What I Learned From “Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin | Book Review and Summary

Extreme Ownership is one of the book that for me is gold. It teaches a lot about how to be an efficient leader and I like how it focuses on your responsibility to achieve results . I have seen reviews on extreme ownership online but to me, it seems not enough. There is something lacking. Something I’ve felt while reading the book.

Extreme Ownership’s main point in the book is how you are going to be an effective leader by owning your whole self. Your achievements, goals, dreams and even your mistakes. By owning your mistake, you will be forced to do the things that are hard but will reward your future.

You see, most of us see the book as a book of leadership. And it is really a book about leadership. But what most people miss is that you should start Extreme ownership within yourself. You should also consider the emotional side of the book. Although it is always hard to grasp emotions, especially in written texts, this book sent me an emotion that I should share with you guys. I see people not applying the concepts in this book after reading simply because they don’t see themselves as leaders. But always remember this. You are the leader of your own self.

As I said, this book is pure gold when it comes to leadership. The principles are very simple but they’re the most effective ones. If there is one thing I want you to learn from this video, is that extreme ownership should not just be applied to your team, business, family or whatever it is. It should start with yourself.

Extreme Ownership Summary and Review

WHat extreme ownership means is that you should be purely responsible for yourself. You don’t want to blame anyone other than yourself especially if it’s your own life and business. It is your responsibility to wake up early, read books, Exercising and Constantly Improving yourself in order to be better each and every day. It is your responsibility to improve everyday so people will see you as a leader. You can’t be a great leader if you are not great in person. Let the people see you as a leader. Own everything, yes, even mistakes. Remember this: When Blaming Starts, Progress stops.

This greatly impacts all of us. Most of us tend to blame people for our own mistakes. Not just people but all things. Including events. We blame events ending late so we can’t wake up early. We blame people looking at us that’s why we can’t start exercising. We blame our schedule so we can’t exercise. We blame our boss and colleagues on work. But we tend to forget that on all of those, we can always think of a way to solve them.

Just start thinking of solutions, never react on a problem. Be proactive . Learn to anticipate things that could happen. Learn not to give up on tasks, just because the a problem suddenly appeared. Think of solutions not problems.

BIG IDEA #1: Discipline Equals Freedom

As the author said in the book. The best seals I worked with were invariably the most disciplined. They woke up early, they worked out everyday, they studied, they practiced, just as an individual excels, then he or she exercises self-discipline, a unit with tighter and more disciplined procedures and processes will excel and win.

See how it is related to what I’m referring about being responsible with your own self? Responsibility means you will be free. Free from doing the things you love, free from the curse of constant disruptions. You will be free because you are going to release your inner and true potential.

What I mean by this is that if you still don’t realize it, most of us are controlled by people, technology and many more. In fact, most of us are not really free of even what we call “free time”. What do most people do on their free time? Browsing Social Media feeds? Does that really make you happy? Do you even think that it is worth your time? Eating lot of Junk Foods because of the advertisements, Does that make you happy or it makes you feel unhealthy? Playing Video games all day until our back hurts, is it really worth it? There are lots of situation which is like that but I’m also not perfect. I also tend to waste my time at times but at least. Let’s start by trying to be disciplined and change our present to future.

BIG IDEA #2: Prioritize and Execute

Life is filled with things we need to do. We always have deadlines to accomplish, tasks to do, things to learn, events to go to. But what makes people very productive amidst the uncertainty is that they learn to Prioritize and Execute.

In a world full of tasks, most of us tend to panic because it is our build. We are not made to handle a lot of things at the same time. We instantly get to panic mode if all the tasks we need to do suddenly become visible. Some people use it to remove their procrastination but that’s not the best thing to do. Using the panic mode to work on something reduces our effectiveness in doing tasks. I mean, why do a task if you are just thinking of producing mediocre results? What good can a mediocre result make if it isn’t a successful one. How can you be successful, if the things you do aren’t really your best. In fact, how can you be better if you don’t even know what your full capacity is.

So how can we produce the best result possible on our tasks? In my other video about the book Finish what you start, I talked about single tasking which basically is teaching us to focus and one task. Put your focus on the task at hand and see the result it can give. How fast you can finish the task with less effort. How you can be happy because the results of your tasks are extraordinary.

However, this book is teaching more to compliment that idea, It teaches us to prioritize and execute. So how does this work? First is to check what you think is the most important. What are the tasks that needs to be done immediately. I know that you might think that all the tasks you have are really important. And you are right. Most of them are very important. But think deeper, which really needs to be done now. Which can be done first to make the others easier?

What do I mean by this find things that makes the others easier. Let me make this video as an example. As I have shared in my other videos, I do everything in this blog. I need to do the editing, preparation of equipment, Actual taking of the video, Recording the audio. But I found one tasks that makes all of them easier for me. It makes me work faster and efficient without losing much time thinking. It makes my work 2 times faster. What is it? Making script.

Making script is a game changer. It makes me do things one at a time. What do I mean by this? Scripts make my task easier. After making the script, I know the flow of the things I need to do and say, the editing I need to do, how will I record myself. With that, I have the end in mind. All of them can be answered in my script.

And for the record, no. I don’t follow my script word for word. But I take the concepts I came out while writing them.

There are still lots of concepts I need to tell you about this book, so I am going to make a part 2 on the things I learned from Extreme Ownership.

Part 2

Welcome back to the second part of my video review for Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. If this is your first time watching my channel don’t worry. I’ve made these videos completely interchangeable from part 1. I recommend watching part 1 too though. What I mean is you can watch this independently from part 1 but watching both is way better because I dropped some good lessons from the book there. So let’s begin!

My part 1 of the video is about why you should start leadership or extreme ownership within you.THIS TIME, it is time to apply that principle on the book on our own lives. How the book teaches us responsibility and EXTREME OWNERSHIP within our environment and US.

Lesson 1: Keep Things Simple

When I started my self improvement journey, like all the others, I was miserable. I am in a minimum wage earner, I just play computer games on my free time. Sleep very late and wake up miserable. I have no expectation for something good to happen. That was I think 5 years ago. So I did what others within my age will do if we had an epiphany on making ourselves better. So I checked the internet for some advice on self improvement.

And to my surprise, I was bombarded with too much things to do. Good Habits, Tutorials, courses and start with these 50 things to transform yourself. Well the last one was an exaggeration but you get my point right? Do you know what happens if you have too much information like that? You’ll get demotivated.

As you can see, people in those low point in their lives are very vulnerable. I was one of them, and right now I am still on the road to the success I dreamed off. Because we are SO vulnerable in that point in our lives. People use it to their advantage by selling you things and it screws us even more. The moment you are emotionally unstable and at the low point of our lives, you are also broke because of how expensive those courses are.

Now, if you really think those courses will help you, then be my guess. But I believe, simplicity on how to fix your life is key. In fact, if you are starting to improve yourself. Believe me, just one habit is enough to start. And if you ask me what is it? Clean your room. Just as the book the life-changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo teaches.

Don’t worry though, I know that some of you hate reading books. I was one of them. That’s why before I just look for book summaries online. And it’s okay. I Completely understand and I am going to make a video for that book so make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you will be notified if that video came out.

So what do I mean by keep things simple, remember that any projects and things in life can be really complicated. At the same time, complicated things can be turned in to simple ones. Believe me. It can. Even the hardest theories in Physics can be turned into simple definition that even people without a degree like us can understand.

Same with life, leadership and self improvement. The more simple, the better. The more simple, the more you can follow. The more you can follow, the better the results.

Lesson 2: Believe in the Mission

In whatever things you do in life, the first thing you need to do in order to experience success, is to believe. Believe in your mission, your goals and most importantly, yourself. Believe that you have what it takes to succeed in life. Believing in yourself will bring you enough courage to take the struggles life throws at us. Same as what I felt when I started self improvement. When I don’t know what to do in order to improve myself, I have only but one thing. I believed in myself.

The Belief in yourself and your goals in life may be psychological, but it works wonders. When I read the book, I can’t help but share it with why it is really important to achieve success in whatever you are pursuing in life. When I started improving myself, I did not read this book, I didn’t have mentors, I didn’t know what to do. But I have the belief. Maybe you are just starting or in the journey in self development. Always remember the believing in yourself is the first step in success.

This lesson in the book struck me with realization on why I started improving myself and why I want to share the lessons I learned in the books I’ve read. I know what it feels like to be stuck. I know what it felt like to feel so down. I know that the belief in myself and my goals put me up. The lessons I’ve learned from the books I’ve read gave me strength to carry on. This is also the reason why I am sharing what I’ve learned in this channel. I want to help as many as possible. Thank you so much for your continuous appreciation to my videos.

Before the end of the video, let me share with you the last but a lesson that can not be neglected from the book:

The Dichotomy of leadership

1. Confident but not Cocky
2. Courageous but not foolhardy
3. Competitive but not a gracious loser
4. Attentive to details but not obsessed with them
5. Strong but have endurance
6. A leader and a follower
7. Humble but not passive
8. Aggressive but not overbearing
9. Quiet not silent
10. Calm but not robotic
11. Close with the troops but not too close
12. Extreme ownership while exercising decentralized command