If you look in the dictionary, it's going to say looking on the brighter side of life, always looking for good in things, expecting the best. I think that optimism in its rawest form is hope, and hope makes you more resilient because now you've got something to live for or to achieve. 

I believe optimism is integrated in some people more naturally than in others. Maybe it's in your genes or the way you were brought up. But I also believe that optimism is something that can be taught and learned. The more you practise it, the more you realise that it works. 

Almost everything you touch as an optimist is affected by your optimism and spreads to others and eventually comes back to you again. That is why optimism is so contagious.

The idea came to me in a dream at the age of 10, and I told my dad that one day I would sail an optimist children's dinghy from Cape Town to Langebaan lagoon, about 100km in the open ocean. And that's what I did. I took that tiny little boat and I sailed 200km, not to prove anything but purely for myself.

It's very hard to instil optimism in anyone, including yourself, your staff and the people around you, unless you lead by example. You have to inspire them to be optimistic. They need to know that the ethos of your life and business is inspirational and optimistic. You need to lead by example and arm them with the tools to be optimists.

Storytelling, even for adults, is incredibly powerful.  A real relevant and tangible story about a child or a down-and-out person who achieved something, also inspires adults to follow in their footsteps.

One thing that you can use to inject positivity into yourself when you are feeling low and negative, is to realise that you are actually the lucky one. We often hear the saying “first-world problems”, and while it’s a cliche and easy to say, sometimes you have to remind yourself that it’s actually true.

For me, motivating yourself is getting out of your routine and doing something completely different, like going for a hike, or on a family holiday or on a retreat, or taking up a sport that you had always wanted to do. I find that gets me beyond where I’m sitting and creates positivity and optimism in myself.

There is a line that connects some of the top achievers in the world, in sport and in business, to one moment, to one hardship that they overcame. Optimism can be learned, and once you've tasted it, I think you always revert back to it. 

In business and in life, because everything is connected, it’s about where you put your time. The bigger optimist is the person who's gone out there and tried and failed and overcame and started the next thing and bounced back again.