FORCE MULTIPLIER, Part II

The longer I’ve worked with business owners, the more convinced I’ve become that Colin Powell was right about perpetual optimism being a force multiplier. At the same time, I’ve learned that optimism by itself isn’t enough.

Over the years I’ve worked with business owners who faced challenges that seemed overwhelming at the time. Mountains of debt. Unreasonable lawsuits. Marital strife. Predatory competitors and customers. And let’s not forget unexpected pandemics!

Some survived. Some prospered or completely transformed their businesses. Yet others were not as successful.

The difference was rarely the size of the obstacle. Those who succeeded faced circumstances just as challenging as those who failed. What separated them was action.

I can think of owners throughout the U.S. and Canada I’ve been privileged to work alongside over the years. Many faced moments when the odds were so heavily stacked against them that normal people would have cashed in their chips…if they had any chips to cash in! Financial pressures. Personnel problems. Market disruptions. Unexpected setbacks. Reasons to quit.

Yet they kept moving forward. Not because they were blindly optimistic, but because they paired optimism with hard work and action. That’s an important distinction.

Optimism without action becomes wishful thinking. Encouragement without effort becomes self-deception. Positive thinking without execution eventually turns into exhaustion and frustration.

I’ve also seen the opposite. Owners attend conferences, read books, listen to advice, and talk constantly about their futures (their “someday I’lls”), but never convert those ideas into disciplined action. They confused busyness with progress.

When I meet with a business owner, I sometimes offer encouragement, perspective, or optimism when they can’t find it themselves. But these have limits. My optimism can’t build their business. My confidence can’t solve their problems. My encouragement cannot make payroll money appear, improve customer service, train employees, develop leaders, or execute a strategic plan.

Eventually every encouraging conversation has to be converted into activity. At some point somebody has to get to work. I suspect that is what Powell really understood. A force multiplier only multiplies something that already exists.

Multiply effort and you get greater results. Multiply disciplined action and you get greater progress. Multiply commitment and you get greater achievement.

Multiply nothing and you still get nothing!

The owners I most admire aren’t necessarily the most talented, the smartest, or the ones with the best opportunities. What they share is the ability to acknowledge reality, maintain hope, and then get to work anyway. That’s where optimism becomes powerful—when it amplifies action.

That, I believe, is the real meaning behind Powell’s force multiplier. It isn’t an argument for positive thinking. It’s an argument for believing enough to take action.