WEBVTT

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War is a nightmare.

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War is awful.

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It is indifferent,
and devastating, and evil.

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War is hell.

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But war is also an incredible teacher,

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a brutal teacher.

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And it teaches you lessons
that you will not forget.

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In war, you are forced

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to see humanity at its absolute worst,

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and you are also blessed

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to see humanity
in its most glorious moments.

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War teaches you about
sorrow, and loss, and pain.

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And it teaches you about the preciousness

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and the fragility of human life.

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And in that fragility,

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war teaches you about death.

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But war also teaches you

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about brotherhood, and honor,

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and humility, and leadership.

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And unfortunately, war teaches you
the most when things go wrong.

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And for me,

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one of the most impactful lessons
that I learned from war

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was in the spring of 2006

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in the city of Ramadi, Iraq,

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which at the time,
was the epicenter of the insurgency

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where brutal and determined terrorists
ruled the streets

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with torture and rape and murder.

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It was in one neighborhood of that city

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during an operation
that I was in charge of

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when all hell broke loose.

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We had multiple units out
on the battlefield fighting the enemy.

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We had friendly Iraqi soldiers,

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we had US Army soldiers and US Marines,

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along with small elements of my SEAL team.

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And then the fog of war rolled in

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with its confusion, and chaos, and mayhem,

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and with its gunfire, and enemy attacks,

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and screaming men, and blood, and death;

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and in that fog of war,

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through a series of mistakes,
and human error,

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and poor judgment, and Murphy's law,
and just plain bad luck,

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a horrendous fire fight broke out.

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But this fire fight

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wasn't between us and the enemy;

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this fire fight, tragically,

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was between us and us,

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friendly forces against friendly forces;

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fratricide -

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the mortal sin of combat

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and the most horrific part of war.

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And when it was over,
and the fog of war lifted,

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one friendly Iraqi soldier was dead,
two more were wounded,

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one of my men was wounded,

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the rest of my SEALs were badly shaken,

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and it was only through a miracle
that no one else was killed.

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And it was reported up the chain
of command what had happened.

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That we had fought, and wounded,
and killed each other.

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And when we got back to base,
things didn't get much better.

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There was a message waiting for me
from my commanding officer,

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and it said, "Shut down all operations."

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It said that the commanding officer,

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the master chief,
and the investigating officer

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were inbound to my location.

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And they told me to prepare
a debrief to explain

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exactly what had happened on the operation
and what had gone wrong.

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Now, I knew what this meant.

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It meant that somebody had to pay.

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It meant that somebody
had to be held accountable.

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It meant that somebody had to get fired
for what had happened.

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So, I began to prepare my debrief.

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And in it,

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I detailed every mistake
that was made and who made it.

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And I pointed out every failure

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in the planning, and the preparation,
and the execution in the operation,

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and I pointed out
who was responsible for that failure.

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There was plenty of blame to go around.

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There were so many people
that I could incriminate with guilt.

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But something wasn't right.

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For some reason,
I just couldn't put my finger

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on who was at fault

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and who specifically I should blame for
what had happened.

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And I sat,

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and I went over it again and again,
and I struggled for an answer.

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And then, when I was about ten minutes
from starting the debrief,

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that answer came,

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and it hit me like a slap in the face.

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And I realized

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that there was only one person
to blame for the confusion,

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only one person to blame for
the wounded men,

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and only one person to blame for
the dead Iraqi soldier.

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And I knew exactly who that person was.

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And with that knowledge,
I walked into the debriefing room

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with my commanding officer

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and the master chief,
and the investigating officer

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were sitting there waiting for me,
along with the rest of my men,

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including my SEAL who had been wounded,

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who was sitting in the back of the room

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with his head and his face
all bandaged up.

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And I stood up before them,
and I asked them one simple question,

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"Who's fault was this?"

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One of my SEALs raised his hand.

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And he said, "It was my fault.

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I didn't keep control of
the Iraqi soldiers I was with.

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And they left their designated sector,

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and that was the root
of all these problems."

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And I said, "No, it wasn't your fault."

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And then another SEAL raised his hand
and said, "It was my fault.

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I didn't pass our location
over the radio fast enough

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so no one knew what building we were in,
and that's what caused all this confusion.

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It was my fault."

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And I said, "No, it wasn't
your fault either."

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And then another SEAL
raised his hand, and he said,

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"Boss, this was my fault.

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I didn't properly identify my target,

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and I shot and killed
that friendly Iraqi soldier.

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This was my fault."

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And I said, "No, this wasn't
your fault either.

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And it wasn't yours, or yours, or yours,"

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I said as I pointed to the rest
of the SEALs in the room.

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And then I told them

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that there was only one person
at fault for what had happened.

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There was only one person to blame.

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And that person was me.

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I am the commander,

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I am the senior man on the battlefield,

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and I am responsible for
everything that happens;

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everything.

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And then I went on to explain to them

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some new tactics,
techniques, and procedures

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that we were going to implement

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to ensure that this kind of travesty
never happened again.

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And I will tell you something: it hurt.

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It hurt my ego.

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It hurt my pride to take the blame.

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But I also knew,

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I knew that to maintain my integrity
as a leader and as a man,

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I had to take responsibility.

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And in order to do that,

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I had to control my ego
so that my ego did not control me.

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And you know what?

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I didn't get fired.

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In fact, my commanding officer,

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who had expected excuses
and finger-pointing,

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when I took responsibility,
when I took ownership,

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he now trusted me even more.

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And my men

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didn't lose respect for me.

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Instead, they realized

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that I would never shirk responsibility,

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and I would never pass

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that heavy burden of command
down the chain and onto them.

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And you know what?

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They had the same attitude.

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Unlike a team where no one
takes ownership of the problems,

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and therefore, the problems
never get solved,

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with us, everyone took ownership
of their mistakes,

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everyone took ownership of the problems.

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And when a team
takes ownership of it's problems,

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the problems get solved.

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And that is true on the battlefield,

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it is true in business,
and it is true in life.

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So I say, take ownership;

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take extreme ownership.

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Don't make excuses,

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don't blame any other person
or any other thing.

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Get control of your ego.

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Don't hide your delicate pride
from the truth.

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Take ownership
of everything in your world,

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the good and the bad.

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Take ownership of your mistakes,
take ownership of your shortfalls,

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take ownership of your problems,

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and then take ownership of the solutions
that will get those problems solved.

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Take ownership of your mission.

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Take ownership of your job,
of your team, of your future,

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and take ownership of your life.

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And lead.

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Lead.

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Lead yourself,

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and your team,
and the people in your life;

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lead them all

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to victory.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)