Book Review: The Art Of Resilience

This book has been on my reading list for some time and, while it isn’t a business book, there are certainly some great lessons that translate well for the business world. It’s rather timely that I finished it at the beginning of the Sydney lockdown. I think we could all do with a bit of resilience right now.

I am not a big fan of business books and would much rather read books of adventure and human pursuit, just like this one. The Art of Resilience is the story of British adventurer Ross Edgely and his 1,780 mile swim around Great Britain and what it takes to create an unbreakable mind and body. His body was (by my standards) pretty much broken by day three of the swim, so you can only imagine the strength of mind it would take to endure 157 days at sea.

The book contains loads of research and references to others who have studied and written about resilience, like Jim Collins of Good to Great fame (by the way, Good to Great is my all time favourite business book). One of the most important lessons I took from The Art of Resilience, was the retelling of Collins’ interview with Vietnam prisoner of war Admiral James Stockdale. “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 seems rather relevant to me at the moment given the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions imposed upon us.

The book is written so that each chapter contains a lesson on what it takes to be resilient. Some of my favourites were:

  • Everybody is different, just as every business is different

  • The importance of cheerfulness in the face of adversity

  • Fast is fragile and slow is strong

  • Sleep is essential to optimal performance

  • Resilience is best served with food (who can argue with that!)

  • It takes 649 bananas to swim around Great Britain (who knew!)

And perhaps the most important, just because someone thinks it can’t be done, doesn’t mean it is so (we have all heard this in business). Edgely was told that he didn’t have the physique of a long distance swimmer by sports scientists and that he wasn’t suited to the task. Seeing as no one had attempted it before, that was a big call. Turns out he was perfectly suited!

I loved this book and it might be just what you need to get you through lockdown.

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