General Jim Mattis

Furthermore, he has learned how to actually apply what they said and what they wrote about.

And he is the most boring leader you can ever find.

I guarantee you, as a colonial officer in the British Army, as a revolutionary general learning how to fight from French generals half his age but with more combat experience, to the father of our country as the first president,

He does the same thing time after time.

He listens with a willingness to be persuaded.

He quiets himself down, tones down his temper, and he learns.

He listens and he learns.

And then, a matter of fact, one of his aides said he listened so well he could even hear what's not being said.

That is a man in control of himself.

And then after listening and learning, he helps them, and then he leads.

That's the way he melds this army into a war fighting instrument that can actually survive these bloody battles.

And so you see almost a direct line from the examples that he reads about, straight into his conduct on a daily and hourly basis.

listening to even what's not being said.

He can even read body language, in other words, in the midst of all the crises he's going through.

And remember, in crises, we fall back on first principles.

He had them in him.

He didn't just read it and then pass the course in college.

He never went to college, you know.

He actually lived them.

You know, that brings to mind, Ryan, something that Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote.