The Curse of Optimism

If you are an entrepreneur, contrarian or even a romantic then realize that you are an optimist. After all, you believe that chasing down one singular opportunity, with an extremely low probability of success, from billions of possible options will produce such unimaginable returns that you are willing to risk everything. You see so much possibility, utility and value in your ideas that you are willing to tolerate temporary hardships for the sake of permanent success.

Unfortunately, our visions do not always translate into reality. But, instead of cutting our losses most optimists choose to double down. They figure they can still beat the system but just ran out of time or resources the first time around. Such resilience may be desirable or even heroic but it is also the curse of optimism. It bleeds into our ego and reduces our ability to make strong rational decisions. At some point, we cannot differentiate between the failure of our efforts and our bruised self-worth.

When this happens, please make the right choice and quit so you can try something else. Longevity trumps resilience in the scheme of life so end things with grace so you can start new ones with vigor.