A merry heart goes all the way…. Does it really?

Although numerous surveys and case studies concede to the statement that ‘a merry heart
goes all the way,’ it is a rather stereotypical notion that an individual who is optimistic,
cheerful and sees positive in most situations is more likely to find success than an individual,
shrouded in pessimism and negativity. One may argue that a cliché is a cliché for a reason.
However, as George Bernard Shaw once said, “the optimist and the pessimist are both
necessary for society – the optimist would build the airplane, while the pessimist would
build the parachute.” After all, is a commonly used adage that “a lazy optimist dies hungry?”
A person with a merry heart may tend to look at the positive of every situation, but what of
the negative? We can try as much we want, but sometimes failure is inevitable and it is
human nature to have feelings about that but you cannot fall apart. You have to be able to
face the negative, as much as you admire the positive. One has to be rational and realistic
about a situation, so merely looking at the positive side of it all, is definitely not the answer.
It is said that if a very narrow definition of the Emotional Quotient is taken into
consideration, one might say that the emotional quotient of Steve Jobs, a man with a net
worth of $10.2 billion at the time of his death, lingered at the lower side. His passion for the
products of his company overrode any empathetic or sympathetic action towards people
who he felt were ‘useless’ to the future of Apple, regardless of their inputs and
contributions to the company or even if they had been good friends. It is believed by many
that this ego of his, almost destroyed his career and inability to accept how his biological
parents had given him up for adoption had been the root cause of most his psychological
predicaments, even how he could not accept his own daughter as his daughter. Therefore,
Jobs was certainly not a ‘merry heart’ that ‘went all the way.’ If you look at it from another
perspective, his emotional incapability made him want to go all the way. He seemed to have
used work as an escape mechanism.
Negativities in life have driven many to success, even Ray Kroc – a man who transformed a
small burger joint into a global fast food chain, McDonald’s. However, he could only do this
by manipulation and shrewdness and by rewriting history to call himself the founder – when
it had actually been the original McDonald brothers – Richard and Maurice.
So here’s the thing – there is bound to be an individual difference in our response to a
situation. For instance, when we face a problematic situation, some of us become purists at
work or studies and some of us look for the next thing to distract us. We do anything to
circumvent grief, but it is basic human nature. What is so scary about crying and admitting
that we are hurting? It is inevitable at times, but you cannot let it have the last laugh. It is

only natural that you cannot control situations and circumstances but what they reduce you
to – is solely in your hands.

~Devyanshi Jain