Jocko Willink

“If you have to stand and fight, you train yourself so that you're able to do it.”

“If you get your ego in your way, you will only look to other people and circumstances to blame.”

“Your success, or lack of success, is your responsibility. Even when you have a chain of command that you don't like as well, its your responsibility to work with the up chain of command.”

“I was 18 years old, and it was a dream come true for me to work out and eat great food for free. What else do you want in life? People think that is what it is like to be in a SEAL team, but it is less than a fraction of your career as a real SEAL.”

“If you wake up whenever you want, and you slept for 10 hours, and you're lazy getting out of bed, then I believe that affects your whole life in a negative way.”

“While discipline and freedom seem like they sit on opposite sides of the spectrum, they are actually very connected.”

“If someone attacks me, and they want to punch or kick me, I can just run away. They're not holding onto me. I can get away from them.”

“One of my direct subordinates, one of my guys that worked for me, he would call me up or pull me aside with some major problem, some issue that was going on. And he'd say, 'Boss, we've got this, and that, and the other thing.' And I'd look at him and I'd say, 'Good.'”

“We have food all around us all the time, and if we haven't eaten for three hours, we think we're starving. You're not starving - human beings can go for 30 days without food.”

“A lot of times, people have something that they're afraid of. They've got a client that's mad at them. They've got a project that's due. And they let that stress hang over their head. I don't let that happen.”

“If I've got something do. I'm going to attack it. I'm going to attack that stress.”

“Every day is a major balancing act that I have to figure out and coordinate.”

“Do I have chocolate chip cookies? Yes, I do. Do I have mint chocolate chip milkshakes? Yes, I do. I love them. They are fantastic. But when I have them, they're worth it. I earned them. I did something. I worked out super hard. I stayed clean on food.”

“When individual members of the team are highly disciplined, they can be trusted and, therefore, allowed to operate with very little oversight.”

“I eat steak primarily. That's pretty much what my diet consists of. Sometimes I supplement that with other steaks.”

“There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can 'be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough' are not true. They are fairy tales.”

“Anybody who tells you that a two-day conference, you're going to turn into the General Patton of leadership, they're not telling you the truth. But you can learn the fundamentals; you can absolutely understand the fundamentals.”

“Jiu Jitsu is probably the No. 1 activity that I could recommend to someone to improve their lives overall.”

“The goal of jiu-jitsu in self-defense isn't to take someone down to the ground - the goal in jiu-jitsu for self-defense is actually to be able to defend yourself on the ground, get up, and get away from an attacker. That's what the goal is.”

“I'm not a complete psychopath. Am I partially? Sure. I'll accept that. But I'm not a complete psychopath.”