Sisu is a Finnish word that cannot be translated properly into the English language, loosely translated to mean stoic determination, bravery, guts, resilience,
perseveranceand hardiness, expressing the historic self-identified Finnish national character.
Sisu is about taking action against the odds and displaying courage and resoluteness in the face of adversity. Deciding on a course of action and then sticking to that decision against repeated failures is Sisu. It is similar to equanimity, with the addition of a grim quality of stress management. The pertaining adjective is sisu kas, "having the quality of Sisu".
"Having guts" is a fairly literal translation, as the word derives from sisus, which means something inner or interior. One closely related concept to Sisu is grit; which shares some its denoting elements with Sisu, save for 'stress management' and passion for a long-term goal. Sisu may have an element of passion but it is not always present, unlike in the case of grit as defined by Dr. Angela Duckworth.
Cultural significance
Sisu has been described by The New York Times as "the word that explains Finland", and the Finns' "favorite word"—"the most wonderful of all their words." As defined by Roman Schatz in his book From Finland with Love (2005), and decisiveness. ,sisu is an ability to finish a task successfully. During the famous Winter War of 1939–1940, the Finnish perseverance in the face of the invasion by the Soviet Union popularized this word in English for a generation. In what might have been the first use of Sisu in the English language, on 8 January 1940, Time magazine reported:
The Finns have something they call Sisu. It is a compound of bravado and bravery, of ferocity and tenacity, of the ability to keep fighting after most people would have quit, and to fight with the will to win. The Finns translate Sisu as "the Finnish spirit" but it is a much more gutful word than that. Last week the Finns gave the world a good example of Sisu by carrying the war into Russian territory on one front while on another they withstood merciless attacks by a reinforced Russian Army. In the wilderness that forms most of the Russo-Finnish frontier between Lake Laatokka and the Arctic Ocean, the Finns definitely gained the upper hand.
—Time magazine, January 8, 1940
Even in 2009, sisu has been described as so essential to the Finnish national character that "to be a real Finn" you must have it: "willpower, tenacity, persistency."
Examples
Singled out for kudos for this attribute was "Finland's wiry old peasant President, Kyösti Kallio—73 years old and full of Sisu (courage)—last week thought up a new scheme to get supplies for his country." It was also used to describe the Finnish stubbornness in sticking to its loose alliance with The Third Reich from 1941 to 1944 (in the defensive war against the Soviet Union, which had attacked Finland on 30 November 1939 at the time itself allied to Nazi Germany):
Finnish sisu—meaning a peculiarly Finnish brand of doggedness, capable of facing down death itself—was at work against the Allies. ... The Finns are not happy. But Sisu enables them to say: "We have nothing worse than death to fear."
—Time magazine, May 10, 1943.
During the 1952 Summer Olympics, sisu was further described in the context of the continuing Cold War looming over the Finnish capital city of Helsinki:
HELSINKI, host to the Olympic Games, a city of 400,000, was abustle. ... The Finns are not stupidly hiding their eyes from their future, but they are determined not to fall into another fight with a powerful and predatory next-door neighbor 66 times their size (in area, Finland is the sixth largest country in Europe; in population it is the third smallest). Under popular, 81-year-old President Juho Kusti Paasikivi and able, unpopular Agrarian Premier Urho Kekkonen, the Finns have learned to walk the nerve-racking path of independence like tight-rope walkers.
—
Time magazine, July 21, 1952
Well into the 1960s, Sisu was used to describe the Finnish resistance to the invasion of 20 to 30 years prior and its continuing discontents. In 1960, Austin Goodrich's book,Study in Sisu: Finland's Fight for Independence, was published by Ballantine.Also in 1960, a notable reviewer of Griffin Taylor's novel, Mortlake, wrote:
"HAVE you heard of Finnish sisu?" asks a character in "Mortlake"—and it turns out that sisu is a sort of stamina or staying-power which the Finns have had to develop as a result of living next door to the Russians.
—Nigel Dennis, New York Times Book Review
In 2004, Jorma Ollila, CEO of Nokia, described his company's "guts" by using the word Sisu:
In times like these, the executives who run Nokia talk up a uniquely Finnish quality called Sisu. "The translation would be 'guts,' " says Jorma Ollila, CEO of Nokia, in an interview. (Photograph Caption: Jorma Ollila says Nokia is determined to 'overcome all obstacles.') "But it's also endurance. There is a long-term element to it. You overcome all obstacles. You need quite a lot of sisu to survive in this climate." The climate he's referring to is the bleak and bitter Nordic winters, but he might as well be talking about the competitive, erratic wireless-phone market and Nokia's travails. This sisu trait—anathema to Wall Street's short-term outlook—says a lot about Nokia's response to its recent turmoil.
—Kevin Maney, USA TODAY (italics in original)
A Finnish heavy metal rock singer injured himself, without noticing, at a concert, to which a reviewer wrote:
Alan epäillä, että suomalainen sisu ja adrenaliini ovat yksi ja sama asia.—I am beginning to suspect that the Finnish Sisu and adrenaline are the same thing.
—ImperiumI.net Finnish Heavy Metal website
The concept is widely known in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, which is home to a large concentration of Americans of Finnish descent. This has extended to include a popular bumper sticker saying simply "Sisu". In 2010, a 63-year-old Yooper named Joe Paquette Jr. of Munising, Michigan, walked 425 miles to the Detroit Lions training facility to bring the spirit of Sisu to the team.
As a proper name
Due to its cultural significance,
Sisu is a common element of brand names in Finland. For example, there are
Sisu brand trucks (and
Sisu armored vehicles), icebreaker MS
Sisu, a brand of strong-tasting pastilles manufactured by
Leaf,and a Finnish nationalist organisation
Suomen Sisu.
Globally, there are several fitness-related organizations and endurance sports teams such as the Sisu Project based in Haverhill and Worcester Massachusetts, USA that carry the name of Sisu and base their philosophy on the values which Sisu denotes (such as courage, integrity, honesty and determination).
Mount Sisu is the name of a mountain first ascended by mountain climbers Veikka Gustafsson and Patrick Degerman in the Antarctic.
Sisu is also the name of a London based hedge-fund, operated by several directors including Joy Seppala. The firm bought the football club Coventry City FC in 2007.
On the Western end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the SISU Ski Fest is a popular annual event, highlighting a 21- and 42-kilometer cross-country ski race "finnishing" in historic downtown Ironwood. In Robert A. Heinlein's "juvenile" novel, Citizen of the Galaxy, the protagonist was adopted by the captain of an interstellar trading ship which was named "Sisu". This reflected Heinlein's admiration of the Finnish stand against the Soviets, Heinlein himself being ardently anti-communist. The interstellar trading "family" of which this ship was but a part, is described as being fiercely proud and independent, preferring battle and death to being taken prisoner by raiding pirates.
In the British TV programme Top Gear, Mika Häkkinen explains Sisu to James May as a driving trait particular to the Finnish people.
In the song entitled White Death by Sabaton, which is about the Winter War Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä, the lyrics reference the idea of Sisu. "Hundreds of kills/a man and his rifle/embody the Sisu of Finns/stay out of sight and cover your head/when he pulls the trigger you're dead".
Sisu was the name of an aluminum sailplane (glider) designed and built by Leonard Niemi of the United States. His parents immigrated to the U.S.A. from Finland. Niemi's Sisu was one of the most successful American competition sailplanes ever flown. Only 11 total were built most of them in the nineteen sixties. In addition to winning several national competitions, a Sisu piloted by Alvin H. Parker flew from his hometown, Odessa, Texas, at the controls of the National Air and Space Museum's Sisu 1A and set three world records including a free distance record of 1,042 km (647 miles) set July 31, 1964.
