The Stockdale Paradox Quote: "What the optimists failed to do was confront the reality of their situation. They preferred the ostrich approach, sticking their heads in the sand and hoping for the difficulties to go away. That self-delusion might have made it easier on them in the short-term, but when they were eventually forced to face reality, it had become too much and they couldn’t handle it. Stockdale approached adversity with a very different mindset: he accepted the reality of his situation." (categories: managementinnovators-dilemmatruthoptimism )