Valuetainment - November 01, 2019


Episode 385： Navy Seal Captain Shares Future Threats To US Military


Episode Stats


Length

49 minutes

Words per minute

194.03952

Word count

9,584

Sentence count

607

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Captain Duncan Smith is a former Navy SEAL commander who served as the Chief of Staff at the United States Marine Corps' elite elite commando unit, the elite United States Navy SEALs. Captain Smith is also a former Marine Corps ROTC midshipman and served as a Navy SEAL Team Six Commander.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.380 30 seconds. One time for the underdog. One time for the underdog. Ignition sequence start.
00:00:07.000 Let me see you put them up. Reach the sky, touch the stars up above.
00:00:11.120 Cause it's one time for the underdog. One time for the underdog.
00:00:17.300 I'm Patrick Bedevi, your host of AITM, and today I sit down with Captain Duncan Smith,
00:00:20.900 former Navy SEAL commander, and he shares the biggest threats we have today,
00:00:24.880 as well as the future U.S. military.
00:00:26.660 Duncan, appreciate you for coming out.
00:00:28.080 Pat, thank you for having me.
00:00:29.000 Yeah, so we're talking off camera, and I kind of wanted to stop our conversation
00:00:33.900 because I know some of the similarities we have.
00:00:36.320 You know, family, San Fernando Valley, I'm San Fernando Valley, you know,
00:00:40.920 Woodland Hills, Woodland Hills, Morgan Stanley, Morgan Stanley.
00:00:43.640 And the part I wanted to go from is, you go to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter,
00:00:48.360 and I believe you sit in the valley, then you go in L.A.,
00:00:51.720 then you go work at San Diego as Morgan Stanley Dean Witter advisor.
00:00:55.600 When do you all of a sudden say, I want to go be a Navy SEAL?
00:00:57.860 Well, I always had the inkling to do something a little different,
00:01:01.760 and I was a very, you know, average suburban kid,
00:01:05.800 but I always would push myself and find different endeavors that I thought made me better,
00:01:09.580 more well-rounded.
00:01:11.260 And so while I was in high school, there was a Marine Corps colonel who lived down the street,
00:01:16.180 Colonel Pilatus, and he told me about a Marine Corps program called Devil Pups,
00:01:20.800 and I went to that, and it was during the Vietnam War.
00:01:23.520 Largely, it was kids from the inner city.
00:01:25.380 I was one of the few white suburb kids who went to this program.
00:01:28.340 I was 14, lied about my age.
00:01:30.220 You're supposed to be 15, 16, 17.
00:01:32.260 And a lot of these kids were sent to this program as an alternative towards incarceration
00:01:37.520 or some other things, a chance to kind of demonstrate themselves and learn some citizenship.
00:01:42.280 I went, and I thought, man, I'm the smallest, skinniest guy here.
00:01:45.260 I'm 120 pounds, and what I discovered over those 10 days with the Marines was that it's all about focus, right?
00:01:51.980 If you're willing to take that foot off, you know, step off that 35-foot dive tower
00:01:56.180 or if you're willing to race up the hill, Old Smoky on Camp Pendleton,
00:02:00.980 just stick-to-it-ness can pay huge dividends.
00:02:03.940 And so I became stronger, became a little more mentally focused in the military as a pathway for me.
00:02:09.960 I was considering the Forest Service becoming a ranger in the outdoors or, you know, I joke,
00:02:15.280 Peace Corps, Marine Corps, everyone's looking for a mission.
00:02:17.780 And then I applied to the Marine Corps for an ROTC scholarship coming out of high school.
00:02:23.840 Went to a Catholic prep school in the valley, and no one had ever gone to a service academy.
00:02:28.480 I thought about doing that, but I kind of found out on my own about ROTC.
00:02:32.340 Applied, my thinking at that time was that the Marines really kind of were the SEALs.
00:02:36.760 Went to school at the University of Southern California, did two years as a Marine ROTC midshipman.
00:02:42.260 And in the summer, the ROTC program was crafted in such a way that you get exposed to the fleet.
00:02:47.620 And so my first midshipman cruise was to the Mediterranean,
00:02:51.540 and I was there with the Marines on a helicopter carrier, but there were these other guys.
00:02:56.880 These other guys had longer hair.
00:02:59.100 They were incredibly fit.
00:03:00.540 They didn't all wear the exact same thing.
00:03:02.100 And I was in the hangar bay doing rope climbs, hangar bay being kind of a mini airport hangar that happens to be on a carrier.
00:03:08.880 And I was doing rope climbs, and I'd get off the rope, and I'd look at my watch.
00:03:11.840 I'd wait 30 seconds.
00:03:12.820 I'd climb again, wait 30 seconds.
00:03:14.540 I'd do it to failure.
00:03:15.760 And this guy with long hair looked like sort of a business executive came up,
00:03:20.060 and he said, hey, for a swabby, you're in pretty good shape.
00:03:22.580 I kind of braced up and stood a little bit of attention.
00:03:24.740 I said, oh, sir, I'm not a swabby.
00:03:26.600 I'm a United States Marine Corps, NROTC, you know, Marine Option midshipman.
00:03:31.220 He said, yeah, right.
00:03:32.120 Listen, don't call me sir, and if you like to work out, myself and some teammates are going to be here tomorrow morning.
00:03:37.560 You ought to join us.
00:03:38.760 What time's that?
00:03:39.680 5 a.m.
00:03:41.340 Okay, I'll try that.
00:03:43.060 Showed up at 5 a.m.
00:03:44.760 All these guys were quiet, pretty humble, but ribbing each other, a good sense of humor, pushing each other a bit,
00:03:51.140 and the toughest workout I'd ever seen.
00:03:52.780 And I had been what's called a 300 PFT, or meaning that's a perfect score.
00:03:56.760 Yeah, I'd maxed the Marine Corps physical fitness test.
00:03:59.200 With these guys, I was dying, and the workout went well over an hour.
00:04:04.320 Calisthenics, not a lot of equipment required, but it was bone crushing.
00:04:07.560 Showed up the next day, and this person who I later found out was a lieutenant said, huh, you're the first midshipman to come back a second time.
00:04:15.060 And my abs were, you know, just torn up by a ton of lactic acid.
00:04:19.660 I worked out with them several times that week.
00:04:22.660 And when these guys were, when we pulled into, I want to say, Marseille, we were going to finish the cruise and row to Spain.
00:04:30.100 We were pulling into Marseille, and he and his group of folks who actually were SEALs, an underwater demolition team from the East Coast, a platoon,
00:04:38.680 and he said, hey, Smith, hey, sir, don't call me sir.
00:04:44.380 You want to see what we're going to be doing?
00:04:45.820 I said, yeah, absolutely.
00:04:47.420 And he pulls out a map, and on this map, he says, well, there's this thing called Mont Blanc,
00:04:51.240 and recreational hikers say it takes a week to hike around Mont Blanc in France.
00:04:55.880 We're going to try to do it day and night in 48 hours.
00:04:58.380 And then we're going to go over, and we're going to hit these peaks in the Pyrenees.
00:05:01.460 And I'm thinking, this is awesome.
00:05:03.500 I said, but sir, here's my concern.
00:05:05.140 Don't call me sir.
00:05:06.320 Right, sorry.
00:05:07.140 Here's my concern.
00:05:07.920 What are you going to do when you get home?
00:05:09.160 I mean, I don't know if you have a family, but you're using all your leave, all your vacation now doing this stuff.
00:05:15.400 I said, well, what do you mean?
00:05:16.580 I said, well, how are you going to go mountain climbing and hiking and all over Europe?
00:05:19.640 I said, Smith, this is training.
00:05:20.900 This is what we do.
00:05:21.740 This isn't leave.
00:05:23.240 So a big light bulb came over to my head, and I thought, man, this is what special operations training is about.
00:05:29.660 I want a part of this.
00:05:31.260 So I went back to school, talked to the Marine Corps officer instructor, and at that time in the Marine Corps,
00:05:36.680 if you wanted to do Marine Corps reconnaissance, it was two years out of your career.
00:05:41.300 It was very rare to get a second assignment in recon, and it was impossible to do a career.
00:05:46.620 That has changed more recently with the creation of MARSOC, the Marine Corps Special Operations Command.
00:05:51.960 But at that time, that's what it was.
00:05:54.140 What year is this at this?
00:05:55.540 So this is just post-Vietnam.
00:05:57.220 So I graduated from USC in 1981, so this is 1977, and the military was not terribly popular in the U.S. at the time.
00:06:06.560 So I really respected this colonel.
00:06:09.000 He was an amazing leader, an amazing man, Vietnam veteran, and, you know, he counseled me.
00:06:13.980 He said, look, if you're really interested in the SEALs, I will support you for that.
00:06:17.000 We looked at it.
00:06:17.840 It would have added quite a bit of time to my college career.
00:06:21.040 I would have gone back and taken essentially a year of calculus, a year of physics, and he said, you know, you can always do OCS.
00:06:28.040 So basically, I graduated from USC.
00:06:31.120 I lost the ROTC scholarship when I chose to leave the program.
00:06:34.300 So I worked in the dorms as what's called a resident advisor at USC, which was, by the way, a great leadership experience.
00:06:40.040 And then I also later worked in a low-income HUD Section 8 low-income housing unit, and I learned a lot there that helped me later in life in terms of working.
00:06:48.580 I'm bad.
00:06:49.200 Understanding, you know, diversity and different people's perspective.
00:06:52.760 And then I had four sisters.
00:06:54.940 So I'm a little brother.
00:06:56.060 They were all at real liberal schools.
00:06:57.680 They were at UC Berkeley.
00:06:59.020 All older than you?
00:06:59.900 Yeah.
00:07:00.360 And they're all UC Berkeley?
00:07:01.520 Well, one's at UC Berkeley, one's at Stanford, one's at Santa Barbara, one's at Santa Clara.
00:07:05.060 And their whole thing is, hey, we've known you all your life.
00:07:08.760 You just need adventure.
00:07:09.860 Don't join the military.
00:07:11.780 So I thought, well, maybe they're right.
00:07:13.420 You know, there's an opportunity to work, get a work permit in New Zealand, Australia, you know, England.
00:07:19.320 So I applied for a work permit in New Zealand, got it, spent a year working on fishing boats in New Zealand, construction, a sheep-shearing gang. 0.80
00:07:28.880 Did construction in Australia, bought a bike, and then rode all through New Zealand back when no one was doing it.
00:07:33.400 So I came back a year later, left with about $800, came back with about $1,200, and then put on a necktie.
00:07:42.240 I thought, okay, that's my adventure.
00:07:43.940 You know, they're probably right.
00:07:45.260 I probably got that out of my system.
00:07:47.900 And that trip was amazing, right, riding down the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
00:07:52.740 And, you know, it's getting dark.
00:07:54.160 You pull into an orchard or a shearing station at night.
00:07:58.040 You go to bed.
00:07:58.780 You get up early, start riding again.
00:08:00.020 And when I put on a necktie, I applied to several finance firms.
00:08:05.060 They're not really interested in having a young guy work there unless you can really demonstrate that you've got the finance background,
00:08:11.240 the understanding, the tenacity because there's a large sales component, and the personality, the hard work ethic.
00:08:17.640 And got a couple good offers, and the one I chose was to go with what is now Morgan Stanley, was then Dean Witter.
00:08:23.220 And so I worked there, worked in L.A., and then worked in San Diego.
00:08:27.540 And I enjoyed what I did, but I also sat there and said, I'm 23 years old.
00:08:34.020 I could be doing this easily when I'm 40.
00:08:36.440 If I'm ever going to do this SEAL thing, now is the time.
00:08:40.080 And so I, after working in L.A., transferring to San Diego, I applied to Navy Officer Candidate School.
00:08:46.900 They tell you, what are your top three choices?
00:08:49.040 And I wrote, SEAL, SEAL, SEAL.
00:08:50.920 And they're like, no, top three choices means, you know, what's the first one?
00:08:54.060 Give us an alternate.
00:08:55.140 I said, look, that's all I want to do.
00:08:57.160 Got selected, went to OCS.
00:08:58.980 When I got selected, I quit my job at Morgan Stanley.
00:09:02.200 Still love finance, but then joined the Navy at that point and spent basically five years on active duty, SEAL Team 1, SEAL Team 5.
00:09:10.360 Went through BUDS, basic underwater demolition SEAL training with Class 137.
00:09:15.540 And really kind of compounded what I'd learned as a 14-year-old doing the Marine Corps thing, you know, listening to people, working with people, applying yourself, learning how to learn,
00:09:27.480 getting uncomfortable with being, getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, that's the stock and trade of making it through SEAL training.
00:09:33.740 And I was the average kid from the suburbs, but my swim buddy and I, Mike, were the only two as a swim pair that started together before training and finished all the way through training as a pair.
00:09:47.260 My boat crew won Hell Week, and it's because we had just great guys who bonded together.
00:09:51.420 You won Hell Week.
00:09:52.500 Yeah, our boat crew of seven was the boat crew that won Hell Week.
00:09:55.220 It was a graded evolution at that point in time.
00:09:58.320 And it was one of those things where I felt like, hey, there was this secret sauce, this discovery about how to work with people, how to push myself, how to tackle any problem,
00:10:07.580 you know, figure things out that I think is inherent in the SEAL teams.
00:10:12.660 And it's taught in a less than obvious way, probably a very subtle way, but everyone who makes it through training I think has that tool set.
00:10:20.580 So did it for finished training, worked in the teams, finished off at SEAL Team 5, applied to grad school, which is really common.
00:10:29.440 Back then, the heart and soul of being a SEAL was in the platoons.
00:10:33.620 I applied to grad school at UCLA, stayed in the reserve because I didn't want to lose that military affiliation.
00:10:38.460 And at 9-11, got recalled back to active duty and served those next 17 years.
00:10:44.500 So that's 86 when you graduated BUDS?
00:10:46.920 Correct.
00:10:47.600 86 when you graduated BUDS?
00:10:48.700 Okay.
00:10:49.280 So are you closer to mom or dad?
00:10:51.760 Well, dad's deceased.
00:10:52.720 But dad was a World War II guy, so he grew up without a dad.
00:10:58.120 And he, as a 17-year-old, joined the Navy in World War II, and then the Navy became his family in a way.
00:11:03.160 And he went to college at Vanderbilt, studied electrical engineering on the Navy's dime, and then later stayed in the reserves, which is kind of where I got that idea.
00:11:11.220 And then he got commissioned during the Korean War, and then after that went to Stanford to get his master's in electrical engineering.
00:11:17.540 A smart guy, I think he struggled with doing the right thing, more a worker bee.
00:11:21.880 And I think he, what I think I learned from his example is I don't want to do one thing all my life.
00:11:28.300 And SEAL teams are the definition of doing something new and different every day, if not at a minimum every two years.
00:11:34.240 But I think he was one of those folks that you knew when you grew up, you know, friends of yours whose dads were engineers in the aerospace industry.
00:11:43.280 So that's what he did.
00:11:44.000 And he, so he died probably about eight years ago.
00:11:48.620 It's hard to hear that.
00:11:49.360 Well, it's how it goes.
00:11:50.740 And my mom, who, yeah, forbid me from playing football, riding a motorcycle, or having guns.
00:11:56.560 What's the story behind that?
00:11:57.700 Well, she, I guess in a way, football, she might have been ahead of her time.
00:12:01.400 But, yeah, she didn't want to see me get injured.
00:12:03.400 Really, don't you think about it.
00:12:03.780 Like right now, they say the parents of making $150,000 or more parents, they are 60% less likely to encourage their kids to play football than middle America.
00:12:15.560 So that's what, when she's saying that at that time, it's very surprising for her to say, what was her processing to say, I don't want you to play football?
00:12:21.660 She actually had a good friend whose son was riding motorcycles recreationally, and he had a spinal cord injury.
00:12:32.880 He was, his life changed dramatically, but then he worked to the point where he could drive a van that was controlled with his hands.
00:12:39.600 And then he tried to kill himself by driving into a wall.
00:12:42.020 So I think she was probably, you know, a lot of daughters, probably, you know, I think her own experience in World War II as a female, like a lot of Americans lived in that time, you know, probably had a propensity to want her kid to avoid danger.
00:12:56.280 As far as it related to the SEAL thing, she had no idea what a SEAL was.
00:13:00.420 No one did back then.
00:13:01.480 So she thought I was probably a marine biologist or something.
00:13:04.620 Yeah, because SEAL is, early 60s is when it got started, right?
00:13:10.400 A lot of people think it's been on for a long time.
00:13:12.120 So if it's 60s, then you're in 77, you're still on, 77 you're in high school or 77 you're going to the Marines.
00:13:21.920 So at 23, 82, so it's not like it's been around that long where it's not been commercial.
00:13:26.820 Is an 82, is Navy SEAL a public thing like it is today or no?
00:13:31.840 It was not well known.
00:13:33.000 And I came in in 85, and it was really hard to find information out about it.
00:13:37.440 To speak to a SEAL was almost impossible.
00:13:38.540 That's right, 86 is when you graduated, you said.
00:13:40.680 Correct.
00:13:40.980 Got it, yeah.
00:13:41.340 Got it, yeah.
00:13:42.020 And the SEAL teams really grew up out of World War II, three different organizations.
00:13:46.580 The Underwater Demolition Teams, UDT, the Scouts and Raiders, and then the NCDUs, the Naval Combat Demolition Units.
00:13:54.600 And they really were formed into one organization in January 1962 called the SEAL Team, SEAL Team 1 on the East Coast, excuse me, West Coast, SEAL Team 2 on the East Coast.
00:14:05.040 And when those were created, that really kind of became an identifiable brand.
00:14:11.140 The Trident was created.
00:14:12.060 Prior to that, UDT guys wore gold Master Parachutist wings, and that was about it.
00:14:16.720 They wore a bubble maker, a dive pin.
00:14:19.080 So even when the SEALs formally existed as they were, they weren't well known.
00:14:24.940 And they kind of liked it that way, to be honest with you.
00:14:27.060 When did it become so publicized?
00:14:28.760 When did it become, you know, to the point where everybody kind of knew what a Navy SEAL was?
00:14:32.940 Where, hey, I want to be a Navy SEAL.
00:14:34.120 Was that intentional or was that accidental?
00:14:36.140 I think a couple things happened.
00:14:38.300 I think there was a period of time where some folks wrote some books that are controversial,
00:14:44.800 some which I think would have been better left unwritten, that sort of turned SEALs into superheroes.
00:14:55.000 And the reality is, as you look at the SEAL ethos, it's a common man with an uncommon desire to succeed.
00:15:01.340 So as you look at some of these books, you know, they may talk a little bit about things, you know, largely they're accurate.
00:15:08.540 But they do talk about certain things in a way that makes it sound like they're Jason Bourne meets, you know, The Rock, right?
00:15:16.740 And the reality is, it's average guys who are just ready to really drive themselves, who are smart and trained to the task,
00:15:25.360 and then have a really well-developed mentoring process, mechanism within the organization.
00:15:32.200 I think we became really well-known.
00:15:33.900 The Charlie Sheen movie, which was made in 88, that made us more well-known.
00:15:40.300 I think a lot of the books, Rogue Warrior and others, kind of glamorized the SEALs in a bit of a way.
00:15:49.260 But then really, and I'm sometimes pointed to as a guy who advanced, some people will say negatively, I would argue otherwise,
00:15:58.340 advanced the public's perception of SEALs.
00:16:01.220 We had never filled a class in our history back to World War II.
00:16:04.860 There had never been a UDT or a BUDS, you know, Basic Underwater Demolition and SEAL training class that was full to capacity.
00:16:12.360 In 2005, every year the military is very good at doing kind of an internal look, and it's called the QDR, Quadrennial Defense Review.
00:16:21.300 And it's the Secretary of Defense, the president via the Secretary of Defense, puts out a mandate that all the branches look hard at themselves
00:16:28.640 and figure out what their shortfalls are.
00:16:30.440 In 2005, 2006, we'd been at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and those wars were really calling upon and highlighting the success of Special Operations Forces,
00:16:43.180 Green Berets, Rangers, a lot of the Tier 1 forces, SEAL teams.
00:16:48.320 And it was agreed upon across the board that there was a 15% shortfall in manning.
00:16:52.940 So for the SEAL teams that at that time had about 1,700 enlisted SEALs, the notion was we had to add 500 new SEALs to our ranks.
00:17:02.500 If you've ever been to dry cleaners and you've seen that triangle on the wall where it says cheap, fast, good, pick two, you can't have it all,
00:17:09.760 we sort of faced something similar.
00:17:11.840 You know, for us it was have the combat competency that we've enjoyed since Vietnam, stay at the cutting edge of proficiency,
00:17:19.360 grow by 500, stay in the shadows.
00:17:23.080 And for us, we had to throw one of those out, and staying in the shadows was something we could no longer afford to do.
00:17:28.040 This is 05-06.
00:17:29.260 05-06.
00:17:30.680 And so we created something called the Recruiting Directorate.
00:17:35.160 It's now called the Scout Team, but the Naval Special Warfare or SEAL Recruiting Directorate.
00:17:39.220 And the first thing I did, I was placed in charge of it, the first thing I did with a mandate from the Admiral was,
00:17:44.860 hey, let's do an internal look.
00:17:46.780 You could talk to any SEAL, just like you could talk to anyone in any business and say,
00:17:51.160 hey, you're successful, you're here, you're functioning in this role, what's the secret?
00:17:55.340 How do we find more people like you?
00:17:57.460 And everyone commonly will be a little bit overly inclined to say, well, I grew up as a skateboarder,
00:18:03.920 or I grew up as a ski bum, or I was a bow hunter or a wrestler, I played high school football.
00:18:08.200 And they tend to think that's the solution.
00:18:10.860 And so we got very analytical with it.
00:18:13.000 And I'd already been, remember, back at UCLA, got my MBA, and so I had a finance background.
00:18:19.880 And for things that seem subjective, I like to rely upon a quantifiable solution.
00:18:25.800 And so we did an internal look.
00:18:27.700 We put out what's called a UFER, it's an unfunded request, seeking money that was not budgeted,
00:18:33.060 to do a hands-off, unbiased study of what made successful SEALs.
00:18:38.680 The winning bid was an ancillary element of the Gallup organization.
00:18:44.700 We worked closely with them.
00:18:45.960 And we looked at what the success traits were for people who make it through SEAL training.
00:18:49.280 Now, you've got to remember, Pat, someone who wants to see if they can make it through SEAL training
00:18:53.220 is a very different beast than someone who wants to serve as a SEAL.
00:18:57.040 Somebody who wants to make it through is very different than somebody who wants to be a Navy SEAL.
00:19:03.200 Correct.
00:19:04.040 So our whole marketing focus, which was driven largely by Navy Recruiting, who was very much committed to helping us.
00:19:11.340 They really wanted, they recognized that there was a presidential mandate to grow all the different branches of special operations.
00:19:17.160 And so Navy Recruiting was a great partner.
00:19:19.760 But at that point in time, you know, the whole marketing focus, because we tried to, remember, remain in the shadows,
00:19:27.340 we only focused in the public's optic with training.
00:19:32.020 What happens in Coronado when you go through SEAL training?
00:19:34.940 What is Hell Week like?
00:19:36.380 What's it like to do the obstacle course?
00:19:37.980 What happens out on San Clemente Island?
00:19:39.880 And so that was the view that we would allow people.
00:19:44.320 But we also found it drew in a lot of people who wanted to know, can they make it through SEAL training?
00:19:50.340 And that is a different beast than a person who says, I want to serve as a SEAL.
00:19:55.220 Is that more pride where the second one is more, it's more me, this is more we,
00:20:00.280 like I want to serve to represent and protect the red, white, and blue versus the other one is it's a test.
00:20:04.360 Let me see if I can handle it.
00:20:05.180 Yeah, I think there's something there that you just mentioned that's very accurate.
00:20:08.840 Yeah, it's a personal test.
00:20:10.100 It's an achievement.
00:20:11.100 Will I wear a bird, a Budweiser, a SEAL trident one day? 0.74
00:20:14.960 That's very different from saying, hey, I want to stand shoulder to shoulder with the baddest guys I know who care about me,
00:20:21.040 and I want to bring it on behalf of the nation, get in a fight with the bad guys.
00:20:24.800 Yeah, two different motivations.
00:20:27.180 And it's a little bit like, you know, in the finance arena.
00:20:30.020 Who wants to take them past the Series 7 or the 63?
00:20:32.480 Who wants to take care of their clients, find the right product, help them in their financial future?
00:20:37.860 So two different missions.
00:20:38.900 Not mutually exclusive because you have to want to make it through SEAL training in order to stand shoulder to shoulder with your team.
00:20:44.560 And obviously you guys want these guys.
00:20:45.960 You want the guys that want to be a SEAL.
00:20:48.440 Correct.
00:20:48.660 So was there a formula for it?
00:20:50.440 Did they figure out a formula that was best suited on who to focus on?
00:20:54.080 We track the population where you really get an indication of, you know, let's look at those 37 guys from my class, for example, who made it through Hell Week.
00:21:02.500 Let's find out what their family backgrounds are.
00:21:04.900 Let's find out what their sports backgrounds are.
00:21:07.100 Let's find out, if we can, a little bit of their psych, you know, what drives them.
00:21:12.840 And so what region they're from, how old were they in training, what's their level of education.
00:21:17.100 So as we did this internal look, more SEALs come from a background of football, baseball, and basketball than other sports.
00:21:26.480 But football, for example, has about the lowest success rate of any sports.
00:21:31.480 Meaning, numerically, mass numbers, tons of SEALs have played football.
00:21:35.560 But the success rate of athletes going through training really is lacrosse, water polo, cross-country track, wrestling.
00:21:46.160 Those did well.
00:21:47.020 Football didn't do well.
00:21:48.040 Football statistically doesn't do well.
00:21:50.040 The number one sport is triathlon.
00:21:51.540 Not a lot of 18, 19, 20, three-year-old men are competing in triathlon.
00:21:57.100 But those that do know how to work in a way where you're having to shift from one sport to another in performance count.
00:22:03.260 Let me ask you this.
00:22:04.020 You know, when I was in the military, a friend of mine went, and he became Delta, right?
00:22:09.820 And most people, if you talk to them, you say Navy SEAL, they know.
00:22:13.800 But most people talk about Delta, they don't really know.
00:22:15.900 The only way they know Delta is the movie that was done.
00:22:17.800 Also, another movie was Delta.
00:22:18.900 I don't know who played it.
00:22:20.040 Chuck Norris, I think?
00:22:20.660 Chuck Norris played Delta Force, yes.
00:22:24.440 But Delta, they intentionally want to be low-key, and they don't want to tell anybody.
00:22:30.740 They'll typically say they're special ops, but the average person doesn't know what special ops means.
00:22:35.080 You know what I'm saying?
00:22:35.560 They're not going to say, I'm Delta Force.
00:22:36.900 They'll say, I'm special ops.
00:22:37.920 What's special ops?
00:22:38.820 I work on special operations.
00:22:40.640 Now, you and I know what special ops is, but, you know, the average guy doesn't know what special ops is.
00:22:44.280 Why is Navy SEAL, the brand, comfortable being that public where Delta isn't being public?
00:22:57.620 Is the game plan and strategy to be comfortable being public, or is that a smart move that they're making?
00:23:02.960 There's a lot of great questions there.
00:23:06.800 You know, and I can't speak to the Tier 1 side, so I've not been a Tier 1 operator, whether it's on the Naval Special Warfare side or the Army side.
00:23:15.020 But their mission is one that should absolutely remain in the shadows.
00:23:18.540 The notion for us, you know, is to really not trivialize any organization.
00:23:23.920 We have a message to attract in our arena as SEALs back when I served, and I'm speaking as Duncan, not as an official Navy representative.
00:23:33.240 You know, our mission was to bring in the right guys on board who are today the most physically fit candidates we've ever had.
00:23:40.500 They do have a better understanding of what SEAL training is.
00:23:43.100 There's some who'd argue that you're losing some of the benefit of putting people in real chaos when, you know, when they know what's coming up next
00:23:51.020 because it's been written about in books or on a miniseries, you know, there is some detriment there.
00:23:57.460 But when we began in 2005 with the SEAL Recruiting Directorate, at that point in time, our research had told us that the bulk of those guys who made it through SEAL training
00:24:10.780 first talked to an Army recruiter or a Marine Corps recruiter.
00:24:13.600 We were classically their third choice.
00:24:17.140 Today, it's reversed.
00:24:18.260 So putting the word out has now made it that young men come in with an understanding that they want to be a maritime commando, an aquatic warrior.
00:24:26.480 They will come in seeking first to be a SEAL.
00:24:29.280 So we, to attain the numbers we needed, and by the way, those efforts that included things like the film Act of Valor,
00:24:35.640 which I produced from the Navy's perspective, worked on for two years, two and a half years,
00:24:40.640 those kind of efforts, like the Ironman, like Act of Valor, like putting former SEALs out there as coaches,
00:24:49.220 allowed us to fill our first class ever in our history in 2007.
00:24:52.760 And now we're full back to back to back.
00:24:54.900 So it's easy to say, you guys were overexposed.
00:24:58.500 And we absolutely are.
00:24:59.760 We kind of learned from the best.
00:25:01.920 There was the movie Green Berets, which, you know, inspired a lot of folks to want to earn that opportunity to serve as a Special Forces operator in the Army.
00:25:10.560 Now look at the Navy's experience.
00:25:12.160 We have the most professional Navy in the world, the most technically sophisticated surface warfare, subsurface warfare, aviation sailors the world has ever seen.
00:25:21.000 But the reality is, being an air crewman or being on a ship and repairing machinery or working navigation or combat systems doesn't really translate well to being a SEAL.
00:25:31.600 So if you use Pareto's law, you know, 80-20, 80-20, we are the direct opposite of the Army Special Forces, which is why we're not in competition.
00:25:40.480 We get 80% of our candidates off the street and then 20% from the fleet.
00:25:45.580 And frankly, the fleet success rates don't always shine.
00:25:51.380 Why do you think that is?
00:25:52.120 Why do you think they don't shine if it's coming from what you already have?
00:25:54.860 Because I think it's a population doing a very demanding job, whether they're an intelligence specialist or an aviation boatswain.
00:26:03.100 But the reality is, being on a ship for two, three years does not train you well for, you know, 14-mile runs, 4-mile ocean swims, you know, 20 pull-ups every time you have a meal.
00:26:15.580 Or you don't eat.
00:26:17.700 It's not the same training environment where being an Army infantryman trains you pretty well for the Special Forces Q Corps.
00:26:24.940 Let's transition to a couple of the topics here.
00:26:27.120 You know, I watched a movie the other day.
00:26:29.140 Mario, you told me to go watch a movie, Angel Has Fallen.
00:26:31.540 Is that what it's called, Angel Has Fallen?
00:26:33.380 And there is this scene where he's with Morgan Freeman and he starts seeing some stuff in the sky.
00:26:38.780 And he sees literally hundreds and hundreds of drones coming, okay?
00:26:44.860 So he's looking at it and then all of a sudden these drones come and the moment anything shoots at it or there is movement, it goes right at it.
00:26:53.300 So if you shoot at it, then all of a sudden 20 of them come after you.
00:26:56.280 And every one of them is a bomb and they blow up, right?
00:26:58.840 And I'm watching that.
00:27:00.680 I'm like, that is way too realistic.
00:27:03.160 Way too realistic.
00:27:04.380 And I said to myself, what is the biggest threat we have today?
00:27:09.140 Because what are your biggest threats?
00:27:11.400 What is the Navy SEAL looking at right now around the world that's a big threat?
00:27:13.720 Because a threat in 1985 is not the same threat as in 2018.
00:27:17.920 What are some of the biggest threats we have based on what you see yourself?
00:27:23.140 Well, a couple things.
00:27:24.800 And I can't speak for the Navy in terms of where the threats lie.
00:27:27.480 But I will tell you that the technological advancements that have gone on just in the limited time that I was in, you know, it's like Moore's Law, right?
00:27:35.060 I mean, when I joined the SEAL teams and you would train at SEAL Team 1 in 1986 to go overseas, you weren't wearing hearing protection or earplugs because the Vietnam guy training next to you said,
00:27:46.660 Hey, man, no one wears earplugs in combat.
00:27:48.160 Toughness.
00:27:48.540 Get used to this.
00:27:49.080 Yeah.
00:27:49.160 Right. You'd have a canteen and basically you'd open your canteen, you'd take a sip and you'd pass around the squad until it was completely empty because a half full canteen sloshes.
00:27:59.140 But if you had a new fancy thing called a camelback with a, you know, a drinking bladder, oh, you know, what's that piece of gear?
00:28:04.480 Get that out of here. 1.00
00:28:05.960 Night vision didn't exist.
00:28:07.140 Guys would go into a PLO, a patrol leader's order, a mission briefing, wearing sunglasses to preserve their night vision.
00:28:13.260 Not every guy, but a lot of guys would try to do that.
00:28:15.020 Well, now we have technology that's, you know, night vision goggles and we embrace all these things.
00:28:20.800 We understand our bodies as weapons much better.
00:28:23.660 The little bit of advancement, Peltors, that allow you to muffle explosions and the sounds of gunfire but still hear the person whispering next to you, those things have made a difference.
00:28:32.460 But drone swarms and other things, I think we're just seeing the very, very beginning of technology, you know, technology advancing and changing the battle space.
00:28:40.960 Are we prepared for it, though?
00:28:41.660 I think it's going to evolve really quickly, and I think we've got a lot of near peers.
00:28:46.500 You know, we've been focused, and again, Duncan's point of view, not a Navy point of view.
00:28:49.720 We've been focused on some very, very dedicated combatants that we've been trying to counter, but they're not the most sophisticated technologically.
00:28:57.820 And as we look at near peers, there's a whole new definition of what technological sophistication means, especially when you look at some of the things in the Pacific theater and moving out into, you know, the Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, China area.
00:29:14.880 Do you really think the military can be growing at the same pace as all the threats are growing?
00:29:22.420 Or is it constant preparation and, you know, audibles according to what technology advancement's going, the speed of advancement's going?
00:29:30.940 I think it's a little of both.
00:29:32.220 I think some of it is responding to a new threat, so technology can kind of drive to meet those threats.
00:29:37.500 But I also think there's organizations like DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, that is trying to anticipate how to increase the lethality, the value of different weapon systems, intelligence gathering systems.
00:29:49.940 The notion of anonymity is disappearing for us, right?
00:29:53.380 As citizens, when you buy an iPhone or you join social media, and I think you're correct.
00:29:59.820 Those laws that govern those things, both in terms of our participation and how our information is used, whether it's for commerce or the enemy's activities, those laws can understand, you know, how these things are going to evolve.
00:30:13.300 Do you have kids?
00:30:14.380 I do.
00:30:14.780 Okay, so this is a good question to ask you.
00:30:17.000 Having kids, yourself, what is your biggest concern, having access to the information that you've had the last 33 years?
00:30:24.080 Well, just as a parent, aside from the military side, you want your kids to, I want my kids to be happy, to have friends they care about, to have challenges in their lives that they feel they can address.
00:30:34.660 I want them to grow.
00:30:35.480 So my sense, my concern for my kids is, you know, my concern for the world at large.
00:30:41.540 I think that we're going to see rapid economic evolution.
00:30:45.700 I don't know where we're going to be in terms of confronting a lot of the foreign policy challenges that we have, but they're really genuine, right?
00:30:54.040 I mean, you can look at yesterday's newspaper and suddenly realize, you know, there's whole new theaters of operation that get dicey.
00:31:02.720 So, I don't know, my concern is the same for my kids as it is for our nation and society at large.
00:31:08.720 You know, the next question is, Osama bin Laden, when the Navy SEAL, you know, SEAL Team 6 caught Osama bin Laden, do you know why we chose SEAL Team 6 to do a land mission than choosing maybe, you know, a special ops or Delta or somebody else to do it?
00:31:27.820 Why did they go to SEAL Team 6 over Delta?
00:31:29.680 Do you know that story or no?
00:31:30.680 I haven't served at SEAL Team 6 or at Delta, but I can tell you that, you know, the sense is the Tier 1 side and conventional SEALs and Green Berets were out hitting it hard every day, multiple targets.
00:31:44.020 They were all very, very good at what they did.
00:31:46.920 My understanding is that, hey, there's another mission over here, and who's lined up to go hit that one?
00:31:52.840 I don't think it was necessarily choosing anyone specific, but I'm not the best person to address the actual final decision.
00:32:00.120 Got it.
00:32:00.720 But from what you know, it's not like, hey, we think these guys will be better than these guys.
00:32:04.100 Sometimes it has to do with availability.
00:32:05.700 Sometimes it has to do with all that other stuff, right?
00:32:07.780 Yeah, the guys I know who were involved in that have basically said this was like a lot of other missions that they'd taken part in multiple times.
00:32:15.560 Got it.
00:32:15.900 In a lot of ways.
00:32:17.040 Here's from the civilian standpoint.
00:32:18.960 Okay, this is me being born and raised in Iran and being overly skeptical.
00:32:26.060 You know, I'm the guy that, you know, hey, you know, this thing's going to do very well in the stock market.
00:32:31.220 You should look at this investment.
00:32:32.200 I'm the skeptic guy.
00:32:33.400 I'm the natural Middle Eastern skeptic, you know, when everything first comes up. 1.00
00:32:38.220 I want to know everything about it before I jump to a conclusion.
00:32:43.080 It's very hard to believe, and I'm expecting a very diplomatic answer from you, but I'm trying to see what you're going to say.
00:32:51.260 I'm going to test it anyway, so we'll see what you're going to say.
00:32:54.500 Duncan, it's very hard for me to believe you catch, not you, Navy SEAL Team 6, catches Osama bin Laden.
00:33:02.920 They post the pictures.
00:33:05.020 24 hours later, they bury him in the middle of the ocean, and that's it.
00:33:11.980 It is so...
00:33:13.860 I'm not a conspiracy guy.
00:33:15.200 You follow by Tim.
00:33:16.200 I don't have a lot of stuff where I go back.
00:33:18.580 The only thing we do is we'll do JFK assassination, and we'll have some guests that come and talk about it,
00:33:22.500 because I'm just curious about that topic.
00:33:24.160 But this isn't a conspiracy YouTube channel.
00:33:26.140 It's not like we're going to do conspiracy.
00:33:27.360 We talk about business, entrepreneurship, money, all that stuff.
00:33:29.860 But this is kind of linked to me because, you know, a big part of what ISIS and a lot of these guys came about
00:33:37.260 has to do with 1978, 79, with the whole Jimmy Carter, and, you know, you have too many political prisoners.
00:33:46.500 There's Reza Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, you've got to let him go, and there's 3,000 political prisoners.
00:33:50.440 Finally, they let him out, and they end up creating all these different organizations.
00:33:54.620 So, you know, similar to what happened with Cuba when Jimmy Carter kind of made them go through the whole thing,
00:33:59.640 and eventually Castro said, go for it.
00:34:01.700 Here's the Muriel Boatlift.
00:34:02.780 He sent 125,000 prisoners to Miami.
00:34:04.820 Next year's unemployment in Miami went to 50%, and gas stations were shut down.
00:34:09.640 People were concerned Miami became a tough place to live because Castro played Carter.
00:34:13.680 And then Carter doesn't get re-elected.
00:34:15.020 Reagan wins 49 out of 50 states, which is the time that you became a broker,
00:34:18.960 because at that time, you know, CDs were paying out 13%, but inflation, you know, these were terrible times.
00:34:24.740 The market was very funny.
00:34:26.400 But it's very hard for me to believe.
00:34:28.760 Yeah, we caught bin Laden. 0.97
00:34:30.300 And we just trapped him in the middle of the ocean.
00:34:33.980 How do you process that?
00:34:36.840 Well, I am going to give you a politically correct answer, a diplomatic answer.
00:34:40.800 You know, it wasn't on the mission, but I have a lot of respect for, in particular, Admiral McRaven,
00:34:47.820 who led that mission from—
00:34:50.260 He's got a strong reputation.
00:34:51.880 He's an amazing guy.
00:34:52.820 I've worked when he was in 05 at SEAL Team 3, and I was a reservist.
00:34:57.260 I would come in and serve as his executive officer.
00:34:59.440 So basically, there's—in any command, there's a commanding officer, an executive officer,
00:35:04.220 and then a command mass chief.
00:35:05.660 So when his executive officer would go serve on a board or selection panel or had a mission out of the area,
00:35:10.800 I would often fill in and got to know him fairly well.
00:35:13.360 And he's a pretty credible, smart person, but he's, beyond that, just an unbelievable leader.
00:35:20.140 And I've stayed in touch with him, and I put a lot of credibility in the way things were described as having taken place.
00:35:29.840 But I can't comment further because, again, I wasn't there, nor if I was, I wouldn't be able to talk about it.
00:35:35.400 But I do think that there's a pretty reputable guy leading that mission in what he has described.
00:35:41.720 I do buy.
00:35:43.440 You know why I don't buy it?
00:35:45.260 Here's why I don't buy it.
00:35:45.960 And by the way, I respect your answer.
00:35:47.700 And like I said, McRaven, I've sat with McChrystal.
00:35:49.820 I've sat with a lot of solid generals, people that have a lot of respect.
00:35:53.660 I'm a Mattis guy.
00:35:54.600 I think Mattis is a solid leader from his unit, you know.
00:35:58.460 But I've heard great things about him.
00:36:00.480 But here's how I process it.
00:36:02.400 Okay.
00:36:02.680 Why would I drop him?
00:36:07.000 Why would I even disclose to the world what I'm doing with that part?
00:36:11.340 Is that really a good military move?
00:36:13.640 And I'm not expecting an answer from you.
00:36:15.520 Is that really a good political move to say, hey, we dropped him in the ocean.
00:36:20.840 Here's what we did.
00:36:22.120 Would somebody from the top make a phone call to say, let's take him over here?
00:36:27.060 You know, because the pictures don't match at all.
00:36:29.320 So strategically for me, anybody can Photoshop nowadays.
00:36:33.320 It's not really, it's a complicated thing.
00:36:35.420 But would I really drop the guy there?
00:36:37.740 I don't know.
00:36:38.380 Would I really want the world to know I'm doing that?
00:36:40.120 I don't know.
00:36:40.860 It is very, very difficult to believe that that happened.
00:36:44.980 Again, I'm not expecting an answer from you.
00:36:46.680 And by the way, here's the other part with me.
00:36:48.620 I'm also not, I know there's some controversy in the Navy SEAL side.
00:36:52.300 I have no interest to go that direction with you because in order to speak on behalf of
00:36:57.240 the life of a Navy SEAL agent, you have to understand the challenges they face mentally,
00:37:02.460 emotionally, away from family.
00:37:03.920 I'm not here to go that direction or comment on it.
00:37:06.380 I am not saying it's the right decision or the wrong decision to sell the fact that we
00:37:11.160 really dropped him.
00:37:12.320 All I'm saying is I'm hoping they didn't.
00:37:15.660 And there's a different strategy.
00:37:16.800 And they're just kind of telling us, hey, real quick, here's what we did.
00:37:19.780 And boom, we went a different direction.
00:37:21.220 Not expecting an answer or rebuttal from you.
00:37:23.920 But it's very hard for me to believe that.
00:37:26.540 And this is coming from a guy that's 101st Airborne.
00:37:29.000 I'm pro-USA.
00:37:30.080 I'm pro-military.
00:37:31.320 I'm pro-anybody that serves.
00:37:32.980 I got the level of respect for folks like you put 33 years of your life into.
00:37:36.460 You have no idea how much respect I got for anybody that's playing in your role.
00:37:40.540 But I just kind of wanted to share that.
00:37:42.200 I'm not expecting any kind of an answer back.
00:37:44.220 I don't think strategically it makes sense to drop him in the middle of the ocean.
00:37:47.360 But it is what it is.
00:37:48.480 But Craven knows more than I do.
00:37:49.660 That's why he gets hired to do his job.
00:37:51.240 I just sell insurance and build businesses, man.
00:37:52.880 I'm a whole simple guy here.
00:37:54.780 Let me go to the next one here.
00:37:55.960 I'm curious on what you're going to say about this.
00:37:57.380 This one I don't really have an opinion about.
00:37:58.920 I'm just curious on what your thoughts are on this.
00:38:01.820 You're hearing a lot of things with, you know, Area 51, Area 51, Area 51, Area 51,
00:38:06.540 Area 51, you know, aliens, all this other stuff.
00:38:08.380 Hey, show us what's Area 51.
00:38:10.520 Do you think the government is, like, let's just say there is.
00:38:16.020 Do you think the government should keep something away from us where none of us should really know what is in Area 51?
00:38:22.240 Like, how do you process that part of yourself?
00:38:25.180 Because people know Area 51.
00:38:27.140 Oh, it's right out of this.
00:38:28.180 If you go exit, it's this many miles in sight.
00:38:29.980 But do you think the government should have the right to have access to certain information that we shouldn't know about?
00:38:37.300 I think if you train to the unanticipated but possible in the future, whether it's a military organization
00:38:44.280 or in terms of aircraft technology, I don't think everything needs to be publicized all the time.
00:38:50.360 And I think oftentimes, you know, we train our competition when we make obvious, you know, back in the 60s and 70s,
00:38:59.720 low-cavitation submarine propellers.
00:39:02.260 You know, there's a real science around that.
00:39:04.060 You don't want the world necessarily knowing what technological advances you've made
00:39:09.280 if it gives you a competitive edge in maintaining freedom of the seas.
00:39:14.280 Are there things similar to our having developed low-cavitation propellers on submarines back in the 60s and 70s today?
00:39:22.300 I'd be amazed if there weren't.
00:39:24.700 But I think a lot of that technology that gives us an edge on the battlefield is probably best kept under wraps for now.
00:39:34.060 That's my personal sense.
00:39:36.100 I would want the people I know.
00:39:37.400 I no longer serve, but I'd want the people I know who are serving to have the capability to have a leg up on the enemy
00:39:44.040 when they're on the battlefield.
00:39:45.820 I don't think the public needs to know everything, but that's, again, my opinion, not an official Navy opinion.
00:39:51.540 I kind of agree as well.
00:39:53.500 You know, I don't know if—look, I'm here, obviously, freedom of speech all day.
00:40:01.900 In Iran, for me to come and do the episodes that I do, it would last half a day.
00:40:06.280 They'd come to shut down, take everything out, and I'd be in a whole different room.
00:40:10.500 You can't talk about a lot of things freely, right?
00:40:13.480 You know, freedom of speech big, freedom of press big, freedom of a lot of this stuff is big.
00:40:18.120 But, you know, sometimes TMI is giving way too much information for the enemy to know what moves to make next.
00:40:25.420 You almost—the whole art of war, deceive your enemy, you almost can't do that with having this much information
00:40:33.480 with the media being accessible to the enemy.
00:40:36.080 Because if I'm the enemy, what am I watching?
00:40:38.300 Watch the news.
00:40:39.680 Watch what U.S.—watch.
00:40:41.360 Whoever hates Trump the most, I'm watching that.
00:40:44.680 Whoever hates Obama the most when he's president, I'm watching that.
00:40:47.960 Why?
00:40:48.280 I'm going to get access to information because they have that.
00:40:50.480 So, you know, it serves us, and it also hurts us sometimes if the enemy has way too much information about what's going on.
00:40:59.420 Funny question for you.
00:41:00.600 Do you believe aliens exist?
00:41:02.320 Like, do you think we've ever had aliens?
00:41:03.660 What do you think about that?
00:41:04.040 Yeah, it's a great question.
00:41:04.780 I remember being a seven-year-old camping looking up at the sky.
00:41:09.320 Numerically, I think it's almost scientifically arrogant for us to think that we are the one sort of chemical miracle in the universe.
00:41:18.300 So, I would have to say, and I've not had an experience that proves this, but I would be very surprised if there's not other life forms out there,
00:41:28.300 some less developed than us and some more developed than us on other celestial bodies.
00:41:35.420 And do they travel and do other things?
00:41:37.480 I don't know, but I'd be amazed if there wasn't such a thing.
00:41:41.000 What's your sense for that?
00:41:42.120 I mean, it's a math question, right?
00:41:44.960 I don't have the answer to it.
00:41:46.360 Like, if somebody, I sit down and talk to somebody who, the debate is a faith debate.
00:41:51.000 One of my friends is a hardcore math guy, like, so analytical.
00:41:54.860 It's unbelievably fascinating to have a conversation with this guy.
00:41:59.600 So, I took a guy who's a very strong debate guy as well, and I sat him down together at his restaurant, and they just went at it for two hours.
00:42:06.260 I wish we would have recorded.
00:42:07.320 It was pure entertainment to watch these guys go at it.
00:42:10.140 But, you know, for somebody to say, I 100% believe there is God.
00:42:16.960 Okay, faith is what?
00:42:19.200 Believing in something you have not yet seen, right?
00:42:21.340 Okay.
00:42:22.100 Then I see the complete opposite of the debate.
00:42:23.920 I see this atheist goes against this guy, and he's a Christian, and they debate.
00:42:27.920 And he says, I'm 100% God does not exist.
00:42:31.400 Okay?
00:42:32.280 And the guy asks him a question.
00:42:33.940 Brilliant question.
00:42:34.780 He says, let me ask you this.
00:42:36.600 He says, what's that?
00:42:37.780 I said, you have a degree from Oxford.
00:42:39.860 Yes?
00:42:40.240 Yes.
00:42:40.580 You have a degree from Harvard.
00:42:41.640 Yes?
00:42:41.900 Yes.
00:42:42.120 You have a degree.
00:42:42.720 You want to also yell?
00:42:43.820 Yes.
00:42:44.640 Out of all the information in the world, how much of it do you think you know?
00:42:49.040 What percentage?
00:42:50.560 So, the guy says, probably 25%.
00:42:52.660 Yeah, that's a lot.
00:42:54.120 Can you imagine somebody saying, that's a pretty confident guy to say 25%.
00:42:58.220 So, he says, 25%.
00:42:59.340 So, this guy's like, okay, fair enough.
00:43:00.900 But let's just say you know 25%.
00:43:02.500 He says, yes.
00:43:03.540 He says, is it fair to assume that the answer to there possibly being God is in the 75%
00:43:11.060 of the information you don't know?
00:43:12.760 And the guy's stuck.
00:43:14.360 He says, maybe.
00:43:15.060 I said, so you can't say 100% God doesn't exist, and you can't say 100% God exists.
00:43:21.780 I would be on the same page with you because it's a mathematical answer.
00:43:24.620 It's arrogant for us to say it doesn't exist.
00:43:26.020 I mean, how much access do we have out there to go out there and say we have and we have not?
00:43:31.520 But yeah, I would be on the same page with you if it exists or it doesn't.
00:43:34.160 You know, no one knows.
00:43:35.040 Maybe they've got some kind of internet we don't have, and they're experiencing things
00:43:39.340 we don't even know.
00:43:39.880 Maybe we're a project for them.
00:43:41.340 You know, they're just kind of watching us and saying, what are these guys up to?
00:43:44.220 It could go either way, yeah.
00:43:45.760 It could be that we're so far advanced beyond what they could conceive of, or yeah, exactly.
00:43:50.240 They could be literally light years ahead of us.
00:43:52.620 I wonder, do you subscribe to the mindset of too much advancement could be eventually
00:43:57.980 Armageddon and the end of the world?
00:43:59.320 Like, are we going to eventually get to the point, you know, World War I and II may be this,
00:44:04.060 but World War III, you know?
00:44:05.720 It'd be interesting to touch base on what you talked about earlier.
00:44:08.620 You know, are there other beings out there?
00:44:10.440 Granted, it's fodder for science fiction novels, but you do wonder what our relationship would
00:44:16.280 be like with people that we now view as adversaries if there was some other presence coming from
00:44:21.700 another outside arena, another planet or solar system.
00:44:27.100 Would we all draw together and suddenly view certain things don't matter quite so much?
00:44:31.540 I don't know.
00:44:32.880 Last question for you before we wrap up.
00:44:35.060 I speak to a lot of these veterans that are transitioning out of the military.
00:44:40.080 I went to the elite meet and I'm talking to these guys, and here's stud of studs.
00:44:45.440 Everybody in the room looks like you.
00:44:48.760 Unemployed, don't know what to do next, anxiety, panic.
00:44:52.960 They don't have the next steps for career-wise.
00:44:55.360 Do you think the military is doing a good job today transitioning people out?
00:44:59.820 And if there are ways to improve that, what can we do to improve the transitioning out of veterans?
00:45:07.240 I think that every veteran has to listen to himself.
00:45:12.640 We're all individuals, even though we're often classified by the general public as, you know,
00:45:16.860 kind of cookie cutter, you know, we're all the same and we're really vastly different.
00:45:20.980 But I think everyone's got to kind of look at where they are.
00:45:23.980 A lot of my teammates, guys I knew well, would try to get right into the heart of Silicon Valley
00:45:29.880 or get right with, you know, the premier investment banks in New York.
00:45:32.900 And for me, I took a breath.
00:45:35.000 And what I did was I wanted to become a kayak guide, which kayaking is my thing.
00:45:38.700 And I interviewed with three companies up in the Pacific Northwest.
00:45:42.020 All three gave me offers.
00:45:43.060 But why would you want to do this?
00:45:44.340 I said, because this is what I want to be doing going forward.
00:45:47.380 I'll punctuate everything else around this.
00:45:49.840 But my first job was three months as taking people out and guiding on islands between Canada
00:45:54.960 and Washington State and out among the Orcas.
00:45:59.640 My point is I listened to myself and I gave myself time to breathe.
00:46:05.520 After spending that summer, I then started consulting with a private equity firm.
00:46:09.400 I started doing a lot of other corporate consulting work and I found my stride.
00:46:13.440 I would encourage every veteran getting out to understand his self or herself as best they can.
00:46:20.200 Find your stride.
00:46:21.040 Don't languish.
00:46:21.900 Don't take forever.
00:46:22.660 But figure out what makes sense for you and what trips your trigger.
00:46:25.820 What I'm excited to see, I was talking today to some folks from T-Mobile, which has a huge veteran arm.
00:46:32.440 They're trying to hire veteran spouses. 1.00
00:46:35.120 They're trying to grow and build.
00:46:37.320 What they're doing and what I'm starting to see in a lot of other places is veterans mentoring veterans.
00:46:41.720 So there's this sense that when you're a veteran, you're going to be out there alone,
00:46:45.460 the only person in that company or that organization who is a veteran,
00:46:49.280 the only person who's been shot at or can understand what it's like to wait for rockets to come into the compound.
00:46:55.460 And the reality is today we're fortunate in that there are people in a lot of companies,
00:47:01.760 and I know you've hired veterans as well,
00:47:04.060 who've been there one, two, three, six years who are ready to welcome the incoming veterans.
00:47:08.520 So I would say that veterans should prepare themselves to be mentored by whoever they're working closely with.
00:47:14.200 But if you're a veteran in an organization and you've found your stride,
00:47:18.120 really welcome those people who are leaving the service.
00:47:20.400 I like that.
00:47:20.960 I think we all know about the work ethic and other things.
00:47:22.960 Oh, yeah.
00:47:23.860 But be ready to be mentored and then very quickly learn to mentor someone else who comes in from the race.
00:47:30.000 Where can people find you?
00:47:31.320 Are you active on social media or you're not really active on social media?
00:47:34.400 Is there a website?
00:47:35.180 Is there anything people can find you on?
00:47:36.600 I'm not a big social media guy, you know, to be honest with you.
00:47:42.460 And some of that's, I guess, by design.
00:47:44.460 I wish I had the perfect answer for you.
00:47:46.320 If they want to come up kayaking in the San Juan Islands out among the orcas, I'd be honored to do that.
00:47:52.440 I'm working with an organization called Outdoor Odysseys up there.
00:47:55.280 Through that organization, I've taken out Gold Star spouses, women who've lost their spouses in combat.
00:48:02.600 I've taken out veteran groups.
00:48:03.940 Some of those I just volunteer for to take them out there.
00:48:05.980 So, if they want to come out and do that, I'd be happy to take them.
00:48:09.940 This went a whole different direction.
00:48:12.060 But I really enjoyed the conversation we had here today.
00:48:14.020 I appreciate you coming out.
00:48:15.460 Again, thank you for your service.
00:48:17.160 Really, thank you for your service.
00:48:18.700 And appreciate the time.
00:48:20.660 My pleasure, Pat.
00:48:21.400 Thank you for having me.
00:48:22.160 And thank you for your service.
00:48:23.260 Anytime.
00:48:23.540 Thanks, everybody, for listening.
00:48:25.640 And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so.
00:48:30.200 Give us a five-star.
00:48:31.580 Write a review if you haven't already.
00:48:33.100 And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.
00:48:39.140 Just search my name, Patrick David.
00:48:41.020 And I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.
00:48:46.020 With that being said, have a great day today.
00:48:47.760 Take care, everybody.
00:48:48.320 Bye-bye.
00:48:53.540 Bye-bye.