In this episode, Patrick talks about the difference between an optimistic person and an opportunistic person, and why optimism alone isn t enough to get you to where you want to go in life. Have you ever met a broke, optimistic person? Yes, broke and optimistic.
00:00:00.00030 seconds, one time for the underdog, ignition sequence start, let me see you put them up, reach the sky, turn the stars up above, cause it's one time for the underdog, one time for the underdog.
00:00:17.300I'm Patrick Bedivy, your host of ITEMEN and today I'm going to talk about how optimism alone isn't enough.
00:00:22.780Have you ever met a broke, optimistic person? Yes, broke and optimistic. What do you mean Pat?
00:00:30.000Most people, you read these books, Power of Positive Thinking, you've got to be optimistic, you've got to be positive.
00:00:35.080You know, the more positive you are, the better you do. I've met so many people who are extremely positive, but they're still broke.
00:00:42.580Why is that? Because there's a big difference between optimism and opportunistic. What's the difference?
00:00:50.560Sometimes, imagine you're going to a party. Let's just say you're going to an event. You're going to go to a business conference.
00:00:56.320An optimistic person is going to go out there and talk to everybody and is going to say, Hi, how are you? Oh my gosh, I love your shirt. You look so good. Love your smile.
00:01:04.040Good hairdo. Oh my goodness. Life is great. If it was any better, you know, like all those things.
00:01:09.000And let's just say, that person's absolutely optimistic. And everybody walks away saying, My gosh, that guy made me feel so good. I loved it.
00:01:17.200But the guy doesn't get anybody's phone number. The guy doesn't realize who's the biggest influencer in the room.
00:01:23.340Now you've got another person that's opportunistic. They go into the room and they say, Ah, talk to one guy.
00:01:28.360And one guy says, Hey, listen, I'm the host here. Oh, really? So can you kind of give me an idea about who's over here right now at this event?
00:01:33.480Yeah, so you see that guy right there. That's the former congressman of such and such.
00:01:36.700That guy over there ran a own six subways locally. That woman right there is married to the owner of the local eight gym franchises.
00:01:45.820Oh, by the way, that woman right there is a president of the soccer team for soccer moms.
00:01:50.340And a 4,000 woman report to her, not report to her. She just kind of holds her emails.
00:01:54.700And yeah, that's where we are right now. Oh, amazing. Thank you so much. What's your name, John?
00:01:58.200John, do you mind if you and I stay in contact? Yeah, by the way, nice looking shirt. Optimism, opportunistic.
00:02:02.480Then he goes and meets the guy that owns the six subways, the woman who was the president of the soccer mom association with 4,000.
00:02:11.200Then he goes and meets and gets those contacts and comes back and contacts them and schedules a time to go out there and cup of coffee with them.
00:02:18.280That's opportunistic. The compliment and life is great. Everything is good. It's optimistic.
00:02:24.060So what's the point here? This is going to sound very weird what I'm about to say.
00:02:28.380I've met more negative, opportunistic millionaires than I've met optimistic people who are not opportunistic millionaires.
00:02:41.700I know this sounds shocking to you. I know a lot of negative millionaires, but they were opportunistic. A lot of them.
00:02:48.100But I know a lot of positive, broke people. So is the idea to be negative and opportunistic? No, no.
00:02:54.100The idea is if you can be optimistic and opportunistic, now you've got an edge.
00:03:00.500Because all these books about positive thinking, they're good for sales.
00:03:03.840They're good to get you to buy the books and tell your friends about buying the books and make you feel good about yourself.
00:03:08.000But if your income is the same this year and next year and the following year, and for the next five years from now, it's still the same and you're just positive,
00:03:15.760you could be a guy working at AT&T answering a phone call saying, thank you for calling AT&T. How may I help you?
00:03:21.040Have a wonderful day getting paid $23 an hour because you're optimistic.
00:03:25.160But if you're opportunistic, you realize, I just met somebody. This could potentially change my life.
00:03:30.140That contact right there, that gathering right there, that business mentor right there, that association right there could completely take my game to a different level.