On my 103rd flight this year, I got some extras. First, we got an extra stop. After circling Atlanta for an hour, we were running low on fuel. This gave us the opportunity to visit Nashville. Amazingly enough, Nashville looks exactly like any other city from inside the plane. Our pilot optimistically predicted we'd be back in the air in no time, which in pilot-speak is something a tad longer. We spent a very pleasant hour there, during which time we lost only one passenger, who bailed, realizing he would not make his connection and that Nashville is closer to his final destination than Atlanta. Most of us just shook our heads, thinking we would still make our connections and that he was just a pessimist.
This gave way to a pleasant conversation I had with my seatmate, a 17-year old from Milwaukee, on the merits of being fundamentally pessimistic and thus pleasantly surprised most of the time with how life plays out. I told him I barely remember being seventeen, but that I believe I had chosen pessimism at least that early. (I made a hotel reservation in Atlanta, assuming I wouldn't make my connection.)
It's not that we are negative, just that life is not a big disappointment if you don't see things turn out exactly as you wanted them to. Is this compatible with Napoleon Hill? Probably not. But I think the two can coexist. I have a book entitled What Would Napoleon Hill Do? And the topic is covered objectively in my opinion. To me, his whole segment on profiting by failure is an endorsement of a healthy pessimism. Pessimists are just covering their bets and maintaining an attitude that allows them to maintain when things don't turn out optimally. "Oh, I thought that might happen." Is an easier proposition to accept than "I don't believe this is happening!" Pessimists anticipate failure, not defeat. Hill even points out the language of defeat (not failure) must be one we don't understand, or we wouldn't repeat self-defeating behaviors all the time. Failure, on the other hand, offers lessons from which we can learn if we are prepared to do so. Pessimists are just better prepared to learn from failure.
But back to airplane time—after we discharged our pessimistic passenger, we promptly took off for Atlanta as promised by our optimist pilot. Who knew? We headed straight in to ATL, and landed just 35 minutes later. I quickly turned on my phone and tracked down the flight status on my connection. I had more than 20 minutes. With luck, and a gate less than a mile's walk away? I probably won't make it, I thought, but I might. We taxied in. It took us about ten minutes, about average in Atlanta. When we turned into the lane between the concourses, our old pal, the optimist pilot, comes on to tell us our gate is occupied, but he is sure we'll be assigned another soon. A full hour later, we arise from our seats to get off our plane, which has now been our home in the sky—and on the ground—for five and a half hours. At this juncture, I have plenty of time to make my connection—tomorrow. Merry Christmas
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