Integrity of Communication
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without losing sight of the higher summit to which they aspire. “This is a very important lesson,” says Admiral James Stockdale, quoted by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, “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.”13 In a high-integrity startup environment, everything is open to scrutiny. Founders scrutinize their own thinking and invite the scrutiny of others. This includes the willingness to entertain skeptics and take a systematic look at one’s own doubts and fears. Rather than causing a downward spiral of increasing negativity, as positive thinking enthusiasts might argue, I have found this practice of surfacing and evaluating doubts to lead to even higher levels of confidence. It is the business equivalent of a child’s leaving the security of the bedcovers to confirm, once and for all, that no monster is hiding under the bed. As Czechoslovakia’s heroic former president, Vaclav Havel, once wrote, “Isn’t it the moment of most profound doubt that gives rise to new certainties?”14
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