Bad things happen to good people.

Our job market happens to be relatively hot right now, but with ominous reports like this and other people predicting a recession within the next two years, it's important to arm ourselves, not only with technology and business skills, but competency in resilience.

I took the picture at the top of the article together with my grandmother and my son a couple of days ago. Together you can see her 91-year-old hands with my 39-year-old hands and my son's 9-year-old hands. As a survivor of the Depression, WWII and now the loss of her husband (my granddad), Grandma knows a thing or two about resilience.

She's not the only one: I was reminded today that not everyone knows about my go-to 'resiliency expert,' Admiral James Stockdale. If you don't know who James Stockdale is, here's a quick tl;dr: Stockdale was awarded the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War where he was a prisoner of war for over seven years. Stockdale was held as a prisoner of war in the Hoa Lo prison (the infamous "Hanoi Hilton") for the next seven and a half years. His life story, including the horrific treatment he experienced, is quite remarkable and I recommend stepping through his Wikipedia article. However, the Stockdale Paradox is the concept that allowed this Medal of Honor winner to survive regardless of his circumstances.

In a business book by James C. Collins called Good to Great, Collins writes about a conversation he had with Stockdale regarding his coping strategy during his period in the Vietnamese POW camp.

I never lost faith in the end of the story, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.

When Collins asked who didn't make it out of Vietnam, Stockdale replied:

Oh, that's easy, 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 Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.

Stockdale then added:

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.

This.

This type of thinking is what can help you survive the bad news of a weakening economy, or an impending layoff. The Stockdale Paradox, shown below, got men through years of deprivation and torture. It can certainly get you through whatever you are experiencing.

The postscript of the story is that Admiral Stockdale won the highest-possible medal for his bravery and courage. Here's how he looked after arriving home after years as a prisoner of war:

Here's how he looked after winning the Medal of Honor:

As you go through the good times and the bad, you'll find that some things cannot be solved technically or strategically. Some things can only be survived philosophically. Arm yourselves with a 'survival mindset' like Admiral Stockdale and you'll be in a better position to meet whatever follows.