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Extreme Ownership

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin

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Founder connections

  • Marc AndreessenPublisher-attributed endorsement
    “One of the best books on leadership and a tremendous war story book as well.”
    The publisher attributes this assessment of the book’s leadership lessons and war stories to Andreessen.
    Source
  • Luca FerrariBorrowed a company-value name
    Ferrari says the name of Bending Spoons’ extreme ownership value came from Jocko’s book. He says the company defines it differently. This supports the source of a name; it does not prove that he read the whole book or recommended it. The recommendation in this exchange is Senra’s.
    Source

Summary

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin draw on their experience as Navy SEAL leaders to explain leadership through personal responsibility. They connect lessons from combat and military training with their work advising business teams. The book asks leaders to examine their own role in a failure and make the actions and purpose of a team clear.

  • SourceSt. Martin’s Press, Extreme Ownership original-work description and licensed excerpt · Book Details; original release October 2015; chapter 1 original copyright 2015, combat and business responsibility examples

Why read it Our view

Useful when a founder must lead a team through a failure. The book gives a way to examine the leader’s part in the result, make the next steps clear and explain what the team is trying to achieve. Its business examples make these questions practical.