900 Motivational Jocko Willink Quotes: Successful Leadership
1. “Don’t ask yourself ‘Why Me’? Instead, ask yourself ‘What am I going to do about it?” – Jocko Willink
2. “If you don’t think you are disciplined: It is because you haven’t decided to be disciplined. Yet.”
3. “If you continue to keep low performers on your team, that are actually dragging the team down; you’re failing the whole team, and eventually, the whole team is going to fail.” – Jocko Willink
4. “When things are going bad, there’s going to be some good that’s going to come from it.”~Jocko Willink
5. “Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished—you will likely fall short.” – Jocko Willink
6. “A leader must be attentive to details but not obsessed by them.”
7. “Leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities, between one extreme and another.” – Jocko Willink
8. Step aggressively towards your fear – that is the step into bravery.
9. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour.
10. “I had to take complete ownership of what went wrong. That is what a leader does — even if it means getting fired. If anyone was to be blamed and fired for what happened, let it be me.”
11. “The grind doesn’t stop just because it’s Saturday.”
12. “It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.” – Jocko Willink
13. “When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.”~Jocko Willink
14. “Stop checking social media and stop watching one more Youtube video.” – Jocko Willink
15. Be indifferent to where you live.
16. “Things won’t get better dwelling on the past. Accept what has happened. Then move forward.”~Jocko Willink
17. “Such concepts are simple, but not easy,”
18. “The shortcut is a lie. The hack doesn’t get you there. And if you want to take the easy road, it won’t take you to where you want to be: Stronger. Smarter. Faster. Healthier. Better. FREE.”
19. If you're not active throughout the day you won't be tired.
20. “If frontline troops are unclear about the plan and yet are too intimidated to ask questions, the team’s ability to effectively execute the plan radically decreases.”
21. “Get creative. Get aggressive. Get it done. When you are on the road, STAY ON THE PATH.”
22. “The leader bears full responsibility for explaining the strategic mission, developing the tactics, and securing the training and resources to enable the team to properly and successfully execute.”
23. “Implementing Extreme Ownership requires checking your ego and operating with a high degree of humility. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.”
24. “remember: the enemy gets a vote.”
25. “Jiu-Jitsu is probably the No. 1 activity that I could recommend to someone to improve their lives overall.” – Jocko Willink
26. “When you want to earn respect, give respect, when you earn influence, give influence, when you want to earn trust, give trust, all those three are related.” – Jocko Willink
27. To implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerous - you can't make people do these things. You have to lead them.
28. If you get your ego in your way, you will only look to other people and circumstances to blame.
29. “In combat as in life, the outcome is never certain, the picture never clear. There are no guarantees of success. But in order to succeed, leaders must be comfortable under pressure, and act on logic, not emotion. This is a critical component to victory.”
30. “We wrote this so that the leadership lessons can continue to impact teams beyond the battlefield in all leadership situations—any company, team, or organization in which a group of people strives to achieve a goal and accomplish a mission.”
31. “If I’ve got something do. I’m going to attack it. I’m going to attack that stress.”~Jocko Willink
32. “Didn't get promoted? Good. More time to get better.”
33. “There is no substitute for hard work” –
34. “leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory, particularly when doubters question whether victory is even possible. As”
35. “Get out there and live and strive to be better, because the life you got it is a gift, so live it!”
36. “Hold fast to your dreams, for without them life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” —Langston Hughes
37. “In chaotic, dynamic, and rapidly changing environments, leaders at all levels must be empowered to make decisions. Decentralized Command is a key component to victory.”
38. That answer came and it hit me like a slap in the face.
39. War is hell. But war is also an incredible teacher, a brutal teacher. And it teaches you lessons you will never forget.
40. “Take care of your gear, and your gear will take care of you"
41. “QUESTION IT ALL. When you don’t understand a word— get out the dictionary. When you don’t understand a concept— break it down until you do. When you don’t know how something works— dig into it until you do. Ask every question that comes to mind. That is how you learn.”
42. “Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.” – Jocko Willink
43. “A leader must lead, but also be ready to follow. They must be aggressive, but not overbearing.”
44. “The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job. When mentored and coached properly, the junior leader can eventually replace the senior leader, allowing the senior leader to move on to the next level of leadership.”
45. “Don’t just think. Don’t just talk. Don’t just dream. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is that you actually do. So: DO.” – Jocko Willink
46. One of the best mental disciplines for people to implement is simply putting together a schedule or a task list and actually executing it.
47. “The most important question had been answered: Why? Once I analyzed the mission and understood for myself that critical piece of information, I could then believe in the mission.”
48. “7. The Warrior Kid stays humble, controls his ego, and stays calm. Warrior Kids do not lose their tempers.”
49. Plans and orders must be communicated in a manner that is simple, clear, and concise.
50. ”Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.”
51. “There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline. DISCIPLINE.”
52. “We learned that leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory, particularly when doubters question whether victory is even possible. As.”
53. “Discipline Equals Freedom”
54. “Do not give up based on instinct. If you are forced to stand down, retreat so that you can rebuild and attack. But make that decision based on logic. Not on the instinct of surrender and defeat.” – Jocko Willink
55. “Principle 1: Leaders Embrace Extreme Ownership.
56. “All animals, including humans, need to see the connection between action and consequence in order to learn or react appropriately.” – Jocko Willink
57. “If you don’t think you are disciplined, it is because you haven’t decided to be disciplined. Yet.” – Jocko Willink
58. “Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it … Start doing it.”
59. “Once the wheels were in motion and the full resources of the team were engaged in that highest priority effort, I could then determine the next priority, focus the team’s efforts there, and then move on to the next priority.”
60. “This epiphany had come to Jocko in examining his own frustrations up the chain. “Leadership doesn’t just flow down the chain of command, but up as well,” he said. “We have to own everything in our world. That’s what Extreme Ownership is all about.”
61. “when it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate. When setting expectations, no matter what has been said or written, if substandard performance is accepted and no one is held accountable—if”
62. “There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.” – Jocko Willink
63. “The only person you can control is you. So focus on making yourself who you want to be: Faster. Smarter. Stronger. More humble. Less ego.” – Jocko Willink
64. “leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance. Whether a team succeeds or fails is all up to the leader. The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team. The leader drives performance—or doesn’t.”
65. “The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas.”
66. “But there was, and is, a dichotomy in the strict discipline we followed. Instead of making us more rigid and unable to improvise, this discipline actually made us more flexible, more adaptable, and more efficient. It allowed us to be creative.”
67. “the team must break down silos, depend on each other and understand who depends on them. If they forsake this principle and operate independently or work against each other, the results can be catastrophic to the overall team’s performance.”
68. Never be jealous.
69. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
70. “What makes you a SEAL, what makes you a SEAL is being a good tactician on the battlefield, understanding how to shoot, move, and communicate, knowing small unit maneuver warfare.” – Jocko Willink
71. “One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.” – Jocko Willink
72. “If you don’t have any discipline you’ll end up with absolutely no freedom. You’ll end up being a slaving to other people bossing you around.” – Jocko Willink
73. “A U.S. intelligence report leaked to the press grimly labeled Ramadi and Anbar Province “all but lost.” Virtually no one thought it possible that U.S. forces could turn the situation around there and win. Through”
74. “Human beings are generally not capable of managing more than six to ten people, particularly when things go sideways and inevitable contingencies arise.” – Jocko Willink
75. “In chaotic, dynamic, and rapidly changing environments, leaders at all levels must be empowered to make decisions. Decentralized Command is a key component to victory.” – Jocko Willink
76. “When leaders who epitomize Extreme Ownership drive their teams to achieve a higher standard of performance, they must recognize that when it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”
77. “But what I can tell you is this: when it comes to performance standards, It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”
78. “One. Small. Decision. At. A. Time.”
79. “You have to detach from those emotions—step back from them a little so they don’t control you. You can do that by taking a deep breath and telling yourself to calm down.”
80. “When everyone participating in an operation knows and understands the purpose and end state of the mission, they can theoretically act without further guidance.”
81. “Plans and orders must be communicated in a manner that is simple, clear, and concise. Everyone”
82. “Leading people is the most challenging and, therefore, the most gratifying undertaking of all human endeavors.”
83. “Determination Today, Leads To Success Tomorrow.”
84. “Who wants to leave the door open to being dominated physically by another human being? Jiu-Jitsu gives you the ability to not be dominated by that person, and to me, that’s real peace of mind. I don’t have to worry about that when I’m walking around in the world.
85. “Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get things done.” – Jocko Willink
86. “If you continue to keep low performers on your team, that are actually dragging the team down; you’re failing the whole team, and eventually, the whole team is going to fail.”~Jocko Willink
87. “Don’t just think. Don’t just talk. Don’t just dream. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is that you actually do. So: DO.”
88. “Hesitation is the enemy. It allows the moment to pass, the opportunity to be lost, the enemy to get the upper hand.”
89. “PRINCIPLE In order to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, a leader must be a true believer in the mission.”
90. I could then believe in the mission. If I didn’t believe in it, there was no way I could possibly convince the SEALs in my task unit to believe in it.
91. “All elements within the greater team are crucial and must work together to accomplish the mission, mutually supporting one another for that singular purpose. Departments”
92. “If you allow the status quo to persist, you can’t expect to improve performance, and you can’t expect to win.” – Jocko Willink
93. “U.S. Naval hero of the American Revolution and Father of the U.S. Navy, John Paul Jones, said: “Those who will not risk cannot win.”2”
94. “He was fast and strong—but he was also really good at jiu-jitsu.”
95. Weakness is strong. I must be stronger.
96. “So how can a leader become great if they lack the natural characteristics necessary to lead? The answer is simple: a good leader builds a great team that counterbalances their weaknesses.” – Jocko Willink
97. “That’s it. When things are going bad: Don’t get all bummed out, don’t get startled, don’t get frustrated. No. Just look at the issue and say: “Good.”
98. “But if you get out there and do your best, you will either win, or you will learn.”
99. “Fight weak emotions with the power of logic. Fight the weakness of logic with the power of emotion.” – Jocko Willink
100. “The most impressive thing about this improvement in performance was that it did not come from a major process change or an advance in technology. Instead, it came through a leadership principle that has been around for ages: Simple.”
101. “We learned that leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory, particularly when doubters question whether victory is even possible. As”
102. “Your success, or lack of success, is your responsibility. Even when you have a chain of command that you don’t like as well, its your responsibility to work with the up chain of command.”~Jocko Willink Quotes
103. “Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.”
104. “This negative attitude infected his entire boat crew.”
105. “When setting expectations, no matter what has been said or written, if substandard performance is accepted and no one is held accountable—if there are no consequences—that poor performance becomes the new standard.”
106. Fight weak emotions with logic; fight the weakness of logic with the power of emotions.
107. “When your feelings are screaming that you have had enough, when you think you are going to break emotionally, override that emotion with concrete logic and willpower that says one thing. I don’t stop.” – Jocko Willink
108. “The only way you could make time, was to get up early. That took discipline.”
109. “So. Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective.”
110. “there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
111. “I always have respect for the enemy. The minute you’re not showing respect to the enemy and their capabilities, that’s a lack of humility and it’s going to get you killed.” – Jocko Willink
112. “Where does discipline come from? It’s pretty simple and pretty obvious. Discipline comes from within. It’s an internal force.” – Jocko Willink
113. “Set your alarm clock and get out of bed when it goes off.”
114. “It is always the same thing: Work harder.”
115. “But we can’t ever think we are too good to fail or that our enemies are not capable, deadly, and eager to exploit our weaknesses. We must never get complacent. This is where controlling the ego is most important.”
116. “The only way to achieve true success is to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
117. “Use the stress to make you a better you.”
118. “There can be no leadership when there is no team.” – Jocko Willink
119. “Fight weak emotions with the power of logic; fight the weakness of logic with the power of emotion. And in the balance of those two, you will find the strength and the tenacity and the guts to say to yourself: I. DON’T. STOP.”
120. “The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job. This means leaders must be heavily engaged in training and mentoring their junior leaders to prepare them to step up and assume greater responsibilities.” – Jocko Willink
121. “Get creative. Get aggressive. Get it done. When you are on the road, stay on the path.” – Jocko Willink
122. “So how can a leader become great if they lack the natural characteristics necessary to lead? The answer is simple: a good leader builds a great team that counterbalances their weaknesses.”
123. “All responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world, there's no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes, and admit failures. Take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.”
124. “Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished—you will likely fall short.”
125. “If all you’re doing is grinding for the man, it’s going to burden you. Once you say, ‘Hey, I’m grinding for the man, but I’m putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy,’ you’re working for you.” – Jocko Willink
126. “If all you’re doing is grinding for the man, it’s going to burden you. Once you say, ‘Hey, I’m grinding for the man, but I’m putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy,’ you’re working for you.”~Jocko Willink
127. “Freedom is what everyone wants – to be able to act and live with freedom. But the only way to get to a place of freedom is through discipline.” – Jocko Willink
128. “I would venture to guess that the biggest reason creative types don’t produce isn’t because they don’t have vision… or talent… in most cases, it’s a lack of discipline.” – Jocko Willink
129. “When overwhelmed, fall back upon this principle: Prioritize and Execute.”
130. “leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance. Whether a team succeeds or fails is all up to the leader. The leader’s attitude sets the tone for the entire team. The leader drives performance—or doesn’t. And”
131. “Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done and win.”
132. “Leadership isn’t one person leading a team. It is a group of leaders working together, up and down the chain of command, to lead. If”
133. All animals, including humans, need to see the connection between action and consequence in order to learn or react appropriately.
134. “A leader must care about the troops, but at the same time the leader must complete the mission, and in doing so there will be risk and sometimes unavoidable consequences to the troops.” – Jocko Willink
135. “Discipline Equals Freedom” – Jocko Willink
136. “But I learned that good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done and win.”
137. “Don’t Debate the Pros and Cons, Just Do It” – Jocko Willink
138. “A person shouldn’t think they are the best thing in the world, but they shouldn’t think they are the worst either. Is that right?”
139. “His attitude reflected victimization: life dealt him and his boat crew members a disadvantage, which justified poor performance.”
140. “The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.”
141. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
142. “The more you practice, the better you get, the more freedom you have to create.”
143. “And the more you build your will by doing hard things, the stronger your will becomes. If you have a strong will—almost nothing can stop you.”
144. “How do you become better? There is only one way – The way of discipline.”
145. “Didn’t get promoted? Good. More time to get better.”~Jocko Willink
146. “There is no such thing as a weekend. This is an everyday gig: Every day is Monday.” – Jocko Willink
147. “You are declaring martial law on your mind. Mind control.” – Jocko Willink
148. “Most things that never get done never get done because they never get started.” – Jocko Willink
149. “Extreme Ownership is a mind-set, an attitude.”
150. “this is why you shouldn’t judge people: you never know what they are going through.”
151. Leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory. — Jocko Willink
152. “Discipline is the way.” – Jocko Willink
153. “Once people stop making excuses, stop blaming others, and take ownership of everything in their lives, they are compelled to take action to solve their problems.”
154. “Elementary, my dear Watson” is a line that is said by Sherlock Holmes in many of the Sherlock Holmes movies. This quote is a way of saying that something is very obvious.
155. The fog of war rolled in with its confusion, and chaos and mayhem.
156. Do not act following customary beliefs.
157. “Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”
158. “When things are going bad: Don’t get all bummed out, don’t get startled, don’t get frustrated. No. Just look at the issue and say: Good.”
159. “Jiu-Jitsu is probably the No. 1 activity that I could recommend to someone to improve their lives overall.”~Jocko Willink
160. “Actions and words reflect belief with a clear confidence and self-assuredness that is not possible when belief is in doubt.”
161. “Go down swinging. And I’ll tell you: If you fight with all you have, more often than not, you won’t go down at all. You will win.”
162. Humans can withstand almost inconceivable stress—and you can too.
163. “Leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory.”
164. “A leader must be brave, but not foolhardy. They must have a competitive spirit, but be a gracious loser.”
165. “combat is reflective of life, only amplified and intensified”
166. “Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.” – Jocko Willink
167. “How do you become better? There is only one way – The way of discipline.” – Jocko Willink
168. “The Warrior Kid studies to learn and gain knowledge and asks questions if he doesn’t understand.”
169. “It is essential to develop a standardized planning process.” – Jocko Willink
170. “The Darkness cannot extinguish your light. Your WILL. Your determination. No matter what is happening—no matter how hard the fight is. As long as you keep fighting—you win.” – Jocko Willink
171. “A lot of times, people have something that they’re afraid of. They’ve got a client that’s mad at them. They’ve got a project that’s due. And they let that stress hang over their head. I don’t let that happen.”~Jocko Willink
172. “In Extreme Ownership, chapter 2, “No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders,” we wrote that “when it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”
173. “Remind yourself that this struggle, this temporary pain, this fight that you’re in, will make you stronger and faster and better. Then with that motivation you go forward into the fray, into the heat of the battle, where victory is formed.” – Jocko Willink
174. “Hesitation allows the moment to pass, the opportunity to be lost, the enemy to get the upper hand. Hesitation turns into cowardice. It stops us from moving forward, from taking initiative, from executing what we know we must. Hesitation defeats us. So we must defeat it.”
175. “On any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures,”
176. “You’ll see, Marc. Life goes by quickly—like a summer day. It never seems that way when you are young, but when you get a little older, you’ll see. Life goes by fast. So don’t waste any time. You don’t get a second chance.”
177. There was only one person to blame for the confusion, only one person to blame for the wounded men, and only one person to blame for the dead Iraqi soldier. And I knew exactly who that person was.
178. “When personal agendas become more important than the team and the overarching mission’s success, performance suffers, and failure ensues” -Jocko Willink.
179. “Hard training is the solemn duty of trainers and leaders every day.”
180. “Hesitation is the enemy. It allows the moment to pass, the opportunity to be lost, the enemy to get the upper hand.” – Jocko Willink
181. “Extreme Ownership requires leaders to look at an organization’s problems through the objective lens of reality, without emotional attachments to agendas or plans.”
182. “When a leader takes too much ownership, there is no ownership left for the team or subordinate leaders to take. So the team loses initiative, they lose momentum, they won’t make any decision, they just sit around and wait to be told what to do.”
183. “The focus must always be on how to best accomplish the mission.” – Jocko Willink
184. “Motivation” by “bluehouseskis“, licensed under CC0 1.0
185. “What makes you disciplined person is choosing to be disciplined.” – Jocko Willink
186. “People ask me, “How do I get tougher?” BE TOUGHER. “How can I wake up early in the morning?” WAKE UP EARLY. “How can I work out consistently every day?” WORK OUT CONSISTENTLY EVERY DAY. “How can I stop eating sugar?” STOP EATING SUGAR.”
187. Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.
188. “For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success.”
189. “was a glaring, undeniable example of one of the most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
190. “Faster. Stronger. Smarter. More humble. Less ego.”
191. “A good leader does not get bogged down in the minutia of a tactical problem at the expense of strategic success.” – Jocko Willink
192. “If you get your ego in your way, you will only look to other people and circumstances to blame.” – Jocko Willink
193. There was three things that I felt let me transition from being you know mentally insecure about who I was as a person to being okay I'm actually good with who I am. "
194. “The greatest of these was the recognition that leadership is the most important factor on the battlefield, the single greatest reason behind the success of any team. By”
195. “The first Law of Combat: Cover and Move. This is teamwork—every individual and team within the team, mutually supporting one another to accomplish the mission.”
196. “Leadership isn’t one person leading a team. It is a group of leaders working together, up and down the chain of command, to lead. If you are on your own, I don’t care how good you are, you won’t be able to handle it.”
197. “Things won’t get better dwelling on the past. Accept what has happened. Then move forward.” – Jocko Willink
198. “The list started with what he was going to do differently, not about what other people needed to do. Now, the VP was on his way to Extreme Ownership.”
199. “The shortcut is a lie.”
200. “Prioritize Your Problems and Take Care of Them One at a Time” – Jocko Willink
201. “Don’t ask your leader what you should do, tell them what you are going to do.”
202. “I would say there are some foods that I strongly recommend that you do not eat. No. 1 on that list, I believe, is doughnuts. Comfort food. Zero value. Don’t eat them.”~Jocko Willink
203. “There is no growth in the comfort zone.” – Jocko Willink
204. “The Darkness cannot extinguish your light. Your WILL. Your determination. No matter what is happening—no matter how hard the fight is. As long as you keep fighting—you win.”
205. “I would venture to guess that the biggest reason creative types don’t produce isn’t because they don’t have vision… or talent… in most cases, it’s a lack of discipline.”
206. “when it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”
207. “Step aggressively towards your fear. That is the step into bravery.” – Jocko Willink
208. “that I find most useful are: kneeling hip flexor stretch, swimmer stretch, Cossack stretch, hip external rotation stretch, reverse sleeper stretch, couch stretch, downward dog, and the cow face pose.”
209. “Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline.” – Jocko Willink
210. “When you think you can’t take any more… Guess what? You can – It’s PROVEN by the stories of ORDINARY PEOPLE in war.” – Jocko Willink
211. “Find Freedom to Create in Your Practice” – Jocko Willink
212. “When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.” – Jocko Willink
213. They must believe in the cause for which they are fighting.
214. The most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.
215. “You can’t change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sails to always reach your destination.”
216. “Live in defiance of the weakness and in rebellion against the decay.”
217. Never stray from the Way.”
218. “Discipline yourself to free yourself.”
219. “There is one thing that gets you out of bed in the morning, and that is discipline. Because your dreams and your goals are not there waking up for you in the morning.”~Jocko Willink
220. Even if you can’t perform at a high level, showing up and doing something is still a thousand times better than not showing up at all.
221. A leader must be humble but not passive; quiet but not silent.
222. “Leading people is the most challenging and, therefore, the most gratifying undertaking of all human endeavors.” – Jocko Willink
223. “Now is the time for strength. And through strength— and through will— and through unwavering discipline— I will become what I want to be. I will become who I want to be. And then—and only then—will I rest and say: No more.”
224. “I think that in order to truly experience the light and the bright, you have to see the darkness. I think if you shield yourself from the darkness, you’ll not appreciate — and full understand — the beauty of life.” – Jocko Willink
225. “This is especially true in the SEAL Teams, where innovation and input from everyone (including the most junior personnel) are encouraged.”
226. “There are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” – Jocko Willink
227. “Self-discipline is the root quality that will improve every aspect of your life.”
228. “Never give up. Great things take time. Be patient.” – Never Give Up Quote
229. My 10 greatest Jocko Willink quotes will likely be different from yours; however, that’s the best thing about them, each quote can mean something different to each person. So don’t wait, comment and shares your best Jocko Willink Quote.
230. “There is no shortcut. There is no hack. There’s only one way. So get after it.”
231. Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline. – Jocko Willink
232. “Leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities, between one extreme and another.”
233. “they must believe in the cause for which they are fighting. They must believe in the plan they are asked to execute, and most important, they must believe in and trust the leader they are asked to follow.”
234. Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it … Start doing it.
235. “War teaches you about honor, brotherhood, and humility, and leadership.” – Jocko Willink
236. “Perseverance is also key to success in any endeavor, but without perseverance in combat, there can be no victory.” – Jocko Willink
237. “If you don't think you are disciplined, it is because you haven't decided to be disciplined. Yet.”
238. “If you want to be tougher mentally, it is simple; be tougher, don’t meditate on it.”
239. “We learned that leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory, particularly when doubters question whether victory is even possible.” – Jocko Willink
240. “If you get your ego in your way, you will only look to other people and circumstances to blame.”~Jocko Willink
241. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
242. “A leader must lead but also be ready to follow. Sometimes, another member of the team—perhaps a subordinate or direct report—might be in a better position to develop a plan, make a decision, or lead through a specific situation.”
243. “Every morning, I wake up saying, ‘I’m still alive, a miracle.’ And so I keep on pushing.” — Jim Carrey
244. “Every moment you are alive is made of choices you get to make.
245. “The Darkness cannot extinguish your light, your will, your determination. No matter what is happening, no matter how hard the fight is. As long as you keep fighting, you win.” – Jocko Willink
246. “In the SEAL Teams, the bond of our brotherhood is our strongest weapon. If you take that away from us, we lose our most important quality as a team.”
247. “Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” – Jocko Willink
248. “One of the best mental disciplines for people to implement is simply putting together a schedule or a task list and actually executing it.” – Jocko Willink
249. “Leaders should never be satisfied. They must always strive to improve, and they must build that mind-set into the team. They must face the facts through a realistic, brutally honest assessment of themselves and their team’s performance.”
250. “You are declaring martial law on your mind:”
251. “The SEAL Teams and the U.S. military, much like militaries throughout history, are based around building blocks of four-to-six man teams with a leader.”
252. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past” –
253. “His realistic assessment, acknowledgment of failure, and ownership of the problem were key to developing a plan to improve performance and ultimately win.”
254. “I know that somewhere out there, another man is also preparing. That man is the enemy.”
255. “It isn’t that you wake up one day and decide, that’s it: I’m going to be weak. No. It’s a slow incremental process. It chips at your will – It chips at your discipline.” – Jocko Willink
256. “One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.”
257. “The test for a successful brief is simple: Do the team and the supporting elements understand it?”
258. “lowest common denominator. That’s what a brief is.”
259. “Some may wonder how Navy SEAL combat leadership principles translate outside the military realm to leading any team in any capacity. But combat is reflective of life, only amplified and intensified.”
260. “Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.”
261. “The best leaders checked their egos, accepted blame, sought out constructive criticism, and took detailed notes for improvement.”
262. “Detach. Whatever problems or stress you are experiencing, detach from them.”
263. It doesn't matter where you background it is what you decide to do.
264. “For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it.”
265. Prioritize your problems and take care of them one at a time, the highest priority first. Don’t try to do everything at once or you won’t be successful.
266. “Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests.” – Jocko Willink
267. “remove individual ego and personal agenda. It’s all about the mission. How can you best get your team to most effectively execute the plan in order to accomplish the mission?”
268. “Discipline Equals Freedom” ∼ Jocko Willink
269. “If you think that you’re not disciplined or that you can’t be disciplined, it’s because you haven’t yet decided to be disciplined. It’s because you haven’t created that discipline yet. So make the decision, make the commitment.” – Jocko Willink
270. “To implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerous — you can’t make people do these things. You have to lead them.” – Jocko Willink
271. “When you are too embarrassed to ask for help, that’s a little knock at your door saying “you’re insecure”!” -Jocko Willink.
272. “Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be.” – Jocko Willink
273. “Some of the boldest, most successful plans in history have not come from the senior ranks but from frontline leaders. Senior leaders simply had the courage to accept and run with them.”
274. “Do I have chocolate chip cookies? Yes, I do. Do I have mint chocolate chip milkshakes? Yes, I do. I love them. They are fantastic. But when I have them, they’re worth it. I earned them. I did something. I worked out super hard. I stayed clean on food.”~Jocko Willink
275. “Don’t worry about motivation. Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable. And when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished, you will likely fall short.” – Jocko Willink
276. To this day as I can look around and actually overlay the understanding on the way I've carried out my life is very helpful to me.
277. Overconfidence was risky in such a hostile environment, a mistake most often made by warriors who had never truly been tested.
278. “as leaders, we must not get dragged into the details but instead remain focused on the bigger picture.”
279. “They didn’t have to jump for joy at the thought of fighting alongside Iraqi soldiers on a dangerous battlefield. But they did have to understand why they were doing it so that they could believe in the mission.” – Jocko Willink
280. “5. The Warrior Kid treats people with respect, doesn’t judge them, and helps out other people whenever possible.”
281. “In the business world, and in life, there are inherent complexities. It is critical to keep plans and communication simple.”
282. “The shortcut is a lie. The hack doesn’t get you there. And if you want to take the easy road, it won’t take you to where you want to be: Stronger. Smarter. Faster. Healthier. Better. FREE.” – Jocko Willink
283. “Those are decisions only you can make. But what I can tell you is this: when it comes to performance standards, It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”
284. “Faster. Stronger. Smarter. More humble. Less ego.” – Jocko Willink
285. “Friends trust each other. To build trust you tell the truth. Even if it hurts your ego.”
286. “Now, the leaders inside the platoon have to actually think—and lead. The terrain, when read, understood, and utilized correctly, provides an unmatched advantage on the battlefield.”
287. “PRINCIPLE Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism. It can even stifle someone’s sense of self-preservation. Often, the most difficult ego to deal with is your own.”
288. We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.
289. “Solid relationships up and down the chain of command are the basis of all good leadership.”
290. “Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get things done.” – Jocko Willink
291. “Be humble or be humbled.”
292. “You have to BE VIGILANT. You have to be ON GUARD. You have to HOLD THE LINE on the seemingly insignificant little things— things that shouldn’t matter—but that do.”
293. “Get After It.” – Jocko Willink
294. “Where does discipline come from? It’s pretty simple and pretty obvious. Discipline comes from within. It’s an internal force.”
295. “Don’t think in the morning. That’s a big mistake that people make. They wake up in the morning and they start thinking. Don’t think. Just execute the plan. The plan is the alarm clock goes off, you get up, you go work out. Get some.” – Jocko Willink
296. “There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.”
297. “leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance.”
298. “Discipline yourself to free yourself.” – Jocko Willink
299. “There is no growth in the comfort zone.”
300. “When a team takes ownership of its problem, problems get solved.” — Jocko Willink.
301. “Extreme ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.”
302. “Use the stress to make you a better you.” – Jocko Willink
303. “If your boss isn’t making a decision in a timely manner or providing necessary support for you and your team, don’t blame the boss. First, blame yourself. Examine what you can do to better convey the critical information for decisions to be made and support allocated.”
304. “Extreme Ownership is a mindset, an attitude.”
305. “Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it … Start doing it.” – Jocko Willink
306. “To implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerous — you can’t make people do these things. You have to lead them.”
307. “The best leaders checked their egos, accepted blame, sought out constructive criticism, and took detailed notes for improvement. They”
308. “It is critical for leaders to act decisively amid uncertainty; to make the best decisions they can be based on only the immediate information available.” – Jocko Willink
309. “Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” ― Earl Nightingale
310. “Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests. They”
311. “When individual members of the team are highly disciplined, they can be trusted and, therefore, allowed to operate with very little oversight.”~Jocko Willink
312. The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job. This means leaders must be heavily engaged in training and mentoring their junior leaders to prepare them to step up and assume greater responsibilities.
313. “While discipline and freedom seem like they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum, they are actually very connected.”~Jocko Willink
314. “Combat is reflective of life, only amplified and intensified.” – Jocko Willink
315. “They didn’t have to jump for joy at the though of fighting alongside Iraqi soldiers on a dangerous battlefield. But they did have to understand why they were doing it so that they could believe in the mission.” – Jocko Willink
316. “Is this what I want to be? This? Is this all I’ve got—is this everything I can give? Is this going to be my life? Do I accept that?” – Jocko Willink
317. “Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.”
318. “Be dangerous but disciplined.” – Jocko Willink
319. “But to implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerous—you can’t make people do those things. You have to lead them.”
320. “they must recognize that when it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”
321. “Trust is not blindly given. It must be built over time.”
322. “They couldn’t ask, “What do I do?” Instead, they had to state: “This is what I am going to do.”
323. “Overconfidence was risky in such a hostile environment, a mistake most often made by warriors who had never truly been tested.”
324. Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective.
325. “I learned that good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done and win.”
326. “The Warrior Kid keeps things neat and is always prepared and ready for action.”
327. “of the simplest ways is obvious, but it often gets overlooked—that is performance. Your boss expects you to complete certain tasks. So complete them. Do them on time, on budget, and with as little drama as possible. Get the mission done.”
328. “Do The Work. Everyone Wants To Be Successful, But Nobody Wants To Do The Work.”
329. “Leaders who lose their temper also lose respect.”
330. “Departments and groups within the team must break down silos, depend on each other and understand who depends on them. If”
331. “(Discipline) is the difference between being good and exceptional.”
332. “Discipline Equals Freedom” – Jocko Willink
333. “A leader must be humble but not passive; quiet but not silent.” – Jocko Willink
334. “Don’t think in the morning. That’s a big mistake that people make. They wake up in the morning and they start thinking. Don’t think. Just execute the plan. The plan is the alarm clock goes off, you get up, you go work out.” – Jocko Willink
335. “The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job. This means leaders must be heavily engaged in training and mentoring their junior leaders to prepare them to step up and assume greater responsibilities. When”
336. “There can be no leadership when there is no team.”
337. “Fear is normal. Every person feels fear at some point. Step aggressively towards your fear — that is the step into bravery.” – Jocko Willink
338. “explained that the relationship to seek with any boss incorporates three things: 1) They trust you. 2) They value and seek your opinion and guidance. 3) They give you what you need to accomplish your mission and then let you go execute.”
339. “These principles empower those teams to dominate their battlefields by enabling leaders to fulfill their purpose: lead and win.”
340. “The only easy day was yesterday.”
341. “We have to turn our words into action. We have to turn our ideas into action. We have to turn our skills into action. We have to turn our goals into action.”
342. “Effective Leaders Lead Successful Teams That Accomplish Their Mission and Win” – Jocko Willink
343. “In any organization, goals must always be in alignment. If goals aren’t aligned at some level, this issue must be addressed and rectified. In”
344. “Discipline equals freedom.”
345. “The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.” – Jocko Willink
346. “The best teams employ constant analysis of their tactics and measure their effectiveness so that they can adapt their methods and implement lessons learned for future missions.”
347. “poor performance on bad luck,”
348. “Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.” – Jocko Willink
349. “There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline.”
350. When a team takes ownership of its problem, the problem gets solved. – Jocko Willink
351. “Decisively engaged,” I continued, “is a term used to describe a battle in which a unit locked in a tough combat situation cannot maneuver or extricate themselves. In other words, they cannot retreat. They must win.”
352. “The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame.”
353. “A good leader has nothing to prove, but everything to prove.”
354. “Prioritize your problems and take care of them one at a time, the highest priority first. Don’t try to do everything at once or you won’t be successful.” – Jocko Willink
355. “If you don’t think you are disciplined: It is because you haven’t decided to be disciplined. Yet.” – Jocko Willink
356. “underperformer”
357. “Even the most competent of leaders can be overwhelmed if they try to tackle multiple problems or a number of tasks simultaneously.”
358. “Our freedom to operate and maneuver had increased substantially through disciplined procedures. Discipline equals freedom.” – Jocko Willink
359. “When you don’t tell the truth, it will always come back to haunt you. And lying is disrespectful to others and will destroy any level of trust you can have with a person. Being trustworthy is one of the most important characteristics a person can have.”
360. “Why do you want to get a good workout early in the morning? Well, because it sends more oxygen to your brain; it releases endorphins. It puts you in a state of mind where you can crush things, which is where you want to be.”~Jocko Willink
361. “It’s alive!” is a quote from the movie Frankenstein. This line is
362. “You’re not going to find happiness. You have to make it. So get out there and make some happiness.” – Jocko Willink
363. In war you are forced to see humanity at its absolute worst.
364. “What went right? What went wrong?”
365. “Extreme ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.” – Jocko Willink
366. Discipline is the pathway to freedom.
367. “As a leader, it is up to you to explain the bigger picture to him—and to all your front line leaders. That is a critical component of leadership,” I”
368. “Keep it simple. Train hard. Train often. Lift heavy. Lift fast. Run hard. Eat steak. Pain is good.”
369. “Those weights in the gym – they aren’t going to move themselves. You have to do it.”
370. What makes you disciplined person is choosing to be disciplined.
371. “Overconfidence was risky in such a hostile environment, a mistake most often made by warriors who had never truly been tested.” -Jocko Willink.
372. “People who are successful decide they are going to be successful. They make that choice. They decide to study hard. They decide to work hard. They decide to be the first person to get to work and the last to go home.” – Jocko Willink
373. “Get up and go. Take the risk, take the gamble, take the first step, take action. And don’t let another day slip by.” – Jocko Willink
374. “Those weights in the gym – they aren’t going to move themselves. You have to do it.” – Jocko Willink
375. “Generally, when a leader struggles, the root cause behind the problem is that the leader has leaned too far in one direction and steered off course. Awareness”
376. “People do not follow robots.”
377. “The book derives its title from the underlying principle — the mind-set — that provides the foundation for all the rest: Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.” – Jocko Willink
378. “As a leader, if you are down in the weeds planning the details with your guys,” said Jocko, “you will have the same perspective as them, which adds little value. But if you let them plan the details, it allows them to own their piece of the plan.”
379. “If we could execute with a monumental effort just to reach an immediate goal that everyone could see, we could then continue to the next visually attainable goal and then the next.”
380. “The infamous they.”
381. “Leadership isn’t one person leading a team. It is a group of leaders working together, up and down the chain of command, to lead.” – Jocko Willink
382. “Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism. It can even stifle someone’s sense of self-preservation. Often, the most difficult ego to deal with is your own.”
383. “So to me, it is not about nature or nurture: It’s about choice.”
384. “The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.”
385. The more you practice, the better you get, the more freedom you have to create.
386. “Getting out of bed is like the foundation of the discipline, and I think it carries over into everything else.”~Jocko Willink
387. “You have to decide that you are going to be in control, that you are going to do what you want to do. Weakness doesn’t get a vote. Laziness doesn’t get a vote. Sadness doesn’t get a vote. Frustration doesn’t get a vote. Negativity doesn’t get a vote.” – Jocko Willink
388. “I’m always reading the next book. Taking notes. Highlighting, researching, studying. It doesn’t stop.” – Jocko Willink
389. “There is no shortcut. There is no hack. There’s only one way. So get after it.” – Jocko Willink
390. “Discipline is your best friend. It will take care of you like nothing else can.”
391. “calm but not robotic, logical but not devoid of emotions;”
392. “In fact, discipline is the pathway to freedom.”
393. “The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it. *”
394. Our freedom to operate and maneuver had increased substantially through disciplined procedures. Discipline equals freedom.
395. “Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get things done.” – Jocko Willink (more Jocko Willink quotes here.)
396. “Time waits for no man. Life goes by, and it goes by quick. Don’t waste your years. Live them.” – Jocko Willink
397. “If you allow the status quo to persist, you can’t expect to improve performance, and you can’t expect to win.”
398. “Even the most competent of leaders can be overwhelmed if they try to tackle multiple problems or a number of tasks simultaneously.” – Jocko Willink
399. “If your boss isn’t making a decision in a timely manner or providing necessary support for you and your team, don’t blame the boss. First, blame yourself. Examine”
400. Leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities, between one extreme and another.
401. “NO MORE. No more excuses. No more: “I’ll start tomorrow.” No more: “Just this once.” No more accepting the shortfalls of my own will. No more taking the easy road. No more bowing down to whatever unhealthy or unproductive thoughts float through my mind.”
402. “For leaders, it is often a struggle to know when and where to hold the line.”
403. “Once people stop making excuses, stop blaming others, and take ownership of everything in their lives, they are compelled to take action to solve their problems.” – Jocko Willink
404. “Speaking angrily to others is ineffective. Losing your temper is a sign of weakness. The aggression that wins on the battlefield, in business, or in life is directed not toward people but toward solving problems, achieving goals, and accomplishing the mission.”
405. Once the wheels were in motion... I could then determine the next priority, focus the team's efforts there, and then move on to the next priority.
406. “We then proceeded to go through the entire operation, piece by piece, identifying everything that happened and what we could do going forward to prevent it from happening again.”
407. War teaches you...it teaches you about the preciousness and fragility of human life
408. “The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails. For”
409. “not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”
410. “We learned that leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory, particularly when doubters question whether victory is even possible.”
411. “Of course, a leader must be confident but never cocky.”
412. “Anybody who tells you that a two-day conference, you’re going to turn into the General Patton of leadership, they’re not telling you the truth. But you can learn the fundamentals; you can absolutely understand the fundamentals.”~Jocko Willink
413. “Leadership is not a rank it’s an approach.”
414. “As a leader, you have to balance the dichotomy, to be resolute where it matters but never inflexible and uncompromising on matters of little importance to the overall good of the team and the strategic mission.”
415. “Leaders must accept total responsibility, own problems that inhibit performance, and develop solutions to those problems.”
416. “The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job.”
417. “Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.”
418. “Do you think the company senior executives at corporate headquarters want you to fail?”
419. “Take Ownership of Your Problems” – Jocko Willink
420. “If you don’t have any discipline you’ll end up with absolutely no freedom. You’ll end up being a slaving to other people bossing you around.”
421. “One of the most important jobs of any leader is to support your own boss—your immediate leadership.”
422. “Fear is normal. Every person feels fear at some point. Step aggressively towards your fear – that is the step into bravery.” – Jocko Willink
423. “As a human being, the strongest thing you’ve got is your force of will. So take your force of will and make it happen.” – Jocko Willink
424. “Leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory.” – Jocko Willink
425. “Keep fighting no matter what. You never quit. And if you feel like you’re in a place where you can’t get any lower and can’t find a way out, good. That means that the ultimate challenge is in front of you and the only way that you can go is up.” – Jocko Willink
426. “The right decision, even when all seems lost, can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The wrong decision, even when a victorious outcome seems all but certain, can result in deadly, catastrophic failure.”
427. Leading people is the most challenging and, therefore, the most gratifying undertaking of all human endeavors. —Jocko Willink, American author, podcaster, and retired United States Navy Officer
428. “Fight weak emotions with the power of logic; fight the weakness of logic with the power of emotion.
429. “Believe in Yourself and What You Can Achieve” – Jocko Willink
430. “Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective.” – Jocko Willink
431. When setting expectations, no matter what has been said or written, if substandard performance is accepted and no one is held accountable—if there are no consequences—that poor performance becomes the new standard. Therefore, leaders must enforce standards.
432. “But it started with micromanagement and morphed into Decentralized Command. So sometimes, micromanagement is an absolute necessity. But it should never be a steady state—it should never become the norm.”
433. “There is no easy way. There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline.” – Jocko Willink
434. Use the stress to make you a better you.
435. “The leader must explain not just what to do, but why.”
436. “Perseverance is also key to success in any endeavor, but without perseverance in combat, there can be no victory.”~Jocko Willink
437. “A leader must lead but also be ready to follow.” – Jocko Willink
438. “Once the wheels were in motion and the full resources of the team were engaged in that highest priority effort, I could then determine the next priority, focus the team’s efforts there, and then move on to the next priority.” – Jocko Willink
439. “His realistic assessment, acknowledgment of failure, and ownership of the problem were key to developing a plan to improve performance and ultimately win. Most important of all, he believed winning was possible.”
440. “When personal agendas become more important than the team and the overarching mission’s success, performance suffers and failure ensues.” – Jocko Willink
441. “I can remember many times when my boat crew struggled. It was easy to make excuses for our team’s performance and why it wasn’t what it should have been. But I learned that good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done and win.”
442. “I am not a failure because I have failed, I am a failure because I have given up” –
443. “Ego can prevent a leader from conducting an honest, realistic assessment of his or her own performance and the performance of the team.”
444. “There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‘be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough’ are not true. They are fairy tales.” – Jocko Willink
445. “Our freedom to operate and maneuver had increased substantially through disciplined procedures.”
446. “People who are successful decide they are going to be successful. They make that choice. They decide to study hard. They decide to work hard. They decide to be the first person to get to work and the last to go home.” – Jocko Willink
447. “Nothing breeds arrogance like success—a string of victories on the battlefield or business initiatives. Combat leaders must never forget just how much is at stake: the lives of their troops.”
448. “When things are going bad: Don’t get all bummed out, don’t get startled, don’t get frustrated. No. Just look at the issue and say: Good.” – Jocko Willink
449. “You already know what the right thing to do is. You just gotta do it.” – Jocko Willink
450. “A good leader does not get bogged down in the minutia of a tactical problem at the expense of strategic success.”
451. “When a team takes ownership of its problems, the problem gets solved. It is true on the battlefield, it is true in business, and it is true in life.”
452. “The list started with what he was going to do differently, not about what other people needed to do.”
453. “Discipline created vigilance and operational readiness, which translated to high performance and success on the battlefield.”
454. “If you do not believe you are disciplined, it is because you have not decided to become disciplined. Yet.”
455. “Our freedom to operate and maneuver had increased substantially through disciplined procedures. Discipline equals freedom.”
456. “Waking up early was the first example I noticed in the SEAL Teams in which discipline was really the difference between being good and being exceptional.”~Jocko Willink
457. “While discipline and freedom seem like they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum, they are actually very connected.”
458. “Open conversations build trust. Overcoming stress and challenging environments builds trust. Working through emergencies and seeing how people react builds trust.”
459. “That is what aggression is to me. The unstoppable fighting spirit. The drive. The burning desire to achieve mission success using every possible tool, asset, and strategy and tactic to bring about victory. It is the will to win.” – Jocko Willink
460. “Success resulted from determination and will, but also from innovation and communication with the team.”
461. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.
462. “A good leader has nothing to prove, but everything to prove.” – Jocko Willink
463. Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.
464. Leading people is the most challenging and, therefore, the most gratifying undertaking of all human endeavours. — Jocko Willink
465. “Some things are completely out of your control and that’s fine. When that happens, you ask yourself ‘What can I control that will make this situation just a little bit better?’. Then you go. Don’t get crushed by things going wrong.” – Jocko Willink
466. “A lot of times, people have something that they’re afraid of. They’ve got a client that’s mad at them. They’ve got a project that’s due. And they let that stress hang over their head. I don’t let that happen.” – Jocko Willink
467. “Is this what I want to be? This? Is this all I’ve got—is this everything I can give? Is this going to be my life? Do I accept that?”
468. Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in freedom. When you have the discipline to get up early, you are rewarded with more free time.
469. “When your feelings are screaming that you have had enough when you think you are going to break emotionally, override that emotion with concrete logic and willpower that says one thing: I don’t stop.” – Jocko Willink
470. When individual members of the team are highly disciplined, they can be trusted and, therefore, allowed to operate with very little oversight.
471. “When a bad SEAL leader walked into a debrief and blamed everyone else, that attitude was picked up by subordinates and team members, who then followed suit. They all blamed everyone else, and inevitably the team was ineffective and unable to properly execute a plan.”
472. “Leadership isn’t one person leading a team. It is a group of leaders working together, up and down the chain of command, to lead. If.”
473. “The Warrior Kid trains to know how to fight so he can stand up to bullies and protect the weak.”
474. “As individuals, we often attribute the success of others to luck or circumstances and make excuses for our own failures and the failures of our team.”
475. “Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams, Or Your Dreams Will Give Up On You.”
476. “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing” –
477. “Don’t count on motivation. Count on discipline.” – Jocko Willink
478. “Leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory.” - Jocko Willink
479. “Go down swinging. And I’ll tell you: If you fight with all you have, more often than not, you won’t go down at all. You will win.” – Jocko Willink
480. “If you wake up whenever you want, and you slept for 10 hours, and you’re lazy getting out of bed, then I believe that affects your whole life in a negative way.”~Jocko Willink
481. “Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it … Start doing it.” – Jocko Willink
482. “Leading people is the most challenging and, therefore, the most gratifying undertaking of all human endeavors.” —Jocko Willink, American author, podcaster, and retired United States Navy Officer
483. “A leader must care about the troops, but at the same time the leader must complete the mission, and in doing so there will be risk and sometimes unavoidable consequences to the troops.”
484. “When you make a decision to be better. When you make a decision to do more, to BE more. Self-discipline comes when you decide to make a mark on the world. If you don’t think you are disciplined: It is because you haven’t decided to be disciplined. YET.”
485. “Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it. Start doing it.” – Jocko Willink
486. “While you continually focus on what everyone else is doing – I’ll focus on what I can do right.” – Jocko Willink
487. “But it was a glaring, undeniable example of one of the most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
488. “The concept that there were no bad teams, only bad leaders was a difficult one to accept but nevertheless a crucial concept that leaders must fully understand and implement to enable them to most effectively lead a high-performance team.”
489. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
490. “1. Accept everything just the way it is.
491. “You have to decide that you are going to be in control, that you are going to do what YOU want to do.”
492. “Keep it simple. Train hard. Train often. Lift heavy. Lift fast. Run hard. Eat steak. Pain is good.” – Jocko Willink
493. “The lies will come, and they will come from you. The lies you will tell yourself are, it’s no big deal. You can have just a little. It isn’t worth it to feel this bad. The body needs carbs. You will rationalize, and start to listen to these lies. Don’t.” – Jocko Willink
494. “Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done.”
495. “Don’t let your mind control you. Control your mind.” – Jocko Willink
496. In all things have no preferences.
497. A good leader has nothing to prove, but everything to prove.
498. “Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be in combat.”~Jocko Willink
499. “People do not follow robots.” – Jocko Willink
500. “I don’t accept that I am what I am and that “that” is what I am doomed to be.”
501. “It takes both emotion and logic to reach your maximum potential, to really give everything you have, to go beyond your limits. Because emotion and logic will both reach their limitations. And when one fails, you need to rely on the other.
502. “Have a never-quit attitude.”
503. “Discipline is the difference between being good and exceptional.”
504. “There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough are not true. They are fairy tales.” – Jocko Willink
505. “I had to take complete ownership of what went wrong. That is what a leader does — even if it means getting fired. If anyone was to be blamed and fired for what happened, let it be me.” – Jocko Willink
506. “In order to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, a leader must be a true believer in the mission.”
507. “Relax. Look around. Make a call.”
508. This firefight wasn't between us and the enemy, this firefight tragically was between us and us.
509. “It’s a lose-lose situation to get in a confrontation on the street. If you can break contact and get away, break contact and get away. That’s what you should learn self-defense for.”~Jocko Willink
510. “People who are successful decide they are going to be successful. They make that choice. They decide to study hard. They decide to work hard. They decide to be the first person to get to work and the last to go home.” – Jocko Willink
511. “Discipline is your best friend. It will take care of you like nothing else can.” – Jocko Willink
512. “If I went back to my 20-year-old self, what I would tell my 20-year-old self is, ‘You don’t know anything.’ Because everyone, when they’re young, they think they know what’s going on in the world, and you don’t.” – Jocko Willink
513. “Unless you do the work, the world will never see your vision.” – Jocko Willink
514. “Take care of your gear and your gear will take care of you.”
515. “The Warrior Kid stays humble and stays calm. Warrior Kids do not lose their tempers.”
516. “The more you practice, the better you get, the more freedom you have to create.” – Jocko Willink
517. “Discipline is the pathway to freedom.”
518. “decisively engaged’?” I”
519. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
520. Combat is reflective of life, only amplified and intensified.
521. “It falls on leaders to continually keep perspective on the strategic mission and remind the team that they are part of the greater team and the strategic mission is paramount.”
522. “A leader must be calm, but not robotic. They must be confident, but never cocky. A leader must be brave, but not foolhardy. They must have a competitive spirit, but be a gracious loser.” – Jocko Willink
523. “Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism. It”
524. “Everyone wants some magic pill—some life hack—that eliminates the need to do the work. But that does not exist.”
525. “Discipline equals freedom.” – Jocko Willink
526. “On any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader.”
527. “Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline.”
528. “I’m always reading the next book. Taking notes. Highlighting, researching, studying. It doesn’t stop.”~Jocko Willink
529. “With Extreme Ownership, you must remove individual ego and personal agenda. It’s all about the mission. How can you best get your team to most effectively execute the plan in order to accomplish the mission?”
530. A leader must care about the troops, but at the same time the leader must complete the mission, and in doing so there will be risk and sometimes unavoidable consequences to the troops.
531. “When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.” George Bernard Shaw
532. “One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.”~Jocko Willink
533. “Good leaders are rare; bad leaders are common.” – Jocko Willink
534. “To implement real change, to drive people to accomplish something truly complex or difficult or dangerous, you can’t make people do these things. You have to lead them.” – Jocko Willink
535. “Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective. Use the stress to make you a better you.” – Jocko Willink
536. People do not follow robots.
537. Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be in combat.
538. “When things are going bad there’s going to be some good that comes from it.” – Jocko Willink
539. “Identifying weaknesses, good leaders seek to strengthen them and come up with a plan to overcome challenges.”
540. “Don’t count on motivation. Count on discipline.”
541. “The only way to win is to learn how to lose.”
542. “Discipline is the pathway to freedom.” – Jocko Willink
543. “More than a decade of continuous war and tough combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan gave birth to a new generation of leaders in the ranks of America’s fighting forces.”
544. But I learned that good leaders don't make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done and win.
545. His realistic assessment, acknowledgement of failure, and ownership of the problem were key to developing a plan to improve performance and ultimately win.
546. “Get up. Dust off. Reload. Re-calibrate. Re-engage – And go out on the attack.”
547. War teaches you about honor, brotherhood, and humility, and leadership.
548. “I eat steak primarily. That’s pretty much what my diet consists of. Sometimes I supplement that with other steaks.”~Jocko Willink
549. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.
550. “The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it.”
551. “Our egos don’t like to take blame.”
552. “One of the things I definitely think of as a driver of me is fear. And it’s fear of failure, fear of being overtaken.”~Jocko Willink
553. “Discipline Equals Freedom—The Dichotomy of Leadership.”
554. “You don’t have time. That’s a lie. You don’t have support. That’s a lie. You don’t know the best way, or you’re too old, or you’re too young, or you’re too tired, or you’re too sore, or you’re just not feeling it. Lies lies lies.” – Jocko Willink
555. “The true test for a good brief,” Jocko continued, “is not whether the senior officers are impressed. It’s whether or not the troops that are going to execute the operation actually understand it. Everything else is bullshit. Does”
556. “The foremost requirement for potent leadership is humility, so that leaders can fully understand and appreciate their own shortfalls.”
557. A leader must be attentive to details but not obsessed by them.
558. Do not regret what you have done.
559. “Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in freedom. When you have the discipline to get up early, you are rewarded with more free time.” – Jocko Willink
560. “Repetitive exceptional performance became a habit.”
561. “Get out there and live and strive to be better, because the life you got it is a gift, so live it!” – Jocko Willink
562. “Waking up early was the first example I noticed in the SEAL teams in which discipline was really the difference between being good and being exceptional.” – Jocko Willink
563. It's a lose-lose situation to get in a confrontation on the street. If you can break contact and get away, break contact and get away. That's what you should learn self-defense for.
564. “Curse the warmth of your bed instead of 48 reasons why you need to motivate yourself to get up in the morning. Glory in solitude instead of 10 ways you can stay on task and focus.”
565. “weaker commanders would get a solid explanation about the burden of command and the deep meaning of responsibility: the leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything.”
566. “Your plan violates one of the most important principles we adhered to in combat: simplicity.”
567. “Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Jocko Willink
568. “the most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
569. “For this reason, they must believe in the cause for which they are fighting.”
570. “Will is determination. It is resolve. Will is when you hear that little voice and you feel like you are going to break, but instead of listening to that little voice you dig deep and KEEP GOING. Understand? That’s will. You KEEP GOING.”
571. “But, in fact, discipline is the pathway to freedom.”
572. “You’re not going to find happiness. You have to make it. So get out there and make some happiness.”
573. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.
574. “the principle of Cover and Move”
575. “But combat is reflective of life, only amplified and intensified.”
576. “Belief in the mission ties in with the fourth Law of Combat: Decentralized Command (chapter 8).”
577. “The greatest of these was the recognition that leadership is the most important factor on the battlefield, the single greatest reason behind the success of any team.”
578. “I’m not a complete psychopath. Am I partially? Sure. I’ll accept that. But I’m not a complete psychopath.”~Jocko Willink
579. “Don’t worry about motivation. Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable – and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished, you will likely fall short.”~Jocko Willink
580. “This process was not intuitive to most people but could be learned, built upon, and greatly enhanced through many iterations of training.”
581. “The most important part of the brief,” said Jocko, “is to explain your Commander’s Intent.” When everyone participating in an operation knows and understands the purpose and end state of the mission, they can theoretically act without further guidance.”
582. “Extreme Ownership—good leadership—is contagious,”
583. “A leader must be calm, but not robotic. They must be confident but never cocky.”
584. “As SEALs, we operate as a team of high-caliber, multitalented individuals who have been through perhaps the toughest military training and most rigorous screening process anywhere. But in the SEAL program, it is all about the Team. The sum is far greater than the parts.”
585. You gotta be able to tamper and temper all those things in such a way that they can be controlled and disciplined.
586. “Marc was the first member of Task Unit Bruiser killed in action and the first Navy SEAL killed in Iraq.”
587. “A person shouldn’t think they are the best thing in the world, but they shouldn’t think they are the worst either.”
588. “If mistakes happen, effective leaders don’t place blame on others. They take ownership of the mistakes, determine what went wrong, develop solutions to correct those mistakes and prevent them from happening again as they move forward.”
589. “You already know what the right thing to do is… You just gotta do it.” – Jocko Willink
590. But if you get out there and do your best, you will either win, or you will learn.
591. “Boat Crew Six had become comfortable with substandard performance. Working under poor leadership and an unending cycle of blame, the team constantly failed. No one took ownership, assumed responsibility, or adopted a winning attitude.”
592. “Don’t just think. Don’t just talk. Don’t just dream. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is that you actually do. So do.” – Jocko Willink
593. You need to sleep. I'm not anti-sleep.
594. “The more you practice, the better you get, the more freedom you have to create.”~Jocko Willink
595. “A mission statement tells your troops what you are doing. But they have got to understand why they are doing it.”
596. “Don’t just think. Don’t just talk. Don’t just dream. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is that you actually do. So: DO.” – Jocko Willink
597. “whether on the battlefield or in the business world, leaders must be comfortable accepting some level of risk. As the U.S. Naval hero of the American Revolution and Father of the U.S. Navy, John Paul Jones, said: “Those who will not risk cannot win.”2”
598. “No more. No more excuses. No more: “I’ll start tomorrow.” No more: “Just this once.” No more accepting the shortfalls of my own will. No more taking the easy road. No more bowing down to whatever unhealthy or unproductive thoughts float through my mind.” – Jocko Willink
599. “Be humble or be humbled.” – Jocko Willink
600. “Sustain the grind.”
601. “There is no easy way.
602. “Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.”
603. “Discipline is the way.”
604. ”Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.” – Jocko Willink
605. “Take care of your gear and your gear will take care of you.” – Jocko Willink
606. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.
607. “The leader must own everything in his or her world.”
608. “I know that somewhere out there, another man is also preparing. That man is the enemy.” – Jocko Willink
609. “But what did you learn about you?” he asked. I wasn’t quite sure what Uncle Jake meant by this.I must have looked puzzled, because after a quiet moment, Uncle Jake said, “You should have learned a few things. You should have learned”
610. “Most important of all, he believed winning was possible. In a boat crew where winning seemed so far beyond reach, the belief that the team actually could improve and win was essential.”
611. When you’re too embarrassed to ask for help, that’s a little knock at your door saying, ‘you’re insecure’.”
612. “Didn’t get promoted? Good. More time to get better.” – Jocko Willink
613. “I did 20 years in the Navy. I joined the Navy right out of high school and went through Navy boot camp, went to SEAL training, got done with that, and then showed up at a SEAL team, where I did 20 years. That was pretty much my whole adult life.”~Jocko Willink
614. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.
615. “The Warrior Kid trains hard, exercises, and eats right to be strong and fast and healthy.”
616. “The sum is far greater than the parts.”
617. “The Seal Teams and the U.S. military, much like militaries throughout history, are based around building blocks of four-to-six man teams with a leader.” – Jocko Willink
618. “The third Law of Combat: Prioritize and Execute. When multiple problems occur simultaneously (which happens often), taking on too many problems at once results in failure.”
619. “Leadership is simple, but not easy.” – Jocko Willink
620. “There is no such thing as a weekend. This is an everyday gig: Every day is a Monday.” – Jocko Willink
621. “Leadership doesn’t just flow down the chain of command, but up as well,” he said. “We have to own everything in our world. That’s what Extreme Ownership is all about.”
622. “The More You Practice, The Better You Get” – Jocko Willink
623. “It is critical for leaders to act decisively amid uncertainty; to make the best decisions they can based on only the immediate information available.”
624. “I’m the king of the world!” is a quote from the movie Titanic. This famous line is uttered by Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Jack as he is standing on the bow of the ship. This quote is a reminder to live life to the fullest and to seize the day.
625. A good leader does not get bogged down in the minutia of a tactical problem at the expense of strategic success.
626. “Leadership is simple, but not easy.”
627. “The plan must mitigate identified risks where possible. SEALs are known for taking significant risk, but in reality SEALs calculate risk very carefully. A good plan must enable the highest chance of mission success while mitigating as much risk as possible.”
628. “When you’re too embarrassed to ask for help, that’s a little knock at your door saying, you’re insecure!” – Jocko Willink
629. “You have to be vigilant. You have to be on guard. You have to hold the line on the seemingly insignificant little things— things that shouldn’t matter—but that do.” – Jocko Willink
630. “During SEAL training (and really, throughout a SEAL’s career) every evolution was a competition—a race, a fight, a contest.”
631. Even when you have a chain of command that you don't like as well, its your responsibility to work with the up chain of command.
632. To be a good SEAL you sort of have this criminal mindset that you've somehow harnessed.
633. “The leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything.” – Jocko Willink
634. “Junior leaders must be proactive rather than reactive.”
635. “War is hell. But war is also an incredible teacher, a brutal teacher. And it teaches you lessons you will never forget.” – Jocko Willink
636. “Besides death, all failure is psychological.”
637. “If the plan is simple enough, everyone understands it, which means each person can rapidly adjust and modify what he or she is doing. If the plan is too complex, the team can’t make rapid adjustments to it, because there is no baseline understanding of it.”
638. “If I help you, I’m hurting you”
639. “Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get things done.”
640. “Human beings are generally not capable of managing more than six to ten people, particularly when things go sideways and inevitable contingencies arise.”
641. “There is no substitute for hard work.”
642. “it is paramount that senior leaders explain to their junior leaders and troops executing the mission how their role contributes to big picture success.”
643. “Everyone wants some magic pill—some life hack—that eliminates the need to do the work. But that does not exist.” – Jocko Willink
644. “The U.S. Navy SEAL Teams were at the forefront of this leadership transformation, emerging from the triumphs and tragedies of war with a crystallized understanding of what it takes to succeed in the most challenging environments that combat presents.”
645. Leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory.
646. “We all have limitations. I don’t have the right genes to be an Olympic weightlifter. I don’t have the right genetics to be an Olympic sprinter. Or gymnast. Sure, if I trained my whole life, perhaps I could have become fairly decent in those sports.”~Jocko Willink Quotes
647. “There is a time to stand firm and enforce rules and there is a time to give ground and allow the rules to bend. Finding that balance is critical for leaders to get maximum effectiveness from their team.”
648. “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the best” –
649. “Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it. Start doing it.”
650. “Everyday is a major balancing act that I have to figure out and coordinate.” – Jocko Willink
651. “Don’t let your mind control you. Control your mind.”
652. “Question yourself every day. Ask yourself: Who am I? What have I learned? What have I created? What forward progress have I made? Who have I helped? What am I doing to improve myself—today? To get better, faster, stronger, healthier, smarter?”
653. When you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished, you will likely fall short.
654. “When I was running training, we would fire a couple of leaders from every SEAL team because they couldn’t lead. And 99.9% of the time, it wasn’t a question of their ability – it was a question of their ability to listen.” – Jocko Willink
655. “Several SEALs had patches that read, “More Cowbell,” inspired by the popular Saturday Night Live Will Ferrell skit of the band, Blue Oyster Cult.”
656. “Get after it.”
657. “DISCIPLINE. POWER. POSITIVITY. WILL.”
658. “Relax, look around, make a call.”
659. “With Extreme Ownership, you must remove individual ego and personal agenda. It’s all about the mission. How can you best get your team to most effectively execute the plan in order to accomplish the mission?” I”
660. “Extreme ownership is a mindset, an attitude.” – Jocko Willink
661. “Instead of letting the situation dictate our decisions, we must dictate the situation.” – Jocko Willink
662. “For all the definitions, descriptions, and characterizations of leaders, there are only two that matter: effective and ineffective. Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not. The”
663. “Don’t fight stress. Embrace it. Turn it on itself. Use it to make yourself sharper and more alert. Use it to make you think and learn and get better and smarter and more effective. Use the stress to make you a better you.”
664. “Stop checking social media and stop watching one more Youtube video.”
665. It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.
666. “There is no failure, only feedback.”
667. “Ego clouds and disrupts everything.” – Jocko Willink
668. “The leader must pull the different elements within the team together to support one another, with all focused exclusively on how to best accomplish the mission.”
669. “No Bad Teams, Only Bad Leaders”
670. “It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”
671. A person shouldn’t think they are the best thing in the world, but they shouldn’t think they are the worst either. Is that right?
672. “Another mission. Another task. Another goal. And the enemy is always watching. Waiting. Looking for that moment of weakness. Looking for you to exhale, set your weapon down, and close your eyes, even just for a moment. And that’s when they attack. So don’t be finished.”
673. “I had to take ownership of everything that went wrong. Despite the tremendous blow to my reputation and to my ego, it was the right thing to do—the only thing to do. I”
674. “Leaders must always operate with the understanding that they are part of something greater than themselves and their own personal interests.”
675. “Leaders must accept total responsibility, own problems that inhibit performance, and develop solutions to those problems. A”
676. Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team.
677. “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new” –
678. “I should have given greater ownership of plans to the troops—especially those who were negative and weren’t fully committed to the mission.”
679. “After all, there can be no leadership where there is no team.”
680. “Your actions are a statement of what you believe.”
681. “The Warrior Kid treats people with respect and helps out other people whenever possible.”
682. “set ego aside, accept responsibility for failures, attack weaknesses, and consistently work to build a better and more effective team.”
683. “If you’re going to wake up early all the time, and you’re working hard, and you’re working out, sometimes you’re going to get tired. It’s OK. It’s acceptable – somewhat. We’re all human, unfortunately.”~Jocko Willink
684. Who wants to leave the door open to being dominated physically by another human being? Jiu Jitsu gives you the ability to not be dominated by that person, and to me, that's real peace of mind.
685. “Stop Researching Every Aspect of It and Reading All About It” – Jocko Willink
686. “The Warrior Kid wakes up early in the morning.”
687. “Some of the boldest, most successful plans in history have not come from the senior ranks but from frontline leaders. Senior leaders simply had the courage to accept and run with them.” – Jocko Willink
688. “Engage with them,” directed Jocko. “Build a personal relationship with them. Explain to them what you need from them and why, and ask them what you can do to help them get you what you need. Make them a part of your team,”
689. “Prioritize your problems and take care of them one at a time, the highest priority first. Don’t try to do everything at once or you won’t be successful.” I explained how a leader who tries to take on too many problems simultaneously will likely fail at them all.”
690. “If you continue to keep low performers on your team, that are actually dragging the team down, you’re failing the whole team. And eventually, the whole team is going to fail.” – Jocko Willink
691. “all animals, including humans, need to see the connection between action and consequence in order to learn or react appropriately.”
692. “The focus must always be on how to best accomplish the mission.”
693. “To not move around, observe, and analyze, in order to make the best decisions possible, was to fail as a leader and fail the team.”
694. “Instead of letting the situation dictate our decisions, we must dictate the situation.”
695. “I would venture to guess that the biggest reason creative types don’t produce isn’t because they don’t have vision… or talent… in most cases, it’s a lack of discipline.”~Jocko Willink
696. “Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.” – Jocko Willink
697. “Even if you can't perform at a high level, showing up and doing something is still a thousand times better than not showing up at all.”
698. “There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline.” – Jocko Willink
699. “Leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory.” – Jocko Willink
700. “Get up and GO. Take the risk, take the gamble, take the first step. Take action. And don’t let another day slip by.” – Jocko Willink
701. “There are only two types of leaders: effective and ineffective.”
702. The leader must pull the different elements within the team together to support one another, with all focused exclusively on how to best accomplish the mission.
703. “Get After It.” ∼Jocko Willink
704. Faster. Stronger. Smarter. More humble. Less ego.
705. “We have food all around us all the time, and if we haven’t eaten for three hours, we think we’re starving. You’re not starving – human beings can go for 30 days without food.”~Jocko Willink
706. “Get up. Dust off. Reload. Re-calibrate. Re-engage – And go out on the attack. ” – Jocko Willink
707. “Have the Discipline to Do What Needs to Be Done” – Jocko Willink
708. “Jiu Jitsu is a great workout both mentally and physically. You want to be strong for it and flexible for it.”~Jocko Willink
709. “being in good shape can make the difference between winning and losing.”
710. “Put simply, Cover and Move means teamwork.”
711. “Generally, when a leader struggles, the root cause behind the problem is that the leader has leaned too far in one direction and steered off course. Awareness.” – Jocko Willink
712. “Go down swinging. And I’ll tell you, if you fight with all you have, more often than not, you won’t go down at all. You will win.” – Jocko Willink
713. “don’t try to plan for every contingency. Doing so will only overburden you and weigh you down so that you cannot quickly maneuver.”
714. “Waiting for the 100 percent right and certain solution leads to delay, indecision, and an inability to execute.”
715. “Weakness is strong. I must be stronger.”
716. “strategic plans affect execution on the ground.”
717. “We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.”~Jocko Willink
718. “Whatever problems or stress you are experiencing, detach from them.”
719. “We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.” – Jocko Willink
720. “If your boss isn’t making a decision in a timely manner or providing necessary support for you and your team, don’t blame the boss. First, blame yourself. Examine.”
721. “Leaders should never be satisfied. They must always strive to improve, and they must build that mind-set into the team.”
722. “Leadership is hard. It’s a skill. It’s a technique.”~Jocko Willink
723. Be detached from desire your whole life long.
724. “Cover and Move, Simple, Prioritize and Execute, and Decentralized Command.”
725. “Set your alarm clock and get out of bed when it goes off.” – Jocko Willink
726. “As leaders, we must not get dragged into the details but instead remain focused on the bigger picture.” – Jocko Willink
727. “There is no such thing as a weekend. This is an everyday gig. Every day is a Monday.” – Jocko Willink
728. “If you have to stand and fight, you train yourself so that you’re able to do it.”~Jocko Willink
729. “I remembered from my boyhood days in Texas a basic rule of firearms safety my father taught me: know your target and what is beyond it.”
730. “good leaders are rare; bad leaders are common.”
731. “There is no such thing as a weekend. This is an everyday gig: Every day is a Monday.”
732. “We learned that leadership requires belief in the mission and unyielding perseverance to achieve victory,”
733. “Self-discipline is the root quality that will improve every aspect of your life.” – Jocko Willink
734. “A good leader, a guy that’s tactically sound, a guy that makes good decisions, and guy that’s good under pressure, a guy that doesn’t ever give up on trying to accomplish the mission, those are the things that make a good seal.” – Jocko Willink
735. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there” –
736. “If you stop looking for a short cut… and find your discipline and your will. Then you will find your freedom.” – Jocko Willink
737. “Stop Whining, Start Grinding.”
738. When personal agendas become more important than the team and the overarching mission's success, performance suffers and failure ensues.
739. “Good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done.” – Jocko Willink
740. “Whether in SEAL training, in combat on distant battlefields, in business, or in life: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
741. “The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails.” – Jocko Willink
742. “The best platoons and task units embraced those lessons with Extreme Ownership, acknowledged the problems, and figured out ways to solve them. They constantly improved. The worst units rejected the criticism and complained about how training was too hard.”
743. “The earlier you get in the game and start applying yourself, the better the life you’re going to have.” – Jocko Willink
744. “Exactly. If there is something that you don’t like doing, something that makes you uncomfortable, you should do more of it. It will make you better. And it will also make you more comfortable at being uncomfortable.”
745. “Everyone wants some magic pill, some life hack, that eliminates the need to do the work. But that does not exist.” – Jocko Willink
746. “Extreme Ownership is a mind-set, an attitude.” – Jocko Willink
747. “For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it. * * *”
748. “The thing about Jiu Jitsu is it is also not for everybody. It can be very humiliating and humbling. If you have a hard time dealing with the fact that someone smaller than you may be able to tap you out, it is going to be difficult.”~Jocko Willink
749. A leader must be calm, but not robotic. They must be confident, but never cocky. A leader must be brave, but not foolhardy. They must have a competitive spirit, but be a gracious loser.
750. “Waking up early was the first example I noticed in the SEAL Teams in which discipline was really the difference between being good and being exceptional.”
751. When things are going bad there’s going to be some good that comes from it.
752. “Be humble.”
753. Departments and groups within the team must break down silos, depend on each other and understand who depends on them.
754. “While discipline and freedom seem like they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum, they are actually very connected.” – Jocko Willink
755. “Remember to keep your ego in check. Don’t judge people. Keep digging deep, pushing yourself, and using the power of your will to keep going. Most of all, stay on The Path of being a Warrior Kid, okay?”
756. “Overconfidence was risky in such a hostile environment, a mistake most often made by warriors who had never truly been tested.” – Jocko Willink
757. “Getting out of bed is like the foundation of the discipline, and I think it carries over into everything else.” – Jocko Willink
758. “Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.” – Jocko Willink
759. “Effort is the Key to Unlocking Our Potential.”
760. “Even if you can’t perform at a high level, showing up and doing something is still a thousand times better than not showing up at all.” – Jocko Willink
761. “When setting expectations, no matter what has been said or written, if substandard performance is accepted and no one is held accountable — if there are no consequences — that poor performance becomes the new standard. Therefore, leaders must enforce standards.”
762. “For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it. *”
763. “The book derives its title from the underlying principle—the mind-set—that provides the foundation for all the rest: Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.”
764. “Be coachable.”
765. “Establishing an effective and repeatable planning process is critical to the success of any team.”
766. “Don’t just think. Don’t just talk. Don’t just dream. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is that you actually do. So…Do!” – Jocko Willink
767. “But to make yourself better, faster, smarter, stronger. Because with those goals, nothing is ever finished.”
768. “Don’t think in the morning. That’s a big mistake that people make. They wake up in the morning and they start thinking. Don’t think. Just execute the plan. The plan is the alarm clock goes off, you get up, you go work out. Get some.”~Jocko Willink
769. “The Warrior Kid works hard, saves money, is frugal and doesn’t waste things, and always does his best.”
770. “When it comes to performance standards, It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.”
771. “Well done; you kept your composure and you made clear calls. You got the help you needed and kept the rest of your team alive.”
772. “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.”
773. “The leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything.”
774. “A lot of times, people have something that they're afraid of. They've got a client that's mad at them. They've got a project that's due. And they let that stress hang over their head. I don't let that happen.”
775. “We are by no means infallible leaders; no one is, no matter how experienced. Nor do we have all the answers; no leader does. We’ve made huge mistakes. Often our mistakes provided the greatest lessons, humbled us, and enabled us to grow and become better.”
776. “If frontline troops are unclear about the plan and yet are too intimidated to ask questions, the team’s ability to effectively execute the plan radically decreases.” – Jocko Willink
777. “Don’t Accept The World That’s Been Given To You, Create Your Own.”
778. “fratricide”
779. “leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities, between one extreme and another. The”
780. “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts” –
781. “Grind now, relax later.”
782. “The challenge comes when that alignment isn’t explicitly clear. When a leader’s confidence breaks, those who are supposed to follow him or her see this and begin to question their own belief in the mission.”
783. “Admitting mistakes, taking ownership, and developing a plan to overcome challenges are integral to any successful team. Ego can prevent a leader from conducting an honest, realistic assessment of his or her own performance and the performance of the team.”
784. “Ultimately, they must fully accept that there truly are no bad teams, only bad leaders.”
785. “Even if you can’t perform at a high level, showing up and doing something is still a thousand times better than not showing up at all.”
786. “For all the definitions, descriptions, and characterizations of leaders, there are only two that matter: Effective and ineffective. Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.” – Jocko Willink
787. “Be persistent.”
788. “If you can say the word: good. Guess what? That means that you are still alive, that means that you are still breathing. And if you are still breathing... well now... you still got some fight left in you”
789. “Cover and Move, Simple, Prioritize and Execute, and Decentralized Command.” – Jocko Willink
790. “The leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything.” ∼Jocko Willink
791. “We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.” – Jocko Willink
792. “For this reason, they must believe in the cause for which they are fighting. They must believe in the plan they are asked to execute, and most important, they must believe in and trust the leader they are asked to follow.”
793. “When you’re too embarrassed to ask for help, that’s a little knock at your door saying, ‘you’re insecure’.” – Jocko Willink
794. “The goal of leadership seems simple: to get people to do what they need to do to support the mission and the team.”
795. “You have to do the work. You have to hold the line. You have to make it happen.”
796. “The second Law of Combat: Simple. Complexity breeds chaos and disaster, especially when things go wrong.”
797. “The goal of all leaders should be to work themselves out of a job. When mentored and coached properly, the junior leader can eventually replace the senior leader, allowing the senior leader to move on to the next level of leadership.” – Jocko Willink
798. “there can be no leadership where there is no team.”
799. “Curse the warmth of your bed instead of 48 reasons why you need to motivate yourself to get up in the morning. Glory in solitude instead of 10 ways you can stay on task and focus.” – Jocko Willink
800. “If people don’t respond to your leadership, and your reaction is to get more and more aggressive with them, they aren’t likely to come around.” – Jocko Willink
801. “If you allow the status quo to persist, you can’t expect to improve performance, and you can’t expect to win. If you are sick or injured, don’t use that as an excuse to skip workouts to stay in bed all day. Do what you can.” – Jocko Willink
802. “Mission planning played an integral part in our success on the battlefield. The right process mattered. Disciplined planning procedures mattered. Without them, we would have never been successful.”
803. I know that it can be very very frustrating to try and become disciplined.
804. “I don’t view aggression as an outward attitude. I view aggression as an internal character trait. A fire in your mind that says: I’m going to win.”
805. “If you get out there and do your best, you will either win, or you will learn.” – Jocko Willink
806. “Weakness is strong. I must be stronger.” – Jocko Willink
807. “developmental disability,”
808. “There Is No Shortcut. There Is No Hack. There’s Only One Way, So Get After It.”
809. “without a team—a group of individuals working to accomplish a mission—there can be no leadership. The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails.”
810. “The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails.”
811. “When a leader takes too much ownership, there is no ownership left for the team or subordinate leaders to take. So the team loses initiative, they lose momentum, they won't make any decision, they just sit around and wait to be told what to do.”
812. “The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.”~Jocko Willink , Jocko Willink quotes on discipline
813. “Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in freedom. When you have the discipline to get up early, you are rewarded with more free time.”
814. Instead of letting the situation dictate our decisions, we must dictate the situation.
815. “Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.”~Jocko Willink
816. “There can be no leadership when there is no team.” – Jocko Willink
817. “There are no bad units, only bad officers.”3 This captures the essence of what Extreme Ownership is all about.”
818. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.
819. “Contrary to a common misconception, leaders are not stuck in any particular position. Leaders must be free to move to where they are most needed, which changes throughout the course of an operation.”
820. Staying ahead of the curve prevents a leader from being overwhelmed when pressure is applied and enables greater decisiveness.
821. “The world does not conspire against you. You conspire against you. It’s you versus you.”
822. “There is no easy way. There is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration, and discipline. ” – Jocko Willink
823. “What makes the best leaders and best teams great is that when they make mistakes, they acknowledge them, take ownership, and make corrections to upgrade their performance.”
824. “There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‘be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough’ are not true. They are fairy tales.”~Jocko Willink
825. “Getting out of bed is like the foundation of the discipline, and I think it carries over into everything else.”
826. “Things won’t get better dwelling on the past. Accept what has happened. Then move forward.”
827. Do not pursue the taste of good food.
828. “Extreme ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.” – Jocko Willink
829. “The only person you can control is you. So focus on making yourself who you want to be: Faster. Smarter. Stronger. More humble. Less ego.”
830. “Give them what they need and try to help them if you can, but it sounds like they will make their own bed.”
831. Be dangerous but disciplined.
832. “In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always
833. “Os líderes seniores devem fazer perguntas e, em seguida, dar feedback, para que os líderes seniores entendam as ramificações de seus planos estratégicos.”
834. “When things are going bad, don’t get all bummed out. Don’t get startled; don’t get frustrated. If you can say the word ‘good,’ guess what? It means you’re still alive. It means you’re still breathing.”~Jocko Willink
835. “Be Ready to Adapt to Changing Circumstances” – Jocko Willink
836. Do not fear death.
837. “If we could execute with a monumental effort just to reach an immediate goal that everyone could see, we could then continue to the next visually”
838. “When you think you can’t take any more, guess what? You can. It’s proven by the stories of ordinary people in war.” – Jocko Willink
839. “Ego clouds and disrupts everything.”∼Jocko Willink
840. Don’t count on motivation. Count on discipline.
841. “Leadership doesn’t just flow down the chain of command, but up as well,” he said. “We have to own everything in our world. That”
842. “The most fundamental and important truths at the heart of Extreme Ownership: there are no bad teams, only bad leaders.” – Jocko Willink
843. “when you run, and that hurts. It hurts to be uncomfortable.”
844. “You have to do the work. You have to hold the line. You have to make it happen.” – Jocko Willink
845. “You can get out of the storm and you will get out of the storm. And, when you get out, you’ll see the sun.” – Jocko Willink
846. Stop checking social media and stop watching one more Youtube video.
847. “The storm that you’re in is hard to see out of and it seems like it’s everything. But the storm is not everything. And, it won’t last forever.” – Jocko Willink
848. “Is this what I want to be? This? I this all I got - is this everything I can give? Is this going to be my life? Do I accept that?”
849. “That’s another dichotomy: in order to help your team, sometimes you have to hurt them.”
850. “But I learned that good leaders don’t make excuses. Instead, they figure out a way to get it done and win.” – Jocko Willink
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