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"It's been 37 years to the day since I graduated from UT."

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More by William H. McRaven

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“During Navy Seal training the students are all broken down into boat crews. Each crew is seven students — three on each side of a small rubber boat and one coxswain to help guide the dingy. Every day your boat crew forms up on the beach and is instructed to get through the surf zone and paddle several miles down the coast. In the winter, the surf off San Diego can get to be 8 to 10 feet high and it is exceedingly difficult to paddle through the plunging surf unless everyone digs in. Every paddle must be synchronized to the stroke count of the coxswain. Everyone must exert equal effort or the boat will turn against the wave and be unceremoniously dumped back on the beach. For the boat to make it to its destination, everyone must paddle. You can’t change the world alone — you will need some help — and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the goodwill of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide you. If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.”

“As Americans, we should be frightened — deeply afraid for the future of the nation. When good men and women can’t speak the truth, when facts are inconvenient, when integrity and character no longer matter, when presidential ego and self-preservation are more important than national security — then there is nothing left to stop the triumph of evil.”

“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed... If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. And by the end of the day, that one task completed, will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can't do the little things right, you'll never be able to do the big things right. And if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made, that you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.”

“If you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the Circuses.”

“If you want to change the world measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.”

“There is this great scene, that sometimes goes unnoticed. Clarence takes George to the graveyard, and there; there is a headstone of George’s younger brother, Terry. George notices that Terry died when he was just three years old, then George looks at Clarence, the second class wingless angel, and says that can’t be right. Harry not only lived past three years old, but he also saved an entire ship of being sunk by Kamikaze pilots, but reminds George, that because Paul was never born then, and he actually wasn’t there to save his younger brother from choking.”