Hi Everyone,

Happy Friday! Thanks for spending part of it reading The Lake Street Journal.

This week we’re talking about Navy SEALs, little life lessons, and a great podcast convo. Let's get into it.

Take Care of Your People

Navy SEALs have a saying: if you take care of your gear, your gear will take care of you.

Take care of your parachute, so when you pull the chord, it catches you.

Take care of your dive rig, so when you're underwater, you can breathe.

Take care of your guns, so when you pull the trigger, they shoot.

If you take care of your gear, your gear will take care of you.

The saying applies to gear, "but it applies absolutely with people too," says former SEAL commander Jocko Willink. "If you take care of your people, they will absolutely take care of you."

Jocko admits he was hard on his men. He didn't hold anything back in debriefs.

"How can I possibly be so harsh in my debriefs without the team rejecting me and thinking I'm imposing things on them?" Jocko asks.

"The answer is that those guys in those platoons knew that—more than anything else in the world—I did care about them. And my harshness was not out of disgust or anger. My harshness was out of love. Because I wanted them to be able to do their job, and I wanted them to be able to bring their guys home.

That's what leadership is. Caring about your people. And when you care about your people, your people will care about you."

Jocko talks about the first bad casualty his task unit took when they were in Iraq. It was a guy named Cowie. He took an armor piercing round in the leg, and it sounds like there wasn't much left.

Jocko walked in the room to visit Cowie shortly after he was shot.

"This young, athletic, stud of a human being may never walk again," Jocko recalls thinking. "He may lose his leg. I don't know what's going to happen."

When Jocko got in the room, they locked eyes, Cowie reached his hand out and pulled Jocko close, and said, "Sir, let me stay. I'll sweep up. It doesn't matter. Just please, don't send me home. Let me stay."

Same with Ryan Job, another one of Jocko's guys who took a round to the face. When he woke up from the medically induced coma, he was blind. But the first time Jocko talked to him, Job said, "Let me come back, sir."

A round to the face, but he wasn't going to quit.

Jocko had a similar story about Mike Monsoor.

Monsoor was pulled off the battlefield for a bad ear infection. As soon as he got back from his treatment, he asked Jocko what the rest of the men were doing. Jocko told him they were going out on a mission, but Mike would have to sit that one out. He wouldn't be able to get back to his team in time.

Monsoor looked at Jocko and said, "Sir, please get me back before they leave."

So Jocko found a convoy and got Mike back to his guys so he could be on that mission and take care of his friends.

Monsoor was later killed in action after he jumped on a grenade to save three of his friends.

As Jocko saw, time and time and time again, if you take care of your people, your people will take care of you.

This is a story about combat and one of the most elite fighting forces in the world. It's an outlier, for sure. But the idea applies all the way down.

We saw it with Teddy Roosevelt. We saw it with Gerald Ford. You can see it with your kids, your employees, your friends, and your neighbors.

Take care of your people, and your people will take care of you.

Notes to Myself

A list of 65 short life lessons, reminders, and pieces of advice, from Seth Godin.

A few of my favorites:

• Outdated maps might be worth less than no map at all

• Reliability is a superpower

• Lowering expectations can increase satisfaction

• Invest in skills that compound with effort

• Cannibals rarely get a good night’s sleep

Turning 40+ Into a Flex

I enjoyed this conversation between Greg Campion (whose newsletter I've recommended here before) and Jon Finkel (whose newsletter I also read every week).

They cover a bunch of topics, but I most enjoyed hearing them chat about fitness and fatherhood. If you're just a regular guy—a regular dad—trying to get a little better every day, I think you'll really appreciate this convo.

Workout of the Week

Here's a fun little couplet you can knock out over the weekend.

"Two to Tango"

15 min AMRAP

• 30 cal bike erg

• 20 alternating DB snatches (50)

Goal should be 5+ rounds on this one. Good luck!

Quote of the Week

"My definition of a leader in a free country is a man who can persuade people to do what they don't want to do and like it." - Harry Truman

Have a question or a comment? Respond to this email.

Talk soon,

Joe