“Stop researching every aspect of it and reading all about it and debating the pros and cons of it, Start doing it.”

Relax. Look around. Make a call.

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.

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.

In the business world, and in life, there are inherent complexities. It is critical to keep plans and communication simple.

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.

The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails.

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

Extreme Ownership. Leaders must own everything in their world. There is no one else to blame.

When it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.

After all, there can be no leadership where there is no team.

Good leaders don’t make excuses.

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.

Leaders must accept total responsibility, own problems that inhibit performance, and develop solutions to those problems.

leadership is the single greatest factor in any team’s performance.

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.

There are no bad units, only bad officers. This captures the essence of what Extreme Ownership is all about.

I read poetry to save time.

I always take time to read, and try to read at least one book per week!

It has always been a happy thought to me that the creek runs on all night, new every minute, whether I wish it or know it or care, as a closed book on a shelf continues to whisper to itself its own inexhaustible tale.

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.

Reading is the key that opens doors to many good things in life. Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.

He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, for that is what he will know.

Believe everything you read.

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.