The fourth chapter in Jim Collins’s best selling business book, Good to Great, is titled “Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith)”.  The book is a case study where similar companies are compared at the points where one took off to become great (based on market performance) while the other slid into mediocrity.  Chapter four discusses situations where the landscape in front of the businesses changed, and they had to adapt or die.  The ones that confronted the shifts head on, accepted them and acclimated to them, were much more successful than that the ones that buried their heads in the sand and exclaimed that there was no need to change because, “that’s the way we’ve always done things.”

The section of the book also tells the story of Admiral Jim Stockdale.  Stockdale was a prisoner in the “Hanoi Hilton” POW camp from 1965-1973 at the height of the Vietnam War.  The incarceration was brutal as he was tortured multiple times during the eight-year span.  He eventually got out.  When questioned on how he survived, his response was that he never lost faith and never doubted that not only would he get out, but he would make the experience a defining moment of his life.

When he was asked who did not make it out, Stockdale pointed at the optimists.  They were the ones that thought they would be out by Christmas.  But Christmas would come, and Christmas would go.  Then they said it would be Easter.  And Easter would pass with no release.  This went on until it was the next Christmas, and they were still not out.  They would end up dying of a broken heart.  Stockdale explained, “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 may be.” This, Collins wrote, became known as the Stockdale Paradox. 

All of this is very important with both the long and short-term prognosis of our current situation.  We cannot be lulled into a sense of comfort just because we have had good test results.  I have every bit of faith that we will beat this, but the fact remains that it IS cancer.  Cancer tends to make its own rules.  That’s why it is still such a baffling disease more than 50 years after the formation of the National Cancer Institute was formed with the intention of finding a cure and eradicating what has been described as The Emperor of All Maladies. 

We know that we must maintain a positive attitude.  But we also know that is not enough on its own.  All of this involves following doctors’ advice, maintaining a healthy diet, and being diligent with supplements and therapies.  It will involve a major, life changing surgery.  This is the reality of the future.

And the cancer is not the only problem right now.  As I write this, I’m in a hospital bed – a place I’ve been for the past four plus days.  On Monday July 24^th, less than twenty-four hours after the event held for our family, I started running a fever.  The doctor prescribed an antibiotic, which had the fever down by the next morning.  The rest of the week was ok – there were periods that I felt great juxtaposed with a few moments clouded by excessive fatigue.  By Friday I felt good enough to work out and proclaimed that I felt 100% of my current capacity when asked how I was doing.  Saturday started fine, at least for a while.  While catching the new Haunted Mansion movie with my wife on Saturday evening, I started feeling cold.  By the time the movie ended, I was freezing and ached all over.  We drove home and found I had a temperature of 102.9.  We packed a bag and headed to the emergency room.  Upon arrival, my temperature was up to 103.1 and I was admitted.  Turns out I had a nasty infection.

With the cancer cells taking over the inside walls of my bladder, the flow of urine from my kidneys has been mostly blocked.  To combat that, I had nephrostomy tubes placed back in February.  Those keep the kidneys from backing up by placing direct lines through my back for drainage.  But it comes with the price of increased risk of infection.  This is my second hospitalization because of that, the first coming at the end of March.

While I have been fever free since Sunday, they are keeping me here until they can determine which antibiotics will work best on the specific bacteria causing the illness. 

This unplanned hospital stay has already pushed round 11 of chemotherapy back by a week.  That will potentially affect other plans later in the month.  It’s also caused us to cancel a weekend trip to a state park.  Is it disruptive?  Absolutely.  Are we disappointed that we cannot do the things we want to do? One hundred percent.  Is it going to break our resilience?  Not a chance!

Resilience is defined as the “capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties: toughness.”  Ours is strong.  At this point, I trust that we can handle anything that is thrown at us.  Like the prevailing companies highlighted in Good To Great, we are navigating the playing field as it adapts, learning what we can from it and doing what we must.  We choose this path.  It would be easy to capitulate and let the disease win.  It would require doing nothing, like many of the comparison companies in Collin’s study.  We could make excuses and blame the disease for everything that goes wrong.  If you’ve been following this blog, you know what our stance is. Additionally, quitting comes with a final cost that we are not willing to pay right now.

Instead, we face our own Stockdale Paradox.  Our faith that we will prevail in the end will never waver, but the brutal facts are that the road to that end is not paved with butterflies and unicorns.  There are bumps, twists, and massive hills to climb.  But no matter what, we will keep pushing forward.  It’s what must happen because this story is far from over.