Name: The Way Forward
Rating: 3.9 (158 reviews)
Author: Robert O’Neill and Dakota Meyer

What’s in it for me? Learn important life lessons from two of America’s most famous soldiers.

In lots of ways, Robert O’Neill and Dakota Meyer are just ordinary guys. They love spending time with their families and going hunting. And you can regularly find them drinking a cold beer with their buddies. But behind their normal exteriors are remarkable men – two of America’s most famous veterans, in fact.

Rob achieved fame when it was revealed that he was the Navy SEAL who fired the bullet that ended the life of America’s most wanted terrorist: Osama bin Laden. Although he’d initially tried to remain anonymous, the news eventually leaked, and he’s been in the national limelight ever since.

Dakota, meanwhile, served as a Marine in Afghanistan. And when he returned home from a tour in 2009, he was heralded as a national hero for not only helping rescue fellow soldiers caught in a Taliban ambush, but also retrieving the bodies of his fallen colleagues while under fire. What’s more, he did all of this in defiance of orders to stay put.

Rob and Dakota have a lot in common. For their bravery, they’ve both been awarded the nation’s highest military decorations; for Dakota, this included the Medal of Honor. Both men have also collected a wealth of experiences while serving their country. And it’s these experiences, and their resulting life lessons, that the following Blink explores.

In these Blinks, you’ll learn

how “free throws” are the secret to Rob’s success in life;
why Dakota thinks rules sometimes have to be broken; and
how MDMA is heralding a new era of mental health treatment.

Endless repetition is the secret behind mastering the basics of any skill.

When you get famous, people begin to ask certain questions: How’d you get where you are? How can I be more like you? What’s your secret? It was no different with Rob. Ever since the public learned that it was him who fired the bullet that killed America’s most wanted man, he gets asked these questions all the time. How’d you become such a good shot, people often want to know. Fans even ask him about the secret to his happy marriage. Luckily, over the years, he’s figured out a great answer: free throws.

It sounds crazy, but that’s kind of the point, because this nonsensical answer leads to people inquiring further. What do “free throws” have to do with his success in life? It’s then that Rob launches into explaining one of his core principles – the importance of mastering the basics.

Rob learned this long before he was a Navy SEAL. As a kid, he spent hours with his dad at the local gym shooting hoops. To help him get better, Rob’s dad implemented a rule. Before they could go home, one of them would have to shoot twenty free throws in a row. If neither managed to do it, they’d keep going – even if it meant missing dinner. The more tired they got, the worse they shot. But they kept going, no matter what.

As Rob got better, they raised the stakes. Once, this even involved steak – no pun intended. If they kept the free throws going until they got to 25, the reward was a steak dinner at a local restaurant. As time went on, the endless repetition led to better and better results. One day, Rob’s dad set a family record of 91 free throws in a row! But it was only six days later that Rob beat that with 105. Thousands of shots turned into tens of thousands. Rob eventually got so good at basketball that he landed a place at Montana Tech, where he continued playing his favorite sport on the college team.

Without those free throws, Rob wouldn’t be where he is today. That’s because at a young age, he learned the importance of endlessly repeating the basics to get good at something. And at the end of the day, this principle doesn’t just work for sports. If you want to get good or even great at something you love, you need to accept that you won’t get there overnight. You’ll need to be disciplined and put in the hard work. You’ll have to accept the necessity of endless repetition. Although it might take months or even years, at some point the basics of the skill will become second nature.

For Rob, it turned out that basketball wasn’t his calling. But he’s applied the lessons he learned on the court to all other areas of life. In his military career, this meant countless hours at the shooting range, and braving the seemingly endless drills involved in becoming a Navy SEAL. It’s this endless drive and dedication that later led to him being awarded America’s highest military decoration – the Medal of Honor.

There’s an important difference between fear and panic.

Now, while endless repetition will take a person pretty far, Rob has other attributes that have helped him get where he is today. After all, being a Navy SEAL is more than just sharpshooting – SEALs are legendary for their toughness and their endurance in even the most grueling circumstances.

When it comes to mental health, you have to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

So far, we’ve seen that there are a number of important principles anyone can learn from elite soldiers like Rob and Dakota. Their tours of duty led them to confronting some of life’s most difficult questions, and at some points they weren’t even sure if they’d make it out alive. But while both survived the horrors of war and lived to tell the tale, they didn’t come out totally unscathed.

Kernaussagen in The Way Forward

Worum geht es in The Way Forward?

The Way Forward (2022) examines the intersection between combat and life as experienced by two decorated American veterans. Although war can be brutal, it also helped the authors uncover their humanity. And along the way, they learned some of life’s most important lessons that can be applied in both military and civilian contexts.

Über den Autor

Robert O’Neill is a Navy SEAL veteran who became famous for firing the bullet that killed Osama bin Laden. He’s also worked as a contributor for Fox News and Newsmax TV, as well as being a motivational speaker and author. He’s published a book called The Operator, recounting his SEAL career and the raid on bin Laden’s compound.

Dakota Meyer is a Marine veteran who received the Medal of Honor for his service in Afghanistan. Among his publications is the New York Times best-selling war memoir Into the Fire, as well as his podcast Front Toward Enemy with Dakota Meyer.