The Pocket with Chris Griffin #112: Chris Petkas: Why The Most Dangerous Men Are The Most Calm
Nov 21, 2025
Chris Petkas, a former Navy SEAL turned VC investor, discusses the importance of calmness and resilience in facing life's challenges. He explains why calm men can be the most dangerous and how military training fosters composure in chaotic situations. Petkas also emphasizes naivety as a superpower for starting difficult endeavors and argues that choosing a partner is the biggest risk in life. He shares insights on humility, learning through losses in jiu-jitsu, and contrasts the ambitious American mindset with Australia's tall-poppy culture.
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Calm Comes From Conditioning
- Military training widens your emotional center by conditioning you to control chaos through repeated exposure to stressors.
- That conditioning makes highly trained people unusually calm in real crises because they operate in a familiar flow state.
Naivety As A Starting Superpower
- Naivety is a necessary superpower for starting hard things because it lets you begin without full knowledge of the cost.
- Repeated failures build a trash pile you climb on to success, but humility matters more than celebrating failure itself.
Assess Real Downside, Not Imagined Catastrophe
- Evaluate the real downside before refusing risk and accept only what you can tolerate to make risk tenable.
- Remember most failures mainly bruise the ego and can be recovered from through work and rebuilding.
