Olina Qian

My fellow coach Bob Poniatowski gave us a really powerful closing in Dale Carnegie Class this Wednesday. I definitely learned a lot from it:

1939. Springtime. World War II was about to start. The British government knew it, and they knew that when it started, their country would be attacked. Not just their troops, but their people as well. The Germans would attack Britain. Bombers would fly overhead, seaports would be blockaded, cities would be firebombed and many, many people would die.

The government also knew that if the British people lost their will to fight, their resolve and morale, the war would be lost quickly. They knew all of this before the war began, and so they started to plan.

It would be simple for the Germans to disable the mass media of the day. There was no television or internet, and people would be reluctant to gather in movie theaters, or anywhere in large numbers. Radio towers could be taken out easily. Even newspapers would be difficult to publish without supplies.

So the government commissioned a series of posters, designed to keep morale up. They printed millions of these posters and distributed them to every city and village throughout the country, with instructions to post them should war break out.

It did, and the posters went up – they were posted in libraries, grocers, train stations – everywhere. The first poster said ‘Your Courage, Cheerfulness, and Resolve Will Bring Victory‘. That’s a long message, but interesting that cheerfulness is in there. The second poster to go up said ‘Freedom is in Peril‘. Kind of laying it on the line for everyone, this is what is at stake. Freedom.

The third poster was held in reserve. City officials across the country had been told to hold this poster and only put it up if the Germans invaded Britain. If German troops set foot on British soil, the third poster was to go up. That never happened, the war ended, and the posters were all pulped up, destroyed and forgotten.

Until about ten years ago. A bookseller in England was digging through a box of old books he’d bought at auction and at the bottom of the box found a folded copy of that third poster. And this is what it said: ‘Keep Calm and Carry On‘. A simple message, but such a powerful one. Don’t panic. Don’t let your worries win. Don’t let them take away your way of life.

I keep a copy of that poster up in my office where I can see it every day. It reminds me that if the British people, faced with these horrible circumstances, the truly horrific things that were about to happen, could respond with ‘Keep Calm and Carry On‘, I can certainly handle a grumpy boss. Or a snippy VP. Or a project that’s a little behind schedule.

So I’d say to you, don’t give in to panic and worry. Keep Calm and Carry On.