Extreme Ownership

Welcome to the first, on topic, official Influence meeting! My name's Jack, and I’m massively unqualified to teach this class. *Bows.* Lucky for both of us though I’m relying on those who are qualified, so applause for the greatest leader to ever walk the earth -Jesus. And also, the two extremely qualified leaders who wrote the book Extreme ownership. Jocko Willink And Leif Babin.

Alright so extreme ownership. What is it? Well according to chapter one of the book Extreme ownership “A leader must own everything in his or her world.” So extreme ownership is extreme responsibility. It is accepting the fact that if something goes wrong in your world, your sphere of influence, You were at the very least partially to blame for it. And the responsibility for fixing the problem and making sure it never occurs again falls solely on your shoulders. “But Jack.” You say “it sounds a bit-“

“Extreme? Hard? Yeah it does” But that’s the point. If it was easy everyone would do it. It took me a while to fully grasp this concept even though it sounds straight forward, after all it is only two words. But the application took its time catching up to me so I’m going to try and make the process a bit faster for you. Take a look at this list:

- A coat hook falls off the wall

- Your siblings bad attitude effects the entire family

- You run out of gas on your way to work

- A little girl in Africa get the food her body so desperately needs

- The word of God is placed in the hands of a homeless woman

What do all these things have in common? You are responsible for everyone of them. You saw that the hook was coming loose. You yelled at your sibling starting the ruckus. You bought coffee with your gas money. You donated to the disaster relief in Africa and you gave that homeless woman the bible. From Coat hangers to the road to salvation you must take extreme ownership of your life.

So, what comes next? Practical extreme ownership 101 right now. Change your mindset. Train yourself to think that If something happens it’s your fault. How are you going to make sure it won’t happen again? If you fight through the laziness and train yourself to think this the battle is half over.

The real question though is where does extreme ownership meet God’s extreme grace? We can take responsibility for everything in our world but last time I checked there is no solution for me to fix my sin. I can address it and plan for the next time trying to eliminate it happening again. But when it all comes down to it I’m going to sin again. I can work with my team trying to focus on success and progress but someone in my team will falter because of my bad leadership. If we strictly lived in the way of extreme ownership you will eventually wear down. Because no matter how strong you are, you cannot constantly live your life like that constantly cleaning up for your mistakes. This is where extreme ownership and God’s extreme grace. Because we will always fail at some point. God’s grace gives us the strength to get up. Don’t get me wrong it will still be hard. Implementing the concept of extreme responsibility in your life will be one of the hardest things you will ever have to do. It is guaranteed to bring up your faults and sins, because when you trace problems back to the source you can almost always trace them back to you and your sin nature. But thanks to Jesus and his amazing gift to us we have the ability to sustain this kind of lifestyle. We are not leaning on the approval of others to balance our almost constant discovery of our failures.

Because the concept of extreme ownership is so contrary to our culture we will be noticed. People will notice our constant responsibility and inquires for recommendations on how we can improve. Take that a step further. You're already on the pedestal, pair that with your unusual commitment to Christ. Pair it with a constant witness to the one who provides grace for your weakness.

“Take Ownership. Take extreme Ownership. Do not make excuses. Do not blame any other person or any other thing. Get control of your ego. Do not hide your delicate pride for the truth. Take ownership of everything in your world, the good and the bad. Take ownership of your mistakes. Take ownership of your shortfalls. Take ownership of your problems. And then take ownership of your solutions that got those problems solved. Take ownership of your mission, take ownership of your job, of your team, of your future, and take ownership of your life. And lead.” - Jocko Willink

“’My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest in me.” – 2 Corinthians 12:9

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijsjA5Yf8XA