What do you think?
Rate this book
Seconds to Live or Die: Life-Saving Lessons from a Former CIA Officer
We never know when violence might be visited upon us—at home, in the workplace, at school—anywhere. Crime, sexual assaults, threats to our children, and terrorist attacks are all part of the global landscape.
There are concrete measures anyone can take to mitigate danger and if necessary, to fight like a sociopath to defeat a sociopath.
Robert Montgomery wrote Seconds to Live or Die to help you prevail in the face of unexpected violence. Drawing on his experiences as a career CIA officer, Robert offers up proven methods in self-protection for you and your family at home, on the street, and abroad.
By practicing what you read in this book, you can learn to control fear, hone your situational awareness, and when the unimaginable happens, cycle through denial, deliberation, and into action to effectively fight for your life—irrespective of gender, experience, or physical ability. In violence, every fraction of a second can mean the difference between finding yourself above dirt—or six feet under.
There are concrete measures anyone can take to mitigate danger and if necessary, to fight like a sociopath to defeat a sociopath.
Robert Montgomery wrote Seconds to Live or Die to help you prevail in the face of unexpected violence. Drawing on his experiences as a career CIA officer, Robert offers up proven methods in self-protection for you and your family at home, on the street, and abroad.
By practicing what you read in this book, you can learn to control fear, hone your situational awareness, and when the unimaginable happens, cycle through denial, deliberation, and into action to effectively fight for your life—irrespective of gender, experience, or physical ability. In violence, every fraction of a second can mean the difference between finding yourself above dirt—or six feet under.
278 pages, Paperback
Published August 18, 2020
About the author
Robert Montgomery
1 bookBook Description
We never know when violence might be visited upon us—at home, in the workplace, at school—anywhere. Crime, sexual assaults, threats to our children, and terrorist attacks are all part of the global landscape.
There are concrete measures anyone can take to mitigate danger and if necessary, to fight like a sociopath to defeat a sociopath.
Robert Montgomery wrote Seconds to Live or Die to help you prevail in the face of unexpected violence. Drawing on his experiences as a career CIA Officer, Robert offers up proven methods in self-protection for you and your family at home, on the street, and abroad.
By practicing what you read in this book, you can learn to control fear, hone your situational awareness, and when the unimaginable happens, cycle through denial, deliberation, and into action to effectively fight for your life—irrespective of gender, experience, or physical ability. In violence, every fraction of a second can mean the difference between finding yourself above dirt—or six feet under.
Author Bio
ROBERT MONTGOMERY was an Operations Officer in the CIA for thirty-four years and served in some of the most dangerous locales on the planet. He’s also a former Marine and the founder of Guard Well Defense, LLC. Robert teaches training courses such as “Combatives for Women,” “Improvised Weapons,” and “Street Smarts for Students and Business Persons” designed to help anyone mitigate and deal with unexpected violence. He is the father of six wonderful children and husband to an amazing wife.
We never know when violence might be visited upon us—at home, in the workplace, at school—anywhere. Crime, sexual assaults, threats to our children, and terrorist attacks are all part of the global landscape.
There are concrete measures anyone can take to mitigate danger and if necessary, to fight like a sociopath to defeat a sociopath.
Robert Montgomery wrote Seconds to Live or Die to help you prevail in the face of unexpected violence. Drawing on his experiences as a career CIA Officer, Robert offers up proven methods in self-protection for you and your family at home, on the street, and abroad.
By practicing what you read in this book, you can learn to control fear, hone your situational awareness, and when the unimaginable happens, cycle through denial, deliberation, and into action to effectively fight for your life—irrespective of gender, experience, or physical ability. In violence, every fraction of a second can mean the difference between finding yourself above dirt—or six feet under.
Author Bio
ROBERT MONTGOMERY was an Operations Officer in the CIA for thirty-four years and served in some of the most dangerous locales on the planet. He’s also a former Marine and the founder of Guard Well Defense, LLC. Robert teaches training courses such as “Combatives for Women,” “Improvised Weapons,” and “Street Smarts for Students and Business Persons” designed to help anyone mitigate and deal with unexpected violence. He is the father of six wonderful children and husband to an amazing wife.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 15, 2022
"I liked it." - 3 out of 5 star rating.
The title says it all, this is a survival book from a former CIA Officer and US Marine.
Respectably strong opener with terrorism around the world emphasis. Creates the landscape for preparing for the worst, being prepared, and taking active measures to protect yourself and your family.
Some highlights/favorite takeaways:
- Headphone's in public. Paints a target on you by removing your sense of hearing and weakening you.
- Phone blindness. Pretty much the same as above, except a lot more common. You'd be amazed at what I see at playgrounds and parks with parents not even watching their kids and nose deep in their screen. Not wise.
- Author fires off a statistic on ~140 women a day between the ages of 12 to 23 get sexually assaulted a day. Very sad and globally, it's probably true.
- "No one gets dressed by accident." This goes two ways:
-- 1) Women dressing excessively provocatively and then putting themselves in positions of high risk, like dark places, with drugs and alcohol involved, in the late night hours, etc. My thoughts... what does the predator do, when it sees the irresistible prey? They attack. Should women be able to wear whatever they want without being targets? Well, like it or not, we live in a world where evil men don't adhere to whatever values and morals others may... and you are literally putting yourself on display like meat in the glass at the butcher shop. Again, "no one gets dressed by accident."
-- 2) If he's wearing a hoodie to the point of it's essentially a mask, underwear exposed aka 'sagging', etc... go with your gut instinct. Don't walk down the dark ally, go into the elevator alone, or put yourself in a position of weakness that can be exploited.
- Open carry vs concealed carry debate. I agree with the author 100% here.
- Go-bags, first aid kits, etc.
There's a lot more to the book, but these were the ones I took little notes on. Overall the author does a good job covering mostly all of the important topics within life or death situations, both before, during, and after.
Finally, the author closed strong with a great finisher too. I sadly cannot give this above a 3 though, because it did not really introduce anything remarkably new to me. Not only have I read many books within this genre, I was also in the Army for 12 years... so a lot of this material is refresher or just a different perspective for a topic I have been heavily exposed to. This is a good book though, don't get me wrong... just no way I could give it a 4 or a 5.
The title says it all, this is a survival book from a former CIA Officer and US Marine.
Respectably strong opener with terrorism around the world emphasis. Creates the landscape for preparing for the worst, being prepared, and taking active measures to protect yourself and your family.
Some highlights/favorite takeaways:
- Headphone's in public. Paints a target on you by removing your sense of hearing and weakening you.
- Phone blindness. Pretty much the same as above, except a lot more common. You'd be amazed at what I see at playgrounds and parks with parents not even watching their kids and nose deep in their screen. Not wise.
- Author fires off a statistic on ~140 women a day between the ages of 12 to 23 get sexually assaulted a day. Very sad and globally, it's probably true.
- "No one gets dressed by accident." This goes two ways:
-- 1) Women dressing excessively provocatively and then putting themselves in positions of high risk, like dark places, with drugs and alcohol involved, in the late night hours, etc. My thoughts... what does the predator do, when it sees the irresistible prey? They attack. Should women be able to wear whatever they want without being targets? Well, like it or not, we live in a world where evil men don't adhere to whatever values and morals others may... and you are literally putting yourself on display like meat in the glass at the butcher shop. Again, "no one gets dressed by accident."
-- 2) If he's wearing a hoodie to the point of it's essentially a mask, underwear exposed aka 'sagging', etc... go with your gut instinct. Don't walk down the dark ally, go into the elevator alone, or put yourself in a position of weakness that can be exploited.
- Open carry vs concealed carry debate. I agree with the author 100% here.
- Go-bags, first aid kits, etc.
There's a lot more to the book, but these were the ones I took little notes on. Overall the author does a good job covering mostly all of the important topics within life or death situations, both before, during, and after.
Finally, the author closed strong with a great finisher too. I sadly cannot give this above a 3 though, because it did not really introduce anything remarkably new to me. Not only have I read many books within this genre, I was also in the Army for 12 years... so a lot of this material is refresher or just a different perspective for a topic I have been heavily exposed to. This is a good book though, don't get me wrong... just no way I could give it a 4 or a 5.
November 26, 2021
If you can reach an attacker’s face aim for the eyes. And the least safest place in a hotel room is ironically its safety box.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews