Posts Tagged ‘courage’

Today is the Feast of Crispian – Steel yourself and never give up!

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

Kenneth Branagh as Henry V

This day is called the Feast of Crispian. For nearly 600 years, October 25th has been an annual shout out to the underdog; for those with insufficient resources, already exhausted from the slog, yet happily steeling themselves for another round of battle, hoping against hope for success.

That’s life in any technology start-up and we have excellent historical company in this seemingly hopeless pursuit of victory despite insurmountable odds.

At the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, a vastly outnumbered and nearly exhausted English force led by King Henry V defeated the heavily armored and well-rested veteran French army of nearly fifty thousand. The French nobles led the attack with hubris, fully expecting a brief and glorious rout of their English foes. Using a shrewd, rapid sequence of longbow and hand-to-hand tactics, Henry’s Englishmen took aim at the lumbering French mounted nobility. This left the remaining French foot soldiers in disarray, arguing with each other about the next move, while the English continued to wreak havoc. On October 25, 1415, the English won the battle. They lost only five hundred men while the French suffered massive casualties. It was more than a victory. It was a crushing blow by a tiny force of unyielding soldiers.

Shakespeare created a rousing motivational speech in which Harry the King exhorts his tired English troops on the morning before this historic battle. It’s one of my favorite speeches in all of Shakespeare’s plays. Every startup has moments like this – a tiny team pitted against giant, well funded adversaries; yet somehow that small band musters up the courage to press onward and win the day. We few, we happy few, we band of entrepreneurs, today is the Feast of Crispian – Steel yourself and never give up!

Enjoy Kenneth Branagh’s perfect performance of this soliloquy (…and check out the obvious inspiration for Mel Gibson’s rallying cry in Braveheart filmed six years later…)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRj01LShXN8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

For those without a multimedia setup, read the glorious Shakespeare text here…and happy St. Crispin’s day!

GLOUCESTER
Where is the king?

BEDFORD
The king himself is rode to view their battle.

WESTMORELAND
Of fighting men they have full three score thousand.

EXETER
There’s five to one; besides, they all are fresh.

SALISBURY
God’s arm strike with us! ’tis a fearful odds.

WESTMORELAND
O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

KING HENRY V
What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
If we are mark’d to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

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The root of courage is embracing doubt

Friday, September 25th, 2009

When confronted with great uncertainty, our sensory cortex fires into high gear and produces a feeling of fear in our bodies. Chimpanzees have a similar biological mechanism, but at least their fight-or-flight response only activates when confronted by real danger. We humans on the other hand react to our imagined fears with the same ferocity as a life threatening situation. Whether it is fear of failure, rejection, reprisal, or death, it is fear that rules this world.

In the midst of our chimpish lives, seeking some kind of bliss while leaping from fear to fear, every once in a while we encounter someone who stands still and stares willfully into the abyss of doubt. We admire those who can enter into a moment of great uncertainty and risk, and yet will not run. I see this kind of courage every day working with men and women who build and run new ventures. They face enormous doubt and at times experience visceral fear, yet they persevere.

What is it that allows some people to move boldly into doubt while others cower or run away? First, you need a little ego. You must believe your action might lead to a better future. Whether you are like Howard Schultz who built a new kind of coffee company despite all the naysayers that insisted middle-class Americans would never pay $2 for a cup of coffee, or like Rosa Parks who refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger because it just wasn’t right, if you believe that your actions might lead to a better future, you are more willing to risk the consequences of today. Neither Howard nor Rosa was sure of the outcome of their effort. Both faced great uncertainty and economic or personal peril. Yet they each acted because they deemed that the future they sought was worth the risk.

Our inability to know the future often triggers the fight-or-flight response. The human mind, always seeking certainty, then assigns certainty to the undesirable outcome, just as a child at night is sure that the bogey man is in the closet. But until we open the closet, we just don’t know what is in it. The bogey man is in our head.

We all face uncertainty. The root of fear is fighting your doubt. The root of courage is embracing it.

Doubt is not your enemy. Doubt is the source of your creativity. By staring silently and openly into the dark closet of your uncertain future, you discover freedom. Since you can’t know for certain anything that lies in the future, you are completely free to choose today. Fear kicks in when you want to control the outcome. By definition, the riskier the decision or venture, the less control you have of outcome. Most days you can control whether one foot falls before the next as you walk. On the other hand, no matter how hard you try, you cannot control the rain. Nor can you control whether your venture will succeed or fail.

If you relax into your doubt, you will find creativity, hope, and opportunity. And others will witness courage in action.

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Lotus In The Fire

Friday, November 21st, 2008

It’s an ancient metaphor at least 2500 years old. Yet it is so apt today. The DOW has careened around 7500 all day, jumping in the last half hour to 8000 on the news of Obama’s pick for Treasury Secretary. If it weren’t for that bit of news, it would have been a terrible day for investors on Wall Street. Sumner Redstone had a margin call. The CEO of AIG had a margin call. Just about everyone I know is lamenting the loss of at least 40 percent of their investment portfolio in the past 6 months. Maybe fire is too gentle a word for this lotus. Maybe Lotus in the conflagration is better.

What is the lotus in this flaming financial hell? My clients are alive and well in Seattle and San Francisco. Everyone is facing financial turmoil. An online game company had it’s B round erased by the credit crunch a month ago. They restrutured, regrouped, and now have raised capital from the orginal investors and a few ballsy new investors to buy time to get to cashflow positive in the near future. A tech company with a huge cashburn has pushed for and attained an enviable client list and found strong interest in several large acquirers who remain undaunted by all the financial carnage around them. A hosting company that survived the bloodbath that killed Exodus, PSInet, and other hosting companies now finds itself completely sold out of capacity and yet unable to finance an expansion, and so they have decided to hunker down and optimize their client list for profitability. A startup that launched a clever social merchandising application on facebook less than a year ago finds its current investors skittish. The team has regrouped and is finding solid interest from new investors who like the progress to date.

The entrepreneurial spirit in this sector is the lotus in the fire. Not one of the CEOs i work with have given up. Not one of them has shown any willingness to concede. Everyone has had their mettle tested and are showing their ability to keep their eyes on the prize. It is a privilege to work with them and a privilege to watch such people of great character and intestinal fortitude driving for a win in the midst of such a storm.

Who says we are a nation of whinerse? I say bullshit. We are a nation of hard driven men and women willing to batte lwith self-doubt and a naysayers and high odds against us in order to have a shot at winning tomorrow.

The lotus in the fire is a beautiful sight

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Courage in the face of fear

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

I went to the Washington State Presidential primary caucuses yesterday, which put my brain into history mode. It struck me again that great leaders stand their ground under fire, at times even under persecution. It’s not what they promise; it’s what they do when their mettle is tested. Great leaders face daunting challenges with resolve and inspire others with hope for a better future.

So I began to wonder, what is it about George W. Bush’s war in Iraq that doesn’t pass the sniff test for any but the most reactionary of noses? President Bush has been pestered, ridiculed, and chastised by many pundits and leaders, and in addition he has lost about two-thirds of the country’s support in pursuit of his foreign policy in Iraq. He has been under fire to say the least. He has asked us to aspire to a safer world and freedom for the Iraqi people. Why isn’t he seen by most as a great leader for sticking to his guns for this admirable intention? Without resorting to the same old arguments on this topic, I see two answers of use for all leaders.

The first and simplest answer is, the war in Iraq isn’t over. It hasn’t been won by anyone’s accounting. And although the mission objectives have been ambiguous and fluid over the past four years, not even the current mission objectives have been achieved with any sense of finality. So it is fair to say that judging his leadership on Iraq might be premature.

But there is a deeper answer to why George W. Bush isn’t seen as a great leader on this topic. The primary verb in leadership is “inspire.” President Bush has used 9/11 – one moment of pain in our recent history – to declare a military campaign to root out the source of evil. That’s a flawed promise because the source of 9/11 is essentially one man, who still lives, breathes, and communicates effectively with his followers. It is a flawed promise because the root of this evil is so wide and so pervasive, we would have to kill or subdue everyone who harbors ill will against the United States, which in turn will create more who harbor ill will against us in a never ending cycle of violence.

Leaders who elevate fear and safety as a rationale for action always create more doubt than motion. Why? Because whenever a leader elevates fear and safety as a primary concern to give impetus to an agenda, there are many already willing to face that fear and already have another agenda. Leaders who proclaim “I have the answer” instill either doubt or set themselves up for a reckoning later. Leaders who on the other hand challenge us to build or attain something and say “I believe we can do this,” are inspiring. Though we might fail, there is more motion than doubt. Lincoln, FDR, and JFK understood this. But it doesn’t require a president or brilliant orator to understand this – any decent parent understands this.  As leaders, we have the opportunity to demonstrate courage in the face of fear.  When we step up to do so, we lead others to do the same.

George W. Bush’s war in Iraq was not courage in the face of fear. It was a simplistic response to a violent act fueled by misplaced hatred and misguided political objectives. And in the process, we became the thing we sought to punish. Worse yet, President Bush created a divisive, exclusionary principle: if you are not with us you are against us. A great leader seeks inclusion – because by bringing people together, we build a better place.

In response to 9/11, a great leader would have challenged us to first forgive those assailants who were manipulated into suicide and then challenged the world to join us in building a deeper understanding of one another while bringing the principal hate mongerers to justice. Had President Bush done this, we would have collectively held him in high esteem as a great leader. Instead, his approach of elevating our fears, focusing our actions on a false sense of security, and forcing his agenda through the use of executive power has left us with a feeling of doubt and anguish.

A fine lesson for anyone in a leadership role.

(c) 2008 BlueSeven Partners LLC

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Empirical Skepticism

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

While it is true that great leaders inspire by painting a mental image of a better future, many charlatans and mean spirited characters can and have done as much. The hallmark of a great leader is a willingness to embrace doubt while driving to separate facts from opinions and theories. In short, the bedrock of great leadership behavior is empirical skepticism.

Abraham Lincoln wrote and spoke eloquently about a future America, but it was his deep doubts about the social norms of his time, his agonizing doubts about waging a war, and his ability to see slavery at face value, that made him a great President. Ghandi was eloquent about non-violent protest and a future India of shared cultures and equitable economics. He inspired millions to action with the hope of a better future, an unwillingness to accept the arbitrary social and economic structures accepted at that time, and a focus on the facts of inequity in his country that made him a great leader. Pope John Paul II was a great orator but it was his ability to see the facts on the ground in Poland and his unwillingness to accept the status quo that inspired millions to follow him. He faced great doubt about whether the communist regime would or would not try to kill him, and yet he had the courage to take action.

Great leaders are filled with doubt and yet will not allow themselves to wallow in it. Great leaders provoke us to face the world as it is and then demand from us the courage to achieve what we perceive to be impossible.

We are surrounded by fiction. As leaders we need to sort the facts from the fiction. Accountants, engineers, marketers, technicians, nurses, doctors, car mechanics, plumbers, even (especially?) medical researchers make assertions that blend their observations with their assumptions, theories, and opinions. For example, cash in the bank as of this moment seems like a fact. Then again, the bank will tell you what checks have cleared; more cash may be actually in the bank but won’t be available until a current deposit clears. Less cash may be in the bank because some checks already written have not been processed at this moment. Why does this matter? Well, if you are running a start-up and you are trying to assess whether you are going to make payroll, it might matter a lot to the people who are going to get paychecks. Some nuances, like the definition of cash in the bank, only have a practical impact in an edge case. For example, if you have plenty of cash to make payroll, you won’t care about this distinction. But if you have barely enough or are just a bit short on cash to make payroll, then this distinction matters quite a bit if you want your employees to have a pleasant experience when they go to their bank to cash their paychecks.

The same happens in every functional discipline. Take engineering as an example. A website that is available 99.999% of the time sounds like a great achievement, but it’s almost guaranteed to be fiction even if the data and the calculation were done without error and with sincerity. Achieving that level of availability likely means that maintenance time needed to sustain a superior level of stability was not included in the calculation. It is also likely that network availability (over which engineering has little control) was not included in the calculation. So although engineering can feel great about “five nines” the reality is that a consumer who visits the site experiences far less availability. And in the end, having a happy engineering team is good but having happy customers is better.

A good leader understands that the people who are presenting “facts” are usually layering many assumptions, theories, and opinions into their assertions. A leader needs to sort the facts from the fiction in order to surface the assumptions and theories, and evaluate them critically. You do this by suspending judgment, and drilling for assumptions to make them explicit. In this way, you can deliberately choose which explicit assumptions, opinions and theories are deemed valuable in combination with the facts at hand.

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