The Power of Unshakable Optimism

Does anybody know the story of Ernest Shackleton?

Ernest was an explorer and he wanted to be the first man to take a ship to Antarctica.

And he got everything together.

He got a crew of 25 men and he got this big ship and he called the ship Endurance.

And the reason he called the ship Endurance was because he had a family motto that was by endurance we conquer.

So he's going to take this ship to Antarctica and they have a photographer and they're going to document it and be the first ones to claim this land.

Well,

The ship gets stuck wedged in between icebergs and it tips over.

There's no getting out.

So these men had very grim chance of survival with the winter coming in,

All of the elements and running out of food and whatnot.

They had to build shelter in Antarctica on the ice out of seal skin and whatever they could find.

So they should not have survived,

Right?

They all should have perished.

It should have been a tragic story.

Ernest Shackleton was literally the most optimistic captain and they're watching the ship sink.

And as it's sinking,

This is in the documentary,

He stands up on some kind of a ladder and he looks at his men as the ship is sinking.

And he says,

Optimism,

Optimism,

Optimism.

We must have optimism.

And lo and behold,

He takes a smaller raft to go and try and find help.

It takes him like a year to find land and to get help.

He has to go travel through mountains and whatnot.

He's wearing the same clothes and they're like just shredding off of him,

Like held together with some safety pins.

He finds help.

They go back to the Arctic.

Every man,

Every man was alive.

He saved all of them.

He saved all of them.

It just goes to show,

You know,

There's people that can say,

Oh,

That's Pollyanna.

You're too positive or too optimistic or you're delusional.

But I would rather go into my day,

Go into this adventure of our own as a delulu,

Over optimistic,

Too positive person and see what I can find,

See what I can conquer,

See what is possible.