Praise for RANGER SCHOOL, NO EXCUSE LEADERSHIP 
"A great read. Brace Barber was a superb leader, Ranger, and great American. I was proud to serve with him. This book is a must on every Ranger or those who wish to be's . . . coffee table."
-Colonel David Hunt

"A great book, designed to demonstrate how one can achieve the mental toughness to succeed . . . no matter what the adversity."


"I thoroughly enjoyed it. Matter of fact: had a tough time putting it down."
-Hazen L. Baron

"A terrific, hard-hitting book on leadership!"


"An excellent book for young people wishing to expand their horizons and tap their potential. As a former soldier, I highly recommend this book for those wishing to push farther and harder than their peers."
-Michael Yon

"The challenging demands of U.S. Army Ranger School training as well as the resulting
career and lifetime benefits that accrue to those who have the heart and courage to persevere are vividly recounted in this enlightening and very motivating book."
-USMC Major General (Ret.) Ted Hopgood

"I would place it on the recommended reading list for those going to Ranger School and those looking for a study in leadership. It is about life-setting high goals and then pushing yourself to the limit and beyond to achieve those goals."
-Colonel Thomas H. Aldrich

"If your desire is to understand the dynamics of how one goes about leading and succeeding in difficult circumstances, this could be the book for you."
-CPT Russell Perkins
Military Instructor, North Georgia Military College

Ranger School has value because it is a challenge that only the minority of people achieve. It teaches a person about himself under conditions of stress augmented by the lack of food, sleep, information, and in the case of winter classes, warmth. When a person achieves the success of graduation, he knows he is a person of endurance and he knows his physical and mental limits since he has been much closer to them than most people will ever be. At Ranger School he was pushed by an outside force, the RI, and an internal goal to graduate. Because he, himself, went beyond his known limits, he knows people are able to do much more than they naturally push themselves to do. He is able to be the outside force that pushes, like the RI, and the help others need to develop internal goals. He can then work alongside them to accomplish those goals. 
 If you have never challenged yourself beyond your known limits, either physically or mentally, I suggest you find an area you desire to push yourself in and set a goal in that area that will stretch you for an extended period of time. Try something like a 10-kilometer run if you have never run before, or achieving the top grade in your graduate school class, or losing those extra pounds through exercise and discipline, or quitting smoking or some other nasty habit. You must learn about yourself. 
 Whatever goal you set, if it is high enough and hard enough, by definition, you must question yourself somewhere along the way: "Do I really want to do this? Is the reward that great?" You will rationalize how little you want the reward, and you must think about how much easier it would be if you were to rest, if only for a little while. If you do that, you are pushing yourself. If you quit, you quit; you lose for now. If you continue to try, you are among the minority. If you continue to quit, you are part of the majority. It does not matter what excuse you make. They all have the same result--failure. If you continue to try and you succeed, you are part of the elite, a winner.
 These high goals give you the opportunity to develop the habit of making the right decisions in times of duress. The point you must remember is that in order to continue to be a winner you must continue to set higher and higher goals and accomplish them. Please do not ever rest on your laurels. Your competition is with yourself, not the person next to you. The person who displays persistence and consistence will win every time. Over time, dripping water wears down the rock. 
 The lack of perseverance is what causes most people to quit. Perseverance is not tested in good times; it is tested in times of stress. Ranger School tests each person's resolve to achieve graduation, but even more importantly, it tests each person's resolve to get up each and every day. As each day passes, more and more people forget about the goal, graduation, and see only the distractions of comfort, warmth, food, and sleep. They fail to persevere and so they quit. This book will give you the standard for mental toughness. When you think you have it bad, remember somewhere--at Fort Benning, Georgia; Dahlonega, Georgia; or Eglin Air Force Base, Florida--there are Ranger School students experiencing new tests today and succeeding.