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Pessimism selects for failure; optimism selects for success.
I remember one Edgeware workshop where Bob Ansett strongly talked up the value of optimism in the entrepreneurial mindset. I was delighted – here was a conversation that pushed past the boundaries of risk management, metrics, and all the nuts and bolts of business to something fundamental.
He wasn’t talking about wild-eyed, unreasonable enthusiasm, and he certainly wasn’t discounting risk management and so forth. But he was getting to the very heart of a new business, the heart of the entrepreneur, the thing that motivated you to go into business in the first place, and what certainly keeps you in business when times are tough. Because optimism is a key to resilience.
Optimism is an orientation to life grounded in confidence that, when the chips are down, the world is a positive place and living in it is a positive experience. Confidence inspires and breeds positive life experiences, which reinforce further confidence, and the loop self-sustains. The good news? Optimism can be learned.
by Michael Doneman on March 12, 2009 at 1:52 pm
A great talk by Larry Brilliant on ‘The Case For Optimism’ here - http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/larry_brilliant_makes_the_case_for_optimism.html