kate
Admin
Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 1891
Location: Upstate, New York
|
 Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 2:59 am Post subject: |
 |
|
great analogy directorblue
snip from from the link (worth a visit)... from Jim Collins' conversation with Admiral Stockdale.
| Quote: | You can understand, then, my anticipation at the prospect of spending part of an afternoon with Stockdale...
...we continued the slow walk toward the faculty club, Stockdale limping and arc-swinging his stiff leg that had never fully recovered from repeated torture. Finally, after about a hundred meters of silence, I asked, "Who didn't make it out?"
"Oh, that's easy," he said, "The optimists."
"The optimists? I don't understand," I said...
"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 Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart."
Another along pause... he turned to me and said, "This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith 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 may be."
To this day, I carry a mental image of Stockdale admonishing the optimists: "We're not getting out by Christmas, deal with it!" |
(Collins coined 'The Stockdale Paradox' in his book Good to Great)
_________________
.
one of..... We The People |
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
