One of the most important qualities of a leader: giving people hope.

We naturally want to be around people who make us feel like good things are around the corner. This positive anticipation is magnetic. It creates followers and admirers.

The cynic does the opposite.

They cultivate a smug self-satisfaction and sense of superiority by looking at all the ways the future could go wrong.

They may even be right on occasion. They might be aware of problems before others. But that doesn't matter.

They are so socially ineffective, so adept at pushing people away, that whatever benefit they draw from 'being right' evaporates owing to social exclusion.

Their narcissistic and pathological desire to 'feel right' ensures that things will always go wrong for them.

Thus, their cynicism becomes less and less insightful. It quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Remember these words from Napoleon:

"A leader is a dealer in hope."

This applies politically, militarily, in business, relationships, and romance.

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