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

decision. But the executives didn’t have an answer. There was much at
stake for the company and the outcome was far from certain. They
weren’t sure what to do.
Jocko and I sat in a meeting room with the CEO of a successful
software company and the CEO of one of the company’s subsidiaries, an
engineering company. Not yet five years from the software company’s
launch, the company had experienced rapid growth and exponentially
increasing revenues.
Much of the company’s leadership and that of their engineering
company were young, talented individuals driven to succeed. Jocko and I
were brought in to give them the tools to lead their teams, aggressively
expand their reach, and dominate the competition.
The engineering company, led by a talented CEO, had already
produced great results for the parent company. They had landed several
lucrative contracts and rapidly established a good reputation for quality
and service.
Jim, the CEO of the parent company, and Darla, the CEO of the
subsidiary company, were proud of the effective teams and processes
they had developed. They each had recruited substantial talent from their
previous companies to join their current teams. Darla had five promising
senior engineers, who each ran teams of half a dozen personnel or more.
It had been an impressive year for Darla and her engineering company.
But like any organization, there were challenges. Constant pressure
from competitors’ recruiting efforts, trying to lure away their most
talented people, presented the most substantial impediment to the
company’s long-term success. The five senior engineers were primary
targets. Companies knew that if they could convince a good senior
engineer to join their firm, the engineer’s team—his or her most talented