Larry Weltman; Larry Weltman

Customer service is the key to any successful business; and one of the essential elements of providing superior customer service is an optimistic perspective on business and life.

A hopeful, positive attitude is immediately noticed by customers and colleagues alike. And it’s contagious. It’s also an incredibly powerful force that focuses positive energies on any obstacle, and helps lift a person or organization to new levels of success.

This is true even for employees who are not customer-facing, and large businesses that are located far from the customers they serve. Optimism, and the lack of it, can be discerned over a phone line or via email. And it has a tremendous impact on morale, which is also obvious to any consumer.

From an academic point of view, there have been an array of studies proving a strong link between a person’s mental state and physical state, mind over matter. Negative thoughts can make us sick, and a joyful perspective is among the best prescriptions for health and healing.

Over the years, I’ve collected quotations about the power of optimism that I’ve seen in books, magazines or which have been shared by friends. If I see a quotation about hopefulness, and it makes me smile, I copy it down and save it for those moments and situations that can overwhelm a sunny disposition. Here are a view of my favourites:

“Many an optimist has become rich by buying out a pessimist.”
― Robert G. Allen

“Optimists are right. So are pessimists. It’s up to you to choose which you will be.”
― Harvey Mackay

“An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.”
― Winston Churchill

“You’ll never find a rainbow if you’re looking down.”
― Charlie Chaplin

“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.”
— Colin Powell

“Optimism is the only quality more associated with success and happiness than any other.”
― Brian Tracy

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence. … No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.”
― Helen Keller

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
― Anne Frank

“Optimism is the foundation of courage.”
― Nicholas Murray Butler

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“After 5,000 years of recorded human history, you wonder, What part of 2,000,000 sunrises doesn’t a pessimist understand?”
― Robert Brault

“An optimist is someone who goes after Moby Dick in a rowboat and takes the tartar sauce with him.”
― Zig Ziglar

And perhaps my personal favourite, guaranteed to lift anyone’s spirits:

“What day is it?” asked Pooh.
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.
― A.A. Milne