WAY OF THE WARRIOR KID

Best damn kids book I ever read. Picked it up for one of my younger relatives and gave it a quick read just in case I needed to review the literature with him, and 5 out of 5. I’m prior enlisted and served 4 years in the Navy (Hooyah) and my opinions may be biased (which they definitely are) but Mr. Jocko Willink, part of the upper echelon of our distinguished military organization created a fine work of literature to offer a bit of guidance to the aspiring youth of not just our country, but the world. He’s a former Navy Seal (among other things like a practiciner of jiu-jitsu) and you can follow him on his YouTube channel where you can catch his podcast along with his co-host Echo Charles. It’s good shit. Some people have never experienced what real leadership is firsthand and as most should know, the realest examples of leadership come when your backs against the wall and you have other lives depending on you. Jocko of course has done this and he’s experienced war and he knows what battle is like. Have I ever experienced battle during my service, “not like him”. But, in a sense. I was put in many situations when I had to lead and battles come in many shapes and sizes and sometimes one of the biggest battles we can face is being the best we can for the people around us. Teamwork is a common practice in the military, everyone has a job to do and were each relying on one another to do that specific job. And Im proud to say I served along the sides of real men and women that hold themselves to higher standards and not just for themselves but to be of better service. My youth had its ups and downs and even then as a kid growing up I could feel a real lack of structure in my life and I had to seek it out for myself, a better structure that is. And if I had read Way of the Warrior Kid growing up it probably would’ve saved me years of frustration so Im very thankful a book like this exist. The main character is a run of the mill little kid whose going through the things a young boy commonly does as he begins navigating his way through school. He has to deal with his classwork, a bully, and his overall self esteem and as the weight of the world as he sees is crushing him his Uncle Jake shows up for the summer and gets him squared the f*** away. There was a lot of times I found myself laughing out loud because unless you were in the military you probably would not understand just how much of a real effort Uncle Jake was instilling the same values men he’d probably admired himself had given him. But I digress, good book, would definitely recommend and in conclusion, freedom is not free and as Jocko would say “discipline equals freedom”. God Bless America 🇺🇸

-Jonte Ross