My friend, Ben Bach, thoughtfully loaned me his copy of the book ‘Enough. True Measures of Money, Business, and Life’, written by John C. Bogle, the founder and former CEO of Vanguard Mutual Fund Group.

 

 

I recommend the book to anyone interested in understanding the current status of capitalism. Of more importance, John C. Bogle offers clear ideas on how we can help build a better future for our businesses and for our investments [and for generations to follow].

 

I will be picking up a copy of ‘Enough.’ for my library.   [some personal comments at the footnote]

 

Here is a sample of John C. Bogle’s wisdom…

 

 

Footnote: John C. Bogle is an avid admirer of Lord Horatio Nelson. We have that in common. Lord Nelson is very high on my list of historic heroes. Nelson inspired a nation to heights rarely accomplished and his legacy lives on in the hearts of many. In honour of his ‘patron saint’, Admiral Nelson, Bogle decided to remove the word employee from his company’s lexicon and instead call his people crew members. [PS: Bogle also named his company Vanguard out of respect for Lord Nelson.]

 

A link to Lord/Admiral Horatio Nelson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Nelson,_1st_Viscount_Nelson

 

We all know when people say “That glass is half full” they are optimists.

 

But, how else can we spot them?

 

Does a person’s communication give us clues?

 

According to Susan C. Vaughan M.D. the author of ‘Half Full Half Empty, Understanding the Psychological Roots of Optimism’, we can identify optimists through the following 2 characteristics.

 

 

Dr. Vaughan says we can identify optimists two ways:

According to Susan Vaughan, when we see/listen to optimists we perceive them to be people who inflate their own ‘worth’, fail to give credit to others when such credit is due, and fail to accept responsibility for their failures.  And, optimists sustain their positive self-image by feeling good about being better than others.

 

Isn’t that just a bit surprising.

 

Regardless, we can use this to bolster an argument supporting realism…or at least an argument in favour of optimism tempered by realism.

 

Perhaps the above 2 ‘tests’ could be altered as follows…

 

Here are two ways to identify realistic-optimists:

PS:  here’s a link to another thought about optimism-pessimism…from a prior blog.