The excessive optimism that began in the market after the dot-com crash of 2000, starting around 2002, led to a blindness—a state of mind they later found difficult to explain—and an acceptance that “things will continue as they are” among the individuals and institutions supposed to control the system in the world’s financial center and bastion of capitalism. Interestingly, rating agencies were also caught up in this same vortex, choosing to participate in this blind optimism. Even more striking is that, after a brief period of turmoil, similar optimism persisted until the 2008 crisis.
The basis for this level of reckless optimism stemmed primarily from the fact that those running large corporations lived in a virtual world, shielding themselves from all negative news. With their worldviews and inflated egos fueled by motivational speakers, these so-called CEOs lived disconnected from the realities of the world and the US. For example, Richard Fould (1), CEO of Lehman Brothers, described himself as an “emotional” person and said that instinct guided his decisions. At the same time, motivational guru Tony Robbins, appearing on Larry King’s program, described his sixteen-year mentorship of ten top executives in the financial world.
The financial industry, built on virtual investment instruments like mortgages and hedge funds, generated imaginary values based on assumptions, revalued these non-existent values, and managed them according to the “law of attraction” in Rhonda Byrne’s book The Secret or Pierre Franckh’s law of resonance. According to Franckh, everything in the universe interacts with each other through vibrations. If you resonate with the universe, you can realize your expectations. To summarize, the prevailing understanding of the financial world for many years was based on “instinct,” and these institutions were governed by the expectation, “If you think carefully, it will be good.” From today’s perspective, it’s clear that this situation, which is hard to believe, would be more accurate to call “blind optimism” rather than “reckless optimism” (2).
Representatives of the Unreal World
In the US, in 1965, a CEO’s income was twenty-four times that of an ordinary employee, but by 2000, this ratio had risen to three hundred. This ratio rose to 940% between 1978 and 2018. In contrast, for an employee, this ratio is approximately 12%. It’s also possible to find examples that far exceed this. For example, Richard Fould’s average annual bonus between 2000 and 2008 was $60 million. In 2008, an executive who told him this trajectory was unhealthy ended his career at Lehman Brothers after that meeting.
I’ve had the chance to listen to Jack Welch many times. When asked, “Do you think it’s fair for CEOs to make so much money?” he always gave the same answer (with a troubled expression): “It depends on what they make.” Because when he retired from GE in 2011, he received an annual income of $2.1 million, a dedicated corporate jet, GE’s protection of eight of his homes around the world, and an army of employees close to US presidents.
It’s natural for people living in such an unrealistic world to build a thick wall against any negative or distressing news from the outside world. The false gurus who view and encourage others to view life from this perspective bear great responsibility for erecting this wall. Employees were also expected to dream of success, work very hard, not complain, and demonstrate complete loyalty and dedication to their organization, even if the organization wasn’t loyal to them.
What is the alternative to reckless optimism, unrealistic views rooted in irrational and unrealistic assumptions, and the pseudo-religious notion of “Let’s be positive, love one another, and let the law of attraction draw us to goodness”? Certainly not pessimism or pessimism. Because pessimism and negative thinking, like the notion of “Let’s think positively and be good,” can be unrealistic and toxic. Our emotional state drives our perception. Thus, unrealistic optimism creates the illusion that everything is and will be good, while pessimism creates a similarly negative vicious cycle.
People want to be happy and enjoy hearing good news. However, the river of life contains both good and positive experiences and events, as well as undesirable and negative ones. It’s not rational to say, “Let the positive and desired experiences and events be my share, and the negative and undesirable experiences and events be whoever they may be.” Therefore, it’s necessary to accept what life brings and what it can bring, and to avoid negativity, to be vigilant and sensitive to negative signs. However, reckless and blind optimism, while providing comfort and convenience, distances one from taking responsibility.
General Stockdale, who spent years in a Vietnam POW camp, sums up the issue in his answer to the question, “Who survived and who died?” “The optimists thought they would be released every Christmas, Thanksgiving, and July 10th, and when that didn’t happen, they became depressed and collapsed. Those who endured, however, accepted the reality of their situation and continued their struggle for survival.”
“Let’s think carefully, and it will be fine.”
Leaving a teenager to their own devices is likely to lead to disaster. Even if you assume market developments will improve and take no precautions, the situation remains the same.
Perhaps a role model in this regard could be piloting. Instead of acting on instinct, intuition, and emotion, pilots operate according to a plan-a-thon developed for every situation; they use a checklist they strictly follow, and thus, they safely deliver both their aircraft and their passengers to their destinations.
As Rhonda Byrne claims, the world is not full of abundance and prosperity. On the contrary, even in the most developed countries, injustice and misery are at a level that disturbs conscientious people. Therefore, those who send orders to the universe’s mailman for the law of attraction wait in vain, only to end up depositing funds into the bank accounts of the author or those who speak of it.
In summary, today, thanks to advances in medical technology, the causes of the brain and, consequently, human behavior are no longer a mystery. Therefore, instead of analyzing and interpreting unexplained issues by attributing them to unknown and semi-supernatural causes, it is more beneficial to seek the guidance of science. However, people are not naturally endowed with scientific and critical thinking, and this thinking does not develop spontaneously over time. This requires effort.
Absurd and unfounded beliefs are extremely common in society. Believing in and expecting benefits from methods and methods with special names and acronyms is a painless and easy path.
As things get worse in the country and globally, the optimism industry grows stronger. Politicians aspiring to power claim the country has great potential and promise prosperity, but often fail to deliver on their promises.
Conclusion
Pessimism and wearing dark glasses don’t solve problems and block the path to solutions, but optimism isn’t the solution. A positive attitude, rather than weaving a cocoon in a spiral of deadlock, means creating alternatives, evaluating them, and committing everyone on the team to appropriate solutions. To apply this to real life, instead of donning rose-colored glasses under the guidance of pseudo-gurus and uneducated mentors, it might be a good step to include individuals in organizations who can act as devil’s advocates. It would also be wise to apply a similar perspective when evaluating our own circumstances.
(*) This article was modified and excerpted from the book “Hayalini Yorganına Göre Uzat”
Sources
- Lehman Brothers: The largest US investment firm to fail after the 2008 economic crisis.
- Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-Sided, Metropolitan Books, New York, 2009.
