I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! In business, how important is the power of positive thinking?
Question of the Day, Nov 30
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! In business, how important is the power of positive thinking?
The power of “positive thinking” is less important than being able to forecast change, social/economic mood and having the gonads to adapt. Every. Single. Year. It is more important to think in a multi directional aspect. Doing so is neither “positive” nor “negative” – it is living on reality. Thinking only in positive or negative terms is irrational and can cost you. Risk (calculated) tempered with reason and vision is more important.
Positive thinking is important to creating a life style / environment that works for you. It’s about problem solving. Negative thinking is where you just stay stuck, and bitch about it.
As usual, the term ‘positive thinking’ has been dumbed down by the establishment – where you are labeled negative if you ask real questions, see real problems.
I don’t know Mike, ask Starfcker as he is the most positive thinker on the planet when it comes to business. I try to be positive about running my business, I have succeeded where others have failed. It could have been luck or good timing, who knows.
I’m a constant pessimist running my business, the fear of failure, or another company trying to take what I’ve worked so hard on is my personal driving force.
Not positive thinking that what I’m doing is the correct way, I’m in a state of constant questioning of my abilities.
As a pessimist if I’m wrong about the economy, I’m happy, if I’m right about the economy I’m also happy because I’ve prepared the best I can.
Negative thinking is no more destructive to the outcome than positive thinking. If its good or bad, it is – you deal with it and take it as it comes. Hopefully, all of which is the result of proactive thinking. But this put on a smile bullshit is retarded at best.
The survivors of POW camps – General (?) Stockdale – made it clear, the dreamers and overly optimistic were the first to go.
“Hope” is more important, and productive, than positive thinking.
Negative thinking may not affect external things but it can have an impact on your general health, even if not directly, it can induce more coping behaviors like drinking or smoking to reduce the stress of worry and anxiety.
Faith beats hope, El Stucko. That is the conclusion of the drowning rat experiment where rats usually drowned in a couple of hours but if given a reprieve by the experimenter, they held on for nearly 20 hours.
I’ve always found positive action to be a lot more effective than positive thinking.
The two may seem the same, but they’re not since one can easily exist without the other.
And love beats faith, EL Coyote.
But, you already know that.
1 Cor 13
Hope for the best, plan for the worst. What can go wrong will, and at the worst possible time. Seriously, businesspeople need to remember these two truisms and use them in their businesses.
A couple more: re your employees, no good deed goes unpunished. And piss poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
Positive thinking, probably the wrong way to look at it. Llpoh has gone over this many times, your business plan needs to be viable, and your numbers (I always project super conservatively, that way my deviation is on the upside) need to work. Hard work, positive thinking, nothing’s going to turn a pig into a racehorse. Remember this, every great large business was once a great small business (with the exception of wall streets category killers). It’s amazing what they can do when they can steal your books
My search engine advertising business is down to less than 10% of what it was prior to the 4th Q 2007 meltdown. From what I read I’m not alone in this and that’s what gives me hope that someday it will rebound.
And I’m with you Card, it’s hard to manage a business day to day since the total “pie” has been reduced to this pitiful amount. Just when it seems the market might be improving, the “new sales” door slams shut and it’s back to survival mode.
It’s enough to drive one crazy, but I try hard to keep a positive attitude. After all, I’m still in business, I don’t have to carry inventory, I still have repeating clients, and I’m helping them to survive this.
Years ago Paul Hawken published a little book on his experiences starting up and running two successful businesses, Erewhon and Smith & Hawken. For a short while he thought that once he got everything set up and running properly he could just kick back and relax. Instead he discovered that problems never go away and that his main job was to solve problems as they arose. You can keep things rolling along smoothly until something changes. I spent several hours today trying to update our credit card info to pay the company that hosts our website, which now produces a sizable chunk of our mail order business. A little bill that left unpaid could have shut down our site during the busiest time of year. You can’t talk to anyone at this cyberfirm, to even find out what is causing the problem. They only communicate via e-mail and you need a password to send a message, etc. etc. I found myself exchanging messages with someone with an Indian name at some undisclosed location.
Obviously, you have to keep a positive outlook, or why even bother. Staying positive gets tougher every year and after 40+ years I am almost ready to retire. Having the freedom of running your own business also entails the burdens of dealing with idiots in government, other businesses, and your customer base. They never go away.
I been at my company for 17 years, and in the past year I’ve heard a LOT of remarks like “If we even sell any of these” or “this product isnt going to sell”. I dont think it is very good for business, to put it mildly.
Follow up:
Having positive connections with people in government. business, and among our customers is what keeps me going. It is being able to connect one-on-one with another person that keeps everything going. We gotta “keep on keeping’ on”…First Aid Kit.
In business, how important is the power of Positive thinking?
If one is in business your customers will attempt to cheat you or sue you. Your employees will steal from you and cost you out the ass. The local, state and federal governments will charge you, license you, regulate you and tax you to the point of ruin. If the government can’t do you in that way they will make what you do illegal and put you in jail. So what the fuck has Positive got to do with it?
Beside the thumb up and down choices we need a lol icon to vote on. Bruce lol