There’s tons of inspiring quotations you and I hear on a regular basis. When I hear one, I’m usually like “oh wow! that’s so true!” but after passing it on to a couple friends, I forget it in a day or two. Well, one such quotation I heard recently I can’t seem to get out of my head:

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” - Henry Ford

When I first heard this a few days ago, as usual I was like “oh wow! that’s so true!”. What one can achieve is all a matter of one’s attitude and commitment, right? Well, a few hours later, I started thinking more about this though and I realized that actually I don’t agree with it.

I reflected back on several situations that took place over the past few months in my life and I strongly feel as if the opposite is true: If you think you can you probably can’t. If you think you can’t, you probably can.

This may sound bizarre but think about it for a second. When a person is bullish on something, they tend to focus only on reasons which support their conclusion that it is possible, neglect the realities involved, and thus become overly optimistic. When a person is bearish on something, they tend to grasp at any excuses they can find which support the conclusion that it’s not possible and thus become overly pessimistic.

Anyways, I realize I’m totally overanalyzing Henry Ford’s quotation and I realize that it’s meant simply to be inspirational, but for some reason this quotation has been (uncharacteristically) stuck in my head for several days now. Which do you agree with, Henry Ford’s version or my contrarian version?