High Hopes The business will grow. Clients will come. Customers will buy. And if you think we're wrong, maybe you should think differently.

Optimism's relationship with entrepreneurship is a many-splendored thing. It's what goads the initial con-cept out of your brain and launches it into orbit. Now, along with the scads of research proving optimism contributes significantly to business success, comes the revelation that such tendencies can be learned-a blessing for potential entrepreneurs whose dreams are threatened by their skepticism.

"Optimism is solely a habit," explains Michael Mercer, business psychologist and co-author of Spontaneous Optimism (Castlegate Publishing). "It's not genetic and it's not something you breathe in the air."

How does optimism play into the life of an entrepreneur? "If you think something won't work for your business, you need to automatically focus on the solution," Mercer says. "Optimistic entrepreneurs lay out clear goals for how they want their businesses to succeed, make realistic timetables and spend 50 percent or more of their time focused on achieving those goals."