Things will get better. I’m just not sure how or when.
That’s the mindset of an indefinite optimist, according to Peter Thiel.
Contrast that mindset with this: Things will get better. And I plan to make that true.
An indefinite optimist will wait on the world to get better, following the rules and counting on the ether to move us forward.
A definite optimist, however, sets out to be the person everyone else is waiting on.
When Elon Musk sets out to build a national grid of supercharging stations to make electrical vehicles truly viable for the masses, he is showing definite optimism. The same goes for his ventures into space through SpaceX.
When people come out of the wood works to prove that Elon Musk will fail because the latest rocket blew up on the way out of the atmosphere, they are saying: “Yes, the future will be better, but clearly you’re not the one who will make it so.”
We need more people to plan to make the future better. To plan to change the world. It doesn’t just happen, at least not as fast as we need change to come.
If your plan is to wait on someone else to do it… why?
Thanks to Peter Thiel and Elon Musk for the inspiration for today’s post. And thanks to Jimmy Forbes for the inspiration to finally pick up Thiel’s Zero to One.