Adm. William McRaven delivered this year’s commencement address at his alma mater, the University of Texas. Standing in front of 8,000 graduates, he shared that, after graduation, he went straight to be commissioned in the Navy and on to SEAL training. He has been a Navy SEAL for 36 years.
The accomplishment was not easy. He recounted six months of grueling exercise, sleepless nights and being harassed by professionally trained warriors seeking to weed out those not capable of leading in an environment of constant stress, chaos and hardship.
McRaven challenged the Texas graduates, reminding them of their school slogan: What starts here changes the world.
“According to Ask.com, the average person meets 10,000 people throughout their lifetime” said McRaven. “If the 8,000-plus graduates here tonight changed the lives of 10 people, and those people changed the lives of 10 people and another 10, in five generations, the class of 2014 will have changed the lives of 800 million people in 125 years. If that kept going for another generation, you could change the entire population of the world.”
McRaven pointed out that were 10 lessons he learned in SEAL training that he believes are relevant to changing the world: