Jocko Podcast - 483: Grayisms. Thoughts on Leadership That Apply Right Now. From Al Gray.

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

>Join Jocko Underground< The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies produced a document called "Grayisms: And other Thoughts on Leadership from General Al Gray". Published by the Potomac Institute Press. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is Jocko podcast number 483 with Echo Charles and me, Jocko Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. During the night of May 14, 1967, three Marines who were en route to a listening post northeast of the perimeter became confused in the darkness and unknowingly entered an area heavily mined with M2 and M16 mines. One of the Marines inadvertently detonated a mine which killed him and seriously wounded his comrades. upon learning of the accident, Major Gray, immediately proceeded to the area and realizing that the casualties required

immediate medical attention, unhesitatingly entered the mind area to assist them. Disregarding his own safety, Major Gray, accompanied by another Marine, calmly and skillfully probed a cleared path 40 meters through the unmarked minefield to the side of the wounded men. Directing his companion to guide stretcher-bearers

along the cleared route, Major Gray moved one of the casualties away from a sensitized mine and began administering first aid to the injured Marines. When stretcher bearers arrived, he directed the safe evacuation of the casualties through the minefield. Subsequently, he maneuvered through the dangerous area to the side of the mortally wounded Marine and left the hazardous area only after he was assured that the man was dead. His timely and heroic actions in the face of great personal danger inspired all those who served with him and were instrumental in saving the lives of two Marines.

By his inspiring courage, bold initiative, and selfless devotion to duty, Major Gray upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the United States Naval Service. And that right there is a quote from the Silver Star citation of Major Alfred Gray, who eventually became the legendary general. Al Gray, Commandant of the Marine Corps, from July 7th, 1987 until June 30th, 1991. He always stood out because he's the only, one of the reasons that he stood out,

he's the only commandant to have his official Marine Corps Commandant picture taken in his camouflage uniform. So when you look at the long line of Commandants of the Marine Corps, they're all in their dress uniforms, except for General Gray, who's just in his camis, reminding all Marines that they are riflemen and warriors, and they're meant for war and not for peace. So General Gray, he enlisted in the Marine Corps, 1950. He was commissioned in 1952.

He served in Korea with the first Marine division. He served in Vietnam as well. And as I mentioned, he was awarded the Silver Star there. He commanded First Battalion, Second Marine Regiment. He made full colonel in 1972. He made Brigadier General in 1976. He made Major General in 1980. He commanded the Second Marine Division.

He was promoted to Lieutenant General in 1984. And he finally promoted to four-star and commandant of the Marine Corps, like I said in 1987, until he retired in 1991 after 41 years of service. And while he was a commandant, he was, he drove maneuver warfare and brain power as the crucial weapon of war. He oversaw the creation of FM FM 1 war fighting, which was we covered on this podcast. It's just an outstanding field manual. We covered on podcast 35. So that was like almost 10 years ago.

We covered FM, FM, FM one war fighting. And he made war fighting, not just the manual, but the action, the focus of the Marine Corps. And he had a lasting impact on Marines. and sailors like me as well, who heard about him because he was the commandant when I first came in the Navy. He died on March 24th, 2024, at the age of 95 in Alexandria, Virginia. Now, there's a place called the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and they made a document called Grayisms.

Grayisms and other thoughts on leadership from General Al Gray. It was compiled by a guy named Paul Ott, who was also Marine. was published by the Potomac Institute Press, and I think it captures some of the lessons from this great leader and from people who learned from him, and they pass it on in this, if you call it a book or a document, I don't know,

but this book, we'll call it a book, grayisms and other thoughts on leadership. So let's get to it. You can get this, by the way, you can just download this. It's online. Here's the intro. From the very beginning of working with General Gray, there were several things that became very obvious.

Foremost are how much he loves his Marines, along with the sailors who serve with them, and how much they love and respect him in return. He has great admiration for all armed forces. Another thing is how humble he really is. It's never been and never will be about him. And part of that respect is how often people have General Gray stories to share with you. We gave them a name. So that's kind of where this stuff comes from. Fast forward a little bit.

We were able to gain greater insight into this very special Marine who took what he got and made what he wanted. This book is a compilation of many sayings we have heard and heard repeated as they have been shared from one Marine to another. And that's from Paul Ott, Corporal, USMC, 1961 to 1965. And they wrote this book in 2014. I think it came out in 2015. So, General Gray. There's some cool. The cool thing about these modern generals is there's like videos of him talking and you can see he's fired up.

What are grayisms? Grayisms are the embodiment of simplicity. The listing is in no particular order of importance. Grayisms like other words of guidance become important when they are applied. As evidence from the many times these statements were repeated, they were, they are important to the Marines that remember them. If applied, they will become important to any leader. Straight forward. This guy's just a straight shooter.

And guess what it starts off with? Well, the one I'm going to start with. You are the one responsible. Boom. There you go. General Gray has always seen himself as the one ultimately responsible for what happened to his Marines. In 1990, after a helicopter crash in Korea, Marines were medically evacuated to a burn center in San Antonio, Texas.

Sergeant Major Summers was with him. him when General Gray walked into the waiting room, told the family's assembly assembled there that he was responsible for their son's injuries and asked them what he could do to help. This took moral courage. So there you go. This is such an awesome example of ownership because here's the commandant of the Marine Corps in charge of almost 300,000 Marines and there's a helicopter crash. Now, was he flying that helicopter?

Was he near that helicopter? Was he in charge of the helicopter's maintenance? Did he come up with a flight plan? Didn't even know that thing was happening? No, of course not. He's in charge of 300,000 Marines. But he knows that as the commandant, he is ultimately responsible. That's what I called extreme ownership.

In the book, Extreme Ownership. Fast forward a little bit. It goes back to General John A. Lejeune, our 13th Commandant, when he said that the relationship between officers and enlisted Marines is not one of a superior to subordinate, but more like a teacher and a scholar. And he implored that all Marines should be responsible for their activities and that you owe it to your Marines to see to it that each one is stronger morally, mentally, and physically when he leaves you than when he joins you. And that's the cardinal thought process that Marine Commandants share and accept as a responsibility. So that's the way it all starts off. You are the one responsible.

There's a little story here. This is under the title, Hold them together and point them in the right direction. During Desert Storm and Desert Shield, General Gray went to visit the troops often. The mission each time was to talk to as many young officers and NCOs as possible. The message, the message,

the most critical leadership point is in the first 15 seconds. Hold your Marines together and point them in the right direction. Boom. The hardest thing was when he had to come back to Washington, Sergeant Major Summers said that the general is worried about his Marines and the chemical threat. General Gray was very, very concerned with the possibility of heavy casualties. As a result, we spent a lot of time going from one unit to another. I sat in meetings with him constantly.

We would come out of the meetings and we would discuss what went on in the meeting and it was always, what do you think, Sergeant Major. I also often shared with him my worry for him personally. He was so concerned that I was becoming increasingly concerned about his own health. The man didn't sleep. He didn't eat. He was constantly traveling, constantly working, constantly preaching the message of preparedness. And that's from Sergeant Major Summers who wrote a book called Uncommon Men.

So he continues on here. The greatest tribute to General Gray's philosophy for leading came during Desert Storm. There wasn't an officer or enlisted leader on the battlefield that was afraid to make a decision following the maneuvered thought process, mission guidance, and commanders intent. So I'll say that again. There wasn't an officer or an enlisted guy that wasn't, that was hesitant to make a decision. They were going to make decisions. That's decentralized command. Continuing on.

We had focused so hard on our capability on training, on maneuver warfare, on all the things we did in the liberation of Kuwait. To me, it was the final examination. Does it work? Yes, it did. Our Marines went through that place like a knife through butter. We saw young officers and young corporals and sergeants who, in the true sense of maneuver warfare, didn't have to worry about getting authority from higher command. They understood the commander's intent,

and that freed them to do what they had to do. So, again, this is decentralized command. Everyone is a leader, and they've got to understand not just what they're doing, but why they're doing it. Next title. Next quote, don't paint rocks.

You ever been on a Marine Corps base? No. Oh, yeah, yeah. Have you ever seen white rocks? Or an army base sometimes? Like on the side of a road kind of, going along outlining a road.

Not that I can recall. Yeah. If you go to, unfortunately, you go to some, some bases, and there's white rocks there. Like,

kind of, they'll put them along the road. And it's probably not that necessary to be your rocks white. Don't paint rocks. His point, don't waste your effort doing unnecessary things. Well,

meaning people can go to great lengths doing things that are not required. Painting rocks in advance of a general's visit, is just one example. We all know organizations that paint rocks and leaders that knowingly allow it to occur. Some might even expect it. Some paint rocks in more subtle,

but still wasteful ways. I don't, uh. You don't get it? Yeah. I mean, I think I get it, but why do they paint, paint rocks literally?

Literally, why is they literally paint the rocks? Yeah. Because they, so all the rocks look the same. And they're all uniformed. And they look clean and they look squared away. Like rocks,

like. like a rock the size of a shoe box. Yeah. And paint 30 of those rocks white and then line the road with them. Like, yeah. Spaced apart, you know,

20 feet. Yeah. So I still don't get why they do that though. Because it looks nice. Straight up. In their mind, it looks nice. And if you're a general and you're like,

wait a second, the last guy had his rocks painted. Why do I have like shabby looking rocks? Wait. He, so he has rock. What do you mean? He has rocks like when I drive to my office.

Okay. So imagine this. Okay. So imagine this. I was coming to visit you at your house. Yeah. And out on your driveway, you had some rocks that kind of lined the driveway. And you wanted it to look nice.

For your visit. For my visit, because I'm the general and you're the colonel. And so you're like, hey, corporal, we need all these rocks to be the same. Paint them all white. And what's the corporal do? We paint some white. And now I show up, I'm like, oh, those rocks look good. They obviously care about me.

They show that they. You see what I'm saying? Okay. Yeah. It goes beyond to use one of my terms. functional cleanliness. Right. So we have functional cleanliness.

Okay, it makes sense. We're gonna put some rocks on the road so people can see the road a little more clearly at night. Cool. Oh, now we're painting him white. Oh, now we're repainting. Do you know what I'm saying?

To waste of time. That's what he's getting that. I got you. Okay. So the white rock painting scenario is commonplace in the marine base? It's a little too.

I've seen it. I think there's less of it now, but it certainly was a thing. Oh, for real. Yeah. Okay. 100% cool see some white rocks

sliding the road yeah so he's saying hey brother that's that's unnecessary don't don't be painting right got you yeah next quote know yourself know your people know your profession this is general gray's fundamental tenant of leadership he will quickly point out that he's not the first leader who believed it to which we would respond he personified it to be a leader one must begin with knowing yourself the real you not what you think you are

but what others know you are and it includes knowing what you don't know. Knowing your people knows going beyond their name, rank, and serial number. It means knowing them as people starting with each individual. Fast forward a little bit. Many think no one may know their profession better than General Gray. His office even today resembles a small library. When deployed, he often took a foot locker full of books to read. And when he returned, they were not only read, they were also marked,

up with highlighters and notes. And here's a quote from General Gray. In my humble opinion, the military is going overboard on information and underboard, if that's a word, on knowledge. And we ought to concentrate more on knowledge and what that means and less on information. This is the idea of memorizing stuff as opposed to learning stuff. When I went to college, I hadn't memorized all kinds of stuff. And I'm good at memorize.

I can memorize anything. And I would memorize stuff. And it's good, but there's a limitation to it. It's so much better to actually understand something than it is to just memorize something. Got to understand the context of why it is that way and how it got to be that way. And then you have, in my opinion, you have deeper and longer lasting knowledge than I just memorized a bunch of facts. Yeah. Yeah.

the um you know how they say the the world is i mean the problem isn't the limitations of access to knowledge or to information it's the lack of knowledge that people have so that if yeah like in jiu jitzzi right where it's like you can watch a million youtube videos on a million moves but doesn't mean you know jiu jitsu now you know kind of a thing yeah you kind of got well there's a physical barrier there too you know you have to do you can't just watch watch a physical activity, you have to do it. It'll help somewhat to watch it. But you have to do the thing.

Yeah. And that is similar here. You can read a bunch of military tactics about how to react to contact. And you can memorize different moves, but it's different. You get out there on that terrain and you see that little ravine and you see that finger stick it out. You see that enemy's like moving behind concealment. Oh, and now they're moving to cover. There's all these things are going to happen you didn't expect.

Oh yeah, and that's not to mention even if, and there's varying degrees of like experience, you know, there's like training experience. There's like real combat experiences, all this stuff. Where if you don't have any of it, then you only have the information. It seems like it doesn't translate to knowledge at all. Yeah, but it is so interesting that that gets, you can contrast that with the fact that this guy read so many books all the time, right? And I can honestly say that I experienced that when I read about face something. much that not so much like the hey we're in combat we're getting shot at translation but a lot of the administrative stuff a lot of like oh you know one of one of the things that I got from hackworth just off the top of my head I mean I stole all kinds of things from hackworth but understanding that the next echelon above you in the chain of command like doesn't get it you know that's that that's the opinion do you like oh the next echelon doesn't get it and And understanding that that's not correct, it's just that, and that you're responsible for making sure that they get it. That was a huge part of me being successful in building a good relationship with my boss.

Instead of being like, oh, he doesn't get. And I was like, oh, he doesn't get it because of me. Yeah. It's my fault. And I need to make sure that he does understand what's happening. I need to do a better job with the afteraction for work. So doing those things, I read about them and then I saw them in real life. If I hadn't read about them, look, is there a 50% chance I could have figured it out?

maybe but maybe not yeah so reading about it gave me a heads up and then actually doing it and then it was like okay cool this makes sense so you could do the same thing with jiu jitsu where it's like oh if the person does this on the arm lock you need to make adjust your hips over here and you go oh and you could read it or watch it and then when you do it you could have a pretty good chance of executing it. Maybe you have to execute it a few times before you get it. Yeah. But it's all adding everything that you can do to add knowledge into your,

add information into your brain that that information then can be contextualized and turned into knowledge more rapidly. Yeah. And jiu-jitsu is one of those. You can't just trial and area your way through jiu-jitsu at all. Like if you don't know, someone's going to show you, someone is going to demonstrate whether it's a video or a coach or whatever. you can't just be like, oh yeah, I know zero Jiu-Jitsu and then just sort of figure it out.

Bro, are we about to have an ecological jih Tijuana discussion? Are you tracking any of that right now? Ecological. Oh, yeah. There's like a whole theory of training of ecological training versus, I don't know what they call traditional training, but basically ecological training in Jiu-Jitsu, you don't get shown any moves. You just get told what the outcome is that you're looking for.

And there's some people that that's how they're training. Like and so you basically make games get around their legs or whatever so that's just it's just and and I think There's obviously a good balance of all these things that make things work well But that's where I thought I thought you're about to just break into this no well we ecological Discussion we obviously could but in and of it so that feels like we couldn't because you don't know what it is I do now oh okay that you just told me give it what people are real into it I dig it but I don't know I don't know that that would be the best and then again I don't know I'd have to know the details and really what it looks like in real life but I don't know that that would be as beneficial as one might think if someone's starting

from zero so it's like yeah get around those legs because that was me my first day of judit I knew what I didn't know what side mount was but I knew what mount was I know what rear naked choke is I know what arm bars I know what guard is oh yeah bro I was trying to get there all day and I was freaking just gassing I didn't know what to do I didn't know any moves and then if no one ever taught me moves I don't think I would ever got there even I mean Maybe you would have got there at a very very very slow pace very if you had a certain type of mind too because there's some people like you ever notice some people say oh I just did this and it worked and it worked or not yeah fully and but usually like even people with that kind of mind it's like there's some foundation that that was taught to them you know like even like helio gracie himself by the way he's watching judo guys and you know Japanese jiu jihadis and you know Japanese jiu jiu jihadism. You know like even like helio gracie himself by the way he's watching judo guys and you know Japanese jihadism. you guys and like he's watching the framework and then yes of course he had one of these minds where he's oh okay I can make these adjustments and make up stuff off of this framework but you can't

just like can't just trial and error your way I mean look am I going to say can't I'm not going to be absolutely and say that but I'm just saying I don't see that as the way but if you have a lot of knowledge oh oh freak yeah all day in fact that's one of Jeff Glover's like training methods is what he'd be like hey get to here oh yeah for sure from this position just get to here And then you got to use all your knowledge that you learned, by the way. Yeah, yeah. So. Yeah, that you learned.

It's, that's like Jeff Glover being the, the original ecological jih Tzu practitioner, trainer. But I also used to do this with kids because little kids, they will actually figure things out that you didn't think of. And so when you tell a kid, okay, you put a kid in the guard and you say, okay, now get, now get to this other position and you don't tell them how, they're going to figure out like nine different ways. is I would say seven out of 10 kids will figure out a way. Three kids will be like, hey, dude, you need to push over here. And that's just the way it is. Like you said, there's like a personality, a certain personality that is going to be very open-minded and very risk-taking. And we'll try different stuff.

With adults, like you can't do that. It doesn't work as well because adults are like, oh, get around their legs. Our minds are too closed when we're grown up. we need to be told what to do more. Little kids will just figure stuff out. Yeah. And I think a big part of a big, a big part of why that's valuable for kids is because,

and this applies to adults, but I don't know, for whatever reason, maybe kids' minds are just like more like that. Where you know how if something is relevant, then it becomes way more interesting? So if you're just like, hey, you want to get around his legs.

They're like, okay, cool. I'm going to do it. And sure, they'll just try anything. They'll, you know, whatever, they'll go. But they know they're attached. Their brain is attached to getting around the legs. So they're like, okay, they try this. They try that.

They try this. And usually the other kid is not some expert kid. He's another kid, you know, whatever. If it's some expert kid, trust me, their little creative mind ain't getting around those legs, you know what I'm saying. So they're going to do it. And it's a game. They know the outcome that they're going for, whatever.

And they get creative. And they're like, okay, that's cool. And you can. But what it does is at the end of the day, it makes that guard pass really relevant. So now when you take. teach them a move. They're going to like, ooh,

I can do that next time I'm trying to quote unquote get around these legs. See what I'm saying? So it's now it's that relevant. It creates this like demand, this hole that they can fill. Yes.

And it contextualizes. Exactly. Which is why I think this is important that it's, look, you need information. That's why you read books. That's why you study. That's why you learn.

But then you need to have an opportunity to put that into action and, and contextualize and bring into the real world. The information that you have. That's what, turns the information into knowledge. So if you're a trainer, it's very beneficial to do that.

It's another good point. If I had a seal platoon and I could see that the way that they're getting headcount was bad. If I told them, hey, the way you're getting your headcount, like I'm watching them in a rehearsal and I can see that the way they're getting their head count is bad. If I said, hey, the way you're getting your head count is bad,

they'd be like, well, this is how we want to do it. Okay. I stopped telling them that. I would tell them after because guess what happens in the field? they have to get a head count they can't get one there's confusion there's chaos they fail

now they now exactly what you just said now they come back their mind is open and they're like you say hey I know a good methodology for getting a head count in chaotic situations they go what is it

and you tell them and boom they're in the game before you go out you're like hey this isn't the best way to get a head count oh it's gonna work fine I did it my last between this way yeah I'll just count them

whatever yeah yeah just whatever just like I'll just get around the legs so it's good to create a little bit of a little bit of an opening. A little bit of a of a of a of a gap when they see the gap they're more likely to fill it. When they don't see the gap, you hand them something. They're just like, what am I going to use this for?

Yeah, what's this for? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. Yeah. This might be my favorite quote, take what you get, make what you want. Take what you get, make what you want. What an attitude to have. It says this is one of the most.

most often repeated phrase of General Gray, he uses many ways in talking about his assignments, the Marines he has led, the Marines he has had the responsibility to lead and in overcoming the obstacles he faced. While others sought out assignments that would further their careers, General Gray accepted every duty given to him and made the best of it. In the long run, it was a key ingredient to his success as a professional in the nation's Corps of Marines. But what a great attitude.

Take what you get, make what you want. You're not going to get anything handed to. to you the way you want it to be on a silver platter. It's not happening. This is not happening. You take what you get. Okay, this is what I got. Now I'm going to make it what I want.

Freaking it. Get yourself an attitude adjustment. Another good one. You cannot write a recipe for all situations. Doctrine is a guide. General Gray tells us he wrote in the Ford to Warfighting. This book describes my philosophy on war fighting. It is the Marine Corps.

doctrine and as such it provides the authoritative basis for how we fight and how we prepare to fight it is not intended as a reference manual but it is designed to be read from cover to cover this book does not contain specific techniques and procedures for conduct it requires judgment in application so remember that doctrine should be a guide just like in jiu jitsu passing guard and where you put your hands and where you put, that's a guide. And there's some, I remember when Glover showed up and he had like back escapes.

Someone would be on his back and he'd do something that was completely against everything that I ever learned. What are you doing, Jeff Glover? Why are you doing this? What are you doing this? And it's like, oh, because when I do this, they do that and I get over here and then I'm out.

Oh, wow. So you can't write a recipe for all situations. This is also good in terms of, self-defense when it's like, well, what situation are you going to be in? Downward stabbing attack motion with the overhead knife. Like that is cool. You can learn one self-defense move for that, but that's not what's going to happen in the street.

It's going to be different. So you need to learn the philosophies about how to fight, about distance, about timing, about closing the distance, about what to do with weapons, about how to de-escalate before the whole thing gets started. These are all things that you need to apply. And it's the same thing with combat. It's the same thing with leadership. Like there are going to be times in leadership where it's, you guess what you need to do.

Jocko talks about the indirect approach all the time. There's going to be times in leadership, we need to go, hey, echo, you need to stop doing that now. Totally direct. There are times that that happens. There are times that that happens. So we, as we learn skills, we need to learn to adapt those skills. And you ever seen that video of, Larry Bird shooting a shot.

He's behind the backboard and he shoots a shot over the backboard swish, hoop. Like he's about to fall out of bounds. He gets the ball. He sees the hoop and just like shoots from behind the backward. He never practiced that shot in his life. Right? He didn't practice behind the backboard shots. But he used that skill.

He used the skills that he had to adapt into that moment. And that's what you need to do with leadership. That's what you need to do with Jiu-Jitsu. That's what you need to do with combat. That's what you need to do with writing. That's what you need to do. with life. Keep an open mind. You can't write a recipe for all situations. He says it doesn't cost any money to think. Thinking can be our greatest resource. Thinking can be the source of new ideas,

new approaches and new solutions. Thinking doesn't cost any money and it just might save money. Isn't it interesting that we could actually sit around and like discuss and think through problems and it doesn't cost anything? Fast forward a little bit. Want a new idea? Read an old book. book. And he says this, I have always been a reader. And of course, I spend so much time aboard ship. For example, I would take a foot locker full of books with me to the Mediterranean and

to the mid-east and read about the countries in that region and the impact of their religious history and culture. And this is my key component of this. It's important to look at people through their eyes, not just our eyes. so he's just trying to gain perspective of the way other people are thinking and he says you name it I read it fast forward getting into some core leadership activities here you must care more about the people you are privileged to lead than about yourself everything that gets done gets done through people leaders must truly care more about the people they lead than themselves to him

to General Gray. These are more than just words. They represent a way of life, his life, and he proved it by the example that he said. Unless, and here's another one, unless you care more about others than yourself, you will fall prey to careerism. Careerism.

Do they have that in a normal world, or is that just a military thing? What is career? I'm looking out for my career. I would imagine. I don't know. Yeah, they do. Then what am I saying?

Of course they do. They do. It might not be as profound or as obvious. But, you know, in the military, like, you get this job to get this job and you get that job. You need to take this job and you get that job and you get that job and you get that job and you get you. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. We call them in the SEAL team's ticket punchers. Yeah.

It feels like it would be a different dynamic in the military because just how, what you said, I learned this completely from you, by the way. I wasn't in the military. You know that about me. But you say that if you have a career without any like black marks on it or whatever, You know, whatever. It's like, oh, that looks good, you know. More so than, hey, this, like, this guy made these cool changes with this new way of thinking, you know, like really brought this freaking outfit to the next level.

It's less about that and more about, you know, staying safe or whatever. In the real world or whatever, the corporate world or whatever, it's like you are kind of rewarded for like bringing things to the next level a little bit more. but I will say this on an individual level. Oh, yeah, I think, and I've even witnessed it. I haven't really had that many. Well, I've had a lot of jobs. But yes, on an individual level, people will be like, no, no, no, I have a job to do it.

It doesn't matter how it affects necessarily the long term, whatever. I can say this week that I did my job good, you know, regardless of like the other repercussions kind of thing. Oh, I see that all the time even right now. Yeah. And what you're talking about really is what we in the SEAL teams would call risk in the military in general, risk averse. Right.

So, oh, hey, we could go do this mission. If it goes well, that'd be awesome. If it goes bad, I'm going to look bad. Right. And generally speaking, generally speaking, people oftentimes will say, I'd rather just play it safe. Because the upside that you get for conducting an operation,

the operation goes well, great job. Let's say in a point system, let's say you get five points. because you went out, did a risky operation, and it went really well. You get five points for that. If it goes bad, you're getting negative 15. Yeah.

So you're like, well, I could get five, but I could lose 15. I'm just going to keep it at zero. I'm just going to stay safe. And there's a lot of people, unfortunately, in the military that kind of can take that. And see, in the corporate world, the same thing can happen.

And because in the corporate world, it's like, oh, I'm going to take a risk to go into this market. If I fail, if I win, cool, I won. Five points. If I fail, we lose a bunch of capital. We might have to shut down some of our divisions, minus 15. So it can be the same thing on both sides.

Probably maybe the five and plus five minus 15 might not be quite the same. Because the minus 15 in the military is like, oh, you had, you lost people, people got woody, people got killed, there's collateral damage, civilians got killed. Like those are so much worse than like, oh, we did a great job. Yeah.

Yeah. In the corporate world, real world, whatever. We'll call it what private industry. Cool. Whatever. That you can make big moves and get big payoffs. See what I'm saying? Like in the military, you're like, you can't get a raise.

You can't, you know, make more money for the Navy. Like, for instance, you do a mission. Like you've got a mission that comes up to go capture this bad guy. Well, who's this bad guy? Like you could probably name three actual bad guys of the last 20 years, right? You got like, if you went down the list, you'd name three of them. Sure. Including Saddam Hussein.

You see what I'm saying? Most people like, so there's very few where everyone goes, oh, that is worth the risk. So you go out, you capture this bad guy, great, everything goes, well, cool. You're high five. You get plus three on your tab. Yeah. But go out, capture that guy. that's going to get look if you go and you kill Osama bin Laden cool plus 15 right of

course you go capture Saddam cool plus 15 but most people that you're going to capture it's like plus two plus one maybe plus three cool now you go out you do an operation you have massive civilian casualties or you take casualties people get wounded people get killed minus eight minus 15 yeah so why is it worth the risk you see you know what I'm saying? Yeah. So you can understand why these, why people are risk-averse.

And then it comes down to, okay, how do we mitigate some of that risk? Yeah, it seems hard to measure massive success. Like it, in the corporate industry, whatever,

private industry, it's easy to measure massive success. Like someone makes a huge move. Yep. Them double revenue this year. It's like, boom, easy, tangible. You know,

it's hard to, it's hard to, demonstrate that in the military? It is definitely difficult. Check. Next point. Never say I unless you are talking about making a mistake. It is amazing how the general consistently gives credit to others in all accomplishments saying we while taking responsibility for a mistake or an error in judgment made by saying I.

So pretty straightforward. You know what we really need to do. You can accomplish anything you want if you don't care who gets the credit. I've probably heard that one before. Here's one. No one makes a mistake on purpose. We tend to oversupervised people and become concerned about how our effort will look when they make mistakes. We must turn our people loose and let them take actions.

That is how they learn. Mistakes are to be minimized, but not eliminated. People can learn from mistakes. And learning from mistakes is the best way to reduce future. mistakes. Accepting mistakes can be seen as an investment in your people. That's a really good way of putting it. Accepting mistakes can be seen as an investment in your people. The greatest mistake a person could make can be the unwillingness to move forward because it involves risks. The failure to act a mistake leads to mediocrity. And in a world moving forward at a rapid pace,

mediocrity leads to failure. Should someone ever make an intentional mistake? No, As General Gray says, no, no one makes a mistake on purpose. So it's really good to remember that. And it's good to understand what people's intent is. Because like when you got kids, they make mistakes. But what's their intent? If their intent was like, I'm trying to get away with something and I did this thing over here? Okay, that's bad.

If their intent was like, oh, I was trying to do this thing and this bad thing happened. Okay, cool. We get it. Mistake. General Grace says those who can't teach can't lead. If you're not teaching, you're not leading. Also says you can never spend too much money on training. Pretty straightforward.

And this is something that I just talked about with Hackworth. General Gray points out the same thing. The next level of authority is your natural enemy. General Gray believed the person best able to make a decision is the one closest to the situation, especially when the next level of authority may be miles away or even in another country. Gaining approvals from higher levels can greatly reduce momentum and cause needless delays. While this grayism may be more tongue-in-cheek than the others, it clearly shows General Gray's dislike for what can be overly bureaucratic structures. Systems can aid and abet mediocrity, bureaucracy, while needed, should be minimized whenever possible.

With a smile, General Gray says, headquarters has an insatiable. appetite for information. Give them what they ask for, but pay no gratitudes. When General Gray was commandant, he became higher headquarters. He followed his grayism, cutting 10% per year, staffing resources out of headquarters and sending them to the field. There's cool videos of General Gray walking around talking to young Marines, and he'd be like, when's the last time you were in the field?

It'd be like, well, sir, I'm not, you don't even remember. It was that long ago? You'd get in the field. He wasn't playing around. Speaking of risk, there is nothing worth seeking that doesn't involve risk. General Gray believes that a risk-averse or zero-de-defect mentality is the antithesis of leadership. It stifles innovation, motivation, and leadership. Chaos and uncertainty create opportunities.

Certainty is described as following established policies and procedures, making consistent and safe decisions, low-risk, minimizing mistakes, thoroughly planning before acting, and building on what is. Uncertainty is described as creating new paths, making bold decisions, learning from mistakes, acting quickly, exploiting opportunities, and building on what can be. That's interesting. It's also, you can see, the more you're building on what can be, the more risk there is. Hey, we know these things are factual. We know what we know what foundation we have.

We can build on that. But when you're like, well, we might have this foundation and as a little nebulous right now, there's more risk. But that chaos and uncertainty, that's where the, that's where the opportunities are. Next one, intent is the glue that holds everything together. Every mission has multiple parts. The task to be accomplished, which is the what and the intent, the reason why, along with the desired result. of the action or the intent. Of the two, the intent is predominant.

The intent must convey the leader's vision. It must be clearly understood at least two echelons or levels above and two echelons or levels below. This permits subordinates to take action and decisively quickly and decisively when the opportunity rises and when it is consistent with the overall intent. This is just classic decentralized command,

making sure people understand why they're doing what they're doing, and understanding what the intent is, they can go out and take action. And here's what General Grace is. Marines will do whatever you ask them to if you tell them why. Unless this intent is known,

you are playing with half a hand. People know what they like doing, but they don't like being told how. Telling them how restricts creativity. In every new assignment, I would talk to all the officers and staff NGOs about my thought process. it is important that intent is known.

It's a good one to practice with your kids. Like, don't tell them exactly what to do. Just give them some broad guidelines and tell them what the intent is. Continues on here. Knowing intent allows the individual closest to the situation to determine how a task can be accomplished. Intent is a prerequisite to decentralized execution. Knowing the intent, the why, the how doesn't matter.

and this is from the war fighting book the burden of understanding falls on the senior and the subordinate alike the senior must make perfectly clear the result he expects but in such a way that does not inhibit initiative subordinates must have a clear understanding of what their commander is thinking further they should understand the intent of the commander two levels up and this is one thing that I always point out is like you should be happy when someone on your team asks why you want them to do something not mad so when that goes says why do you want it like that I shouldn't be like because I said so I'm like well here's what I'm trying to make happen here's the overall intent that's good leadership next you communicate by how as much as what you say in a quote for

more fighting we believe that implicit communication implicit communications to communicate through mutual understanding, using a minimum of key, well-understood phrases or even anticipating each other's thoughts is a faster, more effective way to communicate than through the use of detailed, explicit instructions. This is when I wrote down the laws of combat for the first time, and the number two was simple. That was because I was watching a platoon out in the field and they were trying to communicate with each other in like full detailed paragraphs of of words and you're there's you know it's a it's a training operation but there's machine guns fires there's explosions going off there's people yelling and screaming and you know this platoon commander's like hey what we need to do is we need to

move another 150 meters southwest down this ravine once we get down there we're going to set up a He's going on this whole thing. And what he really needed to say was pale right. Like just, that's why when it says a minimum of key, well-understood phrases, peel right. That's all you need to know, dude. That's all anybody needs to know.

We all know what that means. We don't need to know 150 meters. We don't need to know a perimeter at the end. We don't need to know about this ravine. We don't need to know any of that stuff. We just need to know peel right. When you say that, we know what to do, and we'll make it happen.

So simple, clear, concise communication. Now this is interesting. This is a story in here from someone named Master Sergeant J.D. Baker. You know who that is? I know who J.D. Baker. That's J.D. Baker. Yeah. Who has been on this podcast multiple times, who we did the Civil War, which we still need to finish.

We got up to Gettysburg. But J.D. Baker, Master Sergeant. So that's the same dude. This is him. This is J.D. I sent him a text. I sent him a picture of this yesterday. I'm like, this is you, right?

He's like, absolutely. So here's a story from our brother, J.D. Baker. In 1989, Marines were conducting combat operations in Panama. We were responsible for running combat patrols around the Arian tank farm located on the Pacific side of the canal zone. Marines operated out of a fire base located in the tank farm. Few, if any, high-ranking officials ever made it an appearance at the firebase except one. As we were preparing for night operations, in came a couple of vehicles. We heard the commandant was coming to visit, but we never expected to see him at the firebase.

Obviously, we were mistaken. General Gray had been at the naval base looking to see all Marines. When he found that most were in the firebase, he came out to be with the Marines. General Gray's presence lifted the spirits of all the Marines. He did not just hang out in the combat operation center. He made his way out to the fighting positions and spoke with all the Marines going to conduct night operations. He personally thanked the Marines for the job they were doing and said if they needed anything

to send it up the chain. General Gray's visit spoke volumes for the Marines. They felt they'd become comrades with the commandant because he took the time to meet and speak with everyone in the firebase. By the look of his staff members, this was not part of the planned itinerary. The presence of General Gray was felt by all. Master Sergeant J.D. Baker, USMC, retired.

So J.D. putting out word. And I talked to J.D. He's saying he actually spent a lot of time with General Gray after he retired, which is awesome. Going through some more of these. I like this one a lot. What you did isn't as important as what you were thinking. Again, this is when people do things,

look, they might make a mistake, but what were they thinking about? What was their intent? He says in tactics, the most important thing is not whether you go right or left, but why you go right or left. That's major general Al Gray. It's like so important.

Got a whole section in here, leadership by walking around. Marines called the gray ghost, often showing up unexpected places and times. He would go out there and see people, go out there and see what's happening. That was his mode. Here's a brilliant one.

Do not make any more enemies than you already have. As I often say, it's not a good idea to form an antagonistic relationship with your boss, with your peers, with your subordinates. Why would you do that? What about with the supply department? What about with the administrative department? No, don't make any enemies.

Don't make any more enemies than you already have. Antagonistic relationships with people don't help you. They don't help them. They don't help the mission. They don't help the team. In Vietnam, 1967, Major Al Gray said, there are two fundamentals when you're in a guerrilla and counterinsurgency warfare environment. One of them is you never do anything that's not good for the people you're trying to help.

And number two, you don't ever make any more enemies than you've. already got. Now here's one I have never heard before, but it's awesome. You can move elephants under their own power. Think about how smart this is. The statement would be great advice and insight from any leader. It's especially powerful when you realize the statement comes from the man who, as the 29th commandant, was in command of nearly 260,000 Marines.

Managers may rely on the power. of their positions. Leaders realize that power used is power lost. Some call it being empowering, which is power given. We prefer power assumed. Whatever you call it, people moving on their own power can move organizations large and small as well as elephants. So isn't that like you cannot get a, you cannot put.

You can't pick it up and carry it. You have to get it to move under its own power. And if you can do that, that movement, not only can that elephant move itself, it can move other things. It can knock down trees, but you can't, you can't throw the elephant at a tree to knock it down. You gotta get that elephant to move under its own power.

And that's the same, that's the best form of leadership. The best form of leadership isn't, I'm gonna push you to do something. It's like, how can I get you to do that thing on your own? that thing on your own, on your own power. Quote from General Gray, everyone moves on their own power, not yours. And the other thing I always fervently believed in, and I've said it 2,000 times in speeches.

I've never met a Marine, officer or enlisted, a good one that couldn't do 400% more if we let them. Good little quote from General Al Gray there. And now, I'm just going to run into it. there's a bunch of these here, turn people loose. When asked about how he transformed him to the Marine Corps, General Gray says he provided the guidance and then just turned the Marines loose,

they did the rest. Oversupervision causes more problems. People can't grow, can't think if they're oversupervised. Isn't it interesting to think this is like the Marine, and when people think of Marines, they think of just following orders and that's the way it's gonna be, and it's like, no.

Develop the best and everything. Everybody. Achievement feeds on itself and creates more achievement. It's powerful. Achievement feeds on itself, man. This is going back to the book. The book is called, it's Malcolm Gladwell. And he wrote a book, the one that talks about 10,000 hours.

And I can't think of the name of it right now. Outliers? Outliers. So in outliers, one of the key components in outliers is like you get a kid to do good in soccer by hey maybe he gets a little bit bigger a little bit older put him in the maybe he's you know he's seven you put him in there with the six year olds what does he do kind of dominates yeah but here's a big difference so he goes out there dominates scores four goals maybe five goals what does he want to do when he gets home play soccer

wants to play soccer once practice soccer wants to score some more goals so what does he do he gets some achievements going to turn into more achievement as opposed to you take your seven-year-old son you put him with the nine-year-olds doesn't score corny goals kind of gets everyone's faster than him he's slow was he when he gets when he gets home play video games so gives him achievement achievement feeds on itself the nice way to make things happen mental toughness is more important than physical toughness it's mental toughness that gets you over the hurdle when you're exhausted hey that being said i'll throw this out there because people ask me this all the time about seal training is like is it mental or physical it's both and

It doesn't matter how mentally tough you are. If you haven't practiced climbing that freaking rope, you ain't climbing that freaking rope. That's the way it's happening. You need to be physically as hard as you can possibly be. And if you're mentally tough, you'll work that hard to get there. But having somebody that's not physically fit and thinking that because they're mentally tough, they're going to be able to hang with you. And it ain't true.

It's just not true. It's just not true. That's the equivalent of dudes that are like, oh, street fighters. I see red, bro. watch out. It's the same thing, bro. Doesn't matter what color you see. Doesn't matter how mad you get. You get someone that's good at jiu-jitsu or good at wrestling or good at boxing and you take the big giant temper tantrum swing at him and a good boxer just like slip and you're getting knocked out. You might even get knocked out with a straight right. Like not even a setup, not a one, two,

three, not a combo. No foot movement, nothing. Just crack. Like when you're an idiot and you go up against a good boxer, you're just getting ca-oed. So mental toughness is important. Please do not underestimate the physical toughness as well. Because it doesn't matter how bad you want it. Doesn't matter. Like there's like some you can give to it. You know, if you took someone that was going to run, running is a good example.

And they had to run as far as they could. well someone that is mentally weak that runs all the time will beat someone that's mentally tough that doesn't run yeah now a mentally tough person that hasn't been that hasn't trained for running against a non-menally tough person that hasn't trained for obviously the mentally tough person's going to be gutted out like those blisters keep going whatever but the non-menally tough person you know mica she broke her leg broke her femur at Eshlam front She's running a marathon

She was like I'm not stopping And she was finally I think she made it to mile 24 She had found a stick on the side of the road To try and finish But then the doctor She's like someone medical checked her or something They're like yo you need to stop

And so she stopped She made 24 miles But mental toughness was good You know Solid check On the mental toughness That's crazy But if she wouldn't have been mentally tough,

she probably would have made it, you know, 16 miles. See what I'm saying? Yeah. Because she gutted through. I mean, when does your femur actually break from running? You see what I'm saying?

So did it break at mile 19? A lot of people would have been game over right there. She'd gutted through it. Yeah. Mentally tough. I mean, she was in the hospital. She had to get surgery, but we appreciate it.

Go, Micah. Yeah. And you figure marathon slower running. Yeah, they break. But it's not like in football or something where it's like boom, one hit, one twist, whatever it breaks usually. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not that unless they step in a hole or something like that. It's like stress fractures, stress, break, break, break, break.

Yeah, yeah. I don't know how, I don't know what the dynamics of it. Is it like, is it like stress, stress, stress, stress, stress, crack? You know what I mean? Yeah. Or is it just like stress, stress, stress, stress, stress, stress, stress, stress stress, stress, stress. Stress, and wait a second. Let's check it.

Oh, wait, that's already broken. Yeah, like, you know, 50 stress fractures on. top of each other equals a break kind of a thing rather than one big break all at one time yeah but I'm not sure if that's correct or not this is our assumption yeah our assumption is that like oh it's it doesn't just go yes I think that's a reasonable assumption only because you know when you break your femur in one go um you're gonna feel that one you're not gonna run uh one more step even no less uh I don't know over many more miles depends on that mental toughness Depends on the break too, by the way.

True, true. And it depends probably on your, yeah, on the break, where the break is, what the level of break is, how strong you are. Yeah, that's true. Because if you're strong, your muscles might be able to power through a little bit more. Yeah, you just get that good limp going. Yeah. Yeah.

And a lot of times, too, when we think, I broke my femur, like, what's the image in your head? That thing is completely broken apart, you know, kind of a thing. So, yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right. Well, we'll dig down on that one. Next one.

You must be ready to go tonight with what you have in your pocket. Okay. A little preparedness activity there. Treat people the way you'd like to be treated, obviously. Take all the help you can get. This is an interesting one. Take all the help you can get. Boy, does that hurt the ego, doesn't it?

So often it's like, I'm not, I'm not, you know, I'm okay. I'm fine. I don't need your help. No, actually, they take all the help you can get. It's good attitude. Here's one that you've been hearing since third grade. Do your homework.

Boy, but boy, but when you put that in the perspective of life, do your freaking homework. Do your homework. Wherever two Marines are, one is in charge and one is following. It's a common thing. I heard that a lot about the Marine Corps.

Spend a little time every day making sure you have people, who could replace you. This is why we're training our subordinate leadership. We're training our team to get up and take our place. You must train and educate your own replacement. Here's a good one. It's a poor carpenter that doesn't hit his thumb once in a while.

He isn't driving many nails. The very best make mistakes. If you don't push yourself to your limits and beyond, you will limit your true potential. Yep. You're going to get caught sometimes. You know you train jih Tutsu you're gonna get tapped out sometimes. It's gonna happen. Yeah Like yeah not if you just sit on the side if you sit on the side you ain't getting tapped out yeah

You sit on the side you that's the one way to not get topped out sit over there watch Mistakes happen the keys to learn from them here's here's one here's one Trains go down the tracks you can get on or get off like isn't that that's like don't fight nature, right? You've got, the train is going down the track. And sometimes you've got to look at it and be like, all right, are we going to get on this train or not? We're going to get on this train or not because the train's gone.

And we can't stop it. We can either get on the train or get off the train. Sometimes we think we can control more than we can. Sometimes you've got to get on the train or get off the train, make a call. So read, if you don't mind, read the quote again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here we go. Trains go down the tracks.

That's the quote. And then it has a sub thing. You can get on or you can get off. Yeah, that, that strikes me. Coincidentally, I've been thinking about this recently where kind of like life just goes on, you know? And you know how you can, you know, actually you say this in times of like hardship where you say, remember, don't dwell, right? Kind of a thing where so it kind of feels like that where life goes on. And the more you start harping on or dwelling on something in the past, good or bad, by the way, you know how like you think of that touchdown you made it nice.

school, you know, or whatever, good and bad, where life is going to go on, people are going to develop themselves, the world is going to change, just like, bro, what are you, what are you doing? You're still in high school making touchdowns? Or are you moving forward to, you know? Uncle Rico over here. Yeah, or in, or in bad ways, you know, where are you holding a grudge or are you still embarrassed about slipping, I don't know, in freaking in the hallway or whatever?

you know kind of thing it's like basically are you dwelling on something and is that holding you back from thinking about the actually it it what sparked this thought is uh i don't know the one that this audio but i'm trying to remember which one it was an audiobook but it said um something about like looking in the back versus looking forward it was like the rear view mirror is only four inches wide it was front windshield is yeah yeah it was one of those quotes but it was like you know and one that i hadn't heard before it i yeah it i yeah I forget what it is. I was sorry to say, but it was a good one. But anyway, yeah, that's how that struck me right there,

where the train is coming down the tracks. Shane's going on the tracks, bro. What are you doing, you know? Get on or get off. Yeah. Like, you can't stop it. Yeah. Next one, failure is an orphan while success has many followers.

We all know that one. Loyalty goes down as well as up. A good plan well executed is better than a perfect plan delayed. There's patent all over that one. And then it says, The subtitle says, once things start happening, the plan goes out the window. Be ready to adapt. Whenever you make assumptions, you need an alternate plan.

You can't predict the future. You can predict trends. That's a really good, it's a really good note to remember. Is that when you're making assumptions, cool. You can make assumptions and you can come out with a plan. But if you've got an assumption, you better put an alternate plan in place in case your assumption isn't correct. Very, very important thing.

if you have any question about which alternative to choose, pick the one I told you to do. Now, here's why I like this one is because you've heard me say, Echo Charles, that I'm always looking to use your plan. Yeah. Right? Like, I'm looking to use your plan. Like, whether you're my boss, whether you're my subordinate,

whether my peer, you come to me with a plan that you got, you put together and you want to do it this way. My goal is to do it your way. That's my goal. So this just kind of a similar spin on that is like, oh, well, if I'm not, if I'm not sure about how to do it and you got a good plan, let's go with it. Stay humble. People are like weapons. They have capabilities and limitations.

You have to know them both. Oh, isn't that nice? Isn't that nice? There's certain times where you need a certain weapon that has a certain range on it. And there's also limitations to that range and you might not want to use that weapon. for that particular operation. It's the same thing with human beings. Don't be afraid to learn from others.

Straightforward. And here's the last, the most lasting grayism. Do as much good as you can for as many people as you can for as long as you can. Outstanding. And then they have a little sub-note here. It says, and a special grayism for his very special wife, Jan Gray. When asked how he has a remember, he has remained married for so many years. General Gray said, tongue in cheek, you have to choose.

You can be right or you can be happy. And now we get another interesting excerpt. Fast forward a little bit. They have another interesting excerpt. And this is from Sergeant Robert Jones. Rob Jones, hell yeah. Yes, Rob Jones. Oh, the real Rob Jones.

Dang, we're pulling out all the players here. This is like all our people. I did not write this book. Here we go. Rob Jones was still a corporal and had arrived at Bethes only a day or two prior to General Gray's first visit to him. Rob was a recent graduate

of Virginia Tech in 2010. He had been serving in Afghanistan as a combat engineer attached to 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines. While he was investigating an improvised explosive device, it exploded leaving Rob a double amputee. But Rob has never seen an unhappy sunrise and he lifts all around him with his optimism with good cheer.

We can confirm that. There in his hospital room at Bethesda, Rob was talking quietly with his dad when an unknown but pleasant-looking older gentleman in a coat and tie walked in. Hi, I'm Al Gray, the newcomer announced. Rob recalled thinking, do I know this guy? some pleasant chit-chat followed while Al Gray tried to find out if everything was okay with Corporal Jones, if he needed anything, and if the doctors were taking good care of him, finding nothing amiss. Mr. Gray shook hands with Rob's father and Rob, and then handed the wounded warrior a commemorative coin that denoted the 29th commandant of the Marine Corps.

Rob studied the coin and then asked, how long have you had this? Oh, probably 20 years or so, replied Al Gray. Did you really get it from the commandant? Asked the disbelieving Rob Jones. Oh, that's me, chuckled Al Gray in response as he left. And in that way, Sergeant Robert R. Jones, United States Marine Corps joined a massive others who might say, who doesn't know General Al Gray? Al Gray, Marine forever continues to do as much as he can, for as many as he can, for as long as

can they are really words we can all live by and he does live by so there you go rob jones and i got some trading some text with rob jones and he was like he like like all marines kind of like chesty puller you know who chesty puller is you also know who al gray is and so he knew how al gray was but he didn't know that that was out gray yeah because he was like and he said to me i think he sent me a text like I was I was like who's well I don't know who this old dude is I've never seen a picture of an 20 year old you know you see a picture of a guy that was 20 years ago when he was what probably 60 years old now he's 80 and he looks different and so rob didn't know what he looked like as an 80 year old man so he's Rob's like it wasn't my finest moment as a marine I'm

like dude don't expect you to know what each commonop looks like when they're They're older. So there you go. Close of this section right here to U.S. Marines. When General Gray first spoke after assuming command of the United States Marine Corps on 30 June, 1987, he spoke at length, paying tribute to his predecessor and longtime personal friend, General P.X. Kelly. He then turned to the Marines in parade formation, representing the entire Marine Corps, and said, quote, This great nation loves her core of Marines. They pray for us.

They support us. They fund us. They also place a couple of demands on us. The nation demands that you and I and all others like us be a little bit special. The nation demands that we be the best led, the best trained, the best disciplined, particularly self-disciplined force on earth. The nation demands that we teach nothing but winning in battle and in life. We can do that tonight. And by God, you're going to make it happen in the years to come.

God bless and Semper Fidelis. General Al Gray, Commandant of the Marine Corps, 30 June, 1987. So, there you go. some simple, straightforward, fundamental leadership lessons from one of the most respected leaders that we've known in this country for sure. So there you go. Important if we're going to be in leadership position, got to be able to lead ourselves. Yep.

And what that means is being smart, being knowledgeable. capturing information, turning that information into context that you can then put into action. That's being smart, being knowledgeable. We've got to be healthy. Yeah. Got to be strong. Got to be strong. Look, we talked about mental fortitude.

Yeah. Mental tenacity, mental toughness. Got to have some physical toughness too. That means we're working out. Yep. We're getting after it. We're training. If you're training, you need fuel.

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You need good fuel. You need clean fuel to go along with your hard work and your lack of excuses. Go to joccofuel.com. Check that out. Also, we're training jiu-jitsu. Look, you can use the ecological approach if you want to.

It's fine. I'm still... I'm still... Curious about the ecological approach and when to implement it Because I still, and I'm, I thought about for a second and I thought, all that, I don't know how that's the best approach, but I was thinking from like zero from White Belt. But I think after a while, it might be very beneficial. And my assessment would be that there are times when it's very beneficial and there's times when you should do it.

And there's times when you should do it. And there's times you should put. There's another big thing is they put a conditional restrictions on what you can and can. Like you're not allowed to do this, but you can do this. Like so you can set conditions for, to learn a certain way. I believe it's a, there's a lot of benefits to it, but there's also a lot of benefits to showing a move and drilling it. So I think you got to use both. You got to have an open mind.

That's where I'm at. I dig it. Yeah, man. So the, you know, situational training. Oh, yeah, for sure. Basically, it's essentially a more specific version of that or specific like approach to that. Yep. Because you can be like, oh, you win.

when you get to their left side or whatever. You can set up all kinds of things. Yeah. So you just over index on these very specific situations. So now when you're in a full role or competition or whatever, it's like when that situation comes up, you're like, you have so much experience.

Yep. Yeah. And there's like all this, you know, uh, research around the methodology that you learn and how you learn faster by doing than you do from observing. Well,

again, to your point, if your count as zero, knowledge and you just try and watch and learn, it's going to be much more difficult than when you, it's like when you teach a class to purple belts, they can pick up a new move very quickly compared to white belts who are like,

you know, they don't understand anything. So yes, not to get, but I'll give you some videos to watch and you can go down the rabbit, the ecological training rabbit hole if you want to. I'll send you down there. But speaking of Jiu-Jitsu, We're training in jihitsu.

If you're training jih Tutsu, you need jih T-Gyatts. OriginUSA.com. American-made gear. American-made. By the way, we've always been doing American-made gear. Get jih T-Gyteers, get rash cards, get shorts, get everything that you need for jih-Jitsu belts. Everything that you need.

OriginUSA.com. Also jeans. Also, T-shirts. Also hoodies. Also boots. New boots are awesome, by the way. Yes, I believe. Do you have a pair yet?

No, afraid not. You just are judging on. off the appearance. What I see. Yeah. They're freaking great. Check it out, origin USA.com. We're not using slave labor.

We're not paying people slave wages. We're not got them in sweatshops and dangerous situations. No, we're taking care of our workers who have trades, who are craftsmen, who are making things happen here in America. Support America. Support our manufacturing. We brought manufacturing. No, I'm bringing it back.

We brought it back. We're here. OriginUSA.com. Check it out. You know, you ever heard of, I forget that, actually, I don't even know the name of it, so I can't ask you if you ever heard of it, but this idea of the company paying their employees with like company credits that they can spend on only company stuff. Oh yeah, that was like back in the day. Yeah, yeah.

Indentured servitude. So origin doesn't pay with origin credits. No, where you can only use it in the vending machine. You can rent your, yeah, you can use the vending machine that we own. Yeah, it's not like that. Okay. Cool. Jack.

Yes, also, Jock was a store called Joku store. This is where you can get your apparel while you're representing discipline equals freedom. Or should I say the apparel that represents discipline equals freedom on our journey, on our path, whether you're training, jiu-jitsu or just living life. I'm saying living life on the path. With, along with that, it comes what we call the shirt locker.

It's a subscription scenario, new design every, every month. Hell yeah. A little bit outside the box as far as, you know, the messages, the designs and stuff. But people seem to like it. Anyway, it's all in jocco store.com. Check it out. You like something. Get something.

Also, you need steak. Go to primalbeef.com or Colorado craftbeef.com. We got awesome human beings making, producing, outstanding steak. Go check out their websites and then get some. You need steak in your life You need jerky in your life I just had some terriaki jerky from primal beef So good

So good But the only thing that's bad about is you can kill a bag In like heartbeats But yeah check it out Then you got the beef sticks So you go back and forth Between beef sticks from Colorado Kraft Beef And beef jerky from primal beef

But the steaks Simple is just what you need Awesome people Awesome companies Awesome steaks Also check out and subscribe to jaco underground.com

which is where we have our own little platform that way we don't get controlled by anyone we can do what we want to check that out also we got YouTube channels we got psychological warfare we got a bunch of books I've written a bunch of books adult books adult leadership books yeah when I say adult books it's a weird thing to say

well we got books about leadership if you see a store in the corner and says adult books. I don't write that kind of books. My books are not in there. I write books. Some of my books are for adults and some of them are for children.

The adult books are... There's no way around this. No, I'll stop. And books. And books. All right. So I've written a bunch of books. Some of them are kids books.

So check them out. The kids books are awesome. They're getting turned into a movie. The movie has been filmed. It's wrapped, as they say. It is in post-production. this time. Yeah,

I don't know. So the movie's called Way of the Warrior Kid, but it's gonna take some while for these things to come out, but you don't have to wait. You can just go buy the series Way the Warrior Kid.

Check that out. Also, we have a leadership consultancy. We solve problems through leadership. All the problems that you have in your life are leadership problems. All the problems that you have in your business are leadership problems. All problems are leadership problems.

And you solve those problems through leadership. And luckily, leadership is a skill that you can learn. We just learned some from General Al Gray, we teach leadership principles to you. Go to Aslamfront.com if you need us inside your organization or if you want to come to one of our events. Next big event we've got, we've got the battlefield.

We're going to go walk the Gettysburg battlefield. You heard from JD today. You're going to hear from JD at the battlefield. It's freaking outstanding. Go listen to the Civil War podcast I did with him and then come to the battlefield with us and walk the battlefield at Gettysburg. Learn those lessons. We also have the muster coming up April 29th through May 1st in San Antonio, Texas, where we have an intensive leadership course.

You can bring people in your company, get your whole team aligned. Check those out. Eschlonfront.com. We also have the extreme ownership academy where we teach these principles online. A bunch of courses you can take. There's a couple free courses. Just check the free ones out. Do you don't want to buy anything.

Go get the free courses. Learn them. They'll be so helpful in everything that you do. Extreme Ownership.com. Check that out. And if you want to help service members active and retired, you want to help their families, you want to help Gold Star families.

Mark Lee's mom, Mama Lee. She's an incredible woman. She started an incredible organization after we lost Mark, after she lost Mark, after we lost Mark. First Seal killed in Iraq, just an incredible human being. And what did she do? She turned in something awesome, something good. And that is America's mighty warrior.

dot org where she helps out so many veterans and so many people check that out if you want to donate or you want to get involved also check out heroes and horses.org and finally jimmy may's organization beyond the brotherhood dot org and if you want to connect with us I'm at jocco dot com I'm also on social media at jocco willink echoes at echo charles just be careful because the algorithm will kill you you'll take all your your time and you'll end up with nothing. So don't let that happen. Also, thanks to all our uniformed personnel out there with a solemn salute to our Marines, the few and the proud. You set an outstanding standard and we are thankful for your service and sacrifice. Also, thanks to

our police, law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, correctional officers, Border Patrol, Secret Service, as well as all other first responders. Thank you for protecting us here at home and everyone else out there from general al gray 29th commandant of the united states marine corps words live by take what you get make what you want take what you get make what you want and that's all i've got for tonight and until next time this is echo and jaco out