The Harder Death

"It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience." - Julius Caesar

The world belongs to those who can manage uncertainty. To do so is to "endure pain with patience" which Julius Caesar found in his military campaigns a fate preferred less than death. In business, I've found opportunities exist where timelines are long, the finish line is unknown, and the work is deeply unglamorous — in other words, highly uncertain.

I find managing uncertainty difficult. I prefer environments where I have agency and can directly impact outcomes. Unfortunately, the opportunities I seek rarely exist in such environments, so I find myself navigating uncertain times frequently.

My tonic for enduring "pain with patience" has been faith — faith that things will work out. In doing so, you liberate yourself from what you can't control (the future) and focus on what you can control (today). Tolstoy captured this beautifully: "A man on a thousand mile walk has to forget his goal and say to himself every morning, 'Today I'm going to cover twenty-five miles and then rest up and sleep.'"

Building faith is an act of building confidence in oneself. When past efforts in uncertain circumstances bear fruit, they strengthen faith for the future. The more experience I gain and time I invest in uncertain ventures, the easier faith becomes. Early on, faith was in short supply, replaced by a painful delusion of agency where none existed. That delusion gives way to faith quickly.

But how can you be sure things will work out?

That's the point. You can't.

That's why you need faith.

But how do you know if your faith isn’t giving way to complacency or blindness to reality?

No one is saying don’t take calculated risks, but if it was entirely calculable, there probably isn’t much risk -- you’ll need faith.

Then what use is faith then?

Without it, man surrenders to death. With it, man can endure with patience.