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Why You Need Disciplined Optimism
Years ago I read “Conquer The Chaos,” the new book by Infusionsoft founders Clate Mask and Scott Martineau.
Chapter 5 is called Disciplined Optimism, which is right up my alley! I’ve been a competitor my entire life and I was always the quiet one in the corner mentally rehearsing my roles and responsibilities, thinking through the plays, the opponents and how I would crush them as soon as the whistle blew.
Meanwhile, there was always one or two or five who would hoop and holler, shout and jump and run around high-fiving everyone, slapping them on the backside and getting themselves psyched-up (I guess). These were the same guys that would hang their head down low as soon as the opponent busted through for a big gain or scored early or laid a shoulder into one of our guys for a good hit.
Surround Yourself With Likeminded Professionals
Back then I couldn’t distance myself from these loud ones because they were on my team. Today I can and I do put quite a bit of distance between myself and the crazy-happies.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not some “half-empty” kind of guy wandering around thinking the sky is falling. Quite the contrary. Things are great on the other end of this computer screen and have actually never been better. They are really good for me now because of Disciplined Optimism that has given me the strength and the fortitude to prepare for and persevere through the rough times that have befallen us today and will last for many years to come.
The Stockdale Paradox
In Conquer the Chaos Clate and Scott refer to the Stockdale Paradox, a name given to Admiral James Stockdale by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great. Stockdale spent seven years as a prisoner of war during Vietnam and won a Medal of Honor for his efforts resisting the North Vietnamese communists.
As Collins was interviewing Stockdale he asked him who were the P.O.W.s that didn’t make it home from the Hanoi Hilton. “Oh, that’s easy,” said Stockdale, “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 Thanksiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”
Faith and Disciplined Action
Stockdale concluded with, “This is a very important lesson. 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” (Collins 2001, 84-86) (Mask, Martineau, 2010, 81-81).
What brutal facts have you been ignoring? Are sales trending down? Is competition up? Are sales cycles growing longer? Are your salespeople making more excuses than appointments? Are you not generating enough leads from your website, trade shows, ads, etc? Are you wasting money on marketing that is not producing a measurable, positive ROI?
Contrary to what my good friend Dione at Impact Marketing will tell you, I’m not a pessimist. I just call ’em like I see ’em. You and I can prevail in the end if we focus on our current reality.
If you need a little boost in that area check out the Market Like a Man program.
If you need more help growing your sales, check out the following resources scattered around this site and a few others I operate, such as:
Good Selling,
