Mike Hayes writes about his experiences as a Navy SEAL and his post-SEAL experiences working in the White House for both Bush and Obama. Hayes includes stories of his work for a hedge fund and his current job as Chief Digital Transformation Officer at VMware.

The parts of Never Enough (2021) that resonated with me were Hayes’s descriptions of his SEAL missions in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Some of Hayes’s SEAL teams took horrendous damage by explosives, ambushes, and hand-to-hand fighting. Hayes discusses what it’s like on the battlefield and what decisions he and other commanders had to make under extreme conditions.

If you want to gain insight into what our armed forces deal with in our dangerous world and learn how the SEALs make their difficult decisions, I highly recommend Never Enough. GRADE: A

Table of Contents

Author’s Note ix

Introduction 1

Section I Never Excellent Enough

Chapter 1 Choose the Hard Path-Excellence in Knowledge and Capacity 17

Chapter 2 Build Comfort with Discomfort-Excellence in Strength and Control 43

Chapter 3 Live with Incredible Confidence and Extreme Humility-Excellence in Accountability and Orientation 63

Section II Never Agile Enough

Chapter 4 Be a Leader and a Follower, and Know When to Be Which-Agility in the Roles You Play 87

Chapter 5 Learn How to Think, Not What to Think-Agility in the Decisions You Make 114

Chapter 6 Gain Authority by Giving It Away-Agility in the Organizations You Lead 136

Section 3 Never Meaningful Enough

Chapter 7 Push Your Values Out into the World-Finding Meaning as an Individual 169

Chapter 8 We Live and Die for People, Not Causes-Meaning in the Bonds We Build with Others 195

Chapter 9 Make Differences Where They Will Count the Most-Meaning in Contribution to the World 219

Acknowledgments 229