Long ago I realized folks saw the world through their own world-view – the glass was half-full, half-empty, half-full and bubbling with opportunity, or half-empty and poisoned. I believe there is little hope of changing these contexts after, say, the age of six. Once I heard a rumor that the Catholic Church said, “Give me the child until he is 6, and I have his mind forever” – or some such quote. (Not being a Catholic, I can’t verify any of this, but it has stayed in my mind for years).

On Thanksgiving, this gives me pause. I know there are hundreds of courses and seminars designed to empower and re-program our world view, to teach us a new “mindset” and change our behavior. Perhaps these work in some ways to give us new disciplines or tactics that remind us to behave with more integrity or to approach the world from a more positive view. This would be helpful, but I doubt these tactics change the underlying programming.

I think I chose to work with entrepreneurs because they tend to be fearless, optimistic glass-half-full kinds of folks. Egos, varying personalities and doubtful behavior aside, they believe in themselves and their vision, and their ability to prevail. They may be visited by demons in the night (http://tinyurl.com/yckwx38), but they do not see their glass half empty, much less poisoned.

So, before these pages go dark for the Thanksgiving holiday, I’d like to thank all the entrepreneurs out there, known and unknown, for adding to the world view of the glass half full and bubbling with opportunity. It is good to have company in this mindset.   If you know some of these, you might thank them while you pass the turkey this Thursday.