There Is No Excuse
We are truly blessed in this country to have great libraries and the internet as resources to learn about leadership. As a result, we have a higher quality and consistency of leaders now than any other time in history. We are called to be leaders of our own one person enterprise, our families, and community groups. Mentors are no longer local. They are everywhere and, what’s more, they share their lessons freely for this generation and all who will come after us. Imagine what we might learn if Washington, Franklin, and Lincoln were preserved for us in the form of a series of videos. Well today’s leaders are preserved in video and audio and text. There is no excuse to avoid learning from the best and brightest in every field. And then pay it forward.
In that spirit, below I share with you a video montage from one of the people I’ve learned a lot from over the last two years — Jocko Willink. He isn’t the only SEAL I’ve had the pleasure to learn from. Mark Devine has a set of podcasts, courses, and books that ripple through the Spartan and self-improvement communities. I’ve also learned great lessons from former SEALs Alden Mills and Eric Greitens who spoke at corporate events I attended. I’m not saying the SEALs have a corner on leadership. But the spot they occupy is like a well tended Japanese garden. As an added bonus, the lessons they share are truly battle tested under the harshest conditions.