In the great heat and confusion of battle, you see men cower, become smaller, or retreat into some psychological refuge. Then you see the few who rise up out of the smoke and fire like an avenging spirit, usually with a mad gleam in their eyes and a slight determined smile, taking great pleasure in engaging a worthy enemy.
Without a named source, this sounds much more like Internet Tough Guy talk ("oh yeah, if some mugger pulled a gun on me I'd just give him a roundhouse kick in the hand, duh!") than genuine advice on how to deal with adversity.
I suspect that the author has never really had to deal with "the great heat and confusion of battle", either literally or metaphorically. I haven't either, mind you, but I imagine someone who had would write very differently about it.
I think he's just appealing to the fighter mindset that some of us do have. I don't think that's a general characteristic, or at all necessary to success, but some people (I count myself amongst them) get fired up by adversity... Like a "bring it on!" mentality where you get more and more motivated to win the more problems there are...
I don't think people who react differently are in any way inferior, though, which the OP does seem to think.
What makes me very angry is many people like that mean to go over the limits. That involves to lie, trick, and scam others. Truly disgusting and worthy of Gordon Gekko or Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise in Magnolia.)
This sounds like hearsay crap. Where are the clear cut examples of him acting like a "wimp"?
“He runs his own firm. He is the boss...When he needs to be strongest, he consumes himself with worry and purposeless actions."
This is just Seth Godin speak that doesn't mean anything. What has he done specifically? The above paragraph is so vague it could literally be applied to any business owner.
"As his hedge fund has tanked, he has lost 20 pounds (skinny to start with), is taking Valium every night to sleep, has night sweats and heart palpitations."
“In the great heat and confusion of battle, you see men cower, become smaller, or retreat into some psychological refuge. Then you see the few who rise up out of the smoke and fire like an avenging spirit, usually with a mad gleam in their eyes and a slight determined smile, taking great pleasure in engaging a worthy enemy.”
And then you see the many who just try to do their job and end up being shot to death for it (as long as we're in the metaphorical context of a "battle"). I wonder why you don't see that many stories - or blog posts - about them.
Though I understand why some commenters are interpreting this as made-up bravado, Stewart Alsop is a longtime journalist and investor from whom such a second-hand report is credible.
(That is, I have no doubt that he received such an email from a trustworthy friend, and that the email is accurately describing a real person.)
Without a named source, this sounds much more like Internet Tough Guy talk ("oh yeah, if some mugger pulled a gun on me I'd just give him a roundhouse kick in the hand, duh!") than genuine advice on how to deal with adversity.
I suspect that the author has never really had to deal with "the great heat and confusion of battle", either literally or metaphorically. I haven't either, mind you, but I imagine someone who had would write very differently about it.