Jocko Underground: To Achieve Things, You Commit... But Don't Overcommit.

To Achieve Things, You Commit... But Don't Overcommit. Improving your position when an unexpected tragedy happens. Getting out of an environment that does not set you up for success. Not feeling like a man because he doesn't contribute financially to the household. In Jiu Jitsu, I might be a danger to myself and others. Getting a good routine when work hours are really odd. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jocko Willink?

  This is the Jocko Underground Podcast, number 128, sitting here with Echo Charles. And Echo Charles, sometimes in life, you have to commit

• 0:10Jocko Willink?

  to two things to make them happen, right? Sometimes you gotta commit to make it happen, make that thing happen. We hear this a lot, but you gotta be careful that you don't over commit. All right, so I was training jiu jitsu today, and I was training with Miha. And Miha kind of left his arm out. And I was, it's weird, even though I was going for his arm, I actually knew that I couldn't get his arm from this position, but I knew it was gonna kind of, what I was trying to do is pass his guard. So I was kind of in a half guard scenario. He had a little butterfly hook type thing, and I'm trying to straighten out his arm. And what I was literally trying to do was distract him from

• 0:56Jocko Willink?

  his legs, so I could finish the pass. And I over committed in a real big way to his arm. And so I was off balance, and he swept me, got on top. And he actually got on top in a terrible position, got me.

• 1:12Jocko Willink?

  Here's the thing, there are many times in fighting when over commitment is a problem. So if you over commit to a strike, it's easy to get taken down. If you over commit to a takedown, you can get tired.

• 1:30Jocko Willink?

  Or you can get elbowed in the head, right? Remember when that was happening for a little while? People were like on the single, and people were just dropping elbows to the side of the head and knocking them out. You can over commit to a submission.

• 1:42Jocko Willink?

  And now you're gassing out. We've seen that happen. Oh, I got the guillotine, I got the guillotine, I got the guillotine, I got the guillotine, I got the guillotine, they're out of the guillotine, and I'm getting punched in the head. So in fighting, this is very common. It absolutely happens in fighting. It can happen in other things in life, too. Obviously, in business, you can commit, you can over commit to a product.

• 2:11Jocko Willink?

  We're just gonna make, we can make thousands and thousands of these things. They're gonna sell. No, you didn't do a test. You overcommitted. You overcommitted to some marketing. You spend a bunch of money on marketing. Overcommitment. You can overcommit to hiring people. You can overcommit and hire too many people. Like, we really believe in this, this department's expansion. And you hire a bunch of people and now you're not, now you're going backwards financially. So you gotta watch out for it there. Relationships, clearly. This can happen in relationships where you put too much, you invest too much into one person, too much time into one person, too much trust into one person. You get, get swept.

• 2:53Jocko Willink?

  Even time, you can commit too much time to one thing or another thing or something else that doesn't give you a return on investment that you need from that pursuit. So there's all kinds of things where we can overcommit.

• 3:09Jocko Willink?

  And as I started off, are there times when you have to a hundred percent commit or even overcommit in order to make something happen? Yep, that does happen. You go, you go for the flying triangle, right? Go for a flying armlock. It's a commitment. You go for the head kick against a wrestler. If you miss, you're probably gonna be on your back, getting punched in the head. Occasionally, does that head kick land? Yeah, it does. Leon Edwards versus Kamara Usman, right? Karl Marusman's a fantastic wrestler. But he committed to that head kick. Leon Edwards didn't just drop them.

• 3:51Jocko Willink?

  So he also could have been taken down. So, so are there times in the industry too, like, hey, we gotta commit right now. We're gonna invest this money in order to have the product ready as big as we think it's gonna be. We gotta commit to it. And you do, and you, you can win. You can also lose. I, there's a, an old saying. Don't gamble what you can't afford to lose. I think that's a great, a great saying. Don't gamble what you can't afford to lose.

• 4:19Jocko Willink?

  And that's why if you are a great, let's say you're a great grappler.

• 4:24Jocko Willink?

  And if you and I are fighting and I'm a better at jujitsu than you are and better at grappling than you are, I can throw wild strikes at you because when I'm striking you, it exposed me to a takedown, but I know I'm better once we're on the ground, so I can take a bunch of risk in getting taken down because it doesn't really matter to me. You can afford to lose that. Yeah, yeah, I can afford to lose and be on the bottom because I'm still gonna get a sweep or get a guillotine or an unlock or whatever. So there are times when you need to commit a lot.

• 4:54Jocko Willink?

  But be careful that you don't over commit. And I think it's just like jujitsu. You need to check your balance. You gotta check your balance in business. Like, oh, if we over commit here and it doesn't work, what's, where are we gonna be? Are we gonna be bankrupt? Are we gonna be missing our financials? Are we gonna be upside down? Are we not gonna be able to buy more product for a few? Or in a relationship, like, hold on a second, what if this doesn't work out?

• 5:19Jocko Willink?

  What if, wait, what if I'm putting all this trust in this person? And, and they're not as trustworthy as I thought they were? So you need to kind of check your balance.

• 5:33Jocko Willink?

  So that you don't get out of balance. So then if that thing that you have committed some resources to, if it doesn't work out the way you want, you're still okay. You don't get swept and get caught in a bad position.

• 5:45Jocko Willink?

  Make sure that you have a plan and do a risk assessment to make sure that if the commitment that you've made doesn't work out, you don't fall and get crushed. And if you can do that, it'll make life easier for you.

• 6:06Jocko Willink?

  And that's what I got.

• 6:09Jocko Willink?

  All right. Let's get to some Q and A.

• 6:14Speaker 01

  All right, first question. I've been a listener of yours for about a year now, and I'm not trying to brag in any way, but I have applied your concept of extreme ownership, well, in many facets of my life. One facet, however, has been somewhat challenging for me. I'm 18 with a younger brother who's 15 and a younger sister who's 11. Recently, my family has faced some unexpected turmoil. It had been expected for about two years, but expectation could not even begin to prepare for this reality. Ultimately, my mother ended up in prison as a result of this whole thing. My family is not doing great, but better than expected. It's been about five months. My question is, how do I apply the concept of extreme ownership to a situation such as this?

• 6:57Speaker 01

  And how do I turn the situation around to benefit myself and my family? Thank you for your time.

• 7:02Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, clearly, that's a, that's a rough one. And the way that you take extreme ownership of this is how you respond to it. So how you respond to, look, your, your mom did whatever she did.

• 7:18Jocko Willink?

  Right, wrong, or indifferent, she's in jail now. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground Podcast. So if you want to continue to listen, go to jacood underground.com and subscribe. And we're doing this, we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms. So we are not subject to their control. And we are doing this so that we can support the Jocko Podcast, which will remain as is, free for all, as long as we can keep it that way. But we, but we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of sponsors.

• 7:59Jocko Willink?

  And we're doing it so we can give you more control, more interaction, more direct connections, better communications with us. And to do that, we are, we're building a website right now where we'll be able to utilize to strengthen this legion of troopers that are in the game with us. So thank you. It's jacood underground.com. It costs $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford to support us, we can still support you. Just email assistance@jacood underground.com and we'll get you taken care of. Until then, we will see you mobilized underground.