I love you so, so much. Happy World Pride. Happy 50th Anniversary of Stonewall. This is a historic day. You should be so, so proud of yourself. I have thought a lot about what I wanted to say to all of you today. It’s been running through my head like a freight train. What is my intention? How can I inspire you? How can I inspire you the way that you’ve inspired me? How could I possibly portray my love for you? And the truth is, after a lot of thought, I came to this. Wow. Look around you. Look at what you have done. You deserve a round of applause. It makes me cry. I’m so emotional today. This community has fought and continued to fight a war of acceptance, a war of tolerance, and the most relentless bravery. You are the definition of courage. Do you know that? I feel so honored and privileged to even be asked to be here.
I feel that privilege and that honor because today what it truly is, is this is a celebration of all of you in every single way. Four million people in New York City to celebrate their pride. I may not to some people, some people, I may not even be considered a part of this community even though I like girls sometimes. I would never degrade the fight you have all endured, the adversity that you have all been through to truly be seen, to be heard, or the struggles that you’ve been through to love yourselves and to seek that love from other people. But, honestly, I really, really love you. You are strong. You are so strong. You welcomed me into your community in the most beautiful of ways that I will never forget. My whole life changed because of you. I’m trembling speaking to you. You’re making me nervous.
The universe brought us together in the spirit of kindness. And we together, we’re a powerhouse. And I hope, I really, really hope you celebrate every inch of who you are today. You were born this way and you’re super strong.
My mom’s here today. [‘Cynthia!] My Dad [Joe!]
I’m a New Yorker. The Germanottas are out in full force. We’re all here for you. And I thank you, mom, for running the Born This Way Foundation. I look at the older generation and how you have fought to create a safe, more tolerant space for our youth. It used to be unheard of to even come out of the closet or be expected in any way to declare who you are. But now, children at very young ages are saying, “Mommy or daddy, I’m gay. I’m a lesbian. Mommy or daddy, I’m Bi.” They’re saying, “Mommy or daddy. I’m not a girl. I’m a boy.” They’re saying, “I’m not a boy. I’m a girl.” They are telling their friends how to identify and speak to them. Many but not all, of course, are aware of their ability to discover and name their own sexual identities, their own gender identity, gender identities. They are finding themselves and they’re not as afraid, and you did that. You created that space.
So I have one question for you, are you ready? What is your pronoun? How do you prefer that I address you? You deserve to be addressed as you feel comfortable, respected, and loved. I could refer to you as the LGBTQ Plus Community, but then I would be missing so many people in between. I will continue to fight every day during shows, even when I’m not on stage, to spread a message that’s actually quite simple, be kind. And guess what? That kindness, it belongs to you and it always has belonged to you. Even when the world was not kind, it belonged to you. All the galaxies, stars, and even God, for me, I know, I know it all had your back. So today, and I hope every day, dance. Sing. Rejoice. Worship yourself, worship each other. Thank you, [inaudible 00:09:00] and Stonewall for producing this amazing tribute. Isn’t this amazing?
To the brave souls who came before us, Marsha P Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Harvey Milk, Audre Lord, and igniting the fight for all of us. It is said those who threw the first brick on that historic night were members of the trans community, and while we have made tremendous progress, we find ourselves also at a time where attacks on the trans community are on an increasing rise each day. I will not tolerate this. And guess what? I know neither will you. That distance, that distance between us and them, those who are not listening and who do not understand, that is the space for an important dialogue as a community and how we’ve all move forward together to change the system of an extremely oppressive administration.
And I know that you will not stop. You will never give up. And I know that because I’ve watched you closely for over a decade and I know that. You don’t back down. You don’t shrink into shame, although there are days sometimes that we all feel that way. Be bold and embrace the Stonewall legacy. Love each other, raise your voice and, my gosh, vote. Don’t forget to vote. If we keep injecting the world with this message of unity and passion, imagine where we’ll be in another 50 years from today. I will still be alive and I will still be here, if you’ll have me. I will always be there for you. We are real, real friends now. And I love you. I really love you. This is your freedom. This is your joy that you have deserved always. I will not stop in pursuit of this liberation. I wish to see no more homeless youth from this community.
I denounce ostracizing people for who they are. I wish for there to be mental health provided around the country to teach people the importance of kindness and passion. Every race, every religion, every color, every age, there must be five generations here today, every kind, you are it. You have the power and you are so, so powerful. And I hope you feel that power today. You are the ultimate power and you have never been so visible in the world and that beautiful light and that rainbow is shining all around you. Stand in it, basket, allow yourself to glow on it as we grow up. Just take that spotlight that belongs to you. This, this is my mothership. And you are my leaders and I will follow you. And I surrender, I surrender to all hatred, because you know what? I will kill it with kindness. True love, true, true love is when you would take a bullet for someone and you know that I would take a bullet for you any day of the week. Thank you again. I truly, truly love you and thank you for inviting me. I feel so blessed. Go celebrate yourselves.
Happy Pride.
Jocko Willink: 'Take ownership, take extreme ownership', TEDx Nevada - 2017
27 April 2017, University of Nevada, Nevada USA
War Is a nightmare. War is awful. It is indifferent, and devastating and evil. War is hell, But war is also an incredible teacher. A brutal teacher. And it teaches you lessons that you will not forget. In war you are forced to see humanity at its absolute worst, and you are also blessed to see humanity in its most glorious moments. War teaches you about sorrow and loss and pain, and it teaches you about the preciousness and the fragility of human life. And in that fragility, war teaches you about death. But war also teaches you about brotherhood, and honour, and humility and leadership. And unfortunately war teaches you the most when things go wrong. And for me, one of the most impactful lessons that I learned from war was in the spring of 2006 In the city of Ramadi Iraq, which at the time was the epicentre of the insurgency. Where brutal and determined terrorists ruled the streets, with torture, and rape, and murder. And it was in one neighbourhood of that city, during an operation that I was in charge of when all hell broke loose, We had had multiple units out on the battlefield, fighting the enemy. We had friendly Iraqi soldiers. We had US Army soldiers and US Marines along with small elements of my Seal team.
And then the fog of war rolled in, with its confusion and chaos and mayhem, and with its gunfire and enemy attacks and screaming men and blood and death. And in that fog of war, through a series of mistakes and human error and poor judgement and Murphy's law and just plain bad luck, a horrendous fire fight broke out. But this fire fight, it wasn't between us and the enemy. This fire fight, tragically was between us and us. Friendly forces against friendly forces, fratricide, the mortal sin of combat and the most horrific part of war. And when it was over and the fog of war lifted, one friendly Iraqi soldier was dead, two more were wounded, one of my men was wounded and the rest of my Seals were badly shaken . And it was only through a miracle that no one else was killed. And it was reported up the chain of command what had happened. That we had fought and wounded and killed each other. And when we got back to base things didn't get much better. There was a message waiting for me from my commanding officer. And it said, 'shut down all operations'. It said that the commanding officer, the master chief and the investigating officer were inbound to my location.
And they told me to prepare a debrief to explain exactly what had happened on the operation, and what had gone wrong. Now, I knew what this meant. It meant that somebody had to pay. It meant that somebody had to be held accountable. It meant that somebody had to get fired for what had happened. So I began to prepare my debrief, and in it I detailed every mistake that was made and who made it. And I pointed out every failure in the planning and the preparation and the execution in the operation. And I pointed out who was responsible for that failure. There was plenty of blame to go around. There were so many people that I could incriminate with guilt, but something wasn't right. For some reason, I just couldn't put my finger on who was at fault and who specifically I should blame for what had happened. And I sat and I went over it again and again, and I struggled for an answer. And then when I was about 10 minutes from starting the debrief, that answer came and it hit me like a slap in the face. And I realised that there was only one person to blame for the confusion, only one person to blame for the wounded men and only one person to blame for the dead Iraqi soldier. And I knew exactly who that person was.
And with that knowledge, I walked into the debriefing room with my commanding officer and the master chief and the investigating officer were sitting there waiting for me along with the rest of my men, including my Seal that had been wounded, who was sitting in the back of the room with his head and his face all bandaged up. And I stood up before them and I asked them one simple question, 'Whose fault was this?' One of my Seals raised his hand. And he said, 'it was my fault. I didn't keep control of the Iraqi soldiers I was with. And they left their designated sector and that was the root of all these problems'. And I said, no, it wasn't your fault. And then another Seal raised his hand and said, 'it was my fault. I didn't pass our location over the radio fast enough. So no one knew what building we were in. And that's what caused all this confusion. It was my fault.' And I said, 'no, it wasn't your fault either'. And then another Seal raised his hand. And he said, 'Boss, this was my fault. I didn't properly identify my target. And I shot and killed that friendly Iraqi soldier. This was my fault.' And I said, 'no, this wasn't your fault either. And it wasn't yours or yours or yours. I said, as I pointed to the rest of the seals in the room. '
And then I told them that there was only one person at fault for what had happened. There was only one person to blame. And that person was me. I am the commander. I am the senior man on the battlefield and I am responsible for everything that happens. Everything. And then I went on to explain to them some new tactics, techniques, and procedures that we were going to implement to ensure that this kind of travesty never happened again. And I will tell you something, it hurt, It hurt my ego. It hurt my pride to take the blame. But I also knew I knew that to maintain my integrity as a leader and as a man, I had to take responsibility. And in order to do that, I had to control my ego so that my ego did not control me. And you know what? I didn't get fired. In fact, my commanding officer, who had expected excuses and finger pointing, when I took responsibility, when I took ownership, he now trusted me even more.
And my men, they didn't lose respect for me. Instead, they realised that I would never shirk responsibility and I would never pass that heavy burden of command down the chain and onto them. And you know what? They had the same attitude. Unlike a team where no one takes ownership of the problems and therefore the problems never get solved, with us, everyone took ownership of their mistakes. Everyone took ownership of the problems. And when in a team takes ownership of its problems, the problems get solved. And that is true on the battlefield. It is true in business and it is true in life.
So I say, take ownership, take extreme ownership. Don't make excuses, don't blame any other person or any other thing, Get control of your ego. Don't hide your delicate pride from the truth. Take ownership of everything in your world, the good and the bad, Take ownership of your mistakes. Take ownership of your shortfalls, take ownership of your problems, and then take ownership of the solutions that will get those problems solved. Take ownership of your mission. Take ownership of your job, of your team, of your future and take ownership of your life
And lead. Lead, Lead yourself and your team and the people in your life. Lead them all.
To victory.
Thank you.