Goggins differentiates Never Finished from self-help books that offer generic, feel-good roadmaps to personal improvement, the benefits of which are often insufficient and transient. He instead advocates the cultivation of deep-seated belief. Belief is achieved by facing personal challenges and failures until proven resilience destroys all doubt.

Goggins describes a 1950s experiment in which a scientist placed rats in glass containers of water and found they only briefly paddled or explored, drowning in less than 15 minutes. Next, the scientist dropped rats into water but then removed them and allowed them to rest until their pulses and breathing rates calmed. When returned to the pool, this group swam for an average of 60 hours. The experiment’s common interpretation is that it shows the power of hope; the second group of rats were once rescued, so they kept swimming in the hope that they would be again. Goggins, however, believes that while hope might have initially caused the rats to try harder, the experience of swimming longer infused confidence and resilience that kept them going. That is, they had belief.

Goggins states that great accomplishments do not require great starting potential.