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Good leaders don’t make excuses.

Jocko Willink

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.
JOCKO WILLINK

Goodness Importance Leadership Team
For this reason, they must believe in the cause for which they are fighting.
JOCKO WILLINK

Believe Fight Inspirational Reason
All animals, including humans, need to see the connection between action and consequence in order to learn or react appropriately.
JOCKO WILLINK

Action Animal Connection Human Learning
The test for a successful brief is simple: Do the team and the supporting elements understand it?
JOCKO WILLINK

Success Team Understand
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

Action Blame Live People Problem
The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails.
JOCKO WILLINK

Failure Success Team
And the more you build your will by doing hard things, the stronger your will becomes.
JOCKO WILLINK

Strong Willing Yourself
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

Care Leadership Risk Time
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
JOCKO WILLINK

Myself Reputation Responsibility Right Time
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

Greatness Leadership Necessary Simplicity Team Weakness
Discipline equals freedom.
JOCKO WILLINK

Discipline Equality Freedom One Liner
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.
JOCKO WILLINK

Important Lose Quality Relationship Strong Team Weapon
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

Fight Learning Thinking
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.
JOCKO WILLINK

Planning Simplicity Team Understand
The focus must always be on how to best accomplish the mission.
JOCKO WILLINK

Accomplishment Best Focus
Plans and orders must be communicated in a manner that is simple, clear, and concise. Everyone
JOCKO WILLINK

Planning Simplicity

Good leaders don’t make excuses.

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Good leaders don’t make excuses.

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