SKILLS FOR LIFE... SAS-STYLE

Des Powell undertook some of the most dangerous special ops in military history as a member of our Special Forces. Now he’s on a new mission to show how the elite troop's mindset can help us master anything, from a productive day of work to the dreaded wedding speech

- 

UNLIKE most SAS books, it is intentionally relatable, linking the Special Forces mindset to real-life situations — such as a wedding speech rather than an armoured ambush, or the overwhelming sight of a mountain of holiday laundry, rather than a 20km hike across enemy territory. These “takeaways” — as Des calls them are his response to an invitation from his publisher to write a book about personal development.

“I didn’t want to go full-on with that,” says Des, 69. “So I suggested telling stories with lessons learned, and they were good with it. It’s a mish-mash of what I picked up in the military and travelling the world. Academia wasn’t for me, but my experiences taught me common sense.” This is an understatement of considerable proportion.

Born in Sheffield, Des was brought up to respect his grandfather, who had fought in the First World War, and his father. Both men were dead before he was 10.

“But they had set me on the right path. Sheffield was quite a rough place, but my mum and dad loved me as much as they could and stopped me going down the wrong path,” he says with gratitude and respect.