Dented Optimism vs The Alternative Mode of Getting Where You Want To Be

Last week I was reading an article in The Wall Street Journal about the current economic situation when I ran across a phrase that has stuck in my mind. The phrase, referring to investors, etc spoke of “dented optimism.”

I like that phrase, if you can call two words a phrase. After rereading the sentence, I laid the paper aside and allowed my mind to conjure up images of what “dented optimism” looked like. I kept coming back to the image of my neighbor’s car. Someway, somehow (I know no the why or what of it), she had dented the front left fender. While the dent was unsightly, it did not render the car unsafe (the headlight still works), nor did it make the car un-drivable. No doubt my neighbor feels somewhat self-conscious as she tools about town in her dented Honda, but the fact is, it still gets her where she is going.

Now, after the dent occurred (again, I know the why or how of it) she could have taken the attitude, “My gosh! What happens if the dent is worse than it looks, perhaps there is hidden damage that I can’t see. Maybe the bolts that hold the fender on are damaged so badly that it will fall off when I hit top speeds on the expressway.” Or she could have thought, “What will people think of me? Driving a dented car, I mean someone sitting beside me at a light might think I did it while drunk. And all my friends, who have un-dented cars will make fun of me…” Had she allowed such thinking to permeate her mind, she would have decided the vehicle was both an affront to her image and contained unseen safety problems, thus meaning that she would be without transportation.

NOTE: I know she can get it fixed, but let’s assume she has a very high deductable and just follow the illustration…

In my daily business, I talk to people all the time whose optimism about the country, their business, their careers and their future has been dented. Like my neighbor, they have a very high deductible. Some of them are convinced that the dent on their fender of optimism about the future is much worse than it seems. They are paralyzed by fear, constantly kick themselves for bad investments and/or not anticipating what has happened. They literally refuse to “drive” because they are afraid the fender might come off, thus causing worse damage to their vehicle. So they stand in the cold waiting to join the throngs of others riding the bus of pessimism and fear.

Others, fearing they will get more dents simply park their optimism in the garage and do nothing. Still others are so embarrassed by the dent and are concerned about what their peers will think. Some of them opt to avoid being around their friends (who are probably as dented, if not more so that they are); they stop trying to find better positions, create sales opportunities or develop new contacts—for fear someone will point out their dent. They opt to stand in the rain waiting to board the standing room-only trolley of doom and gloom.

Personally, I think driving around in this economy with dented optimism beats riding the over-crowed bus of pessimism and fear or taking the standing room only trolley of doom and gloom.

Remember the glass of water that is either half full or half empty? I know it is what some of my thirty-something readers dismiss as “old school” but how we answer that question will go along way in determining the way you handle the dents the current economic situation have made in your optimism.
So, even if you are driving around in a dented optimism vehicle...make it a profitable and great week!
Robert Hidde