On Character
Choices That Define a Life
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On Character
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Narrated by:
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General Stanley McChrystal
About this listen
From the bestselling author of Team of Teams and My Share of the Task, reflections on character, and who we choose to be.
“Reputation is what men and women think of us;
character is what God and angels know of us.”
—Thomas Paine
How to measure a life? After a career of service, retired four-star general Stanley McChrystal had much to contemplate. He pondered his successes and failures, his beliefs and aspirations, and asked himself, Who am I, really? And more importantly, who have I become? When I die, how will I be measured?
In the end, McChrystal came to a conclusion as simple as it was profound: the reality of who we are cannot be recorded in dates or accomplishments. It is found in our character—the most accurate, and last full measure, of who we choose to be.
On Character offers McChrystal’s blueprint for living with purpose and integrity, challenging us to examine not just our deeds but who we become through them. Drawing from a lifetime of experience, he distills profound insights on setting and meeting standards, aligning actions with beliefs, and offers practical advice on overcoming obstacles and pursuing self-improvement.
According to McChrystal, character is not a trait inherited at birth, nor does it automatically come from education, position, or experience. Character, instead, comes down to a succession of choices, most mundane, several momentous, that reveal the deep truth of our capacity for virtue.
In an era where understanding and upholding our ideals is more crucial than ever, On Character offers an inspiring roadmap for personal growth and integrity—a call to become our best selves, both as individuals and as Americans.
©2025 General Stanley McChrystal (P)2025 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,514
The retired four-star general and and best-selling author of My Share of the Task shares a powerful new leadership model. Former General Stanley McChrystal held a key position for much of the War on Terror, as head of the Joint Special Operations Command. In Iraq, he found that despite the vastly superior resources, manpower, and training of the US Military, Al Qaeda had an advantage because of its structure as a loose network of small, independent cells. To defeat such an agile enemy, JSOC had to change its focus from efficiency to adaptability.
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5 out of 5 stars
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excellent book, very informative.
- By J.J. Gardona on 08-24-15
By: General Stanley McChrystal, and others
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Risk
- A User's Guide
- By: General Stanley McChrystal, Anna Butrico
- Narrated by: General Stanley McChrystal
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 260
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 225
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 224
Retired four-star general Stan McChrystal has lived a life associated with the deadly risks of combat. From his first day at West Point, to his years in Afghanistan, to his efforts helping business leaders navigate a global pandemic, McChrystal has seen how individuals and organizations fail to mitigate risk. Why? Because they focus on the probability of something happening instead of the interface by which it can be managed.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good nuggets however wants no risk
- By Tim Everist on 10-22-21
By: General Stanley McChrystal, and others
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Conquering Crisis
- Ten Lessons to Learn Before You Need Them
- By: Admiral William H. McRaven
- Narrated by: Admiral William H. McRaven
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 95
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Story5 out of 5 stars 95
Throughout his 40-year career, Admiral McRaven has experienced every manner of calamity imaginable. From managing failed hostage rescues to responding to student unrest, McRaven has learned how to successfully navigate crises—those moments that push the limits of your experience and challenge your confidence, when leadership skills alone may not be enough.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Bravo Admiral
- By Empress Karen on 04-23-25
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Zbig
- The Life and Times of Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet
- By: Edward Luce
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 23 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 4
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4
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Story4 out of 5 stars 4
An intimate and masterful biography of Zbigniew Brzezinski—President Carter’s national security advisor and one of America’s leading geopolitical thinkers—from one of the finest columnists and political writers at work today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The writing was impeccable
- By Nathan King on 05-22-25
By: Edward Luce
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The Praetorians
- By: Jean Lartéguy, General Stanley McChrystal - foreword, Xan Fielding - translator
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
Based on the events of May 1958 in France and Algeria, The Praetorians picks up in the footsteps of The Centurions, which was called "a stunning reflection of modern war" by Stanley McChrystal. After turning to tactics of guerilla warfare, a group of French paratroopers serving in the Algerian War is called to answer for actions they consider necessary, however immoral. Fearing another loss of French honor, they plot a coup that results in the return to power of Charles de Gaulle and the death of one of their own.
By: Jean Lartéguy, and others
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The Hero Code
- Lessons Learned from Lives Well Lived
- By: Admiral William H. McRaven
- Narrated by: Admiral William H. McRaven
- Length: 2 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,749
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,558
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,545
From the acclaimed number-one New York Times best-selling author of Make Your Bed - a short, inspirational book about the qualities of true everyday heroes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Even better than Make Your Bed
- By Anonymous User on 04-17-21
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Diet, Drugs, and Dopamine
- The New Science of Achieving a Healthy Weight
- By: David A. Kessler M.D.
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber, David A. Kessler M.D.
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Story5 out of 5 stars 5
From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Overeating comes an illuminating understanding of body weight, including the role of the latest weight loss drugs, and the possibility of changing our health, weight, and bodies forever.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Hold Plant Based
- By Bert Garcia on 05-21-25
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Apple in China
- The Capture of the World's Greatest Company
- By: Patrick McGee
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 17
For listeners of Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs and Chris Miller’s Chip War, a riveting look at how Apple helped build China’s dominance in electronics assembly and manufacturing only to find itself trapped in a relationship with an authoritarian state making ever-increasing demands.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Disturbing and Equally Important
- By Old Man River on 05-20-25
By: Patrick McGee
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The Art of Winning
- Lessons from My Life in Football
- By: Bill Belichick
- Narrated by: Bill Belichick
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 27
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story5 out of 5 stars 27
No one embodies winning more than Bill Belichick, the greatest football coach of all time. Over the past fifty years, Belichick has been a man of notoriously few words, believing that a coach should keep a low profile. After he left the Patriots in 2024, he briefly became a coach without a team. He spent that year writing down the principles he learned from his father, Navy football, and from his forty-nine-year coaching career. Belichick’s philosophy goes far beyond football.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding
- By Amazon Customer on 05-22-25
By: Bill Belichick
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Original Sin
- President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again
- By: Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson
- Narrated by: Jake Tapper
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 226
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 218
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Story4 out of 5 stars 218
From two of America’s most respected journalists, an unflinching and explosive reckoning with one of the most fateful decisions in American political history: Joe Biden’s run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline—amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Chaotic storytelling
- By K.M.H. on 05-20-25
By: Jake Tapper, and others
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Our Dollar, Your Problem
- An Insider's View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead
- By: Kenneth Rogoff
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Our Dollar, Your Problem argues that America’s currency might not have reached today’s lofty pinnacle without a certain amount of good luck. Drawing in part on his own experiences, including with policymakers and world leaders, Kenneth Rogoff animates the remarkable postwar run of the dollar—how it beat out the Japanese yen, the Soviet ruble, and the euro—and the challenges it faces today from crypto and the Chinese yuan, the end of reliably low inflation and interest rates, political instability, and the fracturing of the dollar bloc.
By: Kenneth Rogoff
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Mark Twain
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 44 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 7
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story4 out of 5 stars 6
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature, Mark Twain.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another great book
- By Terry Hubbard on 05-17-25
By: Ron Chernow
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Everything I Know About Hormones
- Six Steps to Optimal Health and Happiness
- By: Hannah Alderson
- Narrated by: Hannah Alderson
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Driven by her own health obstacles, Alderson has collaborated closely with world-leading scientists to research our hormones and discovered how to build an ecosystem that works. Learn why creating a happier hormone habitat is about diet, balance, movement, sleep, honesty and choices.
By: Hannah Alderson
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Detained
- A boy's journal of survival and resilience
- By: D. Esperanza, Gerardo Iván Morales
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas, Gerardo Iván Morales
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
D Esperanza was just thirteen years old when he lost his caregivers, his beloved grandmother and uncle. Since both of his parents were working and living in the United States, D was left on his own in a small town in Honduras. He quickly realized he simply could not make enough money to survive so he made the difficult decision to head north with his cousins and hopefully reunite with his parents in el norte. Together, the boys struggled to survive a long and treacherous journey through Central America and Mexico.
By: D. Esperanza, and others
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Wisdom Takes Work: Learn. Apply. Repeat.
- The Stoic Virtues Series
- By: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Of all the stoic virtues—courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom—wisdom is the most elusive. This is especially apparent in an age where reaction and idle chatter are rewarded, and restraint and thoughtfulness are unfashionable. The great statesman and philosophers of the past would not be fooled, as we are, by headlines or appearances or the primal pull of tribalism. They knew too much of history, of their own flaws, of the need for collaboration to do any of that. That's wisdom—and we need it more than ever.
By: Ryan Holiday
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Teacher by Teacher
- The People Who Change Our Lives
- By: John B. King Jr.
- Narrated by: Joshua Quinn, John B. King Jr.
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 3
The story of John B. King Jr.’s inspiring path to President Obama’s Cabinet begins the day that his mother died. He insisted on going to school that day, knowing he would find comfort in his classroom. As he navigated living alone with a father dying from undiagnosed Alzheimer’s, it was public school teachers who saved his life. King’s teachers believed in him and saw his potential. They made school a safe, supportive, and engaging place where King could be a kid despite the challenges at home.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An inspiring memoir
- By Aman on 05-05-25
By: John B. King Jr.
Excellent , absolutely thought proving
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Timing!
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Monotone, not read with feeling.
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