Archive for November 30th, 2008
The Other Side of Optimism
I came across this interesting quote from Yvon Chouinard, Founder of Patagonia -
There is no difference between a pessimist who says, “Oh, it’s hopeless, so don’t bother doing anything,” and an optimist who says, “Don’t do anything. It’s going to turn out fine anyway.” Either way, nothing happens.
This is a great piece of advice for all us who think we are optimists, and believe that things will improve with time. This advice asks us, are we really being optimistic or are we giving excuses for our inaction?
There might be some cases where we see some people get overwhelming success without taking efforts. But that’s not usual. Typically things will not improve by themselves.
If we want to see the improvement or growth, then we need to act upon it and fight for it. Just being optimistic and sitting idle is not going to help us. We never want to get trapped into such kind of optimism which results in nothing. Let’s wake up and start acting on it.
