Practically Creative

It’s late afternoon last Thursday in Glasgow and the room’s hotter than Adam Ant in 1983.

I’ve heard inspirational entrepreneurial stories, bookended by STAC CEO Paul Wilson’s stonking update and novosound CEO Dave Hughes 614,000 mile journey from start up at University of the West of Scotland to 40 staff and global reach.

Now l have half an hour on “Think Like An Optimist”…

•  in a hot room
•  at 4.34pm (we were 34 minutes over…)
•  with beer and pizzas arriving in 26 minutes

We ditched the projector and l loaded five flipcharts in the comfort break, here’s the gist:

• life expectancy in 1600 was 30; in 1900 it was 50
• to be alive now makes you the luckiest human to have lived
• your attitude is 40% of your optimism
•  self-regard: avoid the three destructive Ps

(Being Glasgow, there was a story about the first 10 minutes of life being the most dangerous… and the last 10 not being too clever either.)

Then, optimism four ways:

•  look for what’s good around you
•  say good stuff about it (don’t suck the life out of people)
•  see the glass half full (or at least not completely empty)
•  start with you, start today… despite everything

This was all linked to STAC’s mission to transform Scotland’s research and innovation into entrepreneurial ventures that compete globally.

So next a link to sales and growth:

• remember that #salessolveeverything
• you will be rejected 80% of the time (at least)
• become a stoic (when you arise in the morning…)

I left them, just before a slice of pepperoni and Coke Zero, with:

• be resilient (don’t quit, but do quit the useless stuff)
• be dogged (face the wall, do the work, become an expert)
• be confident (develop the right skills and behaviours)

Think like an optimist, it’s life-changing. Start by choosing your mood when you throw the duvet back.

Start today.