This is episode number one thousand fifty one with the former CIA director john Brennan

sometimes it shakes your confidence certainly it makes you wonder whether not just with the decisions that you made were wrong but just you know how you gonna be able to make future decisions of course we have to take care of our country and our people but that doesn't mean we do it at the expense of the rest of the world

welcome to the school of greatness my name is Louis Howe's former pro athlete turn lifestyle entrepreneur in each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness

thanks for spending some time with me today now let the class begin

Lao Su once said when you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete everyone will respect you

and Albert Einstein said whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters

john Brennan was the director of the CIA from 2013 until 2017 and during that time he was responsible for intelligence collection analysis covert action counter intelligence and liaison relationships with foreign intelligence services

from 2009 to 2013 john was assistant to the president for Homeland Security and counter terrorism I was fascinated by everything that john was sharing I didn't want this conversation to stop there was so much I wanted to learn and it was an honor to talk with john and here is incredible stories and wisdom and I can't wait for you to hear this in this episode we discuss how to make sure you're not being followed or tracked by other agents the months leading up to bin Laden's mission and the most nerve wrecking

90 minutes for Brennan the details of possible attacks after 9 11 that were stopped by john and his team which presidents john was inspired by the most while he was working with them making mistakes and being a leader how to navigate that how to deal with the responsibility of making incredibly tough decisions

how you can tell if a person is lying to you or telling the truth the three common principles that made the president's effective decision makers and leaders and the qualities you should develop right now if you want to become the president of the United States and so much more it was truly fascinating conversation

make sure to share with a friend that you think would be inspired Lewis House dot com slash one zero five one or you can just copy and paste this link wherever you're listening to it on Apple podcasts or Spotify or anywhere else and make sure to subscribe over on Apple podcasts and leave us a rating and review if you're inspired by this mission and you want to spread greatness to more people

okay and just a moment the one and only john Brennan welcome back everyone to the school of greatness I am very excited we have New York times best something out there john Brennan in the house thank you so much for being here

it's great to be with you Lewis and you have seen some of the craziest things in the in the last 40 years working with the CIA almost for four decades is that right you're working there

well I worked first for 25 years at CIA and retired went off to the private sector to see what it was like to earn a living outside the appropriations of Congress

and make real money well yeah for at least a little while and went back in for the entire eight years the Obama administration four of which were at the CIA so 29 years at CIA and four plus years at the White House

what would you say is the craziest thing that you had to deal with because it seems like every four to six years or something crazy that happens what would you say was the biggest

stress for you that you need a good face and help overcome well there's so many to choose from there are all my interactions with Congress and the hyper partisan environment there I think as I point out

in the book I'm an equal opportunity offender so there are people on both sides of the aisle that have called from my resignation of firing over the years

everyone you fired yeah yeah it's sort of life of a CIA director and intelligence officer but obviously the bin Laden raid was a very nerve-wracking anxiety producing nail biting situation

dealing with the aftermath at 9.11 and trying to ensure that CIA was able to respond very quickly to prevent recurrences of those attacks

that aftermath was particularly challenging because we were also dealing with the washed and sniper the anthrax attacks just a number of things that I think just made the whole environment all that's more of concern and worry

and so and many things that when I was overseas just making sure that my children were going to be safe when we lived in Saudi Arabia when there were terrorist attacks in the region

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