Passing The Torch
Passing The Torch is a podcast that explores the inspiring stories and insights from people across all walks of life. The main focus is on the positive aspects of leadership, resilience, and character development.
Passing The Torch
Ep. 63: Challenge The Limits of Goliath - David Brown
Former U.S. Navy SEAL and author of And Goliath: The Littlest SEAL's Inspirational Story About Living Your Biggest Life, David Brown, who was the unlikeliest of candidates for the world's most grueling military selection process.
Standing just 5' 3" and weighing 110 pounds, he was unlike any of the others around him who aspired to be SEALs. But through dogged determination and an iron will, he overcame every obstacle that life put in front of him to achieve his dream of becoming a SEAL.
David Brown's life has been one of perseverance, tenacity, and achievement—from childhood adventures, to love lost and found, to BUD/S, the Teams, an exciting career at NCIS, and then a steady climb to the top echelons of Federal law enforcement. And Goliath is his story through military life and what comes after—the good and the bad.
Told with raw honesty and unwavering courage, And Goliath is more than just a memoir—it's a testament to the power of perseverance. David’s inspirational tale reveals how facing your own Goliaths can lead you to live your biggest life possible.
Background: With more than three decades of experience with the federal government, including active-duty military service and Special Agent positions with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, and The Department of Interior Office of Inspector General David W. Brown has opened a new chapter in his pursuit of happiness and authored his first book.
After seven years of active duty in the US Navy as a UDT/SEAL and twenty-eight years as a federal Special Agent, David decided to write the book he had been contemplating for decades.
Connect with Passing The Torch: Facebook and IG: @torchmartin
More Amazing Stories:
Episode 41: Lee Ellis – Freeing You From Bond That Make You Insecure
Episode 49: Ryan Hawk – Crafting a Legacy of Leadership
Episode 52: Riley Tejcek – Mission of Empowerment and Endurance
Bio: Standing just 5' 3" and weighing 110 pounds, he was unlike any of the others around him who aspired to be SEALs. But through dogged determination and an iron will, he overcame every obstacle that life put in front of him to achieve his dream of becoming a SEAL.
David Brown's life has been one of perseverance, tenacity, and achievement—from childhood adventures, to love lost and found, to BUD/S, the Teams, an exciting career at NCIS, and then a steady climb to the top echelons of Federal law enforcement. And Goliath is his story through military life and what comes after—the good and the bad.
Told with raw honesty and unwavering courage, And Goliath is more than just a memoir—it's a testament to the power of perseverance. David’s inspirational tale reveals how facing your own Goliaths can lead you to live your biggest life possible.
Background: With more than three decades of experience with the federal government, including active-duty military service and Special Agent positions with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division, and The Department of Interior Office of Inspector General David W. Brown has opened a new chapter in his pursuit of happiness and authored his first book.
After seven years of active duty in the US Navy as a UDT/SEAL and twenty-eight years as a federal Special Agent, David decided to write the book he had been contemplating for decades.
=============================
🌟 Episode Highlights 🌟
Leading from the Front:
➡︎ How self-care and leading by example trump old paradigms
Story Misconceptions:
➡︎ Importance of maintaining the proper perspective in life
Value of Hard Work:
➡︎ Diligently working to become a good person
Resilience and Transformation:
➡︎ Anecdotes about overcoming mental and physical barriers, including a transformative "aha moment" during SEAL training.
Philosophy of Success:
➡︎ Significance of paying attention to small details and the importance of following through with tasks
Leadership Inspirations:
➡︎ Admiration for leaders like John Wayne’s character in "The Cowboys" and Admiral Bill McRaven, highlighting qualities that build great leadership
Personal Stories & Motivational Messages:
➡︎ From mischievous childhood dreams to semi-professional wakeboarding, David's stories underline a belief in achieving the impossible
Self-Belief and Teamwork:
➡︎ Role of confidence in leadership and its contagious effect on team performance
Overcoming Criticism & Enjoying the Journey:
➡︎ How handling criticism can fuel personal growth and the importance of savoring the journey of success.
=============================
🔥 David's Resources
=============================
Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/Goliath-Littlest-Inspirational-Living-Biggest/dp/1990644996
Website: https://www.udtdave.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/udtdave/
=================
Mentioned:
Robert Hill (Pathological Persistence)
Jacques Cousteau
Bill McRaven (Admiral McRaven)
John Wayne and The Cowboys
Peter Gumataotao (Rear Admiral)
=================
Episode Quotes:
“Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart”
“A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it.” - Albert Einstein
“Make it happen” – David Brown
“The only easy day was yesterday”
=================
My Links
Podcast: https://www.passingthetorchpod.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC04suOPTX3ny_M0aDxmBAXQ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pttorch
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/torchmartin/
=================
Conversation:
Why Life is great right now
1:48 David Brown Life is great because after many years of following what other people thought was success and I thought was success, I finally found happiness in my own life. And I live every day in the moment, and I appreciate everything I have. And I finally define success for myself rather than everybody else looking at me and deciding what success means for me.
Being on the cover of NCIS Bulletin and the mustache
3:20 David BrownOh, it certainly looked like it, didn't it? Along, you know, with that came the issue. If you remember watching police shows back then, everybody had Ray-ban sunglasses on. I think they forced me to grow that mustache, and I was required to wear the sunglasses, so. But, yeah, that's funny you bring up that picture. I got teased a lot about that.
It's kind of not as exciting as you think, but it's. It was happenstance. I was working at NCIS headquarters at the time. I had transferred from being an agent in Honolulu, Hawaii, and I was, as we would call it, writing the fraud desk up in Washington at the Navy yard. And NCIS had old wheeled guns, if you're familiar the term wheel guns, they were revolvers. We were still using Rugers at the time, and so the organization decided, we're going to switch to a semi automatic. And they went with a SIG Sauer.
And I just happened to be at headquarters, and somebody who was doing the publicity for said, hey, Dave, we want. We need a photo of someone holding the Sig Sauer. And I was a firearms instructor, so it was natural for me to go out there and hold it properly and not make a fool of myself, at least. Yeah, holding the gun, but the. The mustache still. I still got teased about the mustache.
I still am in contact with a lot of my friends from NCIS, and yet they still say, but remember when you volunteered to be the poster boy on the. On the NCIS magazine? And you know what? I look back at it now, and it's a great thing. I have something to look back at and say, look, look. Another thing I did that I had no intention of doing, I certainly wasn't a model to be able to go out there and hose. And it turned out good. Look, we get to all these years later, we get to talk about it.
Story Behind Albert Einstein Quote
7:12 David BrownI've been through, I can't even count the number of training sessions and hours of training in management and leadership for the federal government. I was a senior executive when I retired, and every training that we went to seemed to be people trying to solve whatever problem was at their organization. And it took up hours, days, years, even of time and effort to try to solve problems when, if they would have just sat back and looked at it, they could have avoided it all, the man hours and all the problems to begin with if they had just looked at the base of it instead of trying to get to the end of it, if that makes any sense, because the beginning of a problem and all the way to the end, there's a lot going on. And I think managers, and when we talk about leaders, I really dislike the word leader as a noun. I always look at it as a verb. I hate the title leadership because leadership is something that is done by example. And so true leadership is to, I think, is avoiding a problem, then putting, throwing people as far as man hours and effort into trying to solve something. You could have had foresight and thought and avoided it to begin with.
So that's why when I read that quote, I said, boy, how many man hours and how many more problems could I have solved by just sidestepping the issue and going around it?
Tips for filtering out the noise
11:00 David Brown It's a simple question with a very complex answer, and I needed to research myself because everybody's different, and we got to start this conversation here because there's no such thing as a list of five things to do that will work for me and will work for you. I just don't believe in that. And it's. It's just simply not true. Because everybody is genetically different, and we all have different talents, we all have different inherent abilities.
And I am very lucky in the fact that I naturally do it. I am not dissuaded by other people's criticism. I didn't even as a little kid. My book is all about the beginning of it, is trying to explain why I became the person I became. And it was. I had these talents that were inherent to me. My ancestors gave them to me. It was in my blood. So for me, it was easy.
Not everybody has that ability. Some people, if they get a criticism, it crushes their confidence, puts them back on their heels. But for me, it was a motivator. And I actually, when somebody said I couldn't do something, that made me want to do it even more. And so, for me, it's not. It wasn't difficult, but I don't want to say that for everybody because I know that is one of the biggest hurdles for a lot of people. They cannot handle criticism. And I'm nothing criticizing them for not being able to handle it.
I'm just saying it's natural, and so they need to understand that and then work through it. Hopefully, I answered the question.
Using experiences to help others overcome obstacles and achieve greatness despite initial limitations
16:06 David Brown That's a beautiful thing about at least, I think that the way I wrote the book was I had a collection of events in my life that were very critical. At least I felt that they were, in telling a story, a good story, somebody would want to actually read. Then I wanted to lace into that, that story the meaning behind each. Each story and the things both that were good. And I don't want to say, I don't use the word failure because I don't have it in my vocabulary.
Failure is a word that means you did not succeed in any way, shape, or form. And I think every time you try something difficult and you don't accomplish it, that you are succeeding to the next step in meeting your goal. So failure is not in my vocabulary. So in the book, each one of these stories is either a success or a setback. And how I go around it, or to my fault, even, did not celebrate my own successes.
One of the lessons of the book is the old saying, stop and smell the roses every once in a while. And it's great that I am persistent, but at some times, it could be to your detriment. So stop and smell the roses.
Who is his David and most tenacious person in personal life
18:55 David Brown I've been asked a couple times who are my mentors, and who did I look up to, and to be honest, I was a fan of Jacques Cousteau.
And I studied, and because of what he did and his love of the ocean and his just being underwater and the way he explored it just. It really brought out the creativity in me. And so I don't know about being tenacious, but he was somebody I looked up to, and I wanted to be like. And that's pushed me forward to the occupation I went into eventually.
Relationship with Admiral McRaven
20:40 David Brown We both served at SEAL Team four together, and I was in between platoons, and Bill McRaven came up to me and said, hey, you want to go to South America with the platoon I'm forming? He was a lieutenant at the time, and I said, yeah, yeah, great. Let's do it. Central and South America. So, we spent about nine months together training, a couple months pre training, and then six months deployed together. And, you know, I was a young punk. I was 20 years old. I didn't know nothing from nothing.
And here I got this guy who is hard charging, but he could just bring out the best in everyone in the platoon. We did things that other platoons never couldn't even think of doing, and. We had so much fun doing it. I look back on that time now, and so many lessons I learned and how he treated people.
He treated everyone differently and it played to their personality. He didn't ask for respect, but he earned the respect of the entire platoon.
Greatest lesson in humility
22:10 David Brown Greatest lesson in humility. That's a tough one. There's been a lot of times in my career where you have an opportunity, as, for instance, when I was a special agent in charge, I was responsible for every investigation that was being conducted, and we had some really big successes. And to be able to take those successes and promote your people before yourself is probably the biggest lesson I think any leader should learn, is that when you have a team success, it's not the leader, it's the people working under you that make it happen. And that is, I think, when you bring people on, hire them and join your team, I think that's the first thing you should tell them my job is to make sure that you have the ability to take my place in the future. So my job is to train you to be in charge of whatever the title is going to be. And if one day you become the special agent in charge, I will feel like I've done my job.
Role of self-belief in the journey throughout the book
24:00 David Brown Well, self belief is confidence right there. And confidence is something that needs to be explored from the very beginning with children. You have to give kids an opportunity to fail or, or not get a trophy. Not everybody can win. Not everybody can win every game or match. And so if kids don't learn how to deal with defeat, then they will never have confidence in themselves, because after the defeat, what happens? There's another opportunity to win.
And so they're going to get that feeling of how bad it feels to lose, and they're going to never want that feeling again. And that's what's going to build confidence in people, in the kids. And that's what I talk about a lot in my book, is that my confidence was developed at a very early age, I think a lot of it was hereditary, that I had confidence in me. But if I didn't get in the fights that I had and I didn't lose in certain situations, when it came to really having a difficult time to push forward in BUDS training or being a seal, then I would have never been able to go through and do what I did.
Something he believes to be true, but other people might think is crazy
29:15 David Brown Well, I've believed a lot of different things in my life that I knew I proved were not true. I don't know how far you got in my book, but, one of the stories was, when I was a kid, I used to have dreams about flying. And it's actually, I did some research and found out that, yeah, it's actually true. You can. A lot of kids have dreams about flying. But in my personality is I take it to the next level and I try to make it happen. So when I was a kid, I cut out some cardboard wings and thought I was going to fly.
Jumped off the back wall, the garden wall at our house, and of course, landed on my face. As I said, common sense was not one of my strong suits when I was a kid, so I've learned a lot since then. But here's the thing. I still am like that. You know, there's things I don't talk about in the book that I was a semi professional wakeboarder. I was barefoot, I was on ski teams, demonstration ski teams.
I don't know that I have limits. So I think if you want to talk about crazy realistically, I don't. I look at anything and everything is a possibility. When I say that and people are like, oh, no, there are limitations to everyone. I know that, I just don't see them for myself.
Using height to his advantage
33:30 David Brown When I was going through seal training, I was obviously, I shouldn't say obviously, I was the smallest person by a few inches and certainly by total pounds. I started training at 5'3", 110, and I probably stayed around that the entire time I was in training. And so I get through first phase, and I'm in, like, the first day of second phase, I had an instructor come up to me, and we were on the grinder, which is the place where we did all of our exercises, and stood over my head as I was doing flutter kicks exercises. And he looked down at me, he said, and he saw my name on my shirt. He said, Brown, who the hell are you? I haven't seen you before. What, did you just sneak in here? You could not have been in this class up until this point, and I didn't see you. And so then he made me get up and hit the surf and come back and do push ups and everything. And so I thought for sure I was going to get tagged, and now I was going to be the guy that they were constantly going to harass and everything.
That was an example of me being so small. I think a lot of instructors kind of, because I kind of blended in when you couldn't actually see me when I was surrounded by the bigger guys. But I think it's more than a harassment. I think it was an acknowledgement at the time that, hey, dude, you made it. You're in second phase now. And a lot of guys that were bigger than you didn't make it. So I think it was kind of a pat on the back, more so than a punishment.
AHA Moment
36:30 David Brown That in that single moment was the turning point in my entire life. And I look back at it now and I still feel it's the same way. A lot of guys in BUDS, if, I'm sure everyone at BUDS goes through that at one point where they make the decision, like I made the decision that nothing was going to stop me from that point on and I would rather die than not accomplish the mission. And then we were running back from, on a conditioning run and I was getting ready to be in the goon squad.
And just a week before, I'm sorry, just a couple days before, I was in the goon squad and I had to carry Gumataotao, one of my classmates, a 230 pound guy, up and over the berm. And I still don't to this day, I don't know how to do it. It's kind of like the superpower that you have that lift the bus off somebody when it falls. So I carried Gumataotao and we won the race. And here I am back in the goon squad two days later. And I thought, I'm not gonna make it. This is it.
I can't go through another goon squad. I can't carry Gumatotao again. My mind was telling me, you're done. You're done. You're not going to make it. I started failing. My run started slowing down and I had to change my perspective of the world in 1 second, and I did.
And I said, that's it. This isn't going to stop me. Nothing's ever going to stop me again. And I claim, and I still say to this day, I had an out of body experience because I looked at, I looked at myself from above and I was just like, I don't feel a thing. I'm not tired anymore. I don't feel any pain. And I started sprinting. Never happened before.
Sprinted right up, caught up with everybody, and I looked back and I was. I didn't even recognize myself. I said, how the heck did I do that? And from that moment on, I realized that pain is a perception. Physical limitations are set up here. And if you accept what your physical, what your mind's telling you, you can only do this, then that's all you can do. You have to get beyond that. You have to get beyond your mental barriers. And that accounts for anything, whether it's running in soft sand, or whether it's you trying to make the grade in school, or whether it's you trying to get the promotion at work, because if you're not working hard enough, you're not going to get it.
Those are all the things that changed my life to go forward. That's why I reached the highest levels of the federal government, because that was my perspective. I will die trying before I fail.
Who comes to mind when thinking of a movie image that depicts leadership
42:40 David Brown John Wayne in The Cowboys where he stands up to the bully at the end and he risks his life and he actually ends up shooting him. But he's there.
That whole movie was so exciting for me. He took all these kids and brought them up in a way that, and they learned their lessons to be men. And he was there willing to give his own life to protect them. And there's no better leadership than that.
Billboard message for everyone to see and read
43:36 David Brown I wanted to say, live your biggest life.
