Extreme ownership | Jocko Willink | TEDxUniversityofNevada

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

War is hell, but war is also a brutal teacher. War teaches you about brotherhood, honor, humility, and leadership. In this riveting talk, Jocko Willink explains from personal experience how war teaches you the most when things go wrong. Jocko asserts that when a team takes ownership of its problems, the problems get solved.

Jocko Willink is a decorated retired Navy SEAL officer, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, host of the top-rated Jocko Podcast, and co-founder of Echelon Front, where he is a leadership instructor, speaker, and executive coach. Jocko spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy SEAL Teams, starting as an enlisted SEAL and rising through the ranks to become a SEAL officer. As commander of SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser during the battle of Ramadi, he orchestrated SEAL operations that helped the "Ready First" Brigade of the US Army's First Armored Division bring stability to the violent, war-torn city. Task Unit Bruiser became the most highly decorated Special Operations Unit of the Iraq War. Jocko returned from Iraq to serve as Officer-in-Charge of training for all West Coast SEAL Teams.

War is a nightmare.

War is awful.

It is indifferent,
and devastating, and evil.

War is hell.

But war is also an incredible teacher,

a brutal teacher.

And it teaches you lessons
that you will not forget.

In war, you are forced

to see humanity at its absolute worst,

and you are also blessed

to see humanity
in its most glorious moments.

War teaches you about
sorrow, and loss, and pain.

And it teaches you about the preciousness

and the fragility of human life.

And in that fragility,

war teaches you about death.

But war also teaches you

about brotherhood, and honor,

and humility, and leadership.

And unfortunately, war teaches you
the most when things go wrong.

And for me,

one of the most impactful lessons
that I learned from war

was in the spring of 2006

in the city of Ramadi, Iraq,

which at the time,
was the epicenter of the insurgency

where brutal and determined terrorists
ruled the streets

with torture and rape and murder.

It was in one neighborhood of that city

during an operation
that I was in charge of

when all hell broke loose.

We had multiple units out
on the battlefield fighting the enemy.

We had friendly Iraqi soldiers,

we had US Army soldiers and US Marines,

along with small elements of my SEAL team.

And then the fog of war rolled in

with its confusion, and chaos, and mayhem,

and with its gunfire, and enemy attacks,

and screaming men, and blood, and death;

and in that fog of war,

through a series of mistakes,
and human error,

and poor judgment, and Murphy's law,
and just plain bad luck,

a horrendous fire fight broke out.

But this fire fight

wasn't between us and the enemy;

this fire fight, tragically,

was between us and us,

friendly forces against friendly forces;

fratricide -

the mortal sin of combat

and the most horrific part of war.

And when it was over,
and the fog of war lifted,

one friendly Iraqi soldier was dead,
two more were wounded,

one of my men was wounded,

the rest of my SEALs were badly shaken,

and it was only through a miracle
that no one else was killed.

And it was reported up the chain
of command what had happened.

That we had fought, and wounded,
and killed each other.

And when we got back to base,
things didn't get much better.

There was a message waiting for me
from my commanding officer,

and it said, "Shut down all operations."

It said that the commanding officer,

the master chief,
and the investigating officer

were inbound to my location.

And they told me to prepare
a debrief to explain

exactly what had happened on the operation
and what had gone wrong.

Now, I knew what this meant.

It meant that somebody had to pay.

It meant that somebody
had to be held accountable.

It meant that somebody had to get fired
for what had happened.

So, I began to prepare my debrief.

And in it,

I detailed every mistake
that was made and who made it.

And I pointed out every failure

in the planning, and the preparation,
and the execution in the operation,

and I pointed out
who was responsible for that failure.

There was plenty of blame to go around.

There were so many people
that I could incriminate with guilt.

But something wasn't right.

For some reason,
I just couldn't put my finger

on who was at fault

and who specifically I should blame for
what had happened.

And I sat,

and I went over it again and again,
and I struggled for an answer.

And then, when I was about ten minutes
from starting the debrief,

that answer came,

and it hit me like a slap in the face.

And I realized

that there was only one person
to blame for the confusion,

only one person to blame for
the wounded men,

and only one person to blame for
the dead Iraqi soldier.

And I knew exactly who that person was.

And with that knowledge,
I walked into the debriefing room

with my commanding officer

and the master chief,
and the investigating officer

were sitting there waiting for me,
along with the rest of my men,

including my SEAL who had been wounded,

who was sitting in the back of the room

with his head and his face
all bandaged up.

And I stood up before them,
and I asked them one simple question,

"Who's fault was this?"

One of my SEALs raised his hand.

And he said, "It was my fault.

I didn't keep control of
the Iraqi soldiers I was with.

And they left their designated sector,

and that was the root
of all these problems."

And I said, "No, it wasn't your fault."

And then another SEAL raised his hand
and said, "It was my fault.

I didn't pass our location
over the radio fast enough

so no one knew what building we were in,
and that's what caused all this confusion.

It was my fault."

And I said, "No, it wasn't
your fault either."

And then another SEAL
raised his hand, and he said,

"Boss, this was my fault.

I didn't properly identify my target,

and I shot and killed
that friendly Iraqi soldier.

This was my fault."

And I said, "No, this wasn't
your fault either.

And it wasn't yours, or yours, or yours,"

I said as I pointed to the rest
of the SEALs in the room.

And then I told them

that there was only one person
at fault for what had happened.

There was only one person to blame.

And that person was me.

I am the commander,

I am the senior man on the battlefield,

and I am responsible for
everything that happens;

everything.

And then I went on to explain to them

some new tactics,
techniques, and procedures

that we were going to implement

to ensure that this kind of travesty
never happened again.

And I will tell you something: it hurt.

It hurt my ego.

It hurt my pride to take the blame.

But I also knew,

I knew that to maintain my integrity
as a leader and as a man,

I had to take responsibility.

And in order to do that,

I had to control my ego
so that my ego did not control me.

And you know what?

I didn't get fired.

In fact, my commanding officer,

who had expected excuses
and finger-pointing,

when I took responsibility,
when I took ownership,

he now trusted me even more.

And my men

didn't lose respect for me.

Instead, they realized

that I would never shirk responsibility,

and I would never pass

that heavy burden of command
down the chain and onto them.

And you know what?

They had the same attitude.

Unlike a team where no one
takes ownership of the problems,

and therefore, the problems
never get solved,

with us, everyone took ownership
of their mistakes,

everyone took ownership of the problems.

And when a team
takes ownership of it's problems,

the problems get solved.

And that is true on the battlefield,

it is true in business,
and it is true in life.

So I say, take ownership;

take extreme ownership.

Don't make excuses,

don't blame any other person
or any other thing.

Get control of your ego.

Don't hide your delicate pride
from the truth.

Take ownership
of everything in your world,

the good and the bad.

Take ownership of your mistakes,
take ownership of your shortfalls,

take ownership of your problems,

and then take ownership of the solutions
that will get those problems solved.

Take ownership of your mission.

Take ownership of your job,
of your team, of your future,

and take ownership of your life.

And lead.

Lead.

Lead yourself,

and your team,
and the people in your life;

lead them all

to victory.

Thank you.

(Applause)