Editor’s note: This article was first published in September 2013, and its example phrases, such as “with the crisis nothing works” and “there are no jobs”, reflect Spain’s 2013 economic crisis.
This week I was reading Sophia Chou’s study. She is a psychology researcher at National Taiwan University, and the study said that successful people are what she calls realistic optimists.
And the truth is that, even before this study came out, many of us had already worked out the types of optimism that exist and why some lead you to success and others to failure.
What types of optimism are there?
Pessimists: This would be the negative optimism type. Pessimistic people rarely manage to reach their goals. In fact, many of them don’t even have goals or targets, because they tend to see everything as impossible.
The pessimist sees only the obstacles in the way and doesn’t think about the reward that lies behind overcoming them.
The idealistic optimist: This person is so optimistic that they lose sight of reality. For them, everything is possible, and on a grand scale. This is someone who tends to have lots of “castles in the air”. They dream of becoming president of a country or a great astronaut despite failing science and getting dizzy even on a bus. This person has no fear. And perhaps that ought to be a good thing, except that in reality they aren’t afraid because they aren’t aware of the dangers. The idealistic optimist usually wastes a lot of time on an idea that makes no sense, and over time their imaginary world collapses.
The realistic optimist: This person has the best of both worlds. They are optimistic because they believe they are capable of anything, but they see the obstacles as clearly as the pessimist does, with the difference that, for them, these are obstacles that can usually be overcome with effort and persistence. Let’s say this is someone who swaps the word impossible for improbable, and then takes it upon themselves to make it probable, or at least fights to achieve it.
Whether we’re talking about starting a business or investing, this person tends to have a better chance of success. For an entrepreneur, this kind of realistic optimism would be key.
Applying the types of optimism to entrepreneurship
Here are some example phrases I tend to hear from people every day. It’s very easy to tell the pessimist apart from the idealistic optimist and the realistic optimist.
The pessimist
“Now, with the crisis, nothing works… Millionaire business people just got very lucky… They only show us the success stories, they never tell us about the ones who failed…” and so on.
The idealistic optimist
“I’ve got a product that’s going to bring in 2 million euros in less than a year… I’m not worried about Facebook or Twitter or WhatsApp; my social network will be much better, and Facebook will have to shut down when I launch it…”
The realistic optimist
“The situation isn’t easy, but it’s better to try than to do nothing… There are no jobs, and no jobs are expected to be created in the short term, so the sooner I start fending for myself the better, because if I have to wait for the politicians to fix this…”
The differences are very clear, but perhaps what sets the realistic optimist apart from the rest by a long way is that they always have a plan A, a plan B and a plan C. If those letters fail, they have all the way to Z, and after that they can always start over.
Further reading
- 5 keys to excelling at whatever you set out to do
- 7 traps that hold back your success
- Steps to reach your goals
- How to create your own destiny
Featured image: Derek Jensen ( Tysto ), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
