How To Keep Hope in Bleak Circumstances

While captive for more than seven years at the infamous Hỏa Lò Prison, nicknamed the “Hanoi Hilton,” in Vietnam, US Navy Admiral James Stockdale was tortured more than 20 times.

Enduring some of the harshest conditions a human can face, Stockdale led fellow service members held as prisoners of war with a thought process that combined open-eyed realism with a hope that circumstances would eventually improve.

Holding realism and idealism together is key to surviving any severe situation, whether that be imprisonment, depression or a pandemic, said author and management consultant Jim Collins, who told Stockdale’s story in the popular 2001 business book “Good to Great.”

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