Brian Johnson starts his morning with 90-minute deep work blocks, 77 burpees, and writes "be worthy" as his top commitment. He draws on Navy SEAL culture, Peter Drucker, and Jim Collins to argue that leadership starts with earning it every day, in yourself first.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome Back to another Heroic Plus One. I'm typing this on a Monday morning. It's 8:31am Central Time and I'm 1 hour and 22 minutes into what will be the first of at least three 90 minute deep work sessions for the day. I'm channeling some Peter Drucker wisdom today and creating a large quantum of time, in this case a day to create a bunch of plus one so I can get ahead. And before my schedule goes back to being packed with travel and keynotes, workshops, fundraising and other fun stuff, I'm also channeling some Bob Rotello wisdom. He once told LeBron James that he needed to find the time and find the energy to master a certain aspect of his game. That's what I'm thinking of as I continue to create these + ones and philosopher's notes while continuing to lead our heroic public benefit corporations do all the other things I feel called to do. By the way, check out our notes on Drucker's the Effective Executive and Rotella's How Champions Think for more on both of those ideas. And shout out to my right hand guy Michael and his team for doing what they do so I can do what I do. Teamwork makes the dream work. Love y'. All. So I just banged out a set of 11 burpees, bringing my total for the morning to 77. Now I often have a mantra for a set of burpees. For that set, I silently said to myself, be worthy, be worthy, be worthy, be worthy, be worthy, be worthy, be worthy. Yeah, we're doing our wraps. Be worthy, be worthy, be worthy, be worthy. 11 burpees. After finishing the set, I grabbed the dry erase marker from my desk and wrote be worthy right next to vow, which was the subject of that recent plus one on the top of my whiteboard. And that's my number one commitment to you and to all of those I am blessed to serve. Fun Facts Every time I think of being worthy, I think of Confucius, Navy SEALs and Jim Collins. In his Analects, Confucius said, and I quote, the Master said he does not mind not being in office. All he minds about is whether he has qualities that entitle him to office. He does not mind failing to get recognition. He is too busy doing the things that entitle him to recognition. And one of my most prized possessions is a gift I received from my dear friend Mike Magaritchi. Maggs was the Force Master Chief of Naval Special Warfare. He retired as the Director of Mentorship for Naval Special Warfare and after spending some time together years ago, he gave me the card Navy Seals get after completing Hell Week. It's the first thing I see every single time I open my wallet. The card says earn your Trident every day. In other words, be worthy. Then there's Jim Collins. Collins is my favorite strategic thinker and I still need to do notes on all of his great books. In Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0, probably my all time favorite book of his, he tells us that a great leader is both fiercely ambitious and equally humble. And that's today's plus one. Let's recommit to being worthy of leading ourselves, our families, and our communities. Today. Day one all in. Let's go.
