Optimism: A Case for the Only Idea That Has Ever Actually Worked

Everyone's a cynic. And cynics are losing.The world has never had more reasons to give up. More noise. More bad news. More people telling you that the industry is dying, the idea is too risky, the timing is wrong, and the market doesn't care.And yet — the people who built the things worth building didn't get the memo.OPTIMISM is not a self-help book. It's not a motivational poster with a spine. It is a full-throated, research-backed, story-driven case that optimism is the only competitive advantage that has never stopped working — in business, in science, in art, in life.Drawing on decades of psychology research, from the landmark Nun Study to Tali Sharot's neuroscience of the optimism bias, and told through the stories of people who refused to accept the verdict — the Wright Brothers, Jonas Salk, Viktor Frankl, the Beatles — OPTIMISM makes the argument that the most practical thing any leader, brand, or human being can do right now is choose to believe things can be better.Because they can. Because they always have been. Because optimism is not a feeling. It is a strategy.What you'll find inside:The science that proves optimists live longer, build better, and outlast almost every obstacle the world puts in their way.The stories of the most consequential optimists in history — and what they actually did when everything fell apart.A philosophy of forward — one that doesn't require you to ignore reality, only to refuse to let it be final.OPTIMISM was written for anyone who builds things. For the brand strategist staring at a brief that makes no sense. The founder who just lost their biggest client. The leader who has to walk into a room and make people believe again. The human being who is tired of being told the future is bleak.It is, above all, a book about what happens when someone decides to believe anyway.Optimism is good. Optimism is essential. Optimism is undefeated. Read more