Make Your Bed

Make Your Bed, Little Things That Can Change Your Life... And Maybe The World, by Admiral William H. McRaven, Grand Central PublishingGrand Central Publishing 2017 

It's a little book, really a Commencement Address given at the University of Texas by a superhero, but the simplicity of it all, and the fact that Admiral McRaven as a Navy Seal learned the power of discipline and teamwork, makes it worth reading slowly. 

Make Your Bed - just what does that mean?  The Admiral answers this basic question with great illustrations of the impact that simple first chore will have on a person's day.  Done well and right, a quarter will bounce up off the tightened sheets of a military cot; done well and right, the pillow and a folded blanket will be positioned at right angles to each other, just so.  It takes time to get this chore right, especially if one is hurried or hung-over, but that's just the point - it's a start.  When the author interviewed Saddam Hussein in his cell, he noticed that the former leader's bed was never made - blankets lumped to one side, sheets wrinkled down just as when the captive first arose.  He never got it right.

But the Admiral takes this lesson, and others that he learned from the hard work of being the best, being driven to not fail despite physical challenges and unseen dangers, and translates them into ten principles for daily life.  From 3-mile swims to endurance challenges on land, he lets us see the world of Navy Seal training, and it's not hard to understand, provided the subject survived danger and foreign incursions, how he rose to Admiral. 

Along the way some things went wildly wrong - a parachute jump, for instance, in which the main and reserve chute cords deployed and tangled, one on each leg.  As the earth rose closer and closer to the jumper, the wind and speed from the chutes pulled his legs and his pelvis apart, snapping the bone right at the spine.  McRaven screamed and struggled to regain control - it was an ugly landing that sent him, paralyzed, to the trauma ward where a titanium pin was inserted to reconnect his pelvis, months of painful recovery ahead.  But he would not, could not quit!

If someone had told us when we were born that we would break bones, ambulate on a walker, lose our parents, fail a college exam, fall down the stairs, get cancer, would we just say, "Hey, it's been nice, but let's just end it right here, before things get real serious?"  Maybe, but for those of us who didn't get a choice, who fell down the stairs, learned how to walk all over again, crept out onto the tennis court,  then got cancer, went through that drill and are STILL STANDING!  this little book Make Your Bed really resonates.  He's been there and he got back up.... and did it again. 

Mill Girl verdict:  Loved this book.

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers, pemoody@aol.com, patriciaemoody@gmail.com, tricia@patriciaemoody.com,