Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: Why Your Life Plan Might Now Work. Our Problems in the World Today.

Episode Date: October 29, 2021

PlanningAdvice for controlling unruly people.Being responsible for your powerful influence.Our problems in the world today.Being a good follower.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

This is the Jocko Underground Podcast, number 34, Echle Charles and myself, Jocko Willink, sitting around. I get a periodic question. We start talking, people start talking to me about, what's my five-year plan, what's my 10-year plan, this long-term strategic plan, how do you go about that, what does it involve, what is that planning, how does that planning take shape,

how do you format it, like these kind of questions. So I want to talk about it a little bit. The shocker statement, which is sort of dramatic, overly dramatic, because it's only partially true and kind of true, which is, I don't do that. And so, you know, sometimes I'll say that for a little shock value or, because I want to impress, I think I, not not for shock, I say it to people because I want to impress upon them that I don't do it the way a normal person would do it. Part of the reason for that is the, I think what, one of the lessons that that is that, I think what, one

of the lessons that I learned in combat is that overly detailing plans, they're not going to be possible to follow. I mean, and this might be, you know, this is even a one operation that's going to last three hours. If you make a super detailed plan and you invest a lot of time and effort and trying to make a super detailed plan, chances are you're not going to be able to execute it. What's better to make a flexible plan with some broad goals so that you understand what as you're trying to get done and then go execute with some flexibility.

So looking at your life or your business and being like, okay, well, I need a five to 10 year strategic plan. I kind of apply the same thing. I'm going to look for some overall long-term strategic goals of where I want to be. And then I'm going to explore different opportunities to get me there to satisfy that mission. I might make loose plans about what I'm going to try and do, but I'm not going to overcommit to any plans too. That's another thing.

There's not some idea that I have that I, that I'm committing to, which is weird. It's backwards from what people think, right? You've got to commit. And you do got to commit. Sort of like in jiu-jitsu, if I do a sweep because I want to expose your arm, But I don't really commit to the sweep. Well, then you don't even defend it.

Your arm doesn't stick out, so I can't get your arm. I need to actually try. That'll expose another opportunity. If I don't actually try, there's not going to be opportunities. So I'm not saying you don't have to commit to things that you're going for, but I don't try and sweep you. And then when you don't get swept, I don't just keep trying and keep trying to keep trying to use all my energy.

And by the way, now I'm exposing myself to a bad situation. So that's sort of like the way I look at Long-term sort of goals in life And five, ten years Six years ago We didn't have a podcast There wasn't a thing Six years ago I didn't have any books

Had written any books Didn't have anything to sell Wasn't selling anything I had Eschelon Front but it was just Laif and me So we had a consulting company but it was two people. Now, now, I got what, I don't know, 10 something books, multiple podcasts. We got origin.

We got Jocko Fuel. We got the Warrior Kid. I got real estate things going on. I got Jocko Publishing. Eshalon Front is now a bunch of people. Online Academy, Extreme Ownership Academy. The FTX going on at Eshlam Front, the battlefield stuff that we do. The must.

There's all kinds of things going on. And if you would have asked me six years ago, if I would have a clothing factory in North Carolina, I would have said, well, I guess that could have happened. Or a boot factory, we're going to make boots in America. Might have said, okay. You know, that seems like, okay. If you would have told me I would have been selling energy drinks

throughout the country, I would have said, okay. So there's a lot of things that are going on that might have been hard to predict. Right. So what am I doing? I'm looking for opportunities. Looking for opportunities and then apply some resources. Some.

Not over committing, but apply some resources and then run a feedback loop. And run a quick feedback loop and what kind of feedback are you getting? Is the product that you made good? Are people listening to the podcast? Are people contacting Eschelon Front to have us help them with their leadership? Oh, no one's contacting us? Okay, well, maybe the product that we're making isn't that desired. Oh, a ton of people are contacting.

Okay, maybe we should hire some other instructors. Oh, we got some more instructors and they're working over time. Okay, maybe we need some more. Oh, we're going to make T-shirts. Well, no one buys the T-shirts. Okay, well, maybe people don't want T-shirts that say Discipline Equal Freedom on. Okay. Oh, we made T-shirts that say Discipline Equal Freedom.

And a lot of people are buying them. Okay, cool. Let's make some more of those. Let's make a sweatshirt that says those. Should we make 50,000 sweatshirts that says that? No, because we don't know how many people are going to buy them. How about we just make 2,000 right now? Oh, those all sold.

Okay, well, how about, you see what I'm saying? So you experiment a little bit. You take some risk, but you don't take too much risk. I didn't say, hey, you know, I think I'm going to make t-shirts. I'm going to buy a factory tomorrow. Sure. Right? I'm going to employ 100 people to sell.

Like that's not what we're doing. But here, so now, I'm saying all that. But as I went through all that, there's a really important part of this. And that is, number one, keep an open mind, right? Because these opportunities are going to present themselves in your life. And you've got to keep an open mind. That also reinforces the idea of not committing, overcommitting on things. But also, you have to occasionally, periodically, more than occasionally, periodically,

you have to review what you're doing tactically, like this day, this week, this month, to make sure it's getting you where you want to be strategically. And then you need to assess and adjust, assess and adjust, assess and adjust. So if you and I started this podcast and we were like, okay, you know, hey, that was pretty cool. And then we invited on somebody that was in charge of pet animals, veterinarian, right? And then we were like, okay, hey, that was cool. And the veterinarian was cool to talk to. So then all of a sudden we're like, hey, let's do the next one in the veterinarian's shop.

And we can hopefully get some of these animals that are up for adoption. We can get them adopted, right? And so, like, cool. And then all of a sudden we look up in two years and we're running in a, adoption agency for pets. I got nothing against pets. I don't want dogs to get put down from the pound. But if my main effort in life was helping stray dogs get adopted, again, that's a great

effort. But it wouldn't be what I would want to concentrate on. So instead of getting two years down the road, in a month, I'd say, hey, Echo, man. I know we just did two podcasts inside of a vet inside of a inside of a dog pound which is cool it was fun but I don't know if that's strategically we're going to be so make those adjustments make those adjustments because otherwise you could end up looking up in three four five years and you're involved in something you don't even like you don't even want to

be involved in it dogs a bad guy I like dogs it's a bad example I should have said something else but that's what came out of my mouth so we got to stick with it we don't have to stick with it we could have what could have pulled us off the path what could we got into flower shop flower shops right we like flowers we like flowers but we don't want to be pulling weeds all day yep and and trying to talk about here's the problem with that I'm not truly interested in flowers more interested that's a that's a great one actually flowers are fine gardens are fine it's not my scene It's not I'm not into it It's for sure not aligned with the original

Group of goals that you had Yeah, but let's say you know we did one And I started talking about well you know if you want to be a survive If you want to be able to survive you got to be able to grow plants Right And then all of a sudden said hey I'd love to come on your talk about You know hydroponics Yeah

So we bring on that gas and all of a sudden he's like yeah You know you should do the next one I'll come and give you a tour of my Internal farm You see what I'm saying? Yep, I see it. Next thing you know, I'm talking about weeds and freaking root length, soil composition, stuff that I'm not really into. Again, if you're into it, hype, good, I'm glad.

Because you can grow food for me. Yeah, yeah. So don't let yourself get too far down a path. That's why you've got to detach and you've got to assess what you're doing. Yeah, that's because, and also other people in your little group, if you have a group or whatever, they can kind of pull you to, I mean, I've found anyway that you got to watch out,

and this is advice to me. Like right now, what you're saying, you're talking to me as far as I'm concerned. So you don't really like this podcast that we do. No, sir, that's one of the good parts. Well, actually, here's something. Do you like running fulfillment and stocking shelves? Do you like doing that?

Well, that was one, no, no, no, no, I don't. So what's going? Good is you did that for a little while. Yes. We did that for a while. Mostly you. Right. You realized, hey, this isn't like a great effort.

This isn't a great use of my time. I don't love doing it. Do you like making videos? Yes. And you still make videos. Yes, sir. Is that a good use of your time? I think so.

You enjoy it? Yes, sir. So you steered yourself away from stocking, shipping, packaging. Yeah. And by the way, we have a friend. friend that does that and is into it. And like, cool, right on. Let's help build your business.

Good to go. Ryan, right? Yep. Hey, Ryan, right on. He's got a business. He's into it. He's making that work. He's got a team.

Like, that's good stuff. Wasn't really echo Charles's scene. Perhaps we could say, maybe, no offense. Maybe it wasn't even your skill set. I'm always down to learn. Because it was, you know, kind of a thing that requires a timely commitment. Yes.

Execution. Yeah, let's say my skill set at the time and even maybe at this time was not up to the standard that I think it probably should have took. Yep. And it's not a good fit. So this is a good leadership point. If I've got Echo Charles at my company and Echo's good at creating things, he's good at coming up with ideas, but he's not the kind that shows up early and is like executing that project on time. Why am I putting him in charge of fulfillment? Yeah.

We're not going to do that. We're going to put him in charge of making videos or something like this. So there you go. Good. I think this is important stuff for people to know. Yeah. Yeah. So, and if you, you know how like, if you have a group of people or whatever,

and then they say, oh, shoot, we need someone to, I don't know, do this task. That's not a consistent task that needs to be done. It's just one kind of, you know, one-off task. And then just a quick, it's not a deep evaluation. It kind of comes up like, okay. Oh, Echo could probably do it given the fact that he knows about this, this, and this. So he could probably at least give me some advice, right? So they go to Echo and then, so now I'm there, quote unquote, giving advice my best opinion or whatever.

And it seems like, dang, that's a good opinion. Then they'll be like kind of in the back of their mind, hey, let's sort of task him with this in general, you know. Let's come to him for this kind of stuff in general. And of course, me being the, you know, the team, when trying to help, what do you call? I'm a go with guy, right? Of course. I mean, most of the time anyway. So I'm be like, oh, yeah, cool.

Yeah, I'll do that right now. And then the next week, yeah, sure, I'll do it. And then two months later, that's like I'm on the hook for doing that now. And it's like, dang, I didn't even, I thought, I wanted to do this other stuff. You just took everything I said and turned it into how to get out of work. Well, the thing is. You just said, all of a sudden you're on the hook for stuff. Yep, it's true.

You don't like that. It feels if you get caught down one of these little rabbit holes, however you put it where you look up and you're like, wait a second, this isn't part of my plan at all. I just kind of got sucked in. And you did get suck. Or you allowed yourself to get some.

I'm talking to myself. Mission creep. It's a total mission creep. Scope creep. Scope, mission creep, freaking, all that stuff.

And you look up because you don't want to let nobody down. You know? I'm just saying other people can suck you down that hole. I give you a nine out of 10 for, like stopping that from happening. Well, that one, there was this one period at time where,

I actually even came to you and was like, hey, this is what I'm thinking as far as like stopping certain things or getting less and less involved in certain things. But like I said, to me, you are talking to me because that's like a constant thing, I think. Well, good thing to pay attention to. Let's get some Q&A. What do you got? And answers. Echon jocco, I start bouncing soon at a bar. Finally, this is fired up.

I saw this. I was like, all right. And I wanted to get insight from both you, especially I could do his experience working in the nightlife. I'm 23 years old, which is literally the age I started. Or I started here in San Diego. I was younger in Hawaii. I'm 23-year-old 510 and about 2-10, same dimensions as me more or less. I've been training both Muay Thai and the Jujits for about four years.

Training anywhere from four to six times a week. I feel relatively confident in physical altercation. altercations, though I tend to avoid them at all costs. A friend of mine who also I train with owns a couple restaurants and said he'd love for me to bounce for him because I'm extroverted. Quote, extroverted. Quote, extroverted, good with people and tend to be pretty good at de-escalating situations. My problem is how much I hate confrontation.

While it's good to have the traits I mentioned before, I find that I'm often really bad at being stern or putting my foot down when needed. this is obviously a necessary skill for a bouncer. Looking for some advice that either of you think might help. Thanks, guys. Go ahead there. No, no, no, no. Please.

Go ahead there, fucking Dalton. I was watching the other day. And bro, he is sensationalized in a bunch of ways, but he was right. His speech, like be nice. It's not personal, like all this stuff. Yep. We could pretty much just roll the Dalton speech from Roadhouse right now. Yes, sir.

And what's interesting, about this is, you know, what do I think? I think, well, make sure you learn how to detach. Don't take things personally. Train jiu-jitsu. You're already trained in jiu-sitsu. What's good is, it seems like you actually might have. That is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground podcast.

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