I am a positive person.

I always believe and have faith for the best possible outcomes, that I am guided by God in everything that I do, and protected from my mistakes when I’m not listening to Him carefully.

That being said, I also believe God gives us wisdom for dealing with practical matters in our lives.

When it comes to our business, I believe we should believe for the best, and plan for the worst. I call this “positive pessimism”.

What does this look like for information marketers?

It means we should set up our companies so that we can still make money even in the worst of circumstances. This translates to:

• Making certain your margins are high.
• Keeping your costs as low as possible.
• Always planning for very low response rates.

Planning for poor results allows us to build in safety nets, so that even if our campaigns don’t work the way we hope, we can still be profitable.

This is much better than the way most people plan their businesses: planning for the best, and counting on it in order to make the bills.

Question for you: What do you think of the idea of positive pessimism?