# Daily Inspiration: “Never underestimate the ability of those around you to try to destroy your optimism!”
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“Never underestimate the ability of those around you to try to destroy your optimism!” - #Futurist Jim Carroll Imagine going to an event, and there Is a de-motivational speaker on stage: “You suck! You are pathetic losers! You have no hope! Why do you even try! You have got nothing! Your chance of success is less than zero!” I haven’t seen many of those folks appear on stage. In a way, my strange job as a futurist who prowls stages around the world pays me to be an optimist. After all, I wouldn’t have much of a business if I walked on stage and said, “guess what - your future sucks! You’re doomed! It’s all bad! All the trends are negative! There is no hope!” It wouldn’t be much of a business model! Why this focus on optimism? Many people want a hopeful view of the future, and seek insight from others that that provides them with a sense of hope that things will turn out ok. Something that validates their desire for positive change. So while some people see a trend and see a dark cloud, I see sunshine! While they look around them and see a lot of negativity, I look further for positivity. When they go low, I go high. So is all this relentless optimism of mine a fault? Maybe, but I’ve been conditioned to think in this way ever since I had my epiphany on the potential impact of technology back in 1982, when I first signed into the online world on a Radio Shack Model 3 computer. It is being sorely tested these days with social media and elections; hacking and scams; lousy IOT implementations and more. But that said, I en-energize my optimism every day - I return to the well of hope. “Relentlessly optimistic” - that’s what some people call me. As a futurist, that means I’ll speak to a trend and 90% of the time, cover its potential for positive change. Do I acknowledge the potential downside, the risk, the negative? Most definitely - but its not the core message I bring to the stage, to my writing and to my observations. Because without optimism, you lack the oxygen of opportunity!  

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Source: https://jimcarroll.com/2019/05/daily-inspiration-never-underestimate-the-ability-of-those-around-you-to-try-to-destroy-your-optimism/