In life, there are two ways of looking at things-having a positive perspective or a negative one. The negative path is relatively easy but is dangerous, the positive one is relatively tough but is very rewarding in the long run. I met Joseph in Delhi during the launch of Rajesh Setty’s book “Life Beyond Code” in India. Joseph, who is an editor, related a story when we were discussing about ‘optimism and pessimism, which shows the power of thought. The story is as follows: A man named Sam had 2 children-John and Jack, who were twins. They looked alike but their thoughts were opposite. John was an eternal optimist – a positive thinker, whatever is the situation. On the other hand, Jack was a pessimist. Sam was not very happy with the two extreme natures of his sons. It bothered him as they grew up. So he decided to balance their thoughts by resorting to an experiment on their birthday. On the night before their birthday when the kids were sleeping, Sam went to John’s room and kept horse and cow dung expecting that John will feel very bad to see dung in his room on his birthday. In Jack’s room Sam kept wonderful gifts which were the most beautiful ones that one could ever receive. He was waiting to see the reaction of both his sons. When Jack got up, he saw the wonderful gifts arranged and commented, something should be wrong as such good things landed in the room and that they were too good to be true. Sam was very unhappy with Jack’s reaction. He hoped that atleast John would show a favorable result by reacting negatively. When he went to John’s room, he saw him happily playing and juggling with the dung by making balls out of them and commented to his dad that if this dung is here then there should be a pony somewhere. This story teaches us a very important lesson. An optimist finds a silver lining in the blackest cloud. They see the positive in the toughest of instances. John was an embodiment of positive thinking. Contrarily, Jack could never find anything good even in those wonderful gifts. Our life is shaped in the way, we react to different circumstances. If we are positive, we will enjoy our work, relationships and have a fulfilling and financially secure life. If we are negative, even God cannot save us. You always have a choice to either think positive or negative. This thought process has a very high implication for leaders and their teams. Leaders should think positive and have clarity while communicating with their teams to produce a winning combination. image courtesy: www.lifehack.org