Fortitude: The Myth of Resilience, and the Secrets of Inner Strength: A Sunday Times Bestseller

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Of course this is only what I wanted at the end, probably not what the auhtor intended to be included at the end. The two of these guys didn't know each other, but they encountered each other at a sort of learning lunch effectively, and they realised the adjacency of their work, and they created this list, which is called The Adverse Childhood Experiences list. So, it's a list of ten things. Some of them look remarkably gentle, which might be like, "Were you subject to emotional abuse? Were you subject to physical abuse? Was there parental divorce? Was there someone at home who went to jail? Did you live with addiction?" There's some other things there, some other things that you might go, "Is parental divorce that big an issue?" but actually, it very strongly correlates with adult obesity. Could you share some of the insights about the relationship between the adversity you might experience earlier on in life, and its relationship between resilience and fortitude later in life?

Bruce Daisley on misplaced notions of Fortitude Bloomfest 2022: Bruce Daisley on misplaced notions of Fortitude

In the US Army, the issue was PTSD is off the scale. You're significantly more likely to die from suicide if you're a combat soldier during the course of your life, than you are to be killed by an enemy combatant. So, as a result of that, there was a need for it. The skincare regime, there was a demand for it, and so people created a product. And the interesting thing, what catalysed that exploration for me, is that so many people I know who've done resilience courses have said to me, "It didn't work, I don't feel any different". Okay, that's really interesting, because like a skincare product, it's a charming, lovely idea, we build a routine around it, we've created something that seems in service of self-care; but if it doesn't work, there are fair questions to ask about that. He has been rated as the top leader in the UK tech sector by Campaign Magazine. In a prestigious survey of CEOs and MDs, in 2020 Bruce was again named the “ Fantasy Hire” that most leaders would like to make – his fourth time of winning the accolade (other names placed included Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Martin Sorrell). He regularly ranks as the top-rated speaker at conferences in the US and the UK. This interesting book lifts the cover on the resilience myth that we've all been sold, and shines a light on how and why resilience is not what we think it is, and not what we should aspire towards. This book started with a lot of promise. Although the subject matter was interesting and thoroughly researched I found it was longer than it needed to be. So actually, the most important part of this work is understanding it, because my ACE score, for example, it's so fascinating; for me, my ACE score is 4. So I immediately start going, "Gosh, right, okay. Well firstly, that would have a deleterious effect on my health, and secondly would explain my relentless need to try and succeed and do more".

Bruce speaks on dealing with hybrid working, work culture and building a culture of innovation.

So, there seems to be this remarkable thing where trauma, firstly it seems to be this interesting common factor of people who achieve elite things. Then you go on and you look, and I found myself studying this, and there was some wonderful work done by a couple of GPs effectively, a guy called Vincent Felitti, and a guy called Robert Ander, both doctors in the US. Robert Ander was studying former retired combat soldiers, and he was really interested that no matter how ill they were, they seemed to self-medicate. They seemed to smoke, they seemed to drink, and it was almost like the experiences they had seemed to be somehow directing them into these adaptive behaviours, where they're smoking and drinking, almost to self-medicate out of it. Bruce Daisley: Yeah, and I think we can see how identity is definitely a conflicted part of this, because for some of the people concerned, channelling everything into accomplishment for identity can prove enriching, but also incredibly endangering. From quotations that we see, Simone Biles, the American Gymnast, during the course of the Olympics, she was probably expected to win at least four gold medals, she end up winning, I think, one silver medal and maybe a bronze as well; she said, during the course of what was effectively quite a public breakdown, she said she was very grateful for the praise she received by coming clean on mental health issues, because until now, she'd seen herself merely in the fact that she was an accomplished athlete. Instead, news outlets from the BBC to the New York Times reminded their audiences of a different narrative, ‘ The Lebanese are famed for their resilience’ was the BBC’s take. So, even as you were talking there, I was imagining, and I think sometimes this can actually be quite useful to do, "What would happen if Amazing If closed tomorrow?" and you're like, "Crikey, that's such a big part of my identity and who I am, and I now work with my best friend", and all of those kinds of things, "What would happen to our friendship? What would happen to how other people see me?", and you've got quite a public profile that people see. There's a lot to this book. Having heard all the hype about 'grit' over the past few years, it was refreshing to read something that offered a different view about resilence.

Bruce Daisley Collection 2 Books Set (Fortitude [Hardcover Bruce Daisley Collection 2 Books Set (Fortitude [Hardcover

Then you're like, "Okay, what are the little steps along the way doing that that aren't that?" and that's why these people who do the illustrations in their book, or they're often simple things. And the moment you see it, you go, "Oh yeah, of course, that's obvious". None of these things feel like someone's invented the iPhone, they're not genius flashes of inspiration. So, all I would think is, are there little things that you could do that probably are your strength, or something that's a bit more you, that might enable you to show you as a real person. With Tom Daley, Andy Murray, Linford Christie and Mo Farrah as examples, he continued: “What you discover is, the vehicle that tends to work there is, people like Kelly Holmes say, ‘Sport became my identity,’ and they channel their energy, sometimes to an excessive extent. They become obsessed with their sport, because it’s about trying to build this new version of themselves.” So, if you're going to make one thing change, then you might say, "If I'm feeling no autonomy at work, is there something I could do to reduce the amount of time I'm spending in meetings? Is there something I could do to set some time aside to do something separate?" The illusion of modern work is we all feel like we've got infinite time, and we'll just answer this, then I'll answer this, and if I just need to work later, I'll work later; and we never make decisions of scarcity. But I guess one of the critical things you'd say is, if people are feeling an absence of control, if people are feeling no resilience, then thinking about how you can gift them some space, and there's a solution to it as well. The book digs into the details of each role model, case study, and research experiment that, at a cursory glance, look to extol the advantages of being more resilient but are in fact tools to abdicate systemic responsibility to the individual for poor socio-economic & cultural landscapes.

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Speaking about identity, the best-selling writer said. “When people can’t assemble an identity, when their life story is just this random assembly of events, that’s when they really struggle to connect with their identity.” This expectation of resilience frequently serves the purpose of making help unnecessary, if a victim proves unable to cope it suggests an additional weakness, maybe they weren’t worth helping in the first place.