About two weeks ago I got the terrible news that my grandfather is very sick and that he is currently in the hospital. This shocked me a lot, even more than what I thought it would. And the worst part is that my grandfather had been sick way before anyone told me. In my mind everything was okay until one day they come to me with the sudden unfortunate news. They probably thought that it would be too distressing if I knew so early on, but I realize it was the complete opposite. By not creating an environment where the truth is heard, it became much more difficult to confront the brutal facts.
That is precisely what I want to talk about, the simple yet powerful concept of confronting the brutal facts. It’s a concept that recently came to my attention ever since reading the book Good to Great by Jim Collins. Though in the book it applies the concept as an ingredient towards companies that become great, I have been able to quickly relate to it in my personal life. In order to understand it easily, I have divided this concept into three parts that each build into each other. The order of the parts goes like this: creating an environment where the truth is heard → digesting the brutal facts → confronting the brutal facts (Stockdale Paradox). Essentially, the purpose of confronting the brutal facts, according to Jim Collins, gives direction to companies by forcing them to see the overwhelming conditions of their current reality, whatever they may be. But right here there is another problem, that brutal facts don’t motivate people. So how do you motivate people with brutal facts without making them lose hope? According to Collins, by simply creating an environment where the truth is heard. Though he explains it in much more detail, he essentially tries to explain how the truth is much more effective than bringing false hopes. Just like it happened to me, when people don't know the conditions of their current reality, they cannot act toward change and eventually the truth will be leaked out and trust me that the sudden truth will hit hard. In my case I was hit with the truth really hard, but at least now I can't ignore it. And that is the next part to take into account in this concept: confronting the brutal facts (Stockdale Paradox). The first part to it is to maturely accept your current reality and get the elephant out of the room. Eventually you can't ignore the fact that there is a huge problem in your life that you simply can’t keep ignoring. That part wasn’t mentioned in the book but I think it was important to mention. The next, even harder step is dealing with the problem. There is no formula to solve all problems in life because they are all different, but Collins does have a great way to tackle most of these problems and he calls it the Stockdale Paradox. It refers to the highest- ranking US military officer called Jim Stockdale. He was a prisoner of war for eight years during the Vietnam War. With no prisoner rights and tortured over twenty times he never knew if he would ever make it out alive. He did great things for the other prisoners as well such as devising a system of secret communication between them, but most importantly he never lost faith that he would get out. At that moment during their conversation, Collins asked Stockdale "Who didn’t make it out?" and Stockdale replied “The optimists”. Confused, Collins asked why and Stockdale responded “The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be 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 it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.” This paradox completely defies what I ever thought of confronting problems. Now, this paradox doesn’t say to be pessimistic, no, it simply tells you to be realistic and that’s the beauty about it. Regarding my grandfather, I guess that is just how life is. We age with the passage of time and along with it our minds and bodies weaken until death comes to us. That will always be one of life's most brutal facts. I don’t know when or how, but my grandfather is going to die and I will enjoy every second I am with him until such event comes to be.
1 Comment
Bon
2/29/2016 07:27:59 am
Nico, this is a well-written post. You've used the anecdote to introduce a purposeful concept. Indeed this is a crucial aspect of life. By default we're often likely to discard the brutal facts but all that does is make us complacent. On the other if we seek greatness we must get out of that comfort zone and Stockdale can teach us a lot on that matter. Great to see you're benefitting from this book. Keep it up.
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