Extreme Ownership
Savvy Saturdays (2/20/21)
One of my favorite books I finished this year was Jocko Willink and Leif Babin’s book, “Extreme Ownership”.
A book on how U.S. Navy SEALs lead and win, overall, I’ve come to learn how important leadership is, and how leadership is not only found on the battlefield but also in everyday life.
As Craig Groeschel mentions on his Leadership Podcast, a leader is not someone who is the head of an organization, manages a team, or owns a majority stake in a company.
A leader is anyone who has influence.
And everyone has influence.
But not every leader lives under extreme ownership.
For me, before knowing extreme ownership, I found myself wanting to blame others when issues arise. To point at other’s faults. To not take responsibility.
What I learned, though, is that extreme ownership challenges us to not blame others, have humility, and take greater ownership to change.
The truth is, blaming is easy.
Blame is a low-quality way of dealing with a problem.
It’s like slapping a band-aid on a wound when there’s an infection in the bone. You address the problem, but you don’t deal with the actual issue.
It takes humility to deal with the root problem of an issue.
I recognize that the most effective leaders humbly acknowledge failure and take ownership of the problem at hand.
By living out extreme ownership, these leaders remove blame, take responsibility, and create a plan to fix the root problem.
Through it, they end up learning from their mistakes, improve their teamwork or processes, and become 1% better than they were before.
After reading through this concept, I personally want to take a higher level of ownership in every aspect of my life.
I know that, though it will be harder to do, by imitating extreme ownership, I will be able to stop playing the blame game, learn from my failures faster, and set myself up for success to impact and bring value to wherever I have some stake and ownership already.
Questions to ponder: 🤔
Have you been living out extreme ownership?
Are you playing the blame game in any area of your life?
What is one way you can live out extreme ownership where you’ve played the blame game?
Weekly Collections
A collection of resources for you to enjoy… 📰 🎬 🎙️
Faith
Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
—1 Peter 3:7
“In other words, if a husband fails to be kind and gentle and cherishing toward his wife as the weaker vessel, and if he fails to be respectful and esteeming and admiring of her as a fellow heir of the grace of life, all three of these hindrances are going to happen:
The relationship is going to be undermined, and therefore the partnership in prayer will be threatened.
His own heart will begin to grow cold, and his own prayer life will dry up.
The answers to his prayers may be withheld because he’s not showing mercy to his wife.
My conclusion, Ryan, is that the word to husbands is a word to everybody in principle. If in the relationships that God has given us, whether marriage, or parenting, or friendship, or neighborliness, or collegiality, if in any of those relationships we begin to act unlovingly, disrespectfully, unmercifully, unkindly, we may expect that God will, in mercy, withhold blessings when we pray. This will be a loving discipline for his children. And we should take it to heart and repent and walk worthily of his calling.”
—Do My Sins Hinder My Prayers?
Casey Neistat’s ~2 min Editing Insight
Welcome Email Sequence - From Opt-in to Offer in 6 parts
(watch the video to get the full value)
Opt-in Email - A promise of what you plan to provide in your welcome email & something you could easily charge $100 on.
Welcome Email - Delivering on the value the opt-in promises.
Story Email - Sharing a story in order to build rapport.
Lesson- Sharing a lesson to show a bit of expertise & gain trust.
Lesson - Sharing another lesson to show more expertise.
Offer - Sharing an offer - a product or service, that solves a problem you’ve shown expertise in.
—Perfecting Your 'Welcome' Email Sequence | Chris Ducker
Weekly Tidbits
Learnings, verses, & quotes to chew on… 🧐
Verse of the Week
“I will not enter my house or get into my bed,
I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids,
until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.”
—Psalm 132:3-5 ESV
Challenging Quote
“If you dare, then you have already gotten further ahead than 99.99% of all the others.”
—Daniel Ek (Spotify CEO)
Weekly Highlights
Personal update for the busy… 🏃⏳⏰
We survived the Austin Winter Storm. The snowstorm in Austin caused us to lose wifi & power for a day, but we were fortunate compared to others.
I got to share my testimony and faith while networking (the guy was amazingly open to it). A praise God as I’ve been praying to better understand my testimony to be able to share it with others, so it’s a good reminder that God listens and answers prayers.
Created a buy me a coffee link to fund my creative work.
Taking time to explore strategy coaching. If you want to meet up for strategy with a current or potential business idea, or know someone who needs help getting to the next level, DM me on Twitter, and let’s chat.
I started a challenge on Twitter to go to 10k followers in 100 days, while sharing my journey (Noah Kagan, a guy I look up to, actually followed me 🤯). Give me a follow and retweet my post to help out - @ericjmlee!
Weekly Update
Personal life stuff… 🔔
Hello friends,
And to all the new people, welcome! Greetings from Polar Vortex Austin! 👋
Let’s jump right in!
This past week of snow was wild. This gif was my mood when it first snowed (as I’ve never seen more than an inch of snow before):
I ended up staying up till 4 AM playing in the snow since the following day was President’s day (a holiday for work) haha 😅 (I know, wow Eric, what a bad example of adulting)
Fortunately, when work was canceled for the following day (and the rest of the week), I was so hyped and thought it was worth it. 🙌
Unfortunately, this was my mood after we lost wifi & water, had two fire alarms at 4 AM for two days in a row, and everything in Austin was closed except for a couple of food trucks, Chik-Fil-A, and Waffle House:
Fortunately, wifi & water returned (God’s grace!), and my roommates decided to distribute food to students near campus who may not be as fortunate as us. (you bros are awesome!!!)
Faith update, one crazy praise God moment that happened was I got to share my testimony to someone while I was networking!
It’s an answered prayer, as recently our church has been going through Lent, and I’ve been praying for the past several days to God to better know my testimony so I can share my faith more transparently with others. I didn’t expect God to answer so quickly, but it’s an encouraging reminder that He listens and answers prayers (as that’s something I take for granted many times).
Entrepreneurship update-wise, I was empowered by my entrepreneurship community to explore strategy coaching as a side hustle. They noticed that I enjoy 1:1 interaction, love helping empower others, and give strategic insights for people to impact the field of expertise.
By taking in someone’s problem space, I’ve been able to give tactics for people to take their business and ideas to the next level.
If you want to meet up for strategy with a current or potential business idea, or know someone who needs help getting to the next level, DM me on Twitter, and let’s chat.
Also, I finally created a link to fund my creative work.
If you enjoy my work, feel free to buy me a coffee.
Final big update, I took up a challenge by my entrepreneurship community to aim for 10k followers in 100 days!
I’ve been wanting to post more frequently on Twitter, in order to document my journey & provide value. I don’t mind if I don’t hit the goal by the end of 100 days, but I want to try.
My hope is through the process, lots of growth will happen in the marketing and content creation part of my life.
Anyways, here are several pictures from this past week: 📷
Thanks for reading to the end! This was a lot more than usual, so I appreciate you taking all that time to read.
With that, stay safe & warm 😷, keep it savvy 😎, and I’ll see y’all in the next update 😊
Eric
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