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Inspirational Comments from Robert O'Neill

· 3 min read
Adam Kecskes
Adam Kecskes
Speaking Coach & Leadership Advisor

At the Fortune Builders' Ignite event at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of hearing from Robert O'Neill, the accepted killer of Osama Bin Ladan. A few movies have been made about him and his team, and he wrote a book on the events of the raid: The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior

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Having grown up on Air Force , Navy, and Army bases I am very familiar with military culture. I have heard story after story from a variety of military sources — the best offer insight into the challenges and threats of their jobs and how teamwork, preparation, and communication make all the difference between success, failure, and possibly death. Most military presenters, however, ramble on about their accomplishments, offering no real takeaways.

Robert O'Neill is in the former group. His presentation was simultaneously light-hearted, deeply serious, and emotionally touching. I'd like to list the handful of statements I heard from him that I think apply to the rest of us non-military types. Note that not all of these are "unique" to Mr. O'Neill; they were simply blanket statements that any inspirational speaker might say. However, there are a number of gems that come from O'Neill's truly unique perspective, and I'm glad I had a chance to listen.

  • "Take the emotion out of the decision"
  • Ask: "What's the emotion I'm bringing to the problem?"
  • "Don't react; do respond"
  • "Do not quit now; that's emotion. Quit tomorrow."
  • "We'll talk about this mistake tomorrow" [regarding leaving mistakes behind to focus on immediate needs]
  • "Don't assume things are going to go a particular way"
  • "Get over it"
  • "We need to invent tactics" [regarding that a team must often create new plans on the fly]
  • Train, communicate, repeat
  • "If they know the why they [the team] will be more effective"
  • "Think - push - talk" [regarding radio communication; don't press the talk button until you've thought]
  • Complacency and success are inversely related
  • Separate decisions and emotions
  • "Don't fall in love with your target" [from my perspective, this means you need to accept sunken costs; follow the rules you've established and don't keep after something just because you "love" it]
  • "We're [all] actively participating in saving our own lives" [regarding training; more profoundly, individual must keep training and learning and growing so that we move beyond stagnation and suffering]
  • "The enemy is all your doubts [and] all your fears"

My favorite, however, as it pertains to public speaking is this comment he made:

When you're done saying what you're saying, stop

Robert O'Neill