17 Dec 2025 · 4 min
Brian Johnson spoke at Special Operations Command's First Soft Truth conference on moving beyond resiliency to antifragility. The conference's core claim: people matter more than hardware. Johnson used Nassim Taleb's metaphor of a candle versus fire to explain the difference.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic plus one. As I was creating the last one on Freedom Isn't Free, I went to the U.S. special Operations Command website, SOCOM Mil to grab a link I could share with you so you could learn more about the elite Special Forces Command that plays such a vital role in protecting the freedoms on which our flourishing are so dependent. Now, when I went to the SOCOM website, I was pleasantly surprised to see a picture from the event I attended at the top of their website. Now, I happen to be in that picture and I happen to have that picture as the wallpaper on my Mac's desktop as yet another reminder of the sacred work I am blessed to do with heroic. The following morning I clicked on the link that was at the top of the homepage to an article entitled USSOCOM Hosts First Soft Truth Conference Focusing on Force Health. I've got it linked in this one. Now I had seen SOCOM's LinkedIn post on the event, but didn't realize they had written an article on the event, nor did I realize that I happened to be quoted at the end of that article. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So quick context. All 70,000 special forces operators, including all Navy Seals, Army Rangers, Marine Raiders and Air Force Special Operators and their command support personnel report to four star General Brian P. Fenton. General Fenton was introduced to Heroic through a mutual friend and became a fan of our work. He invited me to give my talk on resiliency. Now this was a first Soft Truth event. The first Soft Truth is as simple as it is powerful. People are more important than hardware. I got goosebumps typing that note. That is a truth in every organization. The most elite organizations know that their people are their most valuable assets and they invest in bringing out the best in those people to fulfill their missions. Now in my presentation on resiliency, I started by establishing the fact that we want to move past resiliency to being antifragile, using life's inevitable challenges as fuel to get stronger. I talked about the fact that Nassim Taleb coined the word antifragile and I quoted him and the metaphor he uses to make his point. Taleb tells us that the wind will extinguish a candle, but that very same wind will fuel a fire. My talk was essentially all about how we can operationalize that wisdom as we embrace the first life truth that the ultimate war isn't external, it's internal. All of which brings us back to the article. Now, after recapping the wisdom shared by the other incredible speakers. The article concludes by saying, and I quote. Finally, Brian Johnson, founder and CEO of Heroic Public Benefit Corporation, gave a briefing on how his company, Heroic, uses ancient philosophers wisdom to empower and strengthen the modern mind. If people are more important than hardware, the ultimate war is internal, the mind, not external, and we win that war by learning how to flourish by putting our virtues in action, said Johnson. Then we must train and measure that. End quote. That's today's plus one. Know this, you and your family and friends and colleagues and clients and are the most important part of our mission to help create a world in which 51% of humanity is flourishing by the year 2051. If we're going to have a shot at fulfilling our mission, we need you to close the gap and be your best self today.
