Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win Preface & Introduction

The book opens with a picture of the members of the Navy SEAL’s Task Unit Bruiser, Charlie’s Platoon, crouching in overwatch in Ramadi, Iraq, and is followed by a map of AR Ramadi, Iraq.

The authors begin with a short note on the contents of the book, and how they conceived the idea that led to writing the book. First and foremost, they emphasize the fact that the book focuses on the success of the Navy SEAL Team and not the individuals in those teams. They criticize the New York Best Selling Author of the book American Sniper, Chris Kyle, who had been a member of the author’s unit in Iraq, and who had failed to appropriately highlight the contribution of his teammates in his success.

They then address the reason why Iraq had been such a difficult place for the armed forces, and the chief reason was that the leadership had been complacent due to the lack of any significant threat that the US Armed Forces had faced after the Vietnam war. The Navy Seals had to contend with unknown challenges, against an enemy that was highly trained and well supplied. The Seals forged a victory out of the fire in Ramadi and learned crucial lessons in leadership about how to contend with difficulty and persevere. The authors then had the opportunity to crystallize these lessons as they were made responsible for creating the training curriculum for the Navy Seals. They emphasize the measures they have taken to ensure that their book doesn’t reveal any information that could be considered secret. The authors conclude the preface by asserting that the leadership lessons learned in Ramadi could be applied to any difficult situation and used to secure victory.

The introduction is written by Lief Babin, and in it, he describes a difficult situation that came about when he was sent on a covert mission to secure a high-value target. Their attack on the building had caused an individual to escape into an unknown part of the map, and Lief had followed the lone escapee without much thought with just one another soldier. He managed to secure the target but found himself in a completely unknown part of the area, with little to no way of requesting help. The situation worsened when he saw a group of fighter advancing towards him up the street with their guns already cocked for action. However, they hadn’t yet noticed Lief and his teammate, who were both equipped with night vision goggles. Lief had moments to decide on a course of action, and he was able to resort to the Laws of Combat, that his commander Jocko Willink had drilled into him. The core Laws of Combat were:

1. Cover and Move

2. Simple

3. Prioritize and Execute

4. Decentralized Command

Lief used these principles to decide as he opened fire on the approaching enemy and then used the confusion to beat a steady retreat to where the rest of the convoy was waiting for him along with the captured man. He asserts that these principles are more than Laws of Combat, and argues that they can be applied to successfully challenge all kinds of obstacles in life. The authors go on to discuss how they have proven the merit in these principles through the work they’ve done with their consulting firm, Echelon Front. The rest of the book is organized to focus specifically on the Leadership principles of Extreme Ownership and presents business examples in which these principles were successfully applied. The book is organized into three sections:

1. Winning the War Within: This section focuses on imparting the foundational values of leading and winning.

2. The Laws of Combat: In this section, the authors discuss the honed principles of dominating the field.

3. Sustaining Victory: The last part of the book discusses the challenges that one must face to perpetually function as a winning team.