Ask yourself this question:
"Is it possible for me to become the president of a major country?"

Some would say no, that is illogical. From a realistic standpoint, the chances of being competent enough to become the president of a major country is very small, the chances of actually becoming one is next to nothing.
Some would say yes, if you are intelligent, have a good set of morals and a good sense of justice, and you REALLY put ALL of yourself into becoming the president of a major country, you may actually become one.

Do you think most of our current leaders would have said yes or no to this question at the age of 25?

I personally think yes. The power of optimism should not be overlooked. Most successful people have are positive about themselves and their capabilities. I think optimism has helped a lot of our world leaders, and rocketed them to believing they can reach their goals. Optimism definitely helped them and was a major contribution. Without it, these goals would not be reachable.

You're right, optimism plays a huge part in reaching goals, and would absolutely help world leaders on their journey.

However, thinking that you will grow up to become a world leader at the age of 18, the voting age in the US, is unrealistic. At that age, you don't understand the world enough to be that optimistic about something so big and complicated. I could see people saying yes in a few years, but not at 18.

The English breed of leaders seem to boring for such ambitions at 18 or such optimism. Not sure about other countries though.

I'm from Canada (where we have a Prime Minister), but I don't think that many politicians believed that they would become the leader of their country at such a young age, it's simply unrealistic. Not only does it take hours and hours of labour and campaigning (which most 18 year olds are probably not too keen on), but it also (typically) requires a LOT of money. I mean, many politicians were born rich, live a rich life, are expected to remain rich, and then they die rich. Some people are just really good-hearted people who want to help their country (Arnold Schwarzenegger for example- you can look up his past story, it's pretty interesting actually). Wealth is often a major determining factor in whether or not somebody succeeds in politics (running ads, making appearances etc.).

But yeah, I don't think many people hit 18 and think "I want to become president".

You guys are focusing too much on the age. Let's set it at 25 then.

Personally I believe they would say "no".

They are normal citizens who just got outta college with a plan. It may have been too run for office, though with the percentage of how many people already plan on running for office it is quite a put down your chance at presidency is very low even if you are a very intelligent person.

Though I am not too sure on that, this just came outta my ass. I am open minded too other suggestions on the optimism.

You know, a lot of politicians are all the same type of people - ENTJs. As an ENTJ myself, I can tell you that we're incredibly self-confident, almost to the point of it being a fault. They would say yes. I wouldn't say it's about optimism/pessimism/realism, I think we're just that confident that we can do whatever put our minds to.

I would honestly say it depends on the leader, there are many people who would say that it is possible if you put your mind to it. But even if you do want to go up for the position of president, there must be a good handful of people who have the same mentality as you or who are more determined so while optimism should not be overlooked you should keep in mind that things might not turn out as you want them to turn out. I think you need both optimism and realism for a healthy state of mind.

Hope for the best and prepare for the worst would probably be the winning attitude, but that is probably obvious. Also, like spitfire123ism implied, there are many other variable characteristics which contribute to being a leader so it is hard to say how much difference confidence makes comparatively. Nevertheless, as Ele showed, I think that confidence is probably one of the most important features for high achievers aside from all the more obvious ones, which to some extend could be argued to be determined by confidence (the effect of confidence on nurture probably makes a notable difference on commitment and intelligence).

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