Jocko on Running for President | Jocko Willink & Dr. Andrew Huberman

00:00:00.000 | I'm almost hesitant to ask this question, but I'm going to do it anyway.

00:00:09.160 | Many times online, you are asked whether or not you will run for office.

00:00:14.600 | And I want to say that I think it's a true compliment.

00:00:18.880 | I don't think people are asking just to kind of entertain themselves.

00:00:21.840 | I think that this country certainly and a lot of the world is desperate for certain

00:00:27.840 | kinds of leaders and people that have experience in high-risk, high-consequence, chaotic situations

00:00:32.800 | and have shown prowess at leadership in multiple domains.

00:00:37.000 | And you are certainly one of those individuals.

00:00:40.920 | And so they ask for that reason, among others.

00:00:44.160 | And I've heard you give your answer.

00:00:46.240 | You can repeat it again here.

00:00:48.120 | But as a more broad theme that I think people are interested in, do you think it's an important

00:00:56.020 | criteria or it would be great to see people in positions of leadership who've had wartime

00:01:03.360 | experience?

00:01:04.360 | And do you think that some of the shifts that we've seen in terms of patterns of leadership

00:01:09.480 | over the last-- let's just make it real broad so that this isn't related to any particular

00:01:14.200 | person or stretch of history.

00:01:16.040 | But over the last, let's just say, 25 years, reflect the fact that we haven't seen a lot

00:01:20.540 | of that, at least at the top tiers of leadership.

00:01:23.440 | Yeah, I think it'd be excellent if people-- if the president had military experience,

00:01:30.620 | for sure.

00:01:31.620 | I think that then they understand with the way the military works better.

00:01:36.160 | They understand that it's civilians that control the military, because a lot of times people

00:01:41.300 | that are civilians don't understand that the civilians control the military.

00:01:45.140 | And I think that you do get to appreciate what war actually is and what the costs are.

00:01:54.020 | I think that I've seen, in the same vein of people asking me to run for political office,

00:02:02.500 | I've seen comments saying, oh, that's what we need, a warmonger in office.

00:02:08.900 | And I've responded to a few of those.

00:02:10.900 | I think if there's any group of people that don't want war, it's people that have seen

00:02:15.900 | it, people that understand what the sacrifices are.

00:02:20.900 | And I think that being in the military, people understand that better.

00:02:27.300 | So yeah, I think it'd be a great qualification.

00:02:29.540 | I don't think it's mandatory.

00:02:30.540 | I mean, clearly it's not.

00:02:31.860 | We've had a bunch of presidents that haven't ever served anything-- really, we've had a

00:02:36.220 | bunch of presidents that haven't ever served anything but themselves.

00:02:39.740 | So yeah, hopefully we'll get some more people that have some experience in the military,

00:02:45.660 | some combat experience would be especially nice.

00:02:49.260 | And that would be good, in my opinion.

00:02:51.660 | Well, I'm certainly not one to tell people what to do, and I'm certainly not going to

00:02:55.660 | tell you what to do.

00:02:56.660 | But should you ever choose to run, I would certainly be very enthusiastic about that.

00:03:01.940 | And I will just say that with that stated, I hope people do hear what you just said.

00:03:08.260 | I share that sentiment.

00:03:10.180 | People who have led others besides themselves, I think, is the key statement there.

00:03:14.660 | Yeah, and look, I have friends that are politicians, and I really appreciate what they're doing.

00:03:21.580 | And it looks miserable to me.

00:03:23.580 | I don't like what I-- good for them.

00:03:27.060 | I'm happy that they're in there trying to make a difference.

00:03:31.340 | And I guess this is me being selfish of me saying, look, I don't think I could stomach

00:03:35.980 | that.

00:03:36.980 | But I also think that right now, I'm trying to help out-- like, for instance, we have,

00:03:44.140 | obviously, you've got the Leadership and Consulting International on front.

00:03:46.300 | We're trying to help businesses grow.

00:03:47.940 | I've got OriginUSA.

00:03:49.980 | We're bringing manufacturing back to America.

00:03:52.100 | We've got 400 and 450 employees right now that are here in America working and growing

00:03:58.660 | that business.

00:03:59.660 | Obviously, the supplements-- so everything that I'm doing here right now is to try and

00:04:06.580 | move the needle with America bringing manufacturing back, helping the economy as much as I can

00:04:13.660 | right now.

00:04:14.660 | So that's kind of what I'm doing right now.

00:04:17.380 | And my standard answer, which you alluded to, is if things got bad enough, then I would

00:04:25.300 | do what I had to do.

00:04:28.100 | But I don't think people appreciate my level of bad.

00:04:31.540 | I'm talking real bad.

00:04:33.960 | So it's not there yet.

00:04:35.420 | And hopefully, it never will get there.

00:04:37.380 | I'd rather surf and hang out with my friends and hang out with my family than do that.

00:04:44.020 | And hopefully, America can find some level of balance.

00:04:49.820 | I think that's the problem that we're having right now.

00:04:52.580 | And a lot of these things that you talked about-- specifically, the thing you talk about

00:04:56.100 | on social media is not very good for political balance.

00:05:00.700 | It's actually horrible for political balance, and a lot of it has to do with just the way

00:05:04.820 | that those conversations are had.

00:05:06.220 | A lot of it has to do with ego as well, because I don't ever want to admit that I'm wrong

00:05:11.560 | about anything.

00:05:13.360 | And if I can find something that I think you might be wrong about, it's so satisfying to

00:05:18.820 | my ego to just call you out on that thing and attack you.

00:05:22.460 | And I think that's what a lot of people are doing right now.

00:05:24.420 | Now, that being said, also, I also usually say this as well.

00:05:28.420 | I travel around the country all the time.

00:05:29.760 | I work with companies of all sizes, work with people in every different industry, and they're

00:05:34.100 | not sitting around arguing with each other about the political scenery.

00:05:41.140 | They're talking about, hey, how can we grow our business?

00:05:42.800 | How can we take care of our workers?

00:05:43.940 | How can we take care of our clients?

00:05:44.940 | How can we take care of our customer?

00:05:46.580 | That's what people are focused on.

00:05:48.300 | And when you jump on social media, you can get sucked into the political scene very easily.

00:05:55.680 | And that being said, also, we do have to pay attention, because we as citizens have to

00:06:03.060 | make sure that America stays on the correct path, within the guardrails of what this country

00:06:12.860 | is based on.

00:06:14.200 | So we do have to pay attention, but I will be doing my part as a civilian until there's

00:06:21.040 | total mayhem and chaos in the streets, then I'll probably just be a benevolent dictator

00:06:25.920 | that takes over.

00:06:26.920 | [LAUGHTER]

00:06:27.920 | That should be an interesting one, but, hey, you would be the man to lead under any conditions.

00:06:32.220 | But thank you for stating your threshold.

00:06:34.920 | Certainly you've earned the right to make whatever decision is that feels right for

00:06:37.920 | you.

00:06:38.920 | And I want to say that I agree.

00:06:40.120 | I feel like we are a country that still includes a ton of generators and a ton of projectors

00:06:44.780 | that are interested in projecting the good and growing the good.

00:06:47.680 | I do believe both those phenotypes are important.

00:06:51.200 | [MUSIC PLAYING]

Jocko on Running for President | Jocko Willink & Dr. Andrew Huberman

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