I love the fact that I was really young going throughout cuz you're just too
dumb to figure I mean I just I would look I would not want to go through
wheat when I was 24 years old I wouldn't have wanted to go through boot camp I
mean I would have done it of course but it would have sucked even more because
you understand the world a little bit a little bit better you you've had some
kind of a taste of freedom and I mean I just was like hey okay you want me to do
this I'm gonna do it it was like I was the perfect recruit really always
because I was just young and dumb so I suffered some the the biggest thing I
suffered from was just overthinking stuff because I would sit and why are
they doing this that's the worst thing that I can ask yourself yeah why it
doesn't matter yeah just do it you have to learn how to just do and so do this
is one of those things that you need to learn in your 20s so the what will make
a huge impact is who is telling you what to do because if you align yourself with
something that you don't believe in with a person you don't really respect and
they're telling you what to do you're gonna adapt your life to their way at
that time and the military it's it's got a very powerful way of creating very
strong people wherever you started you will end up stronger for your time in
the military and that all begins with this basic common experience of basic
training and I just I couldn't believe how how hard it was and how just it was
completely void of all social norms and etiquettes and all of those things I
mean nothing was off-limits in terms of their ability to denigrate you for any
reason whatsoever in navy boot camp you are in open bay barracks obviously and
then the toilets are just on the wall there's twenty toilets in a row like
you're gonna sit down on the toilet and then you're gonna be looking at 19 other
people that are also said there's no privacy whatsoever zero it's all gone
it's just zero and then the other thing is because this is people always you
know they listen the podcast and they hey I just didn't listen to Marine Corps
hey just listen the army they'll send me that message and I'm
like okay 72 hours into boot camp you're gonna hate me here like just give it
another few more weeks because the thing that we're not used to even as a 18 year
old is you're not used to your freedom being completely gone completely there's
zero freedom when you get to boot camp none zero you're gonna be doing what
someone else tells you to do you have no freedom to do anything you can't even go
to the bathroom when you want to go to the bathroom
you throw sergeant can I go use the loo screen you have unit so freedom
whatsoever and that is as you said very important lesson to learn on life you
learn to appreciate your freedom and you also learn to deal with the fact that
hey just because some I can't control this aspect in my life doesn't mean I
can't control other aspects of my life and that's an important thing to figure
out as a young person and you kind of learn to play the game too right like
look there's no way around this this drill instructor this instructor is
gonna do this and the only possible thing I can do I mean other than
quitting is just to shut up and just do what you're supposed to do it's like
okay cool that's no options is a great option yeah do it or do it or quit and
you can't quit boot camp you can quit buds or Special Forces qualification
course you can't quit you're you literally go AWOL and then
they go find you and one guy went AWOL and they found him at the gas station
you know off base or whatever trying to get someone to buy him some coffee or
something whatever and they brought him back and you know then he was back into
it except he was a guy with a bull's-eye on him because he's the guy that went
AWOL and they dragged him back and it's it's I can't stress enough what you just
said like you have zero privacy and and this is a culture shock for a lot of
people because this is the whole everything that we do our system is
based around a culture of I right at its basic level now you have your iPhone you
have your individually wrapped everything you have
you know me me me right and that's gonna make you happy or that's you know you
everything is is just centered around the individual and the the army just
doesn't prescribe to that privacy I mean there's all these privacy debates now
social media and your data and all of the privacy as if that's just some right
that you have and that's fine there's there's some nuance to that well let me
just tell you 0% of that exists in the military zero like you said I mean
there's just a lot of naked dudes you know with open latrines and and it's
just that's what it is and you learn that that's kind of a
primordial way to exist and you are much more in touch with how our species
evolved over our entire evolution of Homo sapiens when you join the military
and you just become in tune with that yeah and I think the most important
message that gets relayed into your brain whether you're conscious of it or
not is crystal-clear and that is this team and this organization is more
important than you are and your little wants and needs and desires and your
personality doesn't matter when it's compared to the needs of this team and
this group and this mission and that's important another very important thing
to learn as a young person you're not at the center of the universe period the
end and it's so now as that evolved for me one of one of the most important
lessons and this is where you have to spend a lifetime mastering it is to
understand that to be a great teammate first you have to be a great individual
and then you have to submit to the team because anybody on your SEAL Teams or my
special forces teams there these are people that can do anything with their
lives they if they commit themselves they will do it and so you have to
become a master of your trade a true professional and in that that requires
the discipline that you have as an individual when nobody's looking over
your shoulder to just continually and sharpen sharpen the the blade write
your own and then though you have to realize that it's not about you it's
it's a it's a balancing act for an entire lifetime and the more of it the
more that you do both of those in concert the more rewarding life will be
yeah and really the thing that drives you to be as good as you can is because
you know your teammates are gonna be relying on you and if you can't deliver
that's like the worst thing in the world me being in the SEAL Teams like the
worst thing in the world for someone and the teams for a good seal is like oh my
teammates were counting on me and I couldn't deliver for him that's the
that's the lowest of the low hey look somebody looks at me and says Oh jock
was not that fast or Jocko couldn't do enough pull-ups or whatever it's like oh
yeah that's on me no big deal but when they needed me to climb that ladder they
needed me to finish that road march or move to that position and I couldn't do
it that's that's what always always drives like a good team guy to be better
it's like they don't want to let their friends down period it's the ultimate
motivation yeah yeah like to be a part of that community and in the community
sharpens itself I mean you get guys and competition competition breeds
excellence they're for sure and so you've got this world where as iron
sharpens iron so a friend sharpens a friend and that is just everyday on the
team everything's a competition to competition