Richard Machowicz is one of the most compelling and gripping self help writers in the field today. You may know him best from his Discovery Channel TV career with "Future Weapon" series. Or you may have come across his unique martial arts discipline of  Bukido (TM).

His finest teachings and life philosophy are distilled is one book. It's called "Unleash the Warrior Within" - but do not be deterred by the machismo implied in the title. Rather, think of this as a recipe book - explaining the author's unique brand of motivation and the different success skills he learned serving with the U.S. Navy SEALS

His background with one of the world's leading fighting forces lends him a unique authority. Most success coaches are salesmen or sportsmen. It is fairly easy to rustle up a sales pitch, spout a few motivational platitudes or talk of winning battles in the boardroom or on a golf course. And we pay them well for their mantras and their war stories. For them teambuilding is a daring afternoon building Lego models, or for the more testosterone inclined, a bout of paintballing at the local activity centre.

Mack is different. “The teams” he worked in were elite Navy SEAL units, and his “missions” were life-or-death encounters of amphibious, alpine and special operations warfare. In the teams, ordinary people achieved greatness – endurance, heroism and self-sacrifice even as so many of his counterparts achieved mediocrity in ordinary, suburban lives.

So don't worry about the cheesy title “Unleash the Warrior Within”, which sounds like the literary progeny of Conan the Barbarian and Anthony Robbins. Consider instead the immensely lucid and powerful insights that Richard Machowicz draws from his military career. Then apply them.

This single book is devastatingly powerful in its insights and has genuine potential to revolutionize the shape of our thinking. It has provided me with more practical tools for personal achievement than any other book in the genre.

Mack’s genius is to focus on the psychological attitudes that elite special forces teams deploy. The “Warrior” he speaks of in the title is nothing to do with fighting others, but rather of self-mastery, of personal achievement. The book opens explosively. Mack pitches us straight into Hell Week, the infamous endurance test that all new recruits to the SEALS must pass. As he is kept awake for days on Coronado Island in San Diego, he is dragged through rocks and surf and ripped by stones, carrying canoes so heavy they can break necks. Recruit after recruit quits the training, ringing on a brass bell to signify they surrender. Their career with the SEALS is over.

Mack endures, taking the more Churchillian approach that "When you are going through hell, keep going". He makes it through Hell Week by repeating a simple mantra – “The only two ways I can be defeated are if I give up or die”. Later on he develops this simple phrase into his compelling core philosophy – “Not Dead, Can’t Quit” TM.

This is just the beginning, and "Unleash the Warrior Within" is as captivating and exciting as any Tom Clancy novel. The action never fails - from his sniper training to his HALO (high altitude low opening) jumps, from his beach landings to his later career as a Hollywood celebrity bodyguard. It’s no self-indulgent memoir though. The book is jam-packed not just with anecdotes but with actual, practical techniques that work. My favourites include the CARVER matrix to assess target priorities, which is very useful in the office, and the phase diagrams to plan goals. The section on responding to physical threats – hint, always look at the mugger’s hands to see if they have a weapon - could even be life-saving. 

As one of the world’s finest military forces, the Navy SEALs have no time for soundbites, or politically correct ideas that sound good but don’t deliver. Richard Machowicz is all about the practical achievement of goals. His own career exemplifies this, as he has designed a flourishing Bukido TM academy that preaches his martial arts and self improvement philosophy.

Of course, you could dismiss all this as a “Full Metal Jacket”-style banter and instead your ideas from perma-tanned “road warriors” whose idea of struggle is a traffic jam and an awkward sales presentation. Take that approach if you will. But you’d be missing out on one of the most gripping, exceptional and downright useful personal development books on the market.

(c) WestOcean 2009

Richard Machowicz has distilled his learnings into a martial arts philosophy called Bukido (TM). His background as an elite black belt and SEAL karate coach present him a unique platform to motivate ordinary people to fulfil their destiny as "warriors".

He has developed a series of astonishingly powerful tools and insights, exemplified in the seven points of the "Code of the Warrior Spirit". Three of these are repeated below:

1. I will be responsible for my life and my actions

2. I will concentrate all the energy of my body and mind on ONE specific target at a time

3. I will develop patience in all things, for it is the essential quality of a powerful mind

In my view, these seven mantras form the very heart of Richard Machowicz's teachings in "Unleash the Warrior Within". If recited daily and applied consistently, this code of actions and attitudes has the potential to transform lives.

These affirmations are only one of a cornucopia of specific techniques in this fine book. Machowicz is an intensely practical writer and from his environment scanning tools to his CARVER target selection matrix, he demonstrates that military concepts can be successfully adapted to business and life. The "sniper bubble" is just one intensely useful metaphor to enable effective concentration on core tasks.

In summary, Unleash the Warrior Within is an outstanding book. It is unique in the personal development genre because it is written by a special forces soldier who really has achieved things that most human beings will never experience. I can not recommend this book highly enough.