If one were to count the huge number of books on self-improvement, with a huge stress on positive thinking, he or she would be simply stumped.  The actual number could exceed hundreds.  The readers who pick up such books would easily touch billions at any point in time.

Be that as it may, it is still wise to ask: is positive thinking for real?  What exactly is it?  Is it practical to go on thinking positive, when we face very cunning people, very unethical people day in and day out?

The reality is somewhere in between.  Positive thinking is not the one-stop solution for all problems one may face at any point in time.  Being positive will help one to face problems far better, but that is just the beginning.  A huge amount of common sense, a  lot of tactics and a lot of out-of-the-box thinking is also very essential.  The more one gets all these things in order, success will automatically come..  

Similarly, the power of observation and noting down practical details, can also help one achieve success.  For example, a shrewd entrepreneur rented out  small room near a bank branch in Coimbatore.  He made his homework very clearly.  The customers who flock to the bank branch, often are left to the mercy of the staff, and it does take a huge amount of time to get things done, particularly on matters like jewel loan.  Any time after 12 noon, he started serving a good meal -- purely vegetarian -- for just fifty rupees.  The word of mouth publicity earned him repeat customers, more so, the ones who were senior citizens who started liking the taste and were addicted to it.

Positive thinking in this case was his belief that his business plan could work, mainly because of bank customers and the floating population who come for work at some time or the other in the afternoon.  These small things do matter in life, and positive thinking can indeed help keep spirits high.  However, it should be remembered that it does take a huge amount of effort and time to put any plan into action, be that setting up a new business or planning a new career or taking up a job in a new city and so on.

For every challenge, a detailed plan of action, with careful documentation of all the details becomes very essential.  Only then positive thinking can help a person.  Doing nothing to improve one;s skills, for example, will come to zero if only positive thinking is there, but the effort is not there.

This is observed among hundreds of thousands of students, who learn very good things through their mother tongue -- Hindi, or Tamil, or Gujarathi or Telugu or any other language, but come to think of English as the worst enemy of their lives.  This is sheer ignorance, as the whole world is not taking to English like never before.  Russia, China, and even France and Germany, for example, have given up their antagonism for English, and have now started to learn the language. 

It is no secret that even Russia is finding a market in India, for its courses in Medicine.  Is the medium of instruction, Russian, as it is commonly believed?  Absolutely no. It is not Russian, but English all the way.  The students get to learn Russian during their stay in that country. 

So, these being the realities, can mere positive thinking help anyone to have good careers?  Absolutely not.  In fact, I would advocate a positive outlook rather than positive thinking.

Given the rat race out there, I guess the maximum that we can indeed to is to be very much aware of the various opportunities that are there in any given situation, and exploit each one of them.  Positive outlook, then, would mean, drawing a huge number of people to these very same opportunities, so that in the course of time, a much larger number of people will stand to gain.

It is not without reason that this kind of positive outlook is largely seen among the students of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Management and the Indian Institutes of Technology and the National Institutes of Technology.  These are the brightest minds that get together to study, but have a huge network among themselves and help each other out in a big way. 

If they take the GMAT examination to quality for further studies abroad, they go all out of the way to help each other, have a great amount of group study, network among themselves to learn all the tricks of the trade, and when the examination is taken, hundreds of them will qualify.

Those with some means go off to United States of America for their MBA.  Others hand out for three vital years in a job, happily quit the job and join the prestigious Indian School of Business ( ISB) at either Hyderabad or at Mohali, and give the IIM students a run for their money.  This is the kind of positive outlook, that I think will make a difference.

Teachers in engineering colleges and in the tier two or tier three B schools, will do well to understand that it is this positive outlook that will make a big difference to the quality of engineers and MBAs.  Can they develop networking skills?  Those who know English and are from English medium schools, can jolly well understand that they are really far better off and can easily teach English to others who need it badly.  In this way, they will be doing a great service to their friends, who can then come up to the higher standards.

Positive Outlook merely means remaining positive in any given situation, and upping the antenna when it is really needed.  This does not mean that hard work and planning is not needed.  As already stated in the previous paragraphs, it is but essential to note that unless one plans and does a lot of hard work, mere positive outlook will make no sense.

Of course, common sense is far better than any other sense.  Common sense merely means the ability to observe, to go the street and meet people, learn from earthly wisdom, and so on. 

The great surge in traditional forms of medicine is a case in point.  The so-called Allopathy has been found to be a big headache with some many side effects, because of the huge amount of chemicals involved.  In many cases, herbal treatment, which finds a place in both Ayurveda and Siddha forms of medicine, is no so famous throughout India. 

Positive Outlook can really help any person to make it to the highest level.  It can help him or her focus and get things done.  However, it has to hand in hand with planning and hard work, for continued success.