1. Optimism
It is one of the principles of felicity in life. One who is an optimist will have a happy life and will be kind to people. Undoubtedly, due to the physical law of mutual behavior, others will be kind to him as well, which in turn will increase his felicity and happiness.
If one looks closely, most human disorders, afflictions, depressions, unsteady moods, complaints, discontent, and fretfulness grow out of pessimism. If people lead their lives with optimism, they will be relieved of many of these calamities.
Being pessimistic not only makes people impatient and hardens their lives and creates bitterness, it also obstructs action. A pessimist does not trust people and is afraid of others. He is always afraid of deception, he is constantly afraid of being deceived in dealings, and because of this fear, he prevents transactions and thus deprives himself of their advantages.
On the other hand, an optimistic individual trusts people, and by demonstrating his trust, people react positively toward him in most cases. It rarely occurs that a person, even those with abominable natures, does not evince any reaction when faced with trust from others. An optimist yearns to prove through his acts that “this good opinion that you have of me is just, and I appreciate it, and I will demonstrate that I am worthy of it.” Such is the reward of an individual who has trust and optimism in people.
Let us suppose that sometimes this trust fails, and the optimism we felt for a person was not reciprocated, that the person had ill-intentions toward us. It is still worthwhile, from financial and business points of view, not to generalize from such examples or to argue that “all people are the same.” In short, do not turn these few examples into general criteria for future acts. As we can see, seasoned entrepreneurs never halt their business because of others simply because there have been some few customers who did not pay their debts. They do not close their business for such instances. They count those rare individuals as losses and disadvantages that exist in all affairs in the world (they are a portion of the necessary exceptions) and maintain their trust in their business relationships. These are the advantages of optimism in all affairs, and these are the profits it establishes in the corporeal and spiritual lives of people. If I want to discuss this in detail, one book will not suffice. But I should also note that the act of optimism is not to be confused with the act of squandering money, as when someone plunders his property and goes to extreme measures based solely on optimism without order and proper manners.