Chad Silverstein recounts attending a three-day Navy SEAL–style training program arranged through YPO. He describes a deliberately brutal final mission—an intentionally failed building rescue followed by a nighttime raft challenge that caused exhaustion, hallucinations, and leadership tests—and reflects on the lessons about mental toughness, leadership under extreme stress, and discovering personal limits.
Questions this video answers
About 25,000 people in YPO; roughly 50 people worldwide signed up.
Three days.
Around 1:00 AM.
About eight rafts with approximately six people in each raft.
About an hour and a half.
Chapters
So for over a decade, I was in an organization called ypo. And YPO would send out these emails and you'd be able to participate in once in a lifetime opportunities. They just have some incredible things that they let executives in the network do. This organization exists all over the world. And there was one that went out one day about training with Navy SEALs, and I couldn't believe it. I jumped on it in two seconds. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world to go train with Navy Seals. I. Of 25,000 people in YPO, I think there were 50 people worldwide that signed up for it. Probably because you're an idiot if you sign up to go work with Navy seals. We didn't exactly know what we were signing up for. We just thought it was cool. So we showed up. And to make a long story short, the last day that we were there was three days. And they literally put us through Navy SEAL training. And it was absolutely brutal. And last night they showed us how to take on a mission, and they made it as realistic as possible. Full SWAT gear, you name it. They had fireworks that sounded like gunshots. They put us into a building. We had to go rescue a hostage. And they had set it up so that we failed the mission on purpose. We didn't know that. And at one o' clock in the morning, after not sleeping for a few days, they told us they wanted to give us one more chance. And they took us to a dock and they put us in these rafts. And they told us there were about, I don't know, eight different rafts full of about six people in each raft. They said, go, go ahead and row out to that lighthouse out there and you'll get, you know, your, your next directions. And our boat had a problem with the, the rudder. And it was just brutal having to get out there. It took us like an hour and a half to get out there. And when we got there, we were the last boat to get there. They said, now you have to go to that one. And that one was five hours away. And when I tell you that people lost their mind, literally hallucinating in the boat in the middle of the night, and we couldn't understand why when this whole ordeal was over, the program was over. And I remember walking away being so upset. I was so upset that they put us through this and it didn't serve a purpose. Like, I didn't understand why they would do that to us. And we got to where we were going and it was like 6 o' clock in the morning. Or whatever it was. And like, they're like, go shower up. The weekend's over. And I didn't find out until later that that was the mission. The mission was to put us in the most stressful situation they could possibly put us in, to see how mentally tough we were and how we would react to that type of stress, and more importantly, how we would lead in that mode. And the thought being that if you can lead there, then imagine being in the boardroom, you could deal with anything. So, obviously, after I heard this, I thought it was just absolutely magic that they. They did this. And it really made every person really sit back and reflect on where they went, where they were, how they reacted in the boat, you know, all night long, literally losing our minds. Who stepped up, who encouraged other people, you know, And I think until you're tested on a high level like that, you really don't know what you're capable of under the most stressful situations. But they. These Navy Seals, man, they knew how to do it. They put us through the wringer. And I learned a lot about myself, that's for sure. More importantly, I learned that I could do more than I think I can. And even when you think you're going to quit, you can keep pushing. And, you know, it's nice when you have other people around you who can help you. So how mentally tough are you? Where have you put yourself in positions where you can test yourself? How do you react when you're stressed? And, you know, what does that tell you about your style of leadership?
