LEAD LIKE A MARINE

A business-leadership manifesto full of gung-ho bluster along with a few useful pointers.

Mr. Grenade is not your friend: The old Army saying is true, but it’s an admonition that translates only metaphorically to civilian life. Marines (for there’s no ex-Marine, it’s said) Warren and Thompson try a few such metaphors, and they make for often awkward fits. The authors take some of their business pointers from their own experiences running a real estate finance firm (and now chasing the will-o’-the-wisp of cryptocurrency), peppering those pointers with sometimes-gruesome scenes from firefights and violent ambushes in Iraq. Mix up the two, and here’s what you get: “At the end of the day, we would kill fifty to one hundred insurgents without losing a single Marine. How did we do it? While we had some good fortune, the key factor was the leadership choices, discipline, and habits we’d developed over months and years.” For all the battlefront bravado, the authors offer some helpful advice. Just as Marines favor someone with the right mindset for combat and the willingness to learn, they counsel, bosses shouldn’t worry overmuch about a high-ticket college degree or even a degree at all, and the authors’ urging would-be leaders to “do everything for a reason” is worth keeping in mind. Still, there’s a certain sameness to every business and self-help book by former Delta Force gunners, SEALs, snipers, and, yes, Marines. For all the talk of speaking bluntly, clarifying the mission, allowing decision-making to take place at the lowest echelons, and being last in line at the mess hall, this one doesn’t really stand out above pack.

A mix of Napoleon Hill and Napoleon Bonaparte—or Lee Ermey, anyway—that doesn’t quite mesh.