Positive thinking. The mantra of life coaches, business mentors, and bookmakers all over the world over. Positive thinking is the key to success, they insist. Thinking positive brings positive results, depending on your viewpoint, either an immutable truth or an exercise in self-delusion.
The placebo effect is known and recognized, if not entirely understood. And it doesn’t resolve the dilemma because although it brings a positive result, it relies on induced self-delusion.
In the business world, matters aren’t so simple. For one thing, success built on false optimism is rare and short-lived. For another, positive thinking needs a foundation: reason and experience. So even if you want to think positively, it isn’t always easy.
This isn’t new. The ancient Greek philosophers, Socrates and Plato, resolved the underlying truth of a belief by being dialectical – a conversation between different points of view to establish the truth by reasoned argument. Socrates’ approach was largely negative, refuting beliefs by arguing their weaknesses. Plato, his pupil, took a different tack. He liked to arrive at a positive end by negating the opposing arguments with the force of a positive counter-argument.
Success is a Matter of Choice, Not Chance
This is a conflict met by entrepreneurs, as a matter of course. Everyone who ever had an idea and put it into action has met Socrates. “That idea won’t work,” he says. Sometimes he even explains why it won’t work. The entrepreneur’s response is to be Plato.
The essence of his being an entrepreneur is that he has applied positive thinking from the outset. He has seen the positive in his idea and has recognized its merit. He chooses to accept his judgment, and his debate seeks a positive end.
So the question he asks is not “Can I do this?” but “How can I do this?” In finding his answer, he doesn’t delude or lie to himself; he approaches each obstacle as a puzzle which, as puzzles do, has a solution. That is positive thinking in practice, and the life coaches and business mentors have a point. Lack of experience precludes me from judgment the bookmakers.
The application of positive thinking is a powerful driver of an entrepreneur’s success. Self-belief is essential to an entrepreneur mindset; without it, the journey is more challenging and the obstacles higher.
We’re not all blessed with self-belief; most of us are naturally lacking in it. But the positive thinker can lay the foundations of truth, reason, and experience with his hand. There are many ways to do this but here, from my own experience, are simple examples.
Plan Everything, From the Word Go
Identify and list your objectives on your journey to success. However, you define that. Plan the actions you must take daily, weekly, monthly, and even annual to meet those objectives.
Every task you undertake will have a positive purpose and lead to a positive goal. Keep to your plan. Every job completed will have context and will provide satisfaction and a sense, ever-growing, of achievement. This is momentum. When you have speed, it becomes harder to stop than to keep going.
Focus on What You Do Well
If you’ve chosen your business thoughtfully, you should enjoy what you’re doing. Focus on the stuff that speaks to your passion, do it to the best of your ability, and your sense of pride and achievement will feed your positive momentum.
If you’re uncomfortable with your ability to do other things – designing a website or writing quality copy – delegate it. The internet is stuffed with freelancers who will do most things at little cost. Don’t let your areas of weakness slow your momentum. Delegation is not failure, and it’s a positive solution that keeps you on your plan.
Review Everything You Do
Regularly apply critical scrutiny to everything you do. This is a positive process. Identifying weakness allows you to eliminate that weakness and thus strengthen your business from now on.
It allows you to strengthen your knowledge and understanding of your business. These are self-belief foundations built on fact, reason, and experience. Equally, recognize, and take pride and satisfaction in what you have done well. “Feel good” is essential; it builds confidence and resilience.
Approach Setbacks in the Same Positive Manner
Every day is a school day. We learn as much, and maybe more, from the things that go wrong as the things that go right. Everyone makes mistakes, but we learn from them, and learning is a positive process.
Some setbacks are nobody’s fault. On 20 March 2014, London newspaper the Independent ran a story headlined “Psychic Cancels Live Show Due To Unforeseen Circumstances.” It can happen to anyone.
Understand that Reward is Directly Proportional with Input
This isn’t simply another saying, “more effort = more money.” Input is more than just effort and its value. Value is a combination of things, including innovation, uniqueness, and usefulness. The more value you develop in your business and the more value you provide to your customers, your reward will be greater.
And the reward is more than just money. It’s money plus pride plus satisfaction plus self-respect. To anyone who wants these things, it is undoubtedly the pinnacle of positive thinking to understand and appreciate that the means to them is entirely within our own hands.
