William McRaven vs. Robin Sharma: Battle of the Morning

[March MINDness] - Make Your Bed vs. The 5AM Club

Imagine this: you are a 25-year-old bouncing from job to job. You have dreams but your girlfriend thinks you are a loser. You are a Cleveland Browns fan. And even your cat hates you. Your day is made of daydreaming, smoking pot and doomscrolling TikTok.

Then one day, your ultra successful uncle came to town and said, “Johnny, I was a bum just like you. But now I have this” – flashing his $20K Rolex, “and this” – pointing to his Lamborghini. “You want them one day? Do this! Get up at 5 every day. Follow a routine. That’s what billionaires do.”

Then another day, you go to work. Your new, serious and ex-military boss called you into his office. You thought for sure you are getting fired the third time in a year. But he looked you in the eyes and said, “John, you have so much potential. I believe in you, more so than you believe in yourself. Get your shit together, starting with making your bed.”

Your rich uncle is Robin Sharma, and your boss is William McRaven.

Robin Sharma – The 5AM Club

Robin Sharma is a former lawyer turned self-help guru and leadership consultant. He first wrote The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari in 1997. The book he’s competing with is The 5AM Club – a novel about two people meeting a quirky billionaire Mr. Stone Riley on an island, (someone please check if Stone Riley is in the Epstein files), who taught them the following morning routine.

These are the core ideas:

• Wake up at 5AM while the world is still asleep.

• Spend your first hour in three equal parts — move your body, quiet your mind, feed your brain.

• Work in pulses — 60 minutes of full intensity, 10 minutes of nothing, repeat.

• Pick one goal. Give it 90 minutes a day. Do it for 90 days straight.

• Every night, check off five things. Just five. That’s enough.

Inspired yet? Good! Let’s move to his opponent.

William McRaven – Make Your Bed

William McRaven, a Navy admiral who spent 37 years in special operations. He commanded the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, commanded the forces that captured Saddam Hussein, commanded the rescue of Captain Phillips (the Tom Hanks movie), and was the runner-up for TIME’s Person of the Year in 2011. (Did he kill Hitler too?)

In 2014, he gave a commencement speech that makes your hair grow muscles. Using the example of Navy SEAL training, he gave 10 life lessons.

If you want to change the world:

• Start by making your bed – proving to yourself that you can at least do that.

• Find someone to paddle the boat with you.

• Measure the size of your heart, not height and muscles.

• Get over being a sugar cookie – getting down and dirty, and keep going.

• Use circuses (failure) to make you stronger.

• Dive in head down first and stop staying safe.

• Punch sharks in the face.

• Be at your best during the darkest moment.

• Start singing and giving others hope when everyone is in cold mud.

• Never ring the bell of quit.

Now, none of these ideas is new. But coming out of the Admiral’s mouth, I’m ready to run through a wall. How are you feeling?

The Comparison

On the surface, these two books both talked about the morning, but they couldn’t be more different. One says get up early and follow a tight routine, another says start with the smallest thing that compounds later. One is written by a consultant who got rich by teaching people productivity systems, another by the Admiral who killed Bin Laden. One saw the world from the eyes of optimizing billionaires, another through the dark lens of wars and suffering. One gained credibility by the merit of his ideas, another did so by his heroic actions. One tackles your brain. Another pierces your heart.

Are you a smart-system person or a let’s-fucking-go person? That probably determines your vote.

My Vote

It’s interesting that my life went through a McRaven-like stage and a Sharma-like stage. I made my name doing 100 Days of Rejection Therapy. I did one crazy thing a day, and taught many people about facing fear through my actions. I wrote my first book Rejection Proof. I was like a mini-William McRaven. Then as I matured and grew, I started building systems to become the best version of myself. I am about to publish my second book Easy Discipline. I was like a mini-Robin Sharma.

I can relate to both, and I appreciate both. But in the end, I always remember those moments where my identity shifted, rather than gaining a better/smarter system. For that, McRaven’s book did that for me.

Heck, this morning I published my bracket and no one cared, and a small part of me felt “what the hell are you doing spending 60+ hours on this?” Then I thought about McRaven’s “Never ring the bell of quit,” and started busting out a song of hope.

If no one cares but me, I would have read and analyzed 64 amazing books.

Let’s fucking go!

My vote goes to William McRaven and Make Your Bed.