Author: Jocko Willink & Leif Babin
tl;dr: There are a lot of SEAL books out there, this one is universally revered as the best amongst the SEAL community. All of the former team guys say this one is the most legit. Why? Because Jocko and Leif are genuinely trying to make the world a better place with this book.
Every chapter is a principle they learned while serving in the SEAL teams. Offering anecdotes primarily from their time fighting the Battle of Ramadi, one of the bloodiest in the Iraq War. They now run a consulting firm, Echelon Front, that applies those principles in the real world. So each chapter has an ‘application to business’, with a real life story.
Different principles of leadership such as ‘simple’ and ‘there are no bad teams, only bad leaders’ are a gold mine. But the real value comes from the overarching principle of the book: take ownership of everything to an extreme. Even when thing’s aren’t in your control, take ownership and you’ll be better for it.
The obvious question is how? If it’s going to storm, that’s not something you can control. Well, if you take extreme ownership you’ll re-frame it, and realize that what you can control is packing rain gear and dry clothes in advance. This mentality will lead to results, plain and simple.
The book should be required reading in high schools across America.
Oh, and be disciplined.
Amazon: Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win
First published on May 23, 2020