Over a long and checkered career I've been conned into working extra hours to chase someone else's dream, and people I instinctively trusted have scammed me out of enough money to retire on for life. Many times I've let unbridled and unfounded optimism hold me to a non-productive course of action when I should have abandoned it months before. I've invested in things that went down, and kept my money there far beyond the point when I should have sold for a loss and moved on. At the end of the day, if I'd injected a little negative thinking into my decisions, I would have been further down the road earlier.
Negative thinking doesn't mean that you nay say everything that happens. It just boils down to thinking of the potential downside of any venture along with the dreams of wealth and riches that could ensue. Words and phrases that seem to accompany optimism are possibility, can't lose, can-do, can't fail, gung-ho, and usually O.P.M. Words for negative thinking might be prudence, caution, feasibility, probability, what if, and might lose. It can be a mistake to only consider one side of the equation without regard to the opposite possibility.
Here's a metaphor I've come up with to put things into perspective.
I think of wealth as a sort of a Capital Mountain built on a series of financial successes. Like any mountain, it slopes gradually upward from the valley floor. Gentle rises are followed
by small hills, then foot hills, then steep slopes, then precipice walls. It's easy to begin climbing Capital Mountain because the first parts of the climb are fairly easy, and there is little to lose. But later on, it becomes more difficult, requiring more stamina and staying power. Still later on, as the difficulty increases, many climbers stop climbing and return to the ease and safety of the status quo, but the more determined press on and begin the much more hazardous and complicated process of climbing the sheer wall to reach the peak.
Initially, when starting the journey upward, there' s no reason not to be optimistic, because that's the trait that makes you believe in your abilities and in a rosy future, but once the path becomes more difficult, the one thing you don't want to do is to risk all the gains you've made, so you begin to be more careful about the next steps you take upward. Finally, at some point, just when the top of Capital Mountain is in sight, you find yourself in a situation where one mistake in taking the next step could cost you everything you've achieved. At that point, the only thing you've got to rely on your negative thinking to bring things into
perspective. If you risk one more step upward, all you will gain will be that one step, but you could risk a 4000-foot fall if you miss your step. Continued next time.
