The last 6 or so months I've been listening to the Jocko Podcast religiously. Jocko is a retired US Navy SEAL, enlisted at around age 18, went to OCS and retired as a Lieutenant Commander in the SEAL teams, spending 20 years with them. If you haven't checked it out, here's the iTunes link. I highly recommend it, him and his co-host(s) pick apart a historical event/book and discuss the leadership teaching points in them and how it ties back to his time on the teams and for business management.
Anyways, he talks about his business now, called Echelon Front. Essentially, him and a few other combat vets who held leadership positions do leadership and management consulting for businesses and they've been at it for a while. I was just curious to see if anyone has had experience with it at their job and if so how was it.
Damn good stuff
I believe in Jocko. Dude is legit. And leadership skills can be the same from industry to industry. And being able to overcome the worst experiences ever (leading a SEAL Team in Ramadi and having blue on blue casualties) gives him the credibility to say anything about business leadership. I don’t have experience with his program, but I enjoy his podcast and book.
Yeah Jocko is a motivator.
My brother was team lead for his BUD/S class in the 90s, then led a decorated military career getting out as a Captain (he finished in the Navy Reserves as the CO of a SEAL team) and tells me zilch.
The dude says nothing. I wish he was more like Jocko ... haha.....
brother is a fighter pilot. strength and honor
That's pretty cool your bro was a CO of a SEAL team! My colleague an IB analyst just quit to train for BUD/S... he's a former D1 athlete but i dont think he's seriously trained in 2-3 years. Do you think he's a bold lad or a dumb one?
Go get some. -JW
It bugs me and confuses me how these self-improvement people like Jocko, E.T, Gary V have a massive following. The stuff they say is 80% common sense, things that we should know from our experiences or that our parents should have taught us.
But on the other hand, it's 2018 and I'm not particularly surprised that there are hundreds of millions of people who need this advice.
You are clearly not on "the path" lol. In all seriousness, yes. A good amount is common sense when he speaks of stuff relating to yourself. His leadership stuff though is good and as someone who has led teams (military and civilian) it is always good to have those principles re-told to you, especially the way Jocko and his guests do it via his podcasts and books.
simple, not easy
Simple yes, but not easy. "common sense" is rarely all that common. If you've ever managed people, then what Jocko says will make more sense. It sounds easy to say how you'll manage and motivate people. Doing so,... MUCH harder. It's easy to think that if you have a dumb analyst/associate you should just fire them. But then what? Maybe the next associate will be worse. Instead, how can you take that under-achiever and mold them into a better professional? Jocko talked about an under-performer that he had, in Task Team Bruiser. He was frustrated. Then he had an idea, and every day gave the guy a post-it note of what he needed to do that day. The dude did those tasks. Then Jocko stopped giving him sticky notes and said "now you need to give ME a sticky note of what you're going to do today." That's how he shaped that under-performing team member. Simple? yes. Easy? no. Good technique to make note of? Yes.
Can agree with you both WidespreadPanic90 , StaphyBone
These principles are simple but not easy and it is important to remind oneself every now and then.
It's just so weird to me how overgrown adults start to idol-worship, acting like they're listening to the gospel. Makes you wonder what type of life they have been leading for the past X years.
I don't know who ET is & I really cant listen to gary v but yes, gary seems to have a large following. I don't think much of what he says makes sense and is a little click bait, social media scheme, esche.
I've seen some people really fan boy over jocko. But I would not put Jocko on the same plane as gary v.
kayz08 you're 100% right. Ironically, I actually found out about Jocko though some insufferable Jocko fanboys at my BJJ gym. They almost act like they were in SEAL teams though Jocko's stories, its kinda sad and pathetic. Jocko and his partners put on conferences open to the public (at a hefty cost) on leadership and stuff. I can not begin to imagine the amount of insecurity in the air for those events. However, his podcasts and books are great and makes my commute 100x better. Makes me want to get after it.
which are your favorites? I just started D=F.
yeah can't really lump in jocko with those other guys, because he's just an intense motherfucker. he would get up at 430am and do squats if the internet didn't exist, he doesn't need to broadcast like some of these other motivational people. I think he just found that it's a good platform to motivate others, give back, and tangentially help his business, can't fault a guy for that.
other "gurus" posts: 200 takes, endless hashtags, promoting their products/services, something to sell, something to click on, definitely edited
jocko: black and white, pool of sweat next to some kettlebells or barbells, with the caption "GET AFTER IT" no sales pitch, no hashtags, just him showing that he's putting in the work with no agenda other than to better himself.
we could all benefit from being a little more disciplined, and that may be why you're so upset. don't think of this as all of a sudden people are turning their life around because some retired SEAL says "MORE BURPEES," it's just maybe that extra umph you need to stay disciplined. it's kinda like stephen covey saying "sharpen the saw." no one is perfect, and jocko's incredible discipline is just something to aspire to in every man's quest to get better.
It's not about what he does, I have no clue what most of these people do because I don't follow them. Most I've done is listen to one interview of each, whilst playing video games. If jocko does situps 04:30am, good for him. I know discipline is vital, I used to be really into sports.
What bugs me is the idol worship. I've personally experienced fundamentalism in religion, I saw people look at other men as demi-gods, the way they let these men control their minds.
I'm not hating on the wisdom. There's just no need to idolise someone just because he's a "good guy" or said some clever stuff (which isn't really groundbreaking when you really look into it).
if someone worships jocko, then yeah that's harmful, I read into your comment more than I should've, I read it like you were upset that people admire them, and there's nothing wrong with admiration in the context of self improvement
I completely agree, it's good to admire people who are doing good, Jocko has mad immense sacrifices, I respect that and only wish more success to him.
It's just there's no man on this earth I'd wait in line for over 10min, just for a signature/selfie... unless it was Hideo Kojima ofc
you've given me a good thread idea: who's worth waiting in line for a 10 second interaction?
neil degrasse tyson? margot robbie? obama? the queen of spain? gandhi?
I think you'd expand your list...
Lol, what can you even do with 10 seconds? A handshake and a hug?
Handshake, autograph, kiss, motorboat, selfie, whatever
Sure go for it. Interested to find out the handshake:motorboat ratio in the comment section.
And whatever deviant stuff MonacoMonkey can conjure up.
you were going to motorboat Gandhi weren't you, playa?
Have you read Extreme Discipline ?
Don't know if there's a book called extreme discipline, if you mean extreme ownership, no I haven't
I like Jocko. I think he's a great guy with an incredible background. That said, I'm not sure there's as much carry over of military experience to business experience as many people think, especially if that military experience is with a special forces unit like the SEALs. SEALs are a tight-knit group of elite men who operate in situations where lives are on the line. Most businesses are a group of loosely affiliated, somewhat indifferent people whose day-to-day is fairly mundane. What works for the former may not necessarily work as well for the latter.
I'm also not a huge fan of forcing yourself to do hard things just to do hard things (e.g. get up at 4:30 am to do a thousand burpees). I much prefer to figure out ways to make hard things easy. More sustainable.
I'll be the voice of dissent here, cause I think the whole "military leadership applied to the business world" is mostly a fad. Most of the basic points (wake up early, show up, hold hands etc) we heard from the kindergarten. The more advanced "setups" don't really apply to the normal world, since most of corporate "leadership" is either office politics or culture-shaping, not leading people into a life and death situation. For example, there is zero probability you can form the same bond with your superiors as you would if you spend a week in the same fox hole. Nor would you want to, in the modern "here today, gone tomorrow" environment.
Good point. The bonds in the military and law enforcement are built to last, unlike the "here today, gone tomorrow" environment.
If you guys think Jocko is intense you clearly haven't heard of David fucking Goggins. Goggins is also a former SEAL, passed Ranger school, runs 100 miles marathon relays all by himself, and went through BUDS 3 times failing it his first 2 attempts destroying his body in the process just to get his foot in the door for SEAL training. Guy is the epitome of mind over matter.
Give this podcast a listen, 2 hours long but his story is so fucking motto it'll draw you in and you'll realize this motherfucker ain't no man, he's a machine.
Very inspired by Goggins. Talk about turning your life around, right?
Actually I think leadership is leadership. While leadership in military and business world is not identical they sure as heck are highly correlated. Because it's all about leading and motivating people. There isn't the same sense of brotherhood in the business world as in military, sure. And in the military you're career branch, rather than an at-will employee. In a downturn, the company boots you out, in military it's more of a 20 year gig. But that aside, it's still about motivating people ,and trust me, money is rarely enough of a motivator in either. Jocko talks about getting people to believe in a mission - in something bigger than themselves. He talks about how to deal with under-performers, how to reward high-achievers, and how to take full personal ownership of a task/mission/objective. Too often in business people are phoning it in. Pushing blame on to others. I'm sure military can suffer from that too. Jocko has experience running a task force. He's led under extreme conditions. He's seen good and bad leaders above and below him, and is offering a candid assessment of what he sees are common traits. Jocko is great because he is able to figure out what the traits and behaviors of good leadership are. I've applied those in my role running a team in business.
"If you want loyalty hire a cocker spaniel" (c). The reason why too many people in business "phone it in" etc is because the incentives are aligned that way. If a company is likely to get rid of you in a downturn, you are probably going to be equally loyal to the company. If you fuck up, you're out on your ass while the company keeps chugging along. That means that your business and/or risk management decisions are going to be such as to benefit yourself more than the company. Take myself, for example - while I like the fund I am working for, I know that I am here for only as long as I am within my PnL/risk limits and adhere to their idea of a mandate. So the fund management also knows that the moment I'll see a better deal (which is a complex issue, not just payout), I'll switch without blinking an eye.
Motivating people in finance is very easy :)
In the words of Jocko, "Good"
Good vid, right?
It's like adrenaline in a can
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