Pessimism gets you nowhere. Optimism gets you somewhere

“No, that won’t ever work, because…”

Hey, why don’t you **** the **** up.

We all have a few folks in our lives that tend to shoot down every idea. They will somehow find a negative angle for any idea. They may sound smart. They may sound like they know what they are doing.

Very rarely does a pessimist know what they are talking about. The ones who do are the ones who have something to back up what they are saying. They are the ones that have built successful products and companies. They are usually the ones who will tell you that something won’t work, why it won’t, and how to fix it. They will give you a substantive analysis and something you can actually learn from.

The rest are folks who are always afraid to try new things in life. They are the ones who are afraid of change. They are secretly or subconsciously frightened by someone else being able to do what they were not. They feed off of negativity. It empowers them and makes them feel smart.

Except that they don’t know what they are talking about, and their thoughts are generally useless.

Every good idea starts somewhere. We all have those same doubts and fears -- those inner voices that tell us that we are not good enough, that we could never pull it off. It takes courage to overcome those thoughts.

The last thing you need is a pessimist getting a high off of shooting down your idea, making you have second thoughts about what you are doing.

You can still be great friends with them and so on. But, you are better off not telling those folks about your ideas.

Your greatest advantage is your optimism. That energy, that high that you have, that keeps you going. You will face a lot of obstacles including people who try to rip that optimism out of you. You can’t let them. It will be a constant struggle, but you have to stay strong.

In the end, your optimism may get you somewhere really great. It also may not get you somewhere you like. But it will get you somewhere.

Pessimism will get you nowhere...