Can our mindset be strategic too?
The answer is “yes”.
Strategic attitude and mind-set does not mean laughing and dancing in front of the powerful with cunning tricks. The attitude and attitude here consist of two elements.
The first is cold reason based on facts. It is a cold objectivity that does not share happiness and joy.
Another is hope. It is a determined determination that the future will be positive. The stories of the two generals we are about to introduce clearly show the attitude of a true strategist.
Admiral Yi Sun-shin's strategist attitude
Admiral Yi Sun-shin received a lot of hatred and envy because of his upright character. The promotion was relegated. He was deprived of his merits and was stripped of his position. There were several times when he was harmed by refusing requests. Even the king, who believed in him, punished Yi Sun-shin for his crimes. Yi Sun-sin moved from one lowly managerial position to another, and eventually was called by King Seonjo and put into the frontlines only when the disadvantages of the Imjin War reached its peak.
More than 30% of troops starved to death or deserted due to poor harvests and plunder by the Japanese army. In this situation, Yi Sun-sin did not get frustrated in front of reality. However, I did not dream in vain that the king would save me or that heaven would help me.
Admiral Yi Sun-sin acknowledged the cold reality. In the middle of the day, they almost gave up on defending water transport. Rather, he was helpless enough to ask Yi Sun-sin for grain. The troops were ridiculously inferior compared to the Japanese army. He accepted all of this as it was. It couldn't have been a tough fight. However, Yi Sun-sin wrote to Seonjo as follows.
“The reason why the enemy did not dare to go directly to Hoseo and Honam for five or six years from the year of Imjin was because the naval force was holding down the road. Now, God still has twelve battleships, so if you fight hard enough, you can win. Now, if all the naval forces are abolished, this is considered fortunate by the enemies, and it is feared that they will reach the Han River via Hoseo. Although the front is few, the lowly god is not yet dead, and the enemy will not dare to despise us.”
(Self-sufficiency, five-six-year intervals賊所 以爲幸而由 湖右達於漢水 此臣之所恐也
Stockdale Paradox
On the other hand, the story of another general, Stockdale, began to be known through Jim Collins's famous book, From Good to Great. Also called “Stockdale Paradox”.
The reason why it is called a paradox is because of the “duality” of not losing faith in an unshakable future while accepting the harsh reality.
General Stockdale was a senior naval officer. During the Vietnam War, he was imprisoned for eight years, from 1965 to 1973. The rights of prisoners of war were not guaranteed and there was no set release date. I couldn't know the fate of my family, and my family couldn't know his life or death.
In an interview with Jim Collins, he said:
“I have never lost faith in the final ending. I never doubted in the slightest hope that I would be freed from there, but I would make a firm determination that I would go one step further and eventually succeed and turn that experience into a life story that I will never change in retrospect.”
Jim Corliss asked.
“Which of the many people in the camp did not survive?”
“It's simple. These are the “optimists”. I mean the people who used to say, "I'll be out by Christmas." Then Christmas comes, but it just passes by. Then they say “I’ll be out by Easter.” And Easter is over. Next Thanksgiving, then Christmas again. Then he gets heartbroken and downhearted, and eventually dies.”
Stockdale told his fellow prisoners of war camps. “We can't go out until Christmas. It could be 10 years or 20 years. Be prepared for that.”
Viktor Frankl - In the death camps
Victor Frankl, who left his classic book 《Man's Search for Meaning in the death camps》, actually lived in 4 Jewish concentration camps for 3 years and survived.
During the horrific Holocaust, he says, people without a strong sense of purpose in life collapsed from exhaustion. It is a story that touches on the Stockdale Paradox.
“People with a sense of purpose to find meaning in their lives and to discover greater meanings yet to come.”
This was a characteristic of those who endured in the death camps.
What makes strategic people different?
Those people were strategic even in their attitude and mindset. Not to mention the cold reason, he did not forget his hope for the future.
With this mindset this bookWith the tips from, I hope you'll soon be called a smart person too. And hurry up with the time and energy you've saved up Journey to Freedom of Independencehope to start
