Who out there is feeling a bit unmoored? Like even when it’s completely quiet it still feels like there’s shouting in the distance? These are cRaZy times. Politics isn’t really a focus of this digital back room. However, technology companies have been thrust into the epicenter of this historically American hurricane nevertheless.

You shouldn’t be surprised. The game done changed . What can we learn from last week’s Coup at the Capitol? A couple things for sure.

If the events of last week taught us nothing else, it should highlight that in times of crisis holding and projecting a sense of calm is a premium asset of unlimited value. Don’t run in the Pentagon as the saying goes. History will remember those who remained calm and did their jobs when everything was falling apart. The lone Capitol police officer who drew protesters away from the Senate chamber? A port in a storm on a tumultuous day.

Next, there is a lot of chatter out there on the Internet about free speech and dangerous precedents being set after the wave of “de-platforming” of soon to be former President Trump. The president so nice…they impeached him twice!

Precedents ARE important. De-platforming is dangerous. Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg do have powers and much larger megaphones than any political figure on Earth. Still, maybe there is a difference between trying to set good policy and having to make the hard decisions that the real world urgently requires to ensure safety today. The world doesn’t always conform neatly to good policy. Hypotheticals and future precedent can sometimes wait or be re-written. Or legislated better!

It sure seemed like some political institutions failed and technology companies stepped in to help diffuse an explosive situation. Something had to be done. People died! Unprecedented? Yes. Coordinated? Unlikely. Effective? We’ll see.

When confronted with a mess of conspiracy theories, racism, partisanship, and then violence….what would you do? Would you be a port in a storm?

James Bond Stockdale was a Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War who served as a prisoner of war in Hanoi for over 7 years. The senior most naval officer held by the North Vietnamese. He made it through that terrible experience and later went on to serve as the Navy’s Vice Admiral. He was even a Vice Presidential candidate for Ross Perot’s campaign in 1992. Well known management author Jim Collins spent some time with him and asked how he coped during that time and made it through the experience back home.

Jim asked him: “Who didn’t make it out?”

Stockdale replied: “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….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.”

And from that conversation Collins coined the term the “Stockdale Paradox” from his bestseller Good to Great.

It’s only January and we have a very difficult reality in front of us as we begin the new year. How are you confronting the brutal reality of the present against the faith that better days are ahead? Only with time will we know. We must prevail!