In life, one come across many people who proclaim to be incurable optimists
This can prove to be highly deceptive as wrong expectations can have fatal consequences.

One comes across so many people in life who proudly go around saying that they are eternal optimists. Positive thinking is a good thing but one has to maintain a sense of proportion in the so called optimism. One comes across sweeping statements like “ Never give up” or “ Nothing succeeds like suceedsr” or “Try and Try and you will succeed at last” which to my mind are grossly incorrect.

These are selective truths but are made sweeping statements in the guise of so called so called positive thinking. There are times in life when one has to tread carefully. There was a local cola maker in India who wisely sold his brands when pepsi and Coca-cola reentered India. So many businesses have to give up certain activities to focus on their core-competence. Management history is replete with cases on how life is a relay race and the person who starts the race is not the best person to carry it forward. One also reads about people who turn around sick companies being shown the door when the situation changes. The change in situation demands a change in leadership too.

I have come across Yoga teachers and gym trainers who study the body before they open their mouths about the prospects. However when it comes to the mind, it is a free for all. Any person facing adverse circumstances is given the example of another person under similar circumstances and then told, “ If he can do it, so can you” One has to approach the situation with the a positive frame of mind but discover for himself whether he can also do what the other person has done. One cannot make an automatic assumption. The situation calls for a mix of Optimism and Realism. The mind like the body also has its limitations and just as a body cannot be built overnight, nobody can change as a person overnight or assume mental achievements automatically.

There are many writers and poets who are commercially unsuccessful. One advices them to go on trying and success would come. Writing does not have a good market profile. This fact has to be realized and alternative arrangements made. One has to live a double life – one for money and another for job satisfaction. Being blindly optimistic is fatal.

Similarly many depression patients are ill adviced by their relatives to continue to remain cheerful and optimistic without seeking psychiatric treatment. Just because the ailment is mental, it gives everybody the right to talk whatever they like. A physical ailment is never treated so callously.

In India, during one period when the stock prices were sky rocketing artificially, one of my cousins told me, “ I am an incurable optimist. The prices shall go up further.” I told him that you are not an incurable optimist; your optimism needs to be cured. Soon enough, the stock market fell with a thud and the gentleman was left high and dry.

Children who pass out from schools and colleges also start with rosy dreams. There is nothing wrong with that but the market profile of their occupations is something that is beyond their control. The market can turn adverse anytime and the best of companies can foul up. So, with a dose of optimism, the children should also be educated on something that is beyond their control in the spirit of “ Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.”. It should not be assumed that a good education would automatically ensure the good things in life. There are many people who are qualified for something else and their talent lies somewhere else. It is not for nothing that it is said that the world is full of educated derelicts. The literal meaning of the word education is to bring out what is already in and not anything else.

There is a motivational speaker in India who went around saying “Focus on the purpose and the goal is automatically achieved” This is grossly incorrect as there are many people who are good but not commercially successful and vice-versa. Everything that is good is not automatically successful and vice-versa.. There is a book called “Karma, Destiny and Career” by Nanette hucknall which states that everything that success is achieved only when individual karma,national karma and planet karma coincide. Therefore there is no point being blindly optimistic.

The best lesson in this context is from the stock market which at least in the trading context teaches that one should neither be an optimist nor a pessimist but a realist. One should try to retain a positive frame of mind always but not follow blind optimism.

Even the statement “ Whatever happens,happens for good” is true only in a particular context. Something good is bound to come from any adversity as that is when man learns the most. The statement is true in the context of “ Short term pain long term gain.”. If it is spoken in the vein of pure optimism, it is wrong.
 
One of my cousin's son fell in a waterfall. His body was not found for almost two months. What is the good in that?. The parents were not willing to accept that their son had died because the body was not found. The came under the influence of all kinds of charlatans and mystical people who tried to convice them that he was alive even though no body was found for fifteen days. One can empathize and sympathize with them since they were parents but the writing on the wall was clear. Almost two months later, the body was found putting all the charlatans to shame. I may sound somewhat clinical here but the fact remains that the realist has a better chance of surviving the ups and downs of life than the optimist.  

Some management consultant had a chapter by the name of negative consequences of unbridled optimism. This is what happens when one goes overboard with optimism.