I first heard about Jocko Willink on the Joe Rogan Podcast, It’s also where I heard about Jordan Peterson. Jocko is an interesting guy. That’s me being polite. He’s a crazy person but in a good way. If you go to his Instagram, it’s mostly pictures of his watch showing how early he woke up to work out. It’s almost always around 4:30 am. On the podcast, he mentioned Extreme Ownership. I was intrigued.
I got the audiobook, not the book book. I’m glad I did. The authors took turns reading chapters from the books, and during the battle sequences there’d be sound effects. In all it made it an enjoyable experience. The only downside is that I could not take notes in the margins.
Jocko and Leif are retired Navy SEALS. Jocko was responsible for creating the leadership training program for the SEALS. After he retired, he began consulting companies from a leadership prospective. Each chapter in the book tells a story from both the battlefield and the corner office. Then uses both stories to emphasize a tenant of good leadership.
The title of the book, Extreme Ownership, gives away the overarching theme of the book. Each tenant/chapter of the book demonstrates a way in which ownership of something is vital to being a good leader. You get the gist of it after a few chapters.
I’m being a bit flippant, but there are great lessons in this book. Some of the examples are genuinely unintuitive ways of owning a problem and being more productive. The idea of leading people up the chain of command was something I had not thought of. You’re just as responsible for your leaders as you are your subordinates. But again the lesson
While I thought this book was good. Something I learned is that there is an army of people who live by this book. They particularly like Jocko. It’s an interesting subculture I did not know existed. Here’s the subreddit if you’re curious. Be careful, they’re loyal to a fault.