Optimism is a perfectly legitimate response to failure.

Today, Stephen King is one of the most successful authors in history: The horror king has more than 50 bestselling novels under his belt, several of which have been adapted into classic films such as "Carrie" and "The Shining.” Yet for many years, King struggled with addiction while enduring repeated rejection of his written works. In his 2000 book “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” King reminds readers that hope and positive thinking are the only productive responses to failure. "The nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it," he recalled in his memoir. "I replaced the nail with a spike and went on writing."