This past Christmas while at my brother's house for the holiday season, my son and I were discussing raising kids. I was teasing him about the old father and son adage that basically fell along the lines of "When I have kids, I am not going to _____ or When I have kids, I am going to _______." Somewhere in the conversation he ask what was the best advice I could give him. I deferred on that question but I did offer the advice that the best guidance he could instill in his two sons (2 years old and the other 10 months) was "PERSISTENCE." That will serve them well in almost anything they attempt in life. The article below is the result of that conversation reduced or expanded to written form for the Grandpa's Diaries in case I am not around to preach it to them.

Grandpa Diaries: Persistence

   The idea of a stacked Deck has probably been around since the first deck of card was produced or drawn.  One of the first things a kid learns about poker is that the highest hand you can hold is the Royal Flush, which is a 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace in Spades.

   A casual player will note that there are two Male cards One Female card, one number card and the top card the deck: The ace of Spades.  I suspect that most players never bothered to look up the image on a Bicycle deck of cards. Inside the Spade Image on a deck of Bicycle cards stands a woman, which evens out the gender inequality.

   There are at least two opposing meanings attributed to The Ace of Spades.  Take your pick:

1. It has been known as the Death Card.
2. It is also been associated with the Statue of Freedom.

   Here is the explanation.

Statue of Freedom

The Ace of Spades carries another code, identifying the year in which the deck was printed. This Ace features, within the suit sign, a woman who rests her right hand on a sword and shield while she holds an olive branch in her left. The image was inspired by Thomas Crawford's sculpture, "Statue of Freedom." which, in 1865, had been placed atop the Capitol Building in Washington, DC.

Ace of Spades

The Ace of Spades served a famous purpose in the war in Vietnam. In February, 1966, two lieutenants of Company "C," Second Battalion, 35th Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, wrote The United States Playing Card Company and requested decks containing nothing but the Bicycle^® Ace of Spades. The cards were useful in psychological warfare. The Viet Cong were very superstitious and highly frightened by this Ace. The French previously had occupied Indo-China, and in French fortunetelling with cards, the Spades predicted death and suffering. The Viet Cong even regarded lady liberty as a goddess of death. USPC shipped thousands of the requested decks gratis to our troops in Vietnam. These decks were housed in plain white tuck cases, inscribed "Bicycle^® Secret Weapon." The cards were deliberately scattered in the jungle and in hostile villages during raids. The very sight of the Bicycle^® Ace card was said to cause many Viet Cong to flee.     History of the Ace of Spades Card

 

   I suspect that we have all heard the phrase "The deck is Stacked." It usually is uttered by losers in any field of endeavor. In sports the equilavent is the "Loser's Limp." When the athelite fails he suddenly develops an injury. That injury generally shows up as a limp or rolling around in pain. Failure in any performance is not an easy thing to accept. We all are subject to the temptation to blame others or unknown factors for a lack of success.

   Of course we all know that sometimes the deck is indeed stacked and the winner is predetermined. Just ask Bernie Sanders. But for the most part any complex system like business, sports, or moviemaking is just too complicated to be reduced to a simple explanation as a stacked deck. When faced with a stacked deck there are several options almost all of which require greater effort to overcome the obstacles in the path.

   Success in any pursuit is a process of overcoming obstacles. Those who see the obstacles as "just too high" quit and pursue something else. Others may see the same obstacle and increase their determination to overcome it. If all the hurdles in a race are adjusted for the skill of the runners there would be no glory in winning the race. On the other hand if all the hurdles are the same with the exception of just a couple of runners it is not a contest for everyone.

The Hurdle Race in Track and Field

"There are sprint hurdle races and long hurdle races. The standard sprint hurdle race is 110 meters for men and 100 meters for women. Men and women run 400 meters in the standard long hurdle race. Each of these races is run over ten hurdles and they are all Olympic events.

Other distances are sometimes run particularly indoors. The sprint hurdle race indoors is usually 60 meters for both men and women although races 55 meters or 50 meters long are sometimes run."    Track and Field the Hurdle race

    I think we can all agree that in the example of the hurdle race all the hurdles should be equal and the distance the same for all. If we took a picture of the starting line in a 400 meter race it would be obvious that the deck is stacked. Some of the runners are starting ahead of the others. Obviously that is not fair. But if you look at the race track you quickly find it is an oblong track which means the inside track is shorter than the outside track. In the end all the racers run the same 400 meters.

   Okay already stop beating the drum. You point is made. In life or almost any business venture it is best to have an equal playing field but that is not as easy as a sporting event. All human interaction is based on conditions that make the playing field unequal. That is where the analogy of sports to life fall apart.

So what do you do when you find yourself in a competition where the deck is stacked (some would call that life)? You have several options.

• Quit
• Complain
• Try Harder
• Develop the Loser's Limp.

   Only one of the above will get you to the finish line. The other three are options that guarantee that you will not win the race or even finish the race.

Women leaders in Industry

 Source Fortune 500 Women leaders

  So like the stacked deck or the starting blocks in the race, sometimes the appearance of a stacked deck is an illusion.

   Below are just a few of the women who chose to run the race or play the hand they were dealt.  I am not saying that its fair, I am not saying there is nothing to change, I am not saying it is easy. I am saying that to win the race you must run on the track that is in front of you.  Perhaps sometime in our future the track will be the same for everyone and everything will be equal, but I suspect that will not occur until you are either inside the Pearly Gates or Wondering why it so damn hot.

• Mary Barra GM
• Ginni Rometty IBM
• Indra Nooyi Pepsi
• Marillyn Hewson Lockheed Martin
• Meg Whitman CEO of HPE
• Carly Firorina HP former HPE CEO
• Safra Catz of Oracle
• Phebe Novakovic Chairman and CEO of General Dynamics
• Irene Rosenfeld Chairman and CEO of Mondelez International
• Lynn Good President CEO Vice Chair of the Board Duke Energy
• Shira Goodman Staples
• Geisha Williams President of Electric Operations a PG&E Corp
• Denise Morrison CEO of Campbell Soup Company
• Michele Buck Hershey
• Sherilyn McCoy chief executive officer of Avon Product
• Marissa Mayer Yahoo

  I think the same example could be learned from people like those shown below:

• Bill Gates’ first business failed.
• Albert Einstein didn’t speak until he was four years old.
• Jim Carrey used to be homeless.
• Bethany Hamilton had her arm bitten off by a shark.
• Benjamin Franklin dropped out of school at age ten.
• Richard Branson has dyslexia.
• Stephen King’s first novel was rejected 30 times.
• Oprah Winfrey gave birth at age 14 and lost her child.
• Thomas Edison failed 1,000 times before creating the lightbulb.
• Kris Carr turned her cancer into a business of hope and healing.
• Jay-Z couldn’t get signed to any record labels.
• Vincent Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime.
• Franklin Roosevelt became partially paralyzed at 39.
• Simon Cowell had a failed record company.
• Charlize Theron witnessed her mother kill her father.
• Steven Spielberg was rejected from USC, twice.
• Jackie Robinson was not allowed to play pro baseball until he was 28 years old
• Hank Aaron could not afford baseball equipment, so he practiced by hitting bottle caps with sticks.

  So you just keep trying Bunky, you might even win someday.

“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our School history, this part of the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated. “Very different is the mood today. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate. But instead our country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what seemed almost a miracle to those outside these Islands, though we ourselves never doubted it, we now find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer.”    Winston Churchill On Oct. 29, 1941