EMBRACING DUALITY- WHY STARTUPS SHOULD ADOPT ‘LEFT-WING OPTIMISM’ AND BUILD FOR RESILIENCE
According to Admiral James Stockdale, an eight-year POW (Prisoner of War) at a Vietnamese camp who defied all reasonable odds from personal survival to creating conditions that would increase the number of prisoners who would survive unbroken- enforcing a code of conduct which included torture, secret communications and behavior, while fighting an internal war against his captors and their attempts to use the prisoners for propaganda, he said “the prisoners with the slimmest chance of survival were the ‘Optimists’ — prisoners who believed they’d be out by Christmas or Easter, which never happened, then they eventually died out of broken heartedness”. Indeed, Admiral James was an optimist by himself who believed at the time, that he was fighting a worthy cause which would later earn him a place in military decorations as well as a dramatic reunion with his loving wife, but he was a different kind — One who confronted the daunting realities around him and somehow devised a brute-force, highly-spirited mechanism to build an unwavering faith. The difference between James and the ‘Optimists’ was that James is what we refer to as an Indefinite Optimist (left wing) and the latter were Definite Optimists (right wing).
Fast forward to today, where we live in a highly complex (with an influx of black swan events), ever so uncertain, and polarised world with individuals and institutions, who on the one hand, have confronted the brutal facts about their realities and are overwhelmed by them, causing them to recluse to a state of pessimism and negativity, and on the other hand, those who have a skewed perception of their reality but are flag bearers and cheerleaders of an utopia that they’d very much love to live in, i posit that startups which are able to reach an equilibrium on this dual scenario, will not only survive the times but come out stronger. The indefinite/left wing optimists are those that have an acute grasp of the realities around them — from macro economic ripple effects, to regulations to competitors to market changes to technology disruptions, and yet, are able to have a tight grip on the end game along with a resolution to work their way up — from business remodelling and organisational culture, to lay offs and hiring, to downsizing and acquiring, to exits and expansions.
Albeit, startups that are a sucker for building decade-long metrics as against settling for quarterly reports, startups that are able to lead by the business case- Asking the right questions, conducting autopsies and engaging in needful dialogues, are those that will constantly lead at the edge of chaos.
“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” — James Stockdale.
