The Importance of Having Thick Skin - Jocko Willink and Jordan Peterson

one of the sections in the book you talk about I believe the person's name was lunch box lunch bucket right you know since we're talking about yeah work environments and there's that certain level of camaraderie you actually talk about the SEAL Teams in here yeah where you just have this it's like a non I've talked about this before in the SEAL Teams it's nonstop hyper verbal abuse aggression around the clock 24 hours day you're in a seal platoon like that's the that's life if any any mistake that you make any any display of weakness it's gonna be and then if you get all irritated about it the nicknames you talked about lunch bucket your nickname was howdy howdy doody and then - howdy which was which doesn't feel pretty good do it from Howdy Doody was just kind of so good how are you is kind of cool right is it Western yeah yeah but but the nicknames that would that that are in the SEAL Teams like I can't with good consciousness repeat them I'm sure because they're just they're just horror yeah horrible names but there's a camaraderie around that and there's also though as I was reading what you had written about these guys working on a rail ray where a crew yeah there's a test it's a test it's a test to see where you're at it's right you made us can we rely on you can you can you tolerate a little bit of irritation if the answer that is no it's like well maybe we don't want you around then because some irritating things are likely to come down the pipe yeah and it's it's not just it to me to me it proves if you've got someone that can take it right it's not just that they can take some random joking insults like they can they can take it they can take it now that's what you're testing for it's like can you take it lunch bucket couldn't write because people would laugh at his lunch bucket and he'd get all upset it's like well you have a stupid lunch bucket it's like you know your mum packed it how about it you laugh at yourself yeah my mom packed this I know it's kind of stupid that would've been the end of it he would just have to say that yeah it's like but I didn't want to hurt her feelings it's like oh okay you know fine you got your stupid lunch bucket and but no he couldn't handle that you know so yeah it was it was horrible and comical to watch at the same time because the level of and people have written me about that and they said oh you know poor lunch bucket it's like because they're all compassionate I think no no not poor lunch bucket it's like clue the hell in buddy you have your chance you know that was a desirable job that rail crew job in the summer because it was high-paying you know and they weren't easy to come by those jobs and so the fact that he got hired onto that crew is a real opportunity for him you could make a pile of money in the summer out working on the rail crew and all you had to do was take some ribbing with good grace not suck up to the management too badly and not have other people do your job that was all that was all you had to do but he couldn't do that and so he got run off and it was like grow the hell up buddy you know these guys or when a hundred people are teasing you then probably they're not wrong yeah when you are getting keys like that as well well when you when you when you stop reacting it's no longer fun yeah gives you an opportunity to tease back it's like this you can show your wit and one of the things that working-class guys in particular which is what one of the things I really loved about working class jobs is they're they're always looking for some humor so it's like if if person a is teasing person B that's kind of comical but if person B comes back with a good comeback it's like that's even better you know so I think that's a lot of how those jobs are rendered tolerable right it's they're they're hard dirty jobs dishwashers a good example that's not dangerous although cooking is you know you watch your step I got burned a lot when I was cooking but what makes those jobs not only tolerable but even desirable is that you can develop a tremendous amount of camaraderie around them I've never really experienced that at a professional level job that just doesn't happen the same way and it's really if there's a real loss in that so it's it's it's fun to be part of a team that's doing you know grubby hands on things and and having a ridiculously entertaining vicious cruel and evil time while you're doing it that's very entertaining the this new kids book I wrote so the kid mark he's getting made fun of by this he's a different kind of bully he's like a mental belief that that verbally abuses people and he gets called plate face by this character and to it eventually gets in trouble for throwing or something at the kid because he's called him plate face plate but eventually way he befriends the kid is by he they have to do a self-portrait class he draws a picture of himself looking like a plate and he shows it again the kid laughs and all the sudden they're buddies and it's like that's what you do you take away that you take away the joy of of being so heated and irritated by people that are making fun of you and you just kill it right you Jitsu in some sense well I had an experience with that about three years ago I'd put my videos up online and people kept saying that I sounded like Kermit well one person said it and I thought well whatever but then like five people said it and I thought oh my god like this Kermit thing so then I went and listened to Kermit it's like really I really sound like Kermit you know and so then well then I started to play with it a little bit you know I used the puppet mm-hmm when I when I went to speak to University students and I made frog jokes and then I made a video videos that sort of featured me as a frog and it means crazy right it's ridiculous but but that's and but but the teasing never got mean because of that you know and the same things happened online to a larger degree as people keep making memes of me like and there's I don't know there's lots of them there's way too many to even keep track of and I was watching that happen and I thought okay this is a good thing because there's humor and wherever there's humor that's a good thing and they're making fun of me but it's gentle you know most of it was pokey you know like well you sound like this damn puppet what do you think about it's like well if I had to pick someone to sound like probably wouldn't be a puppet but if it had to be a puppet Kermit's not a bad one it could be a lot worse I couldn't be Miss Piggy I couldn't be not you know so thank God that didn't happen but the memes have never got vicious because you know I'll post them if they're funny and satirical and then they won't get vicious because they don't have to it's like can we poke fun at you it's like yeah please do and what the more the really because that'll also help keep my feet on the ground and keep me awake and plus it's funny and like one of the things about life is that a sense of humor that's a good thing to to arm yourself with because sometimes you just don't have anything other than that

Channel: Jocko Podcast

Views: 1,705,371

Keywords: thick skin, tough, advice, friendship, jocko podcast, jordan peterson, teasing, teams, discipline, freedom, leadership, human nature, success, goals, sensitivity, sensitivity training, extreme ownership, responsibility

Id: futHL4W4E4s

Length: 6min 54sec (414 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 23 2018