When Jim Collins met James Stockdale to research his book, he was surprised to learn that it wasn’t just optimism that helped the Vietnam veteran endure torture at the hands of his captors, but also, to paraphrase Stockdale, unabashed discipline. [1]
“[The optimists] died of a broken heart,” replied Stockdale when asked who didn’t make it out of the camp alive. “They were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to out by Christmas. And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again.”
Stockdale paused and then returned to Collins to deliver his most important lesson,
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” [2]
Collins calls this the Stockdale Paradox.
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We all experience setbacks in life and work, unforeseen obstacles that are neither fair nor just. But as we’ve seen from the likes of James Stockdale or Sheryl Sandberg, it’s not enough to rest on our laurels. Faith alone won’t move mountains. Paradoxically, accepting what is, at face value, as pragmatic as it may be, won’t further our cause either.
Indeed, in times of struggle, we must foster an unbridled self-belief that things will improve one day, somehow, but at the same time, accept that that day might be far off beyond our current field of vision. Only by hoping for the best but preparing for the worst can we perceive our problems with greater objectivity and keep a calm and level head.
Footnotes
[1] Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins.
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