Most people assume the hardest part of Navy SEAL BUD/S training is Hell Week.
They’re wrong.
The hardest part is facing yourself after failure.
I know because I lived it.
I went through Hell Week twice.
I failed out of BUD/S for a diving physics test during second phase.
I spent a year in the regular Navy wondering if I would ever get another chance.
Then I came back and finished what I started.
Looking back more than forty years later, failing was one of the best things that ever happened to me.
I Was Training the Wrong Way
When I first arrived at BUD/S, I was not prepared.
Like many young men, I thought lifting weights and looking fit meant I was ready for special operations training.
I spent too much time doing bodybuilding workouts and not enough time building the strength, endurance, work capacity, and mental toughness needed for BUD/S.
Big mistake.
BUD/S doesn’t care how much you bench press.
It doesn’t care how big your arms are.
What matters is whether you can perform day after day while cold, wet, tired, hungry, and sleep-deprived.
The mission is endurance.
The mission is resilience.
The mission is teamwork.
The mission is refusing to quit.
Many candidates still make this mistake today. They spend months chasing gym numbers instead of preparing for the realities of selection. Successful candidates focus on running, swimming, calisthenics, rucking, recovery, and mental toughness—not mirror muscles.
The Failure Was Mental Before It Was Physical
Ironically, I didn’t fail because I couldn’t do the workouts.
I failed because I was mentally exhausted.
The constant stress, sleep deprivation, cold water, and physical punishment created brain fog.
Eventually I hit a point where my mind simply stopped functioning at the level required.
I failed a basic dive tables test.
That was it.
I got rolled.
At the time it felt devastating.
Today I understand something important:
Mental performance depends heavily on physical preparation.
When your body breaks down, your decision-making suffers.
Your focus suffers.
Your confidence suffers.
Your ability to solve problems suffers.
That’s one reason BUD/S is so effective. It exposes weaknesses that don’t show up when you’re comfortable.
Failure Forced Me to Take Ownership
After getting dropped, I found myself in the fleet Navy.
No instructors.
No teammates pushing me.
No excuses.
Just me.
And a lot of time to think.
That year became my real education.
I stopped blaming circumstances.
I stopped blaming luck.
I stopped looking for shortcuts.
I took ownership.
Every day I asked myself one question:
“What can I do today to prepare me for BUDS the next time?”
The answer wasn’t complicated.
Run. Swim. Do PT.
Work on Dive Physics math. Build inner and outer strength.
Recover.
Repeat.
Over and over.
Success usually comes from mastering simple things consistently.
Hell Week Taught Me That Nobody Is Coming to Save You
Hell Week strips away every illusion.
The weather doesn’t care.
The surf doesn’t care.
The instructors don’t care.
You either keep moving or you quit.
That’s why so many candidates discover that the battle is not against the instructors.
It’s against themselves.
BUD/S has historically seen attrition rates between 70% and 85 percent. Most candidates who leave do so voluntarily by ringing the bell. The body hurts, but often the mind quits first.
The lesson applies to life.
Nobody is coming to save your business.
Nobody is coming to save your marriage.
Nobody is coming to save your health.
Nobody is coming to save your dreams.
At some point you have to make a decision:
Ring the bell.
Or keep moving.
Teamwork Beats Talent
One lesson that gets overlooked is teamwork.
I’ve seen incredible athletes quit.
I’ve seen average athletes succeed.
The difference often came down to the team.
The men who survived learned how to suffer together.
They carried boats together.
They carried logs together.
They encouraged each other.
They focused on helping the man next to them instead of feeling sorry for themselves.
The strongest individual doesn’t always win.
The strongest team usually does.
The Second Time Through Was Different
When I returned to BUD/S, I wasn’t necessarily tougher.
I was smarter.
I understood what was coming.
I had prepared correctly.
I had already failed once.
Failure no longer scared me.
In many ways, failing the first time gave me an advantage.
I knew the price.
I knew the standard.
I knew exactly what I had to do.
Six months later I graduated.
Mission accomplished.
But the greatest victory wasn’t earning a Trident.
The greatest victory was becoming the type of man who could overcome failure and come back stronger.
Lessons for Life
The lessons from BUD/S apply far beyond military training.
If you’re facing a setback right now, remember:
- Failure is feedback.
- Your first attempt doesn’t define you.
- Adversity reveals character.
- Preparation creates confidence.
- Discipline beats motivation.
- Teamwork beats ego.
- Most limits are mental.
- Persistence compounds over time.
The obstacle is often the way.
Final Thoughts
Today everyone wants a shortcut.
A hack.
A secret.
A magic program.
The truth is much simpler.
Show up.
Do the work.
Learn from failure.
Get back up.
Keep moving.
Failing out of BUD/S was one of the hardest experiences of my life.
Doing Hell Week twice wasn’t fun.
But those experiences taught me lessons that have served me for decades in business, fitness, relationships, endurance events, and life.
Sometimes success doesn’t come from getting it right the first time.
Sometimes success comes from refusing to stay down after you get knocked down.
That’s the lesson BUD/S taught me.
And it’s a lesson worth carrying for the rest of your life.
About the Author:
Brad McLeod is a former U.S. Navy SEAL, endurance athlete, coach, and founder of SEALgrinderPT. A graduate of BUD/S Class 132, Brad served with SEAL Team Four after overcoming one of the biggest setbacks of his military career—failing out of BUD/S on his first attempt before returning a year later to complete training and earn his place in the Teams. That experience shaped his lifelong belief that failure is not the end of the mission but often the beginning of real growth.
Since founding SEALgrinderPT in 2010, Brad has helped thousands of athletes, military candidates, first responders, and everyday men and women develop greater mental toughness, resilience, and physical fitness. Through articles, coaching programs, endurance events, and fundraising efforts for veterans, he continues to teach the same lessons that helped him overcome adversity in BUD/S: embrace discomfort, stay disciplined, learn from failure, and never quit on a worthy goal.