Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: There Is More Than One Answer To Almost Every Question

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

There Is More Than One Answer To Almost Every Question.Should you be on a hard program and risk failure? Or a moderate program that is sustainable. How to get the most out of learning. How to avoid bitterness when criticized. How to get more articulate and better at speaking to people. How to deal with your ex-girlfriend hooking up with your best friend in the same house. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is the Jocko underground podcast number 90 sitting here with Echo Charles. EC, Echo Charlie. I got some, I got a little something. Just a little something that'll help out. You ever notice there's some like that sometimes you can just catch a little something and it'll help you out a lot. Maybe in Jiu-Jit-Soo, you learn like a little something. It'll help you out.

Oh, move your wrist a little bit over here. Hey, put your hips a little bit over here. Just a little something, but it helps you out a lot. Yeah. This is one of those things. and it's one of those things that when you hear it you're going to go well how is that it's again it's like jiu jitsu and someone says hey you need to put your weight over here and you're like how does that really help and then you start doing it and you realize it has a big impact

this is one of kind of one of those things something to help you out with leadership it'll help you with life it'll help you with interacting with other human beings here's what it is um drum roll drum roll please there's the drum roll imagine it in your head and here's the thing there is more than one answer to almost every question. That's it. That's one of those things. You just heard it, you think, oh, well, how's that, how's that really make an impact on the world?

Let me tell you, if you can import that and implant that into your brain, it is a very good way to free your mind and open your mind and therefore have so much more opportunity and flexibility and some way so much less time it's sort of similar what I was talking about with Dave Burke when I was saying that you don't use it Yeah, yeah, you don't always have to have an opinion that that same I think we did a I think we did a debrief podcast I was talking about you don't have to have an opinion It's not required that you have an opinion But this idea that there's more than one answer to almost every question

It helped me out So much in life and I it's something that I definitely Learned in the teams you know I can trace the roots of my thoughts. Some of them trace the jiu-jitsu and then they connect to the teams. Someone started in the teams and they connect to jiu-jitsu. Someone started in the tactics of combat and then they translated to leadership. So I can kind of trace the roots.

This one definitely, definitely I picked up in the teams and I actually picked it up from a planning perspective, like planning a mission. Because when you're planning a mission in the SEAL teams, good Lord. every single person is a freaking tactical genius in their own mind. Every single person, not every single, let me rephrase that. Let me make it legit. If you have a platoon of 20 guys, 16 guys, 22 guys, whatever your platoon is, there's going to be at least one third of them that absolutely 100% think that they know everything.

They're going to say, you know, want them to be attack, we definitely need this, we need to attack this target from the north. Period. That's how confident they are. Period. They're saying, they'll say that. Like, period. And then someone else will be negative. We need to attack this target from the south.

Period. So you get two people that are looking at the same target, and they have opposing opinions, and they both 100% think that they're right. You got one guy that's saying, we need to bring four vehicles. We need to bring four vehicles. Someone else's like, negative.

We need six vehicles. Someone else's like, no, we should only take three. And they all know this. We should use helos. No, no, we should definitely not use helos. Definitely not. That's what someone will say. Someone else is literally saying we should definitely use heloes for this op.

Someone will say we need six machine gunners. We need. Not, hey, should we consider, but we need. Someone else will say, no, we don't need. We only need four. Other guys need to be more mobile. That's what they're saying. Stating a fact.

What they think is a fact. So everyone has the answer to every question. And what I realized, 99% of what they were talking about, 99% of what they were talking about didn't matter. It actually didn't matter. It didn't matter. Because you know what? You're going to get to that target,

and it's not going to look the way it looked on the map. Are you excited? Yeah, we're definitely hit it from the north. You're going to get there and there's going to be a big obstacle there. And you can't hit it from the north. Or you're going to bring a certain number of vehicles and you're not going to have enough people to target. or you're gonna have too many people it's like it's it's all it's all subject to what actually

unfolds in the world so early on I realized you know what there's no 100% right answer so you got people that are freaking out about the dumbest thing and they think they've got the 100% right answer and they they actually also think that every other answer every other possibility every other variable is straight up wrong wrong That's what they're thinking. The attitude I got into, the attitude I adopted was, yeah, that'll probably work. That's good. Hey, that'll probably work.

Like, it's a totally foreign attitude in the SEAL teams. To be like, yeah, it'll probably work. You know, because everybody wants to be perfect. You know, I'll probably work. No one wants to hear that. In fact, it kind of sounds weird to say, right? Hey, like, we're going to go hit this target. I recommend we hit this target from the north.

It'll probably work. No one wants to hear probably. So we over-emphasize our confidence to make people believe that we know what's up. But I got used to that. I got used to that, you know, it'll probably work because 99% of the time, that idea probably would work. And it would work from the north. But it would also work from the south.

It would work from the west. It would work from the east. It doesn't really matter. Sure. Could there be some giant channelized area if you come in from the east and everyone's going to be forced into a small little spot where you could get. It ambushed and that's not a good idea. Yes, that's definitely possible.

But all the other directions are pretty dang good. You know, all probably work. And you know what? It might not be the most perfect and it might not be the most efficient, but it'll work and that's fine. It's fine, especially from a leadership position because if you use their idea,

you're building up that relationship. And you're saving time instead of arguing and trying to convince someone, you're just like, yeah, your ideal part work. use it but here's the thing this isn't just about the teams that's where I learned it but this if you can kind of do this with everything with you with almost everything almost everything has more than one answer even these crazy whatever political road you want to go down there's always there's

more than one answer like anybody thinks they can take some super complex political decision and think that they have the 100% right answer they're just wrong. You don't have the 100% right answer. You might have a good answer. You'll have you know what you have? You'll have one that will probably work. Yeah. You probably work. You know, it's probably not going to work that great, you know, because nothing in the government is going to work great. But you make something, it's probably going to work. Okay, well, let's go with it. Let's try it. But let's not put all of our chips on that on that one bet. That's not a good idea. So if you as a human being can remember that there's more than one answer to almost every question, it's going to make your life a lot easier.

You're going to realize there's more than one way to build a business. There's more than one way to save money. There's more than one way to reduce expenses. There's more than one way to cook a steak. You ever heard these people? They tell you there's one way to cook a steak. But I had a lot of different stakes in my day. And look, there's some that are better, but there's also some that are equally as good and they're different.

And I'm not turning them away I'm not saying hey I don't want to eat that steak Take that rib eye away from me I'm not saying that I've never said that Yeah There's more than one way to change the oil your car There's more than one way to oh you like these cut weight More than one way to cut weight

There's more than one way to gain strength actually There's more than one way to communicate to other human beings There's more than one way to learn There's more than one way to grow Anything You know they try to do this in the seal teams with combatives Yeah

combatives It was like We need to use this system And the whole time That I was advocating For an evolution In our combatives program What I was saying

Everyone wanted me to pin down a system The system I wanted to use Was having an open mind That's the system I wanted to use Like hey let's just continue to evolve And figure out what works And make adjustments as we go because there's not just one answer.

There's not a system. So keep that in mind. There's more than one answer. And if you can do that, if you can actually recognize that there's more than one solution to problems, it is an outstanding way for you to free your mind.

It'll make everything better. That's what I got for today, Echo Charles. So it's like, and this is going to come as no surprise to you, but I did figure out early on in this speech that yeah it's going to come down to like speech was that a speech monologue if you're like ted talk soliloquy

so it comes on to your ego right where it's like oh yeah this is my way because you bring up like cooking steaks that's a big one right and I have a I have a younger brother who's a barbecue guy like he's really good at it actually and by I'll tell you straight up I've witnessed it

been a part of his barbecue scenarios for many years and he's very good at it yeah GTG by far But he's like no Trigger grills. Like, I'm anti-Tregor. You know, because it like goes against the art, I guess. I don't know. He didn't explain why.

But so I remember thinking like, oh, because that's his personal approach to barbecue. You know, and Trigger might have been a, I don't know, like it maybe takes away. It's like, you know, when you go digital versus film kind of a thing on the cameras, you know, so yeah, that digital crap. People are offended with a digital. Yeah, yeah. No matter it's capabilities. You know, who cares about the capabilities. It's just wrong.

It's wrong. This is the way, my way, the film. That's the right way. So, yeah, it can kind of limit you, you know, if you stay dogmatic to your one way or whatever. And then so if you were to be able to let go of it, I could think of like literally 10 scenarios right off the top of my head that I would be doing it. Or one would be doing a lot better in life if you were to just let it go. Yeah, the idea of what you just said of adapting, being able to adapt. Let's face it

Look, I have a trigger Boy, I'm down with the trigger And I'm not even down Because I use the trigger You know who's the trigger? Everyone else is my family Because I'm not cooking You know what I mean?

Like I'm sorry Hey, I get it Your brother's into barbecuing It's a thing, right? Yeah Laif Babin? Yes sir It's like, you know

He's gonna barbecue Whatever like It's Wednesday He's planning to barbecue on Saturday That's doing mission planning You know what I mean prep going to the store? I'm not doing any of that. That's real.

I'm getting a can of chicken opening it up putting mayonnaise in there. I'm eating it. That's what I'm doing. That takes a minute and 42 seconds and I'm eating and I'm good. I'm not gonna, I don't have the patience for it. I understand time for it. Yeah. But like my wife, she cooks on that Trigger.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. My son cooks on the Trigger. Yeah. Good to go. Yeah. It's real.

Doing the straight up, uh, the straight up reverse series. straight up reverse here. It's no joke, dude. Oh, yeah. So anyways, if you have a closed mind and you think, well, there's, that's not, my way is the only way. Yeah. Yada.

Yeah. So it's, in a way, I like the film versus digital and that even the Trigger versus, you know, wood. I don't even, I don't know that much about barbecue, but. Trigger is wood. It's wood pellets. Yeah. I think it's like there's, it does kind of, what do you call it kind of bypasses a

certain part of the process of barbecuing, I think, maybe the traditional part. I don't know either. Burning your freaking meat. That's what it bypasses. But it's almost like, hey, if you're to take a bird's eye view, just be like, hey, let's say you're good at barbecueing, super good at barbecue, super good, but you're anti-Tregor. You know how much capability you would have if you could do both? If you were both, I was into Trigger, I'm into wood fire, I'm into charcoal, I don't know, all the different fuels. Propane. Yeah. You know, even stovetop, I do it all. Because, hey, they're all work yeah and I'm gonna be good and think of how much you learn you're gonna get better at your main uh uh technique yeah if that's like oh i i don't like using that is a little excerpt of what we

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