What does Ignorance mean

5 month ago i announced the launch of optimistnet A social network for positive ,funny and motivational posts. The first thing that happened is that so many people told me that its not a good idea and that there are enough social networks out there.

Few days later i started to discover how hard it was to bring new users to a new social network. It was like spreading a new religion while everyone already had faith in another one.

Then few weeks later i discovered how hard it was to find programmers who are disciplined in Alexandria where i live. Facts started accumulating and it was obvious that making it through was really hard. However i chose to be ignorant of those facts and to keep going forward.

The kind of ignorance needed for success is not what probably came to your mind. The kind of ignorance needed here is the one that allows you to ignore all the facts that make your dream seem impossible.

So What happened after ignoring the facts?
In the first year Pinterest, the famous social network got 10,000 registered users.
Optimistnet got 20,000 in the first 5 month and those users made more than 57,000 posts!

Obviously we are still in the beginning but moving forward in spite of the facts that were against us have helped us reach a stage where we proved most of those facts incorrect. (see also Why you should keep working on your bad idea)

Confidence, ignorance and success

When Steve jobs talked about success he said that you will always reach a point where facts will convince you that you should stop. If you chose to believe in those facts then your dream will die but if you kept going against those facts then you will eventually prove those facts wrong. (see Steve jobs explained the rules of success)

But how come can going against facts result in success?
Here are some reasons why this always happens:

1) People change their opinions when you get results: If some of the facts are rejection, lack of appreciation or lack of support then know that all of this can change as soon as you start getting results. Most people, including experts, will change their opinion about your project or idea as soon as they see you getting results (see Why you shouldn't pay attention to rejection)
2) Facts do change: How many facts you believed in before then they changed? Yes they were facts at a certain point of time but as the time passed they changed. The facts of today might become the false beliefs of yesterday
3) People give support when they find you holding on: Most people who put you down will start to change their opinion or even become supportive when they find you holding on for long periods of time. Its just like standing your ground in a war until support from the air force arrives. In my book How i did it i explained how all the people who told me that 2knowmyself.com was a bad idea ended up believing in it after seeing results.

Why is confidence needed

In my article Steve Jobs personality traits i said that one of the traits that helped Jobs become the person we know today is the extreme faith he had in his ideas. Jobs believed in his ideas to the extent that he fired anyone who didn't share his vision.

Because the road to success is full of setbacks without the kind of confidence giving up would be the rational choice. Unless you strongly believe in your mission those setbacks will knock you down and prevent you from reaching your goals.

This is why Mark Twain said "To succeed in life you need two things ignorance and confidence"
And he was right.

Whether we like it or not we get exposed to a tremendous amount of negativity in our lives. If we didn't balance this negativity with an equivalent amount of positivity we will certainly become pessimistic, sad and eventually depressed.

This is why we launched Optimistnet The Social network for positivity, motivation and inspirational content only! Join Optimistnet today, follow positive people and get your daily dose of positivity.

Want to know more?

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