Optimism Is All You Need to Succeed as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant

A study from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the Yale School of Management titled “The Importance of Being an Optimist: Evidence from Labor Markets” found that optimists are more successful than pessimists in their careers.

Let’s take a simple test to find out whether you’re an optimist bound for glory as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant or a pessimist bound for a longer road to success:

Question #1: An attorney tells you that she already uses a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. You:

1. Conclude that the market is saturated.
2. Go after one of the other 1,203,097 attorneys practicing in the U.S.

Question #2: An attorney says “no” to your best marketing pitch. You:

1. Conclude that there is no market for CLNC^® consultants.
2. Refine your pitch and move on to the next attorney-prospect.

Question #3: An attorney asks you to provide one of the 32 CLNC^® services that you have not done before. You:

1. Tell her that it’s not part of your CLNC^® business and leave dejected.
2. Respond “I’d be happy to help you with that,” request CLNC^® mentoring and get on with it.

If you answered “b” to any of the above questions, you’re an optimist. It should come as no surprise to anyone that I consider myself an optimist, and while pessimists have criticized my positive outlook, I’ve happily ignored them for 29 years and reaped all the benefits of hanging with other optimists.

Why is optimism important? First, the study found that optimists succeed not because they’re more skilled than their peers, but because “optimists are more likely to actively engage problems, positively reframe situations, plan their course of action, and rely on social support.” These are very important characteristics of successful CLNC^® consultants. They don’t expect issues to resolve themselves; they attack them with true grit, learning positive lessons all the while.

Another conclusion was that “optimists may be more motivated to work hard to achieve goals since they believe their additional effort will be rewarded.” I always call myself a working CEO and know that my hard work pays off. Successful CLNC^® consultants enjoy the work as much as the benefits of owning their own businesses. A successful Certified Legal Nurse Consultant told me that one of her subcontractors admitted she didn’t want to work as hard as was necessary to achieve the results the attorney wanted. Obviously she no longer subcontracts for the successful CLNC^® consultant. Optimists understand that success doesn’t fall into their laps and even when a CLNC^® consultant meets an attorney “accidentally,” what happens next is anything but.

Finally, one of my favorite conclusions was that “optimists are more willing to disengage from unrealistic courses of action, and re-engage in new ones.” This indicates their adaptability, another important characteristic successful CLNC^® consultants share. If something is not working, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate it. We’ve all engaged in what I call “hallucinations,” i.e., bad ideas. I’ve doggedly pursued a project only to realize that it wasn’t working out, regrouped and turned it into something even more successful than originally planned.

Optimists are also more fun to be around. Wouldn’t you rather hang with positive, happy people than someone who knows the sky is about to fall? Is it truly a surprise that optimists are more successful? Not to me.

The study was published by the National Bureau of Economic Research and can be found at http://www.nber.org/papers/w16328 – it only reinforces what I’ve believed for a long time – as long as you believe life and business are meant to be good, they will be good to you and for you.

Success Is Inside!