| Do you know what a reverse pessimist is? | | | | successful. |
| I first heard the phrase "reverse pessimist" over 15 | | | | I don't know about you, but personally I think that is a |
| years ago when I first became interested in personal | | | | fantastic way to go through life. |
| development. | | | | What difference do you think that it would make to |
| As far as I know the phrase was first coined by W | | | | your life if you thought that everyone that you met |
| Clement Stone. | | | | was placed on earth to help you to be more |
| W Clement Stone was a self made multi-millionaire. | | | | successful? |
| He was born in 1902 and his father passed away | | | | After reading Stones autobiography I decide to |
| when he was three years of age. | | | | experiment with the concept of being a reverse |
| He started his first business at the tender age of six | | | | pessimist. |
| selling newspapers, and by the time he was 13 he | | | | I can truthfully say that it has enabled me to put a |
| owned his own newspaper stand. | | | | positive spin on some pretty traumatic experiences, |
| At the age of 16 he was making over $100 a week, | | | | after all, it's not what happens to you that matters it's |
| and to put that into perspective, today's equivalent of | | | | how you deal with what happens to you that really |
| that would be $1023. | | | | matters. |
| Stone didn't have much of a formal education, having | | | | Being a reverse pessimist has allowed me to see |
| dropped out of high school to concentrate on selling | | | | things from different perspectives that I would usually |
| injury insurance. | | | | wouldn't have |
| In 1919 W Clement Stone stone founded the Combined | | | | It has also allowed me to constantly see the good in |
| Insurance Company of America, by 1930 he had over | | | | people, even when they do things that I personally do |
| 1000 agents selling insurance for him all across the | | | | not agree with. |
| United States. | | | | Some might say that it's looking at life through rose |
| In his autobiography "The Success System That | | | | coloured spectacles and maybe they would be right. |
| Never Fails" he first mentions the phrase reverse | | | | Personally I think that the world could do with a splash |
| pessimist. | | | | of colour here and there and if it has to come from |
| Stone states that he is a reverse pessimist because | | | | my rose coloured spectacles, then so be it. |
| he assumes that every person that he met in his life | | | | That is the reason that I am proud to be a reverse |
| was put here on earth to help him to become more | | | | pessimist and why I believe that you should be too. |