Why Is The Stockdale Paradox So Important For You?
Do you want to die of a broken heart? Good, I didn't think so. Then you want to learn about the power of what Admiral James Stockdale learned as a prisoner during the Vietnam War.
It's called the Stockdale Paradox, and it might be the most important thing you'll need to get through the tough times ahead. I'll explain what the Stockdale Paradox is and why it's so important this short video.
Read The Video Transcript Below:
Do you know who Admiral James Stockdale was? To me, he might be one of the most important people that we need to know about right now at this time with what we're dealing with, with everything going on in the world. And that's what this video is about today. It's about James Stockdale and something really important that bears his name and it's the Stockdale paradox.
Now, what's the Stockdale Paradox? I'm going to read it to you. I have a little card here with it because it's so important. I look at this car just about every day and here it goes:
"I am certain I will prevail in the end regardless of the difficulties I face and I am confronting the most brutal facts of my current reality, whatever they might be."
That's the Stockdale Paradox. Now, why is this so important? Well, it goes back to what Stockdale went through in his life.
He was a prisoner during the Vietnam War, I think at the infamous Hanoi Hilton. He was an Admiral in the US Navy, and he came up with this philosophy as a way to get through what he had to get through. And, if you think about all of us right now, all of us self isolating, staying at home, all of that stuff that we have to deal with, being away from people, it's hard, and it's kind of like we're prisoners now.
It's not as bad as being a prisoner of war during the Vietnam war, mind you, but it's not fun. And it's hard. And it's painful. And it's difficult. And our businesses are suffering. And if we're raising money, it's difficult to raise money right now.
But this idea of merging realism with optimism, which is really what Stockdale's message is all about. This combination of, "Hey, what we're doing with right now sucks. There is no doubt about it, but we can be optimistic that better times are ahead." And this is something that Stockdale probably couldn't do, but we can do. We can take advantage of the time that we have right now to improve things in our business that maybe we couldn't during normal operations. That's the idea.
So think about all the things that you can improve. Maybe your sales operations you can improve? Maybe it's your internal operations? Maybe it's your communication with your team? Whatever it is, use this time].
Don't be woes me. Don't be saying how horrible life is. Don't die of a broken heart. That's what Stockdale said. killed the prisoners during the Vietnam War. He said the ones that survived were the ones that didn't die of a broken heart. That didn't say there each Christmas time, "Oh, it's Christmas and I'm going to be home by Christmas." Those are the ones that died for broken heart. We don't want to die of broken hearts here. We want to get through this. We want to be real about what's going on, but we know better times are ahead. I'm Brett at brettjfox.com have a great, great day.