Book Review – Extreme Ownership

A cool illustrative video of the Top Lessons in Extreme Ownership

It seems as if Extreme Ownership has been intended for me since the Fall of 2019!  We were given the book, which my son Nicholas already had and started reading over the summer, to read over Christmas Holidays.  We then discussed some of it at a 2020 Kick-Off meeting in early January.  At our national Managers Meeting in March, I was delighted to learn that Leif Babin, one of the co-authors, was actually going to speak live to us!  I just happened to be in the area at the right time and got a cool pic with him!  One of my co-workers and I also got one after he spoke to us live!

Now that we are in the midst of COVID-19 and staying home, Zoom meetings are all the rage…so our company set it up where we had 3 folk from Echelon Front speak to us on Zoom.  Jocko was on and spoke to us…and boy is that an intense man! 

Anyway, about the book…I would watch the three YouTube linked videos at the top, as it give you some insight about the book.  I would also HIGHLY RECOMMEND listening to the Audiobook on Audible, as having Jocko and Leif read it in THEIR VOICE is so much more powerful than me hearing it in my head voice!  

I won’t reiterate the key points, because you can find those in millions of places, as well as in the videos above.  What I will say is that I really found value in how the chapters were set up.  Each chapter had a Lesson which was illustrated by a story from their time in combat.  That was followed by a Principle that we should take away, and finally each chapter was concluded by an Application to Business.  They drove it home to how that Lesson could and should apply to ME in MY Business world.  That was important for me.

Obviously, I’m a fan of this book and took away some key concepts.  The key ones I found myself aligning to were:

• Cover and Move
• Check your Ego at the Door
• Keep it Simple
• Plan

Get the book and read it (or listen to it preferably)…you won’t regret it!