If their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men. (Acts 5:38-39, New International Version)
When I woke up this morning, I finally understood. It’s right there in the dedication to Extreme Ownership:
Dedicated to Marc Lee, Mike Monsoor, and Ryan Job— three courageous warriors, SEAL teammates, and friends— who valiantly wielded their big machine guns on the mean streets of Ramadi and laid down their lives so that others might live.
This is the source of everything that Leif Babin and Jocko Willink are doing with Echelon Front and all their Extreme Ownership activities. Because they live, they have debts to these dead brothers in arms. These are debts they can never pay back. They are paying them forward. This is what drives them. They will never hang up their Colts.
They are not bragging about this. It is easy to miss, or at least it was for me. I read the dedication and thought something like, “That’s nice!” Feeble words like “nice” have nothing to do with the motivation that drives these guys. At every step, maybe every breath, their dead friends walk with them. Not only that, they are part of a living brotherhood that is part of a family that is part of a community.
So my take on this is that Echelon Front is not just another startup driven by bright ideas and ambition. It is something else all together. Invest your money, your time, your life.