Jocko Underground: Alpha Males, Beta Males, Sigma Males, and The Others. Take Charge With No Authority.

Alpha, Beta, Sigma, Delta, Gamma, Omega Males. Take charge with no authority. How to improve the results of a job interview. Dealing with people who are too direct, or even insulting. Ways and standards to self evaluate. How to stay on THE PATH but still enjoy alcohol? 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 Jocko Underground Podcast, number 54. Echo Charles, sitting here with me. This is actually, you're, for some reason, you want, you were asking about this, this topic of the day. The topic is Alpha, Beta, Gamma, I think Gamma, Omega, Delta, and Sigma, humans. Male, female. Had you ever heard, I think you mentioned to me, you, you saw online or something, you were reading about the Sigma male. This Sigma is like the new one, right?

• 0:36Speaker 01

  That's what I thought at the time, yes.

• 0:37Jocko Willink?

  So, I didn't really know too much about the Sigma. Of course, y'all, everyone hears, you know, the Alpha. Everyone hears that. So you just say, hey, what are these things? So I figured we'd look into them a little bit. The term, these terms were almost solely used to describe animals up until the 1990s. So there was, back in the day, they didn't, they didn't use these. And there's a book that came out in 1982 called Chimpanzee Politics, by Franz de Waal, which suggested that maybe some of these categories could be applied to human beings.

• 1:15Jocko Willink?

  And then, in the 1990s, and this is from Wikipedia, so take that for what it's worth. Dove deep on the research, plugged it into Wikipedia, see what we get. 1990s term used to describe, quote, "manly men" that are successful in business. And, and then there's of course, a whole thing about these same terms used to describe females. So, I had heard of Alpha, I had heard of Beta, I hadn't heard of Gamma, I hadn't heard of Omega, I hadn't heard of Delta. And I, you kind of chimed me in on the whole Sigma phenomenon. Do you think the Sigma is, is what people want to be?

• 2:00Jocko Willink?

  Or does everyone just want to be Alpha?

• 2:02Speaker 01

  I feel like, at the end of the day, you'll go into what each one is, is, I feel like everyone wants to be Alpha, but...

• 2:11Jocko Willink?

  Sigma is like a poor man's, poor man's alpha.

• 2:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, like, like a poor man, like a, um, like an introvert, you know, alpha is like, he'll take charge, he'll make calls, he'll, he'll talk to anybody, whatever. The sigma is like, he's introverted and shy and stuff. And then so it, he kinda, I don't know, like, kinda embraces that whole thing, kinda like a quiet freaking alpha or something.

• 2:32Jocko Willink?

  So alpha, here's some descriptions. Alpha is supposed to be dominating and charismatic, the born leader, understands his priorities and utilizes, and always utilizing his time. That's the alpha. The beta is modest and easygoing, ideal husband type.

• 2:50Jocko Willink?

  Works a lot, but is overshadowed by, overshadowed by his peers. The gamma is introverted, introverted and super sensitive. I don't think I fall in the category of super sensitive.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  Super insensitive.

• 3:05Jocko Willink?

  Uh, the yes man at the office is the gamma.

• 3:10Jocko Willink?

  Has big plans, but lacks determination and focus. Gamma.

• 3:15Jocko Willink?

  Next one is omega. There's a movie called Omega Man. I wonder why it's called that?

• 3:20Speaker 01

  Omega Man?

• 3:20Jocko Willink?

  Yeah. This person is skillful and self-sufficient, the odd one in the, in the wolf pack. Laid back, not chasing success or money.

• 3:31Speaker 01

  Like the artsy type or something? That's what it sounds like.

• 3:36Jocko Willink?

  Actually, they don't even really talk about that. They don't even talk about like which one of these has some creative aspect to them. As opposed to like the big five, which is open-mindedness and those people tend to be more creative. Next one is delta. Modest and hardworking. Wants attention, but can't get it. Works hard, but unable to draw attention.

• 4:02Jocko Willink?

  And then the Sigma, this is the latest and greatest addition. Super smart and extremely attractive.

• 4:12Jocko Willink?

  The manipulative mastermind. He is super ambitious, ambitious and his own boss. So, there you go, dude. I don't even know, like, do we even need to go any further on these things? Because it's like just, there's some basic kind of personality stereotypes, right? Isn't that basically what they are?

• 4:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:33Jocko Willink?

  Just some basic stereotypes and then that's that.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  Yeah, and a lot of times too, kind of similar to like a horoscope kind of scenario where, you know, people wanna, I feel like, I don't know, maybe I'm just thinking about this for myself, I don't know. But every once in a while where you like you'll fall into and you wonder, oh, what, what, given these, this category or this, this criteria, like, who am I, right? Then you kind of look at it and if I have a cool name, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Gamma doesn't sound cool. I don't know why.

• 5:03Jocko Willink?

  Wait, do you think Beta sounds cool?

• 5:04Speaker 01

  No, Beta doesn't sound cool either. Actually, I had a fish called a Beta.

• 5:07Jocko Willink?

  You know what's funny is you actually have a name Echo.

• 5:12Speaker 01

  That's gonna be the new.

• 5:12Jocko Willink?

  Kind of in there, huh?

• 5:13Speaker 01

  The new hot.

• 5:14Jocko Willink?

  He's an Echo male. What does that even mean? Means he presses record?

• 5:18Speaker 01

  Copycat or something. I don't know, whatever. But Sigma sounds cool, Delta sounds cool, Omega sounds cool. Um, I guess Beta Gamma doesn't sound that cool. That's just my opinion. Alpha, of course.

• 5:28Jocko Willink?

  Okay, so you're just going on name?

• 5:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, you know, but I'm saying like, hey, I'm a Delta. You know, it's like you, I don't know if this is a natural thing, maybe, maybe not, but you know how like people who are into astrology or whatever, their horoscope, they're like, yeah, I'm a Sagittarius, so therefore I this and that, or you're, he's a Leo, so this and you know, it's, I think some, at some level,

• 5:50Jocko Willink?

  Yep.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  I don't know. It feels good to be like in a sort of category.

• 5:55Jocko Willink?

  Well, yeah, I mean, that's why like people do their genetic test and they're like, I am a Native American. And they're like point zero or like, I'm Viking or whatever. Like they're, they do that and they're like, kind of,

• 6:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:06Jocko Willink?

  Hey, I'm Scots Irish. I was, you know, a Highlander. Like people, people get into that kind of stuff and.

• 6:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, I wonder why that, like, maybe it's because, uh, this is just how it stopped you saying it in that voice. Made me kind of think of like, oh yeah, like if, if this came, Alpha, okay, not Alpha, Alpha is like obvious, but let's say Sigma, for example, right? It's like hell yeah, that's a cool name for that kind of person. And then it's like, yeah, I'm a sigma. I'm super smart. I'm extremely attractive. Uh, I'm a mastermind that can be manipulative.

• 6:36Jocko Willink?

  Yeah. Yeah. You know what? You know what? People start to try and fulfill the prophecy, right? A little bit like, oh, I'm an alpha, like I'm one who could dominate this room.

• 6:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:45Jocko Willink?

  And there's no one that's like, hey, I'm going to be more beta. In fact, they're running away from beta. They're like, wait a second, a beta is modest. I'm not going to be that. I'm not going to be a beta. I'm going to be, hey, what's up?

• 6:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:55Jocko Willink?

  Uh, the sigma since I pulled some traits for the sigma male. Says he loves being alone, but he values other people. He's a silent leader. What's interesting about that is I talk a lot about being a silent leader as a goal.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:11Jocko Willink?

  Cause if you're doing everything right as a leader, you shouldn't have to say too much and the team's already getting it done.

• 7:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:16Jocko Willink?

  Call that the silent leader. This is a little bit different, but.

• 7:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, this is more like a personality thing more so than a leading.

• 7:22Jocko Willink?

  Uh, he knows how to adapt to different situations. He treats everyone around. I think this is the selling. They're selling the sigma on this one.

• 7:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:28Jocko Willink?

  Is this, is the sigma male, the person that's not quite alpha, but then they're kind of coming up with their own new thing?

• 7:33Speaker 01

  That's what it felt like to me. And keep in mind, I didn't read about this. I watched YouTube videos. They kept popping up about the sigma male. And you know, once you click on one, you see.

• 7:44Jocko Willink?

  He treats everyone around him the same way. He doesn't need a social circle to be himself. Yeah, these are all super affirming, right? He understands the importance of silence.

• 7:57Jocko Willink?

  He is morally gray or worse. That's a little bit of a negative, right? He hates living safely. I'm an adventurer. His social skills could use some work. He's incredibly self, well, because this is an all positive, but you know what? That gives a little bit. Let's say you're socially awkward and you're trying to buy into this. You're like, well, you know, I'm kind of, I'm more of a sigma.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  That's what I thought.

• 8:17Jocko Willink?

  That's why I'm super awkward.

• 8:18Speaker 01

  Or like, you know how like, okay, so you know, public speaking, for example, or speaking in large groups or whatever. It's like a, an anxiety inducing thing for a lot of people. So that's like, you know, the alpha would never say that, right?

• 8:30Jocko Willink?

  Yeah.

• 8:32Speaker 01

  But man, sometimes it's like, man, you kind of can't help it. So it's like, hey, instead of just saying I'm an alpha, why don't I just say I'm a sigma?

• 8:39Jocko Willink?

  Yeah.

• 8:39Speaker 01

  See what I'm saying?

• 8:40Jocko Willink?

  Yeah. Like I.

• 8:41Speaker 01

  It's like it's on purpose.

• 8:42Jocko Willink?

  I don't like to get involved in front of crowds.

• 8:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:44Jocko Willink?

  I'm not worried about that because I'm incredibly self-aware, which is another thing. And I'm a master of my own fate, which is another thing. And I could be an alpha if I wanted to. That's the last thing it says, he could be an alpha if he wanted. That's what it felt like. It sounds like someone created Sigma recently. I should do a little more research and find out who created Sigma. It's probably some dude that's a little bit shy. That feels a little bit insecure that he knows he can't just say I'm an alpha. So he just made up this other thing over here called the Sigma. The Sigma male.

• 9:18Jocko Willink?

  So like I said, man, as far as I'm concerned, these are just basically a bunch of stereotypes. I don't know how much time we don't want to waste on this, but uh, here's one thing that I will take away from this.

• 9:29Jocko Willink?

  Each one of these things, look, you could, you could have a bunch of these different characteristics as one person and you most likely do, right? You most likely have some of these characteristics from each one of these categories. And I think what the important thing to do is to, and I've talked about this before, know what your tendencies are. Right? So know what your tendencies are. If you know what your tendencies are, if you know that you kind of get pushed over too much, you're like, all right, I know that I have a tendency to say yes too easy. I need to. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground Podcast. So if you want to continue to listen,

• 10:12Jocko Willink?

  go to jacoodunderground.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. 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

• 10:56Jocko Willink?

  strengthen this legion of troopers that are in the game with us. So, thank you. It's jocko underground.com. It costs $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford to support us, we can still support you. Just email [email protected] and we'll get you taken care of. Until then, we will see you mobilized underground.