Okay, let's start with a mental image. I want
you to picture the ultimate archetype of the
modern American warrior. You're likely visualizing
a guy who looks like he was carved out of grommet.
Someone who just commands a room by the way he
stands with a voice that sounds like gravel crunching
under a tank tread. Right. You're thinking combat
tactics intensity. Naturally. That is the brand.
I mean, that is the image on the book jacket.
That's that scary Navy fuel archetype that pop
culture has basically been feeding us for the
last 20 years. Exactly. But here's where it gets
really, really interesting. What if I told you
that the same guy. the one who spent his career
hunting insurgents in the most dangerous city
in Iraq, holds a Bachelor of Arts in English,
that he spends his spare time analyzing, I don't
know, Shakespearean narrative structures, that
he writes children's books about overcoming fears
for, you know, for elementary schoolers. And
just to throw another curveball into the mix,
as of 2026, he is sitting on the board of directors
for a major league soccer team. alongside pop
culture icons like Issa Rae and global soccer
stars. It just creates this massive cognitive
dissonance, doesn't it? It just doesn't fit the
box we want to put him in. It creates a paradox,
and that is exactly where this deep dive begins.
I mean, if you only look at the surface level,
the memes, the good video, the black and white
Instagram photos of his wristwatch at 4 .30 in
the morning, you are missing the actual story.
You're missing the substance. You're missing
all of it. The source material we have today.
which includes his full military biography, his
bibliography, and his business filings up to
January 2026, it reveals a much, much more complex
figure. We aren't just looking at a soldier here.
We're looking at a soldier philosopher. And that
is our specific mission for this deep dive. We
aren't just going to recite a Wikipedia biography.
Anyone can do that. We need to figure out the
translation mechanism. How does a career defined
by extreme violence in Ramadi, I mean, arguably
the most dangerous place on Earth in 2006. How
does that translate into a mainstream philosophy
of business and parenting and life that applies
to a software engineer in Seattle just as much
as a soldier? Precisely. We need to connect the
dots between the battlefield and the boardroom.
Because frankly, there are a lot of ex -military
guys who write books. A lot. There are a lot
of tough guys who start podcasts. Very, very
few of them build the kind of diverse, multifaceted
empire that Jocko Willink has built. We need
to understand why his specific message resonated
so loudly and really how he constructed this
whole ecosystem. So looking at the roadmap, we
have a ton of ground to cover. We need to look
at his evolution starting as a 19 -year -old
enlisted sailor, not an officer from the get
-go. That's a key point. We need to dissect the
crucible of Task Unit Bruiser because you just
can't understand his worldview without understanding
the sheer chaos of 2006 Iraq. And then we have
to look at the pivot, the books, the consulting,
the jujitsu, and this fascinating recent expansion
into mainstream sports ownership with San Diego
FC. Okay. Let's start right at the foundation,
section one, from Connecticut to Coronado. It's
interesting you mention Connecticut right off
the bat, because when people hear Navy SEAL,
The mental image is usually some guy who grew
up, you know, hunting elk in the mountains of
Montana or surfing the breaks in Southern California.
Right, a rugged outdoorsy type. But Willink was
born in Torrington, Connecticut on September
8, 1971. A New Englander. A thorough New Englander.
And the sources indicate that the call to service
wasn't some later in life epiphany. It wasn't
a reaction to a specific political event or a
drift into adulthood. He wanted to be in the
military from a very, very young age. And he
enlists in the Navy at age nine. Nineteen. Nineteen.
In 1990. I just want to pause on that for a second.
Think back to what you were doing at 19. I think
I was trying to figure out how to do laundry,
maybe passing some barely relevant college electives.
And I was certainly not making life altering
commitments to the federal government. Exactly.
And looking at that timeline, 1990 is so significant.
This is pre 9 -11. The world was a fundamentally
different place geopolitically. The forever wars
hadn't even begun. That is a crucial distinction
to make. When Willink enlisted, the Soviet Union
was collapsing. The Berlin Wall had just come
down. The military he joined was a peacetime
military that was preparing for these large conventional
threats. Not the counterinsurgency grinder he
would end up in a decade later. But I think more
importantly, enlisting at 19 means his entire
adult formation, those critical years where you
really figure out your identity, happened within
the strict hierarchy and culture of the U .S.
Navy. He wasn't shaped by a liberal arts college
dorm experience first. His worldview was shaped
by the fleet. Correct. And he didn't walk straight
into the SEAL teams either, which is another
interesting detail. The sources mention he went
to Radio Man A school first. Okay, for those
of us who don't speak Navy, let's unpack that.
What exactly is A school? So in the Navy, every
enlisted person needs a rating. That's their
job. You aren't just a soldier or a sailor. You're
a mechanic. a cook, a technician of some sort,
Willink was a radio man. A radio man. Yeah. So
that means before he was learning how to blow
things up underwater or conduct raids, he was
learning communications theory, frequencies,
encryption, radio protocols. Which ironically
seems like a pretty fitting start for a guy who
eventually makes his living talking into a microphone
and communicating complex ideas to millions of
people. It really does. It's almost prophetic
in a way. It gave him a technical foundation
in communication. But eventually, he reports
to the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado for BUDS.
Basic Underwater Demolition Seal Training. The
one and only. The legendary BUBS. The ringing
of the bell, the sand, the surf torture. We've
all seen it in the movies. And for the record,
the sources note he graduated with Class 177.
But here's where his story gets technically interesting.
And it really speaks to that complexity we mentioned
in the intro. Willink followed what's known in
the military as the Mustang path. I've heard
that term thrown around in military movies, usually
with a lot of reverence, but break it down for
us. What does it actually mean to be a Mustang?
A Mustang is an officer who started their career
as an enlisted service member. And you have to
understand, in the military, there's a pretty
rigid caste system. You have enlisted personnel
there, the workforce, the doers, and you have
commissioned officers who are the management,
the planners. Right. Usually officers come from
places like the Naval Academy or ROTC programs
at universities. They enter the service with
a college degree and a gold bar on their collar.
So they basically start as managers on day one.
Exactly. They have the authority, but they often
lack the ground level experience. Willink, however,
served for eight years on active duty as an enlisted
Navy SEAL with SEAL Team 1. Eight. Eight years.
He was in the trenches, so to speak. He was taking
the orders, hauling the gears, scrubbing the
floors, and doing all the grunt work long before
he was ever giving orders. That has to fundamentally
change the leadership dynamic later on, right?
When he eventually became a commander, his troops
knew he hadn't just read about the job in a textbook.
He had lived it. It changes everything. It earns
a completely different species of respect. When
a Mustang officer tells you to do something absolutely
miserable, like... you know, low -crawling through
a freezing swamp or staying up for three days
straight. Yeah. You know he's done it a thousand
times himself. He isn't asking you to do anything
he hasn't already done, which is huge. But speaking
of textbooks, this is the part of his biography
that usually trips people up. While he was doing
all of this, serving as an enlisted SEAL, deploying
around the world, training constantly, he was
also working on his education. He wasn't just
doing push -ups and shooting guns. Not at all.
He earned his commission through Officer Candidate
School, which is what allowed him to make that
jump from enlisted to officer. But at the same
time, he also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Wait for it. In English. An English major. The
guy who is famous for saying discipline equals
freedom and carrying a heavy machine gun spent
his spare time analyzing Shakespeare and Hemingway
and Faulkner. He graduated from the University
of San Diego in 2003. And I would argue that
this is not a contradiction. It's actually his
superpower. How so? Because usually we think
of English majors as, you know, academics, maybe
writers, not tactical commanders leading men
in combat. But think about the military environment.
It is filled with brilliant tacticians, guys
who can read a battlefield, understand flanking
maneuvers, and direct fire. It's full of them.
But if you cannot communicate those ideas clearly,
if you can't write a coherent operational order,
A clear performance evaluation or concise mission
statement. Your ceiling is limited. The ability
to analyze text, to understand narrative structure,
and to articulate complex thoughts clearly and
simply. That literacy almost certainly played
a massive role in his ability to write extreme
ownership later in life. It's the combination
of the warrior and the scholar. It reminds me
of that old saying that if you separate the scholars
from the warriors, you'll have your fighting
done by fools and your thinking done by cowards.
Exactly. Willink bridges that gap. He understands
the nuance of language, which is absolutely critical
when you're trying to convince people to follow
you into a life or death situation. That makes
a lot of sense. And speaking of the warrior side,
we have to talk about his pre -911 action. The
sources mentioned deployments to Asia, the Middle
East, and Europe. But there is one specific incident
in the records that just reads like an 80s action
movie script. You must be referring to the Volganeft
147. The seizure of the Russian tanker. This
feels like something straight out of a Tom Clancy
novel. It really does. This was in the Gulf of
Oman. And... The context here is really important.
At the time, there was a United Nations economic
embargo against Iraq. The Volga Neft 147 was
a Russian tanker that was suspected of carrying
Iraqi oil in violation of that very embargo.
So you have a SEAL team. Willink is part of this.
boarding a Russian ship at sea to seize contraband
oil. I mean, that is incredibly high -stakes
stuff. You're dealing with a foreign power, international
law, and a potentially hostile boarding action.
It is the definition of a gray zone operation.
It's not full -scale war, but it's certainly
not peace either. There's actually a photo in
the records of Willink standing with a fellow
SEAL after that boarding operation. It's just
a great visual. What does it tell us? It highlights
that his experience wasn't just the war on terror.
He was operating in that complex environment
of international enforcement long before the
world changed on September 11, 2001. But the
world did change, and that leads us directly
to the next major chapter of his life. Yeah.
Section 2, The Crucible. We're talking about
Task Unit Bruiser and the Battle of Ramadi. This
is really the centerpiece of his entire military
career. If that English degree provided the tools
for communication, Ramadi provided the raw material.
We need to fast forward now to 2006. Operation
Iraqi Freedom is in full swing. Willink is now
lieutenant commander, and he is leading task
unit bruiser of SEAL Team 3. For anyone who might
be a bit fuzzy on the timeline or the geography
of the Iraq War, let's really set the scene here.
What was Ramadi in 2006? Ramadi was the absolute
epicenter of the Sunni insurgency. At that specific
time, it was widely considered the most dangerous
city in Iraq, maybe on the planet. Wow. The Marines
and the Army were taking heavy, heavy casualties
there every single day. Al -Qaeda in Iraq had
essentially claimed the city as their capital.
It was this dense urban environment just filled
with IEDs, snipers, and incredibly complex ambushes.
So this wasn't a peacekeeping mission. This wasn't,
you know, winning hearts and minds by handing
out candy bars. This was a daily brutal gunfight.
It was sustained, high -intensity urban combat.
And this is the environment where Willing's leadership
theories were truly tested by fire. It's one
thing to have a theory about ownership when you're
running a training drill in San Diego or sitting
in a classroom. Yeah. It's another thing entirely
when you were coordinating movements between
SEALs, U .S. Marines and Iraqi army soldiers
while you're actively under machine gun fire.
And when you look at the roster of task unit
bruiser. It's actually statistically baffling.
I was reading through the names in the source
material, and it just feels like an all -star
team of modern military history. It's unbelievable.
It truly is a statistical anomaly to have that
much talent and that much tragedy concentrated
in one single platoon -sized element. Just listen
to some of these names. First, Leif Babin, who
was one of his platoon commanders, and later
becomes his business partner. The co -author
of Extreme Ownership. Yep. Then you have Chris
Kyle. I mean, stop right there. Chris Kyle, the
American sniper himself, the most lethal sniper
in U .S. military history, was operating under
Willing's command in this single unit. And then
Johnny Kim. Johnny Kim is a whole other level
of human achievement. He goes from being a SEAL
combat medic in this unit, literally treating
his wounded friends in the street, to becoming
a Harvard -trained doctor and then a NASA astronaut.
It's just an absurd collection of high achievers.
But then you also have the tragedy. You can't
talk about Bruiser without talking about the
incredible cost. The sources list Michael Monsoor.
Master at Arms, second class. He was awarded
the Medal of Honor posthumously. He jumped on
a grenade to save his teammates on a rooftop.
That happened in this unit, under this command
structure. Unbelievable. And Mark Allen Lee.
The first Navy SEAL to lose his life in Operation
Iraqi Freedom. He was killed in action during
a firefight while he was part of Task Unit Bruiser.
And there are others listed. Seth Stoner, Stone,
Kevin Last, Ryan Diggle's job. Yeah. I mean,
when you look at that list, you realize that
Willink wasn't just managing soldiers. He was
managing lions. He was leading these high performance,
high drive, aggressive individuals in an incredibly
chaotic environment where people were dying.
So how does that shape a person's philosophy?
I mean, how do you go from that to writing business
books? The connection seems so tenuous. I think
that is exactly where the concept of ownership
comes from. In that environment, the fog of war.
is real communications break down constantly
plans fail the second they make contact with
the enemy the enemy does things you didn't expect
right if you are a leader in that hellscape you
cannot blame the weather for a failed mission
you cannot blame the enemy for being good at
their job you cannot blame your superiors for
giving you bad intel because if you do if you
do you lose focus and people die It's that simple.
The only way to survive and function is to take
absolute total responsibility for everything
in your world. If a subordinate doesn't understand
the plan, it's not because they're stupid. It's
because you didn't explain it well enough. That
mindset shift from blame to ownership was forged
in Ramadi because it was the only psychological
tool that worked to keep those men alive. It's
the ultimate high -stakes test and ground for
any theory. And his service was recognized, of
course. The sources mention he received the Silver
Star and the Bronze Star Medal. Correct. He eventually
rotated out of that command, served as a training
instructor, which is critical, passing those
lessons on to the next generation of SEALs, and
then retired in October 2010 after 20 years of
service, rank of lieutenant commander. But unlike
so many who retire and just fade into a quiet
life of fishing or golfing, Willink did something
very, very different. He took that ownership
concept and decided it applied to selling widgets
just as much as it applied to clearing houses
in Ramadi. And that brings us to the great pivot.
Section three, extreme ownership, the transition
from the battlefield to business and authorship.
This is where the story shifts from a war movie
to business school. This is where we see the
English major come back into play with a vengeance.
Immediately after his Navy life, he co -founds
Echelon Front with Leif Dabin. And Echelon Front
isn't just a book title, right? It's a full -fledged
active consulting firm. Oh, yeah. It's a management
consulting firm. They host conferences. They
run seminars. They do direct -to -company training.
But here is the key insight. They didn't just
sell war stories. There's a trap that a lot of
ex -military speakers fall into. What's that?
They just get up and tell cool stories about
blowing things up. And the corporate audience
claps and they feel motivated for an hour. But
they don't actually learn anything applicable.
to their accounting firm. It becomes entertainment,
not education. Right. Willink and Babin focused
on the translation. They codified the philosophy.
The core concept, which is mentioned again and
again in the sources, is simple. There are no
bad teams, only bad leaders. That is a really
tough phrase to hear if you're in charge of something.
It's brutal. It's absolutely brutal. It implies
that if your team is failing, it is your fault.
Period. Yeah. Full stop. I can just imagine a
CEO hearing that and getting really defensive.
Well, my sales team just isn't working hard enough
or the market is down or our competitors are
cheating. And Jocko would say, did you clarify
the mission? Did you provide the resources? Did
you explain why the sales goal matters to the
overall company? If not, you fail to lead. It
completely flips the script from they messed
up to I need to do better. They put this entire
framework into the book Extreme Ownership, How
U .S. Navy Seals Lead and Win. Which was a massive,
massive hit. The sources say it reached number
13 on the New York Times bestseller list for
audio nonfiction. And what I found so interesting
is the structure. They use a very specific narrative
device in every single chapter. Right. The combat
to corporate structure. Exactly. Each chapter
starts with a visceral combat story from Ramadi.
They put you right there in the Humvee. You feel
the dust and the adrenaline and the fear. Then
they pause the story and extract the principle.
Say the principle is cover and move. Then. They
apply that exact principle to a business scenario
they've consulted on, like a product launch or
a marketing dispute between two departments.
That is the translation mechanism we were looking
for earlier. Taking a firefight and explaining
how the breakdown in communication there is exactly
the same mechanic as a breakdown in communication
between the marketing and sales departments in
an office. It makes the business advice sticky.
You might forget a bullet point on a PowerPoint
slide, but you won't forget the story of a friendly
fire, a blue -on -blue fratricide incident that's
used to explain the critical importance of simplified
communications. And he didn't just stop with
one book. The man has been incredibly prolific.
Very. He followed up with a dichotomy of leadership.
This book is actually crucial because extreme
ownership on its own can be misinterpreted. How
so? I mean, isn't taking ownership a pretty straightforward
concept? Well, some people hear extreme ownership
and they think it means micromanaging every little
detail or taking the blame for everything in
a way that just makes you a martyr. Or they think
it just means being aggressive and loud all the
time. Exactly. Dichotomy explores the nuance.
It's about balance, how to be aggressive, but
also prudent, how to be disciplined, but also
flexible enough to adapt. It's really the advanced
course in his philosophy. And then there's discipline
equals freedom. Field Manual, which is a very
different kind of book. It's more of a collection
of his routines, his workouts, and almost stoic
poetry. That book is all about aesthetics and
impact. It's black pages, white text, very aggressive.
It's designed to be a kick in the pants rather
than a textbook you study. But here is where
the story gets really, really interesting for
me. The softer side of the scary seal. We absolutely
have to talk about the children's books. This
is a brilliant strategic move, whether it was
intended from the start or not. He authored the
Way of the Warrior Kid series. Way of the Warrior
Kid. It sounds like a Saturday morning cartoon,
but the content is actually quite serious, just
simplified. It takes those exact same seal principles,
discipline, overcoming fear, working hard, study
math, eating healthy, and it packages them for
elementary schoolers. It follows a kid named
Mark. Is that named after Mark Lee? It's very
likely a nod, yes. The character Mark is being
bullied, he can't do any pull -ups, and he hates
his math homework. His uncle Jake, who's a Navy
SEAL, comes to stay for the summer and basically
puts him through a modified SEAL training regimen.
So it's the karate kid, but with Navy SEAL training
methods and time stables. Essentially. But just
think about the market penetration here. You
have the dad who's reading Extreme Ownership
for his job. He loves it. He wants to share that
mindset with his son or daughter, but he can't
read them a book about urban combat in Ramadi.
So he buys Way of the Warrior Kid. Exactly. And
now the entire family is speaking the same language.
Discipline equals freedom becomes the family
motto around the dinner table. He's creating
a multigenerational philosophy. And it is working.
The sources say there are five books in that
series now. And as of April 2024, it's being
adapted into a feature film. And starring Chris
Pratt. Starring Chris Pratt. Which brings the
message to a massive global audience. Chris Pratt
is about as A -list as it gets for that kind
of family -friendly demographic. It really solidifies
Willink not just as an author, but as the head
of a franchise. He even dabbled in adult fiction
with a novel called Final Spin in 2021. Which
just goes to show that the English degree wasn't
a fluke. It wasn't just a box he checked. No,
it proves he understands storytelling fundamentally
as a vehicle for his ideas. Okay, so we've covered
the mind, the books, the philosophy, the business
consulting, but we can't talk about Jocko without
talking about the body, the physical discipline.
That brings us to section four, the discipline
lifestyle. This is where the theory becomes practice.
You cannot preach discipline all day and then
be out of shape and unhealthy. For Willink, the
physical domain is the primary testing ground
for all his ideas. And that discipline seems
to center around two main pillars, the gym, specifically
Brazilian jiu -jitsu, and the clock. Let's talk
about BJJ first. It is a massive part of his
identity. The sources note he started training
under a guy named Fabio Santos while he was still
in active duty in the SEALs. And he's not just
a casual hobbyist who shows up once a week. He
holds a black belt under Dean Lister. And we
should say Dean Lister is a legend in the grappling
world. He's known for his leg locks and his famous
philosophy of why would you ignore 50 % of the
human body? Willink holding a black belt under
him is a very serious credential. He's also an
instructor at Victory MMA and Fitness in San
Diego. Why jiu -jitsu, though? Of all the martial
arts in the world, why is this the one he evangelizes
so much? Why not boxing or karate? Because BJJ
is uniquely cerebral. It's often called human
chess for a reason. In boxing, you can sometimes
just tough it out or get lucky with a wild haymaker.
In jiu -jitsu, if you panic, you lose. If you
lose your breath, you lose. If you don't use
proper technique against a better opponent, you
get choked unconscious. So it reinforces the
extreme ownership mindset. Completely. If I get
submitted on the mat, if I get tapped out, it's
because I made a mistake. It is immediate, undeniable,
and often painful feedback. It teaches you to
be comfortable in incredibly uncomfortable situations.
You have a 200 -pound person on your chest trying
to strangle you. Stay calm. You have to breathe.
You have to calculate your escape. And then you
have to execute. That is the exact same mindset
he teaches for dealing with business crises.
And what I found really sweet. if i can use that
word in a jocko segment is the family connection
the sources say that in september 2022 he promoted
his own daughter to blue belt That connects right
back to the warrior kid ethos, doesn't it? Teaching
his own children the value of struggle and technique
firsthand. He's also turned this passion into
a pretty significant business with Origin USA.
This is another fascinating pivot. He's a co
-owner of Origin USA, which is based in Farmington,
Maine. And they make all sorts of things. Lifestyle
apparel, nutrition supplements, fitness equipment.
But the key differentiator here, the thing that
really defines the company. is the G's. The uniforms
you wear for jujitsu. For decades, almost all
textile manufacturing has left the United States.
Most G's are made in Pakistan or China. Willink
and his partner, a guy named Pete Roberts, decided
to bring that entire manufacturing process back
to rural Maine. That seems, I mean, from a purely
business perspective, incredibly inefficient.
Wouldn't it be so much cheaper to just import
them? On paper, it's crazy. It is much harder
and much more expensive to do it this way. But
it fits the ownership narrative perfectly. Instead
of complaining that American manufacturing is
dead, they went out, they bought old looms, they
trained a new workforce, and they built a factory
from the ground up. They're owning the entire
supply chain. They're owning the problem. And,
of course, you can't talk about his lifestyle
without mentioning the 4 .30 a .m. club. It is
perhaps his most famous or maybe infamous habit,
the sources reference it multiple times, why
this retired Navy SEAL commander wakes up at
4 30 a .m every single day he posts a picture
of his watch on social media black and white
0 4 .30 signal isn't it it says i am wake i am
working i'm getting ahead of the enemy even if
the enemy is just your own laziness or procrastination
exactly But there's a tactical element to it
that the sources mention. He doesn't just wake
up and stumble around looking for his gym socks.
No, the preparation happens the night before.
That's the key. That's the secret sauce. You
lay out your gear the night before. You write
your to -do list for the next day. So when that
alarm goes off at 04 .30, there is zero decision
fatigue. You don't have to negotiate with yourself.
You just execute the plan. I think that's where
most people fail. And I'm including myself here.
The alarm goes off and I immediately start bargaining.
Just five more minutes. It's so cold outside.
The bargaining is the defeat. Willing's philosophy
is to eliminate the negotiation entirely. You
set the condition the night before and you simply
execute in the morning. No discussion. So we
have the military hero, the bestselling author,
the business mogul, the fitness icon. But in
the last decade or so, he has become something
else entirely. A media empire. Let's dive into
Section 5. The Jocko Podcast. It all started
after he did the podcast circuit, right? He made
these huge appearances on shows like Tim Ferriss,
Joe Rogan, and Sam Harris. Right. And he realized
there was a massive appetite for this kind of
content. People were hungry for leadership advice
that wasn't, you know, sugar -coated in corporate
jargon. So he launched his own on December 28,
2015. And who's the co -host? Tell us about Echo
Charles. Echo Charles. He's a... BJJ practitioner
and a video producer, and he provides a really
critical balance to the show. He's the everyman
voice against Jocko's intensity. He asks the
questions that the audience is probably thinking.
He brings it back down to earth. And the growth
has just been massive. As of January 2026, the
YouTube channel has around two million subscribers.
But the format is what always surprises me. These
aren't 20 minute, easily digestible sound bites
designed for TikTok. No, they are marathons.
They're three, sometimes four hours long. And
what does he do? He reads old military memoirs.
He analyzes these obscure battles from the Korean
War or Vietnam or World War One. He dissects
human nature and evil and heroism. It's essentially
a history class mixed with a leadership seminar
and honestly, a therapy session at times. It
just proves that people actually do have an attention
span if the content is good enough. They want
the depth. They want the nuance. And Willink
provides that by reading these old books that
most people have forgotten about. He honors the
history and the sacrifices of the people who
came before him. But here is the most recent
plot twist. The sources mentioned something very,
very surprising about his business portfolio
as of 2026. You must mean San Diego FC. Yes.
Major League Soccer. Jocko Willink is on the
board of directors and is part of the ownership
group for a professional soccer team. It's amazing.
The club was founded in 2023. They play at Snapdragon
Stadium in San Diego. And just look at the company
he's keeping on that board. You have Manny Machado.
The baseball superstar for the Padres. You have
Issa Rae, the creator and star of Insecure. You
have Juan Mata, the Spanish soccer legend. That
is such a diverse and, frankly, unexpected group.
You have a Navy SEAL, an MLB All -Star, and a
Hollywood creator and actress all on the same
team. It represents the full integration of Jocko
Willink into mainstream American culture. He
isn't just a niche military figure anymore. He
is a cultural pillar in the city of San Diego.
And if you really think about it, professional
sports team is all about culture, leadership,
discipline, and winning. It's actually a completely
natural fit for his philosophy. Whether it's
a SEAL platoon in Ramadi, a manufacturing factory
in Maine, or a soccer team in San Diego, the
principles remain exactly the same. There are
no bad teams. only bad leaders. That applies
to a soccer team just as much as it applies to
a combat unit. If a team is losing, the ownership
and the coaches need to look in the mirror first.
So let's try to wrap this up. We've covered a
huge amount of ground today. We certainly have.
We tracked him from being an English major at
the University of San Diego to a SEAL commander
in the streets of Ramadi. We watched him transition
into a consultant, a best -selling author, a
podcaster, and now an MLS owner. It is a remarkable,
almost Unbelievable trajectory. So what are the
key takeaways here for the listener who's, you
know, driving to work or hitting the gym or maybe
just sitting in an office right now? What should
they take from this? I think the first one is
the power of duality. We tend to want to put
people in these neat little boxes. You're either
a knuckle dragger or you're an intellectual.
You're either an artist or you're a soldier.
Well, it proves you can be both. You could be
a savage in combat and a thoughtful student of
literature. You don't have to choose. In fact,
the combination of those two things is what makes
you more effective. I love that. Be dangerous
and be smart. Don't pick one. Precisely. And
the second big takeaway is obviously the concept
of ownership. It applies to absolutely everything.
It applied to seizing that Russian tanker in
the Gulf of Oman. It applies to running a business
in Maine. It applies to raising your kids. If
you can stop blaming external factors, the economy,
your boss, your genetics, the traffic, and start
looking at what you can actually control, you
become incredibly powerful. Discipline equals
freedom. It's not just a catchy phrase for a
T -shirt. It's a formula. It is. The structure
doesn't bind you. It actually frees you. So here's
the final thought I want to leave everyone with
today. We talked a lot about how Jocko finds
freedom through this incredibly strict structure,
the 4 .30 a .m. wake -ups, the martial arts,
the checklists. So ask yourself this. If the
commander of the toughest unit in Iraq needs
that kind of structure to be free, where are
you lacking structure in your life? And is that
lack of discipline actually the very thing that's
keeping you stuck? That is the question. Something
to mull over. Thanks for diving in with us on
this one. Until next time.