Late one night last week a message appeared in my inbox from a local TV reporter. “Hi Lisa. I’m looking for a social networking expert to quote for a story. Are you game?” I called her the next morning to say that I’d be happy to talk to her about social networking but that I’m no expert. Social media are evolving so quickly that there are no experts, I explained. After the interview the reporter looked me in the eye and said, “You know more about this than 99 percent of the population. I’m calling you an expert...

I used to think optimists were out of touch with reality. Wide-eyed Pollyannas who refused to see that tough challenges lie in wait for all of us, ready to pounce like meaty-pawed tigers. But then I started writing for business journals. After a few months of interviewing successful entrepreneurs and CEOs I detected a pattern. They were all optimists. This punched a big hole in my Pollyanna theory. Slowly I discovered that true optimism – the powerful stuff that fuels leaders and visionaries - isn’t rooted in blithely ignoring reality....