Trading on Target: How to Cultivate a Winner's State of Mind

REALISTIC THINKING

Realists tend to win arguments. They use facts and figures, logic, and common sense to bolster their positions. On paper, everything presented by the realist looks much better than the positions held by the unrealistic dreamer. Realists rarely get themselves into trouble and they create stability in their environments. In fact, the world needs realistic thinkers to keep the rest of us from drifting off into the stratosphere. They keep the uninformed and the lazy honest by testing their positions against the facts. This all sounds good, so what is the problem?

Years ago, while I was conducting research into the lives of highly successful people, I interviewed a man who was a real estate mogul long before real estate became the hyped-up source of speculation for the Johnny-come-latelies. I asked him his secret for success and he said he could sum it up in one phrase. “I was too stupid to know what you couldn’t do,” he said with a wink. Then, he proceeded to tell me that he would walk into a deal with lawyers who would explain in detail why it was unrealistic and could not work. He said that, in his experience, lawyers were trained to find the problems in a situation and not the opportunities. In fact, for him, they epitomized the realistic thinker.

Our real estate mogul was convinced that you could not make real money if you thought realistically. This is also true for those who want to lose weight. People who set realistic goals are not as likely to lose as much ...