Jocko Willink shares what it takes to succeed in a mission

[Music] when I got home from Iraq and the bottle of Ramadi in 2006 I felt pretty good I felt pretty good about what we did I brought home some pride pride about the way we fought pride about the way we were able to help the Army and the Marine Corps stabilize and secure the city of Ramadi and that felt pretty good but I also brought home a burden especially from a leadership perspective because when you're flying back here to San Diego and you know you're gonna see your friends again and you know you're gonna see your family again and you know you're just gonna go ahead and carry on with the rest of your life and at the same time you also know that you didn't bring home all your men and that's something you're gonna have to live with and that's something that's not gonna go away and that burden it drove me it drove me to want to train and teach what I learned on the battlefield to the next generation of seals and so when I got home I took over the training for the West Coast SEAL Teams not the training where you see guys carrying boats on their heads and carrying logs around not that training but the training where seals learn to shoot move and communicate the training where seals learn to close with and destroy the enemy and the training where seals learn about combat leadership and the training that I took over we wanted it to simulate combat we wanted it to be as close as it could possibly be to combat and we went through great lengths to make that happen we had paintball guns we had high-speed simunition which is like you use your real gun but it shoots paint and then on top of that we got a multi-million dollar laser tag system that had little speakers next to your head and when you're getting shot at by other guys would make little noises and there was a GPS tracker in there so when you got done with an operation you could replay where everyone was you can see what they did and who they shot and that was better but it wasn't quite there yet we went and hired set designers to come down to our training sites and make those training sites look like Iraq or Afghanistan that wasn't good enough though we brought in special effects people with pyrotechnics and we brought in actors and actresses and so what would happen is a seal platoon would come into a room and boom a big explosion would happen and they'd get hit in the face with pieces of foam and there be smoke in there and then they'd look down on the ground where they'd hear screaming and there'd be a guy on the ground with no leg and there'd be blood spraying all over the place and that would be an amputee actor and that would be fake blood and then another door would open up and I would walk three middle-aged - Arabic women and they'd be screaming at the top of their lungs and I start shooting everyone with paintballs that's the training that I ran and the training was hard I mean it was borderline psychotic but we wanted it to be close to combat and when we put these seal platoons through the training a lot of times they'd fail they fail and when I watch this leadership going through this training it really crystallized lessons for me and one of the lessons that really got crystallized for me was as I watched the contrast between a good seal leader and a bad seal leader you take a bad co-leader we would take a bad co-leader we take his platoon we put him through one of these training evolutions and they get crushed and he'd be a miserable failure and we'd pull these guys back into the debriefing room and once we got him back in there I'd pull the commander up to the front of the room and I'd say that was a horrible failure what happened and a bad co-leader a bad co-leader would stand up and say I'll tell you what happened first of all the assault team commander he didn't bring enough people for the mission that's pathetic he didn't do a good target study and then the mobility commander here in charge of the Humvees he didn't even know where to come pick us up that's the only piece of information he needed and he didn't have it that's an embarrassment and then the assault team here they moved like molasses through that target they were pathetic in fact whoever trained them is pathetic so if we're going to do any better they need to fix themselves he needs to fix himself and he needs a square himself away and I'd be sitting there listening to that and as you could see a little bit of a curious debrief right little curious right because none of it was my fault no it was his fault and it was his fault and it was their fault now what happens when I point my finger at you or I point my finger at you or I put my finger at anyone in this room and I start to blame you for something what's your natural reaction that's right you get defensive we get defensive and what happens when people get defensive they start pointing the finger at someone else and then that person points the finger at someone else and pretty soon what you have is a whole team where everyone is pointing the fingers at the other person no one on the team is taking ownership of the problems and therefore the problems do not get solved and that team is going to be a disaster and they're gonna stay that way now if we take a good co-leader a good seal leader we put him out on the same training operation and they failed just as miserable they do just as horrible of a job and we bring them back to base and we bring him into the debriefing room and we sit him down and I bring the leader up to the front row and I say okay boss that was horrible that was a miserable failure what went wrong and a good seal leader a good seal leader he'd stand up and say let me tell you what I saw from my perspective first of all the assault team leader here I didn't give you the assets that you needed I should have sat down with you and done a better target study so that make sure you had the people that you needed next time I will do that that's my fault the mobility commander here in charge of the Humvees you didn't know where to come pick us up somehow you came to my brief that I'm responsible for and I failed to convey to you the one piece of information that you needed to conduct this operation not only did you not know no one on your team knew I failed you I failed a team and I won't let it happen again next time we will lock eyes and we'll make sure you have that information and then the assault team over here took took you all a long time to clear the target way too long and I think what happened is I gave you time to do rehearsals but I actually didn't go out and do an either walkthroughs with you and make sure that you understood the complexities of the target and how you are going to handle those complexities on the target next time I'm gonna get with you I'm gonna make sure I come out and do at least a couple rehearsals with you to make sure you all are good to go so those are the things that I'm gonna fix for the next operation so we can do a better job now totally different attitude right totally different attitude now let me ask you this does the team now point their fingers at me and say that's right choco it's all your fault do they do that no they don't do that no what happens is the assault team leader says hey boss you know what you you got a lot of stuff that you've got going on for these missions I'm in charge of the target I rounded down the number of people I was going to bring I will never make that mistake again from now on I'll always round up and I will always have the people I need for the target that's my fault and it won't happen again and then the mobility commander says boss we needed one piece of information for the target we needed one piece of information for this operation and I didn't have it that's embarrassing for me and I promise you it'll never happen again guaranteed 100% and then the assault force they say boss you know what you gave us enough time to do 20 rehearsals and we did three you don't need to hold our hands you don't need to babysit us we will step up and we will make this right that's what happens and now what we end up with is a team where every single person on the team is taking ownership of the problems and when every person on the team takes ownership of the problems the problems get solved and when you have that kind of attitude inside your organization that is when your team will become exceptional now I've shared this concept and this idea with all kinds of people in all kinds of companies military police law enforcement businesses sports teams all over the place and as I talked about taking ownership of things you know when I get done talking to people I'll get done and someone will come up to me and they'll say hey you know I I really liked what you said about about ownership now if I could just get my team to take ownership we'd be good to go and then someone else will come up to me and say hey hey I really liked what you said about ownership that was really cool man I appreciate it and I I really hope my co-workers heard you because if they would just take ownership we'd be good to go and then someone will come up to me and say hey man I really like that whole thing about extreme ownership and I really hope that my boss was listening but if I could just get my boss to take ownership we'd be good to go and then I always have to make it crystal clear to them that I'm not talking about their team and I'm not talking about their co-workers and I'm not talking their boss I'm talking about you I'm talking about you the only person that you can actually control you that's who has to take ownership that's who has to step up own everything and lead now I started this by talking about the burden the burden of leadership especially that burden when you're coming home from combat deployments but I want you to know something when I talk about that burden I'm not talking about a hinderance I'm not talking about that burden being a weight that that holds you down I'm not talking about that burden being an affliction that you have to suffer through that's not what the burden is what that burden is is a reminder that bourbon is a reminder every day of what real sacrifice is that burden is a reminder every day that life this life that we all have it's a gift it's a gift that we've been given by those that did not return and it's a reminder it's a reminder that we all of us we all have to step up and we have to shoulder that burden and the way you shoulder that burden is by living and leading a life that honors those brave souls that did not come home so that's what that's what we all need to do is step up step up to the hard work step up and shoulder that burden and live live your life for them that is my message for this evening answer that immediately thank you and I think they wanted me to take a few questions if there's any questions all right we got a first question right here hello sir name is Joshua Tovar active-duty Air Force you know respectfully I know that your persona and everything that you are everything that we're learning from you through your books podcasts interviews and such is there something that was a catalyst for you to learn these principles before you got to that point of clarity in ramadi are there prior life experiences something that molded you in shaped you and to help you understand what you understand now and what now you're imparting onto us well first of all I'm still learning and I'm still learning all the time and and I'll tell you something what what happened to me as I look back is when I was young I was I enlisted in the Navy out of high school that was the youngest guy in my first I was a youngest and most junior guy in my first two SEAL platoons and what I was doing was I was looking at my leaders and I was watching him and I was paying attention to what they were doing and I was paying attention to why we liked this guy and why we wanted to follow this guy but why we didn't like this guy we didn't want to follow him the biggest characteristic I notice of that was guys that were humble we wanted to follow guys that were arrogant we didn't want to follow but that was one of many many little lessons and I paid attention to once I moved into a leadership position I knew that all those guys they were watching me they were paying attention to me and I had to think about the way that they were gonna react to what I was doing and I knew that my job was to lead these guys and I knew that they were taking notes and they were monitoring and they were testing and if I was arrogant they weren't gonna follow me and if I thought I knew everything they weren't gonna follow me I'm not saying I couldn't be confident cuz yeah you have to be confident there's a balanced dichotomy leadership right but you have to pay attention to those around you to the people that work for you the people that work that you work for and you monitor what they're doing and you process what you would follow and what you wouldn't and then you emulate that that's what I did and that's what I'm most importantly still doing today well any other questions you got them right here okay thank you so much for coming um Hieu Tran and I think I speak for pretty much everyone here that you have essentially set the standard for discipline and just really getting after a goal in the modern era but with that said that's a real bold statement all right let's just take it easy out there he just said I set the standard for the modern era that's not even a thing bro hey you're an icon to me so I feel like a lot of people feel the same way the reason I only say that to set up my question because there are times when a lot of us try and get after it charge hard get after a goal and there gets that that time to when we feel tired maybe even like we're past our breaking point and it's hard to figure out hey when is it a good time to rest joy know it's good for myself as opposed to being lazy and I want to know how you figure out that balance yeah I have a pragmatic solution to this that I have actually talked about which is like if I'm tired today if I wake up in the morning it's 4:30 and I'm like man I am wicked tired and I don't feel like doing this today what I do is I note it down in my head like okay you were tired then I go do it anyways and if I'm tired the next day if the next day I say the same thing then I'm like okay you know what that's two days in a row your workout was weak I'm paying attention and like okay guess what you need to you need a little downtime that's that's the way I do it I won't accept like the one thing in the world I'll procrastinate is procrastination thank you if I want to take a day off it's like okay the other thing about this is is you know this idea of quitting right this idea of quitting and never quitting and people can confuse that because if I'm in charge or if I'm in charge of a squad and it's like hey we're gonna we're gonna go assault that that bunker on the top of the hill okay there's a bunker on top of hill with a machine gun in it my squad we're gonna go assault it if we charge uphill to an elevated position I know there's a lot of vets in here what's gonna happen okay yeah two or three of us get killed like that you know what we never quit go again two or three more guys died go again everyone's dead did I never quit I never quit did I fail my mission yes I did so you have to keep track of like what's my long-term goal my long-term goal isn't to take that machine-gun nest it's to win the war so if you're doing something on a daily basis and you start feeling casualties you need to assess yourself and say you know you can have a business idea and I've talked to a bunch of people like this they got that business idea in their mindsets I'm never gonna quit well then they're running out of money not just money for their business money for their family and it's like okay hey if you've got it what what adjustments can you make strategically cuz the pattern that you're going right now if you keep charging up that hill with that business the way you are everyone dies if you say you know what time for a tactical retreat time for me to step back time for me to call up some firepower to come and help drop some bombs on this target or get some fire support whatever the case may be so keep that in mind as well I you know everyone's got their own little endurance level don't smoke yourself out you're no good your combat ineffective you can't do that so be careful with it that being said can get after it of course there's a dichotomy right you got to find that balance awesome all right what other questions any other quick we got one more all right Rudy we got a mic for you brother brother knowing ya when do you take that tactical pause I damn sure don't believe you've ever had a tactical retreat but maybe a tactical pause and you know get a little sit a little sitrep and then remar shil how important is to keep the momentum because I don't think you've ever lost momentum brother and that's why you're so successful well I'll tell you this is a good point people ask me all the time like hey do you ever take days off and my answer is I take days off I don't schedule them but days off happen why because life happens right sick kid water heater breaks you know car has a flat tire can't can't get where I'm supposed to be boom guess what you just bought yourself a day a downtime now like travel day if you got I get some flights that are or whatever they can leave here at 6:15 in the morning from San Diego and sometimes I had a late night for me to get up at 3:30 to get a workout in it's actually counterproductive I'm smoking myself so then I'll be like okay guess what you just got a day off it just came that being said people also asked me what do you do when you're sick what do you do when you're tired you know what and this is a real simple answer do what you can but you Rudy you just tell me you didn't have a chance to workout today you're in the in the room over there doing push-ups why do what you can you maintain that discipline people want to sleep in on the weekends negative negative don't sleep in on the weekends the weekends when you got to hold the line the weekends when you got to hold the line if you sleep in on the weekend till 5:45 well then guess what at night you're all the sudden you have a little extra energy so you stay up a little later so then Sunday morning you sleep in till 6:30 now Monday rolls around that alarm goes off at 4:30 you don't feel like doing it and you start this downward spiral right now hey people look don't get me wrong all right you got to sleep you got to sleep sleep is very healthy it's good for you what I am saying you don't need to get up at 4:30 you don't need to do that people have different schedules you got your life going on you got to figure out what works for you but I am absolutely saying don't be lazy I am absolutely saying get on up get on a regular pattern and maintain that pattern to the best of your ability it's hard I know it's hard I just was working with a company and we were talking about discipline so little kids right little kids and this is for the business people how many people are like involved in a start-up right now they're starting up right cool so a start-up is like a little kid right it's got all this potential it's got all this potential what happens with a little kid that never gets disciplined yeah little kids that don't get disciplined turning to Satan that's what happens and guess what now in the beginning like a start up like a baby when you got a baby you got to do everything for it in the beginning you got to hold its head you got to make sure everything's perfect the way so whatever it takes to get that thing keep that thing alive you got to do it but once that thing starts to expand well then you better start imposing some discipline on it or else that thing will turn into Satan all right anything else right I think that's it and before you leave we wanted to present with you a unique coin made for you on behalf of Laser ladies here and clever talks in the Mark Cuban foundation Zack you'd like to present mr. jackal will link a coin thank you for being with us we greatly appreciate your service thank you last thing Hey I know there's a lot of veterans in here thank to you all for what you all have done and for what you're continuing to do now go out and crush it we'll talk to you all later thank you thank you Jocko willing

Channel: CleverTalks

Views: 26,147

Keywords: crush it, jocko willink, clever talks, clvr talks, clvr, san diego, success, motivation, veterans, military, navy seal, navy seals

Id: R66oKq55gGg

Length: 27min 11sec (1631 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 11 2018