Book Review: Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

Book Review: #1 New York Times bestselling book, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging — Written by Sebastian Junger.


What’s the book about? Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, Tribe explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning.


Who is this book for? Military Personnel, Veterans, Community leaders and students of social studies.


Book Review — Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging

It’s been a few weeks since I completed Extreme Ownership on my kindle. In the meantime, I’ve now had the opportunity to reflect upon the lessons and concepts of the book and give you my thoughts on this leadership guide. For the regular readers here at Capable Men, you’ll be familiar with at least one of the co-authors of this book who has frequently featured in some of our most recent work.

Jocko Willink is the main man at one of our favourite podcasts on the internet today – The Jocko Podcast. (If you haven’t listened to this yet, you’re missing out on something special!) The co-author of this book, who is not quite as well known is Leif Babin. Leif is also a former Navy SEAL officer, A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Leif served thirteen years in the Navy, including nine as a Navy SEAL. As a SEAL platoon commander in SEAL Team Three’s Task Unit Bruiser, he planned and led major combat operations in the Battle of Ramadi alongside Jocko back in 2006.


About the book:

Author: Sebastian Junger

Genre: Anthropology

Jocko Willink served as a Navy SEAL for twenty years. He fought in the Iraq War. For his efforts during the Battle of Ramadi and throughout his career, he was awarded numerous medals including the Silver Star and the Bronze Star. When Willink returned home, he served as a Navy SEAL instructor. Jocko retired from the Navy in 2010 and launched Echelon Front with Leif Babin. He uses his expertise to teach leadership beyond the military and serves as an executive coach. He is the author, along with Leif Babin, of Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead and Win.

 

Who should read this book?

    • Community Leaders
    • Military Personnel / Veterans
    • Students of Social Studies

Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary. It’s time for that to end

— Sebastian Junger

Principles:

The premise of this book is simple. A fundamental guide to leadership principles (No theories, only battle-tested lessons) that have proven to be the most effective method to lead teams at an elite level in a high-stakes environment. The book explores the fundamental flaws of human psychology and how emotions and ego are often the culprits of poor leadership decisions.

Extreme Ownership breaks down each principle into its own chapter that is furthermore broken down into 3 sections.

      1. A story of a challenge that was undertaken by the Navy SEALs in Iraq under the leadership of Jocko or Leif.
      2. Summary of the principle and the lesson(s) learned from the aforementioned challenge.
      3. How this principle can apply to a business environment (Shown through examples of Jocko & Leif’s leadership company Echelon Front, where they serve as leadership instructors/coaches for prominent businesses.