At SAP’s Business Unleashed Innovation Day in Arlington, VA, on March 25, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and former Navy SEAL platoon commander Alden Mills delivered a powerful closing keynote. The event showcased how SAP’s cloud applications and data-driven solutions enable collaborative AI, featuring expert insights and customer success stories.
Drawing on his experience as a Navy SEAL and entrepreneur, Mills spoke about the mental hurdles leaders face when stepping outside their comfort zones. He offered actionable strategies to overcome negativity and foster a resilient, solution-oriented mindset.
The principles of success are defined by what he calls the three levels of unstoppable leadership: mindset, teams, and culture. Mills hit on the recurring themes of mental toughness in leadership, the need to push past the known and embrace the unknown, and the role of positivity, focus and belief. These principles are the core of Mills’ books: Unstoppable Mindset, Be Unstoppable, and Unstoppable Teams.
“You're going to make mistakes,” Mills told the audience. “But when you're looking to do something new that's going past that horizon, you’ve got to go all in. You’ve got to fully commit. That’s how you will unleash your opportunities.”
Mindset
Mills emphasized the importance of shifting from a “can’t do” to a “can do” mentality when leading change. He described the “mental wheel” that spins between the known and the unknown—and urged leaders to practice controlling their focus, thoughts, and beliefs.
Sharing a vivid example from SEAL training, where his team sang patriotic songs to endure freezing surf, he underscored how positivity fuels perseverance. You must become the whisperer of the winner, he said, especially when facing uncomfortable but necessary changes like digital transformation.
Teams
Mills introduced attendees to practical tools like the “helpful or hurtful” technique to break cycles of negativity. When resistance arises, simply asking whether a comment is helpful or hurtful can refocus a team toward problem-solving.
He explained that starting, persisting, and not giving up are often the biggest challenges in transformation journeys. Failure, he said, should be seen as a steppingstone, not a setback.
Culture
According to Mills, culture is set by beliefs, which act as seeds that can be either limiting or empowering. Leaders must intentionally cultivate a culture of belief, beginning with early buy-in and clear communication.
Mills closed his session with a powerful metaphor: packing your own parachute. Recalling a nerve-wracking freefall jump from his SEAL days, he reminded the audience that leadership requires preparation, confidence, and a leap of faith.
“At the end of the day, you may never do that kind of jump,” he said. “But leadership is like taking that jump—you’re packing your own parachute every day.”