Faith is not a term one would normally associate with business. Business is all about results and performance, and faith is a spiritual/religious term. In reality, faith is an everyday practice for everybody. Even hardcore atheists practice faith on a daily basis. When you get out of bed in the morning, you are working on the assumption that your itenary for the day will not result in your death. There is no way to guarantee that it will not, and statistically around 150,000 people in the world will face that fate today!

In any activity you undertake, you do so assuming it will not go pear-shaped, when there is a distinct stastical probability that it will. Successful business people are not put off by the very real risk to their enterprise. In fact, taking sensible calculated risks is an essential business skill. Such a skill requires faith, most importantly in one's own judgement and ability. The person who believes himself a failure probably is, simply by virtue of the fact that your belief has an effect on your behaviour. People who have faith in themselves act confidently and inspire confidence in others, thereby being far more likely to succeed.

As a hypnotherapist, I am fully aware of the difference confidence can make, and I help to instill this ability in others, because confidence, though influenced by circumstances and experience, is essentially an internal attitude. Some people are fortunate enough to naturally focus on the positive and therefore have naturally sanguine personalities. If however your "default" mode is pessimistic, it need not doom you to an unsuccessful and unhappy life, but you will have to "work" on your attitude. Without conscious effort, the naturally melancholic will see only what's wrong with everything. However it is possible to train your consciousness to focus on the positive.

This mental effort is actually quite hard work, like flexing an underused muscle. With persistence and practice, it is possible to learn how to control one's own focus and fix it on the positive. The reward is a happier and more fulfilling life! Seeing the positive fosters positive belief, which in turn changes behaviour and thereby outcomes.