Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: Blast Past Old Mistakes and Get Respect at Work

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

>Join Jocko Underground< Getting past your past mistakes to get back on the track to excellence. My woman brings me stress and refuses to change. Lets talk about people who claim to be progressive, but disparage the troops. What to do if you ruined your reputation in a certain community. If you are anti-social media, listen to this last one. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is the Jocko Underground podcast number 172 sitting here with Echo Charles. We have gotten some questions. We've received some questions from you, the troopers. And we are going to provide some courses of action, some iterative decisions you can make. And in some cases, some straight up answers to your scenario. Yeah. So let's get into it. Comprehensibly, I see it as guidance.

Okay. Is you what I'm saying? Yeah, 100%. That's a good, good comprehensive. assessment look guidance it is leadership which is according to the Marine Corps Credo manual I forget the numbers um the most important thing leadership yeah check I know some other outfits who believe the same thing and I believe the same thing too so yeah comprehensively that's what this is leadership guidance check

First question. Lately, work has been rough. I'm an electrician and have made a few costly mistakes. Others have, too. Our boss didn't take it well, yelling, swearing, threatening to fire people, not by name. It was bad. He later apologized in a meeting but still made a sarcastic comment about our writing or wiring skills. Clearly he's still angry.

Now I'm losing sleep, afraid of messing up again. I want to improve, but I'm walking on eggshells. and it's draining. Deep down, I fear I don't belong in this field, and then my boss has lost faith in me. People say, just keep going, but I'm struggling to believe it'll get better. How do I let go of the past mistakes and self-doubt?

How can I move forward when I'm not sure my boss believes in me anymore? Okay, well, speaking of this outfit, you know what you're going to do. You're going to lead here by taking ownership of your mistakes, right? That's where we're leading with. Apologize to the boss. Tell him, hey, I messed this up. I recognize that I messed this up. Don't talk.

You say others did too. Don't worry about others. Don't worry about that. It's about you. Tell me you want to get better. Tell me you're focused. Tell me you want to learn. And tell me you're just ready to work.

Work hard. And then also aggressively figure out what it is that you did wrong. Right? Whatever you did wrong, aggressively figured out. And what's the root cause of why you did it, you know? what is the reason that this mistake happened? And then how can you prevent it from happening again? Another thing, I would actually prefer that you do that before you roll in to talk to the boss, right?

You want to have a plan. Then you're going to study and train and you're going to like show him a video. You're going to send him a YouTube channel. Hey, a YouTube video, hey, this is what we messed up. We didn't know we were supposed to do this. I see it wasn't a code. Now that we know the code, it won't happen again. And by the way, here's the code book.

I got all the things. I wrote them down. I made a short note thing. I put it on chat GPT. I got the want you see what I'm saying get aggressive and then what you do is you go into just full just full trooper mode show up early stay late be organized look sharp right haircut clean shave you don't think it's a big deal haircut clean shave good clean work clothes remember Jason Wilson was on he was talking about when he was a contractor doing tile he's like

Oh yeah. Put on a clean shirt, look sharp, getting the job. Look like a dirt bag? Get no job. So get some clean squared away clothes. Haircut, clean shave. Clean like work. If you have a workspace or a truck or your toolbox should be dialed in. Should be dialed in. 100% dialed in. It doesn't have to be new, but it has to be clean. It has to be organized. That's professionalism. Take notes. Right? Take notes. Be writing things down.

Take pictures of your work. Sometimes people post up their plumbing job and tag me in it because they want me to see that work's getting done and it's getting done right. Some people have sent me some electric boxes, some fuse boxes with 80 million wires going in there, but they're all dialed in. They're all squared away. Take pictures of your work. Make it clean. Make it organized. to be proud, double check things.

And then triple check, the important things. Whatever you drop the ball on this other mistake, triple check that, keep taking ownership. Something messes up, fix it, take on it, take ownership of it and fix it. Stay humble, stay hungry, keep working hard. Here's the deal. Your boss needs good, quality, reliable, skilled electricians. People that show up on time, people that are organized,

people that are squared away, people that look sharp. you're an electrician I mean your boss I guarantee he needs people like that because every company needs people like that all of them be one of those people just be one of those people

and you won't have anything to worry about you got this that's what I got you learned early on that the taking extreme ownership sequence the whole process is very has very important elements to it that are all required.

Otherwise, it is simply not taking extreme motion. So like, you know, admitting it was, or saying it was your fault, but because of you, you know, it's your responsibility,

saying what you're going to do to fix it and then actually fixing it. Yep. You got to do it all. Yeah. So a lot of times, I got to be honest, sometimes I have witnessed firsthand, people going through the whole sequence,

except for the not actually fixing it. So it's like, you know, things stay the same, but there is a whole lot of, no, that's my fault, you know. And this is what I'm going to do to fix it. And then they don't fix it. They kind of, you know, no. And so it's just kind of a bunch of thing. And then it ceases to become extreme motion.

So I think that, yeah, after a certain amount of time when you, okay, yeah, you mess up, you make this big costly mistake. You create this new reputation of being like super extra squared away, easy to work with, the whole thing. The costly mistake that you made. Fades. Oh yeah, I'll fade over time. It'll take some time, but it'll fade.

Yeah, for sure. Be nothing but a memory. Next question. Jocko, I've always had a thirst for adventure and craving to live a challenging and meaningful life. My father passed away 20 years ago, and it really affected me. My girlfriend, who I met nine years ago, was the first person I allowed to get close to me since my father passed.

She has severe bipolar disorder and refuses to seek help for it. I've tried everything to keep her happy. and left myself with nothing. I work 12 hours a day, six days a week for the government. My work vehicle has holes in it from shootings. The area I am in all day long is extremely stressful and dangerous. I'm definitely tough enough to endure long physical days where shootings occur, but when I'm at home, which is not much, I have no peace.

She refuses to change or give our home peace. I know it's time to leave for my own well-being, but she's still, but she will lose everything without my financial help. I fear regret, and that's why I haven't left yet. What do you think? So like my immediate instinctual answer in that is leave. Just to kind of think through that a little bit more. It sounds like you have tried everything. You tried different approaches.

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