:07.860So guys, with that said, let me introduce you to my guest today.
00:03:11.420Andy Stumpf is a former Navy SEAL with SEAL Team 5 and later joining the most elite counterterrorism unit in the military, SEAL Team 6.
00:03:19.240He is a 5'11 and Black Rifle Coffee Company sponsored athlete and has an affinity for jumping off really tall mountains and perfectly good airplanes.
00:03:29.540And as impressive as that sounds, he refers to himself as a professional gravity enthusiast.
00:03:34.600And rightfully so, he's completed wingsuit jumps lasting more than 18 miles at speeds of over 160 miles per hour.
00:03:41.320He's the recipient of five Bronze Star Medals, four of them with Valor, the Purple Heart, the Joint Service Accommodation Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Accommodation Medal with Valor, three Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and two Combat Action Ribbons.
00:03:54.180So in other words, the man is a genuine bad A, and today he's here to talk with us about living life on the edge.
00:04:05.020Yeah, I've been following you for a while now, and, you know, from the outside looking in, and I think a lot of people that either follow you or will follow you because they hear you on this podcast would probably look at you and think, this guy is just an adrenaline junkie.
00:04:17.640But I think there's a whole lot more to it.
00:04:19.640Can you tell me a little bit about why you do some of the things that you do that might seem crazy to other people?
00:04:24.660Yeah, you know, it's probably the most common comment that I get.
00:04:29.060The first one is you're crazy, and the second one is you're an adrenaline junkie.
00:04:34.000And now, in full disclosure, there is an essence of adrenaline in doing the skydiving and base jumping stuff that I spend about half of my year doing.
00:04:42.640There certainly is that, but I hate social media for a couple reasons.
00:04:47.820One of them is that it doesn't tell a complete story.
00:04:51.140The things that you put on social media, you know, everybody's selective, to include myself, and I put up the pictures that I like or that are more exciting.
00:04:58.820You know, flying through the air or base jumping or, you know, anything in that realm.
00:05:03.860And I hate it because what it doesn't show is everything that goes into being able to do those things.
00:05:10.040You know, base jumping is a perfect example.
00:05:12.100Pictures, you know, they're a moment, a freeze frame in time.
00:05:15.400And most base jumping videos start about five seconds before the person exits the object.
00:05:20.100And a lot of the times they end before their feet even touch the ground.
00:05:23.140And to use my last trip to Switzerland as an example, we hiked for 275 miles in a period of probably two weeks, maybe two and a half weeks max.
00:05:31.720And I think I flew my wingsuit for somewhere between 18 to 20 minutes.
00:05:35.560So the ratio of what shows up on social media in comparison to what you're actually doing to make those things possible is very askew.
00:05:43.060And inside of that, you know, before I even go to Switzerland, I spend months flying my wingsuit.
00:05:49.660You know, I never take a new wingsuit overseas with me to Europe to base jump before I have.
00:05:54.540I try to get as close to, I mean, 100 jumps is about the number for a new suit to get the feel for it in every different airspeed, every different configuration.
00:06:01.380And the same thing goes with new canopies, with new containers that hold the canopies.
00:06:06.560And so I have a variety of wingsuits, and I maintain that currency across all of those wingsuits, all of the canopies, and then all of the other disciplines that I do inside of skydiving as well.
00:06:16.280None of that makes the highlight reel, but all of that is what makes the highlight reel possible.
00:06:21.700So that's the, you know, that's just the currency and training piece.
00:06:24.140And then as far as the adrenaline, you know, like I said, there's certainly that aspect to it.
00:06:28.200But what I enjoy even more, I think, is the challenge and the mental clarity and focus that I get, especially when I'm base jumping, when you're standing on the edge of a cliff.
00:06:37.440And, you know, you could have had the worst day of your life leading up to that point, even though if you did have the worst day of your life, I'm going to recommend you not jump.
00:06:44.380It's probably not a good day to do that, right?
00:06:58.760But it's funny what happens as you get closer to jumping, all of those peripheral things that just don't matter at all, they start to fade away.
00:07:06.060And what you end up with in the few minutes, and especially the moment right before you jump, is a mental headspace and clarity that I've found it very hard to replicate elsewhere.
00:07:16.440You know, there's plenty of books that I've read that are written about it.
00:07:18.760Traditionally, it's called The Flow State.
00:07:20.380And there's, you know, athletes are able to get into that sometimes.
00:07:27.020And again, so it's not unique to what I do.
00:07:29.060But, you know, if you talk to those athletes, once you understand that state of mind and the clarity and the focus and how it has impact on your life outside of that movement, you know, there's a really, there's a desire to get back into it.
00:07:39.420And that's, for me, if I had to cut it into a percentage chart, I'd say I jump 50% for how it feels to be flying through the air face first at 120 miles an hour and 50% for what it does to my head.
00:07:51.940It's just that impact on my life in general.
00:07:55.460And I describe it as, it just kind of pulls back the levers on the stereo system, you know?
00:07:59.180So if you're constantly living your life at a 10 and there's static and noise everywhere, for me, I find that it helps pull everything back to a two or a three, which has impact across everything that I do in my life.
00:08:09.060Does that level of focus and clarity increase based on the level of risk or is there another factor or does that not apply?
00:08:19.120Because I'm thinking about, for example, running a Spartan race, which is significantly less dangerous than some of the things you're doing.
00:08:26.560Are we getting the same type of focus and clarity from something like that?
00:08:29.680You know, I think that would be dependent on the person.
00:08:31.760Having never done a Spartan race, I don't know.
00:08:33.760And I think it would depend a lot on their experiential background as well.
00:08:36.920If you have a background where you're spending, you know, not only assessing but mitigating risk in living in an environment that people would consider to be moderate to severely high risk, you're probably going to have to go more to the fringes to replicate that.
00:08:50.940But if you are somebody who is doing their first ever physical activity like that, I would be willing to bet you could probably approach it or find that greater sense of focus or I don't want to say oneness with yourself, but maybe connectedness to who you are as you approach that and probably during that race.
00:09:06.480But again, dependent on the individual.
00:09:08.340For me, if I was going to do a Spartan race, I think I would get anywhere near that at all.
00:09:11.580It's just too much of a different stimulus.
00:09:13.900Have you found that you've needed to go bigger and grander and greater the more that you've become accustomed to the wingsuit or base jumping or any of the things that you're doing?
00:09:25.120And the reason for that is from an outside perspective, you know, my experience in the base jumping world, specifically the wingsuit base jumping world, is pretty thin in comparison to a lot of people.
00:09:36.140And having not much experience and just trying to look at it objectively, I see a lot of people who are at the apex of the sport who get caught in that cycle of, okay, I have to redefine myself.
00:10:15.080And I'm actually trying to set the record for the number of base jumps that anybody's ever walked away from, you know, getting up to the edge and being like, I don't really feel it.
00:10:23.100I'm going to walk away and jump another day because I'm pretty sure that's going to help me survive.
00:10:34.400I have just approaching 7,000 skydives and probably in the neighborhood of three to 500 base jumps.
00:10:41.440It takes a lot longer to get the base jump numbers up.
00:10:43.840Just like I said, we, you know, we hiked for 275 miles in two and a half weeks, probably flew our suits for 18 to 20 minutes.
00:10:50.300So in that two and a half weeks, we got maybe 45 to 50 jumps and I can do that in a five day time period skydiving.
00:10:57.840How do you find the balance between being able to reserve?
00:11:00.800Because you've talked about it now just a couple of times in a few short minutes about holding back and, hey, I'm not feeling it today or I'm not going to do it today.
00:11:06.940How do you find the balance between that clear thought and pushing the bounds?
00:11:11.520Because I know you're probably a competitive guy.
00:11:13.580You've been in life and death situations before.
00:11:15.920And so I think it'd be easier just from my vantage point for you to continue to push harder and harder where it may be dangerous.
00:11:21.220It's very easy to continue to push harder and harder and, you know, it actually becomes more dangerous when you hang around people who are mentoring you, especially if they have a skill level that's above what yours is, which is likely possible in that mentor environment.
00:11:34.680Because it's really easy to get sucked into, you know, I'm here with a guy, he's amazing, and he would tell me if I'm not ready for this, right?
00:11:43.480He would tell me if I'm not, if I'm looking like I'm not ready to go.
00:11:46.680And I know more than one person that's died because of doing that.
00:11:50.040And so I just try to take notes on that stuff.
00:11:52.160I mean, I try to be very analytical, very non-emotion based when it comes to looking at what it is that I'm capable of doing and what it is that I want to do.
00:12:01.260And at the end of the day, I mean, I think the biggest key to success or longevity in the base jumping world is just to check your ego at the door.
00:12:08.160I don't care if people think I'm a good base jumper or I'm, you know, oh, look at what he's doing.
00:12:21.280Like, hey, man, what are you doing this for?
00:12:23.140Like, you know, yes, that would be a great video, but is that video worth your life?
00:12:28.180Because I've seen a lot of cool YouTube videos, but never one where I watched it and be like, oh, man, that video would be worth dying for.
00:12:43.980You have to take a broad, full-spectrum approach to why it is you're doing things.
00:12:47.720And, again, you have to assess all of the risks that are out there, look at what you can do to mitigate them, and then determine that residual risk.
00:13:30.700My decision-making is better in the business world.
00:13:32.980And, again, there's maybe a way that I could find that elsewhere, but I have found a place where I can go to relatively easily to get that release, if you want to call it that.
00:13:44.340And it's the impact that it has on everything else.
00:13:46.680You know, base jumping is dangerous, but it's a dangerous activity that you can do safely.
00:13:51.620I imagine it probably at the same time puts things in perspective.
00:13:54.760I was on Facebook yesterday, and as much as I enjoy social media and it's important for my work, it's really easy for us to get bogged down in stuff that just has no relevancy in your life.
00:14:05.800And I imagine when you're doing the things that you're doing, it allows you to focus on the extremely important and eliminate just about everything else.
00:14:12.700Yeah, you know what you're not thinking about right before you jump?
00:14:24.440I think I've been on there for a couple of years now, and I'm constantly – my jaw hits the floor on how people interact with each other, the things that they say, the unwillingness to even digest a new idea to see if it fits with who they are or not.
00:14:36.580It's a mind-blowing, consequence-free environment that makes no sense to me, and nothing that happens on there is important.
00:14:44.040You know, just like you said, you're not – you know, I'm not thinking about that stuff when I'm hiking with a really good friend of mine in the backcountry.
00:14:50.020I'm thinking about what it is that I want to do.
00:14:51.860And, you know, you land from a successful jump, and you're appreciative of all the tangible things in life.
00:15:00.480You know, it's just – it's a hard thing to describe, and it might not make a lot of sense to a lot of people.
00:15:05.720And that's okay because, you know, to me, it makes sense.
00:15:08.280What are your thoughts about you going out and doing the work that you're doing, but then also understanding that you're a husband, you're a father, and I've got kids to take care of.
00:15:17.480And, of course, I want to be available and present for them.
00:15:36.000I mean, there's pros and cons to everything.
00:15:37.320So you have to look at it from that same work-home-life balance.
00:15:41.400And I just try to manage how much time I'm on the road.
00:15:43.560And what I've started to do recently in the past year and a half or so is, you know, I'll chunk all of my travel and do like a really hard 8 to 10 days and then come home and have a month off.
00:16:08.540And then I'd come back and then I'd have to leave Sunday.
00:16:10.260And that I found to be much more interruptive than just getting the work done and then coming back.
00:16:14.800And you can kind of separate yourself from that.
00:16:16.700And it makes you more present in what I have found for myself better in the home life.
00:16:21.760As you become busier and more, you know, in the public eye and just more present, how do you determine what you should say yes to and what you're saying no to?
00:16:32.200Because it sounds like that's changed over time and you've gotten a little better at this.
00:16:35.380Yeah, the most powerful word in my vocabulary and the one that I'm learning to say the most and enjoy saying the most is no.
00:16:43.000I think the most common answer or the most common desire for people is to take every opportunity in front of them.
00:16:49.820And I think, again, speaking for myself, we all go through that phase in life.
00:16:53.720When I got out of the military and I first started doing jumping as a sponsored or endorsed athlete, the desire is to say yes to everything.
00:17:00.440And what you end up finding or what I found is that you actually dilute your effort.
00:17:04.260And although you're doing more work, you're getting less accomplished.
00:17:07.280And it just for me, it just took time and realization that I never had downtime.
00:17:10.860I was constantly being tugged because of requirements left, right and center.
00:17:14.300And so when I started backing away from it, I was actually hesitant when I began to.
00:18:29.600And then, you know, you're only going to be able to do that for so long in your life, although I was really focused on that.
00:18:34.880And I spent not enough time focusing on the after.
00:18:37.640You know, you get out of the military and you need to, I needed to find and create a system for myself where I put up a task in front of me and then I execute.
00:18:45.860And that, for me, became, you know, in addition to the other business stuff that I was doing, but the jumping side of the house I used is that bridge between that physical and mental pushing my limits that allowed me to do all the other stuff.
00:18:57.260I think without that, I would have struggled a lot more.
00:18:59.640I'm sure I would have found my way eventually, but I think I short-circuited the time that it would have taken by doing so.
00:19:04.800Yeah, because I hear a lot of guys and I've had experience with this with some of my close friends who have a difficult time defining now who they are because they've defined themselves as a warrior or a soldier or a SEAL or whatever.
00:19:16.760And now they're not and they're struggling to find and make sense of what they should do moving forward.
00:19:23.080Yeah, you know, that's an interesting observation and it's one that I've had myself.
00:19:27.720So for my career, and I can only speak for myself, I always tried to look at it as a job.
00:19:32.680But in my opinion, you rent your time in the SEAL teams.
00:19:36.620The only people that own the SEAL teams are the one that die in the service of this country as a SEAL.
00:19:41.140So the best you can do is make the environment or the community a little bit better than when you got there.
00:19:46.000But at some point, it's not going to be who you are.
00:19:49.560And the people that I have seen, this is totally anecdotally, the people that I have seen who struggle the most are the ones who derive their sense of being from that job.
00:19:58.940And when that job goes away, if that's all you are, your persona, describe it however you would want to.
00:20:05.580But everything that you are is defined by a couple-inch piece of metal that hangs on a piece of fabric in a military uniform.
00:20:12.420The day that you hang that up, the door to problems can open.
00:20:16.620So I just – I mean I try to be – like you can't define yourself as a warrior, right?
00:20:20.740I mean you could think of yourself as a warrior.
00:20:23.200But again, are you going to be a warrior when you're 90?
00:20:25.940Because at that point, it's only going to be mental.
00:20:28.320It's not going to be a physical warrior perspective.
00:20:30.300So everything has to be just taken with a grain of salt.
00:20:32.960Don't take it too seriously and don't take yourself too seriously.
00:20:35.920That's what I try to tell young guys who are in the SEAL teams who ask me for advice.
00:20:39.560And just always remember that at the end of the day, at some point, this is going to end.
00:20:44.500Don't let it be the only thing that you have.
00:20:46.700Yeah, that's an interesting perspective.
00:20:48.020I was reading – I had a four-hour layover yesterday on a flight, travel home.
00:21:16.780And I say those things about the perspective on the SEAL teams and not having it define who you are.
00:21:22.780I wasn't perfect in that respect either.
00:21:24.940And it made more sense to me why I was having a hiccup or a disconnect when I got out because it's tough not to – I mean we all have an ego.
00:21:31.560And it's tough not to let your ego get attached to it and then wonder who you are when a job title disappears.
00:21:36.740But I noticed the difficulty that I had.
00:21:40.100So I try to tell as many people as possible to be proactive about it so they don't have to learn the same lessons that I did.
00:22:28.140I want to make a difference for my kids.
00:22:30.200I want to make a difference for this country.
00:22:31.900And a lot of that starts with my kids.
00:22:33.900Go back to Facebook where people are just basically, essentially screaming at each other from one side of the street to the other with no intention of even meeting in the middle at all.
00:22:43.540This needs to happen and you suck and this is your fault.
00:22:46.200Nothing that happens on there is going to change this country for the better.
00:22:49.440It's going to be a generational change that occurs at the family level.
00:22:52.380And going back and being an example to my kids and teaching them about right and wrong and standing up for things that are right and for those that can't stand up for themselves.
00:23:01.440And for doing the right thing, especially when nobody else is watching and virtues and values and morals.
00:23:07.360That's what's going to make this country better.
00:23:08.900Not yelling at each other on Facebook.
00:23:47.960People fail in application, not understanding.
00:23:50.520Helping people understand those things or being able to talk about those things or working with people on those things.
00:23:55.240Again, from the family level to the business level to the community level, that's what I want to do.
00:24:00.860So I don't know how I'm going to get there.
00:24:02.520But at the end of the day, I just want to make a difference.
00:24:04.740And that's what I'm choosing to fight for.
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00:26:00.980Now let's get back to my conversation with Andy.
00:26:02.960You bring up a really interesting perspective because most people, even the guys that I have on the show are going to talk about, do your five-year plan and have this goal and know what you want and work backwards.
00:26:12.900And I can see there's some validity to that, but what does your planning process look like if you even have one?
00:26:19.960Well, it's traunched out a little bit, you know, on the jumping side of the house, it's to continue to constantly be a student and to learn new things and just to continue to get better.
00:26:28.580So that's kind of one section of it. And as far as the message goes and being able to try to reach more people, so I just started a podcast as well.
00:26:35.700And it's just to continue to grow and talk to interesting people and try to spread the word there.
00:26:40.180I enjoy the podcast, by the way. I'm hooked on it. The Cleared Hot podcast, by the way, guys.
00:26:44.680Yeah, it's interesting. I make no claims as to what's going to be on there. And if you get offended, then I'm sorry.
00:26:49.800I like the story. I think it was maybe two or three weeks ago you were talking about your early days as a SEAL and how you almost botched that one.
00:26:58.700Oh, yeah. They didn't let me wear my Trident for six months, but they let me keep the designator.
00:27:02.800And that one, you want to talk about a reset of how you think about yourself and decision making.
00:27:06.920It was amazing. But I'm just trying to incrementally increase the reach.
00:27:12.380You know, so I have the blog, right, which I just write things that I write from my perspective and let people digest it however they want to.
00:27:18.780I try to write from my experience and be open about like, hey, this is just my experience. Take it or leave it.
00:27:23.960The podcast is kind of the same thing. I'm not I'm not I don't think I'm a left guy or a right guy.
00:27:28.360I think I live on both sides of the house sometimes, but most of the time I'm in the middle and just try to increase that reach.
00:27:34.200And then when people reach out to me and they want me to come speak at their organization or speak with them as an individual, take those a step at a time to try to increase the reach.
00:27:41.920But, yeah, I don't have anything written out like a 12 or a 24 month plan because I really enjoy the stuff that I'm doing right now.
00:27:49.700Well, I mean, I like that perspective and I can appreciate it because it is unique and it's different than what a lot of the quote unquote gurus will tell you to do.
00:27:57.560But it fits in line with with you and from what I can tell your personality as well.
00:28:01.360You said a minute ago that people fail in application, not understanding, which I agree.
00:28:06.540There's a huge gap between what we know we should be doing and what we're actually doing.
00:28:53.480And a business person is probably going to read that in a book somewhere and you're going to probably learn it in school somewhere and you're going to learn it in the SEAL teams.
00:29:01.240Now, in the SEAL teams, what we start telling you from day one is that in the absence of leadership, you need to step up and you need to make a call.
00:29:09.620It's that you're keeping the ball rolling so the leader can come back and make a decision.
00:29:13.200And we constantly train and reinforce by pulling the leadership out and getting you to think like a leader proactively instead of reactively.
00:29:24.260I mean, we're constantly pulling the leadership out to see what the junior personnel do.
00:29:28.120And then my first SEAL platoon, the only thing I was responsible for was myself.
00:29:32.200I was paired with a guy who was very senior to me and he was my mentor for two years, essentially.
00:29:37.120He basically – I was his secondary communication rep and all I did was make sure the radios were clean and I would help him and he would teach me how to load a backpack, how to load the crypto, all the things that are involved with that.
00:29:47.900And then the next year, the next platoon, two years later, I was the primary communication rep.
00:29:52.520But he was still in that platoon and he still kind of looked over my shoulder.
00:29:55.520And the whole way throughout my career, I found somebody that I could always look up to who was there over my shoulder mentoring me who would then get out of the way and allow me to do my job.
00:30:05.500And I tried to pass that on down the line.
00:30:08.740And that to me – I mean that's application.
00:30:11.040That's teamwork in application, mentorship in application.
00:30:14.660I don't see a lot of that outside of those military environments.
00:30:17.900And the reason for it, I think, is that the time difference between an error and when that error presents itself, the results of that error, in the military, it can be instantaneous.
00:30:27.680Like poor leadership in the military, they can have a catastrophic consequence very quickly.
00:30:33.300In the business world, the only real difference is how much time it takes.
00:30:37.880So I find people not taking it as seriously.
00:30:42.160If you see it instantaneously, you've got to adapt quickly versus if it takes months or even years, it's hard to pinpoint what the problem actually was to begin with.
00:30:51.080It is and it allows you a little bit of slop.
00:30:53.580You need to be precise when timelines are short and the consequences are immediate.
00:31:00.000In like 2008, people were starting to recognize what was going on before that and that was just a failure in integrity and morals and quite frankly, leadership in the companies that were backing all those crazy loans, right?
00:31:11.500And they knew it and it was probably – they probably got to that point 1% at a time until it was 100% and the market crashed.
00:31:19.200It's the time, it's the immediacy of the result and in the military, you're not financially motivated.
00:31:27.120I could tell you exactly what the guy across from me made because the pay scales are –
00:31:33.360And again, in the business world, I see a lot of ego.
00:31:36.760I see a lot of people, for lack of a better term, having a dick measuring contest with a car that they drive or the placard that's on their office or their desk or their business card and all that stuff gets in the way.
00:32:04.740I mean you have you like an elite warrior who's mentoring under somebody else and yet we have these guys walking around thinking that because we're humble or somebody has to tell us or bring us under their wing,
00:32:15.140somehow makes us weaker is kind of an interesting concept.
00:32:33.780Believe me, there were some F's in the SEAL teams as well.
00:32:35.980But the number of high achieving A's is what allowed me to be the person that I am.
00:32:41.840They did not only did they not push me down and step on my head to get to where they were, they would get out of the way and say, hey, here's the next wrong on the ladder.
00:32:49.600How does, in your words, being a C affect your mentality?
00:32:52.940Does that motivate you to get to a B or an A?
00:32:56.540Or is it just like I am what I am and here's what it is?
00:32:59.880You should never be comfortable with your station in life.
00:33:02.480And even if you're the best person in the world at fill in the blank as whatever it is that you do, you need to realize that you have a target on your back and people are clawing their way to try to get to where you are.
00:33:13.800So wherever you are, wake up every day and try to make yourself better.
00:33:17.360Now, the mistake I see people making is they try to make themselves 30% better in a short period of time.
00:33:22.620And I would advise the exact opposite.
00:33:24.760I'm talking 1% difference day over day over day.
00:33:27.940If you can't do that, do a half a percent.
00:33:29.560If you can't do that, do a quarter of a percent.
00:33:31.560But put your feet in front of the other and keep going, never being satisfied with your station in life.
00:33:36.700Always be a sponge and always have a direction that you want to travel to and never stop.
00:33:42.360Yeah, I really like that you're talking about this 1% concept because I do see a lot of guys who think to themselves, I'm going to change everything about the way that I exercise and eat or the way that I communicate with my wife or the way that I show up at work.
00:33:57.540And they do it for a week or two or if they're lucky a month and then they're completely burned out and they revert back to the old them.
00:34:03.740So for sure, short-term success for a long-term failure.
00:34:33.320But if you find yourself in a valley, what ends up happening is you'll crumble, especially if all you can think about is how far you have to go as opposed to the inch right in front of your face.
00:34:53.320Well, and the hard part about this – and this goes back to one of the very first things that you had mentioned – is we see on Instagram this guy that goes from 250 pounds to 180 pounds.
00:35:02.680And we see just the before and after, and we don't get to see the six months or the year or the 10 years of work that it took to get there.
00:35:35.840A buddy of mine asked me one day, he's like, if you could tell people one thing to make a difference, what would it be?
00:35:40.500And I was sitting there, and I was thinking about it, and I just came to the realization that – I mean, those are the two choices that you have in life.
00:35:52.460If you have a goal, you really have two choices.
00:35:55.640You can have the discipline to do what you need to do to accept the incremental growth and improvement percentage points at a time and get to where you want to be because you did the things that you needed to every day for days and weeks and months and years.
00:36:10.780Or you can look back at the end of your life with all of these things that you wish you could have done and regret it.
00:36:16.580I mean, that's really the two choices you have in your life.
00:36:19.700Yeah, I mean, I think just adhering to that and living to that and understanding – and even fast-forwarding.
00:36:25.440One of the exercises I've done is I'll fast-forward five or ten years or 20 years or even my deathbed and think, what decision would I have regretted?
00:36:35.940That's a powerful exercise to do that.
00:36:38.000What about – one of the things you talk a lot about is moral callings.
00:36:41.600And I can see there's definitely a moral calling in serving your country and serving your brothers-in-arms and doing the things that you did with your career as a SEAL.
00:36:49.700How do you feel that belief and that idea ties in with what you're doing now?
00:36:57.500I think the military in and of itself kind of self-selects for a certain type of individual that has generally – not always – but generally a calling to try to do something greater than themselves.
00:37:09.020Because military service, although it is very individually rewarding and there's – I mean, from the educational benefits to the health benefits, there's a ton of rewards that the individual can reap and benefit from.
00:37:19.980At the end of the day, you sign on a dotted line to serve the Constitution, the President of the United States and the officers appointed under him, and you give up some of your constitutionally afforded rights.
00:37:30.760Freedom of speech, you don't have that inside of the military.
00:37:33.580It's service of others, doing something outside of yourself.
00:37:37.780It's something that I wish I could almost force-feed on every American.
00:37:42.860I would be very supportive of a two-year mandatory service, not even necessarily in the military.
00:37:48.260I don't care if it's in the military or the Red Cross or the Peace Corps, but just a period in your life where you can get out and realize that you're actually not the center of the known universe.
00:38:01.220I think it resets your view of the world.
00:38:03.580I think it resets the view of your neighbor, of family, and how everything fits together.
00:38:07.680And I think there would actually be a lot less people yelling at each other on social media if they actually got out and experienced the world with their own eyes as opposed to through an iPhone or computer screen.
00:38:18.500In my community, in our culture, we have young men at 18.
00:38:22.640They go out into the world, across the world, and they serve a two-year church mission.
00:38:27.780So it's amazing to see an 18-year-old kid come back who doesn't know anything about life to now this mature man to some capacity at least that has a very good understanding and a perspective about life that I don't think happens any other way.
00:38:42.620There's something to be said for giving of yourself.
00:38:45.840And if I had to describe our modern-day society, it would be me, me, me.
00:38:50.800That's what I think it's all driven about.
00:38:52.340And our country is going to consume itself until we can turn it back into a we, we, we society.
00:39:00.260This is a good point to lead into one of the last questions that I want to ask you because I think it ties in nicely with what I assume you're probably going to say.
00:39:08.300And my question for you is, what does it mean to be a man?
00:39:12.100Yeah, I have these conversations with my sons.
00:39:14.460I have a 14-year-old son, or getting ready to be 14 here shortly.
00:39:17.360And my middle son just turned 12, and every day I try to drop them off at school.
00:39:22.900Or we just moved to Montana, so in San Diego, I used to try to drop them both off at school.
00:39:26.760And before they would get out of the car, I would make a point of, you know, having them look me in the eyes.
00:39:31.360And I would say, you know, listen, I love you, and I'm proud of you.
00:39:39.300And I tried to tell them that every single day so that they knew that it's okay to do the right thing.
00:39:45.700And not only is it okay to do the right thing and to fight for what is right, that I expect them to do so.
00:39:51.180And that the world and they will be a better place if they're willing to accept that risk and that obligation and that burden.
00:39:58.040So to me, being a man is standing for what's right.
00:40:00.920And people like to often argue about, well, you know, what's right to you is wrong to somebody else.
00:40:05.440And no, you inherently know the difference between right and wrong.
00:40:09.760I mean, look at a situation of somebody being bullied, the person doing the bullying, and the person being bullied.
00:40:14.660Really not that hard to figure out where the right and wrong is in that situation.
00:40:18.540Or, you know, people speaking to their spouses or how you conduct yourself in conversations with friends and family or how you conduct yourself with conversations in business.
00:40:26.400It's being a man is about doing the right thing.
00:40:28.680Not when you want to, but all the time.
00:40:32.180So, well, Andy, how do we connect with you, learn a little bit more about the work that you're doing, follow you, watch you do some wild and crazy stuff, and maybe even catch the podcast?
00:40:41.740So I have the contractually obligated social media accounts for the supporters.
00:40:47.000Which you are resistant to, it sounds like.
00:40:49.880You know, it's just, again, I'm intimately aware of the fact that I'm not showing the whole picture.
00:40:55.280Because, you know what I mean, it's just, not only do I not have the time to do it, but it would, people would bore people to death, but I just took pictures of me hiking in the backcountry, you know, 50 pictures in a row.