Optimism, Pessimism and Perspective

To the Editor
Today we are beset with a government that lies to us, displaying agility at side-stepping accountability within its huge bureaucracies and the White House. The world is a mess: Middle East turmoil, terrorism, Putin throwing his weight around, China flexing its muscles and a general lack of respect for the United States around the world, reflecting a weak and incompetent foreign policy. And of course there’s our non-recovery economic recovery at home with real unemployment much greater than the six percent the government pushes out monthly.
It’s enough to make a person depressed, cynical and pessimistic. And I’ll admit to being rather pessimistic about the future of late. But recently an optimistic friend and I had an exchange that set me to thinking: what is the value of optimism or pessimism? So I pondered their extremes as I perceived them. Webster’s defines optimism thus, “ An inclination… to anticipate the best possible outcome.” And pessimism, “An inclination…to expect the worst possible outcome.” In the extreme, optimism is uninformed by reality, can be head-in-the clouds naïve or delusional. Everything will be OK. Right!
Effective optimism is informed by reality and includes a plan of action to make outcomes positive and the confidence to make things happen. Pessimism in the extreme can lead to nihilism (a viewpoint that existence is senseless and useless) and in the further extreme lead to misanthropy (hatred or distrust of humankind). I call the latter: the “people are no damn good” syndrome. Pessimism doesn’t appear to have much going for it. But in applying optimism it is helpful to be skeptical at times, challenging ideas and staying in touch with reality.
In my long career in marketing, I helped dozens of small companies and startups grow and prosper. Some didn’t make it and many at one time were in danger of going under. Usually they’re cash poor and fragile when things turn downward. But those who survived did so by applying all their brainpower, skill and determination to shrug off adversity. They had one thing in common: they were optimistic, which fed their native confidence.
People who take the risks of starting a business are natural optimists, but the successful ones are well aware of realities and pitfalls. I’ve never known a small business that transcended serious threats to their existence that did so being pessimistic. When pessimism begins to creep into my outlook I try to remember all those gutsy, smart, confident and optimistic entrepreneurs who took big risks, faced terrible problems and prevailed. No heads in the clouds here. They didn’t lose perspective.
Sometimes there seem to be so few things in life over which we have control. But there are probably a lot more than we realize if we are optimistic, keep our eyes open and resolve to act in support of our own wellbeing and peace of mind. Those with heads in the clouds or dark clouds over their heads have lost perspective. Things are seldom as good or bad as they may seem.