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Two Life Lessons You can Learn from GI Joe

Written by Aaron Pinkston, Fri, Dec 18 2009

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With the holidays around the corner, toys and games are on the front of many people’s minds. When I was younger, I was a pretty big fan of G.I. Joe. I guess being an adult who thinks about it more than once a month means I still am a fan. To many, cartoons and comics were just childhood entertainment, but stories are the way we communicate social meaning from one generation to the next. With a deeper look, we can learn from our stories.

Just a quick note to mention that I am referring to the G.I. Joe that was on the air from 1985 to 1986 and the comics by Marvel.

Knowing is half the battle

At the end of every episode on TV, there was a quick morality play. The one I remember is when two kids had to pick a snack after school – should they choose the candy bar or the apple? These always ended with the people who learned a lesson saying, “Now I know.” One of the characters from G.I. Joe would remind us, “And knowing is half the battle.”

So if knowing is half the battle, what’s the other half. It’s all well and good to know what kind of a snack is better for me, but the other part is actually choosing the right one. Knowing is half the battle, acting on your knowledge is the other half.

Not what you have but what you do with it

The other story comes from the pages of the comics. Some people know the story about Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow. In fact, the movie that came out this year had a little more detail about Snake Eyes’ background. The important thing to remember is that according to the comics, they share a history together.

Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow (the good guy wears black and the bad guy wears white) studied under the same master in Japan to learn how to be a ninja. When a student “graduates” from this school, they receive a tattoo from the I Ching representing harmony. What’s interesting is that both received the same training and the same tattoo, but they fight on different sides of the same battle – eternal enemies linked through their past.

What can we take away from the story of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow? Well, for one thing, it’s not so much what you have but what you do with it. They both had the same training but took different action.

So, yes, there are life lessons in G.I. Joe (despite what my wife says). The tools and ideas for Clarifinancial were laying around a long time before someone came along and put them together in a particular way. It’s not so much what you have or what you know, but what actions you decide to take. Knowing is half the battle. Are you going to take action today?