From one of the great naval leaders of our time, a master class in decision-making under pressure through the stories of nine famous acts of leadership in battle, drawn from the history of the United States Navy, with outcomes both glorious and notorious
At the heart of Admiral James Stavridis’s training as a naval officer was the preparation to lead sailors in combat, to face the decisive moment in battle whenever it might arise. In To Risk it All, he offers up nine of the most useful and enthralling stories from the US Navy’s nearly 250-year history, and draws from them a set of insights that we can all put to use when confronted with fateful choices.
Conflict. Crisis. Risk. These words have a distinct meaning in a military context that we hope will never apply identically in our own lives. But at the same time, as Admiral Stavridis shows with great clarity, many lessons are universal.
To Risk it All is filled with thrilling and heroic exploits, but it is anything but a shallow exercise in myth burnishing. Every leader in this book has real flaws, as all humans do, and the stories of failure, or at least the decisions that have been defined as such, are as crucial as the stories of success. In the end, when this master class is concluded, we will be better armed for hard decisions both expected and not.
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“This book will make you think—hard—and it likely will make you angry! This book gets you involved. Each of the nine stories is a catalyst for a vigorous discussion on the demands of leadership. If you’re like me, you’ll agree with the author sometimes and disagree other times. Two things are clear: one, you’ll be better prepared to lead if you dive into this book, and two, nobody is more qualified to help us navigate these waters than ADM Jim Stavridis, who has not only studied the charts in detail, but also and more importantly, has sailed these heavy seas himself.
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Admiral John Richardson, USN, (Ret.) former Chief of Naval Operations