“Leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities, between one extreme and another.”

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.

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.

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.

Whether on the battlefield or in the business world, leaders must be comfortable accepting some level of risk.

Most important of all, he believed winning was possible.

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

The infamous they.

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.

Calm but not robotic, logical but not devoid of emotions.

All animals, including humans, need to see the connection between action and consequence in order to learn or react appropriately.

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.

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.

The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas.