Hello my fellow humans,
Day 3 of this newsletter, we’ve already reached 100 subscribers! I appreciate each and every one of you for taking the time out of your day to either respond to my messages, or subscribe on your own. Without an audience, I would have no reason to write this letter.
For the past three days, I’ve been posting letters on a daily basis. This pace might not be sustainable for me. I’m also a full-time student. However, classes are on Zoom, so maybe I will mute some of my Professors during class to work on this letter for you.
Shoutout to Anthony Pompliano (Pomp) for indirectly encouraging me to write this letter at this point of my life. I’m paraphrasing when I say he recommended that I work on my passions during college. Pomp writes a successful newsletter about business, finance, the economy, and you know it — BITCOIN! If you’re interested in learning from Pomp, his Twitter handle is @APompliano, and his newsletter URL is pomp.substack.com.
Basically, I’ll write about anything I’m familiar with. Not that I’m some legendary leader, but I know a thing or two from experience. Someone told me this morning, “You’re a little too young to talk about leadership.” Lord, please allow me to show restraint. Age itself ≠ leadership experience.
I’m currently reading a book called EXTREME OWNERSHIP by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, both former U.S. Navy SEALs. If you aren’t familiar with SEALs, it’s simple — of all the U.S. military troops, they are the best of the best. I’m only on page 85 of the book, and already it is packed full of proven leadership techniques, based on their many years of combat experience. The following quote comes from Chapter 3 — Believe, written by Jocko. He was speaking to a group of civilian managers.
“So, if you ever get a task or guidance or a mission that you don’t believe in, don’t just sit back and accept it. Ask questions until you understand why so you can believe in what you are doing and you can pass that information down the chain to your team with confidence, so they can get out and execute the mission. That is leadership.”
I’ve got a decent example for you, an experience of mine. I wanted a group of lower-ranking Soldiers to accomplish a task. Rather than give them an explanation of why I believed it needed to be done, I barked orders at them. To make matters even worse, I was defensive when one of the Soldiers questioned me. Leaders are not above questioning, and I learned that the hard way.
What had happened was…I noticed trash lying around the company area, and I realized that trash was there from the previous day. I approached a group of Soldiers sitting near the trash, and without much of an explanation, I told them to clean it up. Remember, this trash was there from the previous day, so it likely was not theirs.
One Soldier responded due to a lack of understanding, then him and I started going back and forth. It became clear to me that we were causing a scene in the not-so-empty company area. Before it completely spun out of control, I walked away to my office. After a moment of cooling off, I found his first-line leader, so all three of us could have a private conversation about the matter.
All things considered, the second conversation wasn’t as bad as the first one. Eventually we reached a mutual understanding, shook hands, and moved on. Here’s the thing that struck me by surprise. After that day, each time that Soldier and I ran into each other, it was nothing but mutual respect. He would often ask me if there’s anything I need help with. It became clear to me that he was always willing to do the work. He simply wanted to understand why, and he had every right.
The dispute I caused was over something as minuscule as trash pickup. I’m sure some of you have witnessed much worse. I can only imagine how quickly a mission can fail when there’s a misunderstanding about something as serious as pay, health, or safety.
If you have any stories that further solidify Jocko’s point, I’d love to know about them! Reply to this email if you want to share. I hope you enjoyed this letter. Feedback is always welcome. If you loved it, share it with your people!
Until next time,
Salvatore Norge