Always Endeavor: A Developmental Guide For In Extremis Leaders - Paperback

by Colin Greata (Author)

Acclaimed by General (Retired) Stan McChrystal, operators from all tribes of the U.S. Special Operations community, and the Director of the Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute, Always Endeavor was written with the primary purpose of guiding the systematic self-development of those individuals who are willing to sacrifice deeply and dedicate themselves to acquiring the full array of mindsets, attitudes, approaches, and cognitive and physical skillsets that the formations of U.S. special operations need as they select individuals from the general military population. However, it goes further than that: Always Endeavor stands as a developmental guide for all leaders.

"Probably not the book you are expecting. Battle-proven warrior Colin Greata has encased his fascinating experiences in a true tour de force guide to becoming the person and leader most of us aspire to be. Brilliant, captivating, and absolutely practical, Always Endeavor is a hip-pocket reference to life." -Stan McChrystal, General, United States Army, Retired

From the Author: When it's time for special operators to fight, our tactics, shooting skills, and expression of fitness need to flow from us as naturally as breathing. As it turns out, we perform exquisitely in those critical but brief blips of time in our careers when we are actually engaged in a firefight. Everything else in this book is complementary to that primary purpose, but without sacrificing this most critical set of fighting skills, we engage the lessons of Always Endeavor so that we can be better in the fight and better in the diverse set of things we do throughout the other 99% of our careers. To put it another way, I fully acknowledge that a lot of this book doesn't sound like warrior stuff, but we do the analysis that I describe so that when it's time to start pulling triggers and one of our special operators steps onto a battlefield, the environment has fundamentally changed because we have set conditions to not enter into a fair fight, we achieve disproportionate effects, and we are as effective as possible. In case you're still not convinced that you need to think this way, I want to highlight that the reason this topic is so critical is that generations of special operators have been able to get away with our current ability to navigate complexity, but in the future we will not. I assure you that the tools of this book have always been important on a tactical, ground level, but they will be even more important for the next generation of operators than my generation in detecting and dismantling the strategies of our competitors. Further, my hope is that Always Endeavor will be a contribution to strength throughout our society. If you take out the SOF-specific skills from this framework and replace them with any industry-specific skills, this becomes a developmental guide for all leaders. Finally, if you think that this is going to be a series of war stories or a platform for self-glorification, then I'm sorry, but that is not at all the case; instead, Always Endeavor is a pure contribution to the development of American leaders and honors the secrecy and quiet, competent professionalism of U.S. Special Operators.