Deep survival

Once again a very good book from PersonnalMBA !

Written by Laurence Gonzales, it explain how accident happens and why people live or die in survival situation.

This is actually the two main parts of the book.

This book use a lot of philosophy (mainly Stoicism and Taoism), a lot of real examples and statistics studies.

This is a very opening and inspiring book and, even if it's main public is people who wants to go to the wild or do dangerous thing, it's also very useful for "common" people or business.

At each time of your life or your business, you will find yourself facing difficult situation : divorce, loosing your job, a big contract ... At this time, you should have a survivor mentality (or philosophy) to pass these events with the less problems !

Here, the survival's rules directly taken from the book :

1. look, see, believe : accept the reality of the situation.
2. Stay calm : use humor; use fear to focus.
3. Think/Analyse/Plan : get organized; set up small, manageable tasks.
4. Take correct, Decisive action : be bold and cautious while carrying out tasks; Willing to take risk to greater good; Break down large task into small one.
5. Celebrate your successes : take joy in completing tasks.
6. Count your blessings : be grateful, you're alive !
7. Play : engage the crisis almost as a game.
8. See the beauty : relieve stress and creates strong motivation and allow to take new information more effectively.
9. Believe that you'll succeed
10. Surrender : let go your fear of dying; "Put away the pain"; "Resignation without giving up"
11. Do whatever is necessary : be determined, have the will and the skill, don't expect or even hope to be rescued.
12. Never ever give up : let nothing break you're spirit; Embrace the world in which you find yourself and see opportunity in adversity.

There is also some advise to stay out of trouble :

1. Perceive, believe then act : attempt to make prediction accurate but, as environment change, you need versatility; Avoid the "Four poison of the Mind", fear, confusion, hesitation, surprise.
2. Avoid impulsive behavior; Don't hurry.
3. Know your stuff like Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and general, said : "Of each particular things, ask : what is it in itself, in its own construction ?"
4. Get the information.
5. Be humble.
6. When in doubt, bail out. And don't underestimate the difficulty of doing this !

These information are enterely quoted from the conclusion of the book. The whole book needs to be read to get the full comprehension.

you can also have a lot of info on the website : http://www.deepsurvival.com/

If want more info or more details, don't hesitate to ask questions :)