The Glass is Half FULL!!!

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence." Helen Keller (1880-1968) American humanitarian and advocate for the deaf and blind

The business will grow. Clients will come. Customers will buy. And, if you think I'm wrong, maybe you should think differently.

Optimism's relationship with entrepreneurship is deep and personal. It's what goads the initial concept out of your brain and launches it into reality. Now, there's loads of research proving optimism contributes significantly to business success along with the revelation that such tendencies can be learned... a blessing for those of you whose dreams are threatened by a skeptical nature.

"Optimism is solely a habit," explains Michael Mercer, a business psychologist and co-author of Spontaneous Optimism. "It's not genetic and it's not something you breathe in the air."

How does optimism play into the life of an entrepreneur and CEO? "If you think something won't work for your business, you need to automatically focus on the solution," Mercer says. "Optimistic business owners lay out clear goals for how they want their businesses to succeed, make realistic timetables and spend 50% or more of their time focused on achieving those goals."

Keep in mind, however, that a touch of REALISM must be tempered with all this OPTIMISM. The true goal? To be realistic... to be optimistic to an extent, but to face the facts about your business and your products/services.

Then again, it's hard to tell which comes first: the attitude or the reality. If you think you can, you can. And, if you think you can't, you're right, too.