What does the name mean?

Sisu

Finlandia University defines Sisu as “To the Finnish people, sisu has a mystical, almost magical meaning. Sisu is a unique Finnish concept. It is a Finnish term that can be roughly translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. Sisu is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain that courage. It is a word that cannot be fully translated.” It’s best english translation is probably ‘grit’ but even that fails to capture the endlessly inherent persistence of sisu. Rudyard Kipling also describes the concept in one of my favorite poems, “If”:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

[Full poem]

Teleological

Britanica defines Teleology as “(from Greek telos, “end,” and logos, “reason”), explanation by reference to some purpose, end, goal, or function.” Put more colloquially, the end purposes is intrinsic to the design and is inferable if not directly observable therein. The concept has been meandered through classical and modern iterations and expansions featuring in the ideas of Kant, Hegel, Planck, Weiner and others. Aquinas once observed, “But an agent does not move except out of intention for an end.”

Strategies

Meriam Webster defines strategy as “a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal usually over a long period of time”. Probably the most familiar of the words in the name strategies ties together our adjectival phrase with its anchoring noun and the necessary output of our endeavor.

Bringing it all together

So there you have it – we construct and execute strategies that definitionally possess the elements of their end state and relentlessly, pursue their goals – which should themselves be a necessarily outcome of the correctly designed and executed strategy.

Much to come on these concepts, models, and history in the future. Including some much more practical examples of their application.

Thank you for reading my thoughts. – Jay