Phil Black "From Suit to Seal"

I had a dream 20 years ago. I wanted to be that guy more than anything else in the world. I wanted his hat, I wanted his scarf, I wanted his uniform, I wanted his gloves, I wanted that gun. I wanted it all. I wanted to serve and lead with other guys just like him who were super motivated, skilled, physically fit and mentally tough and the best teammates in the world. My dream was to become a Navy seal. The only problem was this is who I was when that dream was hatched. 20 year old college kid, no military experience, not an athlete, soft. I was a mess. But that didn't stop me at that time. I had found a real live Navy Seal. And I spent the full day with him and I learned about the culture, the training, the travel, the lifestyle. And I was hooked. Now I didn't think for a second that I would ever become a Navy Seal, no way. But that didn't stop me from studying, from learning, from reading all about these incredible men. Now I became a classic in the closet wannabe Navy Seal. And that lasted for about four years. During that time I graduated from college, went to work for big investment bank Goldman Sachs. Worked 18 hours a day for 18 straight months without one day off. And man, that took its toll. I was overweight, out of shape, mentally and physically fatigued. I was burned out, lack of sleep. And finally I got my first day off. And for some reason I let my co workers convince me to go skiing with them. Bad idea, because that was me on my second run down the slope. Man, I landed on my right shoulder so bad I immediately needed surgery, open surgery with the pins and the stitches and the sutures. They stuck me in a sling and they sent me back to the salt mines, back to Goldman Sachs for more 18 hour days. It was a grind. Until that one night, that one night at three in the morning that I was walking home from work like I had done for the prior two years. And something moved me to stop in the middle of Wall street and Liberty Street. And I put that briefcase down and I looked up, man, I was overcome by emotion. I saw this little Runway of stars like I had never seen before. And that led me to stop and think, as I'm overcome with emotion, what has my life come to? And then I said these words out loud, these words that I will never forget. What if? What if I could do anything in the world, be anyone I wanted to be, what would I be? And as scary as that question is to ask yourself, I had an even more chilling answer. I wanted to be one of those guys. I wanted to be a Navy seal. I had dreamed about this for four years. And this night would be different. This night, I was turning a wannabe into a Will Be, despite every sign that told me otherwise. This decision was so preposterous, so insane, so embarrassing, I didn't tell another person. I kept it to myself. Except for one person. My best friend in the world. His name's Will. Will and I have known each other for as long as I can remember. We're like this. And we talk very frankly to one another. As we'll soon find out, you may have a friend like Will. Somebody who, no matter how dumb an idea you have, you're going to share it with that person. Well, for me, that was Will. And I'm going to share with you right now some conversations, some phone calls that I had with Will over the course of me attempting to become this Navy seal. So the first conversation I had was the day after I made this decision. I called Will up. Hey, Will, it's Phil. I had this revelation on my way home from work last night. Oh, really? What do you got going on? Well, I decided that I'm going to become a Navy seal. A what? A Navy seal. You're kidding, right? No, I'm dead serious, Phil. You just had this open surgery on your shoulder three weeks ago. I saw you last week. You got this big sling. You're a mess. Yeah, I know, Will. Thanks for that. I'm going to put the time in and prepare. And I'm going to make this happen. Time? Phil, you're going to need a miracle. You know what those Navy SEAL dos look like? Let me give you an update. They don't look like you. You're 6 7, dude. Your body can't handle that. Thanks, Will. I realize I'm not the prototypical Navy SEAL body, but I have other plans. I had this dream four years ago and I'm going to make it happen. Phil, you work for Goldman Sachs. You have the best job on the street. I would kill for your job. I want you to put your head down for the next 20 years. Pop up. In 20 years, you'll be a Goldman Sachs partner. You'll never worry about money ever again. I appreciate that, Will, but it's not about the money. It's about this dream that I have and letting it slip through my hands. Dream? You're in a dream world. You're in a fantasy world. You're obviously not thinking right. I want you to. I gotta go right now. Don't do anything drastic. Call me in a week. Will, Wasn't a big fan of the plan right off the bat. So we talked again in a week and I say, hey, Will, it's Phil. Hey, Phil. I'm glad you called. Hey, last week I know we got kind of cut off. You were talking about this gibberish about Navy SEAL stuff. I assume that that's a thing of the past and you've come to your senses. No, Will, I'm still dead set on that. In fact, I talked to my physical therapist this morning. She said that if I keep this rehab up, my shoulder's gonna be good to go in about four months. I'm ready to go. Wait a second. You're still not talking about this Navy SEAL nonsense, are you? Will, I'm talking about it because I'm going to do it. Why are you giving me such a hard time? A hard time? Phil, you were a college athlete. You were injured more than you weren't injured. You were rehabbing and in the trainer's room more than you were on the court. You told me that your body never transitioned from high school to college and you played for an Ivy League college. Dude, come on. Yeah, thanks, Will. Appreciate that support. But it's different now, Phil. Do you know what happens in Navy SEAL Hell Week? I watch the Discovery Channel. They about kill those guys. They keep them in the water, they freeze them to death. If somebody rings the bell, 80% of them quit. Do you know what you're getting into? Yes, I do, Will. I've been studying this for four years. I think I'm ready this time. I gotta go. I'll talk to you later. Click, unrelenting. Then I call him again in six months. Hey, Will, it's Phil. I just took the Navy SEAL screening test. The push ups, the pull ups, the sit ups. I did pretty well. Looks like I might actually get a contract to try out for the seals. That's great, Phil. A lot of people do that. And it's 70 degree weather in San Diego. That's no indication of how you're going to do in Hell Week. Have you thought about when we talked about what happens when you quit or when you get injured? No, Will, I haven't thought about that. I'm not looking for a plan B right now. That's great, Phil. Everybody says that, but 80% of them quit. Why do you think you're not going to quit? What's going to happen if you go out and get injured or quit, which was my prediction, and you get sent out on a ship and you go to Okinawa and you're chipping paint for four months for four years. Well, I don't think that's the case. I'm going to push through it. Click. Some people say, why do you even call this guy? This guy's just jamming you up. He's so negative. He's my best friend. So sometimes your best friend, you deal with it. So then I call him one last time and I say, will, it's Phil. Hey, I'm going to have to sign off for a while. Hell Week starts for me tomorrow. Tomorrow. Man, times have gone quickly. I can't believe it. You made some progress. But let me leave you with one thing. It's okay to quit. Don't worry about it. I know we've had our talk. You'll get over it. But what I don't want you to do is call me up and start complaining. Hey, Phil. Hell Week was so bad. It was so hard. It was the worst on record. Everybody quit this and that. I don't want to hear the excuses. I tried to derail you months ago and you ignored me. You're going to own this decision. All right, Will, consider it. Own. Click. Next day starts Hell Week. This is us. It's me in the top left corner. We're there with our nice white T shirts on and our pressed green pants, just waiting for the hell to rain down. Which it did pretty quickly. It was insane. Hell week started. There's gas, there's smoke, there's machine gun fire, there's grenade fire. It's screaming, yelling. It's chaos. There are people that quit, a lot of them in the first five minutes. It's intense. Bell being rung, helmets being put on the ground. It's insane. And some of us continued on. This is day three of Hell Week. After a three and a half mile open ocean swim, we are frozen to the bone and just waiting for the next shoe to fall. There are people with broken ribs, broken nose, pneumonia, shin splints. And we hang on. We hang on to the end. Some of us, we started out with 150 right there. We have 32 when we finished. And the feeling is indescribable. Eventually, they sent us back to the barracks and we did a quick self assessment. And. And your feet and your hands are so swollen because when you stay upright for a week, guess where all the fluid goes. Fingers and hands. I couldn't even fit a slip of paper in between my toes. They're like club feet. It was a mess. I had these sores on my hips from the sand and the grit Being rubbed from the belt for weeks. Bloody chafing in between my legs and under my arms. Not pretty. Bald spot on my head from running with the boats. On your head for a week. So finally the instructors came back and gathered us around. Congratulations guys. You finished Hell Week. We're going to send you back to the dorms and you're going to sleep it off. 30 or 40 hours. We'll have some welfare checks. People will check in on you every couple hours, make sure you didn't urinate on yourself, fall off the bed and hit your head. You know, those basic things. But before that, we're going to give you this phone. And each of you are going to have two minutes to call your mom, your grandma, your girlfriend, who, whoever it is, and just let them know you passed. They're probably anxiously waiting. Did you survive Hell Week? So the phone went around and I got the phone. Any guesses who I called? Oh, yeah. I'm going to give Will a piece of my mind. Mister. You'll never make it. Mister. You don't have the body for it. Mister. You'll be chipping paint. Mister. You're injury prone. Now I have to give Will some credit. He's actually joining me right there. He's in the back. He supports me. Finally, I can't really see him. He's not going to raise his hand. I'm going to put his picture up here, Will. So when you see his picture, I want you to turn left and right. And when you see him, just give him a little, a little good natured little jab. Why did you give this guy such a hard time for so many months? Best friend? Put that picture of Will up. That's right. I'm Will. And this is a story that I want to share to illustrate that belief can overcome what for many of us is the toughest challenge, the biggest enemy, ourselves. That belief can push back the doubt, the insecurities, the fear that come with big dreams. So, ladies and gentlemen, I'll leave you with. Don't be scared. Believe. Believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams. And whatever you do, don't stop. Don't ever stop being bold. Thank you very much.