By Gabe Salinas, Founder of Window Ninjas

What is the single most important decision you make every single day? Is it what you’ll eat for breakfast? What time do you get to the office? What will your first phone call be?

Wrong. It’s the decision you make in the first 60 seconds of being conscious: Will you start your day with an act of discipline, or an act of chaos?

This week, we’re diving into one of the shortest, sharpest, and most powerful books I’ve ever read: Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven. This book isn’t just for military folks. It’s a leadership manual for life. It’s built on 10 simple lessons from Navy SEAL training, and let me tell you, they are pure knowledge bombs.

McRaven’s first lesson is simple: If you want to change the world, start by making your bed. Why? Because it’s a small win. It’s an act of discipline that you complete immediately. It gives you a small sense of pride and encourages you to do another task, and another, and another. And if you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made. A bed you made.

This book is small, but it hits like a ton of bricks.

What “Making Your Bed” Looks Like at Window Ninjas

So, what does making your bed have to do with running a multi-location service business? Everything.

For us, “making the bed” isn’t about sheets and pillows. It’s about Communication.

Think about it. Communication is the central hub for every single thing we do. Every department, every team member, has to “make their bed” with perfect communication, or the whole company stumbles and the customer feels it.

It starts with our customer service reps. They have to “make the bed” by accurately scheduling a job, getting all the details, and providing the right information on our services. Then, they pass that communication to the service personnel. Our techs have to “make their bed” by reading that information, showing up prepared, and communicating with the customer on-site. When the job is done, the service team has to “make their bed” by passing clean, accurate notes to the accounting team so they can bill correctly. And finally, the loop closes when our marketing team “makes their bed” by performing a thank you call.

If any one of those people fails in their communication, the bed is messy. The customer is confused, the tech is unprepared, the bill is wrong. It’s chaos. That first, small act of discipline, making your bed, is the same as that first, critical act of clear communication. It sets the standard for the rest of the day.

Life Isn’t Fair. Leaders Don’t Complain.

What do you do when things go completely sideways? When you hire the wrong person, or a star player walks out the door?

McRaven talks about how the SEAL instructors would make them a “sugar cookie” for some minor infraction, rolling them in the cold surf and then in the sand. It was miserable. It was unfair. And the point was: “Life’s not fair. Drive on.”

In business, we get to be “sugar cookies” all the time. Sometimes, we hire the wrong person. It’s easy to point the finger at the person who hired them or blame the new hire for not “getting it.” But that’s a loser’s mentality. Leadership means finding out why it happened. It’s about having the hard, direct conversations.

I’ve had to learn this. Leadership requires having those tough talks. You have to face them head on. Be respectful, be professional, and lay out the facts. It is not always easy. But communicating honestly and professionally allows the person receiving the information to feel respected, even if the news is bad. It gives you an opportunity to encourage them in their quest for the right job for them.

And losing good people? Man, that just sucks. There’s no other way to put it. But sometimes it is for the best of the employee. They need to move on to a bigger opportunity or make a lateral move to fulfill a need of theirs. I would not say it’s unfair; it’s just unfortunate. But here’s the key: a true leader doesn’t just wallow in it. You reflect on it. You ask, “How could I have kept a future key player?” That reflection allows you to make moves in the future to create success for the company, the employee, and yourself.

We Were Being Overrun by Elephants

What’s the biggest failure you’ve ever had? The one that felt like a public humiliation?

McRaven calls this “The Circus.” When SEAL trainees failed a daily event, they were put on the Circus list. It meant two more hours of brutal, soul-crushing calisthenics, designed to weed them out. But McRaven’s point is that the circus doesn’t make you weaker. It makes you stronger.

I know exactly what my circus was: Marketing.

In the beginning, I thought I knew marketing. I was running the same old playbook. I was buying ads, making calls, just doing what I’d always done. But we were failing. We were in the circus being overrun by elephants, and I needed to find the answer as to why.

That circus, that failure, forced me to get humble. It forced me to “tighten up the corners on my bed,” as McRaven would say. I had to get disciplined about learning. I had to admit I didn’t have the answers. And that’s when the lightbulb moment happened. I stopped listening to salespeople and started finding teachers. I found marketing experts who took the time to teach me as opposed to just sell me.

Everything changed. That tough lesson, that “circus,” was the single most important moment in our company’s history. It was the “aha” moment that pulled us out of the abyss and put us on the path to becoming a dominating company in the window cleaning space. Don’t be afraid of the circus. It’s where you get strong.

Don’t Ever, Ever Ring the Bell

What does it mean to quit?

In SEAL training, there is a brass bell in the center of the compound. If you want to quit, all you have to do is go up to it and ring it. Ring the bell, and you no longer have to be cold, wet, or miserable. Ring the bell, and you’re done.

My dad, an Army Ranger, taught me about this concept. He told me, “The first time you quit, the easier it is to quit again.” I could reflect on what that bell meant. As an entrepreneur, ringing the bell is the death of the company. It’s giving up when it gets hard. It’s selling out cheap. It’s walking away.

I was never tempted to ring the bell on Window Ninjas. Ever.

Why? Because I was committed. Not committed to being the smartest guy in the room, but committed to learning more. I was committed to finding the people who were the experts in their field when I had issues I needed to solve.

This is the final lesson. Navy SEALs work together as a team to get through Hell Week. And in business, it is the exact same. You cannot do it alone. You have to find your key players and bring them into the fold. They must lead, and they must be led. They must know that we are all in this together. The mission is set each day. The drive to succeed is the priority. And we are never, ever tempted to quit.

My Verdict: 5 Golden Squeegees

This is a 5 Golden Squeegee rating, no question. The book is short, impactful, and filled with massive knowledge bombs. It is inspirational in its own right.

This is the book you give to your kid who is going off to college. It’s the book you give to a key hire that you are trying to mentor. It’s the book you give to an employee that has the “it” factor but needs those core lessons in discipline.

Make Your Bed is a must read. For everyone.